So blessed.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself just to make sure that these two are mine. Pregnancy time, both times, seems just a big blur in my mind and it blows me away that I'm a mother. I don't even remember the time when we were a one child family. I feel so privileged to be able to nurture these two and at the same time I feel I fall short in so many areas. Three years ago I never knew a love like this exsisted. The amount of love I have for my children cannot be measured or put in words, it is hard for me to comprehend it. And I guess that is the case for most mothers. I'm so grateful to be on this journey and I know it's not just them growing, I'm growing with them.

I had a very special day. Hubby made amazing and HEALTHY red velvet cupcakes, and I was going to take a picture and share the recipe, but that half a cupcake you see in my daughters hand was the last one. Might just have to make a new patch. My proud mummy moment for today was that my two and a half year old daughter sang a song Mother I love you in church today. She sang with her friend, who is a year older, in front of the whole church. Yes these two little girls, all on their own.

I am so blessed. 

Not everyday is easy.

On a day when she stands on a chair and pees because I didn't give her the flyswatter... I am reminding myself that I love her and that she's cute and sometimes she is also really good. I am also determined to have chairs that don't have padding on them. I find myself also grateful of this heat as now the chair I hosed will dry quickly. She really is her own little person, she really is a terrible two at times.

Pictures were taken a few Sundays ago when we sat on the couch as a family and daddy did mummy's hair and mummy did daughters hair and daughter was playing with the son and the son was just looking at us like we were a bunch of weirdos.

Ray of sunshine, 3 months

Being 3 months is such a magical time. All of a sudden the crying changes into smiling. Chatting starts. Naps get longer. Feeding is easier. Life is good, really good.  

2 months today

Some say that time has gone fast

And wonder how to make the moments last.

With you, my darling, however

I feel like I've known you forever.

Mini holiday

Mini vacation in the big Perth city for me and the kids while daddy was doing a course at the academy. We don't go to the city that often, so it was nice to wonder around there. Not so easy to take pictures with two kids though, couldn't even change the setting to get some colourful pictures. Oh well we truly enjoyed ourselves even though I am in the need of another holiday just so I could rest from this holiday.

Life is happy when on your holiday you can eat sushi as often as you want, have a clean room every day without having to clean it, hearing Christmas music in the shops and buying new geeky glasses. I am focusing here on the good memories instead of all the screaming in the car, wetting pants in the shops, having such a sore back after carrying the little on all day long, running away and chasing episodes. Oh the joyous life of trying to do things on your own with two kids. I'm defiitely still trying to find my way.


But what made our holiday absolutely the best, was all the time we got to spend with our cousins.

Glitter and the huge bump

Oh my mind. So I finished this scarf last night and as I was waiting for my husband to finish work, I thought to take some photos of it. Well it's almost impossible to get any good pictures at midnight.

But good pictures or not, this scarf ended up costing me nothing but $2, can you believe that! I wouldn't normally buy this yarn, but when it was in such a huge sale, I couldn't leave it there. Easy peasy triangle scarf was made in no time and with no instructions. Now I've got some glitter and glamour in my winter.

 

When I realised that these pictures weren't going to work out, I also realised that there is NO pictures of my massive bump yet. Yay for self-timers in cameras. Camera on the table and getting my pose face on. Or maybe I should say, my pose belly on.

 I had lots of fun by myself in the middle of the night, and now the nesessary bump pictures are taken. I still have 2 months to go and I am already quite massive. I got very big with Emma too, so I knew what to expect, I suppose. Check out the maxi loose clothing too. Haha, I'm getting so uncomfortable that I don't really care anymore what I wear. But these pictures lifted my spirits and got me excited again. Can't wait to meet you little bubby.

Silly things...

I love lists. So here's one:

Things I have done while I've been pregnant that don't really make any sense:

• Had a collar shirt wrong way around and wondered for an hour why it was so uncomfortable. Yeah took me an hour to figure that out. 

• Drank watercolour water, you know the one where you dip your brushes. Made so sure that my daughter wouldn't drink it that I ended up having it in my own mouth.

• Forgot my wallet behind the back door, outside and over night. Lucky no-one stole it. Found it the next morning when I went outside and opened the door.

• Remembered on Saturday that my daughter was suppose to have vaxinations the previous Tuesday. It then took me about two week to rebook her appointment as I kept forgetting again.

• Left a needle in a beanie that I took to the store to be sold, turned out I hadn't finished it yet.

• Cried when I took a pizza out of the oven, because it smelled so nice.

• Cried hopelessly when I saw a long lost friend standing in front of me. She on the other hand didn't have a clue who this crying and hugging woman was. It had been 10 years sinse we saw each other.

• Cried when I saw a tv add to remind us that we should wear seatbelts. I could make a whole list of things I've cried about.

• Was looking for a knife at a friends place, couldn't find it in the first drawer and as I opened the second one I had totally forgotten what I was looking for. So I just kept staring at the content of the second drawer until my friend came to help me.

 There's the ones I can remember, and I didn't even include all the meetings I have forgotten to go to or all the times I have cried for no good reason.

