Just touching base

I wasn't going to write any posts on my trip; in all honesty, I hadn't anticipated having the time to!

But this afternoon, the opportunity presented itself: my Little Monster is happily engrossed in SpongeBob, Husband is laying on the sofa with his book and the rest of my Family are hanging by the pool or playing squash.
A tropical downpour has just passed over; the sound and smell of it reminding me of my childhood years growing up in the Tropics.
All is well in my little world.

And to top it all off, we had a lovely Christmas full of the usual overdose on food and wrapping paper.

This trip has been so wonderful, as I get to spend long overdue time with my Brother and Sister-in-Law, as well as my Dad, his wonderful Wife, and my half Brother.

But the best part for me, has been watching my Little Monster playing with his Cousin. These two little boys have only met once before (at our wedding), and within hours of their second meeting they were laughing and giggling like long lost buddies, and I am pretty sure they were even conspiring to get up to lots of mischief together!!

I am desperately NOT counting the days that have already passed, the time is already going to fast... Instead I am trying my best to cherish each moment with the Family, to burn each memory on my brain so I can always refer to them when I need a pick me up

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas with your families (or just some good old fashioned time out, if Christmas isn't your bag, baby)

I shall finish this post with a little bit of a gush... feel free to reach for a sick bag!
I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family! We live spread across the globe, and yet when we are together everything just seems to slip back into place; conversations flow and the laughter is almost never-ending.
I truly am a lucky lucky girl

Look out holidays - here I come!

Well, so much for a quiet end to the working year... It's been non-stop right up to the last moment.

But enough whinging - my holiday starts in exactly 3 minutes, and I am on the count down!!!

This year, we are heading overseas for Christmas with my Dad. This will be the Little Monster's second trip on a plane, although I very much doubt he remembers the first as he was only 6-months old!

I am quite apprehensive about taking a rambunctious toddler on a plane for 10 hours, but I am firmly keeping my goal in sight - relaxing by a pool whilst enjoying a refreshing mocktail!

Husband maintains that he is really looking forward to taking the Little Monster on a plane, so I have given him full responsibility for the entire flight. Hey, he asked for it!  :)

I wish you all a very happy Christmas (or festive season, for those who don't celebrate Christmas!), and a fantabulous start to 2012!!

Stay safe, be happy and above all have fun!!

image from {here}

When pride gets in the way

This time tomorrow, one of my very dearest friends will be going into hospital ready to meet her second child. Such exciting times!!

What makes this all the more exciting for me (apart from the fact that it makes my own pregnancy much more real!), is that I missed out on her first pregnancy.

This time around, I have seen her blossom and grow every week of the pregnancy.

You see, due to a lack of communication, on both parts, we had a falling out just after my Little Monster was born.

It broke my heart not to have her in his life, and I spent many agonising hours, sometimes in floods of tears, sometimes just so angry, wondering what the hell had happened and how to fix it.

And yet I did nothing.

My spiteful pride stopped me from picking up the phone and starting a conversation.
My foolish pride stopped me from letting my beautiful Little Monster be loved on by another.

Then I heard that she was pregnant - something I knew that she had always wanted - and I reached out with a text message.
But once again, my idiotic pride stepped in and I failed to register that her reply was her way of reaching back to me.

Another lonely and sad five months passed. Don't get me wrong, I was busy and surrounded by friends and family whom I adore; but there was a gap in my heart where she should have been, and it was a constant ache.

We reconciled just before my Little Monster's first birthday - just weeks away from her own birth experience.
It was through Facebook... She made a comment on my status update, and it made me smile. I sent her a message telling her how much I missed her, and she replied with a similar sentiments.

So I called her, and we spent the next few minutes crying down the phone to each other; agreeing that whatever had happened between us had been a stupid waste of time - we had lost precious moments with each other during the most momentous times of our lives, and we both deeply regretted it.

And just like that, we were back in each others lives.
Talking daily, and making each other laugh. It was like we had picked up from where we left off.
A few weeks later, I was one of the first people to visit her when her son was born and I wept as I held him. Tears of happiness at our re-discovered friendship, of pride in my friend having delivered such a beautiful little boy and of hope for what the future held for our sons, and for our friendship.

I wasted almost 12-months mourning a friendship that I thought was lost, without really fighting for it.

But we both had reached out and were full of forgiveness, and we accepted the other's apology without a question.

My learning curve as a Mother helped me to see what was truly important, to move past the slights (real or imagined) and to mend a friendship that deep down I knew I wanted to keep.

Tomorrow my dear dear friend will be meeting her second baby.

And I will be patiently waiting at the hospital door for them to let me in to see her and the new addition to her family, and to weep in happiness at all the marvels life has to offer.


