Christmas is giving me a headache!

Christmas is already giving me a headache and it's not even here yet....well its only 4 weeks away, as the shopping centres like to remind us!  Normally I love this time of year. I love catching up with my family and relatives over a nice long lunch, wearing our silly paper hats and telling the terrible jokes from the bon-bons.  I love the whole exchanging gifts with my hubby, little girl and parents etc, decorating the christmas tree, taking my daughter down to get her photo with Santa (not sure how she'll go this time, she's nearly 2....need I say more?!?) and enjoying the time we have together, but this year, I'm feeling a bit over it!! A little "Baa Humbug" if you would.

Why does it have to be such a hassle to see everyone on Christmas day? What happened to those days when Mum & Dad would shove you and your siblings in the car (by protest, because you wanted to play with your new toys!!), and they drove you to everyones place on the day.

Here's an example of what it was like when I was a kid.

6am - Get out of bed (more like dragged out of bed by brothers) and sneak into lounge room and check out presents with big brothers. (Sometimes my grandparents would stay over Christmas Eve and would be asleep in lounge room, pretending not to hear us. :-))
7am - Open presents with half awake parents
8am - Have breakfast
9am - Get dressed and in the car - off to my grandparents (if they hadn't stayed the night)
10am - Back in the car, off to my Aunty & Uncle's for morning tea.
11.30am - Back in the car, off to my Cousins or Uncles for Christmas lunch.
5.00pm - Finally home to play with new toys!!!!!!

It was such a long day, but it was great, and you know what I can't remember any of us three kids saying to my parents, "No, I don't want to go, I want to stay home and play with my new toys!"

Getting together with my family and all the relatives over lunch is something I've grown up with, its a bit like a Christmas tradition I guess. Over the years though my older brothers have had kids and have stopped going to my cousins for Christmas, making it harder for us all to catch up. They too have families to see on Christmas day, and will do the 'alternate' Christmas lunch at whoever's place, but lately it seems they always spend time with the other families and not spending anytime with my family. I can't remember the last time we were all together on Christmas day. For the past few years we've had a catchup, well before Christmas, to make sure we see each other and give the kids their presents - but it's just not the same.

Last year my hubby & I had our first christmas with our little girl :-) Instead of going to someone's house we chose to have christmas at our place and invited my parents and hubby's family to lunch. Unfortunately, my hubby's family couldn't come as they were sick, so it was only my parents, my hubby, my daughter & I. It was lovely to have lunch together, but I missed seeing my brothers and their families, and relatives.

This year we (my hubby, daughter, and parents in tow) are supposed to have lunch with my relatives, then visit my eldest brother and his family for dessert, but it seems not all of us are going to be able to catch up, as my other brother and his family are seeing my sister-in-laws family.....so my family misses out again!!!

Boohoo!!! [having toddler temper tantrum here!!!]. It's sad that my parents miss out in seeing all their children and grandchildren on Christmas day, but yet, one of the other set of grandparents get to see the grandkids each year, which is so unfair. I'm hoping one day we can all be together for Christmas, I just hope it's not left too late and my parents are still around to enjoy it.

What do you do for Christmas lunch? Do you celebrate with family and relatives, or celebrate at home by yourself?

Back to normality

I'm back! Did you miss me? Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged...even though I don't know if anyone is actually reading this blog? Are you there? Anyone, anyone at all?

As my heading says, I'm back to normality...unfortunately :(  Which means back to the usual routine, including, but not limited to... looking after bubs, cleaning the house, washing the dishes, picking up the toys...again & again, vaccuming the rugs, sweeping the floors, folding up the clothes and putting them away etc etc. Get my drift?

SuperDad, Popette and I have just returned from a lovely, relaxing family holiday at the beach. We had a wonderful time at Shoal Bay which is located within Port Stephens, NSW. We stayed at a lovely holiday park which is opposite the beach at Shoal Bay, so only a hop, skip and jump from our cabin. :-)

This year we stayed in a cabin that had water views, I know very posh, luckily it didn't cost any extra....it was first in, first served! Yippee!! The best thing about it, was the child-proof gate on the deck, which allowed my little one some freedom and the ability to play inside and outside on the deck.

Beautiful Shoal Bay!

The weather was fantastic most days and spent a great amount of time at the beach. My little one got her first bucket, thanks to Nanna and Poppy, so was introduced to playing in the sand, and building sandcastles...even though she much preferred demolishing the sandcastles....hmmm.....maybe she'll have a job in demolition one day ;-)

The best thing about being away was little housework to worry about (if you're a Stay-at-home Mum or Dad, you will know what I'm talking about!! ;-)), no appointments to rush to, no people calling in or calling you on the phone...it was lovely, just the three of us having a fun time.

Now that we are back, hubby has returned to work.. :( and bubba and I are back to music classes, swimming lessons, various appointments as well as catching up with other Mums and Bubs.

