In my twenties life was a whirlwind of work, socialising, hurried meals and little exercise, apart from walking between bars and to and from work. Dan and I did get away and do some of New Zealand’s big tramps (hikes for English readers!), but daily exercise was low on our priorities (I’m ashamed to say). We would meet for lunch on Wellington’s waterfront and watch other people exercising. We weren’t complete sloths though, we’d have periods of motivation when we would go for a jog after work and join a gym (and then forget to go). And we did go for a good walk in Wellington’s hills most Sundays (when we weren’t recovering from a big Saturday night).

Our home was somewhere we slept and briefly ate in – but rarely ‘lived’ in – more time was spent in the office or out socialising. When we did socialise at home it was all about having the coolest pad for the occasion.

Fast forward to our late thirties (well, I’m only just ‘late’ thirties, having just turned 36). We drink little, as dealing with children and a hangover is not pleasant (we learned this fast in Charlotte’s first year – when we were still trying to hang on to our before children lives). We eat a good breakfast; whereas we used to skip breakfast altogether in our twenties and grab a piece of fruit – or worse a sausage roll – for morning tea. We now try to make family meals fairly healthy (though everything in moderation!).

Exercise is something we want to do more of and are constantly trying to fit around the children. We actually want to exercise and acknowledge it is essential so that we can keep up with the children, set a good example and live longer, healthier lives. So Dan cycles to work and back most days, plays football at the weekend and indoor football once a week too. I get my exercise by going for walks with baby, half hour hoover workouts, weight lifting (children, baskets of laundry, shopping) and stretches (I do a few sun salutations whilst Alice is having floor time).

I spend countless hours organising and reorganising our home. My place of work is my home. I am the office manager of my home. Clutter and grime is my enemy to conquer. Toy rotation, changing rooms, creating safe, happy, creative play spaces for my children is high on my list of priorities. When we socialise at home we focus on making sure the children are entertained (and the adults well sustained with coffee and baking).

@YouDoDan (aka hubbie) tweets, ‘Not sure why, but it’s curiously satisfying removing the lint from a clothes dryer’s filter’.

We spent Saturday moving beds from one room to another (again). The changing rooms forces us to clean the dust from under the beds, which is also strangely satisfying (and discover half eaten Easter eggs and silly putty).

And taking a shower isn’t something we take for granted, it’s a much valued and appreciated moment of mental therapy. When I go to the hairdressers they fall over backwards in horror that I would contemplate going out the front door without blow-drying and straightening my hair. Vanity is something I have little time for – however I do admit to ‘needing’ a lick of mascara and preferably a dash of blush. I also hate hairy legs/armpits etc. so my shower time, once every other day, is a real pamper session that I highly value and don’t feel I can face the world without.

And our evenings are very, very precious. Once we’ve read a few dozen stories to the children and they are fast asleep (often not till 8.30/9.00pm) we catch up on work, blog, read and make sure one evening a week is set aside for just us to cuddle up, watch a movie and indulge in a moment of life back ‘then’.

Busy bees (aka Charli & Sophie) have been exercising their green fingers in the garden. They’ve planted a wonderful assortment of sunflower seeds in every conceivable corner of the garden, from giants and teddy bears to dwarfs and a red petaled variety. At the end of the driveway, where our letterbox stands, they’ve also hidden some seeds tenderly in the ground. Summer will hopefully bring a few surprises and smiles! They’ve also planted lettuce, tomato plants, additional strawberry plants and are eagerly watching the baby blueberry bushes.

In the classroom…

Charli was superb in her school production last week. Two night’s of performances at a local intermediate school, where the children could experience performing on an elevated stage, with lights, ‘wings’ and all the glitz! The production was called ‘Tuatara and the Time Machine’ and traveled back in time, before human settlement in NZ. It then covered the extinction of various birds, such as the Moa, and how people changed the environment and landscape. It followed the history of the school being built in the 1930’s and a fire later on. It then finished with the modern day and how the school is reducing, reusing, recycling, planting natives in the valley and working to restore the ecological balance. It was absolutely fabulous with great singing and dancing from all. The efforts put in from teachers, parents and children really showed. We were all blown away. We took video footage, but as it has lots of other people’s children in it we won’t put it up on the Internet (but folks, a DVD will be winging its way to you shortly!).

