They will be in school together one day. Until then…
Category: 250 in 2017
I am committing to writing 250 posts in 2017. It was going to be 365 but I think that’s a little ambitious…
My Darby
Darby opens the freezer door
Me: “Darby get out of there please”
Darby: “I not in there!”
Darby: (referring to his battery-powered toy) “it’s not worrrrrrkiiiiiing”
Me: “give it a little jiggle”
Darby: wiggles his bum
Me: “Darby!!”
Darby: freezes and looks at me
Me: “Stop doing that.”
Darby: “I have!” Fair point.
It’s funny that when we were discussing having a 4th baby one of the things I was worried about was that Darby would get a bit “lost” in the mix. There is no possible way that is going to happen ☺
Little snores
Is there anything sweeter than hearing your baby sleeping in his bassinet beside you, snoring softly? Julius is making the loveliest content sleeping sounds I think I’ve ever heard.
Hubs is on my other side, finally asleep and breathing softly. He has the flu and has been pretty miserable today. He hardly ever gets sick but this has not been a great year for him – I think this is about his 4th sick day this year! And considering that I think he had only taken a grand total of 10 (5 in a row because of shingles) since starting with Qld Health in 2013, it’s a lot for him. Get better soon honey.
And it’s official – we are heading to Toowoomba in 2018. I’m very excited about it but also sad to be leaving and stressed about getting all the house stuff finished before we leave! Eep!
Signing off for the night, listening to sweet sleepy sounds xx
10 Things on the 10th
10 things I am currently grateful for:
1. This face. 12 weeks today!
2. Sleep
Jules is giving me so much sleep for a 12 week old! And even though Darby is waking me up a fair bit at the moment (damn excema flare up!!) he’s pretty easy to settle once he’s in our bed. It’s amazing how much easier parenting is when you have a 5-6 hour stretch of sleep under your belt!
3. My boobs
Stay with me here – just the fact that I have been able to breastfeed all of my babies with only a few dramas along the way. I am so grateful for this.
4. Our king size bed
Because sometimes by 6am there are five of us in there…
5. The weather
Aaaaah winter in Queensland. Is there any better time of the year? Cool nights and warm days. Just bliss.
6. A developing plan for next year
I still can’t share the destination as it’s not 100% locked in but things are starting to come together for 2018. More details to come very soon!
7. Neighbours bringing dinner over
Is there any meal better than one that you don’t have to cook yourself? I think not.
8. Hubs
This man just keeps on keeping on. We are in such a lovely place right now and have been savouring coffees together on our deck, knowing our weeks here in our Rocky house are numbered.
9. School pick up
We have friends with a teenage son, and he has been walking Chance home from school the last four or so months. He is unable to do it this week so I’ve been doing it and I must say that I can’t wait for him to be available again next week! Getting three kids there and back to pick up a fourth is not a lot of fun. Especially when I make the silly decision to do it on foot! Won’t be trying that again anytime soon…
10. Fit Mums
Yes yes I know I bang on about this all the time but I just can’t help it!! I love my three morning sessions a week, and I’ve also started trying to go to the high intensity interval training sessions the other two evenings, but it all depends on Hubs getting home on time. One of the biggest things I will miss when we leave at the end of the year.
Parenting 2-year-olds is not my forte
Oh man today feels like it’s NEVER going to end. And it’s only 1:30pm. I feel like the afternoon is going to stretch out forever. It’s mostly my own fault – I didn’t plan an activity for the morning, so we just hung out at home after getting back from the gym. By 10am the kids were bored and even though I was trying to do puzzles with them and read them stories, they were underwhelmed and looking for something “fun” to do. I just didn’t have the energy for a playground outing, and the weather was rubbish so outside play wasn’t an option.
Parenting a 2-year-old is just an exercise in diversion tactics and redirection; constantly steering them away from breakable things, and finding out how durable (or not) other things are. And even though my darling Jules is letting me sleep through the night, I’m still being woken up by my darling 2-year-old at least once, mostly twice a night for various things so the exhaustion is still there.
