The heir to my title turns the Big 3!

Yes, its true.... 3 years of my life!
Seems like only yesterday that I was worried over whether or not she was getting enough room with my ribs in the way....
And now she is my big girl. And isn't she gorgeous!!!!

Lucy had a lovely birthday - lots of fun, laughter, presents and of course tears.
Isn't every girl allowed to cry on their birthday?

We are now a household of 4 Barbie dolls..... doesnt seem that long ago that I was playing with them.

She just loves them, and of course the Barbie dress that Aimee kindly gave to her (she went to the shops with money and everything!!!).

The dress was and still is a big hit - today is day 3 of wearing it... it will have to come off soon for a wash!

Unfortunately it doesn't come with washing instructions - strange???
Perhaps the makers realise -and correctly- that the little girls (or to be PC-children) who get given the dress will NEVER take it off, so the need to wash it will never arise..... who knows?

Anyway, we are off to her pa pa's house tonight for a family BBQ (in this weather??) birthday dinner for her, and we have an afternoon tea on Sunday with my family for her birthday.
Whew. What a social life that girl has :)

She has been and will be thoroughly spoilt.....
And all I have to say about that is - why shouldn't she........

yah!

Am off to my scrapbooking camp tonight....
So very bloody exciting!!!!

Jon is staying home and looking after the girls all weekend - and he even has 4 stitches in his thumb......he is such a hero!

He sliced it yesterday at work peeling the skin of salami, and thought it might only need steri strips - but when it had been bleeding for almost 2 hours he thought maybe a doc's appointment would be wise.
Poor thing now has to do the dishes with rubber gloves on. Lovely pink ones they are too.

Well gotta keep moving - camp opens in 3 hours and 42 mins - and I have to finish packing......
Actually I have to still do - the dishes, sterilise bottles, clean the house, finish dinner, pick up lucy, feed aimee, hang the washing out and pack my clothes and scrapping gear.

A Womans work is never done!

Well a woman who is going off to camp for the weekend and leaving the kids with their daddy all weekend has too much guilt not to get all those things done.....

Don't they always say it - the way to ruin the 'Mood'....

Is to have children....

Sunday morning we are having a sleep-in after a 1.30am night.

Lucy comes in at 7am....
"Can you check my bottom, I've just done poo's".........................................................................................................

Sigh!

Guess what my mum did????

She threw my purse and sunglasses in the rubbish bin - about 2 minutes before the great big garbo truck came and picked up her bin and took the rubbish away!!!! With my personal things in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my Gawd......

Having re read that it sounds like she hates me and did it to be horrible, but she didn't - it was all a complete accident, a whoops, a monumental cock-up... thats all.

So now I need to begin again.

If you look at the positives I have now got a good reason to go out shopping and buy another cute purse. I have also had a clean out of all those pesky shop loyalty cards (of which about 3 were almost there to getting me "free" stuff) and I get to renew my licence photo, which the old one really wasnt very nice.

If you look at the negatives - well I will cry! so I will only think good things and all the shopping I will get to do! (not - as I have no bank cards...).

Oh Well.
Although another positive is that it is the third thing to go wrong with money with us in the last 3 weeks.... we should be off the list now.

just give me second while I claw my way back up to the keyboard...

Ahhhhhh.....

Well I'm back. After a short fall from the desk chair into/onto(???) the unknowns of my study/cake room floor - I have finally found my way back.

And how nice it is too - to be once again entertaining the public with the hilarious antics of my wonderful little family.

Well what really happened is that in the process of transferring my 'Blog' to the new and improved Google thingo I forgot the password, and the log in user name. Which I might add has gone from a name to an email address - what a way to confuse a gal.

Yes I will admit that I'm not too computer savvy, and I although I did try the many wonderful and varied ways to write my name, the kids names, the family name and all the different styles of email addresses we have had over the years - I just couldn't get it right. If one was the other wasn't.
So Very Frustrating.
My other rather large problem is that I have two little children. I need not say more but I will.
Time would seem to be plentiful when you don't work and stay home all day - but unfortunately it really isn't.... and I couldn't seem to find a spare hour to sit and nut out my email/password dilemma without one crying or the other coming in to say "What doing mummy?".

But enough whining.... on with the blogging.

Well much has happened in the 8 weeks or so since I fell off the chair (actually its a fit ball - how clever of me to time manage exercise and computerising).

