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?