Ups and Downs

(image by Teerapun)


I'd neglected this poor little blog of late. Life has been busy and although every night I promise myself I'll hop on here and jot down a few words by the time I get everything done I tend to flop into bed exhausted.

Life is a bit strange right now. Family-wise things are wonderful. The Butterfly turns 1 next week and she is turning into such an amazing little girl. She is bright as a button and is so much fun to be around. While the Bear remained pretty quiet untill after his first birthday the Butterfly has decided to be a chatterbox and says Muma, Dada, Pa (Grandpa), Bear (yep, the Bear isn't just a Blog nickname I have for my boy, it's what we call him at home), More, Nana (banana), Uh-Oh (whenever she drops something, something breaks etc etc she'll make a little 'o' shape mouth and say so sweetly uh-oh") and Erro (as in Hello). She also says Bubba and delights in waving to any baby she sees shouting out "Bubba, Bubba!!" to try and get their attention. She refers to herself as bubba too and will say 'Bubba' then point to her drink, or 'bubba nana' if she spots a banana lurking in the fruit bowl. She started walking when she was 10 months, not great big marathon lengths but a metre or so, and delights in playing games with the Bear. She will hide between the couches or behind a wall and giggle madly untill the Bear finds her, squealing with delight when he does then madly heading off to hide again.

The Bear is doing well too, I swear he has grown since his birthday last month. He has shot up in height again and has become so thin, we're back to attaching belts to every pair of pants he owns as they tend to fall down around his ankles if we dont. That happened to him recently, we were walking down the main street of our local village, chatting happily, when he stopped in his tracks and burst out laughing. I looked down and there he was, jeans around his ankles, little jocks on display to the world, laughing his head off. So yes, belts are a big feature in his world right now. We've found the world of work books recently aswell. He was given a few for his birthday and he loves them. He sits himself down at his little ddesk, announces that he is working and asks for some "quiet please" and fills out pages and pages of them. He's really good at them too, zooms through the counting, matching, shapes and maze activities. He's currently working on writing his own name. It's still a bit wobbly but he'll get there!

Yikes, I just realised how much I've blabbed on already. I've got a whole drama to go into about the Down side of recent events so I'll save that for next time. It's nothing too major, just these few nagging issues that keep dragging me down. Urgh.

So yes, if anyone is out there reading this stay tuned, I'll be a better blogger from now on, I promise! x

Let Them Eat Cake

So Bear's third birthday has come and gone. He had a wonderful day, hubby and I lept into decorating mode as soon as he had gone to bed and decked the house out with millions of streamers and balloons which if your anything like me, instantly makes a house feel party like. We madly wrapped up his presies (a big boy bike complete with training wheels, a helmet, a horn and a police siren and flashing lights, a wheelbarrow (he's been asking the Butterfly to get him a big boy wheelbarrow for ages now, his other one is a little kid version and he was desperate for a proper one), a soccer net and ball, a frisbee and a Wiggles DVD. It was really fun, we were sitting on the floor surrounded by wrapping paper and sticky tape (do you have any idea how MUCH wrapping paper it takes to wrap a bike?!) trying to whisper and be as quite as possible to avoid waking him and giggling like little kids.

Once the house and pressies were done I shifted into cake mode. Now birthday cakes are always a big deal to me. When I was little my Mum would give me the Woman's Weekly Birthday Cake books and I'd be allowed to choose anything I wanted. My gosh, I poured over those books for weeks and weeks, tossing up the pro's and con's of a castle vs a jewerly box, a duck vs a teddy bear. It's one of my happiest memories, made all the better by the fact that the book was covered in stains from previous cake making adventures. So cakes have always been important, they are the major event in our birthday celebrations and I promised myself when I became a Mummy I would lovingly hand make my babies cakes every single year, making whatever they wanted. Sounds nice but in truth of the matter is I am no cook. Hubby cooks all the dinners in our house, and on weekends takes over breakfast and lunch duties too. So this is actually a bigger deal for me than it may sound :)

For his first birthday I made him a train cake. He adored trains and was thrilled to be able to actually eat one. It was my very first attempt at making a cake so I was pretty nervous! He liked it though :) Not a great pic, and excuse the whited out patch where his name was, but you get the idea.