Charli was understandably tired by Friday (as we all were!), but thankfully the school kindly said the children needn’t be in till 10.15am – so we enjoyed a slow start.

On the table…

This weekend we visited our favourite Yum Cha restaurant. Charli didn’t have much of an appetite, due to some virus she must have picked up last week, but Sophie ate enough for all of us! Sophie is game on for anything and will happily try curry and all things spicy (as long as a large glass of water is at hand). She loves Yum Cha and seriously ate more than Dan and I!

Sunday morning started slow for Dan – he’d watched the All Blacks victory and then stayed up till midnight to watch Burnley play a victory match in the English Premier League. The girls and I made him pancakes with maple syrup and fresh fruit for breakfast.

For our health…

Dan played a good session of tennis on Saturday morning. I did my pregnancy yoga and went lane swimming on Sunday. The girls burned off energy simply cycling round the house hundreds of times and jumping on anything soft in the house (including getting a spare mattress and sledging down the stairs!). Sophie also enjoyed a ride on Duchess on Sunday. Duchess was in a particularly frisky mood (must have been the red apple Sophie had lovingly fed her before the ride). Dan had a hard job keeping Duchess away from the fence, trees and people’s bags! There was a lot of trotting going on, which Sophie loved. But poor Dan didn’t half work up a sweat! We were glad to a chance to sit down and enjoy our lunch afterwards. Charli and I happily watched the action, with much hilarity and were glad to be on the safe side of the paddock!

For our minds…

Charli is currently playing various games on Dan’s i-Phone – which she hi-jacks at every opportunity. She’s also into ‘quest’ books, where there are several different endings to choose from, as well as ‘Captain Underpants’ (toilet humour, need I say more). Sophie is into everything from fairy books to Thomas the Tank Engine. She of course loves anything with horses too. Dan has enough to keep his mind busy with work and is keeping out of mischief and in pocket (just about – having three gals to feed, clothe and entertain isn’t easy!). As for me, I’m reading historical fiction, playing the piano at every spare opportunity and enjoying keeping fit and healthy as the pregnancy progresses (week 19!).

One more week till our Nelson holiday! We are all very much looking forward to it.

When Dan phoned the head-master this morning he got a personal thank-you for being a responsible parent and keeping Charli at home. It seems there’s been so many children sent off to school with illnesses which has affected the whole teaching staff and so many families. If only people would stop and think of the larger community before sending ill children to school. It’s crazy!

So.. no ‘WOW’ for me tonight. We’re just hoping we can all be well enough to enjoy our holiday next week – though poor Dan is going to have to take his lap-top with him and work whilst we’re away. Oh well, never mind, there’s sure to be brighter days round the corner. Time for another lemon and honey drink…
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Sick of being ill this winter! I have never, ever experienced a winter of illness like this! Okay, Spring is here – let the good health return, please! My glands were swollen again on Thursday, then Friday night I was greeted by my ‘little visitor’, and then the coughing and my muscles aching, my head feeling like it’s stuffed with cotton wool… every person I talk to says, ‘Have you heard about the latest virus going round school?’ Thankfully, the girls have managed to stay well throughout the term. The occasional snuffle and cough, but nothing serious. However, I’m running on empty and feel as though my immune system can’t take anymore. I seriously must go to the docs this week and demand antibiotics!

Thankfully, Dan is being an absolute trooper and managing to avoid illness (though his seasonal hay-fever has started already). He cooked a roast on Saturday for our dear friend Lucy, a spag bog on Sunday for friends Kathy, Mark and their gorgeous boys, and managed to keep the girls from under my feet so I could take a couple of naps.

