Skye’s Birth Story

This week I have had 2 of my close friends welcome their first born children into the world. It has been very exciting (and making me a little clucky) meeting these tiny little bundles. Since becoming a mummy myself I also love hearing about people’s birth stories and sharing the horrors and elation with them in a way that can only be appreciated fully when you have been there yourself. I realised that I had never actually written Skye’s birth story down so to celebrate the new babies in our group, I wanted to share it with all of you now. In case the title wasn’t clear enough, if you are squeamish (or my dad) you might not want to read this one because I assure you I will be over-sharing.

The Holiday Wrap Up–A Checklist

It’s been roughly 5 years since Luke and I had an official holiday and we have not taken a family holiday of any kind as yet. But 5 days in a holiday house on the Mid North Coast of NSW seemed to qualify and just in case there is any doubt, I have made a checklist to be sure (because I am still a nerd, even on holidays).

Signs I Have Been On Holidays:

Happiness Is…

A little girl and her daddy taking a walk on the beach.

Grateful For… Turning Off The TV

Last week I read a post over at The Mummy Autobiography that was a bit of a kick in the pants, actually it was a much needed kick in the pants. The post discussed the over exposure small children have to television and some of the negative impacts this can have on their development and behaviour. Now I am not about to ban TV in our house, we are a family of couch potatoes and that is unlikely to change, but even I was noticing how much I come to rely on the TV for background noise and Skye has developed a nasty habit of asking for it to be turned on as soon as she gets up – I knew it was time to switch off, and I am so glad I did!

Things I Know About Road Tripping With A Toddler

Yesterday’s post for R U OK? Day was, like everyone else who shared a story, a bit confronting to put into writing, but it also gave me the chance to face how it was really hurting me and so I can begin to deal with the problem in a more positive way. Part of that was to take advantage of the holiday house Luke has been living in whilst working away and have a long weekend up there. This is only the second time Skye and I have come up here since the contract began 2 months ago and I hadn’t realised how much it had been getting me down until someone asked me if I was finding it hard looking after things mostly by myself. I have been looking forward to the break all week and was so caught up in the idea of staying by the beach for a few days that I did not put a lot of thought into the almost 3 hour drive I would be making with only myself to keep Skye entertained.

I certainly know a few things today I was blissfully unaware of before making this trip.

• I must be 5 kinds of crazy for thinking I would be able to squeeze a 9:30am spin class in before we started our drive. My grand plan was to have the car largely packed the night before so I could just get myself and Skye fed, dressed and strapped in, do a quick workout while Skye burned up some energy playing with the other kids in the crèche and then jump in the car and be on our way, with Skye sleeping peacefully in the back. CRAZY!
• Toddlers instinctively know if you are on any kind of schedule and will set themselves to super slow motion in a bid to make you have a meltdown before you get into the car. I made my bed 3 times yesterday morning because as soon as I tried to sneak into my bedroom to grab something, she would dart in behind me to start jumping on the bed.
• Packing tried and true snacks to keep said toddler amused during the trip is a waste of time. Skye developed a sudden aversion to every kind of snack I had packed, all of which she happily eats on every other occasion.

• Glancing in the rear vision mirror and seeing Skye had finally fallen asleep was possibly the highlight of the drive. Being stupid enough to take a phone call while she was still sleeping signalled the lowest point.
• Planning a trip around there usual nap time is no guarantee they will fall asleep during a long journey, it is much more fun to sit in the back throwing your toys, blankies, dummies etc on the floor and expecting them to be retrieved instantly, particularly while you are doing 110km/hour along the freeway with no where to pull over.
• I have a new favourite driving song, and I don’t care how crazy I look dancing like Elaine Benice (Seinfeld) when its on.

• The 3 hours of hell journey I endured to get here was totally worth the final destination! The weather is beautiful, I can see the beach at the end of the street and I even have a kookaburra to hang out with when I have my coffee.

