Going back to the orthodontist after 16 years!

When I was a teenager, I had braces... It ended well, I had a permanent plate on my bottom teeth to prevent them from becoming the car accident that they once were... This went well for 16 years... Last week I felt the wire come loose, and felt one of my teeth moving! The strangest sensation! So I went back to my orthodontist, after all those years...

It was definitely weird that nothing has changed over there, and that somehow, he remembered me! Even asked how mum's hair dressing was going... Creepy! He removed the wire and has given me a blooming night plate to wear 'whenever you feel the need to', blegh... Annoying... I loved that my teeth just took care of themselves, now I have a plate that makes me gag, grimace and talk funny...

The upside is that they gave me a mould of my teeth, if ever I need another plate made, now that is creepy!!!




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Gender identy and stereotypes... Not All Princesses Dress In Pink - Jane Yolen - Book

Recently Marley went deep into a gender identity/gender stereotype obsession... Up until her twos she was a bit of a tomboy, but as her twos progressed she started to favour pink, and My Little Ponies...
By the time she was 3 she has very firm ways that she identifies:
I am a girl
I am a girl with blonde hair
I am a girl with blonde hair who wears pink
If there is no pink, or sparkles, there is a long conversation to coerce her to get dressed...
She preferred to be addressed as Princess + (name of person doing the activity she was doing), so if she was playing football she was Princess Goalkeeper, in the bath, Princess Mermaid, etc...
There is a lot of wanting to own pink, and not wanting to share her love of pink with anyone, especially not her brother...
At it's peak, I took to twitter/Facebook to vent and @emmerina suggested this book... It is awesome, and somehow, Marley really got it... She loves it and is very keen to share that 'there is no pink, not anywhere in this book!', she loves the things the princesses get up to, they are similar to what she gets up to, and of course she LOVES the crowns! If you know a little girl that is getting too deep into pink, this is the book for you!



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15 years ago...

Yesterday marked 15 years since my Dad died... It was just about a non event... I checked it, acknowledged it as why I have been crabby the past few days, felt sad that my kids will never know him and got on with my day... I think the saddest part is that after such a significant event, the only people that care 15 years later is me and my Nanna, not that we will talk about it, but he didn't make that significant an impression on anybody else... No one else mourns or misses him, it is a sad shame...
Dad in the 70's...




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Once Upon A Time - TV series

My BFF suggested I watch this, I was resistant, but within minutes had acquired a copy... It is a 'family' show, which meant that Marley caught a few minutes here and there, when I was too slow to turn it off... She is still far too young to watch those sorts of shows, but it's not like many of the shows I watch that I would let her catch ten seconds of...

It is quite well written, the production team has familiar names, people who have worked on Buffy and Angel, which means a lot... I soon found myself addicted, really interested to know more about the characters, storybook characters, to see where this was going... If I had older primary aged kids, I would definitely enjoy watching it with them!




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Crayola Confetti Glue

Sometimes I feel like a walking advertisement for Crayola... With good reason, they have AWESOME stuff for kids! One of the things I bought a while back and we have used loads, yet there is still so much product left, is the confetti glue... There are 5 tubes in a pack (4 pictured as she was using one)
Red, silver and gold
Gold and green
Multi coloured (reminds me of carnival) pink, blue, gold and green
Green and silver
Blue, gold and silver
Silver, gold and red

Today we are making a thank you card for the nurses at Cabrini for taking such good care of her... Her latest default for all cards we make is this glitter glue, combined with sequins... She loves sparkles!!!






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Madame Flavour Sultry Chai Tea... Mmmm..

I am a Chai fiend... It is so delicious, especially in winter, I just adore it, just as much as I adore hot chocolate... As I started to consider the amount of calories I am consuming between the two each day (sick to death of the last bit of spare tyre, post Mace, that just won't go), and came the conclusion that I need to cut back... So this week I am not having any Chai sachets or hot chocolate to see if I can...

