How does your garden grow?

2009: the year in review

January was for...
Paris...for a few days at least. Amazing times with my family in the most beautiful of cities. It was about coming home and soaking up some of the summer holidays and for me looking for work and starting to get anxious about it all. In January the house was clean and home cooked meals were in abundance!

February was for...
A little lass turning 2, and on the very same day finding out we were expecting another babe! It was family weddings and unemployment and plenty of time for me to get anxious and worry about a job that never seemed to be coming. That is until...

March was for...
Starting a new job! And at the same time starting a wave of pregnancy wooze that lasted for some time. It was about trying to look interested in a new job whilst in between running to the bathroom to throw up. It was about new routines, and travel and did I mention feeling sick?

April was for...
An Easter trip away to the farm, to concerts with cousins and Easter shows and chocolate that eased the pain of the wooze (that was still there!). It was also the month that Rob's TV show finally got the green light and things started to get into place for production later in the year.

May was for...
Birthdays for Rob and the start of the dreaded Night terrors. And bad dreams and sleeps for us all. A terrible month of stress for all of us which eventually seemed to get a little better by the end.

June was for...
Staying in. For relaxing in front of the fire and resting after a hard week at work. It was long weekend trips away to Pearl Beach and family lunches around the fire pit.

July was for...
The start of pre-production craziness and a new kind of work/life and routine for us all. It was the month we got our new car and when I got to spend a special weekend with my Mum's family (aunts and cousins) in the mountains.

August was for...
A birthday (mine) weekend away to Melbourne for Daise and myself, the start of shooting for Rob's show and moving rooms for Daisy.

September was for...
Work & life juggling almost driving me to the brink of despair. For overhormonal breakdowns from me, and the world's worst Fathers Day for Rob. For Rob's show wrapping up filming and me finishing up work and waiting. It was a time for getting bigger and dust storms and waiting (and did I mention getting bigger?)

October was for...

The arrival of our beautiful little lady Harper Lucy and all the joy that she bought all of us.

November was for...

Adjustment. For all of us to get to know each other and get into routines. To life as a family of 4.

December was for...

Families. And time reuniting with loved ones. For Christmas catch ups with friends, for Rob finishing work, and for some time (at long last) on a holiday up at the farm. Bliss.

It's been a big year for all of us Macdonalds. A time of adjustment - from not working to working to not working again, for Rob being FLAT out all year and for Daisy having to adjust in between to all the changes that we have thrown at her. A time where the very nature of our family of 3 changed to 4. It seems funny to me that we started the year as a family of 3 with no idea where the year would take us to suddenly being here, being 4, sort of knowing where the year will go. It's amazing what can happen in just 12 months!

It's been such an exciting time for Rob professionally - achieving all he has with his TV show and doing a bloody fabulous job of it - all while keeping his own business up and running - I am beyond proud of what we has done and I CANNOT wait until we see the finished product in the new year. I know that the show will be fabulous and I can't wait to have other people reinforce this. I know it will make all the long hours and hard work he has put in totally worth it. His support for me with all I have done has been so appreciated, and just completely reinforced to me why I married this man. He is kindness and love and support personified.

It's been a big year for our little lady Daisy. She has weathered being pulled from pillar to post with us both working SO hard. She has shed (many) tears (as have Rob and I) at the daycare drop offs and had to cope with the awful night terrors that she had. And THEN, well then she had to suck it all up and become a big sister. To look after me, and help me out, and be kind to a baby that just seems to take up all our time AND cry. Well, she has done amazingly well and I am so proud of the big girl that she is now. She is going to be such a good big sister. This process has given me such an appreciation for the first born in a family - the pressure they have on them and the enormous job they have. She is living up to all of his and doing it with a smile and a laugh along the way. I love this lady I tell you. Just plain love her.

It's been a big year for me - physically and mentally. I have worried about not working, to being exhausted from work and then not working again. I have been pushed to my limits with worry about Daisy, Harper and Rob and keeping everything together for the family while Rob was working SO hard - all while being pregnant. I have carried a babe and gotten it out and then managed to keep her alive! I have been amazed at what I can do and been proud of what I have done. I have had my heart bursting with love for little Harper and amazed that I can actually love 2 children and be a mother of two children - and a semi-capable one at that - all my fears have been pushed away! I have spent some special time with our families on both sides - I am beyond thrilled to have my little sis here, being able to share Harper with her and just have her a call and car trip away if needed. Family is so special to me and I am one lucky lady to have mine filled with truly special, amazing and fun people. I feel very blessed.