Have you ever unwittingly lost a friendship? Did you find it again?

I'm baaaaack!

It’s been a while since my last post... I’m sorry about the wait, but thanks for sticking with me! J

I have two excuses for my lack of communication:

Firstly, I had lost my blogging mojo. 

I’m something of an expert on self sabotage, and I had put myself under a lot of pressure to write this “you beaut” blog that I updated daily, that was funny and charming and full of useful insights to the mind of a slightly frazzled mother....

It was, quite simply, something that I just couldn’t achieve; and (true to form) I had once again set myself up for failure.

So I took some time off, to reflect on what I want from/for my blog, and to basically have a reality check!

Secondly (an probably most importantly), the one thing that I really wanted to write about, I couldn’t.

And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep my big mouth shut if I came online.... so now that I am past the 12-week mark, I can shout it from the rooftops:

I am pregnant!  J

So here I am; back in the blogosphere, a tad rounder than I was before!, with a renewed sense of purpose, and ready to blog from the heart  J

What’s been happening in your world since my last post??

10 Things you REALLY didn't need to know about me



{source}

I sort of feel like I have "made it" in the blogging world - I have had my first tag in a "10 Things" game.... So a big THANK YOU and shout out to the lovely Karen at Simply Said for tagging me  J

Except now I have to think about 10 whole things that you really don't need to know about me, AND that I would deem postable for the interwebs...

Hmmm, this isn't going to be easy... but here we go!

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10 Things you REALLY didn't need to know about me

1. I am not a neat and tidy person, but I am CLEAN person (at least I used to be before the arrival of the Little Monster!).
A pile of clothes laying on the floor? Couldn't care less.
Potential lurgies living on my kitchen surface? Quick hand me the bleach!!

2. I love Sudoku, the harder the better.
It is a major part of my bedtime routine! If I don't do at least one puzzle whilst waiting for the Sandman, then I can't sleep. And occasionally if I'm stuck on one when I drift off, I solve the puzzle in my sleep!

3. If I am hungry, I am cranky.
I will snarl at you if you so much as look at me funny when I'm hungry. And if you ask me to do anything that requires some vague exertion, make no mistake, I will bite your head off.
But just to clarify (and hopefully not scare you all off!), I do have to be completely ravenous; as in I-could-eat-my-own-arm hungry.

4. Ditto for being tired; as in about-to-fall-asleep-on-my-feet-tired.
Get that girl to bed!!

5. When it comes to all things technical or gadety, I am a wannabe Gen Y.
iPhone 4S? Want it. Social media? It practically controls me.  J
I haven't yet figured out how Google+ works... and honestly, I don't think I'll bother.

6. (sticking with the social media theme for one more go) I am addicted to some of the games on Facebook.
I will admit that Farmville was one of them for a while, but I have weaned myself off of that one, thankfully!!

7. Shoes are my weakness.
I can't walk in a heel bigger than 3cm, but I sure can lust after them... Prior to being a Mummy, one of my favourite thing to do was to hang out in various department stores trying on the tallest and most expensive pair of shoes (hellloooo Jimmy Choo!) and then teeter around on the carpet (I can't seem to walk on a normal floor surface in heels, what the heck is wrong with me!?); or stand in front of the full length mirror admiring how awesome stilettos made my legs look  J

8. I am a freestyle step addict!!
I was doing intermediate freestyle step classes three times a week whilst pregnant with the LM. I only stopped stepping at 37-weeks because I wanted to be "properly pregnant" - ie stuffing my face and lazing on the sofa - just for a little while

9. I love reading/printing off/collecting recipes, but I'm not a big fan of cooking; probably because I hate the washing up. (Which kind of contradicts 10...)
Occasionally I will go through a phase of cooking something new and exciting every night for a week (Husband thoroughly enjoys these rare moments!), but generally I stick to my handful of old faithfuls that don't really require much thought or effort.
That being said, on the rare occasions I have the time (and toddlers are a great time sapper!) I do enjoy creating a delicious meal that Husband and I will go back for seconds or even thirds of!

10. I. LOVE. FOOD.
If I could eat for 16 hours a day (and not get disgustingly fat!) I absolutely would!
My Stepdad says that watching me eat makes him hungry because I enjoy my food so much. I take that as a compliment.

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So there you have it. 10 things you now know about me, that you probably didn't need to know.
And you know what? As I got closer to the last one, I could suddenly think of lots more to add! I think I'll save those little tidbits for another post.

Now the game goes that you are supposed to tag five other blogs to keep the tag going, but all the blogs I follow have already done this.

So until I make some more bloggy friends, why don't you tell me 3 things that I didn't really need to know about you! J