make it perfect...

A hugely talented Aussie designer, Toni Coward of 'Make it Perfect' is having an insane giveaway of some of her patterns and products. To check out her blog and enter yourself, click here.

Here's hoping I win something!!!

projects...

While John was away last week in Japan, I stayed home with the children and got stuck into some sewing. I was determined to get a few projects completed and am happy to report that I finished what I set out to do- always a bonus! I made a few little pieces for some local markets- 5 girls skirts and some of my 'signature' baby bib's. I was so pleased with how they all turned out. I have to admit, I won't be disappointed if they don't sell- it means Carrington can have them!!!Now I need to get going on my Christmas projects... it never ends... and I love it!

hi-5...

One, two, three, four, high-5!!! Aussie children's entertainers, Hi-5 are among Lachlan's favourite people to watch on tv. Thanks to our Media Centre, we have about 45 episodes of their tv performances and Lachlan insists we watch at least one per day. So when we saw that they were coming to Castle Towers Shopping Centre, we simply had to go! We were so excited and left home early to ensure we had good seats. Hi-5 were due to appear at 11am, so we were there by 9:15am, and were very pleasantly surprised- the cast were all there! They were so friendly and immediately approached us, introducing themselves and showing a keen interest in Lachlan (and even Carrington who was oblivious to it all and happily sitting in the pram!). We got to chat with them and have photo's. Lachlan and Lauren even made up a secret hand-shake! Lachlan was shy at first, but soon warmed up to them, and followed them as they mingled with the growing crowd. Even though they were busy, they still remained aware of Lachlan and kept giving him cuddles and chatting to him. I was really impressed by how nice they are!

Tim, Lachlan, Stevie and Lauren.










Lachlan had a nervous 'hand in the mouth' thing happening, so Tim, Stevie and Lauren followed his lead, posing the same way.








Stevie's little shadow. Lachlan wanted to be wherever he was.















Lachlan having cuddles with Lauren before the Hi-5 cast had to leave to get ready for the show.










By the time 11am rolled around, Lachlan was so tired from waiting all that time, that he wasn't very interested in the show. I think he was still in awe of meeting his favourite people and hanging out with them. No doubt he will enjoy his beloved Hi-5 with even more passion now :)

my girl...

She's getting older- nearly 5 months. Time passes too quickly. I must savour every moment. My darling, my daughter... my best friend.

the beach...

It was the first hot day in a long time on Saturday 12th September. So we decided to make it a day of firsts. Lachlan had never been to the beach (living in the Western Suburbs means that it is a bit of a hike), so we weren't sure how he would enjoy it. He LOVED IT!!!John and Lachlan wasted no time and were at the waters edge as soon as we got there. Although the weather was lovely and warm, the water was still quiet chilly, but that didn't stop Lachlan. He just wanted more. And more. He had a blast jumping over the waves or trying to outrun them.

Carrington probably had no idea what was going on, but she didn't mind digging her little feet into the sand- a new sensation for her. She always just goes with the flow...

I couldn't resist these nudie shots- what a cute little toosh! At that age, who cares what you're wearing (or not wearing) as long as you're having fun right?!

family photo's...

My dear friend Sarah took some lovely photo's of our family during August. I haven't seen all of them yet, but I am delighted with the ones I have already seen. She is so talented and I am very grateful she shared her amazing talent with my family and I. Click here to see some...

the update...

Here are a few photo's of the little ones. I have been really slack with updating my blog, so they are pretty random photo's but they show some of the things we have been up to...
Carrington is now 3 1/2 months old and I just can't believe how much she has grown and changed. She loves to chatter away with her baby babble and is a really settled and happy girl. She is going through the 'sucking on anything' phase, so I am guessing that her little teeth are starting to move around in her gums already. She gives the best smiles- her whole face lights up and it melts my heart! She is still in a great routine and since 10 1/2 weeks, has been sleeping through the night from 9:30pm until 6:30am... it makes all the difference to my sanity!!! I owe it all to a fabulous book I read before I had Lachlan called "On becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo. When I followed the principles with Lachlan, he too was really settled and slept through the night within 12 weeks. I highly recommend this book to all mothers!!! This is why I LOVE having a little girl- to dress her up! I found this pretty fabric before I had Carrington and made this Amy Butler dress in the hope of having a girl. She wore it for the first time to church on Sunday 23rd August and looked oh so pretty!