For his second Hubby chimed in a begged for a number 2 covered in m&m's. It's what he had for his second birthday and he wanted to share that with the Bear. How could I say no?! So this was cake number 2:

This year he's getting two cakes, he had one on his birthday on Saturday and will have one on his party this Saturday. Following tradition I made a number 3 for his actual birth day cake, but as per his request decorated it with snakes and spiders. It didn't turn out how I wanted, I only started it at about 10:00pm the night before so no big surprise there really, but oh well. This is the final product:

For his party he has requested, wait for, Muck. As in the dump truck from Bob the Builder (it's a fancy dress and he's going as Bob). I'm not yet sure how I'm going to make him, but bygod I will! Somehow. Lol.


knife and fork image by Carlos Porto

Party Plans

Image by Danilo Rizzuti



I can't quite believe it but my little Bear turns 3 next week. It's actually a really tricky thing to wrap my head around. First of all I just can't believe that he's growing up so quickly - this is my baby we're talking about here, the one that I was told by two doctors and a sonographer that I was loosing when I was pregnant, the one that proved them all wrong and stuck with me and grew into a perfect little baby. The one who stayed breech for the entire pregnancy, his (big!) head sitting under my right ribs. When he would stretch he would push his head out so far you could SEE it clear as day. That was quite a party trick, it would freak people right out :D This is the bub who turned dark blue as I held him after he was born, who was rushed away to special care and hooked up to countless tubes and monitors. This is the baby who fought to get better as he lay in his little humidicrib, the baby I stared at for hours and hours, my hand holding his through the special cut out hole. It was the only contact I could have with him for a couple of days and it near killed me. This is the baby who they were about to send away to a dedicated children's hospital to get him further help, but who that night fought on and got out of the danger zone. This is the baby who they finally wheeled into my room, announcing they had someone who wanted to see me. From that moment he has just blossomed. I know I keep saying it but he is amazing. He is so clever (and I'm not just being biased, at the age of 1 1/2 he had the comprehension of a 3 year old), so sweet, so kind and so burst-your-sides-open funny. He's such his own person, an entire lovable, complex and amazing human wrapped up in a little body. How can he already be 3??! Three seems so grown up, it's so far from being a baby and so much more of a big kid.

But then on the other hand if I think of how long it feels he's been with us, how long he's been part of our lives, it feels like forever. When I think of three as actually only being 36 months, it seems tiny. 36 months. Doesn't that make it seem like a blink of an eye? How do little ones grow so much, learn so much, become so much in a mere 36 months?!? My overwhelming feeling about him turning 3 though is pride. As I watch him run around, play games, sing songs and make up dance moves, cook cakes or clean up his toys, tickle the Butterfly or nestle in a corner looking through a book I could just burst. He is doing so well. He is so happy. Which means I am so happy. God help me when he turns 13. I'll be an emotional wreck.

Anyway, he has requested a fancy dress party this year and wants to go as Bob the Builder (he's also issued instructions as to what we are to come as - apparently I'm to be a princess (complete with crown, a big special dress and a wand), Hubby is to be a cowboy (which I think he was secretly thrilled about) and the Butterfly is to go as Wendy, Bob the Builder's sidekick. His costume was easy peasy - a pair of overalls, a red and yellow checked shirt, a Bob the Builder tool belt complete with tools, a hard hat and a pair of boots! Woohoo! He's asked for a Muck cake (Muck is Bob's big red dump truck) which I'm really looking forward to making. I ADORE making and decorating cakes, I spend so much time on them and the perfectionist in me rears her head, but god it's fun. I'm planning on making the dump truck itself out of a number of different cakes then hollowing out one big piece to be the dumper itself which I'll fill with different types of lollies. I've ordered a Bob the Builder candle which I'll stand in the dumper amongst the lollies to make it look like he is riding in the back. Fingers crossed it works out!

Activities-wise we'll be having a treasure hunt, pin the hardhat on bob, pass the parcel and biscuit decorating. I'm also contemplating making up a few tubs of slime (he adores it) and letting them get all messy, or giving them balls to try and throw into the tubs (which will then in turn make a huge mess when they splash in). The food will be pretty standard - mini sausage rolls, sandwich triangles, fairy bread, fruit kebabs, jelly cups with chocolate frogs stuck on top, mini spring rolls, veggie sticks with dip and a bucket full of poppers.

I'm making the decorations (yep, I'm a sucker for punishment) so will no doubt have a few late nights coming up. I'll take some pics when they are done. It should be great fun though! Have I mentioned that I love planning parties for my little ones?! lol.

And the best thing is when it's all over and done with, we'll start again. The Butterfly's first birthday is in September :)