I don't know about you, but I cherish the time I have with my little family, it doesn't matter if it's away on holidays, at home or going on a picnic at the park (one of our favourite things to do). It's a shame hubby had to go back to work, but I guess someone has to earn  money for us to do nice things and pay for the mortgage, bills etc. I'm very lucky to have a hubby who only wants the best for his girls, and who works hard in looking after us.....so thanks hubby xxx.

Being a parent

I think being a parent must be one of the toughest jobs. Some days its a real joy to sit and watch my little one play, the other day for instance she was pretending that the empty nappy box was the "Ninky Nonk" from "In the Night Garden" and she placed her Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy dolls inside the box and pushed them around the floor. Its a game I invented after watching numerous (I had to use bold and italics to stress how many episodes I've watched of 'ITNG') episodes of the show. I even included some cool sound effects which she was trying hard to imitate...it was so cute! But then you have days where all she wants is "Mamma" and will push my buttons so much that I can't help but get a little angry frustrated with her.

I know she finds it hard to communicate what she wants, but its when she does something she knows she shouldn't, like stand up in her high chair or on the coffee table, while smiling at me after I've said for the tenth time 'darlin, sit down', and does it over and over again, that erks me!!

Hubby has been home this past week with a bad back, and is only realising how much energy she has and why I have days when I can't get anything done!! I think this was his 'a-ha moment'! You see my daughter is a bit like the 'Energizer Bunny', she just keeps going and going until she stops for some food and a drink, or it's time for her to go to bed.

My hubby and I left it quite late to start a family, in hindsight we wish we had started a lot earlier on, at least 6 years ago!! It's hard being in your mid-30's (I don't know how people start families in their 40s or 50s) and getting out of your warm cozy bed at '2.30 in the blessed AM' (love Colonel Potter from M*A*S*H) to go to a crying toddler.

I'll admit that sometimes I stay in bed a little longer than I should, hoping that she'll stop crying and go back to sleep, but usually she's gotten herself in to such a state that she's hyperventilating or throws up in her cot. Just what you want to be cleaning up at 2.30 in the morning.....or 'SuperDad' has gotten up to her (while I pretend to be asleep! shhh, don't tell him)....but on the odd occassion she may have fallen back to sleep.

I think most people think parenthood is a piece of cake, well if that's the case, make mine chocolate please!

These people tend to be those who don't have kids, I can say that because I used to be one of them! That was until 20 months ago when I had a baby. Boy was I wrong!!

Nobody tells you how hard it'll be when you're first pregnant or had your baby. I guess people don't want to scare you off having kids or burst the 'I'm pregnant' or 'We've had a baby' bubble. It's not like they hand out an instruction manual once you've had your baby.....hmm.....refer to Section B2.1 for 'Changing explosive nappies and cleaning up projectile vomit'.

If your lucky you might have well meaning family and friends who help you, but mostly, they just offer words of wisdom on what you should or shouldn't do where you reply 'thanks for that', or you join a Mums group or playgroup where you learn with other mums along the way.

Thank goodness for sites such as Kidspot where you can ask a question, which you might think sounds silly and not get laughed at! I think it's because there's other mums out there going through the same thing.

In any case I wouldn't change a thing. I know it's a lot of hard work and it doesn't pay you any money, but the cuddles, smiles and giggles I get from my daughter are worth every bit of the lack of sleep, lack of privacy (I'm not a fan of her watching me on the toilet!) and lack of time I have to myself.

I hate teething...but love my hubby :0)

Teething, I hate it. I even hate the word itself. Now I know hate is a strong word, but when you see your little one in pain (even though I've been told by a Tresilian nurse that they don't experience pain!! Yeah right),and feel as though there's nothing you can do but give them some panadol or neurofen etc, you've got to hate it. I'm thinking of forming a "I hate teething" group....do you want to join??

My little one had the worst night last night. I had an idea that she might be teething, as a couple days beforehand she started to get a terrible nappy rash with bleeding....poor thing. Then yesterday afternoon she started to get a clear runny nose and was sneezing. I thought she might of picked up a bug, but after reading various information, it all seems to point to the dreaded teething. Her top two molars have been cutting through what seems like forever, so I hope they will finally come through once and for all, and give my little one a break for a while before the bottom molars come through :(

Last night we put her to bed at around 7.30pm, she woke up at 11pm with a blocked nose and could hardly breathe, and because she was awake started crying, which made her vomit all in her cot....the poor little darling. My heart goes out to her when I see her like this. She didn't want Mummy's cuddles which made me feel a bit upset, she just wanted Daddy's strong arms holding her...which I know makes me feel better when I'm feeling sick too. She is surely Daddy's little girl.

