We are here =)

We are still here, the girls have been keeping me busy!

Natalie is now 8 months! She is still waking up a lot during the night so I am experiencing the 'new baby' stage a little longer than I was anticipating. However, I love all my cuddles with her and seeing that I am not working at the moment, I can give her all my attention.

Sophie is turn 3 in just over a month! Every day she says or does something new. I am so grateful that I can spend my days with her and Natalie.

Will have to find some photos and update more often xx

A Taste Sensation

Natalie's palate was recently treated to baby rice cereal. The series of photographs taken during her first solid's experience are quite amusing.

Where has the time gone?

Steve and I have been together 12 years. On 1st April 1998, at around 9:30pm, I asked Steve if he wanted to officially go out, I even explained that my friend's would call me a chicken in the morning if I didn't ask...thankfully he said "I would love to".

I remember the first year or so and whenever I saw him or spoke to him my heart would race and I would have sickening butterflies in my stomach. I never understood why he wanted to date me, he was older (a whole 2.5 years :P), he was in his first year of uni and I had just started year 11. I knew that it might not last due to our age difference but I was hopeful. I still have a letter from my bestfriend of the time who said that I would marry Steve and have seven of his babies, well I did marry him and I've had TWO babies. If you had told 16 year old me back then that I would have a 'happily ever after' I don't know if I would have believed you...I thought it would take decades to find my one and only!

I love thinking back to our early days and the amazing lust, now I am content with the love, admiration and security we have.

I hope this story continues to be 'they lived happily ever after' and I hope that our relationship is a model for our gorgeous girls. I wish that they find someone who makes them feel as safe and as loved as my husband makes me feel.

Friends are rare precious stones...

I realised today I have not made a 'new' friend in a while. At first I was concerned that I was not doing my best to socialise with new people but I reminded myself that I have been working on maintaining and strengthening my old relationships.

It is easy to socialise with people who have children the same age as the girls, it requires little preparation to meet at a play centre and enjoy a hot chocolate while Sophie and her little friends play. I am thankful I have such a sociable little girl who loves interacting. In the last year I have strengthened my friendship with mothers who I have admired from a distance. These mothers provide me with laughter and friendship and make my time at home as a stay at home mum even more enjoyable.

I have a network of online friends who have children the same age as Sophie or Natalie. There is always someone there for advice or to simply listen. We may have different parenting ideas and values but we are always supportive of one another. I think this kind of support is a rarity. I have witnessed the cyber bullies who do not understand or appreciate any style of parenting from their own. For instance, I was horrified to read that on someone's facebook status regarding controlled crying someone posted... a baby left to cry themselves to sleep could die and only remembering being alone and sad! What a horrible horrible thing to say. For whatever reason I am almost always able to pick up my girls when they are sad or simply fighting sleep HOWEVER I can understand that at times an older baby may protest going to sleep and whine, no parent is evil for letting them cry for a short time!! ...what was I talking about...oh yeah...

I love that Facebook has reconnected me with old friends from my childhood and teenage years. Amazingly I speak to some people online more than I ever did when I actually knew them!

Now to the most precious and treasured of them all....my best friends. I am blessed to have three.

My oldest friendship is with Cheryl. I have known her since I was a teeny-tiny 7 year old. We went to school together from years 2-5 and 7-12. I don't have a great memory of primary school so I am grateful to have Cheryl to remind me of the silly things we got up to. I do remember in the early high school years we went our separate ways but like all good friendships we got back on track. The highlight of this friendship so far was witnessing her precious baby Caleb come into the world. To this day I feel blessed that I was asked to support her through this amazing and life changing event. We have so many memories that we like to giggle over. Our lives have gone in different directions but we always manage to meet at a crossroad to stop, revive and survive.

My latest bestfriend is Michelle. I have known her for the last four years. She started her teaching career a year into mine. Over time I have proudly witnessed her commit to a long-distance relationship, establish her professional teaching and leadership career, assist her partner in moving states, become engaged and recently, getting married. I have been able to witness all these wonderful things in such a short time. I know that our friendship is strong and that we have so many more special moments to share with one another. Again, I am blessed to have someone so special in my life.

And then there is Kelly. She is the sister I never had. Out of all my friends one may say she was the one that I was least likely to become good friends with. I meet her when I was 18 years old working in a retail store, she offered me a position in her store which I had until I finished university 5 years later. Our relationship was professional with the usual work/social outings. Over time we realised we had some things in common, we meet our partners within months of each other and we became engaged around the same time too (and eventually were married 3 weeks apart!). Steve and I often socialised with Kelly and Dennis on weekends and over time this developed into overnight camping trips and holidays together. Two weeks before our wedding I had problems with a bridesmaid and Kelly was there to help me deal with it and over time has taught me why that friendship was unhealthy with that person. She stepped in as a bridesmaid and since then we have been there for each other. She is such a beautiful and generous person. She drops everything and anything to help my family and I. We love her like family and we can never thank her enough for being there for us! We love her daughter and son like they were our own children and I can't wait to see what life has in store for our children.

