Clean House = Clean Mind

My house is by no means perfect. I’m fact, it is far from it. I always have a mess in my kitchen and my lounge room is always full of the kids toys, and unfortunately, having all that around constantly makes me feel stressed out. Looking around and seeing mess makes me feel like I’m failing as a house maker. Now, I know people always say that a real house looks like it’s lived in, but my house looks VERY lived in and no matter what I do I just can never seem to get it looking clean. With the amount of toys the kids have downstairs and all the pop culture stuff that Josh collects, my house always seems 'full'. I don’t mind full when I can see the floor. To me a freshly vacuumed floor makes all the difference. I don't know what it is about it, but it just makes me feel better to see those vaccuum lines across the floor because I know at least my floor is clean, and now with Ollie being so mobile that I definitely something I need.

Today I got outside and I vacuumed my car. For a long time my car had been bothering me as it had been accumulating clothes, toys and rubbish for quite a while now. Sienna is on holidays at Grandma and Granddads so her car seat is out and I need to turn Ollie’s seat to front face because his legs are just getting too long for the rear facing, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get in there and tidy it. After giving it a good vaccuum I felt so much better! Getting the motivation to get in there and actually do it can be a struggle but once it’s done... man it feels great!! (Now I just need to get the outside cleaned too.... baby steps ha ha).

So I challenge you all today to give your house or your car a quick vaccuum and see how a clean house can give you a clean mindset. Maybe if your feeling up to it move your furniture around too. After all they say a change is as good as a holiday.
I would love to be able to change my house around but I fear if I start moving stuff I won’t be able to find places for it all ha ha. Maybe I’ll save that for a day when I’m feeling strong enough to move furniture and I have some sort of idea on what I would like to do :-)
Leave me some comments below on how you keep your house or car tidy and how it makes you feel. I would love to hear from you =)

Home Yoga Practise

Today I am starting a wonderful yoga journey called “True”.
At the beginning of every year the YouTube channel 'Yoga with Adriene' (I'll link below) does a 30 days of yoga series, and every year I have wanted to do it but have never made it all the way through (last year I was very pregnant so I couldn’t take part). But this year will be different! I am determined to see it all the way through.
Yoga makes me feel amazing!! And I am so grateful that there are things like this available on the internet to help me work towards my health goals at home. I don’t have to worry about finding a time to get down to the gym to do things like this because I can simply switch on the computer and do something active while the kids are asleep. And Adriene makes yoga so fun and doable. I know a lot of people look at yoga as a whole heap of poses that are impossible to get to let alone stay in. But with this particular channel you can do whatever level you feel you can do on that day (the theme of the channel is 'Find What Feels Good'). And everything is broken down and you work from your foundation up. The next day I may feel a little sore but it is amazing to watch and feel my ability and flexibility improve everyday.
Watching sienna join me sometimes, even though a lot of the movements are a bit tricky for her, but seeing her attempt things make me think that I am moulding her in the direction of a healthy lifestyle as well. I would really encourage you all to watch this into and give it a go yourself =)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I_Ec2FPOyY

Gratefulness for Family and Friends

Hello friends!

As some of you may know that read my earlier blog, I am focusing on finding snippets of joy in everyday life this year.

Last night being New Years Eve, was a really fun time that we were lucky enough to spend with friends. I cannot think of a better way to see the new year in than by watching Sienna dance away with our friends, having the time of her life (yes, she did make it all the way to midnight, much to the surprise of Josh and I). It made my heart smile so much to see her having so much fun and I can only hope that I can help to make the rest of her year just as good as it started out.
Ollie fell asleep before the celebrations at midnight but woke shortly after to see what all the fuss was about and went back to sleep shortly after again.

Today Josh and I were treated to an awesome afternoon without the children (thanks mum and dad). We treated ourselves to a DOUBLE movie afternoon. In which we watched both 'The Greatest Showman' and 'Star Wars - The Last Jedi'. Considering the amount of shade I have listened to thrown in the direction of both movies, I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. My inner musical geek surfaced in the big musical numbers of the Showman bring tears of happiness to my eyes (God bless you, Hugh Jackman). And the special effects of the lightsaber wielding heroes made my heart jumps with every swing in Star Wars.
And finally getting that one on one time with Josh was also amazing. With Christmas time and all that jazz and the busyness of retail work lately, I have felt a little like we were two ships just passing in the night lately and that is something I really want to change this year.