I reached breaking point at 5.30pm today whilst on my hands and knees tidying up the copious amounts of artwork the girls are churning out. I shouldn’t complain – it’s really heavenly that they’re currently not into T.V. in a big way. Sophie’s into cutting and making collages, whilst Charli is writing stories. Thankfully, the girls heard my cry for help and said, ‘What can we do Mummy?’ – which made me cry even more! Anyway, both girls helped out immensely. Dan walked through the door at 6.30pm and I was so relieved to see him. I know he’s under a lot of pressure at work, but he always manages to be there for us when he’s home. I just fell into his arms, with my head spinning. The girls were both tucked up in bed by 7.30pm and I’ve just been vegging on the sofa.

Anyway, on to more positive news. I left SJ alone at creche (for all of 15 minutes) and she was absolutely fine. I’m really looking forward to getting well enough to start regular exercise again. Not that I’m not active… an hour’s walk on the waterfront with Sophie this morning, 2-hour creche visit, flying visit to library, followed by a work-out at the playground… quick dash home for a cuppa and then walked to school (pushing SJ in buggy up the hill all the way as there wasn’t time for her walk and inspect every blade of grass). Walked back from school, via another playground, and finally arrived home to cook dinner, facilitate artwork, monitor the trampoline action, pick up the dirty laundry etc. etc.

Other great news – Charli’s still loving school, has lots of friends, is starting to look at me as though I’m ‘invisible’ when her friends are around and when I say, ‘What was that you were talking about?’ – she replies, ‘Oh, nothing Mum,’ and giggles to herself. At home she’s writing all the time… she doesn’t stop sounding out words and writing stories. Daddy has got her into Star Wars in a big way and is delighted at having an excuse to run around the garden pretending to be a Jedi Knight.

She performed a story to our guests on Sunday and handed out little hand-written tickets telling us our seat number. The story itself wasn’t Nobel Prize winning, but the handwriting and spelling were such a delight to see after only one term at school (with some cute little errors and mix ups with upper and lower case – the English language is so strange at times!).

It read like this, ‘On a sune [sunny] DAy. We all dreamt of Star Wars. We all Dreamt of Darth VaDer. And it was fun.’

I could go on all night, but I must get myself off to bed – NOW. Let the force be with you!

8.00pm Dan goes out to get a take-away for dinner. SJ vomits all over her bed. It’s in her hair and everywhere. Fortunately my friend, who’s staying with us at the moment, hears me on the monitor and comes up to change the bedding whilst I get in the bath with SJ.

When Dan returns he says he felt really sick in the car and soon after seeing SJ unable to hold down water he vomits.

Anyway, I won’t go into all the gory details. But SJ was desperate to sleep and kept trying – only to be woken every 20 minutes or so by her body trying to vomit.

Dan was feeling really rough.

By 11pm I’m feeling tired – but there is one more surprise in store. My oldest daughter wakes to a start involuntarily vomiting over her bedclothes. She is then up all night.

We all camp out in the lounge with buckets and towels. A long night indeed!

By midday today the girls were able to hold down a few sips of water – they’ve yet to show interest in solids. The washing machine was whirring all day.

I really hope the girls sleep well tonight. They went to sleep well and I was so ready for sleep. But unfortunately, just when I thought I’d miraculously escaped the bug, I started vomiting!

So here I am. Desperately tired, in need of sleep, but after 20 minutes of drifting off I’m woken by my body convulsing – delightful!

By the time my body does settle down – around midnight at least – what’s the betting one of my little charges is needing Mummy in the wee hours of the morning?!

I phoned the medical emergency phone-line at midnight last night and got an extremely helpful response as to what to do – just sips of water starting two hours after the initial vomit. No food until eight hours after the body is able to hold down water. When reintroducing solids, do so in small amounts and with only bland foods. When I asked how long this bug would last for the response wasn’t encouraging: up to 48 hours!

Roll on the weekend and please make tonight go fast. I want to get back to normality!

I left feeling like a well-pampered super-star and bounced down the Plimmer Steps to Lambton Quay with my locks gleaming in the sunshine, bright eyes hidden behind over-sized shades and skin peachy soft and dripping with gentle scents of decadence.

