Good mornin'

9:30am

Hair and makeup done

Kids dressed

Dishes done

House is tidy

2nd load of wash is in

(While 3 loads from the last three days are sitting on my dresser waiting to be folded and put away)

About to go to a play date

Praying my allergies aren't as bad today

*Elle WALKING around with her teddy bear :)

Bits and Bites

Not a whole lot happening around here.

On Sunday afternoon I went to a baby shower for a fellow Canadian friend.  She moved her to go to the JPII Institute a few months before we left to go back to Canada.  We didn't see her much here, but I've been in contact with her on facebook since then.  She is now pregnant (obviously) - 34 weeks - so a friend of hers threw a baby shower!  It was really nice actually, I got to get out of the house for a few hours, and met some new people. A couple of the ladies there were asking if I'm nervous about baby #3 and I said that I was more nervous about what we would do with the kids when I go into labor, especially if it's in the middle of the night - and they both chimed in that they would be available, and gave me their numbers right there! Haha - Conor and I were joking around that we'll have to have them over for dinner in case that need actually arises, so that the kids meet them and stuff.  haha.

This weekend Conor is giving a talk in Albury, which is about a 3 hour drive from here.  The lady organizing it said that she has daughters who REALLY want to babysit our kids - so we're all going up for the weekend!  He's giving his talk after dinner on Saturday so I guess we'll try to both go and see if her girls can get this kids to bed - should be interesting!

Then on Tuesday it's Melbourne Cup day - "the race that stops a nation" - it's an annual horserace that has become an unofficial holiday in metro-Melbourne.

Then we will prepare for Conor's trip to Rome!  I'm nervous about being alone with the kids for over a week, and he's nervous about defending his thesis.  I know he'll do great - and after it's done he just gets to holiday... so obviously my nervousness is more real :) ha

Anyways, that's all I have to say.  boring, I know... but oh well.

Husbands...psshh

Yesterday Conor didn't know how to "deal with me" apparently.  I was talkative and happy (as opposed to being sick and grumpy like I have been most days lately).  So when I talked he would just respond "oh yeah", "that's great", and fluff like that, instead of having an actual conversation with me.

Today however, he says he knows how to "deal with me" because I was grumpy and feeling sick while waiting for breakfast.  He looked at me and said "eww, stop making that gross face!"

That is apparently how he "deals" with someone who is grumpy and feels like they are about to spew.

Mothers...psshh

I'm realizing I have something wrong with me. I always want what I can't/don't have.

And really, a lot of times there are things that I want... that I don't actually want.

I follow a lot of mommy blogs, and have mommy friends on twitter and Facebook. It seems lately that a lot of them have referenced rocking their babies to sleep. A lot of these "babies" are Elle's age.

And my first thought is always "awww". I picture this nice quiet room with maybe a soft night light, a comfy rocking chair, and baby all snuggled up and fast asleep. Doesn't that just seem so nice and peaceful?

My second thought is jealousy. Other than Elle's first 2 or 3 months of life, I can literally count on one hand the times I've had to "rock her" to sleep.

But then reality hits.

"Rocking" my children to sleep has never been that peaceful picture in my head. I've always "rocked" them because they were screaming crying messes who were far from sleeping peacefully, especially when you attempt the dreaded transfer into their crib.

And Elle has only twice since she was a couple months old fell asleep in my arms. She's not that kind of girl. She wanted to be rocked or soothed until a certain point. Then if you didn't put her in her crib at that point (which seriously was never very long) then the crying would start again until she was in her crib.

Maybe that's why I want it? Because I never had it from her?

Actually I just realized right this second why I want it. *ding* Epiphany.

It's because she's not nursing. And she stopped nursing LONG before I was ready for it.

Even though I never nursed her to sleep, we still had those cuddles before bed.

She still takes a bottle, but it's become habit for her to lay on the carpet with a pillow while she has her bottle, she will actually rarely let me hold her. I do hold her while she has her bottle in the night, but I'm so preoccupied with being angry that she still wakes up that I don't enjoy it!

Haha, see!?! This is crazy.

So while I don't suffer from mommy guilt like most mothers, and I don't fear that I won't have enough love to extend to more children (sorry, I just honestly don't get that one!)... I have my own weird mommy things.