But all in all today, I have really enjoyed the fact that I have been lucky enough to have spent all of  the first day of the New Year with the people that I love most. My family. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

PS I apologise to anyone with me for the next week or maybe longer because I will not be able to get those Showman tunes out of my head. If you haven't watched it yet... do it!! It is truly magical.

New Direction! Exciting times :-)

Hey all you lovely people!!

I am setting myself a challenge in the new year and in doing that, my blog may take a new direction... I will still post occasional updates about the kids (which reminds me I need to put one up soon because they have both grown SO much since my last blog... yes, I have been lazy), but I will be focusing on short snippets of finding joy in every day life. I want to take more pictures and film more videos (so I can put up some additional vlogs too). I want to enjoy every moment that I am with my kids, because this age is such a special age, and you can probably say that about every age that your children reach, but at this age when they are learning and experiencing so much for the first time.... to witness that is something very special. I have so much to be thankful for and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to document it, so when the kids get older they can see how even the little things are extraordinary and that life is such an amazing thing that too many people take for granted everyday. It needs to be enjoyed!!

So in between now and the new year I will probably put up some other posts, but I really want to focus on more blogs and documenting everyday happiness in the new year!

Let me know your thoughts and ideas because I want you all to be involved too. Let me know all the little everyday things that you find joy in.

Till next time, I love you all, have an amazing day!

2 Months Postpartum - Little Mr Chatterbox and Little Miss Cheeky

Crying... Early starts... Dirty nappies... Constant feeding... These are the things that everyone mother with a newborn should expect. Parenthood is the best and hardest thing that I have ever had to do. Sometimes I find myself trying to remember what it was like in the household without my two beautiful kids but then as soon as Sienna is on holidays at Grandmas, the house feels so empty without her and it just doesn't feel right. Sienna and Ollie are such huge pieces of our lives now, nothing would be right without them.

Ollie is growing like a charm. He is now 4.5kg which is just under the 15% percentile. He is doing really well putting on weight, considering that he was really underweight for a while there. He is consistently gaining an average of 200g a week, so I'm really happy about that. He is 57.5cm long, putting him the at about the 25th percentile. He has grown a massive 8.5cm since he was born :-( He is growing way too fast.

 He still loves to be cuddled, and would much rather fall asleep wrapped up in someones arms rather than in the rocker. Although, over the last few nights I have been testing out the putting him down drowsy but not asleep in his bassinet and letting him put himself to sleep. It hasn't been going too badly (touch wood), but he does tend to make a lot of noise as he is going to sleep, not crying noise, just baby gurgle.
The constant need for cuddles, love and attention is definitely something that I find draining. Especially as I have two kids now and I can't always be cuddling with Ollie when I need to be watching what Sienna is up to and I need to be giving her some one on one time also.

 

We had our 6 week shots the other week, and I am so glad that Josh had that day off because he was a lot braver than me and held Ollie down while he was being given the shot. I was nervous because Ollie is such a loud crier, I didn't want to imagine how loud he would be getting his shot, but he did really well. I mean REALLY well. I think he did better than Sienna did when she had her first shot. I think it could very well have to do with how calm Josh was when he was holding him as opposed to Sienna's first ones where mum and I were nervous wrecks. Sienna also had her 18 month shots on the same day and Josh held her down too. She also did really well. There were hardly any tears then she was distracted with the awesome stickers given to her from the nurses.
Ollie also had his 2 month appointment a few days ago and the nurses at the clinic said that he was doing very well. Not only was he putting on a good amount of weight, but he had very good neck and head control for his age. Which we already knew because he has been lifting his head pretty much since birth. He is just gaining better control of it now. We were told to do tummy time with him every day, so he can continue to build those muscles in his neck. We were also told that he was very vocal for is age, and the fact that he was copying our sounds and mouth movements already was very advanced for his age bracket.

I am slowly getting better at juggling the two of them and have had quite a few days at home with just the three of us while Josh is at work. It still stresses me out a little bit, I'll admit, but not nearly as much as it did at the beginning. Sienna being at daycare too has been a big help and a catch up day for me also. We are about to start her on two days a week there, so that should be a good help for me. But Sienna is getting really good at helping me. She will get nappies for me when I'm changing him (mind you sometime I need to remind her that we only need one, when she bring over about six of them), and she is always the first one to tell Ollie that it's ok when he starts crying. The love that they have for each other is incredible. His eyes will follow her around and watch what she is doing all the time and she is always up for cuddles and kisses with him. It's crazy to think that in a years time they will both be running around and playing together.

