Grouchy

You know when you're grumpy for no {really} good reason?

You know when one minute you're feeling up beat and happy, and you want to just chat the day away with any one who will listen... and then the next minute you are channelling Oscar the Grouch, and just want everyone to bugger off and leave you alone??

Well that's me today.

This morning, despite a very broken night of sleep thanks to Husband, the Little Monster and the Bump!, I woke up in a pretty jolly mood.

I managed to get the Little Monster to daycare on time {the bus gods were smiling on me this morning}, and more amazingly, I managed to get into work ON TIME! Such a rarity; such an achievement!  hehehe

I had my performance review at work, which went really well - yay!

AND I have found a replacement daycare spot for the Little Monster whilst his usual lady is away on holiday.

So all in all, it had been a very good morning.

Then it all changed.

To be fair, I know exactly what set the Grump off; it was getting caught in a torrential down pour whilst walking back from the replacement daycare place.

I did have my brolly with my, but it's one of those cheap Two Dollar Shop specials that doesn't actually offer much protection.
So, my jeans are soaked from the knee down.
Because I wore my thongs for the walk, my feet are frozen.
And because I'm starting to feel really pregnant, I am now tired and sore from the long walk.

So really, I'm pregnant, tired, sore AND grumpy. What a delightful combo...

My advice? Steer clear of me until tomorrow!!
Or at least until I've had a kilo of chocolate  :)

How do you combat the Grumpy Monster when it unwittingly rears it's grouchy head? What are your coping mechanisms? {maybe I can borrow them?!}

{images from here and here}

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??