Maybe I'm not the only one though.

*And because no one likes a blog with no pictures... I gave the kids a bath together last night for the first time in Australia. And the first time that Elle wasn't confined in a bath ring.

It was going really well.... until she pooped!

This and that

We had a bit of a long weekend here. Just us :)

Since I had my appointment at the hospital Friday morning, Conor took the whole day off. I think he was probably happy to go back to work this morning and get away from the house! Haha.

I'm 12 weeks today! I feel like I've been having more energy in the evening which is nice, but last night I stayed up too late and then had a headache all night. Every time I woke up I noticed it and then it was bad this morning. I think it's gone now though, hopefully.

I don't know if Elle should have a morning nap or not. I just don't know. She was awake at 6:40. So if I don't give her a nap she will be a wreck while I make lunch... and then she's been making it a bad habit to then nap for only an hour or 1.5 hours when she doesn't have a morning nap. SOO annoying. But if I DO give her a morning nap, then her afternoon nap won't be until 230-3 and by then I'm just exhausted!

I added some pics - just on my iPhone so I don't know how to put a caption with each pic... and I don't even know what order they will come in, but here's a bit if description

• Elle was tired during lunch the other day and resting her cheek on her hand
• Elle in some bunny ears... Halloween costume? Haha
• the kids in their morning perch waving goodbye to Daddy

My apppointment at the hospital

First I should give a little low down of the maternity care here.  I don't actually know all the ins and outs yet, but this is my general understanding.  I am just on the public health care system, so it would be different if you were to go private.

So I had a few "options" (which turned out not to be options for my situation, but I'll get into that later).  This is all dependant on each hospital.  We luckily live really close to a very good hospital.  Actually I've heard it's one of the best, so that right there makes me feel all warm and fuzzy (It's scary giving birth in another country, I need all the warm and fuzzies I can get!)  This hospital has quite a few options as far as how you want to go through your pregnancy and delivery.

• Midwives are set up right in the hospital (as opposed to in Canada, where they are funded under public healthcare but are set up in their own private clinics/offices)... so you can choose to just see midwives.  And actually I think there might be a special ward for that... private rooms and such, but not sure about that yet.
• Shared-care.  This is what I was really hoping to do.  It's where you see your GP for most of your pre-natal (called antenatal) visits, but for more important ones, and to get to know the hospital, and staff... your GP does not deliver though, I think that still just ends up being a "whoever is on call" type thing, but I didn't really ask about that today.  So this is what I wanted because 1. the hospitals sometimes double book appointments, you might only wait 30 minutes to see the doctor or midwife, or it could be 2 hours!!  Meaning you have to pay for parking, entertain children... and wait and wait and wait.  So I really wanted to be able to do most appointments with my GP.
• Doctors (specialists/OBs whatever you want to call them).  You can CHOOSE to go this route... or if you are deemed high risk in any way this route is chosen for you.

So I went to the hospital yesterday morning bright and early for my 8:30 appointment.  The waiting room filled up quickly yet no one was getting called - already getting an idea of wait times.  So I wanted shared care, but knew because of my short cervix issues last time that they might just not allow it in my case.

A midwife came to me first, and said that I would also see a doctor afterwards to discuss the cervix stuff, in the end it would be his call.  The midwife was really really nice.  I had some questions regarding my being induced.  You hear SOOO much out there about all the negatives of induction and how SO OFTEN it is unnecessary.  But I hadn't really done much research before the kids were born, and when you're water breaks and things start getting real, you just do what your told!  So I really wanted to know whether it had been necessary in my case.  I've gotta say that I trust a midwife before I trust a doctor on questions like this. They are known to be more "natural child birth" than doctors, so I was glad to talk to her about it, and for her to tell me it was the right thing, and will be the right thing should it happen again.  Another big concern for me was when a friend told me that she was induced with her first 4 and then with her 5th they said it was too risky to do it again.  I don't want to "use up" my inductions unnecessarily and then not have the option the 5th time.  So she made it clear that in my situation I do not have the risk.

