Big Week!

I don't want to get all political here, however, I must confess at the sheer excitement, and relief at Obama's victory in the US elections last week. Like many around the world, we couldn't help but sense we were distant observers of a spectacular moment in history.

The lurgies that have been hanging around our house served a great purpose for once: Luke was home with us as we watched the announcement live. Mia now looks for Barak Obama in the papers every morning and loves to shout out his name.

The Democrats' win marked a big week for us, well, maybe not that big, rather busy, so really like any other week.

First, I must confess I've been secretly feeding my real estate obsession, but as I've mentioned previously, I practice it with great control, I only look, I don't touch. This house attracted my attention. It's original 70's and the decor hasn't been touched since I suspect, in its time one fashionable family moved in.

On the way home from childcare one day, I decided to do a drive-by. Mia instantly noticed that we were going "the wrong way". When I explained my intentions, she kept telling me
"Ze Lo Shelanu", translation "it's not ours". How right she was. (check this: http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=105311468&f=20&p=10&t=res&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=30186437&s=vic&snf=rbs&tm=1226384854)

Mia has continued her deliciousness these past few weeks which I'm so appreciative of considering I'm only weeks away from returning to work. Luckily for me, I've been able to choose how and when. After an initial unexpected fit, I think I'm as fine about it as I can be. Childcare is sorted and I'm actually looking forward to working with my team. Of course, I'm absolutely shitting myself at the thought of missing the girls, and it doesn't matter how wonderful the care is, it's not me. Still, it's the modern woman's conundrum and I don't know how we could ever be guilt free, so we may as well seek some semblance of a career and not to mention some cash!

This ridiculous photo on the left came up on Getty images when I typed in 'corporate mom', is it just me or is this shot totally wrong?????? The other is also highly realistic of my life.

Back to the girls. Poppy is doing something new every day. New sounds, new moves, and is on the move, very little rolling but is sliding backwards nicely. She's also showing some great emotional intelligence, using her big beautiful blue eyes to catch peoples' attention, captivate with a coy look and, if all else fails, fake a cough. This also makes her laugh, which again, results in extra attention. I'm confident she'll go far in life!

Mia is still madly in love with her which makes my heart melt. The other day we read a book where the concept of a best friend was introduced. I asked Mia who her best friend was, her answer "Poppy". I shed a tear with a triple dose of 'naches'. Ahhhh! I hear you say, however, days later I asked her the same thing, and she told me her partially deflated green balloon was also her best friend....

Speaking of naches, I'm now getting almost a daily boost with unprompted "Ima, I love you" as Mia looks me in the eye and takes my hand in hers. Her timing is always interesting, for example, the other day she said it while I was skinning a chicken... I must have looked extra lovable as I scrunched my face in disgust (at the chicken, not Mia).

Other than our daily routines we've had a few more play dates of course, some fun outings (ballet is becoming more social with after-class lattes and playground). Most memorable was a rainy Friday spent in the city with the girls. We took the train in, which again, was a highlight in itself. Mia loved the pet shop, the walkway connecting Melbourne Central with Myer, and of course acquiring some matchbox cars. Both girls were beautifully behaved and it was sheer joy just hanging out together.

When we got home I drew a map for Mia for her cars to travel on. She chose significant locations to place on the map including the homes of some of her favourite people, ballet, childcare, the pool, the beach, the city, the ice cream store (I did say significant) and a few others. This map represents her world I guess and she is able spend whole mornings and afternoons visiting all her favourite places.

This is my favourite car, it's a Mercedes E430 wagon for our family weekends. She also chose a little 2 door Volvo C30 for when Luke and I go on childless hot dates, and finally an orange truck for the farm.

Another adventure was had at the Collingwood Children's Farm. Mia loved the goats, was afraid of the sheep (and the sheep were angry at Oscar), curious about the pigs and indifferent to the geese.

This is Poppy meeting a goat for the very first time!

Great fun with the little girls certainly earned me some fun with some bigger girls as I caught up for dinner with a couple of girlfriends while Luke baby-sat. Good food, lots of laughs..... well past my bed time, but it was worth it.

She's back!

Mia is back to her old gorgeous self, hurrah!

I almost forgot how deliciously beautiful, kind, compassionate, affectionate and hilariously funny she can be. What is it about children that when they are in a phase, all evidence of their other selves seem to disappear from memory and you actually believe that your destiny is cast for all eternity?

I guess Mia is a little like me, really needs her own space and time. She suddenly looks so small in her room on her own, and the room appears larger than ever (despite the enormous crown, a la She's a little Princess on ABC TV with narration by Julian Clary).

