family pic

Well it's been a while since I've blogged. Scott got home from overseas and we had a very busy July. The Norwex side of life was a bit crazy in July. Has almost come to a stand still in August which is a bit frustrating. Hopefully the few demos I have booked will create some good business.

Before Scott away we got Matt to come over and take some pics.

LOVE THESE KIDS!!! The best in the world!

and he's home...

I am happy all the day. My beautiful husband is safe and home. My boys are happy, happy, happy. I am grateful, relieved and happy! That is all.

4 sleeps and 3 days to go...

Today is my 37th birthday, quite frankly, I feel a non-event, especially being that Scott's away. But my Mum and lovely sister Bec and beautiful, but sick sister-in-law, Skye, and brother Matt made it a perfectly wonderful day.

The boys and I piled into the car, and followed Bec and her boys and Mum down to Matt and Skye's farm... Finally! Micah asks every second day if we can go to Skye's farm, so it was wonderful to be able to go today. Unfortunately no photos!! But Mum had the camera out, so hopefully they will come later.

Felt bad the Skye was feeling so unwell, but still we had a wonderful visit. Exciting to see her beautiful figure blooming in pregnancy, even though I'm quite sure she wouldn't use the word "blooming". The boys laughed and played well together, all three of them with their cousin Bella. Alexander was quite demanding at times, yelling "Bella, Bella" at the top of his voice.

There was cake, a beautiful risotto prepared by Mum, and caramel slice... in fact all prepared by Mum. How is it, I'm 37 and my mother is very much still spoiling me and looking after me on my birthday... oh that's right, Scott is in Poland!!

Talked to Scott which of course was wonderful, but not the same as him being here. Count down is getting closer and closer. So relieved it's nearly done and soon he will be home, reunited with his family!!

I am altogether blessed and loved. I am today, more grateful than ever for my husband and my beautiful boys, for my mum and my sister and sister-in-law... indeed I am blessed. Thank you Father!

7 sleeps and 6 days to go...

Today was a rough day. Well truthfully the morning was ok. We had mother's group here. The boys were pretty good but not really in the "sharing" kind of mood. After their sleeps we played for a bit, and then we shopped for dinner tonight. Bec, Matt and boys came for dinner which was lovely but Micah and Toby were "difficult lemon difficult" tonight. Was glad when they went to bed... I fell asleep on their floor before they went to sleep. I miss Scott!!!!!! Tomorrow marks the half way point, so from Sunday it's all downhill. Can't wait for him to be home. Micah cried A LOT today over wanting "Daddy to come home". Can't imagine how difficult more than a couple of weeks would be.

10 sleeps and 9 days to go...

Well so far so good. We've made it through our first few days of Scott being far, far away. There's been tears, mostly from me, but a few from Micah. Toby seems a bit oblivious to it all, but Micah feels Scott's absence. Mostly when he's tired, he realises he wants to be with his Daddy. I explain again and again, 10 more sleeps Micah, just 10 more sleeps. He fell apart tonight, made me cry a little too!!

Today I worked and the boys were in daycare. Tomorrow we have options not sure what we'll do. Have a friend coming for dinner and Micah has ordered spaghetti for dinner! I think he'd eat spaghetti every night of the week given the chance!!

Night world. Will write more another night. Have I mentioned how much I love my boys, and how desperately much I love their Dad?

12 days to go...

Well here I am, a single mum for 12 nights and trying not to feel too sorry for myself. I know there are those whose husbands are in the armed forces and they spend months away. I guess I'm spoiled to have a husband who is always so constant and present, so when he's not here it really feels like my world is off kilter. He's only been gone a couple of hours but already I feel his absence keenly.

But I am so proud of him. Off he goes to interview some famous dude in Berlin for a couple of days, and then to present a paper at a prestigious conference in Krakow, Poland. I wouldn't wish him to miss it, but miss him I will. And the boys I imagine when it settles in that Daddy's not just gone to work :( Father please give me strength and grace.

cars 2

Our family is pretty excited about Cars 2. Obviously, my children have several of the cars already as their Dad SPOILS them. But they do love to play with them LOTS and lots!!

