Snap

So we're in the middle of a cold snap in Sydney, but that's OK by me. Crisp, sunny winter days are among my favourite things.

Yesterday I decided we needed to get out of the house, so we headed down to a nearby bay for a picnic of sorts. The sunshine didn't quite warm us up enough so it was a brief picnic, but a lovely reminder all the same of how nice it is to have little 'excursions' out instead of hanging round the house trying (and usually failing) to maintain order around a 4yo tornado.

This picture sums up the moment pretty well.

Toy Story 3 premiere

We went along to the premiere of Toy Story 3 yesterday - E and his little friend G dressed up as Buzz Lightyear and Jessie for the occasion. And, my goodness, didn't they attract some attention! This the pair of them waiting for the Light Rail (the premiere was at the big - and I do mean BIG - Imax cinema in Darling Harbour.





Ginormous Buzz Lightyear poster? Yep, we're in the right place!




And this is E doing his 'best' Buzz face. Hyped up? You betcha! By now he'd come to expect every second stranger on the street to stop and remark on his costume.



When we arrived the TV cameras homed in on E and G and they were 'interviewed' by Disney Channel, which they loved! Then it was in to the foyer to pick up our free popcorn and drinks and be entertained by a three-piece band while we waited to enter the cinema.

Look! A big Buzz! Despite the fact this was the red carpet area for celebs, E and G were extremely eager to duck under the rope for us to take a quick snap.





I really can't stand kids' movies - OK, there are one or two decent ones, but most are so infernally awful that I always feel like I am wasting my life sitting through them (Shrek, anyone?) So I was pleased to find that I actually enjoyed Toy Story 3. It was quite a watchable film.

I'd never seen anything 3D before - neither had E. The Imax screen is SO BIG and it was SO DARK while we waited for the movie to start that he of course freaked out. But once the characters started to appear, like long-lost buddies, he got into the movie and afterwards declared it to be: "Good."

It's 5.30am...

... and I am sitting at the computer. I have been awake since 2am, going slightly mad.

Is there anything more infuriating than not being able to get back to sleep? I woke to feed T at 2am and simply couldn't get back to sleep. I took a valerian. Nothing. I got up at 3.30am, had a Milo and read for half an hour. Didn't work. 4am ticked by, 4.30, 5, until I got up a few minutes ago.

So now I have to spend one of my precious daycare days dead on my legs. I have a feature to hand in next week, so I need to get my head around the finer points of selecting an airconditioner on four hours of sleep. Oh and look after a baby as well.

This state of not being able to get back to sleep in the middle of the night has been happening at least once or twice a week for a while now. I kind of expect it (which could be part of the problem).

But what perplexes me is that I don't feel stressed, there's nothing all that major going on in my life. I exercise almost every day (this does help, definitely). So I end up just laying there replaying the day's conversations and thinking 'OK, I'll fall asleep any minute now.'

It is driving me a little bit mad. Then I start to wonder, would it be selfish to wean T just so I can get some decent sleep???!!! She is able to sleep through, but wakes in the night for a feed most nights. Probably just likes to. So technically I should be so damn tired and ready to crash back to sleep.

Argh. Frustration!!

One tidy corner

Y'know, sometimes things just get away from you. May I present this case in point:



This is the 'toy corner' of our playroom/family room/home office. And no, sadly, I did not mess this up for effect before I took this picture. I didn't have to, it's looked like this for weeks. Which means that every time I sit down to try and write something or research something I have been seeing that out of the corner of my eye.

Not conducive to a good working environment, wouldn't you agree?

After weeks of getting more and more peeved I finally got Shaun to take the kids out of the house (because you cannot bin toys, as broken and ignored as they are, within eyesight of a 4yo) so I could tackle the toys.

Amazingly (annoyingly, maybe, since it had bugged me for so long?) it didn't take too long to sort, bin, regroup everything.

And now I have one tidy corner. For how long I'm not sure, but - wow - what a difference an hour or so of sorting has made to my life!

Look - my book!

Well then, look what we have here. A book. The first book I've edited. I've had my writing published in other books and I've proofread books, but this is the first name I've had my name appear as Editor.

It's a pretty modest book - somewhere between a book and a magazine in its style and feel. So it's a compendium of travel stories that have been printed in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, plus a series of travel stories that I commissioned specially for this publication.

I'm very happy with how it's come up. But most of all I keep marvelling at the fact that I actually did it!




I took on this project when T was three months old. Three months! At first it was easy to work with her around, as she was pretty happy to lay on her playmat and gurgle. But then, of course, as she became more alert she was not going to have a bar of that, thank you very much. And still, I did it!



There were times, as the deadline neared, when it all seemed too much. But what can you do but push on? There were times when I couldn't even face a glass of SA wine, because I didn't want to even lay eyes on those words again...!

I feel so lucky to be able to earn my living, meagre as it is at the moment, doing something so creative and enjoyable. There are lots of great things about freelancing from home, but there are a few downsides too. Being self-employed, there's not much in the way of feedback. So I would just like to stop for a moment and say this:

Dear Me,
You are a legend. You pulled off your first ever book editing gig in between all the burping and bathing and washing and everything else that a baby and preschooler require.
Please give yourself a raise immediately.
Kindest regards,
Me

9 months

This week saw Baby T tick over the nine months mark. I paused on that day, Wednesday, to scribble some notes into my diary on what she's up to, things I think about her, bits and pieces I would like to remember. Shamefully, that was my only entry in my diary so far this year. Months have slipped by, unrecorded on paper.

It's funny, I have many, many photos of her. Lots of video of her progress (I don't think we had a video camera till E was about 1), but not many words. As a words person that does bother me, so I am hoping to update my diary every month or so from now on.

But even a diary isn't going to do the impossible, which is to capture the feel of her. The way she stretches out her legs when I pick her up out of her cot; the fuzziness of her bumpy bald skull; her funny little shrieks and coos as she snatches the glasses off my face for the umpteenth time; the beauty of her heavy eyelids as she breastfeeds herself to sleep; her indescribably lovely baby smell as I nuzzle into her neck and ear.

I often find myself imploring my brain, "c'mon, burn this, retain this, store this..."
I hope to never forget.