Things That Go Roll In The Night

3am. A time that was once reserved for eating greasy pluto pups and staggering not-so-gracefully home from the pub. These days, there is still bleary-eyed staggering, but it is limited to the confines of my house, and there is a significant lack of pluto pups. Or booze.

The reason for my staggering lately is this:

Rolling Ninja

And his new game I like to call "I've rolled over and I need you to fix it".

The boy is super quick on the escape roll when I need to get him dressed, or change his nappy, but he has yet to work out how to roll back. 

Which is where I come in.

Were he to play the game once a night I could probably just get up, flip him back over and go back to bed. But Hayden really likes his new game, that or he is a slow learner, because the moment I get back into bed he is back on his stomach and squealing to be rescued. His current record is 5 times in half an hour.

Frankly, it's driving me bonkers.

He isn't hungry, he isn't wet, he isn't too hot or too cold. His teething seems to be inconsequential. He just likes to roll over and then complain about it. Short of stapling his sleeping bag to the mattress I am running out of ideas.

On the upside I am struggling far less with the idea of not having any more babies!

Joining in with Essentially Jess for iBOT. Pop over and check out who else has linked up.

Seriously, Who Let That In The House?

It has been a journey of discovery packing up this house. The things you uncover from the depths of cupboards, things you don't recall ever acquiring and you sure as hell don't ever use. Worst of all, despite your total lack of interest or purpose for these items you are compelled to keep them on the off chance that someone will remember they gifted it to you all those years ago and be deeply offended that they found their way to the donation box, or better yet, the garbage truck. 

So instead I am going to out them on my blog and hope to hell they don't get the email update for today.

I have talked before about my issue with acquiring ugly things before, sadly that dinner set is still with us, waiting patiently in a storage container for the time when it can taunt me with it's useless obligation once again. Since then however, I have discovered even uglier and even less useful items skulking around in my cupboards.

Now I know the question on everyone's lips since I posted it on Instagram before the  move is "What the hell is that wooden phallus on a plaque about?!?!" In case you missed it, I would be referring to this...

Do you really want me to caption this?

Goodbye Little Home

I've made my fair share of complaints about our home since starting this blog. The lack of space, the too close for comfort neighbours, and of course, my total disdain for my kitchen. But now that it is time for us to move on to bigger and better things I can't help but feel a little sentimental. There are a lot of wonderful memories in this home. 

Our first home. 

Before

After

We're Gonna Need A Bigger Bed

I have known this day would come but I was doing my best to ignore it while we were living in Limbo Land not knowing exactly where we might be living when Baby Bond arrived, well that has been my excuse anyway.

But the time has come, I can't avoid it any longer. 

Skye is going to need a Big Girl Bed.

Yes, at almost 3 years old, Skye is still sleeping in her cot. I never meant for her to stay there that long, but through a combination of lack of space, a desire to avoid too many changes too quickly and lets face it, laziness on my part because the cot keeps her trapped until I say she can get out, she is still in there.

Now that we have sold the house and will be moving into a rental property in a matter of weeks, I feel that now is as good a time as any for her to make the transition. That and the fact that there is another little person due to arrive in less than 2 months who is going to need somewhere to sleep! 

Why Is It So Depressing To Be A Mother?

It's pretty common in the blogosphere that a theme or trend on posts will emerge, sometimes the influences are seasonal like gift ideas before Christmas or Summer weight loss journey's. Sometimes it is due to a current event or major news story. Other times it relates to underlying issues within society, an indication that something is wrong.

Image Credit

Lately I have seen a great many posts relating to Depression. Stories of women struggling, feeling lost and overwhelmed by the task of motherhood. Everyday I see another post about a mother beginning a course of anti-depressants or seeking counselling to help them overcome these issues. Thank God we have these options available to us to allow these mothers the opportunity to enjoy their children without being clouded by these feelings. A right we all have as parents. 

But it does concern me. 

It concerns me that the need for these tools seems to be increasing. What is causing mothers to be so depressed? Has it always been this way and we are just a generation more comfortable with acknowledging things are not perfect, or is it simply harder to be a Stay At Home Parent now? From my perspective, I believe that part of the issue lies in the archaic attitude that being a Stay At Home Parent does not constitute work.

What's REALLY Kept Me From Blogging

I hope you can forgive my absence...

YES! There is a Baby Bond on the way!!! 


Due 17th December 2012.


Now that I am over the morning (24 hour) sickness and we have told all the appropriate IRL people, prepare to be bombarded with all manner of pregnancy and baby talk.


Cause, you know, I'm the only person to ever experience pregnancy and it's therefore my duty to bore you to tears with every detail impart my wisdom on you ;)


Making my grand return just in time to link up with Jess at Diary of a SAHM for #iBOT. 

