Lauren’s wedding

Ok, ok, I know it’s Wednesday and I’ve been home from our weekend away for 3 days now and still haven’t written a blog post. That’s the problem with going away, you have to catch up on so much stuff. There’s the washing, of course. Usually I do a load of washing every single day (ugh), but I can’t really do that when we’re away. I guess I could, but then I’d have to pay to use the coin operated machine and then waste half the day waiting for the washing machine to finish to transfer everything to the dryer. No thanks. Now there is a mound of clean clothes as high as my boobs waiting to be folded and put away. At least I’ve done the first 2 steps. I’ve washed and dried them.

Then there’s the dishes. I should have done the dish pile before leaving on Friday, but we left at 8am and I didn’t really have time. By Sunday, they were smelly and disgusting, and even though I was dead tired, I had to wash them.

Oh, and the unpacking. Not just mine, but the kids’ as well. And when you have little kids, you have to take so much stuff. Even for just 2 nights away. There’s their clothes (extra clothes too, in case they get food all over them, vomit, fall in a puddle, wipe snot everywhere, etc. There is no telling how clothes will get dirty in 2 minutes on a toddler), toys (yes, an whole carry-on sized suitcase full. Gotta entertain them somehow when at the cabin), bedding, blankets (as in, their special take-them-to-bed-and-cuddle-them blankets) sippy cups and little spoons, snacks, no tears shampoo, little kid toothpaste, portable cot (for Daniel), baby monitor, nappy bag full of nappies, wipes, creams, etc.. Yeah, lots of stuff. So unpacking is no easy feat.

I also had to catch up on sleep. Which is hard when you usually go to bed at 9 anyway. Not much wiggle room for those extra z’s. Needless to say, getting a blog post out was just not happening. But now it’s 5am, I’m awake, the kids are asleep, Aaron is out running, so I’m writing. As I usually do at 5.

I thought Daniel would be screaming and crying, and desperately wanting to escape from his car seat the whole way there. Turns out if I put some cartoons on the iPad (which has a special holder that goes on the back of the front seat headrest), he is happily entertained for hours. I’m sure it would be a different story if he was in my lap rather than restrained in a seat.

Hannah, on the other hand, started with the “are we there yet’s” after only an hour. A little while after that she started making these horrible whinging noises that sounded nearly identical to a fatally wounded elk. What I’d imagine one to sound like anyway. Then she started flapping her arms about whilst making the horrid noise followed by shouts of “I WANT TO GO TO MCDONALD’S!” Which we did. An hour and a half later.

Hi Mom!

She finally smiles for the camera now

Why McDonald’s? Because they have a playground. Essential for little people in the middle of a long drive. Healthy food joints, take note: if you have a playground, they will come.

The kids loved their little food/play stop even though the tunnels leading to the slides smelled like urine. Ick.

Some hours and many canola fields later, we arrived.

See all that yellow? Fields of canola

Lauren’s wedding. Oh. My. Gosh. It was awesome. That girl knows how to put on a wedding. Actually, every time her family have any sort of get together, it is awesome fun. I learned that 11 years ago at my very first family gathering. Nothing has changed. Except all the kids are no longer kids anymore.

All of the other bridesmaids slept at the reception venue the night before the wedding. It was actually at someone’s house (amazing house), but there was a marquee set up in the yard for the reception. I opted to stay with Aaron and the kids and meet the girls at the house at 7:30 in the morning for a lovely breakfast of bircher muesli, fresh fruit, and eggs, spinach and tomato on toast. Oh yes, it was fabulous. Plus I could enjoy it without any little people grasping on to my leg and looking at me with puppy dog eyes until I picked them up.

 

bircher muesli

We started the hair/make up process at 10 or 10:30 or something like that and didn’t finish until after we were supposed to leave for the wedding. We didn’t actually end up leaving until after the wedding was supposed to have started.

Me, all ready to go

If you know Lauren though, you’d know that’s not unusual. I remember in high school she was ALWAYS late. Running out the door whilst brushing her teeth, back pack half on, shoes in hand late. She’d often miss her train and Linda would have to race the train to the next stop to drop Lauren off.

We did finally make it there, some 40 minutes late, but at least we arrived in style. 1920s style. I’ve always wanted to ride in one of those old cars.

The wedding charriot. One of them. (sorry about the crop, it’s from instagram)

The sun was shining, the scenery was beautiful, the bride was beautiful, and everything went as planned.

Except when one of the flower girls got a bug in her skirt. Everyone was busy watching the bride and groom sign the registry, so I’m pretty sure no one noticed as one of the bridesmaids had to fish a weird looking bug from the layers of tulle.

After all the formal photos, and some not so formal ones, we rode in the awesome cars to the reception where everyone cocktail hour was almost over.