When your water breaks, your body is starting labor on its own, whether you start contractions or not.  1. You risk infection if you don't deliver within a couple days... but 2. You don't have the same risks associated with induction (ie. uterine rupture, c-section, etc) because it's more just HELPING your body do it instead of DOINGit for your body.  So that made me feel much better right there!

After that I went and sat down again and waited for the doctor.  He was really really on the fence about doing shared care or not.  He could see the practicalities of it being much easier for ME with two kids and all, and while he's not overly concerned about this pregnancy, there was enough of a concern that he said no.  So I understand... it's okay, I'll deal with it!

He was really very nice.  I don't want the 12 week ultrasound for Downs Syndrome scan, he said he would have had them check the length of my cervix then but we would just wait until the 20 weeks scan.  This kind of disappointed me because I really want to know where it's at NOW... I just want some piece of mind on the issue one way or the other.  Anyways, I asked a few more questions about the potential cervix issues, and seeing that I was concerned about it, he went ahead and booked me a specific scan to check the length of the cervix at 14 weeks.

This made me very happy!!  It's not often the doctor will really see your concern and do something about it to make you feel better.  So it was a great appointment.  Oh, and I had my ultrasound for 20 weeks booked somewhere else but it was going to cost $175 out of pocket, which I didn't realize.  So he also got me in at the hospital to do that scan, and it will be completely covered by medicare!

So a "con" of the day is not getting the shared care, but the pro is that I have a doctor that has assured me he's not concerned at this point over the cervix, but still saw that I was and has done what he can to help me :)

*Conor had taken the day off - in the afternoon he took Elle with him on his run so Finn and I went to the park for some mommy &Finn time :)

Did it change?

Here's a little update on Operation Sleep-in.

I thought we had been successful. Several nights of the kids going to bed around 8-830 and waking up past 7am.

The yesterday Elle woke up at 6:30 and today at 6! Ugh, why is she such an early bird?!?!

Anyways, we'll keep it up for awhile and see if that changes, otherwise they might as well go to bed at 7:30 again!

To make it worse I COULD.NOT fall asleep last night.

I went to a screening if "October Baby". It's a story about a survivor of a failed abortion, very sad but had some funny parts and was very moving... So glad I went.

But then I got home and went to bed late. It took me awhile to fall asleep, when I finally did Elle woke up at midnight and then I couldn't get back to sleep. I finally went out to the living room, had something to eat, played on my iPod, and went back to bed to finally crash around 2am!

So I was pretty grumpy when Elle woke up at 6!

I'm now at the hospital for an appointment with the doctors and maybe I'll get a tour of the delivery rooms or something. I don't know - I was told the appointment would be 2-3 hours - I have no idea what could take that long! But we'll see!

Oh, so you saw what Elle looked like when she was sleeping on me the other day. Well here's what she looked like after she woke up 1.5 hours later!!

One of those days

The day started alright. The kids and I walked to Office Works to pick up some files for the used filing cabinet I bought yesterday. Turns out they are too big though so I'll have to return them.

Then I don't know what happened. Finn was whining and being a brat to Elle, and I wasn't handling it well, which was making it worse.

I broke down. Not pretty. Finally it was naptime so it was all peaceful and quiet and then Elle woke up (quite early) screaming and crying.

I tried giving her the soother and patting her back but she kept crying so I took her out of her crib.

And then she just went crazy in my arms. I brought her to my bed trying to calm her down but she was just writhing and screaming and wouldn't let me hold her. For almost 20 minutes. It was awful.

I would get her calmed down in my arms and then it would start again - she eventually fell asleep in my arms. The last time she fell asleep in my arms was at my brothers wedding. Before that it was probably when she was only a few months old.

I'm completely uncomfortable right now, we've been like this almost an hour - but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else (good thing Finn chose today as his once-a-month nap day!)

I am NOT a home-designer

I'm really excited to have our own place and for the first time be able to decorate the way we want.

BUT I am NOT a designer. When I look at something I know if I like it or not... but I don't know how to start from scratch and design a room. It's been kind of overwhelming to completely furnish a house from scratch!

We got black tables and chairs for the living room/dining room, and a brown couch (and now a white couch, because someone was selling it cheap and we wanted another couch).  So now what?

We finally got a carpet for the living room and for the kids room.

But I don't know where to go from there.