R U OK? Day Is For Everybody

When I was first approached regarding R U OK? Day I was unsure whether I would be able to contribute something meaningful as I have to date been fortunate enough to not have such tragedy impact my life. Once I started pondering the broader concept of mental health and a person’s general happiness I realised that almost everybody is battling their own demons. People do not need to be suicidal to deserve support, sometimes it is those who seem to have no reasons for being sad that actually need the most help coping with their own emotions, because they do not know how to acknowledge them on their own.

When The Universe Speaks–Listen!

This week I have been a little consumed with the prospect of finding a newer and bigger house for us to stretch out in. Luke and I regularly check what houses have come up for sale in our area but often the homes that appeal are way above our budget because they come with the bonus of being waterfront (ahhh, someday…). Usually the ones in a more realistic price bracket are little improvement on what we already have, or are so old they would take too much time and money to reach their potential. We live in an area that was mostly holiday homes when the suburb was first established and as such there are very few homes available that offer more than 3 bedrooms unless they are one of the mansions built along the waterfront when people were able to take advantage of cheaper land prices (bastards). While we were checking out the listings over the weekend Luke pointed out a property that seemed to tick all the boxes and then some, so I called the agent and arranged a time to view the house, and that’s when I should have started listening to the signs…

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I Am A Bad Friend

I am a bad friend, and I feel awful about it. I have no excuses other than I am slack and have the brain capacity of a goldfish so I tend to forget things as soon as I see something shiny, or you pour me a glass of wine. A couple of months ago it was birthday party central in our group and we seemed to have a gathering of some kind (sometimes more) every weekend. Here I was merrily dancing on stages and high fiving people in expensive restaurants and all the while I had forgotten about another friend who had invited me to her 30th birthday that same weekend.

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Listography–Games I Used To Play

The lovely Kate from Kate Takes 5 is encouraging us to relive our youth this week and remember some of the games we used to play. A couple of them came to mind immediately but others took a little head scratching before they surfaced. Nothing like a trip down memory lane to make you feel a bit old. I am sure once I hit publish I will think of an absolute doozy, but this is what I have put together.

Grocery Store/Video Stores
Mum has two fold out corner cupboards in her kitchen that when positioned just so could be made to look just like a little store cart. One of the cupboards served as mum’s pantry and other other held all the pots and pans. My brother and I spent hours pretending to serve customers and discussing how busy our respective businesses were that day. It saved mum and dad trying to find the money and space for some garish play kitchen and for some reason it never occurred to us to move any of the stock beyond the store front so there was little clean up. Being the eldest meant that my brother was the one that had to run the pots and pans store. 

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Murder in the Dark
Basically hide and seek in the dark. Someone would have to wait outside a room while the others hid in the dark. After counting to 20 they would enter the room and proceed to search for the people hiding.

Popstar
Please tell me someone else remembers this game??? You and your opponent would stand facing each other roughly 4-5 metres apart with a half way marker of some sort (the squares of concrete in the school walkways seemed to work best) one person would call out the name of a song and the other would have to name the artist. Once the artist was guessed correctly both would run to their opposite side, return to their original end and then back to the middle line, the first to reach the line and call out "Popstar” won and got to lead the next round. I recall spending the better part of Year 3 and 4 playing this game in my little and big lunches.

Handball
This one carried on well into High School, played in pairs, round robins or quads this pretty much signalled the death of “Popstar”. Best described as human table tennis on concrete squares for court markers.

My Lounge Room’s Got Talent
I doubt very much we called it that at the time but one of the older ladies that lived down the road had a granddaughter about my age and we would spend many weekends dressing up in the clothes that were stored in the spare room and staging performance mime to the latest Top 40 hits and being critiqued on our skills. I can distinctly remember Transvision Vamp “I Want Your Love” being a favourite, possibly because I desperately wanted pink lipstick. Even the guy second from the right is a little freaked out by Mr Far Right and his pants holding…

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