A not so formal photo…

There was a nanny in the house, looking after all the kids whilst the parents enjoyed the reception. Brilliant idea! Seriously, little kids would be so bored at a wedding reception, so having toys and a nanny away from all that was absolutely wonderful.

I had so much fun at the reception that I danced and giggled until 12am.

Lozza on the dance floor

Some of us couldn’t help ourselves when we noticed the corrugated iron cow.

Who was molesting the cow? I don’t know, we, I mean they… were clearly incognito

There was even a photo booth. If you are having a wedding, seriously, you need one of these. It was so much fun, and they print 2 copies of the photos, one for you and one to glue in a book that goes to the bride and groom. Awesome. If only I had one at my wedding!

Oh yes, there are dress ups for the photo booth

After the band finished at 12, there was a bus to drop everyone off at their accommodation (it also picked people up). See, they thought of everything. No one had to worry about taxis, no one drove drunk, no one had to worry about parking. Well, Aaron drove, but he left at 7 with the grumpy past-their-bed-time kids. He’s not really one for dancing anyway.

Lauren, you are awesome, and I’m sure you and Ryan will have a great life together ❤

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

Like my blog? ‘Like’ it on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mommy-Adventures/203964682967827?ref=tn_tnmn

Pin It You officially have my permission to pin this (as long as it links back to my site).  Just don’t act like you wrote it. Because you didn’t….

Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

Road trip

Today we are embarking on a 4 hour road trip with the kids. Yes, I know, we are slightly crazy. It usually takes 4 hours to get there. For people without kids. We are planning to make it in 6 hours with playground, pee, and lunch stops along the way. Daniel has never been in the car for more than about an hour before, so it could be…interesting.

We are going to Young for a wedding. Not just any wedding. Lauren’s wedding. You may remember Lauren from our Amazing Race Australia season 1 application video.  She was my exchange student in the U.S. almost 13 years ago. Then I was her exchange student over here nearly 12 years ago. I met Aaron through Lauren. Needless to say, there is no way we are missing that wedding, no matter how long it takes to drive there. Plus, I’m a bridesmaid.

I’m pretty sure this is going to be the wedding of the year. I can’t wait. Hopefully the journey there and back will go smoothly. I’ll be tweeting and instagraming on the way there, and whilst I’m there, so you can follow along if you like:

Follow me on Twitter

Find me on Instagram – sherismommyadventures

Otherwise, I’ll tell you all about it when I get back in a few days.

In the mean time, check out the review I did of the  halftee (which you can use to cover your cleavage in a low cut top of dress). If you’d like to buy one, use the code mommyadventures10 for 10% off. See the review here.

Also, there is a new website called the MoDa report (MOmmy DAddy) which gathers awesome posts from mommy and daddy bloggers far and wide. Check it out here.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

Like my blog? ‘Like’ it on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mommy-Adventures/203964682967827?ref=tn_tnmn

Pin It You officially have my permission to pin this (as long as it links back to my site).  Just don’t act like you wrote it. Because you didn’t….

Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

The Christmas Edition

My hair was slicked back, wet with purple hair dye that was dripping on to my back. I was wearing only my nursing bra and bikini bottoms while cooking pancakes on Christmas morning. I hope none of the neighbors could see me through the windows, it must have looked like a crazy house! Usually when I dye my hair, I wear old ugly t-shirts and put old ugly towels around myself. I was not at home though, and I didn’t have any old ugly shirts, and the only towels were nice hotel bright white ones. I don’t think my Mother in Law would have appreciated her nice towels suddenly turning purple. The Sister in Law wanted to live vicariously through me and suggested I dye my hair. I thought it would be fun to have purple hair (that goes away after 8 washes…) for Christmas, so I thought, why not? We had a good Christmas, lots of good presents, good food (prawns on the BBQ, chicken skewers, pasta salad, fruit salad, gelato, fruit flan), and a nice lazy day.

Hannah loves opening presents. She does, of course, want to eat the wrapping paper. I think she likes the paper better then the actual present inside. She’s no longer allowed to chew on paper or cardboard as she has learned how to take bits off with her gums and then tries to eat them. After fishing a few bits of paper out of her mouth, I banned paper and cardboard from her list of toys. I was actually able to get some smiling photos of Hannah. We were out to lunch one day when she went a bit hyper and started squealing, yelling, jumping, and giggling. I got out the camera, and to my amazement, the hyper activity didn’t stop, she didn’t stop and stare at the camera like she normally does. I was able to get lots of smiling photos, and since that day, she smiles for the camera like she’s been doing it her whole life.