To Market To Market To Sell A Cake Pop

Last week I got to play Baker's Assistant to Clever Baker Friend as she prepped for a local Market Night. She had about 4 billion Cake Pops to make and not quite enough time (or hands) to do the job solo, so I stepped in as Sous Chef. I also got to help out on the night selling the pops which meant that I got to see roughly 500 kids (and some overly excited adults) practically wet themselves at the site of all the brightly coloured treats we were offering.


It was the first time in a very long time Clever Baker Friend and I got to spend a bit of girl time together without the kids (thanks Mr Bond and Running Man!) and even though we had a lot to get through, it was still a pretty fun way to spend the week, I mean, who doesn't love being surrounded by chocolate and sprinkles?!?

All My Friends Are Going To DPCON12

If you're not a blogger, you probably aren't aware that the Digital Parents Conference 2012 (DPCON12) is on this Friday, and it's a really big deal! All my blogging besties are going and I am totally bummed that I can't be a little spoon to one of them and help shield Jess from Diary of a SAHM from all the unwelcome hugs that will be thrust upon her. Not to mention how awesome it would be to have a weekend in Melbourne and do all fun grown up things like shopping and cool restaurants and cocktail parties. 


Oh, and I'm sure the actual conference would be good too. Look! I could have even had one of these pretty flashy buttons on my blog!

If only Beer Wench friend had outed me a bit earlier I may have had time to convince Mr Bond that me spending a whole weekend in Melbourne hanging out with a bunch of people he has never even heard about while he stays at home with Skye is such a great idea he would insist that I book my flights ASAP. 


Or something.


But alas, it is not to be, so instead I will be stalking Twitter for updates on what everyone is learning from the seminars and waiting patiently for my promised drunken FaceTime call from Maccas - did you know their smoothies make killer cocktails when spiked with Bacardi??? Last time I snuck booze into a Macca's container it was a bit of bourbon in a large Coke. See? Just another example of all the grown up stuff I will be missing!


Maybe if I start planning now I might just be able to make it next year.


To those lucky enough to be attending, I hope you have a great time and please, please, please share some photos on Twitter so I can at least pretend I was there!!!

Failures Of An IT Graduate

Some of you may have seen on Facebook last week that I was having issues with my old laptop. Actually my 'old' laptop was only purchased in December 2010 at considerable expense, so I was not at all happy when the hard drive decided it didn't want to play anymore. Fortunately I was able to back everything up onto an external hard drive or there would have been some serious problems. It was my now fault really, I had only said the week before that I was planning on upgrading to a Mac at the end of the year but wanted to  wait until we were a bit more financially prepared, especially since we would need to change over all the accounting software etc as well as the initial purchase price. I should have known if I said it out loud I was screwed and sure enough, last Sunday morning I got the Blue Screen of Death and decisions needed to be made.

Very Tempting Image Credit

The Honeymoon Is Over–TV In The Bedroom

I have long held the belief that having a TV in the bedroom signals the end of romance in a marriage. Since we are the masters of all thing romantic in this house (ahem) I have stuck by this belief for almost 12 years. When Mr Bond and I were both working long hours the only time we really had together through the week was spent watching TV together. Sure we didn’t always want to watch the same thing, but at the time we only had free-to-air channels, so options were limited and for me it was more important to at least be able to sit in the same room together, even if there was little conversation. Fortunately, Mr Bond had never seemed overly keen about the idea of a TV in the bedroom either.

I could probably put up with it if it looked like this Image Credit

 

Is There Ever Any Satisfaction With Now?

In my short time being a mum I have found that no matter what age your child is, people are always commenting on what lay ahead. Any remark you may make regarding your child’s behaviour or developmental milestone’s is met with some variation of “that’s nothing, wait until they are xxx, then you will be in trouble”. I find it frustrating that they seem unable to simply celebrate or in some cases sympathise with the situation we are living right at that moment. When I was enjoying the thrill of seeing Skye crawling for the first time, I didn’t want to be deflated by someone saying “it won’t be long now and she will be running around” as if the crawling itself was not enough. When I was up through the night with Skye cutting her first teeth, the last thing I wanted to hear was how horrific the molars will be. It wasn’t that I was in denial of the future, but the stages come so quickly already, the thought of what would be happening 6 – 12 months from now was more than I could cope with. Having said that, I am guilty of it too, but I still don’t understand why we do it. Is it because people want to shift the focus onto themselves and their own expert opinions? Is it just human nature to drive a child’s development? Or is it a reflection of the instant gratification culture we now live in? No matter what the case may be, it seems that right now is never good enough.

Choosing A School–Public vs Private

With all the talk this week of QLD students starting or returning to School and NSW only a week away my thoughts have been on the choices available to us for Skye’s education. Because of where we live, there is really only one Infants/Primary School in our immediate area with a bigger range of options including Private Schools within 15 minutes drive. It would seem a no-brainer that Skye be sent to the local Public School where many of our friends children attend, but lately I have been starting to question whether it is our best option.