Aimee is now 3 1/2 months old, is rolling onto her side, waving her hands madly round in the air and then staring at them for minutes while she tries to work out just what the hell they are, and is chatting loudly - Yes that's right - two no three big chatters in the family!!!!
She is a pretty cute thing, and is becoming a wonderful member of our family. She is a happy girl, doesn't cry alot and puts up with Lucy in her face all the time but will not sleep thru the night.
While this could be a bad thing, it is the only thing I can complain about so I consider myself very lucky. And besides I get to spend more quality time with her - that is if I could keep my eyes open...

Lucy is closing in on the BIG 3.... wow how time flies. (What a crappy cliche) It really it does.
I'm not quite sure just when in my young and carefree life that I became a mum with a three year old and a newborn.............. a mother of two. Ahhhhhhhggggghhhhh!

Anyway she is great fun to be around. She loves cutting and gluing bits of paper to bits of paper - much like her mum really;), and she now has a couple of imaginary friends.
I'm really not sure how these came about, or who taught her about them but they are part of our life!!!
One is 'Bobby', I think he comes from the story Jon's mum told her about what happened to a man they saw in a wheelchair. She told Lucy that he had been in a car accident, and when Lucy was telling Jon (the great pun man) he told her his name would be bob if he went swimming.

Another is 'Kelly' - she was imagined today - and I had to be careful when opening her bedroom door that 'Kelly' didn't get out.... also when I put Lucy to bed I had to 'yell' at 'Kelly' to get out of Lucy's bed.

See why I don't have time to look for my password - I spend my days babysitting imaginary friends.

Other fun things we have been up to:
*A wedding trip to Melbourne - with no kids. Yipyahooey. What a great weekend. Congrats to Mel and Matt too - thanks for a great day!
*Painted the front half of our house and our bedroom - the colour is great and I (we) love it no matter what other people may think.
*Made many beautiful wedding cakes
*Had a meat fest at Goucho's
*Been camping at Woodhouse for Easter
*Gone on the Dolphin River Cruise at Port Adelaide - only $3 and well worth the queue!
*Had my 31st Birthday
* and my sisters wedding.
So many more wonderful things - but I really do not want to ramble on my first entry back.... ha!

So there you go - for all the people asking just where have I been - now I'm back!
Stay tuned for more thrills people.....

She's here!

Yes Finally I have time to sit quietly and type up a blog about our newest arrival.... only 3 weeks after the fact! But there you are - thats life with a couple of kids.

Aimee Kate Hogan was born on January 11th 2007 - after a somewhat drawn out first stage of labor and an excedingly fast second stage of labor... that was to quick for pain relief...yeouch!

But thats all the details I'm willing to put up to the world - although if you do wish to know any more of the gory yet interesting details, come and have a chat.

I will put in though that she weighed 8pound 15ounces, or 4060gm!!!!
Which compared to my firstborn - she was 1/2 a kg heavier, that is why I say... yeouch!!

Another way of stating it... If I had a 4kg of watermelon I wanted to buy - @ $2.99 a kg - she would of been $12 worth of watermelon... thats a whole lot of watermelon
Or she was just under a 5kg bag of potato's.....

Anyway, life has settled into a routine already. With Aimee waking to feed at intervals of 3 hours, (the 3am one is a killer!) Aimee is bottle fed - so the greatness of this is that Jon can get up at 3am too and feed her. Yeehar. It is lovely to have 5-6 hours of unbroken sleep. What a man!

Lucy is coping. Just. I think she is harder than Aimee.

The temper tantrums have seriously increased, and so has getting out of bed at night.
C'mon we all remember getting out of bed to *get a drink *go to the toilet *get one last goodnight kiss *come and kiss the teddies *to tell anyone something or other.....
Its just that it wears you down at 9.30pm when you are just as tired.
And dont she know it.

The books all tell you to keep a deadpan face and tone of voice, tell them to go back to bed and walk out. But after the 25th time - its pretty hard not to make an idle threat - you know you wont stick too.
So we battle along. It is nice to know that we are not the only ones to go through it - there have been whole books devoted to the subject.

Its funny when you are not a parent and you watch others do their parenting thing and you say to yourself..." I will not do it that way... they are too tough on their kids".
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ahhhhhhhhhhhh hmmmmmn.
Yep I said it.
How wise I thought I was......

Anyway enough of that.