Doing my weekly grocery shop I cruised the Chai area and saw my delightful sachets, and the terrible Chai tea bags that leave an icky taste in my mouth, then I discovered a box of Madame Flavour Sultry Chai... I took a gamble (I often gamble on teas, and lose) and purchased... It's such a pretty box, I opened it and found a note, which touched my heart a little... Poured myself a cup with extremely low expectations and drank... It was good! Really good! Half the price of sachets, probably 10% of the calories, and most importantly, delicious... Love the cute little infuser bags, makes me feel like I could have made it myself...

If you are a Chai lover, I highly recommend these!






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Sunday afternoon baking...

It has been over a year since I have baked any delicious treats... Once I was in that itchy third trimester of pregnancy with Mace, I gave up on everything, baking included... I know that there are mums out there that cook, clean, bake, work part time, sew, just manage everything... I am not that mum, I manage work, a hot meal from scratch 5 nights a week and awesome children's entertainment... Cleaning/laundry is split with my husband and it is average at best... I'm not sure how these mums do it (Tania, I am talking to you!?!), but a woman I talk to on twitter was talking about baking and I remembered baking, I used to love it! Taking a bunch of raw ingredients and making food that brings a huge smile to my families faces!

Having a little downtime this afternoon, and a husband to look after the kids, I started to assess what ingredients I had that weren't out of date and just what I could make out of them... Biscuits it was, some ginger snaps and Choc chip cookies, that I made far too large! It felt really good to be making something from nothing and once cool enough, making my family smile with delight! If reading this is stirring up a lovely memory of sweet kitchen smells, do it! It doesn't take long, and doesn't have to be too messy!







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Snuggling with my baby girl...

Well, the operation was a great success... The day in itself wasn't awesome, though the staff at Cabrini were brilliant, the speed of the surgery was amazing and overall I do feel that she got the very best care... It certainly helped that she was the first on the table!

We were prepared verbally for her coming out of the anesthetic, but walking into recovery and seeing her on her side with oxygen on, nothing can actually prepare you for that... I almost lost it... My helpless little baby... She soon woke up, completely irrational and upset, probably the hardest part of the day... After a while she calmed down, and we spent a couple hours in recovery... It was such a relief to see her come back into her usual self, playing with toys, requesting a chai latte, just the little things that bring a smile to her face...

We got home and set her up in our room, didn't want to make her walk up the stairs, our bed is massive and I wanted to keep an eye on her... We all had a nap together, then got up and gave her loads of love - Mace too much, crawling on her and bumping her tummy a few times... She went to sleep in our bed, she has only ever spent the night in our bed once before, so she was pretty excited! When we got in we cuddled up and stayed that way just about all night... Every time I tried to turn over she would say 'come back mama?', so I didn't have the most sound sleep, yet it was a heart warming sleep, to know after a day like that she was okay, safe in her mamas arms...

Children can make us feel the most vulnerable and powerless, but they can also make us feel the most needed and loved...






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An operation on my little girl...

My beautiful 3 year old girl, Princess Marley Cakes (just Marley), is having surgery on her umbilical hernia on Friday morning... For the past few weeks I have completely put it out of my head, but now it's close... I am trying to be practical, pack a bag, get her some new toys, talk to her a little about what's going to happen, but my emotions are super close to overtaking my sanity! She asked if it was going to hurt and I just wanted to cry, while I put on a brave face and explained what is going to happen...
Things like this, or UK X Factor, just bring me to tears... Since having children, my hard arse filter has completely disintegrated... I am left with a bit of a basket case emotional state - all the time! Mark is coming to Cabrini with us, so at least if I feel my resolve start to waiver, he can do the 'hold it together' part...
Marley requested 5 pink toys to play with after hospital, she got 6, but not all pink... Trying to kill this pink addiction a little! Can't wait to read her the fairy tale pop up books, but we will have to keep them away from Mace the Demolisher (just Mace)!