I hope no one looked at me through the window of the car on the drive home. They would have been in for a very big shock. I’m sure it’s not everyday that you see someone in the passenger seat of a car using a manual breast pump while going down the freeway. I didn’t really have a choice, Hannah was refusing to nurse (too much to look at, it was very hot and sticky, who knows really), and I am not really a fan of exploding boobies, so I pumped. Yes, I could have done it in the bathroom at a rest stop or something, but 1, that would have added extra time to the already long journey, and 2, is pumping in the filthy bathroom at Macca’s any less weird then pumping while in a moving vehicle? I think not. I was very worried about the drive home from Byron Bay. Hannah has never really been a fan of car rides, and we were going to drive from Byron Bay to Tamworth the first day, then Tamworth to Sydney (via Penrith) the second day. She never fails to surprise and delight us though. She was wonderful the first day. Even though she didn’t have much sleep in the car (she can’t sleep very long in the car seat, I think because she usually sleeps on her tummy and obviously can’t do that in her seat), she was happy, didn’t cry, and was quite content. We stopped frequently to let her out of her seat, and to give her some food. By the last couple of hours of the journey on the second day, she had had enough. She pretty much screamed for an hour straight, until we stopped in Windsor for some lunch. Poor Bubba.

I know my blog is a day late. Monday I didn’t even realise it was Monday. Aaron has the week off, so it felt like it was Sunday. Then Tuesday I meant to do it but the camera was out of batteries so I couldn’t get the photos on the computer to put on the blog (and I forgot to charge it until the evening). Then yesterday I was too busy. Oh well, I’m sure you’ll live.

The Plane Trip

Hannah
I don’t really know what’s going on. It’s 5:30 in the morning and Mommy and Daddy are getting things from my room trying to be quiet but not succeeding. I wake up of course, and to my surprise, they pick me up, change my nappy, and put me in the car. Grandma is here too. I’m really excited. I know they want me to go to sleep in the car, but how could I?

We went in a really big room with lots of windows with strange huge car type things (only very funny looking) outside. Mommy walks me around the building pointing to the strange cars. She tells me they are airplanes and that we are going to ride on one with Grandma. I’m a little confused though, I thought I was an airplane? Mommy and Daddy often lay on their backs and put me on their knees and move their legs around and say I’m an airplane (or aeroplane if it’s Daddy) bubba. So if I’m an airplane, how can this giant car be one too?

Someone says that the airplane is delayed because it needs to do a “high powered engine run.” Whatever that is. “Lucky I brought her food.” Mommy says. We go in the mothers room and Mommy tries to give me some booby. I’m still so excited for whatever we are going to do, so there is no way I’m going to have booby. I eat the avocado and apple that Mommy brought for me though. I can eat that and still look out the window at all of the big giant cars (airplanes?) going up and down.

A loud voice comes on again and says that we can’t ride the plane we were going to ride, but that we have to ride a new one, from a different gate, so Mommy packs up me and all my toys and off we go to a big room next to the one we were in before. They say our take off is going to be 3 hours late. Lots of people around us are very cranky and saying rude things and being mean to the people behind the desk. Mommy gets excited though because they give us all meal coupons to use while we wait. I’m even more excited because now I can get away with not taking a nap.

Mommy spreads out my blanket on the floor of the big building and puts my toys on it. I’m having heaps of fun, I get to play with all my toys, Mommy, and Grandma, all while getting to look out a giant window full of giant cars going from the ground to the sky and the sky to the ground (maybe we were in giantville? Am I going to turn into a giant?), and I get to look at all sorts of funny looking and interesting people who all tell me that I am cute and have such beautiful blue eyes. I finally get hungry enough to have some booby just before we get on the giant car/airplane, and when we sit down in the giant car/airplane.

Grandma tells Mommy to have the window seat so that I can look outside while we take off (I wonder what take off means?). “This seat belt is useless!” Mommy says. She attaches it to her seat belt and then fastens it around me. It’s really uncomfortable, and I don’t think it’s really doing much. I wonder why I have to go in that special seat thingy when I ride in Mommy and Daddy’s car, but in this giant car/airplane, I get to sit in Mommy’s lap with a funny useless seatbelt? I have some more booby and fall asleep.

I wake up and smile at Mommy. I’m happy that I’m still in her lap. Usually when I fall asleep on Mommy, I wake up in my cot. Mommy holds me next to the little window and takes lots of pictures. She says she wants to document my first plane ride (is plane the same as airplane/giant car?). A loud voice comes on saying that we are about to start our decent (whatever that means). Ouch! My ears start to hurt and I cry. Mommy puts her finger in my mouth and I suck. Huh, all better. Mommy always knows what to do! I stop crying. I look out the window and all I see is white. It starts to get bouncy. Mommy says we are going through a cloud. Oh, I get it now, Mommy pretends I’m an airplane when we play airplane bubba, and we are going through clouds! What fun!!! So I’m not an airplane after all, this is an airplane, and Mommy and Daddy just pretend I’m an airplane for my amusement sometimes. Clever.