Jon has just painted our bedroom. Only 12 months after we bought the new curtain material. Tis not all his fault - I had a tough time choosing the paint colour, as it is pink. Not an easy task - cos you dont want it too fairy flossy - and you dont want it too dark so it seem the walls are closing in on you.
But it looks great. Not everyones taste I know - but hell I dont give a hoot.

The ensuite and walk in robe is next on the list - but in a lighter tone. And then the entrance way and lounge.
I cant wait.

Well I have to be heading off as I have a 3 hourly alarm clock sounding somewhere in the house... Will post some pics later.

Hear Ye - Hear Ye

Well January 10th 2007 is here and I'm officially 40 weeks pregnant.

I can say that I have never ever been this pregnant in my life before - and probably won't ever be again.
A sad thing really.

These last few weeks have been pretty busy (and very slow at the same time) for us.
We got home from a fantastic two and a bit weeks on Holidays at the beach - of which I meant to write about, but I'm not so sure that will ever happen now!!
And we have spent the time relaxing, visiting, sleeping in, changing the house around (of course..) and generally getting ready for our new little arrival.

But just to add to all the excitement my delightful, fully inherited, have had them since I was 19 yrs old, Varicose Veins have decided that they really liked all the aspirin that I have been taking since week 9 of this pregnancy, and they are seriously not happy with the fact that now it is week 38, the good stuff has been stopped and they have had to work on their own to keep the blood flowing smoothly up and down my legs. They obviously all got together one evening and decided to boycott and block up - giving me an excruciating leg cramp from thigh to heel for a day and very painful blockages in the surface veins.

Due to the great fear of DVT ( Deep Vein Thrombosis) now going about, I was immediately admitted to hospital, given painkillers for the cramps and an ultrasound on my legs to make certain no little renegade clot would act like a suicide bomber and make its way up to my heart or brain. Thus damaging me and the little 'lump' (often referred to as "Aggie") I'm carrying around.

Luckily all was ok down in the Deep Veins running below my knee - and I was discharged from Hospital later that day - with the advice to take some paracetemol for the pain - and to come in if the pain gets worse.

Which of course it did. And did I go back in - No. Why? Cos I'm a stubborn one.

I did go back in for my ante-natal clinic 5 days later, at 39 weeks, telling them the cramps and painful blockages had been round for the last 5 days now and my brain was getting very foggy with the pain.
The Doc ran her hand along the length of my calf to 'feel' the blockages and I was left clinging on to the ceiling with my finger nails due to the pain. I was admitted again.

This time they did something better about it and ordered me back onto Clexane, which is an anti-coagulant (I think) which helps to keep my blood from clotting too much (people please do not attempt to write a medical thesis on my notes! I bake cakes remember.....) -but is a bit stonger then the simple old asprin.
But of course I make this out to sound as if it all happened in the space of 2-3 hours... Ha ha how wrong you all are.
I had my clinic at 9am, was admitted at 12 noon and had the first injection at 5pm. Time moves slowly in hosp.

After sitting in an uncomfortable, crunchy sounding, sweat inducing plastic covered hospital bed for 29 hours - I asked to go home. Which they willingly let me - they were busy in the maternity ward.
( Seeing I had a double room and had to listen to a young girl in the early stages of labor from 6pm to 4.30am.....all that moaning and heavy breathing is enough to put you off going into labor yourself!)
But I had to take the Clexane home and inject myself daily. This was of no worry to me as I had to do the same with Lucy's pregnancy.
Funny though that all my 6 injection points are marked with a small red spot - the one the midwife did in hospital is marked with a large ,raised red spot large and an even larger blue and purple bruise!!!

That was last Thursday.... and today I have had anther ante-natal clinic -my 40 weeker. Which was just as uncomfortable.
They wanted me to see the veins specialist - and the ante-natal docs, but unfortunately each doc kept pushing my name to the back hoping that the other one would see to me first.........................................................................................................So they wouldn't have to make the final decision. Keeping me waiting for 2 HOURS.

Oh yes really comfortable when you are on hard plastic hospital waiting room chairs, have a large head sitting in your pelvis and it is 39 deg outside.

Eventually I was seen, after going up to the counter and asking just what was happening, and they had already decided (when they realised their mistake and the time that I had waited) that they will induce me. HOORAY!

So Yes, by the time that this is read by most people I will be yet again sitting in that uncomfortable, crunchy sounding, sweat inducing, plastic covered hospital bed - but this time I should have a little baby in my arms....or so pretty bloody close to it that Jon should be ordering the flowers and some beers.... Ha ha.