In the past month I have noticed that Sienna has become a lot more affectionate. She was never really a cuddly baby. But recently she is always giving me cuddles around the legs and won't really hesitate or fight if I ask for a cuddle or a kiss. She is also getting so good with her words. We can literally have conversations with her now, which is amazing! She understands us and we can understand her, most of the time. She is picking up so many new words, so fast. She will just come out with the most random sentences and she just leaves us in awe.
She has been a little whingy and restless recently and we are putting it down to the fact that we have seen some molars coming through, so they might be giving her a bit of grief. We have also hit a bit of a speed bump with her eating. She has got really picky with food recently and I don't know if that's to do with teeth also, or if that's just her being a turd. But even with all the whinging and whining there have been plenty of beautiful smiles and cheeky ones too. She is the cheekiest little girl and I love it. He sense of humour is fantastic and I just love hearing her laugh.

I love my little family. Even though there are times when I feel like I could rip my hair out, when Sienna is running wild and Ollie won't settle... the good times definitely outweigh the bad and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cookbook Recipe Review - Tomatoes, Apples and Carrots, Oh My!!

I love cooking! It is one of my favourite things to do, even though not everything works out the way I want it too every time, I love getting into the kitchen and just tuning out to the smell of something baking in the oven, or garlic and onions cooking on the stovetop. It is an escape for me. I am by no means a Chef in anyway, though. I am still a pretty basic cook, but in doing this and trying new things I am hoping to get better at it. I want to thank Josh for allowing me to take this time out from the kids in the kitchen, although I have been trying to include Sienna in my cooking lately.

This past week I have been trying out some recipes that I haven't made before, and I want to share with you how they have tasted, what the cooking process was like and what I would change for next time (if I decide to make them again). I want to be trying something new at least once a fortnight.

The first thing I made was a Bruschetta. Now I know what you are all thinking... "She loves cooking and has never made Bruschetta before?" I can totally see where you are coming from. It is a staple for a lot of people and it is really easy to make. The thing I found the hardest while making these, was that I had a grumpy newborn and a toddler who were making it difficult for Daddy, so I had to run out to help him out a few times. The process of making these though, couldn't be simpler.
They also tasted pretty damn good! This is something that I will definitely make again. It would be a great entrée type dish if you had guests, or a fantastic snack for lunch (which is when we had it).
The only change that I would make is next time I might add some mozzarella cheese to the mixture. I am a huge cheese fan and I think this would just complete the dish.

Second thing I tried out was an Apple Cider Pancake with Spiced Apple Syrup. I adjusted this recipe, as it called for raisins to be in the sauce also, but I hate raisins so I left them out. I wanted to use the flavours of Autumn and I thought to myself what says Autumn more than Cinnamon and Apple? So I found this recipe and tested it out. I wasn't sure how it would go as I am not a huge fan of cooked apple but this was super tasty. I had Sienna help me out in the kitchen with this one (she is a killer mixer). There was nothing too hard in this recipe so I think even beginner cooks would find this one easy enough. I am not the best at flipping pancakes and I tend to make more pikelet sized pancakes than pancake sized ones, but this time I surprised myself and make bigger ones (not very uniform in shape but eh).
They were really filling too. Josh and I managed to get through 4 each and were both very full afterwards. I don't think I would change anything else, other than what I already had. I will happily make these again.

Next was a Carrot Cake. This was a double layer cake, it called for two cakes to be made but I only had one pan, so it took a little longer than normal because I had to wait for one to be baked before I could bake the other one, but apart from that this was a pretty straightforward recipe.
I thought this cake was a little too dense. I thought that Carrot Cakes were meant to be a bit fluffier, whereas mine was quite heavy, but I have since been told that Carrot Cakes can be both.
I liked that this cake was made sweeter by adding crushed Pineapple. It's not something that I would have usually thought to do (especially as I don't like to eat Pineapple), but I found it added another element to this cake. I again left raisins out of this recipe because I thought putting one thing that I didn't like in it was enough, also I think that with the coconut and chopped pecans it had enough different textures in it so it didn't really need them.
I'm not sure that I would make this again. My family (who helped me eat the cake), all liked it but I'm not sure it was to my taste. I would much rather just a plain cake like and orange and poppyseed or even just a vanilla. This was to heavy and had a bit much going on in it for me.

And that is all the new recipes I have tried so far.... I'll keep you posted next time I try something else. If you would like any of these recipes to try for yourself, just let me know and I'll happily share them with you, and you can let me know what you think of them.