Lachlan loves so be really involved with everything I do with Carrington. His latest thing is wanting to give her the bottle. Doesn't he look so proud?!

On the 28th July, Lachlan had to go to hospital to have grommets put in his ears. We had his hearing checked in June as he hadn't really started speaking much and was not at the level of communication that was typical of his age. The results showed that he had significant hearing loss due to a middle-ear infection that had gone undetected (we have since changed Doctors). So after a visit to a ENT surgeon, Dr. Rundle, we booked him in for the procedure. John took Lachlan to the Minchinbury Community Hospital on Tuesday 28th July at 7am. As the youngest patient of the day, Lachlan got to have his operation first. At 8:15am John called me at home to tell me Lachlan had just been put under general anesthetic and that all was going well so far. By 9am, Lachlan was back in his room recovering. I was surprised when they arrived home at 11:20am with Lachlan his usual energetic self playing and running around. It was hard to believe he had just been in hospital! Since then, we have noticed his hearing has improved greatly, and so has his speech. He is picking up more words and his volume has come down too now that he can hear how loud he is :) The grommets will fall out by themselves within the next 6-9 months. I was so proud of my little boy for being so brave! This photo was taken at 6:30am before the boys left for the hospital... Lachlan had no idea what was about to happen- ignorance is bliss!

she's here...!!!

Carrington Lorraine Smith has arrived! After a fairly short labour (only 3 1/2 hours from my waters being broken to her arrival) we got to meet our precious little girl. Her stats: born at 12:32pm on Friday 1st May, 2009; 8 pound 8 ounces (3.86kgs); 52cms long; 35cm head circumference. With dark hair, deep blue eyes and a 'cuddly' body, Carrington looks just like John did when he was a baby. She is such a good girl and is already into a routine. She feeds well, settles easily and sleeps, well, like a baby.

As you can see from this photo, it was a lot of hard work! I managed to do it all without an epidural, but I had a shot of Morphine 20 minutes before she arrived, which left me feeling very sedated and sleepy. I was able to feed Carrington straight away before having to be wheeled away into surgery. Carrington's shoulders got stuck as I was pushing her out and her heart rate dropped considerably, so they had to just reach in there and grab her out, resulting in a 4th degree tear.

Lachlan loves his new sister. He is so gentle with her and is very curious. He loves to give her kisses, cuddles, hi-5 and knuckles. I hope they always share this special bond.

count down...

I am now down to my final days before our baby arrives. At my recent Hospital appointment on Tuesday (28th April), the Doctor booked me in to be induced tomorrow- Friday 1st May. He was fairly confident that I would go into labour naturally before then as I was already 3cms dilated, but I think the baby has since developed stage freight and decided to stay where it is nice and cozy. The reason for the induction is that it seems I have developed Cholestasis again- the same condition I had with Lachlan which saw me induced at 37 weeks with him. This time around I have at least gone further in the pregnancy and tomorrow I will have reached 39 weeks.

With that in mind, we wanted to take some 'family' photo's as a memory of our last day before the exciting arrival of baby number 2.

I am feeling so many things right now, from elation (that I get to meet baby sooner than expected), to terror (remembering what really is involved in getting a baby from "in there" to "out here"), to anxiety (what happens if they don't end up inducing me and I am all preped and ready), to delight and happiness.

Wish me luck as I await the arrival of this precious child we are all eagerly awaiting.

updated pics...

Things have been a bit hectic around here lately... John has been busy converting part of our garage into another room, we have had family come and visit, and I have been hooked on reading the "Twilight" series. So I thought I'd add some pics of other things we have been up to in the past couple of months...
One of John's work colleagues go married last weekend, so we got to dress up! Lachlan was babysat by his Auntie Caley so John and I could enjoy mingling with adults without having to run after him (which is getting increasingly difficult for me!). This dress makes my bump look HUGE.. I am currently 32 1/2 weeks.