So Yeah. Not much else to say now really.

Except that in only 24 - 30 more hours I can take my really attractive, sexy, thick support stockings off for the last time.

And burn the bastards............................ HE HE he heeeee heee haaa haaaaa Haaaa Hoooooo hoooooo Ha ha ha!
(Very manic laughter from someone about to under go immense amount of pain!!!!!!)

See you on the other side people, a side where I can lay on my tummy, Do up my sneakers, wash my legs, and walk for more than 20 metres with out being in pain........

Yahoooooooo.

39+4

Thats how my pregnancy hand held record reads......

39 weeks and 4 days....

and I'm still waiting!

I have an appointment on Wed, which will make me 40 weeks on the dot, so we will see what they have to say then.

C'mon 'Aggie'.... you know you want to.... all it takes is a little push down.....

Hows this for a big ol boost to your confidence?

As you can see from this picture - and its not pretty - I'm BLOODY HUGE.....

I have two weeks until I'm due to have this baby and all I can say is bring it on.

Back to the photo... Jon assures me that I dont really look that bad - its just the angle, my slouch and the fact that I'm wearing stripes horizontally.... but I dont really believe him.
They say the camera doesnt lie. Sigh.

It brings tears to my eyes each time I look at it - its that bad.....

If Lucy's pregnancy is anything to go on I should be in labour next thursday night - 6 days early - but who really knows. Its just a waiting game now.

A New Years baby comes with a bank account complete with some cash - if its the first born of the year that is. Not sure how much the account contains - will have to do some Google-ing to find out. If its a decent amount will then have to google all the insane ways to bring on labour.
Im sure Jon wont mind helping out with the most obvious one!

Well enough for now - even sitting at the computer is tough - Im very uncomfortable and restless.

Will keep you posted.

Ya-Hoo-Hey We're Going on Holiday...

Just quoting the 'Wiggles', although they say 'Ya-Hoo-Hey I'm Combing my Hair Today'... but its still close enough!

Only two days to go till the pilgrimage and boy are we all excited!

We just have to attend my cousins wedding in the heat and charred remains up in Clare and finish packing and we are off! Woooo Hoooo.
Can you tell I'm excited?????

So anyway wanna hear about my day yesterday? On reading back thru this blog I realise just how many of these days seem to happen. Its just not fair.

Will cover it like Jasons....

7.10am: Awoken with phone call from FIL (father-in-law) to say we left the extension of car seat in his boot on Sunday and he will drop it into Jon at work. Ta -thanks-no worries....

8.40am: Bumped into an old (being the correct word) Capers family friend at shopping centre who told me off for lifting lucy and heavy shopping as it will put the umbilical cord round babies neck!!!!
-Perhaps I should have asked her if she wanted to come live with me then - as all I do is lift Lucy and heavy things!!-

8.42am Put Lucy in car where she begins to run around it.

8.45am: Drop keys on front seat (via back door) as family 'friend' continues to go on and on.

8.50am: Say goodbye to family 'friend' - shut back door and realise - FUCK!!!! Doors have been locked by lovable 2 yr old...........................................
..........................inside handbag, keys, 2 yr old and phone (with no credit!)....................................

8.50-8.55am: (5 VERY long minutes) try to cajole, plead and bribe 2 yr old to pull up door lock (without making too much of a scene in getting crowded carpark) while frantically trying to think of what I will do if this and other tricks Dont work....

8.56am: Decide to turn on Girly Water Works (not actually all fake!!) - think that if it works for kids then it may work for me!!???!!

8.56 & 15secs am: Success....... Store that trick in memory bank....

9.30am: Lucy picked up by her Granny so I can have day off - Whew.

9.35am: My nephew dropped at my place so I can babysit him for the day while his mum and dad work and do work related stuff
(Dont get me wrong you two - he was fine and I was fine - Am just telling a story)

10am: Nephew begins to cry....Hmmm what else can it be when a one yr old has clean nappy, biscuit, water & toys???

10.30am: Still crying... Ahh found Dummy - No - he is crying so hard it wont stay in his mouth.

10.45am: Realise its sleep he needs - Begin to rock to sleep.

11am: Asleep - but as soon as I put him down on bed he wakes and begins that cry again. Still cant keep dummy in mouth.

11.10am: Ring mum in desperation. She suggests to use the pram.

