Dear Liam

Dear Liam

I just wanted to let you know I love you so much.  It is such a joy being your mumma.  In the last month or so I've felt a shift.  I can't quite explain it or even put my finger on it, but I am just having so much fun with you.  I love our relationship and how close we are.  Your dad thinks you are a mummy's boy and I would have to agree. 

I love that you are my son.  Growing up with three brothers I really wanted a sister but now I see my brothers taught me about boys and I'm putting it all into practice now.

You and me have competitions on who can be the loudest.  And you win all the time.  We chat and talk and when you hold my hand, I feel so proud of you.  You really are becoming my big boy and I love teaching you about life. 

Even though I work full time and life is ridiculously busy, I think of you every minute of the day and I work so hard because I want to give you the best of everything.  You love your house and I am so happy we have that garden for you to play in and a special room for all your toys.  Your dad and I I really wanted that for you and when I feel like I am going to collapse with tiredness after a big week I only have to see you zooming around in your toy car to know that moving to Perth and buying this house was the right thing for our family.

Today we went swimming at the local leisure centre and I really enjoyed that time together, just you and me.  You even told me you wanted a baby brother when you spotted all the other kids with their siblings.  I must admit that since you turned two, I have been thinking about it more and more.  I think you would be an amazing brother and your dad and me are in discussions.  I'll let you know :).

Liam, every day you fill our hearts with joy.  We are so lucky to have you in our lives and I can't wait for the future to unfold with you in it.

We love you.

Your mummy xxx

Love notes

Nothing can quite prepare you for when you go from twosome to threesome.

I remember lounging around in bed until 11am, lunch at 1pm, lazy afternoons in the pub reading the paper and talking to the early hours with my husband.  We could do whatever we wanted when we wanted.

All that changes when you have a child.  We don't mind that now of course, but in the beginning it really did take some adjusting.  Our marriage went through a period of adjustment.  Suddenly its not all about you, or him, and there is this little person to consider.

Fast forward to the toddler years.  I know its only February, but how did our lives get somuch busier this year?  Once that alarm goes off each morning at 5.45am, the race is on.  Attempts at a conversation with my husband are interuptted within about 2 seconds.

Mummy...
Mum.
Mummy...
Mum...
MUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too bad if we were talking about something important.  Liam needs to be acknowledged and NOW.

Kisses and hugs with my husband are grabbed when there is a spare moment. 

Imagine my pure delight when I opened up my lunch bag to find a beautiful handwritten note from my husband to let me know he loves me.  My heart just sang.  This was something we did for each other before parenthood.

How beautiful of my husband to remember those days.



Gratitude



It is so easy to become complacent and take for granted for what we have in this life.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I can wake up in the morning and my mind is racing.

It never slows down.  At night I get into bed and it seems I will spend a good half an hour doing my worrying for the day before I drift off into the land of slumber.  Did Liam eat enough dinner tonight?  Did I return that phone call I was supposed to make?  Did I spend enough time with my husband when Liam went to bed?  Why haven't I called that friend I should have called two weeks ago?

There comes a time when I have to stop.  And breath.  And look around at what I have.

I have an amazing life compared to most people in the world.  I have enough food in my fridge, a home, clothing and my family has access to leading edge medical treatment.  I am earning an income to provide for my family and those I love.

Each morning at work I receive an email from a website for working mothers.  This is something I look forward to every morning.  Today's email was quite inspirational.  This is what I am going to be grateful for and give thanks for every day:

Give thanks for the love in my life – for my family and for being able to have a child and look after my son – many people can’t.

Give thanks for my career and employer for the opportunity to earn income and support my family and my aspirations in life.

Give thanks for the food in front of me – the roof over my head – the clothes on my body – the health I enjoy – for this glorious, abundant, safe country that I live in.

Give thanks for ALL I have in my life – however small or insignificant I think it is. Many people in the world would LOVE to have what I have.

And then focus on what else I would LOVE in my life – what would I really LOVE? And then believing it will come to me….

I hope you are able to dream about what you want.  And what you deserve.

I love the feeling of gratitude.  Sometimes it only takes a moment to appreciate what we have.

5 things I'm excited about right now

1) Next month I am really excited about meeting with the CEO of the Spiers Centre in my neighbourhood.  After many walks past the centre with Liam and reading about all the work they do in our community paper, I sent an email asking if I could volunteer.  Spiers helps mothers, children and parents.  We'll be in this neighbourhood for a while now and I really want to help others in my community.

2) Taking in the new Claremont Shopping Quarter tomorrow.  I'm hoping it'll be a slice of Westfield Bondi Junction in the west, because quite frankly, I still dream about that shopping centre (mad I know).

3) Buying myself a bottle of good, quality champagne for a drink on Friday night after a long working week.  Maybe Verve?  It's my favourite.

4) Indulging Liam's love of all things Toy Story.  I think the three of us have watched the latest installment of Toy Story 8 times now.  I want to buy him a Woody and Buzz Lightyear figurine.  The smile on his face will be worth it.

5) Sleep.  Oh how I crave it.  3 weeks of putting Liam back into his own bed in the middle of the night seems to be paying off.  Unfortunately on weekends its usually a 5.15am start.  I'm looking forward to a Sunday morning sleep in.  Its my turn.  Richard gets Saturdays.

Have a great weekend everyone x

A kid friendly cafe

You know what its like.  Its a Saturday afternoon.  You need to get out of the house after all the chores are done to let the kids run wild and you fancy a nice flat white.

I suggested this cafe after reading about it in the paper and hearing great things from the girls at work.  Beautiful beach.  Gorgeous sky.  Fenced off children's playground.  All natural food and drink overlooking the Indian Ocean.  Lovely background music and good service.  This really is the life.

And they have highchairs too.

