Oh hai!

My thoughts in random bullet points:

• A few days ago, I was chatting to my boss about getting his licence renewed and how they'd been quite lenient on the eye test for him. I gave him the usual spiel about how my licence still has my maiden name on it since I lost my wallet about 2 months before our wedding 8 years ago and had to get a replacement one. Anyway for some strange reason, I pulled out my licence as we were having this conversation, looked down and noticed IN HORROR that my licence had expired 3 months ago and I had no idea! EEK. A quick trip to the AA the following day soon fixed it, but I did feel a bit silly!

• Has anyone else been watching One Born Every Minute - the British reality TV birth series? I know heaps of people that have said that it's too graphic for them to watch and if they hadn't already had kids they'd have been put off having kids by watching the whole experience. When I watch it, I get INCREDIBLY clucky thinking of my own 2 beautiful water births...and then reality bites and the other half of me thinks I'd be completely crazy to contemplate having another kiddy...anyway...no decisions are being made on that particular matter anytime soon so I'll just go with the see-sawing feelings as they ebb and flow for now :-)

• I'm looking forward to another amazing day out at Ruth Pretty's Christmas Cooking School at the end of this month. I've been fortunate to be able to go this year and the past two years, with this year and last being invited to go as a complimentary guest of Ruth for writing a blog of my experiences of the days:

The Day I Went to Narnia (2010)

Return to Eden (2011)

 

• Is it just my luck or do all kids go through a stage of having their head in the clouds and losing everything around them? Noah is going through a terrible stage at the moment. Case in point: we went to Te Papa in the holidays. Somewhere between the pebble pit and the playing in the Discovery Centre, probably when he was putting on dress ups, he lost his cap. And not being the perfect mum who can keep track of all her children's belongings as we trail from one activity to the next, I only realised the next morning. I had a massive go at Noah about taking care of his things, and how I was particularly disappointed as it was a cap we'd bought him in Melbourne this year - so not one that was easily replaceable and had sentimental value. Luckily we'd had the foresight to name it, and it handed been handed in at Te Papa, so Mark was able to go back to pick it up for him. You'd have thought that experience might have made some kind of impression on him so you can imagine my annoyance when the very NEXT day after an outing down to town on the cable car to grab a kid's ice cream at McDonalds we realised he'd left his jacket somewhere on the journey. GAAAAAH! Anyway, I called McDonalds and lucky for him (AGAIN!) they had his jacket. But I am getting a bit sick of racking my brains after all these outings about where his belongings might be strewn across the city! Here's hoping we have better luck from here on!

The infamous cap

• A couple of weeks ago, we had an interesting conversation on the way home. We were talking about babies, and I was talking about Mylo growing in my tummy. Mylo was indignant that he did 'not grow in your tummy Mum'. So I asked him where he thought he came from, and you know what he said? 'I came from daycare'. Bless his little cotton socks. I laughed (although was slightly sad at the same time), but I then realised that since he doesn't have a younger sibling (as Noah did at the same age) that we hadn't really bothered having the conversation about how babies grow in mummy's tummies etc. We came home that afternoon and trawled through the blog, and I was able to find some pics of me with a big belly that I think convinced him that he did indeed grow in my belly. He was also MOST intrigued watching the video of my crazy belly movements when he was doing all kinds of gymnastics inside at about T-3 weeks till birth day! 

• I do love the quirkiness of kid's individual personalities, and I do believe my youngest child has developed some magpie-type tendencies. When the boys are doing the school/daycare round of drop-offs in the morning, Daddy usually lets them have one of these chewy mints for the journey. They aren't a big pack of mints, so they do go through a pack reasonably quickly. The other day I opened Mylo's drawer in his locker at daycare to get some clothes out and lo and behold there were about 6 empty packets of these mints in the drawer as well as a random selection of other shiny things as well like a bracelet and a hairclip. Random!

• For a boy who is much more definite in his likes and dislikes than his older brother, I do love it when I get the seal of approval from Mylo on something (which is usually food). Anything that he really likes or joys gets a big nod of the head with a thumbs up and a 'Good mum, good'. Never fails to bring a smile to my dial.
• Most afternoons I get asked by Noah if he can run down our street alongside the car. We've also been enjoying listening to Alanis Morrisette's new album in the car, and so the other afternoon, Noah danced down the road to The Guardian - with the windows down and music blaring from the car going alongside, and I had one of those heart-swell moments watching this kid just going for it uninhibited, enjoying life.

• We are looking forward to the arrival of Grandma and Grandad from the UK in mid-January and not long after they get here we have planned a trip up to Northland for a week. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to explore a bit more of our beautiful country with the family, and maybe even swing by to see Dee, Paisley Jade and Jacksta-B if it works out!

• And if that isn't exciting enough, we are really hoping that late next year (sometime between October and Christmas 2013) will see us in Somerset, England with all our UK family. It would be the first time we've all been together for over 5 years, so we are planning and praying all the plans can come together for this to be able to happen!

And that's probably enough random bullet points for now methinks!