1 Month Postpartum - Getting Used To Life With 2 Kids!!

It is crazy to think that little Ollie has been with us for a month already!! Where did that time go?? I know that technically one month was on Monday, when he was four weeks. But it's now the 27th so I'm counting this as a month since he was born :-)

We have a very cuddly baby here with us... he loves being held and cuddled. When he is in someone's arms, he is the most content and will happily fall asleep, as soon as he is put in a bassinet or a bouncer he gets unsettled and wakes up. That has been a real challenge. He is slowly getting better though. (I am not complaining at all, I do love cuddling him. Especially now that it is getting cooler because he is like a mini heater.) He has the strongest neck muscles, when he is burping over the shoulder, he is constantly lifting his head and looking around at everything and he also uses his little legs to push up and almost crawl up my body. He is completely the opposite to his sister in this aspect because she was the most chilled out and quiet baby, but Ollie wriggles everywhere! He is always moving, which makes it hard to hold and burp him sometimes. And he is loud! He is a lot more vocal than Sienna was, he makes these cute little noises all the time especially before he sneezes and he even when he is asleep he makes a lot of noise and when he cries.... he cries!!
Oliver has grown 4cm since he was born, so I'm thinking he's going to be pretty tall. He has long arms, fingers, legs and toes and has the most adorable little face that pulls the funniest expressions. We haven't done a whole lot of tummy time with him yet, but it is something I will be doing more of over the next few weeks.

The hardest thing this time around, I feel, is finding the balance between looking after Ollie and still being able to spend time with Sienna. Ollie feeds an awful lot and the prevents me from being able to play with and have a lot of one on one time with Sienna. I feel that this increased when we had the early childhood nurse come to our house to make sure everything was going alright with Ollie and she told us that he was quite underweight so I had to increase his feeds (when I already felt like I was feeding him all day long). But it came down to the fact that I started using a shield to feed him because he was having trouble latching on and it was getting quite painful. The shield was leaking quite a bit of liquid as Ollie's hands like to come up and interfere with feeding and he kept knocking the it away, so he wasn't getting as much as he could have been. Since then I have ditched the shield and he is feeding a lot better and is getting more out of the feeds, so he is more settled when he is not feeding and he can take those longer stretches between feeds (giving me a bit of a break too). Since loosing the shield Ollie has increase his weight and is back on track too, which is really good.

Sienna loves Oliver! She is always looking in on him and wanting to cuddle and kiss him and pick him up. She even wants to help by giving him his dummy (sometimes when he is asleep and doesn't really need it). She can say his name, which is really nice, and always shows concern when he is crying. She has adapted really well to this huge change in her life. There was a bit at the beginning, where she tested her boundaries quite a bit. But because Josh and I stuck to our guns with discipline, she got over it quickly and is being a really good girl.

I have been really lucky so far, because I have had a lot of help and support in Josh and I am in all honesty, really nervous about juggling the two of them as he has gone back to work this week. I don't think I could have made it this far without him. We have got into such a good routine with the two of us over the past month and now I am going to have to get used to a whole new routine with just me and them both. But I have talked to a lot of my mum friends, who have more than one child and have learned that I just have to take one day at a time and it will get easier. Sienna started day care today. She will be there one day a week and I know that I am lucky enough to have my sister nearby who can come and help when she's not working and I also have my mum who is willing to come visit and help me out a few days a week, so I won't be alone with both of them too often, but it is still a daunting and overwhelming thought.
To all of those people who have reached out and tried to organise times to meet up and see Ollie... I am just still getting my bearings and once I am in a routine without Josh, I will definitely get back to you.

As for me... I had second degree tearing when he was born so I have been healing up from that which took a while. But now I am back to my old self I am even back to my pre pregnancy weight! So that feels amazing! I seem to be loosing a lot of hair. My hair has always been thick but during my pregnancy when I brushed it, there didn't seem to be a lot coming out in the brush, but now I can fill a whole brush each day! The same thing happened with Sienna though, so I am not too worried about going bald or anything ha ha.
As I said before, I had some issues with feeding at the beginning and I was really worried about getting mastitis, but I seem to have avoided that one for the time being luckily. Because of all the feeding sessions I am having with Ollie, my back is having some problems but I'm sure its nothing that a good massage couldn't cure (hint hint ha ha), I think its just tight muscles.
Not having the bump in the way has been soooo good!! I can now pick Sienna up without any issues and I can rough and tumble with her again and chase after her easily. I can bend over her cot to reach her again and can lay on my back again without feeling breathless after a few minutes!!
Most importantly though, I can eat everything again!!!!! My love for cooking has returned, because now I can cook whatever I want and eat it too!! I will have to go back into the hospital in a few weeks to check that the diabetes is definitely gone, but in the hospital my sugar levels were back to normal, and Ollie had no signs of high or low sugar levels either. Hooray!!!