I was things for the walls, but how do you choose?  Do you want "art" to mean something to you, or do you just want something that is the right color and fits in with the decor?

For the kids room I have a few cute colorful picture frames that I bought in Madagascar, I'm going to update the pics in them (they were pictures I put in about 7 years ago!) and then hang them up in there. They are actually just being shipped here right now, so I have to wait a couple more weeks or something for them to come with some other stuff of ours.  Then I thought I might try just making some cheap kiddo artwork for their walls.

But here's some pictures of the other areas that need SOMETHING.

So we need something for the wall above the brown couch.  And pillows.
I could just get neutral pillows, but I want some color.. but can't quite find anything to match the carpet, argh!

Okay, I took this picture because we needed something for above the fireplace, but we found something the next day!

Meet our new addition :)
We got it for $7 at a local mission put on by the Sisters of St Peter Claver!

I wouldn't mind something little to go on the space between the air con and the window

Something to go on the wall there between the dining room and kitchen

This is what you see right when you walk in the door... it's kind of a dumping ground of a book shelf, but a little picture there would make it not look so bad :)

Big bland hallway.  We are getting the kids a dresser tonight, and it won't really fit in their room, so I think it's just going to go in the hallway for now.  Then I can access it when the kids are asleep to put the clothes away, but it's still close to the kids room.

Our room... again, do we try to get something that goes with the color scheme?

So that's our house right now!

Late night #2

Well last night we did it again. We ate dinner and then headed to the local mall.

I had 4 things on my list: buy flax seed, exchange some sandals I bought for Finn (still getting used to their sizing here, they SAID he should be in size 8 when in fact he is size 11!), bring some pjs in to get the tag removed (because they forgot to do it when I bought them), and buy a lot of baby wash clothes because I want to start using reusable wipes.

We got the flax seeds - I forgot to bring Finns sandals so I couldn't do an exchange - I forgot to bring the PJs so I couldn't get the tag removed - and I got home and realized I never looked for wash clothes.

So there ya go, pregnancy brain at its finest!!

Anyways, both of the kids were in desperate need of baths so I gave Elle a bath while Conor did the dinner dishes, and then I gave Finn a bath while Conor played with Elle.

They went to bed around 9 and woke up at..... 645 :(

BUT We all slept through the night, so that was a bonus.

After pancakes we went to this fair thing put on by the Sisters of Saint Peter Claver.  We scored some good toys and books for the kids, and a $7 painting for the living room.

I'll be doing a post soon titles "I am NOT a home designer" and the painting will be in it :)

Something's gotta change

I can't handle these early mornings anymore.

I've always been of the opinion of putting kids to bed early so the adults can have time together or alone time before bed. Sure it means early mornings, but I'm a morning person. I don't want my kids up til 10pm so that I can sleep in until 9.

But that was when my kids slept until 7-730 am.

I was hoping with the daylight savings time change that Elle, who was normally waking around 630, would start waking up around 730 instead.

For the first 3 mornings she slept until 715. This is perfection in my mind. Then we can either snuggle in bed for awhile and have breaky after Conor leaves, OR we can get right up and have breakfast with him.

Anything earlier than 7am kills me a little inside.

So the 4th morning Elle woke up at 6:40. The 5th morning, 6:10.

Yesterday morning? 5:55am. I was livid!!! I tried giving her another bottle and hoped it was dark enough out that she would fall back asleep. No luck.

So I decided that things needed to change.

Right now the kids go to bed at 730. Elle has gone to bed at 730 since she was a few months old. She is tired at 730.

We could just gradually push back their bedtimes. 8 or 830 would be okay with me. But I'd rather start drastically.

So I decided that for a few nights we will keep them both up until 9 or 930, and see what happens.

Last night we went to a shopping center with Ikea and Kmart. I just wanted one thing from Ikea, but I figured Finn could run around then.

We didn't end up going to Kmart - but we stopped in the kids section of ikea and let the kids play, they both had a lot of fun. Then we went and looked at animals at the pet center.

We got home at 9pm. I WAS going to give Elle a bath, but I was just too tired, so we put the kids right to bed. I followed them shortly.

The kids slept in until 7:15!!

