Happy Mother's Day to ME!!

It has finally happened... I have celebrated my first ever Mother's Day as a mum myself. I have always thought that mothers day and fathers day was just Hallmark trying to make money on cards...I mean I love my mum everyday and not just on the one day and I think she doesn't need the reminder on the second weekend in May.
But having said that I now GET IT. Now that I have Lucy and was woken up with her smiles, sloppy kisses and a breakfast she 'made'. Its kind of special having a day where you get appreciated for what you do, so

"Happy Mothers Day Mama!!! I'm sorry I can't be with you today but I will be seeing you soon! Love you heaps and THANK YOU for all you have ever done for me and all the Love you've given us.... Love you loads xx"

my gorgeous mum and me on my wedding day

Gorgeous Lucy and I

top picture courtesy of Claudio Raschella Photographer

Wollongong and other shenanigans..

I have been kind of absent from my blog. Its just been that kind of busy around here... the kind of busy that you don't have ten minutes to write or even think about writing. And its not unpleasant busy, actually its been a lot of fun... we've had a family Easter weekend; my nephew who lives a few hours away from us came and stayed for a couple of days; we had a friends birthday that involved a few drinks at a really cool Mexican bar; and we celebrated our wedding anniversary by going away to Wollongong for a night. Why Wollongong you ask? simply because I have driven past it many times but never have I been. So we thought, Why not?

We stayed at a nice hotel with a great view from our balcony....

...well that part wasn't the best but the hotel room was and going out for a long lunch with my husband (while Lucy was looked after by my mum) was. We ate, we drank, and we ate some more. In the evening we managed to even dance at the Illawarra Hotel... we were the OLDEST people in the place and were wearing more clothes then anyone else, but after a beer or two we stopped noticing.

so overall a great couple of weeks was had... I forgot to mention the most important development by my gorgeous Lucy... she had started to use her push walker to walk around the house...much too soon I think!

THE EASTER SHOW

image from foodability.com

How many of you have gone to the Easter Show this year? What you think? Really, what you think?? Did you enjoy the queues? Did you enjoy the gorgeous smells of the animals? The millions of kids trying to get on a ride, trying to buy a show bag, trying to buy something to eat, or just running away from their parents?

I do understand that its a tradition here to go to the Easter Show throughout the Easter season, but REALLY unless you have kids and they literally have twisted your arm and guilt you with things like:

"all my friends are going",
"No one will like me if you don't take me",
"You don't love me enough to take me" etc etc etc..... 

so unless your kids are at the age when that happens, I say why torture yourself?
I have spent years going to the Easter Show with kids that I nannied and spend the whole time chasing them from this and that place (but I was PAID to do it!). I was SOOOOOO glad that this year I didn't have to do it. Lucy is much too little to appreciate it and I have saved myself my sanity and my hard earned money.

My opinion, if you have a choice because your kids are not asking to go, DON'T GO. There will be YEARS of being forced to go by kids that know how to guilt you into it and you will regret starting early.

Of course there are good moments and it does mean that the kids are so exhausted afterwards that they just collapse into bed. Though I'm not sure you will appreciate the peace and quiet because your just as exhausted as they are.

Happy end of school holidays everyone
xx

Food Food and more Food

This Easter weekend I think I have consumed so much food (including chocolate) that I'm thinking of starting another blog all about diets and eating for health and not gluttony! But I might just start by stopping eating all the left over food (including THE chocolate) and going back to salads. Had a good weekend seeing the whole family, especially the ones that we don't see that often and catching up. Lucy also had her first serious try of an Easter egg which she loved and we took away after she took a big bite! Bad sugar habits starting already; although with the amount of sugar I craved while pregnant, I think the sugar addiction started early in the womb.

Everyone have a good Easter Weekend?

a weekend of searching for the perfect bag/nappy bag and the Aquarium

This weekend I have been on a search for the perfect (nappy) bag. I'm finding it actually really hard because I don't want a bag that actually looks like a nappy bag but a bag big enough to be able to take all the extra stuff that I carry daily. I'm talking a lot of stuff, my stuff, my daughters stuff and on occasion the stuff of a 12 and a 7 year old! So it needs to be big... but comfortable and not look like a big and roomy bag. That's just in case I need to throw all the baby and kid stuff out and can still use it as a normal bag on the off chance that I go somewhere without a child in tow!

