Saturday, December 21, 2013

only 4 days till Christm….whaat??





at about the same time every year
i can be heard exclaiming
"..how the heck did that come around so quickly?!"

but it has and as always
there is a frantic, frazzled fug of 
last minute shopping

the shops only close for one day
but i stockpile food
like there is a famine

we try not to go overboard
when planning the menu
but who am i kidding?

paul likes to make an occasion of present wrapping
the kids are put to bed on time
we fix ourselves a pot of tea and a few slices of pannetone
put on some suitably festive muzak
and wrap away
carefully labelling and embellishing each parcel
before laying them under the tree
imagining the anticipation
and look of the children's faces 
on christmas morning

when all the gifts have been opened
when all our bellies are full
we'll sit down to watch a christmas movie together
drift in and out of sleep
cups of tea
fruit mince pies
maybe a splash in the pool

life is good here
and not just at christmas
we try not to forget that

i wish all of you
a restful christmas with everyone you hold dear;
and the gift of time to be still and enjoy being together

Merry Christmas!











Monday, November 25, 2013

turning a corner...



:::


:::


:::

ten weeks on and we've turned a corner
less planking with me
less bouncing, rocking, patting, swaying, shushing and humming
and not a moment too soon
my arm was beginning to fall off

now she gives us cheeky lop-sided grins
chatting away
staring intently at her fist
as she wills it towards her mouth

i've managed to venture back to my beloved group fitness classes
adding to the little walks after dropping the big kids at school
combine that with her voracious appetite for the good stuff
coming from my udders
most of the pregnancy weight has melted away

she feasts during the day
and prefers to sleep at night
i'm starting to feel human again
now that i'm getting a least three hours
of sleep at a stretch

hard to believe that this time last year
she wasn't even a blip on the radar
now we can't imagine what life would have been like without her
our scrumptious poppet

:::

Monday, October 21, 2013

whirligig weeks...

ivy has been with us for five weeks now
in that time we survived the school holidays
kind friends dropped off delicious meals
visitors came for cuddles
the big kids spent lots of time with popo and kung kung
ivy spent lots of time in my arms

lets call her cuddly






as with each of my babies
ivy seems to me the most beautiful creature i have ever seen
she is calm
and appears to survive on lots of quality breastmilk
and about five minutes sleep during the day
thank goodness
she makes up for it at night

life as a family of five
has taken some getting used to
but i think we are all finding our feet now


Saturday, October 12, 2013

and now we are FIVE.


after thirty nine weeks of incubation
the dumpling was finally delivered
fresh, plump and scrumptious

after a week of false alarms
the day finally came
the big kids spent the night at their grandparents'
we spent the night feeling nervous and full of anticipation

we made our way to the hospital at 8am
calmly and quietly checked in and nervously waited for our turn

before we knew it
we were in hospital gowns and I was vertical
staring at the huge saucer of light above me in theatre
knowing that my babe was only minutes away from my arms






it was love at first sight



Ivy Tamsin Joyce
3318 grams
52 cms long
Friday 13 September 2013 at 12.23pm


*Ivy's middle name is a feminine form of Thomas, so named to honour Paul's father*



Wednesday, September 4, 2013

a change is as good as a holiday...


and it was true for us













a little escape to one of my favourite 
seaside towns

we took the kids
booked into a hotel
close to everything

and took a deep b.r.e.a.t.h.

the salty sea air
the freedom from chores
and released all the strains of the past few weeks from our bodies

we managed to squeeze in
retail therapy for me from here
fathers day breakfast with all the dads in our family
kicking the footy around
watching buskers at the markets
a visit to fremantle prison
stopping for lots of chai lattes from gorgeous cafes
a relaxing soak in the hotel spas
too much grazing from the hotel buffet

24 busy but fun hours away from the drudgery
of housework




Thursday, July 18, 2013

what we've been up to...


time seems to be speeding up
and i can't seem to keep up

we are nearing the end of our winter school holidays
its been relatively quiet

 we have retreated mainly to the kitchen
they have had cooking classes here
and baking up a storm at home

decorating cake pops. i was secretly relieved this was not my kitchen.

:::











lily loves to cook
and has been working on spaghetti and meatballs
from scratch
yes, even the pasta
although recently she declared she was going to be a vegetarian
like her dad
but the lure of a succulent, flavoursome meatball was too much
to resist
making muffins that will later become cake pops 
:::

we also spent time with my god-daughter mia
a headstrong and sweet 4 year old
this gave lily and sean the chance to experience having a little sister around
they quickly worked out that while she was very cute
they were not sure they could endure watching the wiggles or play la-la-loopsy dolls 
for too long


decorating cookies is quite an art. mia is a natural.
:::

dumpling has not exactly been sentient, either
at 30 weeks 
i am still marvelling at this being inside
its been a journey of learning for all of us
i thought carrying child number three would be much the same
but this time around
i have been able to be fully present and observant



:::

no one is more excited than i
after an early struggle to accept that our newly minted 
travel and life plans were going off the course we'd charted
(and we plan EVERYTHING to within an inch of its life)
i simply can't wait to hold her in my arms


paul has been busy painting and repairing and constructing
it still feels strange
when we look at the freshly painted nursery that used to function as a 
store room filled to the brim with hoarded bits
i guess it will serve a much better purpose soon