The Naked Fig in Swanbourne overlooks the nudie beach.  Not that you can see any nudies.  And if you did you wouldn't care.  Why not let it all hang out?  Life is free and easy in the west...

I suggest late Saturday or Sunday afternoon, probably around 3pm.  I have no idea what its like for breakfast but I am guessing its packed.  But such a beautiful spot.

My friend Trevor (Bridget)...

Sometimes you meet the most special people in the most unlikely of places.  It was 2002 and I knew it was time for me to leave Perth and explore a bit more of the world.  So one day, I woke up and decided to move to London. 

I googled and found that a lot other twenty somethings where doing the same thing too.  Call it a rite of passage, but there are some of us in this world who need to go find ourselves and travelling is a pretty good way to do it.

I came across a website about moving to London and got chatting to a girl called Bridget.  She lived in Brisbane and was moving over the same time as me.  We exchanged emails and talked on the phone a lot.  When we got to London, we met up and had dinner and we just hit it off.  We've been best mates ever since.

We've been through a lot my friend Trevor and I.  I don't know why I started calling her Trevor and I don't know why she calls me Trevor.  There have been late night phone calls, holidays together, drunken escapades, dancing till the wee hours of the morning, witnessing each other getting married, celebrating our sons coming into the world...the list goes on and I am sure there will be many more things we experience together.

Despite living on opposite sides of Australia, we keep in touch.  It may not be as often, but whenever we talk its like time hasn't passed.

Bridget and Hamish are coming over to Perth at the end of this month and I can't wait.  Our boys will play together on the beach and we can catch up on everything and anything.  I want Bridget to have a beautiful, relaxing holiday because she deserves it. 

She is a wonderful friend and has always been there for me.  I'm so lucky to have a gorgeous friend like Trevor :)

Dinner at mine?

We are currently painting our dining room and had to make a quick decision on colours in Bunnings on Saturday morning while Liam was dismantling the colour charts.  We've decided on a bright green feature wall and soft creams to make the heart of our home a welcoming place to eat and gather. 

It felt so good to paint our own walls finally!  How we longed for that moment.  We are loving greens and creams right now and I am searching the internet to find those finishing touches that will giving our dining room that extra feeling of love.  Next will be new flooring, windows and shutters in the dining room and kitchen.  We want our home to have a fresh, modern feel and plan to stay around for quite some time.  I love this house and I still pinch myself when I drive home each day.

I'm inspired by these rooms and beautiful wall decals from Etsy:

Toddlerhood

Right now, I am at the mercy of a two year old.  Whatever Liam is doing I am doing.

'Mummy do it'.
'Mummy get out of bed now'.
'Mummy hold it'.
'Mummy, drive down the freeway'.
'Mummy, it doesn't work'.
'Mummy, Mummy, Mummy, Mummy'.

It seems Liam is not interested too much in his dad.  Of course he will still want to know where he is, but Liam has decided he is my shadow now and that is all there is to it.

I think I find Liam's toddler stage more challenging that when he was a newborn.  However, it is also a wonderful age when they are talking and expressing a lot more and the difficulty of trying to work out what they want isn't as bad as say when he had just turned one.  His language skills are really coming on and I've noticed he's stringing longer sentences together.

Yesterday I managed to get a few hours on my own while he was having his afternoon nap and Richard was tackling our garden.  We are starting toilet training in ernest and each day we have to convince him that the toilet will not swallow him up.  So I've bought a Thomas the Tank Engine toilet attachment, new pants and pull up nappies for night times.  Liam is more keen on doing 'bush pee's' in the garden, and I'm sure our next door neighbours think we are barking bad when they hear me say 'LOOK AT DADDY HAVING A WEE, ISN'T HE A CLEVER BOY?!  HOLD YOUR DOODLE LIKE DADDY'.

Time goes by so quick with a little one.  It only seemed like yesterday we had a newborn and now we have a little man who has an opinion on everything. 

Loving what you have...



The nice thing about being 36?  I don't give a shit what people think anymore. 

I've come to terms with the fact that I have stretchmarks on my belly.  That's what happens when you get to 42 weeks pregnant and it takes two and half days for your baby to be born.  I like to think of them as my battle scars and the journey I went through to conceive, grow and birth Liam. 

The two scars on the side of my hips, the scar between my breasts and scar under my belly button? Those scars saved my life.  My gall bladder needed to be removed and it was the most physically painful two weeks of my life.

My gappy teeth?  I don't like them and one day I will go and have them capped.  But isn't Australia's new favourite model Jess Hart the proud owner of gappy teeth?  We wouldn't love her as much without that gap.

My c-section overhang?  I'll always have a little pot belly. 

I'm trying to love myself for what I am.  I make the best of what I have.  I have delicate hands, thin ankles and an ample cleavage.  I like to make people laugh and listen if they need someone to talk to or share a problem.  I care about people and want them to be happy.  I know, with the right amount of time, a good makeup artist, hairdresser and good quality underwear, I can look like a hot mamma.

I don't think I'd swap my body or my redeeming qualities with anyone else.  I like myself.  I'm learning to love myself more.  And the best relationship you can have is with yourself.

8 things I'm loving right now...

* Boy's clothes from GAP in the US.  Funky threads for funky kids.

* This dress from Witchery.  Loving. It.

* Dream earrings from Witchery.  So cute.

* Fairy lights intertwined through your bed head.  Keep them on during the night and you feel like you are asleep under the stars.

 * This gorgeous wall decal.  I want to track it down for our bedroom.

 * Still obsessing over Witchery, but love this gorgeous necklace.

* Jan Logan stacker rings.  I just bought a pink and white one.  But not from Jan Logan as my budget doesn't stretch that far.

* West coast sunsets.  Can Perth get any prettier?