MIA

The laptop is currently getting repaired so we will be MIA. Once we are back we have some gorgeous photos of 'Sunflower' Natalie and 'Snow White' Sophie, we attended a 'S' themed 30th and the girls looked adorable.

At last, a breastfeeding helper!

This afternoon Sophie and I were making a quick brownie slice when Natalie started to call out. She was fairly content babbling away so I asked Sophie to go give her a cuddle and tell her that mummy would be back soon. Sophie obliged and then I heard her saying to babe "Is that nice, is it yummy milk?", I thought oh no! what is she feeding her?!? I ran back to the lounge room to discover Sophie leaning over baby with her chest exposed...the little poppet was trying to 'feed' her baby sister. Moments like this are adorable.

Toddler Taming Wednesday

Sophie decided today that the textured wall paper in the hallway needed some sprucing. She concluded that daddy was very busy and she would help by decorating it with a green crayon. I could not help but think it was amusing because she also took Dr. Christopher Green's Toddler Taming book off a bookshelf and defaced that with green crayon, as if to give her own evaluation to toddler taming. At least she was keen to help me wash the marks off. Chux Magic Sponges are fantastic!



Is it just my mummy eyes but does this look like 'I love you'?

Monday - Dancing

On Monday Sophie wore her dancing uniform for the first time, I think she looked adorable. Trisha did a great job making the Synergy costumes! Sophie LOVES attending dancing lessons and is always so sweaty and thirsty afterwards, she definitely gets some exercise.
The girls enjoy their lollipops at the end of the lesson :)

Weekend

The girls had a great weekend visiting friends, playing with chickens and attending a 'Hawaiian' 1st birthday.






Sophie tried 'Fizz Whiz' for the 1st time...Although she pulled some funny faces she still came back for more.




Stephen and I lacked a little sleep this weekend, as you can see from Natalie being placed into Sophie's seat...
She was all smiles when the situation was rectified!


and the poor little girl was also subjected to wearing a dress when the pants were still attached inside with plastic ties, it was not until the next day that I realised...


We finally finished the weekend with some cuddles and went to sleep excited about dancing on Monday.

The girls thrones

Natalie has a new bumbo seat and Sophie loves to sit next to her on her own potty. I keep telling her that Natalie's bumbo seat is not a potty but I have a feeling it may be christened as one! The girls like to read and hold hands, it's very sweet. We didn't have a bumbo for Sophie so I will be interested in seeing if it helps her sit up unaided earlier.





Actually Sophie likes to do everything on her potty, she even insisted on eating her Sunday eggs and toast on the potty - gross!

Family Photos

Last week I booked my birthday present, we are getting professional family photos taken. I found Eaton Photography advertising in Sydney Child. We are having photos taken at Oatley Park in March. Michelle and Troy had their professional wedding photos taken there in July 09, it is a stunning park with ample photo opportunities. In the meantime I will continue to take photos of the girls. Here are some favourites that I have taken this week. I love capturing the 'sisterly' moments when Sophie is affection towards Natalie. I also love the unconventional photo of Sophie, I love the angle and how captivating her eyes are.

Pampered Mummy

Stephen and the girls treated me to a Christmas gift voucher to EB Medispa Beauty Fitness. After making sure there was a day's supply of expressed milk, the appointment was for an hour, I prepared to leave the house without baby Natalie. I tried in vain to get her to sleep before leaving, there was no success. She was however content in her bouncer. I reminded Steve of all the baby distraction devices we have sprawled around our lounge room. Thank fully he was very understanding and didn't seem to mind that I was acting as if he had never cared for a baby before. I was extremely anxious for him because we have had more bottle failures than successes.

I arrived at my appointment 30 minutes early. They agreed to start early. I was relived to know I would be back home at least half an hour earlier. My appointment was for a Aromatherapy Facial in which they promised to regain my equilibrium with a signature back massage using essential oils. I had to hold back my excitement when they handed me an organza bag for my jewelery and stated that it was mine to keep. I then settled down for some equilibrium pampering for the next 60 minutes. During this time my skin was diagnosed dry, hundreds of creams and lotions were applied and washed off, my nose was prodded and poked, and I thought of the girls a million times and silently wished they were not screaming and reducing their father to a quivering mess (they have the potential, I am certain) - oh, and I r-e-l-a-x-e-d! Near the end I was offered an 'add on' hydration treatment for my dry skin for a small additional cost ($59), I declined.

It was a beautiful gift and I did enjoy it. I am sure as Natalie becomes less dependent on me I will be able to relax more and simply enjoy pampering time. I am looking forward to the next school holidays and hope that M and I can resume our holiday massage at Absolute Essential Beauty . I always feel like every dollar spent there is completely worth it. I wonder what my therapist at Eb beauty did with the extra 15 minutes of my appointment that I didn't receive.

I was home in record time and was relieved to see Natalie asleep in her swing and Stephen relaxing on the couch after doing the dishes and hanging out the washing. Now I'll finish off my 'me time' with some delicious 'Weis' Macadamia chunks with Mango and Cream' icecream!