Swimming lessons! We started Lachlan in lessons mid February. He went to 2 before we had to stop due to John's chaotic work roster and other 'home reno' projects. Lachlan LOVES being in the water and we look forward to getting him back into lessons soon. (He had to wear a swimming cap as part of the pool regulations, hence the funny look on his face.)

Ahoy there Captain Feathersword! Lachlan went to a friends dress-up birthday party in February. Being only 22 1/2 months old, he doesn't know who any of the super-hero's are, but he does love the Wiggles! I made this little outfit for him and surprisingly he left most of it on for the duration of the party.

australia day...

Yesterday we celebrated Australia Day as a family by having a good old Aussie BBQ lunch. John was due to start work at 2:30pm, so that's all we had time for. We tucked into some of our favourite foods, and couldn't go past enjoying some Tim Tams with our lunch. We got into the spirit of things by putting on removable tattoos of the Australian flag. John and Lachlan went with their arm, but I thought I'd be a little original...

Happy Australia Day!

i love ice-cream...

The title of the post says it all... Lachlan loves ice-cream! He has tried it in the past, but we have limited the amount he gets and he has certainly never had his very own. So today when everyone else was having one, I thought we'd give him a real treat. Thank goodness we were outside because it proved to be very messy. Lachlan absolutely loved the independence and took his time with it, not realising that the longer you take, the more it melts away... just like my heart when I look at him- awwww!!!

hot days...

The past 2 days have seen Sydney reach temperatures of extreme heat, reaching over 40oC in some areas. Our suburb probably got very close to that, and boy did we feel it! Here's a glimpse of how we combated the heat...

Day 1- yesterday

We invited John's sister Julie and her son Liam over to splash around in our clam pool. The boys had a great time, and we adults cooled off too by dipping our feet in at every opportunity.

Day 2- today

John didn't hold back this time around, and donned his board shorts to join Lachlan in the pool. We lazed around while enjoying some homemade ice-blocks. Needless to say all the fun in the pool really exhausted Lachlan and he slept for about 3 hours both afternoons- fine by me!

christmas day...

I realised that I hadn't put any of my photos of Christmas onto my blog. I don't have that many as we chose to capture most of the commotion on our video recorder. But here are a couple from the big day...

Christmas morning began around 7am when Lachlan woke up. We began opening presents pretty much straight away. Lachlan enjoyed ripping the paper off his presents, but wasn't that interested in any of the gifts until we started to set a few of them up, in particular his new keyboard. He was so excited with it and loved yelling his gibberish into the microphone, banging away on the keys and generally making a lot of noise! After our pancake breakfast, we got ready and headed up to Glenorie to Joanna and Andrew's home for Christmas lunch. After exchanging a mountain of gifts, we enjoyed a yummy traditional hot Christmas lunch. We were all so full after that! John got ready for work and left there around 2:30pm, returning again an hour or so later in his Police car...

After his visit (and a photo opportunity), John headed back to work and we headed home with a car full of generous gifts and left overs to keep us going for days. We all slept well that night...

the artist...

It doesn't take long for disaster to strike when an unaccompanied toddler meets up with a permanent marker. I realised this on Tuesday the 23rd December when I left my angel child to play by himself for all of 30 seconds while I quickly sent an email. This is what I found when I came out into the hallway...

If you happen to stop by before we get it off (which I think will only be when we re-paint), then you won't miss it- Lachlan managed to choose the wall you first see when you come in the front door. I told the budding artist he might as well stand next to his artwork seeing as though the damage had already been done (Sorry it's a bit dark).

The following day Lachlan proceeded to add to my pre-Christmas stress by sticking 2 sultanas up his nose. After a quick dash to our local Doctor, we were all in happier spirits again...

What would I do without my son Lachlan? Crazy as it seems, I really cherish these experiences. He won't be my adventurous 20 month old forever- time is so fleeting that I have learnt to find joy in my daily journey through life. When he is all grown up, with children of his own, I will have all of these memories to savour.