Isn't it amazingly weird how one tiny person growing inside of us can make our brains mash. Have you done something silly while you've been pregnant? I really hope I'm not the only one.

About being a mother...

It's been 6 months since my husband went to the police academy and in 2 weeks we are getting him back. Don't get me wrong, we've still seen him every weekend, but it's been a rollercoaster ride. People ask me how I do this, how can I be a mum with a husband away for a week at a time and still have time to make things. Well the answer is simple: humor.

1. Oh dear the shorts don't go over your head.

 2. Did you not get enough breakfast darling?

3. And this is why I tell you over and over not to touch the nappy cream.

4. An art project not gone like I planned, maybe the paper that I taped was too small for her ideas.

And there has been many many more things that I can't but laugh, like drinking vegetable oil, feeding her lunch to the toys so that they are covered in tomato sauce and brushing her teeth with daddy's tooth brush.

Yes sometimes it's not so funny and sometimes I have cried, but if you take everything too seriously and only worry about a clean house and a clean child, well then you're going to miss out a lot. Children, funny ones as they are, need to try silly things, need to do the opposite of what you tell them to and need to be allowed to be children. And being a child just happens to be all those things, messy and dirty.

And don't get me wrong, she still helps me to clean up after she's made the mess. Just because we let them be children doesn't mean we need to be slaves as mothers. I am very greatful that she knows how to put her toys away (and everything else she's pulled out), take her dirty clothes to the laundry and get the towel when she's spilled something. Cleaning can be fun too when you do it together.

 So when do I have time to do crafty things? Well they do sleep too!

Elephant march - elefanttimarssi

We've been a bit sick and I felt like knitting. I've also been singing this childrens song about elephants; hence the elephants marching around the socks. They are a bit big for her, but then again it's not winter here yet. She's got time to grow.

I've also been growing, in patience. When you're sick you cry, when you're teething at the same time you're crying even louder and when you add a few tantrums... Well lets just say your mum is growing, in patience. I think we make a pretty good team though. Sure we have our moments, but we also giggle a lot over silly things, make a horrible mess and then work together to clean it all up.

When peek-a-boo doesn't work

It was all suppose to be about this owl shirt that I made for Emma. She loves owls at the moment. She points to them in the books, and makes an owl sound. In TV her favorite show is Giggle and Hoot (Hoot is an owl) and she has one owl toy that plays lullubies when you pul it's tail. So I made her a t-shirt and painted an owl on it.

Then I wanted to take some pictures of her with the t-shirt. Remember how last time I told you I used peek-a-boo to get some really good shots. Well it didn't work this time, because this time when ever I said peek-a-boo, she started to run towards me. Hence all the pictures looked like this:

Then I realised that she knows how to smile when I ask her to. So I put her against the wall and told her to smile for me, and this is what I got:

Yeah they are rather shaky because I was cracking up myself so much for her smiles. Oh dear.

For those who I told last time to try peek-a-boo, because it works like magic, I guess this proves that no it doesn't work every time. So in the end I ended up just taking pictures of the shirt on it's own, that worked pretty well for me.

My little comforter

My life has been a bit of a rollercoaster this week, lots of ups and also very deep downs. But I am very blessed to have such a precious little girl who brightens up my day. Just yesterday, when I was weeping on the couch, she came to my arms and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. Isn't it amazing how little children express their feelings even though they cannot use words yet. I was blown away how my little girl saw my anxiety and comforted me. I know that she needs me, but yesterday it struck hard how much I need her too. Oh I am so so grateful.

I want to thank you for all the lovely comments, they cheer me up. This is an old picture, but I remembered it while I was taking the pictures for the post before. It's one of my favorites. I like that poem too, it sums up pretty well our relationship. Together they create a good memory to add in her scrapbook folder.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

New life of a curtain

 I got beautiful, but fairly old, curtains from my friend. As soon as I saw them, I knew I had to make a shirt for Emma.

I came up with the design myself and am fairly pleased, though I am making few modification for the next one. The shirt has puff sleeves, a bow at the front and is gathered a bit at the bottom. She looks so darn cute, doesn't she?

And if you wonder how I got one and a half year old to stand still and smile, I can give you in on a secret. Yes I tried wooden blocks and others, but with these photos, I'm actually playing peek a boo with her. It is the best game in the world! At least she thinks so.

Happy, sad, angry, laughing, crying...

Children get angry and sad very quickly. But then they get happy and laugh as quickly too. I think parents need to be teaching their children emotions. That it's ok to feel angry or sad, and how to act when we get those feelings. How do you practice different emotions with children? There are many different ways, but here is one idea that I did with my friends kids.

Use paint to get your fingerprints on paper, let it dry and then just start drawing. First we drew different emotions and then we started drawing different characters and funny people. It's amazing how much children can do. Then they started to look at the colours and thinking what sort of person is a red one and what about a blue one. Children have so much potential, and learning can be fun if we only make it and let it be fun.

Hope you all had a good weekend. I know I sure did.