Dan was enjoying the glorious sunshine with the girls on the waterfront; so I skipped over to join them basking in the radiant glory of such an amazing autumnal day (wow – that spa treatment was incredible! I’m going to have to work on Dan to drop me gift voucher’s like that more often!). He’d had a gorgeous morning with the girls; starting with coffee and pain au chocolat at the new ‘Mojo‘ on the Waterfront (within the stunning Kumutoto Plaza development) followed by watching the Water Whirler sculpture and playing at Frank Kitt’s park (where Charlotte had a blast on the ‘Vertical Bungy’ which she’s wildly enjoyed on previous occasions too!).

We then had to hit the road pronto and get Dan to Upper Hutt for his weekly soccer game. This is one aspect of the autumn/winter season that I really look forward to. Dan plays all over Wellington and whenever the weather is fine enough we tag along. The girls love to cheer him on from the side-lines and many of the parks he plays at have awesome playgrounds for children too. Today we were really treated with Harcourt Park. It is a beautiful park boasting two wonderful playgrounds with something for all ages and a summer paddling pool. The trees are a blend of deciduous and evergreen. There was a gentle breeze this afternoon and Charlotte delighted in trying to catch the leaves as they fell from the trees. Piles of red, brown and orange leaves were the source of much amusement as Charlotte and Sophie stomped and rolled in them.

We didn’t actually get to see much of Dan’s game this week as the girls were loving the playground – in particular the ‘flying fox’ – so much! They loved talking with the other children as they patiently waited their turn and I got a work out running the ‘fox’ back and forth (phew!). I could still feel this morning’s coffee wrap working its magic and continuing to expel those toxins – but combined with the sunshine and running about was getting a tad dehydrated! Well, I successfully got the girls away from the flying fox without any tantrums and we caught the last five minute’s of Dan’s game! He was very chuffed to have won (2:0) and beaten a bunch of younger chaps (nice eye candy for me though – really should have watched more of the game! – oops, sorry, Dan, that sort of behaviour isn’t going to get me any more spa treatments in a hurry!).

Moving on… well, the afternoon was still young and so we drove on to ‘Staglands Wildlife Reserve‘. The last time we visited was soon after Sophie’s arrival two year’s ago (a couple of photos below: Charlotte at two and a half)! I’m really cross at myself for forgetting my camera as there were a multitude of perfect shots; but we’ve now got an excuse to visit again soon as we really enjoyed a fabulous experience. As we drove up Sophie shouted, ‘Peacock!’ and it was gorgeous to see the excitement and wonder in her face. The girls stroked guinea pigs, rabbits and donkeys, fed pigs, hens, goats, deer, rainbow trout, eel… they rode on a pony called Brock and Charlotte experienced her first trot! Charlotte ran screaming from the black swans and geese – which were their usually aggressive selves, it was as though they were actually honking, ‘Feed Me!’ – now she has first-hand experience of how I feel in the kitchen at home around ‘feeding time’! We stroked a beautiful Clydesdale called ‘Bob’ and were in raptures over a deer fawn. It was fantastic! We must go again soon!

On the way home the girls were brilliant. We stopped off in Upper Hutt’s main centre to grab a pizza and then enjoyed a stunning drive back into Wellington. The sky was a beautiful colour and the girls loved seeing the city ablaze with lights. They were both blissfully asleep by 8pm and we are feeling so happy after a really, magical day.

The nurse was very nice, but very traditional – in a Victorian sort of way! Our old Plunket nurse in Brooklyn was awesome – all ‘pro-extended breastfeeding’ and very encouraging. This nurse was, ‘Well, as long as it suits your lifestyle…’. For goodness sake! I’m happy, my children are happy, I know she only has my best interests at heart, but really, she made me feel like a total hippy! Then she asked, ‘Does she eat meat?’ – well, yes, but the way she asked was in an accusatory tone of, ‘Are you an extreme vege and don’t you know your child should get some real meat!’. Not that there’s anything wrong with vegetarianism, it’s just this Plunket nurse seemed to have an angle on it! I had to explain that Sophie must have been a T-Rex in another life, as she’s an utter carnivore.

