Love, bubs and life on our little farm

A big thank you to all the lovely comments and well wishes from people about my loss of my best mate. I have been so busy and worn out and so flat and not feeling like blogging, hence the quiet. But I am starting to feel a little more motivated, although still time poor. I have had this post open for about 4 days trying to find time to write it. And a rainy Sunday afternoon, where we are all resting after an exhausting weekend of farm chores, seems pretty perfect.



I haven't updated on my little ones for a long time. Life is a blur and I do forget what they were like as they grown and change - my updates on my girls are my favourite posts to revist. Would you believe that Elka is 2 months away from turning 4 and Bronte is 2 months from turning 2? That time has flown.

They are great fun at this age though - they play together and boss each other around. I end up referring a lot of fights and tiffs over who owns which doll or so on, but at the same time, watching them hoik on their dress up handbags, shove a mobile phone to their ears each and wander off down the driveway pushing their doll strollers together is just the best.

Miss B is a social butterfly now, so far from the clingy little bub she was. If I had a dollar for EVERY person who says to me on a daily basis "Oh she is just so happy!" as she grins her crazy big smile at every stranger who gives her eye contact, I would have lots of spending money. I never get eye contact from shop assistants anymore as Bronte immediately engages them - its actually getting a little tiresome!
She has no fear or separation anxiety. Great for dropping her off to daycare, terrible in that she is a runner at shops - she will run away and not give two hoots that I can't find her. I often just stand at the doorway of larger shops and wait there so that I am confident she hasn't left the shop, as she is so hard to chase down. Needless to say, she gets strapped into the stroller a lot!
Her language has finally taken off, to my relief. She sees her speech pathologist who is happy with her development but she has been on the slow side of speaking. But she is now repeating most words back to us and she is quite clear with a lot of words and stringing words together. She is quite lazy with language as Elka tends to speak for her (typical second child syndrome!)
She leaves her hearing aids in most of the time. Although she can randomly pull one out and just drop it - we have lost one just recently this way.
She is very coordinated - spends most of her time outside playing. She can jump really well on the trampoline - both feet way off the mat, landing neatly. She even jumps up with her legs straight out and lands on her bum and jumps up again.
She adores music and songs. She will dance wildly anytime she hears any tune at all and loves singing Wheels On the Bus. She loves dancing to the Wiggles.
She is also a big bossy boots - at daycare if the teacher says Sit down, then she runs around repeating it at every kid who hasn't immediately sat down. She also checks everyone else's nappies.
She has learnt to do thumbs ups and if you ask if something was good, you get thumbs up from her, which is adorable!
Quite the little character, and with her strawberry blonde hair, pale skin and a sprinkle of gold freckles across her nose, terribly cute.


Elka is shining at school. She is getting very mature and helpful. She is a great little companion as she chatters away and has a wicked sense of humour. She doesn't miss a trick and takes advantage of any chance to get ahead. She had a handful of crunchy noodles the other day as a treat and was told "Only one handful", well she comes back to me and says all innocent big blue eyes "Bronte would like me to take her a handful". I say "No you will just eat them and I said no more for you". To which she denied it looking all injured. So I re neg and give her a handful. As soon as I do, her face lights up with a pleased grin and she says "Bronte will share with me!" as she races off to "share" with Bronte (who always does share, as Elka had counted on).
If i had any doubts about sending Elka to school early, then they would have been scrapped the other day when the teacher informed me that Elka was one of only three students that had progressed so well in her reading that she needed to go up a level of reader and we had to go into the back room to get special homework for her from now on. Since she is the youngest in her class, that was pretty impressive. She adores writing and reading , sport and drama - the intense curriculum really suits her. I am so pleased we made the decision we did.

The girls are just such a pleasure to care for - they play together for hours and I love how they communicate what they want. I marvel at how other people love babies and mourn their kids getting older. I LOVE them not being babies. I don't miss those baby stages at all.


We have taken the plunge and interviewed a babysitter. Our nearest family is over two hours away and we just don't get much help with juggling our out of work hours career commitments. The military precision that we have to compare our diaries and negotiate for each night who gets to work late, travel on a work trip or attend a networking event is almost comical. I moved some night lecturing to suit Jase who then promptly accepted another work commitment that clashed with my new dates. I was pretty unhappy (lol the mild description) and demanded that it was time we found someone local to help us. Well we are very happy with the sitter we found and she has her first night with the girls on Tuesday. I have never left them with anyone but family (besides daycare of course) and its a little scary but I am also relieved that we finally have some help when needed.

And that was a long update! Not sure if anyone but me will read this far :) but hey its recorded.

I have been offline a lot lately. My puddy cat, Ferdie passed away. He has been my companion for the last 13 years, bought for me when I moved out of home at 17 and saw me from a teen through my 20's into my 30's. He kept me company through long cold hours of uni study, was a member of our little family when I married Jase, moved to Queensland with me, reluctantly shared my side of the bed with two breastfeeding newborns and never failed to give my cuddles in the evenings with his beautiful purr. He was my beautiful velveteen rabbit, I loved patting his little velvet head. When I wrapped him up to bury him and realised that I would never get to pat that velvet patch ever again, my heart cracked a little. He died at home with me patting him and except for the last few hours of his life when he was slipping away, he never stopped purring as long as I was patting him. Oh how I miss him. I see him everywhere and my heart literally jumps with hope that he is back, then I realise it is just a shadow or a crumpled piece of clothing. The rest of my life will be that little bit lonelier for his loss.

My poor sick old boy

I am definitely feeling a little less tough than usual. Struggling to embrace all the hecticness of our life. In fact I have a terrible head cold and a stomach bug and am having my first sick day in work for years. Nice to rest but I need to pull it together, I have a lot to organise in the next two days as we are heading off on a road trip and then flying to Sydney for a child free weekend for a friends engagement party.

My girls are my balm. Elka was so brave and sad in the face of the loss of the cat she has followed around for the last 3.5yrs. Bronte is a bundle of cuteness and nearly-2yr-old attitude, who can make me laugh and shake my head.

We took them up on the big Brisbane wheel the other day. These photos make me smile.

Bronte likes to wear her sunglasses upside down, never fails to make me giggle

I am rejoicing in Autumn - love the chill in the air and being able to add more layers to my outfits.

I love simplicity and elegance. Nothing beats a simple top with a blazer. I picked a gorgeous navy and white stripe blazer that I am dying to wear.

Here is to classic dressing.