Most of all, upon reflection of the year I feel lucky. Grateful that I have such a great family and so many friends supporting me (and all of us) and loving us the way that they do. I am lucky to have found such great work and had a ball doing that for the months that I did and I look forward to going back there in the new year. I am grateful for my health and the health of my family. For Harper being born happy and healthy and grateful that we have been blessed with a new member of our family. I know how very lucky we are to be able to want to have another child and then just be able to go and do that. I know the pain and heart ache that this road can be for friends and family and I am truly grateful for the easy road we have had. I am excited about the year ahead and all it will bring for each of us: For Rob a chance for all his hard work to be seen and recognised, for Daisy to learn more and be more confident at school and grow even more into the fabulous little person that she is. For Harper so many things - her first taste of food, of crawling of walking even, and for me, work again and being an even better mother and wife and friend and family member. There is much for me to improve on (least of all my pavlova skills) and a new year is the perfect chance to start all that again.

And then, well, there's you. The people that come on here and read my daily ramblings about my life. My complaints, despair, utter & complete joy and even photos taken in disabled toilets. I have written almost 220 posts this year...that's a WHOLE lot of silliness...but it's my silliness and I love to do it. I LOVE reading your comments, I love knowing that there is advice/humour/reflections/observations for me at the end of a PUBLISH button, and I love the friendships that have formed in the process. Thanks for listening and reading - you KNOW there will be plenty more where that came from in 2010.

So, what I guess I am saying to me and to you is...Happy New Year! Let's hope 2010 brings much good health, happiness and good times for us all!

Postcard from Paradise No.2

Someone is having the time of ones life up here. Grandparents (& great grandparents) to follow around and do everything with - gardening, cooking swimming, walking, making beds, cleaning, anything and everything.

Bless her world.

Multi Tasker

Not only are my (ever ample) bosoms providing enough milk to feed many, many children, they are also great flotation devices.

Dear Lord - put them away!

2 months

Our little lady is 2 (!) months old today. Growing bigger every day, getting stronger, more awake and alert and ever cuter. Honestly, the cheeks people, the cheeks!

I am willing time to slow down, to try and soak the little babyness of her before it all disappears. I know it will all too soon.

So right now? Well I just keep staring at her. Loving every little inch of her. And why wouldn't you?

Postcard from Paradise No.1

We wish you...

From all of us up here at EIEIO (yes, Rob's Dads farm is called E I E I O) we wish you a very Merry Christmas! It's been a wonderful Christmas Eve and the joy that one little Miss Daisy has experienced all before 8am on this Christmas morn is something I won't forget in a hurry.

Harper has basically slept through the entire thing, although with receiving the one measly rattle she got, it's no wonder!
Santa ate all his biscuits and drank his beer, and the reindeer managed to get through all the carrots...must be that Pransome and Handsome...

And when Daisy discovered that Santa had indeed given her the one thing she asked for - a Dorothy doll - she exclaimed "that's all I wanted!" Well, our work was done!

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with joy, and family and love (and champagne!). I know mine will be...

M'ladies

Take a look at what we have. SUCH lovely ladies. I just can't stop looking (and taking photos) of them. I know it must be getting boring...

Le Sigh

How was it that a year has passed since we were in Paris? A year on and the memories are as strong and wonderful as they were then...

You too can read all about the lead up to the trip and then the trip if you feel that way inclined...

Christmas craziness

Ah jeepers what a crazy time of year this is! We had a VERY busy weekend filled with catching up with family for Christmas. Saturday we had lunch with Rob's Mum and then yesterday we did Christmas with my family - exchanging presents for the day - the whole thing as we will all be all over the place on Christmas day. Daise even squeezed in a Wiggles concert yesterday morning - it really is madness!

Rob has to stay at work a little longer than expected so we are not heading away until Wednesday now (which I am NOT thrilled about) so we are still counting down the days until holidays. I am hanging out for tomorrow afternoon when we can have a champagne and celebrate almost 3 weeks off work! Wed morn we will be outta here - can't say I am looking forward to the trip up to the farm seeing as little Harper does NOT like the car. Did I mention that she screams the ENTIRE time? Think I mentioned that before...but this is a 6 hour trip! Wish us luck!

I hope that the week isn't so crazy for all of YOU!

Hips don't lie

Earlier in the week I was thinking (and writing) about how grown up I feel these days. I tell you I (look) and feel every one of my 32 years at the moment. Yesterday I had a chance to duck out to the shops while my Mum looked after the girls for me to try and find a little Christmas frock and some swimmers for our little holiday away.