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Crayola Outdoor Coloured Bubbles

These are awesome... Was just strolling around the toy section with the kids at Target and as usual I cruised the crayola section and these were new... I bought them thinking it might kill a half hour some time... Only $3, usually $4 I think, and once we got in the fun began!
Purple bubbles adorned our grass, while the ink from Marley popping them covered her hands, speckled her hair and brought a massive smile to her face... I blew bubbles for over half hour and used about half a bottle... It all washed off in seconds once we were done... Highly recommend!











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Recycling glasses!

Just a quickie...


While going through a bunch of stuff in our kitchen drawer the other day, I stumbled across a rare few pairs of my old glasses that werent smashed up or washed away to sea (yes, this really happened), so I set about finding a way to recycle them...  The Lions do it, http://www.lionsclubs.org.au/recycle-for-sight/ just send them off to 
Lions Recycle for Sight
PO Box 3021 
CLONTARF MDC 4019


Mine are all packed up and ready to go...  Feels good knowing that rather then them wasting away in a drawer long forgotten, they might help 3 pretty blind people in Africa...  Do you wear glasses?  Where are your old ones?  Please find them and recycle them, every little bit helps!

Soup, soup, soup, soup...

It's getting chilly here in Melbourne, so it's time to crack out the soup recipes! Last night we had an amazing potato and courgette/zucchini soup, it was just divine! Sorry no pics, two sick kids and soup for dinner did not make a picturesque meal time! I did end up with green soup in my freshly washed hair...

It did however, make me want more soup! So I am making a roasted green pepper/capsicum soup for us tonight and for the kids a roasted sweet potato soup, as Marley is anti 'green things' at the moment so two nights in a row of green soup might just be too much... It's all roasting away as I type and was wondering if any of you have any delicious soup ideas? I mostly just freestyle, using whatever veg is there and add herbs/spices to suit...


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Mistys Diner... Yumyumyum...

Sorry I haven't been around so much lately... My cousin is here from Cairns with her family, so it has been all about the fam lately! We took time out from the kids last night to go out for dinner at Mistys Diner with a dear friend I don't see enough of...

Mistys has become our date night dining spot, on the rare nights we get to go out for dinner, we love it there! It is heart attack on a plate food, but is damn good too! I usually have the western burger, when I find a good thing I tend to stick with it... Lately I have found myself unable to finish it, so tried something new last night, the meatball gourmet roll... It was freaking amazing, they gut the roll and fill it with delicious meatballs, cheese and their wicked smokey BBQ sauce, with a shared side of curly fries, it was exactly what I wanted! I have never out BBQ sauce with meatballs, but they are onto something there!!!

Topped off with a diet A&W root beer, yum! If you haven't been to Mistys, you need to go there!



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Dave Grohl Nothing Left to Lose - Michael Heatley

Put simply: I am a fan of the Foo Fighters, Nirvana and of course Dave, if you are a fan of this man and his bands, you must read this...

The nice thing about this is it's pretty fact based, not much speculation, and when there is, it isn't conveyed as fact... A nice mostly professional history of Dave, nice to reminisce on all of the brilliant music he has made... I do love a bit of personal life gossip, but am glad this book didn't have that, made it feel more credible! Like I said in the beginning, if you are a fan, read it!



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Hart of Dixie Season One

This show was an immediate addition to my viewing rotation because of Josh Schwartz and Rachel Bilson... In the beginning I wasn't certain but soon became addicted... A lovely little show that doesn't require too much attention or thought, but brings pleasure when I watch... No spoilers for the finale as I know Australia is a bit behind!

All I can say is I don't get the George thing, Wade definitely has it!!!


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Raising Boys (book) - Steve Biddulph

As you may or may not know, I have a 3 year old daughter, when she turned 2, I gave birth to her baby brother... I always thought that boys and girls were the same, it's all about nurture... And after a year of having baby Mace, I see now that I did have a point, but you can't argue with biology...