11.30am: Asleep again. Ahhhhh

11.30 - 12.50pm: Peace reigns... while I bake 3 mud cakes for aforementioned wedding - make ganache and white choc slats.

12.50 - 3.10pm: Happy child playing with toys - Auntie Lea still baking - Choc everywhere.

3.10pm: Daddy of nephew arrives

3.15pm: Daddy of nephew leaves - on a mission to find a baby car seat to take nephew home

3.16pm: Nephew begins to cry again.......and keeps going and going...................arrrggghhhhh.......

4.10pm: Daddy and Mummy of nephew both turn up - Crying stops. Ahhhhhh.

4.30pm: Quick cat nap on couch

5.10pm: Lucy and Jon home - get woken to be told he has to leave in 5 mins......

5.15pm: Jon leaves for dinner out with old work friends.

5.16pm: Ring and cancel my evening work.

5.20 - 8pm: Some happy and some not so happy playing in pool outside.

8pm: Ring parents for help in buying Nappies.... disaster.... have none!

8.30pm Watch 'Da Kath and Kim Code' - Hilarious.

8.45pm: Lucy finally asleep.

10.10pm: Jon arrives home stinking of perfume......... Assures its just transfer from Hugs.

10.15pm: Me in bed with 2 panadol....... Cant deal with anymore of today.

Anyone wanna swap?????

Mo-Vember is done....

(Hmmm must work out how to upload images properly - not sure why they are out of order... Bloody computers!)

Well as you can see from theses pics Jon can grow a pretty good Mo - and he raised over $200 in doing so. Bloody good effort I reckon and well done Jonnie I am proud of you.

His team - the "Choppers Choppers" raised about $2000 between them all - not too bad for 5 men with some extra facial hair.
Most people know that all of this excess hair growing was in aid of raising awarness of mens health including prostate cancer, among other things. If you dont then perhaps you had better Google Movember.

I think they all did a top job - but thank goodness though that it is all over!
The money raising I can deal with - the chopper Mo I cannot.
Way to hairy scary looking... too old man lingering near toilets.... and too much like dodgy porn stars in C grade movies.
Phew! we can now all get back to our smooth clean shaven lives - er - Jon that is.

Other photos shown are of the wonderful gingerbread house that my sister Kayla made tonight. I think she was a little unsure at first of where to begin - but as soon as those first lollies went on she just kept going and going and going.
I think it looks great and I'm sure it will taste delish.

Well off to bed now - These 34 weeks of pregnancy are taking their toll!!!!

**Gingerbread Fest 2006**

Well here you have it - our marvellous creations.... for 2006!

Wish we had taken photos of last years efforts where the roofs caved in under the weight of lollies!!, but sadly we neglected to.

So this year Google was my friend and I found a great website - gingerbreadlane.com - which supplied me with an 8 page instruction manual on how to bake and build a great Gingerbread House.

And it worked.

So after an afternoon of hard labor - bit of sweat (it was 35deg) and a LOT of lolly eating - we made them. And dont they look delicious.

My family are gonna love eating the lollies - and all that will be left will be the boring as gingerbread..... ha ha ha.

Catching up...

I haven’t written for a while because life is just soooo busy. And the funny thing is – it’s about to get a whole lot busier!!!

This baby is only 8 weeks away from arriving and the doubt about how easy life will be once she arrives is starting to set in.

We went away overnight this weekend just gone, to Goolwa – and it was great. It was to have been a girl’s weekend, organized by another friend, but everyone pulled out bar me (what commitment!). So we decided to go halves in the cabin – and her family stayed Friday night and mine stayed Sat.

We stayed in a cabin in the local Tourist Park, which I must say is something we never do. Well we stay in Tourist Parks – but only ever camping in a tent or in our camper trailer. I think that this is a throw back from both of our childhoods.

I - Having grown up in a family of 6 – and throw in the Scouting factor – Tenting was the only style of home we knew when staying in a Tourist Park.

And Jon’s family were big on rough-ing it. They didn’t even get to stay in caravan parks.

So on entering into the cabin I knew nothing of the greatness I was about to see…. They have their own bloody toilets and showers!!! How good is that?

And to those of you who have either been or are pregnant – your own personal toilet is wonderful.

No walking across other peoples space, in the dark, at 2.30am to empty a bladder that feels so bursting that you can’t roll over or sleep – only to find that the ‘very full’ bladder only contains about 20ml of liquid!! Arrrgghh.