Poppy is less gracious about her new found abode and is continuing to call in favours (last night four times!). We've established a system where Luke attempts to settle her first, then if all else fails, she gets boob. As a result, we are both still absolutely shagged and have come down with some nasty lurgy. Thank goodness for good friends (Anna) who have come over on Cup-Day, soup in hand to lend us some energy by taking Mia and Oscar to the park.

Still, we've had some precious moments of late with the highlight involving one coffee bean (yes, one of those behind Poppy in her bath, very convenient for her to bathe there, only a single reach for a quick latte after bath). Mia inhaled a coffee bean! She loves to sniff things and sniffed rather too enthusiastically. Panic followed, as she squealed with her index finger up her nose hoping it would magnetically pull the bean out. However, it was too far gone. Luke chucked her in the car and off the doctor's they went. After a few minutes in the waiting room, it occurred to Luke that she appeared rather calm and happy playing in cubby house when he asked her: " Mia, is the coffee bean still up your nose?" "No" she replied, she had in fact swallowed it.

It was also amusing to see her play with a couple of old favourite boyfriends this weekend (she clearly has a maaaasive crush on Max). As usual, within minutes of them greeting one another, they had nuded up, Mia parading around Sharon Stone style in her little orange dress. She was so excited to have an audience as she sat on the window seal channeling little orphan Annie (by that stage we managed to redress her), looking reflective.

I missed an excellent opportunity for a Youtube moment when she rode around on her tricycle spinning her undies around on one finger yelling out "woohoo!"

I do hope to capture some of Poppy's funny faces as she eats, yes, I did say EATS! We were thrilled this week when she finally agreed to actually swallow the food rather then tease us by sitting nicely in her bouncer, smiling and gurgling with it sitting not so pretty on her tongue. Favourites are yogurt and potato, but we've also had some limited success with carrot, banana and apple.

Stuffed!

I'm stuffed for three reasons: One, because I consumed approximately 3000 litres of Connoisseur's Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream and the other two reasons are called Mia and Poppy.

Poppy has decided that we had it too good and it's time to re set expectations by waking for feeds not once but twice a night! In fact, one night it was three times!!! And then, it's not enough to have boob, she wants full on entertainment, a four act play, a circus, a musical.... she's so cute yet so annoying.

In addition, Poppy wont eat solids! My daughter! It never occurred to me that I would have a fussy eater. Anyway, I will continue to try every week or so until she changes her mind.

I've already ordered the high chair (walking around Parenthood and observing the other shoppers, it occurred to be what interesting behaviour us parents engage in. The women resemble birds looking out and collecting carefully selected sprigs for their nests, and the men, their lost partners wondering how they're going to pay and carry their designer sticks home). It will be nice once she can sit at the table with us and eat!

Meanwhile, Mia, after being so deliciously gorgeous the night my Dad and Ada departed, ("Ima are you sad? Are you OK? It's awight, it's OK, you want cuddles?".....then with a huge smile: "It's going to be awight!" she declared), then turned to evil exorcist child. Demanding, bossy and outright rude, Israeli style. Initially amusing, this behaviour soon began to grate on us and I suddenly felt I'd been transported to her adolescence and it aint pretty over there.

So I walked out last weekend. Huffing and puffing I handed Poppy over to Luke and decided I was officially storming out. I got as far as the driveway when I realised I wanted Oscar to come with me. Oh, and then I also forgot a plastic bag so I can pick up his do. And then I finally walked out the gate feeling that even my dramatic walkout was less than impressive. I'd love to say that after 15 minutes I came back a different woman, but I was exactly the same, just marginally less angry.

Thanks to some girly catchups I soon regained some perspective.

Anywho, we decided it was time to take charge. After my fantasy of a shared room for the girls reality hit that it wasn't to be. We stuffed Poppy into the study and this weekend is operation 'Changing Rooms' (was that a TV show? I recall matching chambray shirts for the teams....I'll see what I can dig up).

Here's hoping the girls have agreed that we've earned some sleep.

In addition to all this, we ran out of chocolate this week. It was partially deliberate but in reality, we were never meant to be a chocolate-free household.

So all of this certainly contributed to me dreaming of escape (beyond our little block). The travel section of the weekend papers was handy for ideas and soon enough I had my Dad's dream of a family reunion in a Tuscan villa pretty much sorted, except for some minor details such as $s and oh, yes, coordinating the family. So I sent an email proposal to the family with the intention of wetting their appetites. To cut a long story short, my sales skills are obviously rusty as the most challenging of clients (father) rejected the proposal (thanks sisters for your support, perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope?).