This book has helped greatly with refining my ideas and feelings about having a boy... Boys can be soft and sweet, as I type this on my iPhone, Mace sits on my lap playing with my hair and face singing along with some nursery rhymes, but Mace also has this soldier mentality, he likes to do things, climb up everything, throw himself around, get a bit more physics then I am used to with Marley... Raising Boys helped explain the biology and chemistry of boys so I better understand Mace's needs, and I feel that it is the sort of book I will return to as he grows and I need some guidance in guiding him... Not to say he can't enjoy his bubba, or his ponies, but his needs are varied!

There is a lot of talk about teenage boys in this book and I can see why... As a girl, there was always talk of 'becoming' a woman, and what that means, and I think boys need more of this, more talk about what it means to be a man... But I am sure there is plenty if time for that later, for now I will just enjoy my sweet, soft, robust, soldier baby!


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The European Cafe Restaurant

The European
161 Spring Street, MELBOURNE

My BFF was in town so a few of us went to The European for brunch... It was recommended everywhere I went to have the Eggs Benedict, so I did! Great choice, the eggs were cooked to perfection and the hollandaise sauce was divine! All 3 of us agreed that it was a great breakfast! Only downside foodwise was my fresh squeezed apple juice, it was sour!!!

They don't take reservations for weekend breakfasts, but just as we walked in a table was available, on the proviso that we take less than an hour and a half, which was fine with us... The service did feel like they just wanted to get us in and out, but the food is what made it worthwhile... It also had lovely decor, very cosy place to eat...


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Equal Love Rally Melbourne State Library 12th May 2012

I have been meaning to show support at these last few rally's, but things always seem to be happening on the dates... I made this one a priority, went down after brunch with two of my best mates and we stood in the cold with a couple thousand other people and listened to the speakers... For the most part it was interesting, witty, touching and definitely made me feel even more amped up about a cause that is extremely important to me... We didn't stay as long as I would have liked because Tracey didn't wear sensible shoes, but I was still glad to have been there and shown some love...











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Las Vegas state of mind...

If you don't know, we are planning a child free trip to Vegas next May... It is a year away, but the minute the flights are booked I can start my official countdown... Whenever I am having a bad minute/hour/day with the kids, I fantasize about it... Remembering how much fun we had there on our last trip, and how lovely it is going to be spending time with my lover without our beautiful babies in our not to distant future!

I have started preparing, reading tripadvisor Vegas forums every night over my hot chocolate from Mark before bed... Looking at all of the things that have changed in the years since our last visit, researching clubs, pool parties, shooting ranges... To say I am excited is an understatement! I even bought a couple of items online that were delivered yesterday, to help me get in a Vegas state of mind... I know it's too early to think about packing, but my wardrobe is seriously lacking bling!




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Nails did...

Getting ready for the weekend... An Equal Love Equal Rights Rally and then the Mothers Day Classic... The weather is going to be miserable, thought we need to keep it bright! It's pink leopard... Have recently realised that I can get a mani AND a pedi out of half a packet of Sally Hansen Salon Effects... Even at the most you will pay ($15), you will get 2 matching mani pedis! Can't wait to flex this in summer!



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Bless my little girls heart...

When you have kids every day is kind of like a roller coaster... Every day brings highs and lows, some days are mostly highs, and others lots of lows (these days in my house are closely related to colds)... Overall I love being a mum, I make a point of spending 90% of my waking hours with my little darlings, it is important to me to be the one that teaches them about relationships, love, respect by example...

I am rewarded with beautiful moments... Last night while we played with Marley's My Little Pony train set, she comes out with 'I am good at love'... She was absolutely correct, and thats what I told her...

Love is definitely one of her strong points, cuddles, smiles, caring for the well being of those around her, trying to look after her baby brother, all of these things about her just melt my heart... This is the absolute core of why I love being a mother... I get to share this love with my darling girl...




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Nerd do well - Simon Pegg (biography)

This was one of the brilliant gifts I bought for Mark, knowing perfectly well I would get to enjoy too! We love Simon Pegg, we love his tv, writing, films... There was a time we watched 'Shaun of the Dead' almost daily, it was one of 'our' films, as you do when you are dating/honeymooning etc... So my expectations were high... Unfortunately they weren't met!