But anyway apart from wonderful amenities, we did have a great weekend.

We walked down the main street of Goolwa – stopped at the local “Dolly & Lolly” shop (what pure bliss!), and ended up on the River front.

There we discovered a new Brewery, Called “Steam Exchange Brewery”, has only been open for 6weeks and is housed in an old warehouse. It was really funky. Jon sampled a few of their beers – which is made much easier to do so cos they do ‘tasting’ glasses for $2.00. Bargain. He found them to be very delicious. Lucy and I settled in to drink our cool glasses of water and eat the chocs bought from afore-mentioned Lolly Shop.

On our way back to cabin Jon wanted to stop and test out his new, you beaut stunt kite. No expense was spared on this baby…He bought it from those door-to-door sellers for the princely sum of $12.00.

Lucy and I played on the playground while Jon wrestled with the bloody thing. It was a pretty gusty afternoon down in the south – so he was having all sorts of trouble getting up into the sky.

I kinda felt sorry for him struggling on his own – but with a belly as large as mine (I'm 32 weeks prego) its just so hard to keep running after a kite, let alone bend down and pick it up.

He did persevere for about 20 mins and to give him credit he didn’t get cranky at all. But we decided that it is best left in the packet until we hit the beach – where there will be all other family members at the ready to help… Sorry Jonnie – I’m just too ungainly when running at the moment!!!

Sat night was Fish & Chips – ‘Red Faces’ re-runs, a little of ‘Wizard of Oz’ and then all of ‘Happy Gilmore’. Good.Good.Good.

Rarely do we get to sit and watch a movie at home, so just to do this was great.

Sun morning was spent leisurely eating hot crumpets (ooohh that sounds rude – no nothing happened –we have a two yr old and a big fat belly remember), and slowly packing up.

We headed into Victor to catch the Horse Tram across to Granite Island. Which was fantastic. Children under 4 are free – which is even better…

The weather was absolutely beautiful – no clouds and about 28deg. Pity we didn’t take sunscreen!! We hiked up the stairs to the top and posed for some pici’s, and then came down to sit in the shade to await the return trip on the tram.

It wasn’t a long stay on the island as it was just too hot for me to walk for any length of time – but it would have been lovely!

We had a picnic lunch on the grass in front of the Crown Hotel – and headed home.

Stopping at friends in McLaren Vale for a cuppa, Medlow Chocolates for a top up on lollies & Jon’s parents for dinner.

Wow what a great weekend.

Freedom is great - but is it worth it???

Having just had the last two weekends off from Parental Duty this is where my question comes from....

Lucy has three sets of Grandparents (divorced parents remarried/repartnered) & two out of the three are teachers.
So seeing it has just been school holidays we thought we would take advantage of their time off to ship our little blondie off to them to have some quality time. For us & them.

Lucy spent two nights & two & half days with each of the Grandparents - & as far as everyone is concerned - a GREAT time was had by all.

Going back to my question... is it worth it?
Well yes absolutely but it certainly makes the coming back down to the parental world of responsibility a VERY bumpy, long & tiring ride! You see its so easy to forget how much work a two year old is.

We had only been home with Lucy for 2 hours yesterday when Jon & both looked at each other & said "Oh my goodness - she doesn't let up does she?"
Our house has been quiet, clean & calm for the last 48+ hours & now within the space of TWO it had been turned on its head.

In that space of time Lucy had managed to say 'Huh' about 150 times.

('Huh' is Lucy's response to ANYTHING that Jon or I say. And even if we repeat two or three times what we have just said - we are still met with a 'Huh'.
AAARRRGGGHH!)

She had also cried a very false & annoying cry about 25 times - or each time she just slightly tripped over the smallest speck - or bumped into the merest corner of any piece of furniture.

She commented numerous times 'I want to e-e-eat'.

She changed outfits.

She had stripped off nude.

She had spilt water all over the floor when trying to pour her drink from one cup to another.

She had swept a newly mopped floor & left bits of fluff all over it.

She watched the Wiggles.

She rode her bike outside.

She learnt that when you put your finger onto a spinkler valve it squirts in all different directions...even over yourself.

She pooed in the shower.

She pulled the vacuum cleaner cord out & let it retract back in about 20 times.