Sounds good in theory...reality was I had about an hour and a half before I had to get back home to feed Harper. It was crazy at the shopping mall that I went to - Christmas panic mode was in full swing, it was also 39 degrees so I was a little *shall we say* hot and bothered, oh and there is the fact that I currently look like a FAT MOLE to add into the equation.

So I tried on a gazillion dresses with my poor suffering younger sister sitting in with me watching the horror that is my stretch mark ridden stomach and thighs that just won't quit (upon reflection I really shouldn't have knocked back a litre of chocolate custard daily) and got slowly frustrated. Nothing really fitted. Nothing looked good. My boobs are too big, my stomach like a tide of flesh that spills over the top of anything - it wasn't pretty. So I gave up and headed over to the swimwear section. Yes! That's a way to improve any one's spirits!

In my mind I had visions of me swanning around the pool at the farm this summer in something like this...


And this...
Can't you just see me in something like this? I mean it SCREAMS summer vacation, swilling cocktails by the pool and being just plain fabulous (which in MY mind is exactly what I am).

The reality? Oh, just some swimmers called SWIM TRIM. What am I 50 now? They are like spanks but swimmer spanks. Once these babies are on I can tell you that they won't be coming off in a hurry (the tide of flesh needs to stay in place!). They look OK, the boobs stay in place and all in all the effect is not too offensive. Well I think so at least, I am yet to parade in public - watch this space - and I got 20% off so that's something. The dress? Well let's just say I think a maternity dress might get a run this Christmas...or the pants! Why of course the pants! The expandable waist pants! PERFECT for large consumption of turkey...

Next generation

Since I have had Harper I have felt like there have been many more times where I have stood back and looked at myself from afar and felt SO grown up. I sometimes catch a glance of myself with the girls in the reflection of a shop window, or see myself drive past in our STATION WAGON and think - when did this happen? I am a mother. Of 2 kids. Goodness me.

And then there have been other times where I hear and see myself and think I am turning into my mother. And that's not a bad thing. At all - it's just funny that I am turning into such a mother. Doing things Mum did with us. Making the kids pose for photos that I had as a kid. And doing things that I did as a kid.

Like going to look at the Christmas windows at David Jones in the city with my cousins.


And then making the kids pose for photos together in a row.

And I am SO glad that Daisy gets to do all these things, because they are the BEST memories I have of my childhood.

Slow and steady...

So! You guys! This morning I went and passed my last driving test and am now a proper grown up. AT LONG FREAKING LAST. You see I only got my drivers licence when I was 8 months pregnant with Daisy which was 3 years ago now. And because I waited, oh 15 years, longer than I should have all the new driving rules meant that I had to be on a provisional licence for 3 (!) years!

Anyway, enough about all that - I passed! So...I am now driving the streets with no special (loser) P plate on. I am all grown up with a gold licence (and everything!).

I know! Exciting. Yay for me!

Blondes DO have more fun. Or something.

When we went overseas last year for Christmas we came home via Hong Kong to stay with some friends. I LOVED the city and the people and the shopping - the lot - it was fabulous. What I also loved was the attention that we got because of Daisy. Well, we got to fast track customs cause we had a cute (blonde) kid, we got to skip many lines, and we got to start conversations with people because of Daisy. OK, so I mostly just liked the skipping (the many many) lines at the airport - the rest was a little weird.

Anyway, a week or so ago we went into the city with my sister's kids who were up from Melbourne. We ventured into Hyde Park to have a run around and for me to feed Harper. My sister and the kids ran off and I stayed behind feeding Harper - when she came back she was laughing and when she showed me this shot of what they were getting up to, I could see why.


The two blonde kids were hand selected for some photos with Japanese tourists. A little strange that this shot will be in someones photo album on the other side of the world. And a little funny too. If only the blonde hair had the same effect for lines here...

(Early) Summer Holidays

This past weekend we escaped up the coast to my Dad's place at the beach for our Christmas catch up. It was perfect: great warm weather, first swims in the ocean for the summer, walks on the beach, an exhausted toddler who was in bed by 6pm each night, a blissed out baby who slept well, grandparents and aunties and uncles who played and played and played some more with toddler, GREAT food and wine....it was JUST what we needed.

Although it did just make me want to be on holidays RIGHT now...I guess I can wait a few more days - as of Friday afternoon Rob (and all of us) will be on holidays until the 11th of Jan. Hurrah!