So I think we will do that again for a couple nights, and then change bedtime to 830 or 8 and hope they continue to "sleep in"

(How annoying is it that 715 is "sleeping in"? Psh, kids!)

Haircuts and Inappropriate conversations

I never post things the day that I want to... I did NOT get my hair cut today, it was last week, but I'm not editing it...

I went and got my haircut today!  And had lunch by myself.  A little treat :)

When I got home Conor said "so, did they cut off much"... in other words, he totally didn't even notice.  If he hadn't have known I was getting my hair cut, he probably wouldn't have even said anything, but since he knew that's why I went out, he felt he had to say something about it.

"Nice Haircut!" is what you should always say, Conor, whether you notice a difference or not! haha.

Anyways, so I get to the hair salon, and sit down infront of the mirror and the lady asks me what I want.  I said that I'm pregnant so the main thing is to get rid of the bulk in the back, since it's just going to get thicker.

Then when she was washing my hair she asked if I wanted a boy or a girl, and I said I already had a boy AND a girl, so I had no preference (not that I had preferences with the other two, but you know what I mean)... she was surprised I had two kids. And I told her that Elle and the baby would be less than 2 years apart.

Then this is where it gets inappropriate.

She's says "oh good, let me ask you your opinion on something".

She goes on to tell me about a friend if hers who is 21 with a 10 month old and is pregnant.  Actually first she told me that her friend wants 6 kids, and she gave me a look like "crazy, right?" and I said, "I want a big family"

"Oh", she says, then goes on to say that she thinks her friend has a bit of post partum depression and doesn't think she should be having another baby when she hasn't even gone through the terrible twos... blah blah blah... finally she looks at me like I totally get it and says "so I would be a really bad friend if I didn't tell her that I don't think she should keep it, right?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!  Since when is it okay to bring up ABORTION with a new client whom you have never met before within 5 MINUTES of them sitting in your chair???

I honestly almost just said I would go get my haircut somewhere else... but then I though, hey, this is an opportunity.  So I told her flat out that I don't believe in abortion, and she did apologize.  Then I tried to tell her all the good things this could turn out to be for her friend... especially if her friend likes kids and wants a big family too.  She said her friend has a lot of support and family... so I basically said there was no reason she won't be able to get through this, and that her two kids are going to be such good friends when they're a bit older.  I told her it will be hard on her friend for at least a couple years, but it's worth it in the end... kids always are.

In the end I hoped I showed her some of my joy and love of kids and that she won't EVER bring up the topic with her friend... but who knows.

Oh, and then later she told me she won't go to asians to get her nails done... so there's that.

I am NOT a runner

So remember when I was going to do that "I am NOT..." series?  Well the next one I was going to write about got sidetracked because of the pregnancy.

So it's not going to end how I wanted it to end... maybe someday.

It's no secret, I'm NOT athletic.

Before Finn was born going for a simple walk was akin to torture. Which is really sad because we lived right next to the Yarra River in Melbourne and it's a really nice walk.

When Finn was born everything changed. I loved going for walks with him. What else do you do with a newborn, other than stare at them for hours on end?

It also helped that I had just moved in with my in-laws so I didn't cook dinner or have to do much cleaning. I had all the time in world.

I really enjoyed it. When we were in Rome we walked a lot (we also didn't have a car, so that's a given.) When we went back home the next summer though, Finn was bored with country walks, so I missed going for my long walks everyday. And then I got pregnant with Elle and couldn't sustain long walks anymore.

Anyways I kind of stopped walking so much, but I did miss it.

Recently I've been trying to get out more with the kids here and explore our new neighborhood.

Then I read this post of a blogger friend about this iPhone app "ease into 5K".  She explained that this is an 8 week training for running 5k, starting off doing intervals of short runs, short walks, over and over and everyweek increasing the run time.

I commented on her post that it sounds great and I should probably do it too, but didn't think I would.

Then I thought about it some more, and I bought the app.  I did the first week of it without telling Conor, with the kids in the stroller.  Conor has this theory that when you tell people your resolutions, they are doomed to fail.  And I have SOOO many times told Conor that I wanted to be more active, get in shape, and then never went through with it. So this time I didn't tell Conor.