Phew! Thats a pretty busy two hour time line.
It certainly lets you know that you have entered the parenting world again... BAM! (thats me crashing into the parenting wall!)
We were stuffed by the time she went to bed at 7.30pm. Only 3.5 hours after she had come home.

So again back to my question... the re-adjusting - from being single, carefree, get out of you car & walk away without getting anything else out of it, coffee without walking round the cafe & sleeping in - to the full on responsibility of a two year old would have to be about the hardest thing you have ever got to do.

But will I pack her off to that wonderful place called a Grandparents home again????
With the knowledge that we will have to go through the trying adjustment period again....

ABSO - F*******- LUTELY.... Bring on the Xmas Holi's!!!!

We all had a wonderful time - & we really do appreciate the time to just be US again!
Thanks Rob & Liz, & Liz & Don - we love you guys!

Long Weekend Recovery

Well we had a really busy long weekend...but it was good.

Jon had to work all 3 days & Saturday night, so I have been on Lucy shift pretty much full time. I feel I need a holiday now too.
Seeing she is a typical 2.5 year old - the day just seems to drag by about 4.30pm, which is when witching hours begins.

She's bored - she's hungry - she's too awake to go to bed & too tired to be nice. All in all she is just 2.5....

What didn't help matters is that we have been busy either having people over or going to other peoples places or babysitting young friends...so her tiredness was escalating & my tolerance levels were depleting.

But yeah...thats what you get I suppose!

So anyway on Sun night we had two of the girls from my mums group & their husbands & their kids over for a BBQ. It was a fantastic night - with the two girls letting their hair down & getting way beyond tipsy.

Being the sensible prego woman that I am - I kept it down to one small glass of red (sigh!) & sat back & watched the merriment.
Jon too also helped in emptying those 4 bottles of red - & boy what a laugh we all had.

One of the husbands was celebrating his birthday that day & had already spent a great deal of the day at the pub, so his involvement in the merriment was fairly quiet - but he had the odd comment to throw in.
And the other husband was the DD - so he like me - watched three pissed minda's from a sober position. Which as most people know its not nearly as much fun as when you have a few under your belt to loosen you up.

With all three kids tucked into various beds around the house we kicked on to the great time of midnight - wow! I know everyone must be saying - what party animals.
But when you know in the back of your mind that you have to get up to that 2.5 year old in the morning (and its 6.30am at the moment cos of the early rising of the sun!) the mixing of midnight & alcohol - is a BIG thing.

I must admit tho I did give a 'mum' warning to Jon at 11pm to remind him that he had to be up at 6.30am to go to work. Awful I know....
But once upon a time evenings on the piss would be easy - get up in the morning & keep going - but the age factor creeps up on you & suddenly you find that recovery is not as easy as it once was.
But Im sure a couple of panadol, berocca's & some serious bench leaning helped mightily the next day.
An afternoon 'grandpa' nap was taken too - Before heading out again for another get together.
I did notice tho that my bottle of softdrink was being drunk way faster than it should of.
Even hair of the dog gets harder...doesn't it Jonno!

So it was a good weekend... Long but good!

Now honestly...Why wouldn't you have one!

Children...Ahh!

One of life's little miracles - & also one of the best ways to get comedic stories... to tell her at her 21st.

Lucy, while in the bath last night, was scratching her butt. When her fingers got a little too far round the bend & she commented to Jon...

"Look daddy - Little hole"

No need for Anatomy 101 in our house.

"Its a ......"

Its a GIRL!!!!!

Yes now I can introduce you to little "aggie"... don't panic - its just a nickname. You will find out what her real name is when she is born!
We even know it yet.

I don't think that I need to put a mud map picture to this ultra-sound - although I could learn to use the scanner on photoshop a little better.
But it is obviously the profile of her little head. That has a circumference of 5cm. Soo Tiny!

I am now 21 weeks into this journey and I am getting larger, looking larger & feeling larger.
Its really amazing how you forget all the little tiny niggly things that go hand in hand with pregnancy. Heart palpatations, terrible dreams, sleeping on your side while your ever expanding gut hangs lopsidedly, head colds that you just cant take anything for..... I shall stop now for fear of putting anyone off.

