Welcome Will!

I had one of the most AMAZING days of my life last Friday ... I got to help my sister Maree bring her little boy Will into the world!
I got the phone call at 3:30 in the morning.  After quickly getting dressed, my other sister Libby and I headed into the Mater.  Maree and Steve had just been moved into the birth suite and her contractions were getting pretty strong and regular.  We spent the next few hours sipping coffees and helping Maree as much as we could.  She was incredibly brave!  The gas wasn't really working for her and she didn't want an epidural.
At about 8:30 the midwife broke her waters and soon after the pushing began.  It was pretty hard to watch your sister in so much pain.  At one stage she almost pulled me off the chair during a contraction!  At 9:25, Libby, who is a midwife, delivered Will ... the most incredible thing I have ever seen!  He was perfect!  We all high fived each other on a job well done :)
Welcome to the world William!

Anne of Green Gables

I love reading ... I pretty much always have a book on the go and a pile on the bookshelf waiting their turn.  I can still remember the first novel I ever read.  It was Anne of Green Gables and was given to me by my Nanna who was always encouraging us to read.  I reckon I would have been 10 or 11.  After that, I then read all the rest of the books in the series.  As a teacher, I know how important it is to instil a love of books and reading into children.  I try and read a story to Lucy every night although that doesn't always happen!  Her favourite at the moment is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

We were in a book shop the other day and I saw a copy of Anne of Green Gables.  It looked so pretty that I just had to buy it for Lucy ... although I think I may have to reread it myself first!  Hopefully when she is a bit older she will enjoy reading it as much as I did!

Mother's Day

Well Sunday was my first Mother's Day!  Lucy was up early and came in for morning cuddles and present opening.  While sipping my coffee I opened up my beautiful card (chosen by Miss L herself!), some cosy slippers, a Witchery jumper and a kindle!  How lucky am I!

We got ourselves organised and headed down the road to Mum's for breakfast with all the sisters and their families.  We gave Mum a Delicious magazine subscription as she loves cooking, and a Grandma Memory Book from Kikki K.

Mum gave all of us girls a lovely bar of Glasshouse Soap and OPI nail polish ... very sweet!

We all brought a plate of food for breakfast ... croissants, breakfast buns, muffins, and fresh fruit.

Later in the day we had a BBQ at our house with Luke's Mum and sister, my Mum and Lib.  Again lots of yummy food ... haloumi on the barbie and delish marinated chicken (according to mum the best chicken she has ever had in her life!) and apple crumble for dessert.  Lucy loved munching on the lamb cutlets.  The day before, Luke bought an outdoor fire pit from Bunnings.  We had that going ... I think it is going to get a lot of use this winter.  Nothing like sitting around a fire and having a few drinks!

My amazing Mum has her own blog and always writes such beautiful posts ... my four pretty girls

Five Year Engagement

I went and saw Five Year Engagement with my mum and sister last night.  It was hilarious!  I think I had a smile on my face the whole way through.  Heaps of funny one liners and Emily and Jason are both great.  It was quite a long movie and perhaps could have been shortened a little.  I would still sit through it again though :)  Hot tip ... Balmoral Movies are so much cheaper than Carindale!

Beach Babe

 Yesterday we took Lucy to the beach for the first time.  It was an absolutely magical day, weather wise and just perfect to be sitting in the sun.  We packed up the beach umbrella and headed down the coast to Miami ... a favourite beach of mine as we used to have a holiday house there.  We found a spot and set ourselves up.  Lucy absolutely loved it!  She thought the sand was fabulous.  It ended up EVERYWHERE of course ... she even tried eating a handful!  The water was too cold for swimming but she enjoyed splashing her feet at the edge.  It was such a lovely outing and we have promised ourselves that we will do it again soon.

Yoga

Many years ago, my sisters and I started doing yoga.  We went to a lady's house in Wynnum where she had set up a yoga studio under her house.  I loved it but for one reason or another, we stopped going.

When I found out I was pregnant with Lucy, I really wanted to start doing yoga classes again.  I found a pregnancy yoga teacher at Thornlands and went to evening sessions there for a few months.  It was, however, really expensive! And the lady was very much into alternate birthing techniques which didn't really sit well with me.

I decided to search itunes to see if I could possibly download some yoga classes and do them myself at home.  I stumbled across the audio books section and found Yoga2Hear Guided Audio Yoga Sessions.  They were cheap to download, came with a helpful booklet and they even had Pregnancy ones!  Yay!!!

Starting Solids with Lucy

The day Lucy turned four months old I wanted to try giving her some baby rice cereal.  I was so excited for her to be trying her first solids.  Lucy, however, wasn't so keen.  She didn't quite know what to do with this weird stuff in her mouth and it ended up being a messy job.  At the same time, we were having some breast feeding issues and unfortunately Lucy wasn't gaining the weight that she should.  So the solids were put on hold for a while.

I tried her again at five months and this time she was much more interested.  I found it really difficult to work out what foods to introduce when and found myself doing a lot of research.  There are so many different opinions out there and it took me ages to formulate a plan as to how we would progress.  Being the teacher that I am, I typed up a meal plan for Lucy, printed it out, stuck it on the fridge and highlighted what was eaten each day ... I am a highlighter addict!

Here is the meal plan ...