And that's really everything... If you have anything you'd like to know about Ollie or anything else, just leave me a comment anywhere and I'll get back to you or answer it in another blog. I might not be doing updates on us weekly anymore because not a lot is changing week by week but I am going to still try and put up blogs on other things as often as I possibly can, and I will put up a monthly update at least.

The Scoop on Sienna - 16 Month Update

Josh and I were discussing yesterday, if we remembered what it was like before we had that extra little person wandering around the house. And to be honest, I vaguely remember it, but I really wouldn't have it any other way than how it is now. I love the fact that there is another little person in our household. That she has such a personality, which make no day boring or the same. A smile that just lights up any room. A laugh that makes you want to laugh along with her, even though most of the time you don't even know what it is she's laughing at. That little voice talking away, 60% gibberish, but you can put together what she is trying to get across most of the time. She is just such a good little girl and I am so thankful for her and blessed by her.

 

 

I'm not quite sure how tall Sienna is, as I can't get her to stay still long enough to measure her, but when she is next to her friends, I would say she is an average height. She weighs 11kg roughly, depending on the day. I noticed the other day that I am building up mummy muscles in my biceps from carrying her, which I am pretty proud of ha ha.

Our schedule is pretty much the same as it has always been. We wake up at roughly 8.30am each morning and play and have breakfast. Then by 10.00am she starts getting tired so goes down for her 1st nap of the day. Then we go and get done what needs to be done out of the house and get back for her afternoon nap at about 3.30pm. Our nighttime routine starts usually around 6.00pm and she is in bed by about 7.30pm . She sleeps most nights right through, although in saying that, there have been a few restless nights lately, where she has woken up a few times but just wants to be comforted and goes back down. But she is usually pretty good. I think shortly we will start to transition her to only one nap a day (which she does sometimes already).

As I mentioned in my Pregnancy Update blog (35 Week Pregnancy Update ) Sienna is up and walking now. It did take her a bit longer than it took some of her friends, but in saying that every baby is different and crawls or walks in their own time. Those first few steps left me feeling so proud as a mother. Watching my little girl taking that next step (literally) in her learning makes you feel amazing. Then being able to watch her move herself along the wall or along furniture and across short distances to get from one place to another, sort of built up a feeling of dread but happiness at the same time, because you now knew that nothing in your house is safe any more. And now she is picking herself up from the seated position, without any assistance. She is so independent. She doesn't need to hold mummy or daddys hand when she walks anymore and she can walk in whichever direction she likes. It opens up a whole new world of games to play with her and things to do in general with her. The park becomes so much more fun when she can get herself around and climb up on things without our help. Daddy chasing her around the living room becomes so much more lively (and its adorable to watch).

She is saying a lot of words. She has been talking since before she turned one. Saying things like "mum" "dad" "puppy" "more" "please" "no" and things like that. But now she will try to copy anything you say to her. She knows a few numbers and will happily count along with you. She can sing the Teletubbies theme some (which she does constantly). She knows all the actions to a lot of Wiggles songs (they are like a drug for toddlers, its amazing!) eg. Rockabye Your Bear, Do The Monkey, Hot Potato and Rock 'n' Roll Preschool. Judging by her reactions to what we say to her she understands what we are saying, but sometimes can have selective hearing. A lot of the time she will ignore her name being called if she knows it will stop her from doing something she wants to do but knows she isn't allowed to do.

Cuddles and Kisses will be given to pretty much any toy you give her. She is becoming really affectionate. She was never really a snuggly baby so it has been really nice seeing this affection from her, she never has liked holding hands or sitting and snuggling, but has always been quite independent. She loves pretending to give her stuffed toys tea and biscuits from a tea set she got for Christmas. She loves to sit down and read with us. She owns so many books (which I think is great being a bit of a bookworm myself) and will grab one off the shelf and sit on the lounge waiting for you to come and read it to her. She loves to be rough with daddy, too. They will wrestle and roll and play and all you can hear are giggles and play screams from Sienna constantly. I think Josh has been looking forward to this age because he can do this sort of thing with her now and she responds.

All in all, I am really happy with what she has learnt so far and am looking forward to the next steps in her progress, and seeing how she gets on with her new baby brother coming very shortly.