In fact, to motivate myself even more, I started looking up 5k runs that would be about 8-10 weeks from then.  The program was 8 weeks, so I thought if I found one for 10 weeks away that I would get through the program, and then keep it up for a couple weeks so that I could do it for the 5k.

But as I was looking it up, Conor was in the room, and decided to start asking me what I was doing.  I said nothing, but he wouldn't let it go.  He even started asking if I was pregnant or something (funny thing, I wasn't at the time, but little did we know!)  I started laughing and trying to tell him it was nothing, but he was relentless, and I eventually gave in and told him that I had started this 5k running program and wanted to finish it off by running a 5k.

I eventually even found one.  Well it was only a 4k, but I didn't want to wait too long after I finished the program to do it.  I didn't sign up, thankfully, I was going to wait until a couple weeks before.  Anyways, he decided to join me for the runs.  He had some injuries and wanted to get exercise too, but thought intervals like I was doing would be good way for him to recover.  Anyways, Mondays Wednesday and Fridays he would come home a bit early for 3 weeks and we would go out with the kids.  Half the time he would stop at the park with them and we would meet up again.  It didn't get to a really difficult part though... I think the longest run interval I got to was 5 or 6 minutes.  But I was feeling good... and actually really motivated.  Sometimes I would still go on my own and with the app you can have your music playing and then it will tell you when to walk, when to run, when to cool down, etc.

Then I found out I was pregnant.  And then the exhaustion set it!  This is my biggest regret with this pregnancy really, I am soo soo happy that we are having another baby, but this was the first time in my life that I actually felt motivated to RUN, and now it's gone! haha.  Maybe in the second trimester my energy will come back, but since I've never really been that active it's probably not a good idea to START running when you are pregnant.  So it's on the backburner now.  Maybe after the baby is born, and I'm recovered, I'll get back into it.  I would like to, I would LOVE to say I ran a 5k.

So there you go, I'm still not a runner... but maybe someday.

Baby #3 - 10 Weeks

I won't be doing this every week... maybe every 5 weeks or more often if something significant happens

I was going to do a picture, but changed my mind... just look at my first pictures from my pregnancy with Elle :) hehe... I'll take one this weekend for myself, but I'll for sure post a picture with the 15 week update!

How far along: 10 Weeks

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) Prune (1.5 in long)

Total weight gain/loss: I'm at 68.5 kgs... about 150 pounds.  I don't know exactly what I was when I got pregnant, so we'll start from there.  I probably have gained a bit here, lost a bit there, so far.

Maternity Clothes: Nope, but either it's bloating, all the bad food I've been eating, or the baby, but I'm seeing a little tiny bump that I never saw this early with the other two.

Gender: I'm saying boy all the way :)  So far I'm 2 for 2, so we'll see how this prediction goes.

Movement: None yet - can't wait!  It's my favorite part.  Well maybe not feet in the ribs or bladder, but I do love it.

Sleep: Can never get enough!!  Soo tired all the time.  I can't wait until I get some energy back, or until Elle starts sleeping longer!  We just had daylight savings change though, so hopefully this will help!

What I miss: Being able to stay up past 9:30pm... and even THAT'S pushing it.  Also I'm hating having to eat all day every day, and mostly not eating supper.  I just never feel like eating supper food.  The other day we all just had cereal for dinner!

Cravings: Slushies, McDonalds, Breadsticks, Pizza, Mac&Cheese.... basically all bad food, and most of the staples of food that I grew up eating! haha

Symptoms: A little bit of dry heaving here and there, exhaustion, and hunger!

Best moment of the week: I always like it when Finn comes up to me and says "Finn being gently whiff (with) your baby"... and then he gently pats my stomach, or puts his head on my stomach.  And, not all the time anymore, but in the mornings he will still say "did your baby wake up?" haha.

Sooo close!

Elle is getting SOO close to walking.

For the last 5 days especially, she has been taking 3-5 steps here or there.

We went out our little friend Olivia's 1st birthday on Saturday, and about 4 times she took 4 or 5 steps.

Eliza and Michael with 1 year old Olivia

Cute scrunchy face!

Everytime I would catch it out of the corner of my eye.  So not enough time to get the camera.  Yesterday I ALMOST got a really good one on camera and then Finn came up behind her and pushed her with his little car... grrr!!