So, you say Impossible? I say a challenge! so below are my top pics so far, let me know what is your favourite I'm finding it hard to decide?!

Bag 1 from Storksak (Elizabeth tan leather bag)

Bag 2 from Maranda Lee

Bag 3 from Lust Nappy bag (www.totalbagenvy.com)

Also took the family on an outing to the Sydney Aquarium. It was raining so seemed like a great idea... it took an hour in a queue to get in but Lucy loved it and in turn so did I and hubby. Was worth it just seeing her gorgeous face light up.

Hope everyone had a great weekend

xx

in the end we did manage to see The Lion King

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now. We were given tickets to see The Lion King at the Capital Theatre from hubbies parents as a Christmas present. We booked a babysitter (my sister...thanks!!), we made reservations at a nice restaurant and purchased a nice bottle of wine
...excitement plus for new parents, A Whole Evening Out!

But as luck would have it I came down with a mysterious illness that caused me to have vertigo and therefore we cancelled our lovely dinner and put the bottle of wine away, still determined to go to the show, we didn't cancel the babysitter and decided to drive into the city. The show was AMAZING! The costumes, the stage, the music, the dancing...AMAZING! and I managed the whole time to keep my head straight, battled the vertigo and won.

Took us ages to get home, just leaving the car park took over half an hour but we eventually did get home only to discover that little Lucy was sick and up. So we spend the whole night up with her, soothing her back to sleep (4am she eventually collapsed!) all the time feeling slightly guilty for leaving her while she was sick... it seems to me that guilt is an emotion I will need to get use to as a parent!

She is now on the mend with medication and hopefully we will actually sleep tonight, but with a sick 9 month old that's not a certainty. But through the eventfully sick weekend, in the end we did manage to see The Lion King, and we loved it. The dinner and the wine will have to wait for another time.
x

Weekend of Cake

I have just had the most sweetest weekend on record, I think I have put on at least 5 kilo and all in the last two days, but my it was also a very delicious weekend!

On Saturday I packed  up my hubby and our gorgeous girl and we went to our friends for an afternoon BBQ. I soon realised that going to a BBQ at someones house with no other children present is slightly isolating. It started off really good with delicious food and good company and since my hubby was drinking I had my one glass of wine, yum. But then Lucy started getting bored and wasn't satisfied with just sitting around on my and other people's laps, so I went into the living room and we spend the afternoon playing on the rug. Fun for me.

B.L. (Before Lucy), I would spend hours outside with friends talking and drinking and being social, now I spend BBQ's in the living room with my daughter.. more or less what I would do at home really. But I really don't mind, not really, kind of nice chilling with Lucy.

OK but I haven't mentioned the vanilla slice I had or the slice of apple pie and a little bit of cheese cake!! yep all in the one afternoon.

It doesn't end there because on Sunday it was my good friends birthday. Once again took the hubby and the daughter and this time went to the park for a picnic. This time much more child friendly, my friend also has a little baby same age as Lucy, so they spend the afternoon feeding ducks and trying to eat the grass and twigs and anything else that they found on the ground, all the stuff we didn't want them to have. It was a great afternoon spent on the grass playing with our little ones and chatting and of course eating cake! So after the eating frenzy on Saturday I didn't think I could beat that, but I sure did. I had lemon cheesecake, lamingtons, strawberry birthday cake and some banana cake!!! yep I did it again and ate so much sugar that its a wonder that I'm not a diabetic!

So the weekend is nearly at an end and after a nutritious dinner of fish and salad I just might have some more cake (it'll be a shame for it to go to waste!), but the diet needs to start on Monday.

weekend markets

image from rozellemarkets.com.au

Don't you just love going to the markets and wandering around deciding that you really don't need anything but that you would love to buy everything. This weekend I spend both Saturday and Sunday at the markets. It wasn't really a planned thing but it turned out that way.

image from rozellemarkets.com.au

On Saturday my gorgeous sister and I decided to break away for a little bit from the kids and go and have lunch. We met at Rozelle and there we realised that the Rozelle Markets were on... what a treat we thought! So we spend an hour browsing the stalls and I ended up with nothing while she bought cloths, jewellery and even a book for her son and all REALLY CHEAP. A great impulse decision if you ask me.

