Lest we forget

I was wondering what to take a picture of for today’s photo. There was a lot to choose from. It was a beautiful day and my baby was feeling camera happy. I went out and did a photoshoot with a little cutie and it was autumn – my favourite season.

And then I remembered what day it was and why the roads were so quiet, why the city was so quiet - ANZAC day.

So there was nothing else I could take a picture of, but of the poppy I wore on my breast.

I don’t support war. I especially don’t support the wars going on right now. Do I wish and hope our world leaders would find another way to do so? That war wasn’t one of the first options people resorted to? Hell yes. But I support and commemorate the people who gave up their lives, and those who put their lives on the line, to preserve our way of life, so that I could live the way I am today.

Its been two years since I've made it to a dawn service and I have to say I feel guilty for it. I love the dawn services - especially the Auckland city one. Its amazing to see such a massive amount of people stand so quietly and respectively, the beautify of the sunrise and the solemn horn players.

Its important to remember that stuff and when my children are old enough, I will be dragging them out of bed at 4am on the 25th day of April to witness the dawn service and wear poppies on their breast as well.

Day 5 - My little boy

I love the faces he pulls.

Day 3 - Pregnancy records

Its been a pretty emotional day.

We had a specialist scan today at the hospital. We went in knowing absolutely ziltch about what the ‘irregularity’ was that we were in there to sort out. No one had told us anything, so although we were feeling positive about the whole thing, it was starting to wear on us a bit.

The appointment started off with being ushered into this tiny ‘interview’ room, which really should have had the label ‘Bad News Room’ stuck firmly on the door because it just reeks of doom and gloom. You can tell its not a place you want to be. I immediately got teary, I was starting to stress out about this whole thing.
The doctor came in to see us and ask a few questions and explained what they were going to look at. Turns out that the last scan picked up a rather ‘prominent gallbladder’ (which they kind of mentioned then because they looked at it for ages) and also something wrong with the skull formation (which they hadn’t mentioned!)

We then went into the ultrasound room and got going, the doctor double checked all the measurements of the baby, had a good look at the skull which turned out to be fine and then started looking at this ‘gallbladder’ thing.

They are now fairly sure it isn’t a gallbladder they are looking at, but a sort of cyst. They think. They are going to be getting a few other people to look at the pictures and see what they think. It could be something they need to operate on to remove once the baby is born, however they just don’t know. Hopefully we will know more in the next week or two.

Oh and for the record… the baby is still Mystery Meat. The dr had a good look and ‘couldn’t see any boy parts’ but couldn’t see any girl parts because the cord was in the way.

The Littlest Mullet

The kiddo has been growing a pretty impressive mullet over the past few months. It hasn't looked so bad because hes got quite curly hair so it tended to curl up and look shorter and less mullet-like than it actually was. In the bath I swear it was half way down his back *shudder*.

But then Dave and Cas (flatmates) started training it into a rats tail looking thing. There was talk of plaiting it, of tying it up. And I couldn't cope any longer. The mullet/rats tail had to go man.

So last night at bath time, armed with some scissors, we loped of the majority of the back. It wasn't as easy as i just described it though, it took about 5 minutes of being too chicken to do it and then trying to get him to sit still long enough to actually do it.

So now The Mullet resides in a little plastic baggy, destined for Zander's memory box so one day he can look back at it we can say: "dude, you totally had a mullet".

Babe's books of the week

Gah its been forever - I know.

Its not that we have stopped reading...because we haven't. Its that we had basically stopped reading anything new. Considering I'm a librarian, this is a pretty weird thing, because I'm surrounded by books all day every day and I should be able to find new reading material right? Well, no.
You see its not only been school holidays recently - which means parents are coming to the library to use our resources more - and therefore its been super slim pickings on the shelf... but it seems there has been either a lack of new children's board books coming in, or there are a ton of parents taking them out and our stocks have been completely depleted lately. I could bring home picture books, which I may start doing again eventually, but the kiddo has yet to master not eating them turning pages gently, and I like letting him do it himself.

I did manage to score some new board books this week though! The purchasing department must of gone crazy on the baby books because they have been coming in thick and fast. Some of the 'That's not my...' (that i wrote about here) series have recently been purchased and I found an awesome 'This is my...' book too...with the sound actually working! Woohoo!

So without further ado..

This is my Monster
Another Usborne touchy feely noisy books - and probably my favourite EVER. Its a cute little story about a monster who has a soft squishy nose that likes to 'sniff out fishy snacks' and a soft fuzzy tummy for all the odd socks and ticking clocks he eats. = Awesome. And our copy actually had the sound working - bonus!

That's not my robot...
I seriously think of Desiree over at SoFawned every time I read this one as she adores robots! hehe. We have also been reading 'That's not my Mermaid...' and 'Thats not my bear...' this week too.

Baby Loves - Tiger
Another pretty cute series. Pretty simple and not many words just like the 'This is my' and 'That's not my' series but these ones have flaps where Tiger plays hide and seek with his friends. At the end there is a mirror behind the last flap so baby gets to see himself.

Cuddle!
Simple little board book. I usually finish off with this one and give the babe a huge cuddle with each page.

A new project - day 1

I have a new photo project.
I don’t know if this is a good idea or not…its not like my life isn’t busy enough right? But I feel I need to start doing something for me, and doing something creative each day again. Or else maybe I’m just going to be lost to an endless pile of nappies, work and sleep?

So here it is. One picture a day. Of anything that takes my fancy – it doesn’t have to be a self portrait, (because dear god I can’t handle that many self portraits again). It can be highly processed or it can be straight from camera.
BUT it has to be in square format (why? I have no idea. I just always wanted to explore that more).

So wish me luck people.

This is my Diana that the lovely ladies from FSPASG sent during the Trials of the First Book. I have never used this although I've always wanted to. There are a few things stopping me... the fact my technical knowledge of film is ...shall we say, barely exists? And more importantly the fact i need to find film for it. And that requires GOING OUT (!?).

Still, it makes a lovely prop.

Divine Diptych Project - Week 7 - Exotic Goddess

I've just started participating in the Divine Sisterhood diptych project, where each week ladies pair up from the group to create diptychs. Each pari is given a 'theme' for their partnership and ours this week was 'Exotic goddess'. I had SO MUCH fun with this. I forgot what it was like to spend some ime to myself, taking pictures and editing them. I'm super excited to participate in the future.

 Left: Kerrie

Right: Kate

The original shot:

In her garden

A garden in bloom.

WTF = Why the face?

The kiddo face is so expressive, it really cracks us up most days. Honestly though, where does he get these looks?! Surely we don't look at him like that.

Zander on the window seat

He loves it up there. Daddy and Mummy loving him being up there? Not so much. However we have to suck it up since hes figured out how to move objects around the room in order for him to climb up there.