Mommy and Grandma keep telling me what a good girl I am. Grandma said that if I was older, she’d give me a treat for being so good. I can’t wait until I’m older so I can get a treat! That sounds good!

Sheri
I put my feet on the edge of the platform and hold on to the side. “Now reach out and grab the bar,” the man says. I know I have to extend my arm to do so, but it won’t budge, it’s stuck in the L position. The man assures me he has a hold of my special belt and once again prompts me to lean forward, extend my arm and grab the bar with my right hand. I look down. I’m about 2 stories high, standing on the platform. I’m not afraid of heights, but did I mention that I’m afraid of falling? When I was little, Grandma (not the one in Hannah’s story, that is Aaron’s grandma) used to take me to swimming lessons. When I passed all of the normal lessons after a number of years, I took diving lessons. Not like SCUBA diving, like diving board diving. I was fine with the normal diving board, but put me on the high dive and I would freak out a little. They had to give me a rubber ducky and tell me to throw it under the diving board onto the side of the pool just to get me to dive off it. I guess it distracted me from the falling part. It worked, but only when I had to throw the ducky.

When I was 18, I went to West Virginia with my Dad. We went white water rafting, but stopped for lunch at a spot where people jump off huge rocks into a deep pool of water below. Everyone did it. I went last. I ran in hopes that I wouldn’t be able to stop and would just have to do it. Nope, I stopped dead just before the end of the rock. I stood up there for a good 5 minutes, trying to will myself to jump, but I just couldn’t. I had to walk down the long way. How embarrassing….

Now I’m on a platform, 2 stories high, about to try out the flying trapeze. That’s right, I’m at circus school, a Christmas present from The Jess. She is here too, as is Trish, Jimmy, and of course, my little girl is watching me to. I can’t let her see me fail. The man assures me he has a hold of me, and against my better judgement, I lean forward and grab the bar. He says to reach out and grab it with both hands now. This is even harder. Now I’m completely at the mercy of a random man whose name I don’t even know, to make sure I don’t plummet face first into the net below. I know, there is a net, and I’m also attached to a rope on both sides of the special belt, but tell that to my fear of falling.

Ok, I have both hands on the bar. “Hup!” the man calls. That means I’m supposed to jump off the platform. I don’t go anywhere. He reminds me the call means jump, and calls it again. I close my eyes, and my feet leave the platform. I’m flying through the air, a smile wide on my face, while hanging from the bar. “Hup,” he calls again. That means I’m supposed to put my knees over the bar. I hesitate just a little and then find I can’t put my knees up. It’s too hard if you don’t do it at the right time because then you don’t have the momentum to do so. I keep trying and trying anyway, but can’t do it. I’m really disappointed.

It’s my turn again, and this time there is a woman at the top of the platform. Once again it takes me longer then it should to grab the bar, but when the man calls “Hup,” she pushes my feet off at the same time. I like this method much better. No room for hesitation. “Hup,” I don’t hesitate and before I know it, my knees are over the bar. “Hup,” I let go with my hands and arch my back. Now I’m hanging by only my knees, 2 stories up in the air, flying on a trapeze. I feel amazing.

It’s my turn again, and now we get to try a catch. Everything is going smoothly. “Hup,” I’m flying through the air, my knees holding me to the bar, my back arched, my hands reaching. I’m not even sure how it happens, but somehow, my knees leave the bar, my hands reach out, and then I’m hanging by a monkey grip by a man who is hanging upside down from another trapeze. Now there is no containing my smile. I think if it were possible, I could power an entire city with my smile right now.

Other things that happened this week:
I took Hannah to the beach a couple of times, and she loved playing in the sand, but for some reason, even though she loved the water before, she cried both times. The theory at the moment is that maybe her bottom hurts when the salt water touches it. She has nappy rash for the first time in her entire life, and it looks very sore. Poor baby…. She is trying with all her might to crawl, and can now put herself and push ups position, only her hands and the balls of her feet touching the ground. She can easily move herself backwards, but can’t quite go forward yet. This morning I saw her go in the proper crawling position, knees under her, arms extended. It’s only a matter of time now…. I gave Hannah a rusk this week as she just wants to chew on everything. I gave her paper or cardboard sometimes, but now she has figured out how to get chunks off in about 2 seconds flat and a few times I’ve had to fish them out of her mouth, so no more paper or cardboard for her. She loves rusk though. As soon as I gave it to her, she put it in her little mouth and chewed and chewed and chewed like she had been doing it her entire life.

Sorry there are no pictures, but we are on holiday and I’m writing this from a borrowed laptop. I will put photos up next week (when you will hear about our 12 hour road trip home. Fingers crossed that Hannah won’t mind it too much. She isn’t a huge fan of the car).