That bl**dy CHICKEN!!!

Peanut received a gift from a favourite uncle. She LOVES presents (as most toddlers do) and is capable of playing with a new toy for hours and hours and hours and hours and well, you get the picture. And here's a picture to help you get the picture more clearly:

Yes. It's Elmo. In a chicken suit. And he dances. And he sings, loudly. There is nothing subtle about our friend Elmo. I cannot WAIT until the batteries run out.

Once dear Uncle Dave has his own progeny, I'll be sure to give them an airhorn and a drum kit as soon as they are born. Just you wait, Dave!

Welcome Bug!

Dear Baby,

our family was pretty full. We had the basics, a husband and wife...

We added a few dogs...

And then a baby...

But we weren't quite done.

And then almost two months ago, in the late evening, we added another baby, you. Our last one, a beautiful little girl. And now our family is complete!

Welcome Bug!

There is no doubt that you and Peanut are sisters.

Peanut left, Bug right

You are adored by her, given hundreds of 'tuddles' a day, and smothered in love. She wipes your face, kisses your hands and gives you her toys. You are a fabulous sleeper, stirring only one a night for a quick feed (we won't count that night after injections, that wasn't your fault little one!)

You took to feeding quickly and painlessly. In fact, other than the copious vomiting at every opportunity, you are pretty much the ideal baby. Thanks Bug, I sincerely appreciate your cooperation.

I think you may stay.

Much love, Mummy.

The New House

Here's a small preview of the new house.

This is our future street. It's a 40km/h zone, 100m to the park, 200m to the public pool, and 100m to the playgroup hut.

 

This is the bathroom where I will splash and scrub the kidlets.

 This is the backyard where they will play while I hang laundry (and there will be alot!)

 This is the fully fenced courtyard where they can ride bikes, paint and play with sand in full view of the kitchen.

I am so excited! Three weeks until moving day...

When Mr Awesome came home from his long overseas jaunt, we decided that our daughter was so exceptionally wonderful that we should probably try to replicate our achievement as soon as possible. (We are a little biased!) Mr A and I ended up being remarkably successful in our attempt, and two weeks later a second little Miss Accident was growing away happily.

We are expecting her to arrive in about two months, I am so excited! Since Mr A and I are planning to stop at two kids, that means this Christmas will not only be the first Mr A spends with any of his children, but the first he spends with ALL of his children. Hooray!

But before Christmas, we have a fair few things to do... I have to wrap up work, and we have to pack up the house and move all our belongings to a different city. I have to spend three weeks alone looking after our toddler while Mr Awesome finishes up at his work. I have to unpack a house and settle in enough to make a toddler comfortable, until Mr A can come down and help me finish it off. And I have to cross my legs and wait, keeping the next little Miss safe until our family is together again. So gosh, if I'm not up at 2am dealing with my tiny pregnant bladder, I'm up thinking about this stuff. Pointless? Totally. Roll on Christmas!

A quick catch up...

I've finally come to the conclusion that mothering, full time work, and blogging can't coexist in my universe. Until I am in a position to blog more regularly (and I want to be!) I will just have to be satisfied with a monthly update. So, since it is now May, here is one for March....

In March, Daddy had been home for about two weeks. We were starting to settle in as a family again, and Baby and Daddy had re-bonded and were ecstatic in each other's company.

We spent most weekends doing family things: a trip to the wildlife park:

We walked up my favourite hill:

We went to a very dear friend's wedding and had another very dear friend take a family portrait:

And we had a slightly-belated-but-no-less-important first birthday party:

A girlfriend had my camera for the day and, despite assuring me that it was completely unintentional, the majority of the birthday shots feature either my rear end or a good look down my dress - Mr Awesome thinks the photos are great! This is one of the better ones.

And finally, I couldn't leave without the addition of a gratuitous Archie photo:

Happy March!

The Childcare Debate

The biggest hurdle for me returning to work was finding a decent childcare spot for baby. Someplace that will love and cherish her almost as much as I do. I thought this was a total pipedream.

Part time work was not an option for me - there has to be someone in the role full time, and there is no one in a similar situation with whom I can job share. This means baby is in care for a minimum of nine hours a day, longer if I get caught up with something urgent and can't get away. That's a minimum total of 45 hours a week, or 52% of her normal waking hours.

It kills me that she will be brought up during her most formative years by someone who isn't her Mummy. What if she isn't loved enough? What if she doesn't receive enough affection? What if there isn't enough guidance and discipline, or even worse, too much? What if she thinks I have deserted her entirely?  How do I tell if she likes the food I send? How do I know she is eating enough? What if the carer is the panicking type, and can't manage an emergency? What if a tropical cyclone comes in while I'm at work and sweeps my baby off to Oz? I have lain awake for many nights rolling these questions over like heavy mind stones.

Rack off, lady!

I don't think anyone should pass judgement on how long mothers choose to breastfeed. It's just one of those personal decisions that is soley between you and your baby.

So I was pretty ticked off when I had a discussion with a woman from work and she chose to adopt an attitude of disbelief that I was still breastfeeding baby when she was a whole eleven months old. I also had the audacity to admit that I would probably still be feeding her in three months. Oh the shame!

I am very comfortable in my decision to keep feeding baby as long as she wants it, as long as it doesn't become wierd. If she is still feeding when she is thinking about going off to uni, I may have let it go on a little too long. But if your baby is still young enough to have her age measured in months and not have it sound silly, she is definitely still young enough to breastfeed!

The woman was tasked with finding people to send away for a kind of jury duty. People were randomly selected and then she had a very specific list of questions to determine our suitability for the role. One of these questions was "Will any member of your family suffer hardship if you are required to be away for the duration of the trial?" When I explained the breastfeeding, she then asked me a whole bunch of really personal, aggressive questions about timings of feeds, and how I manage it with work. She acted like she was trying to catch me out. Seriously, who would lie about something like that on the spur of the moment? It would take me hours to think up an excuse that good! The worst thing was, she has a grown son of her own.

She still has the power to send me away if she chooses to, but I doubt she has factored in my determined streak.

Nine years ago I made the decision to sign my life over to work - they control where I live, who I live with, the type of house I live in, and what state and town I work in, and then they pull me away from these living arrangements for long, relatively unannounced periods. But I never signed over Baby's life. My work was not her decision, and I have a duty to do the best I can to protect her from the upheaval that comes with the job. And I will be damned if I let one judgemental person decide when I stop breastfeeding my child!

So rack off lady, these breasts are not heading west.