Now where was I?

Now where was I?

I seemed to have lost my train of thought in the midst of the Newborn haze.

One minute we're wondering whether there will be pink or blue tags placed on the baby's tiny ankles and less than 3 hours later Flynn Alexander comes into the world and now only 13 days later he is just so loved and firmly entrenched into our family that I just can't imagine life without him.

I loved every minute of my 4 day Hospital "Holiday".  I've had all my babies there so spending time with the lovely Midwives was like being reacquainted with a bunch of old friends. Don't ask me how I spent my time though. The Birth Registration form was handed to me the night Flynn was born and I still haven't completed it. No spare time - so it's now been passed onto the Pianoman to deal with. I think there will be a lot more of that going on.

I also think I'm going to need some lessons in time management. Remember that book I was going to take to read? Well I'm still on page 10. I seemed to have been fixated on all the spare time I would have in Hospital by myself but forgot how time-consuming a Newborn was. Yep, the hours just get whittled away staring at him and touching his hair and kissing his little face. Then there's the hours of feeding followed by more baby staring. There was time spent with the other Kids and visits from friends. And in between shuffling down the corridor for ice packs and heat packs for my "battle-weary" body, there were menu cards to fill out, meals to eat, flowers to smell, calls to take and midnight movies to watch. It was bliss.

I emerged from the hospital and felt like I was entering the twilight zone. Everything felt different and even the once green Valley had turned Brown. Apparently I missed a heatwave and some horrid Bushfires.

We are home now and all settling in well. Flynn is feeding like a trooper and sleeping well, although it did take a good week to convince him we are in the Southern hemisphere and therefore he needs to sleep more at night than during the day. I'm up a couple of times at night which is standard but he settles straight back so I'm tired but not soooooo tired. I would hate to say that having a Newborn is easy, but I can categorically say that having just 1 baby IS so much easier than having Twins.

I'm trying to take things relatively easy but with older kids there is a certain element of just having to get on with life, business as usual. The day after I got home, Flynn's first outing was to swimming lessons followed by a quick trip to the Supermarket for some necessities. We have also celebrated a Birthday with The Pianoman becoming another year older and wiser and with an extra little Soul to love I'm glad the focus was off the lame 1/2 Mississippi Cheesecake that we celebrated with. No candles.

The Kids are adjusting really well though. Eleanor dotes on him like a mini Mum and makes me nervous the way she carries him around the house. The Boys are gorgeous with him too albeit slightly rougher. They cuddle and kiss him and their main concern is whether he is getting enough milk. The School year will finish up next week and I can't wait to have the 6 week Summer Holidays with everyone at home without all the rushing around and I know the older Kids feel like they are missing out a bit being at School while we are here soaking up our time with Flynn.

And it's December! And apparently it's 2 weeks until Christmas. I'm feeling rather festive but haven't bought a single present yet! I hope there is still time and that allowances will be made for me being a tad on the slack side this year. Are you all organised?

Finally, thank you all so so much for your beautiful comments on Flynn's arrival. It's overwhelming to have such wonderful support from people I've never met but consider my friends nevertheless. I really appreciate it so much!

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I also thought I should mention that I'm now (back) on Instagram (Coalvalleyview) thanks to a suggestion by a reader who doesn't have a Blog but uses Instagram instead - thanks Sarah! I'm still getting my head around the etiquette and will try not to duplicate photos onto my Blog too much but if any of you are on Instagram too please let me know :-)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the week!

The "Paris" Trip

Not Paris but who cares.

For those who have been following along for a while, you may recall last year when, after 18 months of living the fast life in Sydney, we made the decision to bring the family back to the simpler life we had spent the previous 10 years building in Tasmania. We thought it would take 6 to 12 months to make it happen.

However, instead of doing things like a 'normal' person and finding a new job before leaving a current one, in true mid-life crisis fashion, The Pianoman ditched the big corporate job and with no job keeping us in Sydney we sold most of our worldly possessions, bought a caravan, packed up the house, the Kidlets and the Whippet and less than 3 weeks later we were travelling around Australia. The money would last around 3 months and we hoped that would be enough time to find another job while on the road......it was and looking back it was the best decision we could have made.

The only little thing was that on our fridge were 2 return tickets to Paris which were booked for our 10 year Wedding Anniversary last December. This is a trip that we have been planning for around 10 years. It had almost become a bit of a joke among our friends. If one of us had a bad day we would get "don't worry only 6 years until Paris isn't it Mel!" or when I had done nothing all day but breastfeed the twins around the clock and was up to my eyeballs in nappies I would joke "it's OK, only 4 years until Paris". The Paris trip was symbolic of the desire to spend some decent quality time together without the children - something we haven't done together in our 8 years of being Parents - and to celebrate the end of changing nappies every single day for a period of 7 years, 4 months and 8 days.

The destination was really secondary to us being together. I still maintain I would be perfectly happy being on a plane for 24 hours and simply enjoying reading a magazine from cover to cover and sipping on champagne without anyone sitting on my lap. Bliss! We do go out together and have had weekends away individually so we do get a little break from time to time while the other one stays at home with the Kids.  But aside from Weddings or Funerals, the only time we have been away together just the two of us without Kids was a 2 night camping trip 5 years ago. On that trip I think we were so unaccustomed to finishing a sentence without interruption that my body went into shock and I came back pregnant with Twins. I'm already pregnant now so I can't really get myself into too much trouble with another trip sans Kids.