I know that reading a biography is to fall into the self indulgent world of the writer, and usually this is the appeal... In this case I just felt like I was taken there, but I didn't enjoy the place, it was too focused on what I view as pointless little stories with a couple of interesting snippets in there... I guess that's because I wanted to know more about his adult life, what his inspirations are, things that are more relative to now... So I missed the point, or there wasn't one... Not great either way...



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The Women of the Cousins War - Philippa Gregory and David Baldwin

I love Philippa Gregory, I love reading about England in the middle ages... I'm not sure I love reading historical essays...

This took me ages to read, like almost 2 months, I read other books while reading it... It was hard going, at times so dry I wanted to stop, but I persisted... I wanted to read about these women back to back and in the end I felt satisfied... Would I do it again? No...


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The fructose friendly, gluten free lifestyle...

Yesterday we found out that my husband is fructose intolerant... As it turns out, this sucks... He is allergic to most fruits, onions (BOO!), coconut cream/milk (BOO!) and wheat (NOOOOOOO!), needless to say from this day forth, our lives are going to change... The good news is that his 'problem' isn't cancer, and I would definitely take a whole diet change over the big C!!!

So I went to do our weekly grocery shop at 7.30 this morning, it's lovely really, kids stay with Mark, I get some time out as well as getting to walk at the super fast speed that I like, not 3 year old speed... So, I'm shopping, I start reading labels, lots of labels, and for the most part have to put things back on the shelf... This was really disheartening... I bought loads of chocolate to make myself, but not my waistline, feel better! I eventually found gluten free everything, at 2 to 3 times the usual cost... So sad... I did buy gluten free everything for Mark to try, but there is a definite feeling that we have to change the way we eat, change our staples, change our attitudes to food... Mark is also vegetarian, and it turns out that onion is in majority of the vegetarian foods we eat... It just keeps getting better...

Next month we find out whether he is also lactose intolerant... Fingers crossed that he isn't!

Looking forward to getting a handle on it, then the only big struggle will be eating out...




My eggs on toast vs Marks eggs on gluten free toast! You pay double the price for half as much!!!

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Sweet like chocolate...

After finding out yesterday that Mark has a fructose allergy, which I will at some point dedicate an entire post to, I did a depressed fructose friendly shop today which included buying loads of chocolate to make myself feel better! Thought I would give this Cadburys Marvellous Creations Jelly Popping Candy Beanies chocolate a go... Good choice! I LOVE popping candy, delicious... Mace had a taste and it didn't freak him out at all! Check it out, in the very least, for the 5 year old on the inside...




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The Ikea Tunnel for kids

We love Ikea, always good for a browse... While 'browsing' last week we stopped on the kids section, as expected and saw the tunnel set up, it looked pretty awesome... Which was the first of three selling points, the second was that it's so easy to store, it's basically a bit spring, so you push it down and do it up with the Velcro... It stores so small, which is exciting when you have a house FULL of toys! And the final selling point is that it was only $20!!!

This is just about the perfect toy for rainy winter days! All week it has rained and we have spent hours playing with it all week long... Best kid related $20 spent!






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Southern Plate - Christy Jordan

Whenever we are in the US I jones for Southern food... It is usually heart attack on a plate, but always sooooo damn good... Had been meaning to invest in a Southern Cookbook for years, but they aren't readily available so put it off and off until recently... I ordered off Amazon, unfortunately you can't browse, so most of the recipes really aren't suitable for my families dietary requirements, and far too many desserts! There are some that look good, and as usual I will have to jiggle them around, not sure it was worth buying, but the browsing was pleasurable, as I'm sure the few appropriate dishes will be...


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Tefal pans

I know I have posted about Tefal pans before... I bought one aaaaaages ago and it changed my cooking life! I also love those deals websites, so imagine my delight when Tefal pans went on sale just as I was looking to restock my cooking cupboard... I ordered, a bit... It took some time, but today they arrived... 3 pots and 3 pans... Needless to say I can't wait to cook dinner tomorrow night!!!







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