I've been busy

Well, I thought I'd been busy. That was up until 5 days ago when our new baby boy arrived. Now I realise that life before that date was not so busy after all.  Sure, the nights were long.  Trying to sleep when you're 9 months pregnant is not fun. But I guess in a way it prepares us for what's coming.

But the biggest challenge of all has come from left of field.  My biggest worry has been trying to show a 2 year old girl that her mama and papa have enough love for a whole extra person in their family.  I had thought that her excitement about her new baby brother was going to be enough to get us through this period - but I think I'd underestimated the power of a 2 year old's emotions.  She's definitely excited he's here, and she loves her new baby brother to pieces.  But since his arrival, she's been what I like to call 'emotionally volatile'.. Having said that - she's probably only mirroring my own emotions :) Filled with love one moment, crying with unabandon the next.  I really thought I'd escaped the emotions this time, but they creep up on me when I least expect it.  The wierd thing is - I was weepy for weeks after her birth - but that was more of a 'I don't know what I'm doing and I can't believe they've trusted me to bring this little, helpless, beautiful baby girl home'. But this time, the weepiness comes when I feel like she's missing out on something that we all took for granted before our baby boy arrived. Or when I rouse on her for being too rough when she tries to kiss her brother. Luckily we have Daddy home with us for the next 4 weeks, and so far he's been there to meet her every need. Although I feel guilty that I get to snuggle and nurse a beautiful, trusting new baby boy - and he has to endure the painful cries of "I want Mummy to do it" when he tries to help Lola with things.

But still being in the middle of this ride - it's hard to see whether it's been bumpy all the time - or whether I'm only focussing on the bumps right now.  But rather than feel guilty at turning her life upside down, I'm going to hope that this time is character building for her. She's learning to love a new person, she's learning to share her Mum and Dad's time, and she's learning that her parents aren't perfect, and are really just doing the best that they can do.  I tell her every day that I'm trying to be the best Mum I can be, and she says 'ok mummy'. She's a beautiful girl and we're all looking forward to a wonderful Christmas together as a family of 4.   

A little bit quiet..

Things have been a little bit quiet on the blog front and in our household lately. I'm starting to feel the true meaning of the term 'heavily' pregnant, and with only 6 weeks to go - it's starting to feel very real all of a sudden.

There has been a lot of transitioning going on for our little 2 year old lately as well. She's out of nappies and doing really well on the potty (not quite happy about using the 'big' toilet yet :)) and she's also started to sleep in her own room, in a big girls bed. Getting her out of our bed was something we felt we needed to do if we wanted to co-sleep with the new baby, and I think the change has been harder on us than her! She doesn't even want to come into our bed through the night anymore - but instead she wants Mummy to come sleep in her bed :) It's early days still though, and we're all learning together.

So there hasn't been a lot of sewing of late - but there has been some gift making and ideas going around..

Here's a dress from Heather Ross's "Weekend Sewing" book that I made sometime ago but has only just started to fit 'twirly' Lola..

And here's what the kids in my Mums group will be getting for Christmas:

Image from The Happy Home blog

I loved this blog post from Belinda last week - and went out to Spotlight yesterday to get my shapes to stick the magnets to. I'm going to let Lola loose with the paints on these. I think they'll be gorgeous little gifts.

Who doesn't love the Australian Women's weekly birthday cakes cookbook?

I swear this book has bought more joy into people's lives than many other 'joy-promising books' out on the market.  And even though it has moved with the times a little bit - there are still so many of the old favourites in the new editions.  I remember when I was a kid, it would be months before our birthday that we'd start flicking through it trying to decide which cake we'd ask for that year.. And to Mum's credit - she never said 'No way - too hard' to any of them? I don't know that I'll be that obliging when my child/ren start putting their orders in :) But seeing as Lola is still only 2, this year I got to choose for her as she is not quite at the stage of picking something out of many options (even chooosing between a red dress and a yellow dress - she wants both)..

So I chose the Bunny Rabbit cake for her this year, and here's a shot of the bunny, in all her glory

(actually, this was taken 'after' Lola blew out her candles, and she appears to have blown off part of the bunny's paw as well - oops)..

And of course, I had to include a pic of the birthday girl enjoying it at her party (Here Lola is saying 'I want the nose Daddy!!'

I also plan on writing in my book which child had what cake for what year (eg. Julie - 2nd Birthday). That's what Mum did in her book, and it's fun flicking back through it and remembering each party.