Shana Tova!

That's Happy New Year in Hebrew!

It's a start of a new year according to the Jewish Calendar and we celebrated with the family including special OS guests Saba and Ada.

Rosh Hashana (New Year) means a number of things in my family.

First and foremost my mother insists on getting new outfits. The fact she can no longer force me to buy, or buy for me a new twin set of sorts has meant that Mia and Poppy are on the receiving end of this long held obsession. She also believes it's a time to spring clean the house (again). Spring cleaning is more than simply conducting a thorough dusting or cleaning out a few cupboards, according to my mother anything short of a full inside (and potentially outside) paint job is your personal failure to welcome in the new year (and what will the community say about that?). Well, I failed here.

It's also of course a time to get together with the family and as per all other festivals, EAT (especially the sweet stuff to signify a sweet year)! And eat we did, and then we ate some more. Dinner at my sister's was delicious as usual (and extra yummy as we watched Mia add another boyfriend to her expanding collection).

I'm a great believer that how you begin something, is often how you finish. If that is the case, then the coming Jewish year should look like this:

Lots of: Time with family, food (especially chocolate, see time with family), laughs, worry (I'll come back to that one), outings, art and culture, procrastinations...... (again, I'll come back to that one), wins (Go Hawks, you make Luke so happy!) and most importantly NACHES (Naches definition: A type of pleasure that can only be derived from one's children or grand children)!
Not enough of: Sleep, time for Luke and I and time for myself, time for friends, I think I see a theme here: TIME!

So its been a hectic couple of weeks, mainly revolving around my dad and Ada. It's always an intense period as we try and squeeze 18 months into two weeks including some heartfelt conversations and bonding time for the girls. The highlights were many, including trips to the city (this is Mia at the Dream Festival, and Dad and Ada and the Deco exhibition), a visit to the children's garden at the botanic gardens, dinner at Mirka's, sharing Poppy's first solids meal (rejected) and indulging as a family in some serious bad Jew behaviour by visiting St Paul's Cathedral on Yom Kippur (day of atonement, holiest day on the Jewish calendar).

But more than anything else was seeing Dad and Ada with the girls. Everyday moments shared with them are so rare and precious, my heart melted in these ordinary occasions such as bed and bath time.


They are leaving today and as usual I feel tense and sad and can't help but think about all the things we didn't do.... these photos however, help to remind me of the great times we did share.



Their stay concludes our visitor parade which commenced way back in April, it's been fun.

Family Holiday

We're back from our first family of four holiday in sunny QLD.

We had a stressful start not only due to my hair's dislike of QLD weather (frizz factor ENORMOUS) but with issues at airport security. I carried Mia through security after she had some separation anxiety from our baggage and pram. Long story short, her metal water bottle set the alarm. I offered both before, during and after to put it through separately but was ignored by staff. Mia became rather hysterical as they demanded we take her belt and shoes off, grabbed her arm and started to swipe her for explosives! It was ludicrous and to add to the trauma, we almost lost our super camera as we left it behind in the panic. A gorgeous woman grabbed it for us and brought it over sympathetically. Anyway, we survived and recovered to enjoy the flight. Mia loved the take off and both girls were on their best behaviour (note Mia with her travelling 'doggie' the ride on suitcase, excellent purchase!).

For the rest of the time we were absolutely spoilt. The happy couple provided us with an apartment (with bonus hole in the wall to their apartment) opening up to the most glorious view one could imagine. Nothing between us and the beach (approx 30m away) besides a swimming pool where Luke taught Mia to swim (well, attempted).

Most mornings began with a sensational breakfast of fruit platter, teas, nuts and grains... a real education session (so much for your traditional cake in bed my dear friend).
We felt like we were in a health resort. A number of trips to the beach, the pool, cafes and our lovely view soaked up much of our time. We also enjoyed the Currumbin sanctuary where amongst other highlights, Mia fed the Kangaroos and saw "Man Bird" as she called him (see Luke's interpretation).

Mia seemed rather exhausted most of the time (still struggling with those naps) which unfortunately also presented itself with quality grumpiness, while Poppy once again called in for room service every night. This time I minded less as I sat on the Balinese day bed and watched the moon shine its light on the waves. One morning she also timed it well for sunrise.......spectacular!

Other memorables were:
Beautiful lunch in Currumbin with the happy couple (the views again!).