Ah, Bugger!

Yesterday Sophie exclaimed "Ah, Bugger" when she dropped a toy...these two words were continually used yesterday in response to accidents, spills and dropped toys. It was very amusing because it reminded me of the Toyota 'Bugger' dog. I am extremely thankful that that I say 'ah, bugger', it is better then correcting her at the shops if she called out #@%&..."where's the truck honey?" What little sponges our beautiful girls are =)

My School Website

The Australian Government My School website was launched yesterday. I was keen to get online and see what all the fuss was about.

The Government has created the website as a tool for parents to compare schools that are deemed to be statistically similar. Initially I was skeptical and concerned and thought about the issues I have with the site from a teacher's point of view. However, I am currently a full time parent so that is the hat I am adopting today.

As a parent, I do find the website helpful. The tables are easy to follow and allow you to compare the local schools in your area. Most parents that I speak to consider their child's educational options and needs from a very young age. Some people have placed their child's name on waiting lessons before they can even write an actual birth date. Steve and I are completely confused which of the local schools would be best for our daughters, we are open to all options whether private, Catholic or public. We simply want to send our daughters to a 'good' school. At least now we can look at basic Naplan results to help us with our decision.

I don't think the media gives enough credit to parents. Parents surely realise this is only one tool and over time the site will provide more information, for instance the progress of cohorts of children as they progress through the years. I think this could be a step in the right direction for National testing and curriculum development.

Don't doubt the Gs!

Sorry guys, I guess I just can't trick you! My hat goes off to you both xxx

Challenge #2

I decided to have another crack at trying to trick K & D. They are better at picking the girls in photos then what we are! This is also a chance for M to redeem herself.

Sophie - The Dancing Princess

Sophie had her second dancing lesson yesterday. She loved every minute. We began last week but she was a little unsure and I didn't know if we would continue attending. I am so glad that we went back for another attempt.

She was excited all day about 'fairy dancing with Bella'. In fact she was dancing in the lounge room in the morning and fell face first into a wall! (perhaps she has inherited my dancing abilities). My poor little girl (and I) experienced the first bloody fat lip. She has some cuts inside her lip and even this morning I declare the wall the winner of the altercation.

Isabella and Sophie are attending baby lessons at Synergy Fitness Studio. The teachers, Sarah & Emma, have done a great job of making the lessons fun. The promised lolly pops handed out at the end of the lesson has already burned into Sophie's memory with her asking for one on the drive to her second lesson!

We are looking forward to next week's lesson and will go hunting for some pink tights and jiffies to complete her black leotard uniform.

My husband, My Life.

For the past 11 and a bit years I have had an ally.

I met Stephen when he was an 18 year old pizza delivery boy. His hair was long and his conversations were not. I came to learn that his quietness was not disinterest and that he was mature beyond his years. We had a difficult couple of years to begin with, I was 16 and unable to socialise a lot outside of work. He was studying to be a software engineer and I was studying for my HSC. I have never regretted meeting him early in life. I believe that many of my successes in life are due to his support and encouragement. He was the one to encourage me to apply for uni. He always had faith in my abilities even when others around me didn't. I know that my present life would be completely different without him.

I am proud of everything that he has accomplished as well. He is hardworking, honest, reliable and loving. He is the best father and husband I could ever have imagined. Yes, we have our disagreements but we have never spent an angry night apart and we always try our best to understand where the other one is coming from.

He IS my one and only and I look forward to sharing the rest of our lifetime together.

It is a shame that he won't read this post, he has already informed me that blogging is crap :)

Sisters

It may just be me but I think the girls look VERY similar. I will have to ensure that all baby photos are labeled carefully! Can you guess who is who?

Beginnings...

I created this blog a long time ago, choosing the name "Mitty Moo's View" with the intention of writing witty things that Sophie Moo has said and done during the days as a stay at home mum and part-time teacher. I knew that I would have at least one faithful follower, (thanks Chelle!).

I discovered the joys of family life blogs thanks to the clever and effervescent Cathy. Cathy is mum to three beautiful boys and she always has a story on the ready that is bound to get laughs. Unfortunately the little ones have kept her away from her blog, which is very understandable!

I have called this post beginnings, because I have decided to start afresh...

1. I have renamed my blog to the more suitable 'Princesses in Tow'. My two beautiful girls are my daily sunshine. Although I do wonder if "Mummy in tow" would be more appropriate...

2. I have decided that since my MIL does mean her best and truly loves the girls that I will attempt to ease up on her a little. Keep an eye out for a post on Wednesday to see if this new resolution is abandoned.

3. I am going to begin the mammoth task over the next week or so of going through my wardrobe. Maybe if I put my pre-pregnancy clothes away for a while I will avoid the 'poor me' whines!

4. We are beginning potty training with Mitty Moo. A very exciting and oh so unpredictable venture.

I could continue my list of things I would like to begin, but as many of you know - if you take on too many projects at once, something is bound to fail..I am thinking # 2 :)