When she asked about sleep I rambled on in my response (as I have a terrible disposition to do!) and said, ‘Fantastic – two hours nap and twelve hour’s all up at night – though I spend half of the night with her on the double futon in her room.’. Well, then there were questions… ‘Just a question with regard the night feed, does she remain latched on?’ – Reply: ‘No, I know about the risk of tooth decay, she doesn’t go to sleep latched on and she drinks nothing but either milk or water during the day.’ I failed to mention Sophie’s penchant for chocolate; but she makes up for her vices with a strong appetite for broccoli, peas, cucumber, carrots etc.

And her other question, ‘How does your husband feel about this?’ – my word, how personal! What does this really have to do with the health of my child!

Anyway, my response: ‘I share the love! I go to bed with my husband and when Sophie stirs around 1am (ish) I spend the rest of the night with her, my husband raves about the positive benefits of extended breastfeeding to his colleagues (frightening what men will talk about after a few beers on a Friday night!) and couldn’t be happier.’ Well, that seemed to satisfy her. For a moment I thought she was going to ask how our sex life is!

Enough already!

In short, Sophie is thriving. She is extremely bright, happy and healthy. She is stringing together sentences, knows all her colours, is counting to five, has an amazing memory, talks in past tense and uses tons of pronouns. Sophie rocks and we all love her!

After the check-up we celebrated with story-time at the local library and lunch at ‘The Cross‘. Charlotte came along for the whole ride as she’d had a tough night with the incredible storm that hit Wellington on Tuesday, with lightning striking more than 10 times in less than an hour, and winds which continued through Wednesday (at 130kmph!).

We are finally in a position to have a decent section to experiment with our own home-grown herbs and vegetables. We live in walking distance of the stunning South Coast of Wellington and since returning from our recent UK visit I’ve been running three-times a week. The weather is warming up with a ready acceptance of the clocks going forward (30 September). This evening is so calm and beautiful. Families gathered on the beaches from Lyall Bay to Island Bay to enjoy the pink sunset lingering over the South Island. I ran with a crazy smile on my face wanting to literally shout out ‘THANK YOU’ to the Universe.

Before we became parents we’d often embrace Wellington’s scenery to better ourselves with kayaking on the harbour and walking in the hills. All our annual leave would be tagged onto long weekends so we could go tramping some of the ‘Great Walks’. With two pre-schoolers it isn’t always as easy to stay motivated, but when we get out and take the time for ourselves everyone benefits. We’re happier, healthier parents and our children are inspired to follow suit.

We just wish our family were all with us to share in the fun! We miss them so much and after all these years it doesn’t get any easier. Seeing our children with their family in England was beautiful and very emotional.

Anyway, back to positive thoughts and planting sunflower seeds.

I’ve been missing my evening blogging, what with playing nurse maid every half hour or so, and as I type I can hear more coughing on the baby monitor. Despite Sophie’s awful cold she is managing to put on a reasonably brave face and learning a few cold associated words such as, ‘Cold, nose, breath, eyes, cough’…. oops – I’m being summoned upstairs again!

She put on a brave face yesterday at a gorgeous Birthday Party for one of Charlotte’s Kindi friends. It was a really touching, traditional Birthday celebration with all the classic games.

I love home celebrations and Dan took the girls out to ‘Little Monkeys‘ for the afternoon to give me a chance to prepare for Charlotte’s Party tomorrow. I have to say I’m struggling to pull things together when I’m feeling so bunged up with cold, but we’ll get there.

The girls enjoying a friend’s Birthday party (poor Sophie crashed within a second of being put in her carseat after the party!):

And have I made a cake for tomorrow’s party? Sorry, but I’ve wimped out again this year! My excuse: Not wanting to infect anyone with this darn cold (I would have needed to tog myself up with mask and plastic gloves like a surgeon to ensure no cross infection!).

Look at Sophie waiting for the Plunkett Nurse for her 8 month check up. Here’s the Nurse’s report:

Sophie is sitting well, bumshuffling and trying to pull up. Breastfeeding plus 3+ solids and snacks. A gorgeous wee girl – vocalising well. Wakes at night for a feed a few times.

Weight: 7.30kg

Length: 67cm

Head: 44.5cm

Fontanelle: closed

Hips: abducted

Hearing and Vision : appear satisfactory

Excellent Development!