You need to understand that all babies are different...

I have a friend whose eldest is a year older than my daughter and it upset her when my daughter began talking in sentences long before her child did.
When i meet other mummies and we discuss toilet training, i try not to share that my daughter was out of undies and having no accidents by 15 months because it causes mums to raise their eye brows and question what they're doing wrong because their child isn't yet toilet trained.
My daughter had only taken a few independent steps by her 1st birthday, whereas her friend born the day before her, was walking the length of a room. Her other friend, who shares the same birthday, wasn't walking at all.

I got an email this week from a baby site, telling me facts about 7 month olds.
According to the email, some 7 month olds may be sitting unaided. Mine has been doing that for close to 3 months. He has 2 friends of similar age and one is very close to sitting unaided, the other is a fair way off.
According to the email, some 7 month olds are moving about (crawling). Mine has been doing that for close to a month now. One of his 2 friends has been moving around for roughly the same amount of time, the other is enjoying laying on their tummy and playing.
According to the email, some 7 month olds are babbling, saying words such as "baba" and "dada" and "mama". Mine isn't. He's never babbled any sort of word. One of his friends babbles all the time and has mastered "mama" and "dada". The other has babbled "mama" a couple of times but nothing regular.

My son has teeth, something which neither of his friends has. He can pull himself to standing and walk (shakily) around furniture, something neither of his friends can do yet but one of his friends can feed himself a bottle, something which my son can't do. His other friend sleeps right through the night. Something which my son has no interest in doing.

It upset me when my daughter was born and her playmates mummies were bragging about the things their child could do (and mine hadn't quite mastered), or the baby update email told me this month my daughter would achieve XYZ and she only achieved X and jumped straight to Z. But almost 3 years later, she got here by learning things in her own time and she's perfect! Just as my son is perfect, even if he hasn't said my name yet!

Second time around, i now understand that each child is different and learns in their own time. And whether they are walking at 7 months or 18 months, or talking at 5 months or 12 months, they're special and lovely and truly a gift from God that should be praised for every milestone they reach - no matter what age it occurs at.

First dress up party was a winner!

Until 2 weeks ago I had never heard of a Lalaloopsie. Turns out she's a doll with a head that is proportionally bigger than her body, has buttons for eyes, stitch mouth, rosy cheeks and is always wearing a flower or bow in her hair. Also turns out she's quite a popular toy for girls 2-8 years. My poor daughter, like her mummy, was unaware of her existence and really, life hasn't changed since our introduction via google.

To my daughter, Lalaloopsie is a doll printed on a piece of paper for reference when doing the makeup for the party. She is now and will probably always remain, a doll on a piece of paper because mummy can't justify spending $30 on a doll that is just that - a doll.

Today was the birthday party where it was optional to dress up as Lalaloopsie. 2 year old was guaranteed to wear her tutu anyway (It's all she wears since receiving it as a gift for Christmas) so all we needed to do was add a bit of makeup (eye liner, blush and lip gloss) and pull her hair back and add a giant flower.

She loved it! She looked adorable. She didn't wipe her eyes or touch her hair for hours at fear of wrecking her look!

Will tick introduce daughter to make up off the "to-do" list!

2 kids and a life leaves very little room for blogging

When i started this blog, it was in frustration. I saw it as a way to "air" my life that seemed complicated and fast paced thanks to my 2 beautiful children.
I had fantasies about "blogging" a couple of times a week to share my new finds, my frustrations and my happy stories.

It's now been over a month since my last post.
The reality is, by the time I've done what is needed of me as a mum of 2 and wife of 1, i really don't have time to write as often as i had hoped.

So. It turns out having 2 kids and dealing with the hype of Christmas doesn't give you a lot of time to do much else.
For me, i had finished my Christmas shopping by September. I thought that getting that out of the way early would free me up for other things. Turns out those other things were catch-ups with friends (both mine, and my kids).
Just as we were crossing one event of calendar we were adding another and before you know it, your diary is full of parties, play dates, morning teas, afternoon teas, early dinners, walk and talks and coffee dates. Life as a mum is hard!

So Christmas Eve arrived. For my son, who had just turned 6 months it was any old day. For my almost 3 daughter, it meant getting a treat from the stocking marked '1' which meant that Santa would be coming that night!
The week building up to Christmas was a nightmare. Well behaved (mostly) daughter had started getting frustrated and tantrums were back on our daily 'to-do' list. After lots of pondering i realised that it all revolved around Santa. Almost 3 year old was so frustrated that the days weren't passing by quick enough that she was taking it out on anything (and anyone) that didn't do what she wanted. If i had known that come Christmas Day, the tantrums would have stopped all together, Santa would have visited this household a week early!
Christmas morning, for the second time in her almost 3 years, i had to wake sleeping beauty. Santa had been kind enough to leave a small present at her bedroom door. In a melt your heart moment, almost 3 year old steps on the present Santa left at her door (he should have left something a little bigger that she would have seen), she shrieks "Santa's been" and cuddles and kisses the small present in her hand then with the shakiest of fingers, attempts to open her first present. Bless her cotton socks, she was shaking with so much excitement that she couldn't open the wrapping paper! Once the hair accessories were open she whispers "thank you Santa" then heads for the Christmas tree to see what else he may have left.

6 month old got to open a fisher price cement truck first and wasn't really interested in whatever else followed. Possibly too young to enjoy the packaging more??? Maybe too clever?? One can only hope!

Christmas Day was over by 9pm but according to almost 3 year old, Santa would be back that night to drop off some more presents....


Life as a mum is busy. It's hard work, its tiring, it's frustrating and sometimes upsetting but when you live by the saying "Always look on the bright side of life" its exciting and rewarding and there is nothing else i would rather be doing.

Will put a reminder on my calendar to write again soon, right next to the reminder to pay the electricity bill and giving myself 5 minutes of quiet time!

Hope your Christmas was happy, healthy and memorable!