Bring on June 23!!!

superheroes

Being a mum to boys is definitely different to girls. Our house is full of superheroes, supervillains, fights over superhero t-shirts, battles and set-ups and hilarious conversations.

Just the other day, Micah is lying on the floor coughing and acting like he needed to spew. This is our conversation:

Me: Micah are you ok? Do you need to spew?
Micah: I've got green stuff stuck in my throat?
Me: [worriedly] Micah do you need to throw up?
Micah: The green stuff is making me so weak.
Me: Micah are you being superman?
Micah: Yeah, I'm so weak.

There are some days when it's all worth it. This morning they were up at 4:43am and I was wondering if it was worth it. But they are exceptional lads. We have just finished reading Flanimals...

I would say this a boys thing, but really my beautiful 10yo step-daughter finds them hilarious too. I struggle to find the attraction, but the names of the flaminals are fun to say :)

The other day we had a family day at Movieworld. What a wonderful, truly exhausting day!! I had two favourite moments.

Scott told Micah to "hold mummy's hand so she won't be worried" in the 4-D movie Journey to the Centre of the Earth. So before it began Micah takes hold of my hand and says "just so you won't be worried". A few minutes into the movie he looks up at me with a concerned face and says "mummy I'm a bit worried", a few minutes after that "mummy I'm scared" and we left. But what a sweet, sweet boy he is turning into!!

And this is my other favorite moment, have you ever seen anything this cute... In your life??

Location:my favorite batman

ahhh bliss...

This week Scott and I had our very first night away, just the two of us, since before Micah was born. Now I know some people never get away without the kids, and some do often, but for us, it was wonderful.

We were up sometime around 3:30am to get ready and catch our cab to the airport. We had a 6am flight to Sydney. We checked into our hotel, Citygate at Ultimo and then Scott had to go and do a full days work. Whereas I: slept, read, watched tv, had nearly a 3 hour lunch with long time family friends, then I slept and read and Scott returned a bit before 7pm. Now I know what you're thinking, how is this a night away with just the two of us??? Well then we went and had dinner at Scott's favourite little Thai place, it's literally just a hole in the wall with a VERY busy kitchen and a few tables and chairs. Most people get take out as there's no room to sit. Best Thai I've eaten and cheap. In the morning we had coffee and a bagel each and it cost more than dinner!! After dinner we had gelato even though we were FULL, and then watched the Swedish version of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

By the time we got back to our hotel we were exhausted. But it was wonderful spending time doing stuff for us, with each other, knowing that our beautiful boys were being taken care of by their grandma, and thankfully they were having a great time!

We had to get up at 7 which was quite frankly, painful, I could have slept the day away. But we had a cosy brekky together and then off to ABC studios. Here I met some of Scott's colleagues and watched one of the Compass episodes due to air in a few weeks. Chatted about future projects and then off to the airport.

It's important, I feel, if at all possible to be able to spend time with one's spouse away from the children and the house. To be able to stop, dream, sleep, relax is rejuvenating. To find each other in a peaceful place instead of chaos... ahhh bliss.

I know we're spoiled. Not everyone has a generous, kind hearted mother to take the kids for 24 hours. I'm grateful.

toby 18 months old

I am constantly amazed by Toby. He and Micah are so different. Micah was able to communicate just about everything he wanted at this age by pointing and noises. Toby thinks he can talk and is trying so hard to do so. He will try and repeat anything you say if you ask him. He sings along to "baa baa black sheep" and "twinkle twinkle little star". He can say batman!!! Micah had all his animal noises at this age, but no words. Toby has a few animal noises and quite a few words.

One of my big frustrations is his ability to open DVD cases and take out DVDs and put them back in (because of course they're getting scratched on the way back into the case!). But just before he found the "Justine" DVD he wanted to watch. He has to hold the DVD case that he's watching otherwise meltdown city!! So he's holding the DVD case waiting for me to put it on, I say: Tobes I need the DVD out of the case. He opens the case takes it out and gives it to me.

Clever little lad!! I love love watching them grow and learn.

for my happy birthday i want...

My Micah is a particular little man. Having an older brother and sister in Zac (13yo) and Shani (10yo) his love of toys is a little different to other boys his age. Micah is turning 3 in just over a week. And he's been giving us a list of all the things he wants for his "happy birthday". Most of all he wants his own Green Lantern and Flash - that "stand up, just like this" and he stands with his feet together and his legs straight.