There are obviously good, no even great things that also go hand in hand with pregnancy - but if you want to hear them - come talk to me later.
Later that is AFTER I have re-folded all the washing - that Lucy has lovingly strewn across the lounge.
Later that is AFTER I have put the rolling TV cabinet and all its viewable inners back in their spots.
Later that is AFTER I have tidied Lucy's room for the second time today - because she didn't feel like going to sleep - she felt like emptying her clothes drawers - her bookcase and her teddy bear basket.
Later that is AFTER I have put all my cross stitch patterns away - and the very expensive $20/Mt Aida cloth away, that she decided to use as a Zebra crossing while I sung the Wiggles song that says about crossing the road...(I suppose I should praise her for knowing how to cross the road...??!!)
Later that is AFTER I have been into my ensuite and cleaned up all the make-up that she has painted, and very artistically I might add, the cupboards with.
Later that is AFTER she has finished her two hour sleep-my two hours of solitary time out - now that she has finally deemed it time to go to sleep (55 mins after putting her to bed & 3 times of me going in getting cross!)
There must be some thing good I could find to say about having another one surely....!

The amazing thing is that we got home from grocery shopping at 12.25pm.... and I put her to bed at 1.55pm.... and she went to sleep at 2.50pm, so if my math is correct and its usually not but we will assume that it is - it only took her 2.5 hours to cause mammoth destruction to the house.
Oh joy - Oh rapture!

Welcome.

And introducing to you all the newest member of the Hogan family...

A name does not yet exist for the little alien like creature - but Butthead may or may not be used.
We used to call Lucy in-utero Beavis - but Butthead does not hold the same appeal for me. Hmmm not sure why?!

I have included a stick figure to help all those people who can't work out ultrasound pics...they are very much like those 3D images that were a huge craze in the 90's. You either get or you don't!

Some amazing facts and figures:

- it is 5.5cm long <____________________> Wow that's tiny!

- it already has eyes that are fully formed - but are fused shut for the while.

- it has all its genatalia - and a trained eye can work out what sex it is - apparently.
(A penis would be bout 1mm long - wow that's tiny!)

- it wriggles like there's no tomorrow.

-it has fingernails

- it will be coming in 6 months!

Stay tuned!

Is there a Doctor in the house?

Well my life this past two weeks has revolved around doctors.

Lucy has been plagued by some strange rash/infection that most of them had absolutely no idea as to what it was.
So their best solution to the problem was to prescribe anything... and hope that it works. If not "well Im sure the mum wouldn't mind paying again to come and see us - so we cant prescribe something else that doesn't work"

In the last two weeks I have seen 3 doctors for the problem, until finally I went to the W and C Hosp in the city- and a lovely young doc worked it out.

Meanwhile - seeing this is about her - my poor little Lucy continued to live thru what we now know was very painful and very bad thrush..... all the ladies out there will understand.

But like everything else that has ailed her - she has carried on her life as if it is only a minor issue. Not crying much - or complaining - or whinging. What a trooper...

Although it probably would have been good for her to complain more cos then the doc's would of had to sit up and take notice.
Good news is that she is now on the mend - really was even after 24hours on the latest prescribed stuff - and should make a full recovery to her normal 2 year old self soon.


And news on the new baby - well Im now 11 weeks prego - and am suffering with my version of morning sickness - that happens in the afternoon.
Now I know that many more unfortunate woman suffer far greater than I am - but compared with Lucy's pregnancy (where I got nothing) this is horrible. Very tired, queasy and perhaps even a little moody....

But apart from that - Im well.
Oh not really - my veins in my legs have blocked again - which are quite painful - but nothing too major.... dont want to sound like a whinger!
Its just that I saw 4 doctors last thursday in the space of 5 hours at the hosp app. and plenty more to come.

So Im a little over the whole doctor deal....

Sick & Tired!

Even though this title may sound like it needs an 'of' added to it - it doesn't.

I'm just feeling very tired - cos of being preggers - and feel sick too.

This pregnancy is slightly differnent from the last because I'm feeling alot worse - and it is strange cos the morning sickness doesn't kick in till 2 in the afternoon!

And by 4pm I'm in desperate need of a nanna nap.
Wow how quickly you forget how a preganancy takes over your body.

The other thing going is my brain -take this blog entry for example. It may look all nice and well written but I will just for one minute type without corrections...then you will understqntd the stupidsness of my brain.
of course noew I cant think of anything eslse to wrtitse about. ( I was alsso a littel scared taht my rwritting fwaws going to be perfecdtr - but no!0)

Dp So anyway...now Ive fucked up my typing completely!!

Right then, now I have wawsted so mcuyh time trying to correct six billion spwelling mixstackes I have officially run out of time.

Ciao.