Playing the piano.  At least she's good for something :)

Then when Conor was making dinner, I was playing with Elle in her room and she kept taking a few steps, so I called Conor to come over with the camera, just in case... here it is...

Here's another cute video of her going down the slide all by herself.

Thankful

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving. I miss my family and I'm missing turkey dinner... but I'm still thankful, so here it is

I'm thankful for...

• Family. Even though we can't be with them, they are there for us and for our kids.

• Technology. The kind that lets us email said families. That let's us FaceTime with our parents and siblings so that Elle can show them her apple slices, and play peek-a-boo. So that Finn can show them his toys, and his drawings, and his hair cut.

• Work. It was hard going from a husband that's been home nearly full time for 3+ years (really almost our entire marriage) to one that works Mon-Fri 9-5. But I am so thankful for his job. For the people he works with. For the students he teaches.

• My Husband. Yeah, I guess I'm thankful for that guy! Haha - I'm thankful that he cooks dinner (and breakfast, these days) for us. Toils in the garden for us (although its more for himself!) That he works so that I can stay home with our kids.  I'm thankful when he bathes the kids.  When he takes them for walks or to the park.  When he lets me go shopping by myself.

• For my kids. That I have kids. That they are good kids. That they are healthy kids. I love it when Elle gives me kisses in the morning (even if it's 6am!), that Finn politely says "Thank you for finding my hat for me Mommy" (even though he threw a fit and wouldn't nap until I found it, hiding under his blankets, because he also had to sleep with it last night), that baby #3 is in there, somewhere, even if it means I'm exhausted and have to go to bed at 930 (after keeping myself awake, because who seriously wants to tell people they go to bed at 8... even though I could go to bed at 8, and probably SHOULD go to bed at 8)

• I'm thankful for God, and that I can freely worship him and that my kids can freely worship him. I'm thankful FOR God, but I'm thankful TO God. Because otherwise I wouldn't have any of these other things to be thankful for.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Don't eat too much turkey :)

Sunny days!

It's "hotting up" here in Melbourne.

Yesterday after naptime, in a tank top, capris and flip-flops, the kids and I went to the park.

We didn't turn on the fireplace in the evening last night or this morning.

I pulled out all the summer clothes I have for the kids, and tonight ill go shopping and get some more odds and ends to fill up their wardrobe.

Oh, and I have no summer clothes. But I don't want to buy stuff right now since I'm just going to start getting big.

Dilema... but I love this weather!

We survived!

We all lived through our first night without Conor.

In the evening we went to the park before dinner and then ate late. By the time the kids were done eating it was almost bedtime!

After they went to bed I did the dishes and swept and tidied up and then relaxed on the couch.

It would figure that the one night *I* get to control the remote, there is NOTHING good on. But oh well.

I went to bed at 930 anyways so that I would be rested when Elle woke up at 6.

Just as I laid down, Finn had to pee. Then I didn't hear a peep from him for the rest if the night. Elle had a bottle at 4am and then, get this, didn't wake up until 7:30am!!!

It was a miracle!!

We played for a while, had a facetime with Conor. He was at the airport waiting to board. Had an early lunch and FaceTime with my mom who just got back from Hawaii. And then drove to the airport to get Conor.

So we survived. But I'm not looking forward to his trip to Rome next month :(

On my own

Tonight is the first night that I will be all by myself with both kids.

Just before we left Canada, Conor went on a short golf trip with some guys for one night. My mom took Finn for a sleepover, so I only had Elle to myself.

Today Conor is heading to Adelaide to speak at "Pub Theology". It's actually a great thing that's been going on in Australia. I don't know exactly where it started, but Sydney has "Theology on Tap", Melbourne has "Theology at the Pub" and Adelaide has "Pub Theology".

Basically it's a monthly thing at a set pub where they have guest speakers on all things theology, Catholic, etc. for people usually between 19-35.

So Conor is speaking tonight and then flying back in the morning.

Wish me luck! I would just love love love it if Elle either slept through the night (as opposed to waking up twice lately, darn teething) or slept until 7am... BOTH would be heaven!

Just for fun I added a pic of Elle climbing in the cupboard!