Hilarious. Zac has very sweetly bequeathed some of his superheroes to Micah, but Mikey gets frustrated if they don't stand up just right.  I know it's part of his "first born" personality, but my goodness, it concerns me about what a particular child he might become. He certainly has to have his socks on just right, and his pants... "mummy, they're a bit weird, can you please fix it?" a refrain I hear quite often in any given week. we mostly go bare foot at the moment, takes away form the sock issue, and being summer he's in shorts during the day, and the long pants thing is more a night issue!

Sweet, sweet particular boy.

my bottom is not food

The other day Micah was being funny and went overboard to being naughty, trying to get him to behave I asked him to stop jumping off the couch very sweetly, he was about to ignore me, so I told him I would bite him on the bottom if he disobeyed, he stopped and looked at me and said, "no mummy, my bottom is not food"... and said oh so seriously!! I love that boy.

my favourite micah quote to date

Micah was ignoring me the other day, as children often do. I was very calm but eventually started raising my voice until Micah says: mummy don't be angry with me, be sweet to me.

Not even 3 yet, he speaks so well. Cheeky, intelligent, funny, affectionate... We are blessed indeed.


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i love daddy first

When Micah is a bit of a mood, when I say: I love you Mikey  He grouches at me and says: I love Daddy first. Shani asked me if that made me sad, but it really doesn't. I understand loving Daddy first, he's way more fun than me, and quite frankly, I love him first too.

This week Scott had to go back to work after having over 2 weeks at home with us and the big kids. It was heavenly. On his first day back Micah and I had this conversation:

M: I miss my daddy so much
Me: I know Mikey, I miss him too
M: I love my daddy so much
Me: Me too Micah
M: I want my daddy to come back alive (???? what the?)
Me: Micah your daddy is very much alive, and will be home tonight in time for your dinner and bedtime
M: I want daddy to come to my house
Me: He will, just later
M: I'm going to give him lots of cuddles

Such a lovely, lovely boy (most of the time!!). He just adores Scott. The very cute thing though, when Scott actually got home, Micah was a bit distracted playing, but when Toby saw Scott he just ran, pushed past the chair, past Micah, the whole time saying, dad dad dad dad dad... Unbelievably precious. When Scott picked him and literally wrapped his chubby little arms around Scott's wrists and wouldn't let go. I love being mummy to these wee boys!!

christmas 2010

Normally a busy time of the year, this Christmas was busier as we camped for nearly a week, and then we moved house two days later, and then two days after that it was Christmas. Thankfully all the shopping was done early.

Christmas Eve we all piled into the car, loaded down with presents and the like and headed to "the farm". Matt and Skye have bought a beautiful property in Tyalgum, in norther NSW. It takes nearly two hours to get there, but what a gorgeous place.

My beautiful sister-in-law had the house looking very Christmassy which was wonderful as we had not one decoration up at our house! My poor deprived children. Thankfully Shani and Zac are old enough to understand and I think Micah and Toby young enough to mostly care about the presents rather than the mood set by lights and a Christmas tree.

We arrived around 3pm, Scott then had to do his fourth radio interview in 3 days, so he sat in the car while we invaded the Walcott house. The children played together AMAZINGLY. The big kids went off adventuring at the water holes on the property (despite the pouring rain, which did not let up the entire time, we were blessed not to get flooded in), visiting the horse, the cows, the chicken which thankfully was locked away as normally she thinks she's one of the dogs and you spend a large amount of time keeping her out of the house! Us grown ups drank tea, ate Christmas treats and watched after the wee boys who were full of energy and delight.

Micah, 2 days before Christmas saw one of his presents and couldn't stop himself for asking for it... again and again and again: I want my batman speedy car. Amazing, as soon as he saw it, it was HIS batman speedy car, what if we had bought it for Toby!! Anyway, Christmas Eve, they opened one present and Micah was delighted with his first present. Pictures to come. I forgot my camera so all the photos are on other people's cameras.

Christmas breakfast was Christmas muffins, coffee, croissants and family...

More photos and comment later. Thank you Skye for the pics!!