21 months old

What a mother's day pressie - my boy turned 21 months old on Mother's day.

He is getting so big now. Such a little man.

* He squeals and shouts and makes lots of noise, then turns around and holds his finger to his mouth and says "shhhhhh......."
* When he wants to go outside he runs into his bedroom and gets his boots and puts them on.
* He can put his pull on boots on himself. No guarantee he will get the right feet but 90% of the time he does.
* His language skills are finally starting to take off. He attempts to repeat what we have said and you can pick up what word he was trying to say.
* He has started saying "please" and will add it to what he wants eg "up please".
* Toys have to kiss now lol. Teddy and giraffe pash all the time, then Mummy and Daddy have to kiss teddy and giraffe too.
* He has become a little bugger to get to bed of a night time. The last four nights it has been well after midnight before he has reluctantly gone to bed. This is definately something that needs correcting as it is driving me quickly insane.
* If a song he is dancing to ends, and there is a gap between that song and the next one he stands there with this arms open and says "uh-ohhh".
* If he spills something he grabs a "cloth" of some sort and wipes it up.
* Whenever someone leaves he waves, calls out "Bye" and blows kisses - even if it is just someone leaving from a car park outside the shop that he doesn't even know. We have had some grumpy people laugh and smile when he does it to them.
* He loves art. Drawing especially, but he loves pasting as well.
* He is a big music lover. Not only listening to it but also he loves playing his drum, recorder, harmonica etc.
* He enjoys doing flashcards and will bring us the packet every day to do. When we get to I for Icecream he wants to lick the card hehe.
* He can tell me what sound a dog, cat and fish make.
* He loves his new blue dressing gown and his white bath robe.

and so much more. He is amazing and awesome and frustrating - all in one tidy little package.

igg1e pigg1e

Leeanne - I have been knitting - honest.

I have almost finished an Igg1e Pigg1e toy for my boy. All i have left is the blankie.

This is where i am up to at the moment:
Close up of the face:
Back to when he was "armless":
and before then he was just a faceless entity:
The body after i just finished knitting it:

An update

I thought it was about time i posted, and Rachel - you have encouraged me to finally make a post.

We are doing okay. Times are a bit tough (okay a lot tough). Business is struggling, i can't find a job and I am terrified we will lose our home (hubbs assures me it won't get to that - I pray he is right.).

Alex continues to be incredible and is my rock in this world. I don't know how i would cope without him.

He is now 20 months old and a real little boy now - no hint of my baby remains.

He is down to one bottle at bedtime and eats me out of house and home already. I swear every night he eats the same amount i eat. And i love that he will try anything. I don't think i have found any food yet that he just won't eat.

When i am preparing dinner he sits on a bar stool at the kitchen bench and watches me, and he wants to try every ingredient. He loves to munch on carrot but wasn't too keen on raw onion hehe. At least he tried it. He loves raw cauliflower too.

His vocabulary has started improving and he is a whiz at baby sign language. if he can't make us understand the word he signs it instead so we get the idea of what he wants. It is very cute.

Some pics of our little family:

Alex doing what he loves best - being a revhead on daddy's motorbike - boy he can rev that thing. He bawls buckets when he gets pulled off it and daddy rides away to go to the shop.

Our family. Daycare had a really cheap deal for doing family photos so we got them done. I love and cherish them.
My boy. Losing all his baby fat, he is a real little boy now.

hehe and when 1 sippy cup just isn't enough:

My chocolate easter bunny:

Urgent Aid Needed - please help all you can.

You would have to be living in a hole to not know of the devistation that has been happening in Australia at the moment - Victoria being the worst hit with the fires (although I wouldn't want to really compare - other states have had it really bad too). The toll is still rising but so far there are 173 people dead in these Victorian fires and thousands of people homeless with little more than the clothing on their back. They are saying 750 homes have been lost but I wouldn't be surprised if it was much more than that. We are only beginning to understand the depth of this.

My sister is in an affected area, and i never again want a phone call like the one she gave me on Saturday. She called , in tears to tell me that the fires were near, and the name of the solicitors office where her will is kept, just in case. She told me she loved me and that there was no opportunity to evacuate - all roads leading out are blocked with fire. The fire front was 20 kms wide, with flames leaping 60-100 ft high.

Somehow, with a lot of luck, and a lot of fire prevention in place, and by being up for 24 hours putting out spot fires on their property and saturating their house and property they survived unscathed apart from some singe marks.

As they run dog boarding kennels they had 8 boarders that they brought into their house, so they could defend them better. All the owners are very happy that they cared enough to do this.

Since then they have taken in a friend and her cats. This friend breeds russian blue cats and has 55 of them ranging from kittens to adults. They only managed to catch 49 of them before they were forced to leave because the fires were too close. They haven't been allowed back into the area yet to see if the other 6 have survived and whether her house is still standing - they will try every day to return though. So my sister's house is pretty full at the moment with lots of dogs and cats and 3 humans.