Sculpture festival & kites on the beach.

Mia's introduction to Nemo or as Mia calls it "Emo"(also know as the self loathing, black liner and heavy mascara wearing little fish).

Lunch with Saba & Ada in Brisvagas. It was a treat to catch up with these enthusiastic travellers who had by then seen more of QLD than our little family combined. Mia was initially shy but warmed up, and Poppy couldn't believe her resemblance to her Papa Smurf.A solo beach walk.

Hearing Pete do bed time stories with Mia. One hour in and Mia was in the depths of sharing her most treasured of life's gifts: "I like it aeroplane, I like it bus, I like it taxi, I like it Kangaroo, I like it chocolate, I like it ice cream......"

Mia with her new baby doll (initially called Eadie, is now called Sophie) she received from the happy couple, with three squillian accessories. Excellent role playing Mia!



And just spending quality time, chocolate & wine with our special and most thoughtful of friends. Thank you, thank you thank you, we can't wait to see you again soon.

Almost there..

Another busy few days, I can hardly remember what we've done, and how is it that suddenly I'm all stressed out over preparations for our holiday?

I'll try and summarise as I only have a small window of opportunity to write this (Poppy will be bored soon).

And bored she was, it's taken me a week to write this post! I've now got so much to jam into this, please excuse the sloppiness.

Highlights:
Taking Mia and Poppy to the city. We intended on visiting the Jim Henson exhibition, but they were only showing Muppet Labyrnith. Contingency plan? Well, we weren't short of ideas. The train ride in its self was a treat: "Mia do train (pronounced dough), Mia like it train, Poppy do train have it too (yes we realise she has a touch of the Joda about her speech), a special babycino (is this the coolest one you've ever seen?), giant ferris wheel, carousal (just like the one in Mary Poppins), ice Cream, playground...



Other highlights: Lunch in Fitzroy, Playdate at the park, a surprise home delivery of declicious and gorgeous looking cupcakes from our friends, Luke and Mia's gardening afternoon (with her new wheelbarrow), watching Mia at an open ballet class (too cute for words), our last Gan Gani on Jew Wed (when we caught this exhibition at Hudson and visited Safta), Mia's amazing drawings (this rainbow is a favourite, and dinner with family (how many family member's does it take to settle a baby?).
Another matter of significance, is my preliminary return to work discussion.....scary, exciting..... I'll return to this subject another time.

See you in QLD (or just after)

Confessions of a stay at home Mommy

If anyone can remember my first mat leave, you'll also remember I had a number of rules to help keep some order and control over myself, my life, the house, Luke and of course Mia. These rules included:
1. Thou shalt shower every morning
2. Thou shalt never wear trackies outside thou house
3. Thou shalt avoid all day time TV

I'm so very proud to say I kept to these rules throughout my entire seven months of mat leave (that's me with Mia, don't I look tidy? Did someone say Lindy Chamberlain???).

Well, second time around and these rules have flown out the window.

I confess I'v had some mornings where I haven't showered, and I felt good about it! I've also worn my trackies around the block (or two), to the milkbar and even out (to Sara's- sister in law). Clarification, when I say trackies I mean my 'leisure suit'. And...... yes I have watched daytime TV! Can I blame the Olympics? Post Olympics I almost forced myself to watch a bit of Oprah or Phil and sincerely (why?), I couldn't stand them. I also gave the morning shows a go- yuck, disgusting, brain morphing, dull, delusional and desperate; I detest them all. But then, I innocently stumbled upon two fabulously trashy and entertaining shows. The View and The Ellen Degeneres Show. The View is probably what channel 9's ill fated The Catchup was based on, but it has some more opinionated chicks including Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters and they talk about stuff including the American Presidential race which I'm also obsessed with and they welcome fun guests. Then Ellen comes on and she is so ridiculously self indulgent and sweet about it, I can't help but be amused. So it's a good hour of light and fluffy entertainment and I love it!

While I'm at it I may as well confess about the rest:

• Eating chocolate for breakfast (well, after some Weetbix, and behind Mia's back)
• Staying in my PJs past noon
• Playing with lego by myself
  
• Watching 5 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm in one day
• Sometimes leaving the dishwasher unstacked
• Only completing 80% of the daily washing
  
• Refusing to attach name tags on the girls' clothes
• Swearing like a wharfie (not in front of the children of course)

So this is what you're probably envisaging? That's me with the red jumper and the fag.


It goes on, by I wont bore you. As you can see, I'm far from perfect, but I'm happy.