My hubby was my hero last night, he knew I wasn't feeling too great myself and told me to go to bed and that he would stay up with our daughter. I went to bed at around 1am, then got woken up at 2am when he was trying to put her to bed, so got back up...she slept for 1/2 hour than woke up crying at 2.30am, which is when I got told to go back to bed....my hubby didn't get her back to bed until 3.45am and still went to work today :(

It ended up that she was hungry after vomitting up all her dinner....do you think we would have realised that, nope, we tried giving her some milk with her meds, but she didn't want that, she even knocked back a cracker when she was crying!! In the end, she managed to eat some crackers and half a banana, before finally going back to bed.

Today she is miserable, she didn't drink her milk and hardly ate her breakfast. I was able to get her to have some dimetapp for her nose, and put her to bed at 11.15am, so hopefully she'll have a nice long sleep and wake up feeling better.

We have a vaporiser which we put eucalyptus in to help her breathe, but I'm finding it harder and harder to give her her meds, so have been putting them in her milk, as she won't take them off us. We also put Vicks on her chest and elevate one end of her bed, so her nose doesn't run down the back of her throat.

Don't you just hate teething! Grrrrr......

What do you do to help your little ones?

The Art of Conversation vs. Quick & Easy Communication

Whatever happened to a good ole chat to your bestfriend over the phone, or having a chat to a friend over coffee and cake (can't chat unless you are eating cake!) or sending each other a handwritten letter.

In today's society I think we have lost the art of conversation to things like; mobile phones where you can easily send a text message, networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace; E-mail, Instant messaging, blogs, Skype video chats etc.

I sometimes wonder what it will be like when my daughter, now 19 months, is in her 30's and wants to catch-up with one of her friends..hmm will they call each other on the phone or will there be some other kind of communication device, that hasn't even been thought of yet, that they will use?

Instead of calling someone on the phone, we tend to send a text, tweet, poke, buzz, post a message on a wall, email, Skype, or instant message.

Whatever happened to good ole "snail mail" letters...I love receiving letters in the mailbox. I think there's something special about receiving a handwritten letter. It's like someone thinks enough of you, to have taken the time to have written you a letter...and sometimes on nice paper too ;-)

To this day, I still write letters to my 'penfriend' in England who I've been friends with for twenty-something years. Albeit, the letters are not nearly as frequent, since we both have children and little time to sit down and write a long letter. As we still like receiving letters in the mailbox we try and send them now and then. Mostly we email each other or send a message or "chat" to each other on Facebook.

What about ringing someone on the phone? Whenever I see my phone bill, I am surprised at how much it is. I don't think I am on the phone that much during the day. If so, I feel as though I ring the same people over and over again, which I am told is a "local" call, so shouldn't cost me anything, so if that's the case why is my bill so much? Hmm...makes you think.

Nowadays we have faster ways of communicating with each other, which is where texting, emailing, poking, posting, etc comes in, but what has that done with the way we communicate with each other?

Are you a talker or a communicator

Do you find that you have conversations that seem....I don't know.. abbreviated.....as if the person you are speaking to thinks that they are talking to you via a text message, and have left a whole lot of words out?

Or there's the people who only like to hear their own voices, and don't take the time to listen to what you have to say, or who can't be bothered to ask you anything. So you find yourself the one asking all the questions, and when you go home realise that you didn't really have a conversation as such.

There's also the one word conversation.....for example.

"Hi Helen*, how are you?"

"Good"

hmm...what sort of conversation was that?

Now let's take a look at what a face-to-face conversation might sound like.

(Disclaimer: Note; this conversation is of my own thinking and should not be confused with anyone else's conversation.)

"Hi Jill*, How's it going? How was your weekend?" 

"Hi Jane*, Yeah good, thanks. We had a lovely weekend, Bob* and I took Little Johnny* on a picnic on Saturday, then Sunday we went to see my parents for afternoon tea. How have you been? Did you guys get up to anything?" 

"Not great, I've had a cold this past week, so we had a very quiet weekend. We just watched some DVDs, played WII and ordered a pizza." 

"Oh no, that's no good. Are you feeling better now?"

etc

etc

(*The names mentioned in the above conversations are purely fictional and should not be confused with anyone else who may be named, Jill, Jane, Bob, Little Johnny or Helen, anyone with these names or who has had the exact same conversation is purely coincidental.)


I am a fan of Facebook, however lately I find that I spend more time on there playing games then talking to people, but it's great that it lets you catch-up with people you haven't seen in years or who are overseas, and its also free.

Another freebie is Skype, I've just downloaded the software so I can video chat with people...hmm...don't know who, but I've got it, just in case!

Text messages sometimes annoy me, as I find it takes forever to write the message, it would have been quicker for me to have just called the person to see how they are or tell them what I wanted to say. I also can't stand it when people you are catching up with answer a text they've just received....meaning, they should be having a conversation with you, but instead are conversing with someone else! If it was important, surely the person who sent the text would have called? I think its rude myself, it gives you the feeling that they don't really want to be with you and would rather be talking to the person who text them.

What about you? Are you finding it harder these days to have a real face-to-face conversation rather than sending someone a text, email or leaving a voice message? What do you do?