You've Come A Long Way Baby

My baby is no longer my baby. Sob...... Charlie turned 18 mths old the other day, and we celebrated by reminiscing.

I remember the early cuddles where I was paranoid he would be man-handled by his brothers...



.... to today, playing with his brothers is the highlight of his day, and brings a sigh of pure love to my lips.




I still remember the early days of short baby catnaps, barely long enough for me to lay down and close my eyes.



.... and today, well, bad example, that hasn't changed. AT ALL!
Will this kid ever sleep?


I remember those sweet early baths.....



... that were followed by the loudest of "What on earth do you think you're doing? Put me back in the water, oh put me baaacckk" screams.




To bath time today, where negotiations of an epic scale have to be undertaken to get him out of the bath.




I will always remember those feeds during the early days, both breast and bottle, where he would watch me with his big eyes. Complete love and trust that I would provide all his needs.




And then there is today. Hmmm, how to describe dinner time today?

Perhaps I'll let the following picture do the talking :




I remember all these things, and oh so many more. 18 months that have been the hardest, but the most fulfilling of my life.

To see my last baby grow and thrive, to see my older boys discover and express their gentle side, to learn to love and care for their baby brother.

To see the pride in my husbands eyes at each milestone Charlie reaches, to hear his laughter come more easily at the antics of our son.

These are the things I want to remember as we journey from babyhood through toddlerhood, and beyond.

A Woman and Her Camera

I'm in love and I think my husband suspects something.

My new love is my camera. Previously I had pretty much neglected the needs of my camera, just point and shoot, point and shoot. Not once did I consider the needs of my poor much taken for granted camera. I have recently come to realise that it needs to have it's settings lovingly tinkered with, while taking my time to slowly find the perfect lighting, focus and background.




Ensuring every picture tells a story.




And you know what? The more time I spend with the camera the more in love I become. I can see love becoming an obsession.



Now just because I'm enjoying myself with my camera, does not mean I'm any good at photography, no siree. I need to practice more, a whole lot more.

And I'm more than happy to do so.




But I have noticed a teeny tiny sliver of improvement from when I first started. And I think it's mainly that I am THINKING about taking the photo as I'm taking it, not just point and shoot.

So I have made it a focus (pardon the pun) to practice everyday. But unfortunately my models seem to be over it already.



I may have to resort to letting my husband in on my secret, in order to gain another model to practice on.

Who Would of Thought That Teenagers are Prone to Exaggeration.

The weather forecast is 42 degrees Celsius with thunderstorms.

My plan to survive tomorrow = jump in the pool early, stay in until Charlie and I are all pruny, get out long enough to eat then jump right back in.


I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. Not at all.


Although I like warm weather, this is just ridiculous. If I had wanted this kind of heat I'd live in a desert. Oh yeah, Australia is pretty much desert.

Kaiden has tried to convince me to let him have the day off school tomorrow. Unfortunately he needs to work on his skills of persuasion. His reasoning is that some of his classes are NOT air conditioned and ALL his friends are getting to spend the day at home.

Using my mum super powers to read through the teenage exaggeration, I translate that to mean that maybe just one of his class rooms isn't air conditioned, perhaps it's actually someone else's classroom that just happens to be near his, or maybe he heard an urban myth that there might be a classroom without air conditioning.

Also instead of all his friends being allowed to stay home, maybe it's just one of his friends getting the day off, or maybe one of his friends just happened to mention that they would like the day off.

Me cynical?

Today's post will be short. The awake/sleep balance is not looking good at the moment. 42 hours awake/3 hours sleep.

What's the odds Charlie will sleep through the night tonight? Pretty low. What's the odds he will sleep past 5am? Even lower.

Lucky for him he's such a gorgeous cherub. And I have lots of coffee to hand.

Jumping right into blogging my Eccentric life

Eccentricity - noun : my definition : a word to describe me, and my life.

Me, the complex human being, child of this Earth. I am woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend, business manager, keeper of the home and all round goddess. I can be such a contradiction, my views are so varied that when put together it seems I must be on my way to being eccentric. And you know what, I think it would be great to be eccentric. You are your own person and you don't care what anyone else thinks. Am I on my way? Be sure to let me know if you agree.

So let's jump straight into my life.

Charlie awoke at about 5am, as per usual these days, but what made this morning special was that as I entered his room, he was standing in his cot, arm out pointing at me, stating "Da Manny" (translation : The Mummy. I'm not just Mummy, but apparantly THE Mummy!) over and over. As I reached in to pick him up, his little finger pointed at my chest, and again he stated "Da Manny". As I cuddle and carried him out of the room, he continued to poke me and say "Da Manny" over and over. I'm not sure if he was trying to ascertain if I was real or a figment of his dreams, but of course I replied "Yes" every time.

Note to all : I am now 'The Manny'.

I had my hair cut yesterday. Not just cut, but 're-styled', and because they name it that, they can charge twice as much. My hair is now short, a la 1960's bob style, think Posh Spice type of bob cut. It's very funky and oh so much lighter for my head and neck. I was concerned though that Charlie may be traumatised by my lack of hair length given that he takes great comfort in running his fingers through it, and rubbing it gently over his face, while I nurse him. It's been one of those sweet, special Mamma and baby things we have. But luckily, he just seems more fascinated by my hair now, rather than upset. He comes to me, professing he wishes to have a cuddle, but it's just a ploy to reach around and use his little hands to feel and scrunch my short hair at the back, and he rubs his face against the slightly longer hair on the sides, just like a cat. Upon telling him he was acting like a cat, he meowed and then patted my head endearingly.

Kaiden declared that my hair "actually looks ok". High praise from a 14 year old, who apparently doubted that any hair cut would look any good. Corey, my ever dependant and sweet 12 year old, told me it looks nice and suits me. And my husband Del, well let's say that his next step is probably to get me some 60's mod style clothes to match the hair, so he won't be the only one dressed retro when we go out to a gig.