It's a bit of a moot point to say that I am having a blogging break - I think it's already been two weeks.

I didn't mean to - real life just got in the way.

After the Easter party extravaganza I was a bit burnt out then bam Mother's Day arrived before I could even catch my breath.  We hosted another function all while I was nursing a very very sore back.  Due to my stubborn determination to soldier on I ended up spending the following 3 days in bed in a lot of pain.  I'm on the mend now and family life is slowly returning to normal. Which means I can no longer rely on Rob to do absolutely everything and I must say I was getting quite used to it.

Blogger (the site that hosts this blog of mine) was having a bit of a meltdown (well they called it an upgrade!!) as well but it seems to be back online now.

I will be back next week with lots of news.  I have baby scans to discuss and photos to share.

Happy Weekend everyone

Wiggle Free Zone

We live in a house devoid of The Wiggles.  I'm proud of the fact that in Noah's almost 3 years we have managed to  avoid the biggest marketing juggernaut in the under 8's crowd.  He knows the Wiggles vaguely from other kids but he's never seen their show or a DVD - we are a strictly Play School only kinda house.

As a result we are generally very 'branding' free and have managed to avoid almost all merchandise (barring some Toy Story figurines and Mr Potato Head but that doesn't count because he is a real toy).  I've become a bit of a tyrant about it.  I don't know why but I just hate all that stuff - why must everything be so heavily branded for kids.  Do you know how hard it was to find underpants for my newly toilet trained boy that didn't feature a TV or movie character on them??  It makes me cringe when I see kids dressed head to toe in Thomas/Ben10/Wiggles etc etc - sometimes a mash up of all of them - yikes.  Not only is it unnecessary branding those clothes are uh-gly.

Every single one of the following items I have purchased for Noah came in various 'brandings' and I had to search to find generic versions.

Scooter
Bike
Fold out sofa
School bag
Musical instruments
Bedding
Train Set
Cricket Bat
Ball
Boogie Board
Every conceivable item of clothing - even shoes FFS.

Don't even get me started on the ice cream/milk/yoghurt/biscuits/cheese/snacks - all loaded with more sugar than the standard varieties.

Anyhow I digress - yesterday we went to see one of the children's concerts by The West Australia Symphony Orchestra (which by the way are fantastic if you haven't been).

It was all going nicely and we enjoyed some fun and dancing to 'Flight of the Bumblebee' and the 'William Tell Overture' when lo and behold The Wiggles.  Every kid in that place and their parents knew those damn songs except me and Noah.  He looked around as the packed house did every move and sang every word.  My poor deprived 'Suzuki' music kid who knows every traditional children's song and nursery rhyme was the odd one out.  I actually felt bad - am I doing him an injustice?  Are the Wiggles an institution of childhood that no child should be deprived? Have they been added to UNICEF's 'The Convention on the Rights of the Child'?

What do you think?  Are you pro Wiggles or anti Wiggles?  Do you care one way or the other?

Easter Egg hunt

We hosted an Easter Party for some of our closest friends and their kids on Sunday afternoon which was loads of fun.  I had so much fun planning and preparing all the goodies - Easter is such a good excuse for way too many treats.  I was too busy during the festivities to catch any pics but here are some of the table - which is the most important bit anyway!!

It's a Good Friday

We have spent our first day of the Easter break at the beach.  The weather in Perth is a little bit absurd and a whole lot awesome.  It's hot here today - bloody hot - it's the end of April for goodness sake.  The northern hemisphere is in a heatwave for the start of their summer and down here ours is still going with no end in sight.

Our boy is a water baby and looks like he's going to be a surfer too.  After only a few tries on his belly he was absolutely adamant that he wanted to do it standing up and so he did (with a bit of help from Dad). 

Friday Flashback

This is a picture I took to make Easter cards for Noah's first Easter.  How freakin' cute is that boy.  I love that the bunny has recently become one of his must have bed companions too.

Happy Easter everyone I hope you have five fun-filled family days I know we will.

Cheep Cheep

Day 1 with our chicks and already we are enjoying them so much.  We started with two newborns plus a dozen eggs and we were lucky to watch the hatching of our first one over the course of today.  In between we cuddled our fluffy babies and did some crafting ready for all the grandparents.  The chick Noah is painting is from Bianca over at A Little Delightful and she also has some cute templates for a bunny and a sheep which  you can paint or colour - we stuck cotton balls to ours.