Friday, May 17, 2013

the little people...


as the little one grows within me
i am increasingly aware of how Lily and Sean are turning out as people

more often than not
i notice that as we look forward to welcoming a brand-new human to love and guide
i also notice at the same time
that the other two are already very much
who they will probably be for the rest of their lives

you can get so bogged down worrying about the future
that you forget whats happening right in front of you

we've done alright, i think
these two are wondrous
and i am in awe



our mothers day...



usually starts early. 
the kids are so excited to give me their presents they can barely wait till the sun rises.
blurry-eyed, i summon up all the cheer i can muster
(i am NOT a morning person)
and we all open my gifts and read their hand-made cards
together

my eyes welled up
they had written such beautiful words
brimming with so much heartfelt love
that the room was almost aglow with it

they scamper off to make me a cup of tea in my favourite
china cup
and a slice of delicious, buttery pannetone...

the day is full of promise



paul has been charged with the task of making
beetroot gnocchi with kale pesto for our lunch
the beetroot gnocchi with kale pesto was a ripper



lily flipping out her wobbly and perfectly luscious lemon pannacotta





all the girls..my impossibly youthful mum, who
lives to dote on us all.
she is truly inspiring and selfless
i hope to be much like her someday.
i love you mum.


Friday, April 26, 2013

robots or unicorns....?

today has been marked on our calendar for weeks
the day we find out if we get a unicorn or a robot

ha

as we all got into the car
bets were placed
guesses made
two votes for a girl
the other two, a boy

our sonographer is THE most delightful lady
she coos and sighs
at our baby as if it were her own 

perfect fingers and toes
perfect spine
perfect everything
that's all I wanted to hear
and then she asked

"do you want to know?"

think she already knew the answer
before we said it

and there it was
a clear view 


little miss dumpling



Tuesday, April 23, 2013

18 weeks - but who's counting?



18 weeks and 4 days
but who's counting?


into the second trimester now
not quite as exhausted
but i am thankful to be able to sneak in
an afternoon nap

people are starting to come up
rub my belly
like it will give them 
good luck

getting all manner of baby-related gear from lovely friends
a white bassinet was the first
i put it into our bedroom
and for a week
paul and i would stop dead in our tracks, startled, like deer in headlights
everytime we saw it

but we really are, happy

happy to have received the gift of life
happy that it already has the love of its big sister and brother
happy that just when we thought we had all our blessings counted
we got one more

we all get to find out this week
what our 'surprise' package will be
robots or unicorns?


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Two Plus One Equals Five...

i have a good excuse to have been away so long. 

the past months have been quite the roller-coaster.

ever since the day of lily's birthday

see, i looked into the mirror and saw that my resolve to eat sensibly over christmas had, quite alarmingly, failed me. 

you know that midriff of mummy tummy i had so proudly gotten rid of during my sugar-abstinence..had returned with a vengeance

still it felt unusual and the next day i decided to investigate further

what i discovered was quite a shock

what i discovered, was that we would be welcoming a new member into our home and our hearts

for now, i am calling it 'nugget'

nugget has overcome pretty significant physical odds to get here

but it would seem that the planets aligned one day...

i am now a third of the way through this journey

my first spring child



nugget at 11 weeks and 6 days

nugget will be our third child

unplanned, but certainly not unwanted

the excitement is building

the big sister and brother are bemused and excited 

sean has been all kisses for the baby

lily fires off ideas for names randomly

i just want to sleep. and sleep. and sleep.

Zzzzzzzz...








Saturday, January 12, 2013

on this day eight years ago...


12 hours of labouring
i sucked so hard on that gas inhaler
that my eyes almost popped out
we (finally) got to 9.5cms
i almost got to deliver my first baby
the 'normal' way

but it wasn't to be
her temperature rose
my temperature rose too

and we were all whisked into theatre
the epidural went in
causing me to have violent shakes immediately
and then i lost sensation in my chest
too much was administered
i thought i couldn't breathe
i thought i was breathing my final breaths right there
i remember thinking how nothing went as planned
especially the dying-on-the-operating-table bit

i figured if i was dying 
i was going to try hard to hang in there
long enough to meet my lovely girl
to hold her and tell her i loved her
to tell her i was sorry to not be able to to watch her grow up

they told me i was still breathing as normal
but the excess epidural just meant i couldn't feel it

i heard them saying they delivered her
there wasn't a sound
at the same time i drifted in and out of consciousness
desperately hoping they would hurry and let me hold my baby

and there she was
wrapped up tight
she looked like a little eskimo baby
chubby cheeks
black shiny eyes
quiet as a mouse
i forgot about everything else
it was the three of us
everything was perfect

it all happened on this day
eight years ago

she has become

funny
tender-hearted
generous
affectionate
an over protective sister
a lover of animals
a lover of big stuffed toys
a lover of little stuffed toys
an expert on chocolate
goofy
oh yes she is the goofiest kid

and everything else in between

she has become everything we hoped for
and then some...

happy 8th birthday lu-bi-loo

we love you