I also have to tell you about the little bar that we discovered in Rozelle, now its probably not that new but I haven't lived in the area now for a few years and it sure wasn't there before I left. It is called The Corner Bar and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there. Had some nice lunch and a few cocktails...Yum!
Overall it was a great day and it was followed by more markets on Sunday!

On Sunday my hubby, Lucy and I went to the Baby and Kids Market. The markets are on most Sundays in different locations and every two weeks they come to near us. I love these markets, if you want to sell your old stuff or buy some second hand gems for your baby and toddlers, this is the perfect place for you!. We picked up some good quality winter GroBags for $10... a bargain! and some little toys for Lucy to play with, all before the big storm hit Sydney. What are your favourite markets?

Got to love weekends xx

Weekend doing nothing

My poor husband on Thursday went in for surgery for his nasal passages. Apparently it will be great once he heals, it doesn't feel so great now! The poor bugger has spent the whole weekend either in bed or on the couch watching TV, the whole time in some form of pain. Lucy and I could do nothing to help him and he couldn't even hold her (she has a habit of grabbing faces!) so alongside him we did nothing! Well I cooked and baked yummy food to include in my blog later in the week and Lucy mastered the art of crawling. She lifted her bum of the ground and is no longer commando crawling, my little pumpkin changes daily and it still amazes me how fascinated I am by her. I have looked after many babies, but she still leaves me in wonder at her intelligence and sense of humour. It feels like only yesterday that she was only laying there and not doing much except feed and sleep and now she is moving, calling 'mama' and recently pulling herself up.


Anyway that has been my weekend, looking after my husband, cooking and observing my little girl in wonder. Hope you all had a good one.
xx

Hunter Valley and Bruce Springsteen Weekend

This weekend my husband and I, along with some friends, drove to the Hunter Valley to see Bruce Springsteen live at the Hope Estate. I have never been a great fan but I must say the concert was amazing and the guy sure knows how to entertain.

It was also the first time that we spend away overnight from our gorgeous daughter. She was completely happy and safe with her Auntie and Uncle and cousins but I'm not sure hubby and I were so happy about it to begin with. We did spend a lot of the journey to the Hunter talking about her but once we arrived it was GREAT!! We had adult conversations with no interruption, we relaxed on the grass and enjoyed some yummy food and wine and of course some great music!

On the way home, after midnight, I couldn't wait to get home and to bed and I must admit a Lucy cuddle would have been great. Knowing she was being spoilt by her family, I had THE BEST night sleep in a LONG time. I wasn't woken up at 2 am and 4 am, just to have a dummy put back in. I slept all the way though to 10am! All the things that you take for granted before having kids, like sleep, become very important and scarce. When I was working, I always turned up fully energised after a long night sleep and looked at the poor parents struggling to get ready to go to work and now I finally understand how the poor buggers must have been feeling. OUCH!

So in conclusion, I had a great day and night at the Bruce Springsteen concert (I see why he is The Boss) and I absolutely LOVE the Hunter Valley (can imagine retiring at a winery!) but the greatest part of the whole experience was the gorgeous uninterrupted sleep I got and the beautiful excited smiles I received when I picked Lucy up from her Aunties!
Big kisses to my sis and her hubby for the help xx

Honey + Vodka weekend

My parents not that long ago have moved to the South Coast of NSW. They bought a big house and my dad had decided that he will take up the one thing that he always had loved... bee keeping. So he went out and bought 3 bee hives. One produces heaps of honey, and the other two not so much.

This weekend, we packed Lucy and went to visit for the weekend to spend some time on the beach and of course it rained! It rained the WHOLE time we were there! So for nothing to do, once Lucy was down for the night we sampled my mums Polish Honey Vodka. Delicious and if anyone is interested so easy to make. All you need is good quality vodka and good quality honey. Pour out some of the vodka and pour in some honey... the more honey the less strong the shot but so much smoother and sweeter. Enjoy!