I wonder?

Just wondering if there will be a baby boom in around 9 months from now?

It was awful dark here last night and it seems like Earth Hour was very well received and acted-on throughout New Zealand and Australia at least (haven't seen the news for the rest of the world yet).

Such a great initiative, but will we offset the potential good if we overpopulate because of it? ha ha!

Happy Easter!

Chocolate, bunnies, sunshine, ice creams, trips to the beach, easter egg hunts, four day weekends, that's what it's all about eh!? oh yes, and the celebration of our Lord Jesus' "death".

Bloody Katie Morag!

Don't get me wrong, I love that Molly is such a keen reader and I love when we get given books for her - they are a little bit pricey here in NZ that's for sure!

But this one book, (from her dear uncle and aunt in Scotland) is driving me slowly but surely insane!!!

Katie Morag has lots of great fun and adventures, with lots of very strange and hard to pronounce Scottish sounding places and exclamations in them. I'm thinking she likes this book purely because it makes Mummy and Daddy struggle so much and sound so weird when we read it to her.

Anyway, this photo was taken to celebrate the first time we managed to persuade her to read it to herself. Which she dutifully did, after finding her 'reading glasses' (just like Mummy, what an old duffer I am!). Isn't she just gorgeous? Our beautiful little bookworm. Long may it continue - but maybe with a bit more variety... now where's a good hiding place for bloody Katie Morag!

Am I ready?

Are you ever ready for baby number two, three or four? just a hypothetical at this stage - no one get overexcited eh?! OK, well I won't either then.

On Monday this week I had an instant family of three. One three year old, Molly at 2 and a half and an 18 month old, from 7.30am until 6.00pm, now that's a full-on day! OH MY GOD!

But you know what, we coped. The kids were actually really great and even though it was more fun then Hunter and Molly could really stand I managed to get them all to nap in the afternoon - so I did have twenty minutes off, and drank a whole cup of coffee, hot! Woo hoo!

I don't know if we would have done so well if the wee one was walking already. She's still such a baby baby, not much hair, very few teeth and not quite walking yet, but oh my goodness can she talk! At one point I had all three of them on the swing set, and all three of them are screaming at the top of their lungs, 'higher, higher!' so funny.

One bonus being I certainly didn't need the gym after that, what I needed was a large glass of wine and a big bath. What I got was a grumpy hubby and an overtired and moody Molly... and then I collapsed on the couch!

Strange little girl...

Yesterday morning, whilst Molly and I were having our wake-up cuddle and milk in Mummy's bed (such a lovely way to start the day, and even better because I get to stay in bed for maybe 15 more minutes!), Molly was looking at my t-shirt and asked what it said. This is the shirt that was gifted to us from our honeymoon hotel in the Seychelles, it has a palm tree and the name of the place, pretty dull, but this was hubby's gift. Mine was a beautiful red sarong covered in tropical fish that I still love!

Anyway, so we're chatting, and I explained that this was where Daddy and Mummy stayed after we got married, she was surprised that we were married too! 'I'm married to you too Mummy' she said, hmmm, I sense some confusion, never mind, we nattered on.

I told her that one day we would take her to the Seychelles too, and we'd all have a wonderful time. She said she'd like that 'as long I can go in my pink airplane'. Now I'm really confused, she doesn't have a toy airplane, let alone a pink one... We're hoping she's projecting to a future where we have won the lotto and given her her own pink jet... oh, to have her imagination!

Footnote

Molly stayed all day at PreSchool. Not a whimper after I left and just a beautiful beaming grin when I walked in to pick her up.

She had a lovely morning, played with everything (she especially enjoyed the swings and trampoline), and she had drawn/painted two lovely pictures, one for Mummy and one for Bampy (it's on the way, a late birthday gift - someone must have been paying attention whilst we were ordering online eh?!).

The teachers both said she did great and the histrionics were purely for my benefit... hoorah and phew in equal measures!

That sinking feeling...

I just dropped Molly at PreSchool and now I feel like the worse mother in the world. On the drive there she alternately cried and whined that we should turn around and go home, while also telling me she would check the caterpillars and play with the mice, etc., while she waited to come home with me again!

When we got there she clung to me for 30 seconds then ran off and did something more fun before coming back and clamping back on... Eventually (felt like forever, but maybe only 10 minutes later) the supervisor came over and shooed me away. 'Let's start as we mean to go on shall we, straight home Mum', I was dismissed. Molly was whisked away to the swings, screaming! Oh my God! Of course by the time I got to the car, the screaming had stopped and she was fine again, and must still be because I'm sat here by the phone and it hasn't rung - I even took it with me when I put the laundry out... sad eh?!

But tell me this, it get's better right? You don't constantly walk around feeling like crap because you've 'abandoned' your child do you?

The picture says it all...

Our holiday in Golden Bay was just perfect. We spent the week on the beach. Ligar Bay (just 50m from our lovely little holiday bach - 'the little house' as Molly christened it) is just perfect for kids - and big kids - safe and shallow even at high tide, and at low tide the sea leaves lagoons and rock pools that are warm as bathwater. Just blissful.

We borrowed kayaks from the owner of the bach and the girls had as much fun as we did in them. Even refusing on one occasion to get out of it, so they sat in it on the beach until we relented and continued to push them up and down the bay - great exercise, running in thigh high water, I was knackered! - like little lady mucks, shouting 'faster, faster'.

It was such a great idea to go with friends (although I'll admit to being anxious, you never know do you!?), the kids just loved having familiar faces to play with, and they kind of amuse themselves to a certain extent. Don't get the idea that we had a minutes peace though... that would have been too much like a holiday. But we're thinking we're going to make this an annual thing maybe, at least until the kids decide (or we do) that they can't stand another perfect holiday in the sun, on the sand, in paradise, ha ha.