Project Life 2012–It Begins

OK so ignoring the fact that I am still yet to complete last years digital monthly Project Life (so, so slack) I am excited by the prospect of taking on the full hard copy, photo every day Project Life experience this year. I wanted to make sure I was prepared in advance this year so I decided to get the basic layout all taken care of before I began with the photo’s. I was a little overwhelmed by all the different cards and stickers when I first opened the boxes up but after spreading everything out I was able to make sense of it all. Now I have my folder all filled out ready to go, so I just need to start printing my photos and filling out my journaling cards – simple, right?

I Thought We Were Friends

Beer and I have always had a pretty good relationship, a reliable old friend that helped me relax after a long day. We have shared countless celebrations and milestones together and beer has never felt threatened when I strayed for a bottle of wine or bubbly or wanted to bring a little tequila into the mix. This arrangement has worked for us for a number of years without so much as a raised voice so to have beer turn its back on me so suddenly, and right before Christmas, has come as quite a shock.

In happier times

The Non-Party Party

Like I said earlier, we decided to not have a big birthday bash for Skye this year, we thought it would be a bit much for her (and me) to have a big production when she would be just as happy with a few family members and a mountain of presents to tear through. I figure I have a lot of birthday parties ahead of me so I better pace myself now. Since the weather was so unkind and we woke to heavy rain I was glad we hadn’t arranged for 30-40 people to sardine themselves into our lounge room, we would have had to run something of that scale in shifts. That’s not to say that I didn’t get carried away with the catering anyway…

Raiders Of The Lost Wardrobe

Last week I talked about the amount of ‘gifted’ items we have cluttering up the house and how I struggled to get rid of these items despite them taking up space and remaining completely unused. With the holidays approaching and the likelihood of extra guests coming to stay I have felt the need to do a bit of a clean out and this week I am focussing on our built-ins. After a quick assessment of my clothes I was able to throw out a whole garbage bag of ugliness I was never going wear again and there is more to come, but I couldn’t resist the chance to share some of the pieces I pulled from the depths of my wardrobe.

Bye-bye dagginess!

Confessions Of A Magazine Addict

As the title suggests I have a bit of an obsession with glossy lifestyle magazines. I can keep my habit under control for most of the year but come Christmas time I simply cannot say no. The colourful front covers draw me in with promises of bumper gift guides, cheap and chic gifts to make and bake, festive flair tips and how I can decorate like the experts. I want to dive into the pages of these publications and immerse myself in all the shiny freshly painted fabulousness. As I pour over the stockists lists and curse why so many of the stores are rather inconveniently located in Melbourne, I store the images in the ‘one day’ file in my head.

I bought these in the space of 2 days.

Having A Baby Helped Me Heart My Body

I hoped for a lot of things when I first started this blog, but I never imagined that six months in I would be posting photos of myself in my underwear and being happy about it. Last weekend I discovered an amazing site called We Heart Life. I came across this site after seeing posts connected to their I Heart My Body Day 2011. Amazing bloggers such as Edenland, Wheres My Glow, My Mummy Daze and Veggie Mama amongst others have all bared all(ish) and shared what it is they love about their bodies. As I read these posts I was struck by their beauty, these bodies had achieved wonderful things and deserved to be celebrated. I considered all that my own body had achieved and felt it deserved a little celebration too.

Girls Night In + Boys = A Whole Lotta Fundraising!

Last Saturday I went to a BBQ, drank too much pink bubbly, ate my own body weight in dessert and spent more money than I had planned. Pretty average weekend fare in the land of Eat Play Bond, except this weekend I was doing it for a worthy cause – raising money for women’s cancer research at a Girls Night In event hosted by my Mother-in-Law. As I said here last week, she hosts one every year and despite having a smaller group this time around, we still managed to raise over $1000 in cold hard cash donations on the night! The biggest donation generator was the auctions held towards the end of the night (timing is crucial as people with a bottle of wine of more under their belt are more likely to pay $20 for a couple of balls of twine, as I did).

Cat Shit Coffee Was The Highlight of My Weekend

Actually our weekend was great, my mum and dad came over and finished installing the lighting in the garage and carport, we caught up with many of our friends and Sunday afternoon eased into a relaxing session of hot chips and beers, but the best part for me was the chance to sample some of the exclusive Kopi Luwack (or cat poo coffee) at a friends house. Baby Crisis friend’s husband recently had a surfing holiday in Sumatra where the beans are produced which meant that the asking price was far cheaper than the $1400 per kilo tag it usually has here. Mr Bond wanted nothing to do with it, the whole concept totally grossed him out but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and I have to admit I was a bit taken in by the wanker factor too!

Kopi Luwack Coffee Image Credit