Sleeping babe

Recently, #1 had a nasty fall and his chin was pretty badly hurt. We needed to put special antibiotic cream on the wound but of course, how do you do that to a 3 year old. He would not let me near it. So I put the cream on after he'd fallen asleep. It was a very sweet moment in time.

There is almost nothing I love more than watching my boys sleep. There is something so amazing about children when they are asleep. So peaceful. So innocent.

It reminds me of a time when they were just newborn babes in my arms. That feels like so long ago.

Mother love

I've had a week of uncovering some truths about mothering. I am a firm believer that the moment that you think you can start predicting what little ones are going to do - they change their mind. So never count on a two hour sleep because it won't happen ok? But one lovely thing about my experience of mothering is the unspoken connection between a mother and her children. In our ante-natal class, one of the other mothers-to-be said she was a deep sleeper and was worried that she wouldn't hear her baby cry in the middle of the night. I'll never forget what the midwife told her 'Even after the birth, there is an umbilical cord between a mother and her baby. It's just invisible.'
I think this is so true. Often I wake about a minute or two before my little baby wakes in the middle of the night. Today I was driving home from the market and halfway home I just knew that #2 was asleep (very rare - he's not a car lover). I think the atmosphere changes in some way or your instinct tells you something that your eyes will confirm at the next red light.
There have been so many times over the past 2.5 years that the invisible umbilical cord has been there. And hopefully it will keep me connected to my boys forever.

Little baby elephant

Today I took the boys to the zoo to see the baby elephant. I was thinking that it would be quiet - mid-week and all. WRONG. To quote my dad: every man and his dog was there trying to get a glimpse. We lined up for half an hour and surprisingly #1 was on his best behaviour (probably due to a full lunchbox being trust in his lap) and #2 slept (bless him).
Anyhoo, the queue moved. We made friends with the random people behind us in the queue. I trusted them to hold our spot and look after all my worldly possessions while I took #1 out of the queue for a few minutes to stem his boredom.
The baby was worth the wait. She was super playful and the big elephants (mum and, I'm guessing, one of the aunty elephants) were very active too. They kept making big noises and the baby climbed a dirt pile much to the glee of #1. She also splashed around in the water. #1 was a little disappointed that she didn't fill her trunk with water and spray us though.
Can't win 'em all huh?

To market

Depsite the hot weekend, we decided to spend Saturday morning at the farm. Boy #1 is obsessed with 'clip clops' (horses, donkeys, ponies - you get the picture) so we bundled both boys into a hot car and went in search of said clip clops.

The farmer's market was on and for those of you who haven't checked this market out - it is well worth a visit. The fresh produce is beautiful, heaps of organic stuff and lovely stall holders (who must have melted, it was so bloody hot). We bought some delicious oranges, grapefruit, peaches, nectarines, falafel, honey and icy poles.

Back to the horses: after our market sojourn, we discovered that the farmers had put the clip clops in a different location that was just too far to walk in 36 degree heat with two babes. Of course we couldn't tell that to the boy so instead I did what any good mother would do - I lied. Those clip clops had gone to the beach for a swim in the hot weather. Yes they had.

My little boy at the cricket

My boy is a genius

He didn't have any help. I swear.

Sheet cubbies

The boy is big enough to play sheet cubbies! I don't know who has more fun: him, me or his dad. One of our super duper basquillion thread count sheets ripped recently (mega peeved but all is swell b/c the company sent me a new one) so now the old one is our designated sheet cubby. You can see the rip in the pic held together nicely with pegs.

Little surprise

Today I had to work. Yuck, work on a Saturday means no playing with the little one or the Mr. I got home this arvo, put the boy to bed for his arvo sleep - then the Mr and I went straight to bed. Don't be getting the wrong idea...it was purely for sleep purposes. We are both uber tired - perhaps due to the fact that the little guy woke up for 2.5 hours the other night. I wish I could make him understand that 1.30am-4.00am is not playtime.

Anyhoo, back to the story. Both boys are sleeping (still!), after an hour of snoozing I woke up and decided to make (or actually, bake) them a surprise.
This is what is waiting for them.
Stephanie Alexander's blueberry muffins. The best.
They are super easy and don't require a mixer or a food processor:
- 220g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 125g sugar
- 3/4 cup oil (I use melted butter instead)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 200g blueberries (I use half blueberries, half dried cranberries)

Put flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. In another bowl, mix oil (or melted butter), milk and egg in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix (quickly - don't overwork the mixture), add the berries.
Put into muffin pans and bake at 200 degrees for 25 mins. Voila!
This great recipie is from Stephanie's book, the Cooks Companion. I love that book.

Kissy Saturday

Today my little one learnt how to kiss! For a while, he's opened his mouth right up and every now and again, he'll press it up against my face and give me a big wet mark. But today I made a kissy sound at him and he turned around and gave me a (wet) kiss. It was soooo cute. Then the Mr said, 'Herb, give me a kiss' and what did he do? Planted one right on his lips.
We took advantage of the 10 minutes of Melbourne sunshine today and went to the zoo. What a different experience that is with a small person. We were there for 70 minutes and we pretty much saw everything (minus the birds...shudder).
Although the zoo has animals of the exotic variety, Herb's favourite seemed to be the carp swimming around near the otters. I must say, he took it very well when the lions roared and was very gentle when the kangaroo put a paw on his leg and sniffed him.
What an adventure it was. Happy days.

Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lions_-_melbourne_zoo.jpg

I love my boy

Wow, this must be my 'I love' week. So far this week, I've declared my love for Grand Designs, Pantone, Arial (well, my hate for TNR), and SATC. But today I declare my deepest love for my little bub.

This morning he was so lovely and in this rush of emotion, I thought I should blog about it. We had a lovely breakfast of porridge with pear and blueberries. And he fed himself most of it. I love watching him do that. When he gets the spoon in his mouth, he throws his arms above his head and smiles at me while I say 'hooray!'. Then he skeeted around playing with the esky handle, the picnic basket, the washing basket and his plastic hammer - so incredibly cute. After that, I thought things would quickly slide downhill because it was time to change the nappy. Ie. time to have a tantrum, arch his back and protest. But not today! He lay down quietly with his Casper Caterpillar book and played with Casper's googly eyes while I did the nappy thing. Peek-a-boo is something he's learnt to play this week. I've been peek-a-booing for a while now but lately, he has gotten the hang of it - so we played it for a while...he shielded his face with Casper and then flung Casper down in one swift motion and giggled himself silly.

We played with some empty boxes and put some things that don't belong in boxes, into boxes. Onto Playschool. We caught the last 10 minutes of it and he sat in my lap while I cuddled him and watched peacefully. My little boy is a wriggly worm. He really only sits still when he is sick but today we had a big cuds and the best news is - he isn't sick (thank god). After a lovely breastfeed, he is tucked up in bed for his morning sleep while his happy mama blogs the hours away.

Aint life grand?

No crochet today. No craft today.

It's been a day of looking after the little one. He is sick and is needing lots of TLC. Although not 2 yet, he is well versed in how to throw a tantrum. Arch the back, bang the head on the ground, turn red in the face and give a good old scream.

Juggling act

Skipped another day in May so looks like today is a double post day.
Yesterday was my first day back at work - my maternity leave is over :-(
For all you mothers out there, how do you manage the breastfeeds, drop off's, pick up's, dinners, house work and paid work? Advice needed.