Happy birthday to my beautiful boy

Jimmy turned 2 on Wednesday.

I can't believe how quickly those two years have gone, and how much light and laughter he has brought to our lives. He is the funniest little kid I have ever seen, and so loveable. He adores his sisters and cries of "Wake up, Tiffy!" and "Hello, Lizzie!" are heard every day. I feel so much love for him that I think my heart will burst.

From us, he got an easel, a wooden cube puzzle, 2 pairs of shoes, and a pair of pants with cool owl fabric detail and matching applique t-shirt which I made for him.

Today we had a little party for him. I called it a Clayton's party- the party you have when you're not having a party. Basically I invited a few friends to the Botanic Gardens and asked them to bring food, so all we had to do was make a cake and turn up. Easy! It was a great day. He loved his dinosaur cake, which I baked and Daddy decorated. He got some really lovely presents from his friends.






This morning he did his first poo on the potty- with no prompting at all from us! He said, "Potty gone?" and I told him where it was, he sat on it and when he got up there was a lovely Mr Hankey in it! Much excitement and slapping of high fives ensued, and I took a photo of him standing next to the potty (which I'm not going to post- I'm sure no-one else wants to look at his poo!). My little boy is growing up!

What you lookin' at, punk?

5 weeks old.

Milk drunk.

My cheeky almost-two-year-old monkey.

Hello, long neglected blog

I've really not felt like blogging lately.

I'm quite surprised by how difficult I have found being a mum to two kids under two. I guess it doesn't help that Elizabeth suffers terribly from wind and cries whenever she is awake, and that I still have to be a mum to my stepdaughter, because her mum sure as hell isn't going to.

I have had some really, really rough days. I had two complete meltdowns in less than a week, with one resulting in DH having to come home from work early. I've also gone berserk at T a few times.
Some days I feel like I'm just walking around in a daze. I feel terrible that Elizabeth is in pain and I can't do anything about it. I also feel that I need to harden up and stop whinging- plenty of people have more than 2 kids, and they cope fine! What's wrong with me? Oh and to add fuel to the fire, I've developed mastitis overnight so I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Thank god for my fantastic MIL who came over to do the laundry and watch the kids while I went to the doctor.

I really hate bottle feeding. Which is unfortunate, because that's the path we have to walk with Elizabeth. I find it so tedious and impersonal. I hate worrying about having enough bottles and teats, and getting up in the middle of the night to heat up bottles. The expressing doesn't worry me at all- it's easy with the great pump I have, and my body is producing litres of milk.

On a positive note, Elizabeth is growing before our very eyes. She is plumping up nicely on my lovely milk. I estimate that she is well over 3 kilos now; I'll take her to the CHN on Wednesday to get her weighed.

She really is the light of our lives. Everyone who meets her falls in love with her and I totally understand why. She has been spoiled with countless gifts, and already has a wardrobe to rival mine. She is just so tiny and precious, with the deepest blue eyes. Her brother and sister are completely smitten with her. Jimmy loves seeing her and gives her lots of kisses and says, "Hello Lizzie!"



Jimmy continues to make us laugh every day. He really is such a little comedian. His favourite sayings at the moment are "Stupid man", "See ya sucker", "Next time", "ABCD", "Number six", and many others. He loves talking, riding his trike around the house, colouring with his crayons, playing rough and tumble, running races, the Humpty Dumpty song, and reading. He is such a joy to be around and I can't believe that he will be two years old next week...my baby is growing up!