Darby really is such a delight, and I have to remind myself that he won’t be like this forever. Chance was the same at his age, and look at him now! So big! They say the days are long, and this one so far has been going on for a week. Thankfully it’s playgroup tomorrow morning which the kids love, and it helps tire them out! I really need to look into a regular Monday morning activity! Any suggestions!?
11 weeks
I’m not going to lie; I lost count after 8 weeks. I had to look at a calendar just now to double check his age. But here he is. 11 weeks old.
Family life is extra sweet with him around. He smiles for his siblings and Mama and Dadda and is still sleeping like a champion. The kids adore him!
There is so much going on right now and things are up in the air for our plans next year which stresses me out, so I’m really just trying to focus on the wonderful day to day stuff with the kids. We should know more in the next week about what 2018 has in store for us. Until then, I’ll be enjoying this little face…
Wouldn’t you?
I swear they’re in it together
Why is it that when one of my kids is being an absolute angel, the other is being a complete pain in the neck? I’m referring to my two older kids here, and it’s like they decide between them who is going to play nice and who is going to try and push me off the edge.
This morning, Chance was the one who was driving me absolutely bananas and Quinn was being a perfect child; she was helping me tidy up for the cleaner and she pretty much did everything on her own. Chance, it seems, had decided that being six is boring, so it was like I had two two-year-olds on my hands, with him and Darby doing their best to be as silly as possible.
I’ve really be trying to let the kids be silly without me getting cranky at them; to just let them be kids. But being a boring old grown-up really gets in the way of this! I let the boys do their thing for as long as I could handle it, and then the nagging to get ready for school kicked up a notch.
My Mum tells me that when my brother and I were young, it seemed the only time we got along was when we were ganging up on her. Sorry about that Mum. I’m getting my own back now though!
Lego cake
Just wanted to share this Lego cake I made for our neighbour’s 4th birthday party last weekend. Delicious and cute!
What a great night!
So as I mentioned, the main reason Mum was up this week was so that Hubs and I could go to our neighbour’s 30th party in town on Saturday night. It was fun getting all dressed up, but very weird leaving the house without Jules. I decided not to feel guilty though, as he was being well looked after by mum, and if I needed to, I could always pop home to give him a feed.
Oh my goodness we had the BEST NIGHT! Jules settled okay for Mum (it took a bit of rocking and cuddling but he didn’t want the expressed milk) and we stayed out dancing until the last song at 1:30am!
So much dancing to cheesy music with Hubs and these gorgeous girls!
The thing about a big night out is the morning after/next day. But Mum had that covered as well. It was time for their visit to Mount Morgan! So off they trotted around 9am and they didn’t get home until after 2pm. We had some recovery coffee and Hungry Jacks with the birthday boy, and after that we decided to take full advantage of child-free time and watched a movie during the day! Wild, I know. It was such a nice recovery from a fun night out. Thanks Mum!!!! And happy birthday Hobbsy!
Mount Morgan
I’m not sure when it started, but every time Mum comes to visit, she takes the kids up to Mount Morgan. Over the school holidays, the kids were keen to go up again. so I took them up for my first solo adventure with four kids. They have their little routine they do when they are up there. First stop, the railway museum. They watch a 10 minute film about how the railway was built to cart gold from the mines down the mountain.
Then they hop on the old trains for a bit of a play.
Then I was directed to the Mount Morgan bakery to grab pies to take out to the playground at the dam.
Quinn showed off her mad pie-eating skills. She eats the top off then proceeds to eat the rest. It’s a sight to behold!
I was a little nervous about the solo-parenting, but it went well. Apart from Darby running away from me from the toilet block, with no pants on, back to the playground, past a couple of dozen people. Yeah, that was fun.
We then headed back to the Railway Museum for an ice cream before heading home. And when Mum was here this past week, they did it all again. They must have been up there 6 times in the last year and it never gets old!