When The Pianoman left his job in Sydney, what we really needed was to have time together to decompress and 3 months travelling around the country trumped 10 days in Paris. We couldn't get a refund on the tickets but vaguely thought we could postpone it for a year.

So I recently enquired about said tickets and was informed by British Airways that the tickets had to be used within 12 months of the date of purchase. We bought the tickets last July. It was now June. Oh Dear! So it seems we have to go on a holiday by NEXT WEEK (cue the mini-violins!).

We were also informed that we couldn't get to Paris anyway because the tickets we purchased were low season December tickets but we are now in June which is double the price being peak season. We actually don't have the time or the money to spend on a trip right now so we can only go as far as the credits will allow. And somewhere cheap. We also had to fit a potential trip around the in-laws, who were all set to look after the Kids last December while they were on school holidays themselves from the jobs in the teaching profession. Fortunately, they are on school holidays now and are making their way from Alice Springs down to Hobart as we speak. It's a big ask and we are so grateful for them for allowing us this little indulgence.

So the Paris trip is now the "Paris" trip.

We are actually off to Vietnam this Friday! Nothing has been planned because that's just how I roll and you probably also know by now that I don't like to plan things. Planning takes away all the fun for me. I didn't want to cause the in-laws any angst though so the flights have been booked.

Anyone been to Vietnam? Or Paris even? Did you love it? Have you done a "Paris" trip or have one on the horizon?

The Big Snip

I am of course referring to my new "Do" as opposed to the procedure awaiting The Pianoman down the track.

So I finally went to the hairdressers asking for a little trim of my neglected long blonde tresses and somehow came out sporting a Mocha Concave Bob and became 5kg lighter in the process.

It had somehow been 6 months since I'd been to a hairdresser and while it was absolute bliss having someone play with my hair I did have to die a slow and painful death listening to the young girl continually address me using the "Royal We". I think it was her way of softening the barrage of criticisms. 

"How are we today? Oooh it's been a long time since we've been to the hairdressers hasn't it? Those brassy blonde tones aren't doing us any favours are they. Yes, I think we'd look much better with a Mocha tone. No, I don't think we'd suit a fringe. And how will we be paying today? What do we think of the new look?"

Um yes, we think it's great thanks.

Linking up this week with Faith Hope And A Whole Lotta Love for Snap It {Self-Portrait}

It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To

So let's backtrack a few days to Mothers Day on Sunday when I was woken in the wee hours of the morning with 4 extra pair of legs wanting to snuggle under the covers while I bleary-eyed opened their gorgeous array of handmade and Mothers Day stall gifts. I'm not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination but their excitement was infectious and I loved every minute of it. Truly.

We had the first dusting of snow on Mt Wellington over the weekend too, so after pancakes we decided to drive up the mountain and give the little boys their first snow experience. Unfortunately the road to the summit was closed due to the unexpected snowfall so we hiked a bit by foot until we at least found some snow. It was a bit patchy but enough to delight the kids as well as make a mini snowman.

To finish off an already lovely day I was treated to a relaxing full body massage with an amazing Chinese masseuse, a Mothers Day gift from the Pianoman, which was sooooo heavenly. The Pianoman scored major brownie points as it has literally been years since I have had such an indulgence and if anyone had asked me what the ideal Mothers Day gift would be for me, I would have instantly said a Massage.

It is just as well The Pianoman scored those brownie points because yesterday it was my Birthday and my adoring Husband forgot. Not exactly the end of the world. I told him straight up that there was a pretty good chance there would be another one next year. However, it was almost worth it just to see his face turn white as the kids starting singing "Mummy is the Birthday Girl" over breakfast. Priceless!

In all our years together this has never happened. For the record, The Pianoman is the most kind and generous soul and was completely mortified. He has been given a hard time by all and sundry, mostly because it is so out of character for him. 

So how did it happen?

Well obviously he knew my Birthday was coming up. We chatted about it last week and thought of a few things we might do. There were even a few cards and presents dotted around the house from interstate family. I don't like to make a huge fuss but we usually go out for dinner or something. So when he announced at the end of last week that he had a "work" dinner on the following Wednesday evening, I simply replied "Yep, no worries" which really translates in my mind to "I wonder where he's planning on taking me". He does this sort of thing all the time. He also tries to surprise me but has never managed to pull off a real surprise because I cotton on well in advance. But since I'm a good sport I didn't bring up the topic of my Birthday again simply because I didn't want to spoil his "surprise". 

However, there was no surprise. There was in fact a real work dinner on that he had to go to. 

I still had a lovely day - a gorgeous morning tea with the Girls in Richmond and a little celebratory dinner with the kids at home. There was lots of phone calls and e-mails and extra hugs and kisses. My Husband forgot my Birthday.The Pianoman came home for lunch sporting the largest bouquet of (guilty) flowers I have ever seen as well as 2 tickets to the Uni Revue. I'm clearly not distressed by the oversight but I do intend to milk it for a bit. Just for fun. The in-laws believe 3 months of grovelling is in order. What do you think?