Of course with all this loss there is a great need for assistance from anyone. The red cross are accepting donations, as are most of the major banks. Please give what you can to help.

For those of us that are too short of cash that want to help out there are other things you can do.

COLES supermarket is having it so all money spent there Friday 13th will go to the bushfires, so PLEASE hold off getting groceries and shop at coles this Friday!!!

There is a Ravelry group that are collecting 12inch (30cm) squares to make blankets for those in need. Please go HERE and join up. Every square helps..and lets face it..If you were in need YOU would want someones help, dont be selfish, give just a few hours to make a square or two. They can be knitted, crocheted or sewn and if you want you can also donate materials.

If you don't have a Ravelry account and still want to make squares, you can send them to me and i will pass them on. Email me at mail(dot)bugsy(at)gmail(dot)com and i will send you my address.

It can pretty much be said that if you live in Australia you must know of at least one person who this has affected, even if its only a friend of a friends friend..its still so close to home. This could happen to any one of us.

Please - if there was ever a time to help someone out that seriously needs it - this IS the time.

Thank you

Tagged - i hate being tagged!!!!

Tagged

The lovely Katt tagged me so here I go

Here are the rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules.
Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that let’s them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I hate being tagged. Yet i do them when pushed. (or bored)

2. I have never seen snow.

3. I was 28 when i got my ears pierced, and even then i cried because i had defied my father's wishes (he hated people mutilating their bodies) - and my father had been dead 7 years by then.

4. I was 30 the first time i flew anywhere - it was a conference on the gold coast - i loved it

5. I would love to write a book about infertility - one day i hope i do, and it hope it touches one person out there suffering as i have.

6. i hate being tagged - i can never find a final thing to tell you about.

Not tagging anyone - that is my gift to you.

i never post

You know that - This is like my first post in 2 months - Talk about a gap!

I have been sick. Since November actually. Started off like a cold, and just got worse until i had trouble breathing. After many trips to GPs I had 6 lots of antibiotics and 2 days before Christmas day the doc wanted me to go into hospital. I managed to talk her out of this - how on earth can i go into hospital with a toddler, 2 days before christmas when i am cooking lunch for 5 people?

Luckily i started getting better so stayed out of hospital, but have since started going downhill again. Lung x-ray showed nothing so i went for a high res CT scan of my lungs this morning - results on Thursday. I am so sick of being sick. My throat is still ulcerated and it hurts to breath. I am still coughing up green mucus and have had a headache mostly for the last 5 days. And you can bet i am not even doing anything positive like losing weight lol.

Alex has been awesome. He is almost 1.5 years old - can you believe it?

he is growing and changing all the time. I love him to bits. I have a million photos on facebook of him (email me and i will give you the email address i use there so you can easily find me).

We recently went to my sisters for a few days and he loved the beach - the biggest sandpit he has ever seen!

I have been busy too - here are a couple of projects i have finished recently:

A pair of Fetching handwarmers:

Alex's little blue heart jumper - almost finished - just have to do a little bit of embroidery around the heart


And of course some up to date pics of Alex:

Alex at woodside beach:

Alex and Mumma at woodside beach:
Alex playing in the sand at woodside beach:

Mummy, Daddy and Alex on Boxing day at my family christmas get together - he was very spoilt:

Big Changes

It's been a big week.

Wednesday Alex was sick and i had to stay home with him. At 9am i got a phone call - my boss, and a HR rep on the phone. In 10 mins my life changed. Over the phone they told me that my position had been made redundant. After 8 years, I am unemployed. In a heartbeat.

I finished up today.

I should be happy. I am one of the lucky ones. I get a reasonable payout in very uncertain times. New redundancy policies come into play 1st jan next year that means the payout is effectively halved.

Today was hard. It was like i was invisible to most there. Like i had already gone. 4 amazing friends there really helped me today. They made me remember why i love that place so much. It is the people - they are incredible and i thank them so much for being there today. They have no idea how their support carried me through the day.

I left quietly. No presentation, no gift, no card. It was better this way. I went to lunch with the people that mattered. I said goodbye to those people as well. No false presentations, no guilt filled gifts. It made the day more about me instead of them, and i was very glad of that.

Still, it was hard. I cried several times. Heck i am crying as i am typing this.

But I got through the day and now it is done. I am unemployed. I am free.

I never realised how emotional redundancies are. How the feelings are totally mixed. I just want to say to my friends that have been through this (Jojo -i am thinking of you), I hope i helped you during this time. I hope i made you feel okay. I never really understood, but i do now, and i am sorry if i didn't understand at the time.

I feel like they loved me so much that they paid me to go away. and i am struggling to understand how that really makes me feel.

i'm conflicted. I wish i could stop crying and see this as a positive thing, like so many people are telling me to do.

8 years is a long time. I have some grieving to do.

So now i have some big decisions to make, and i get to spend more time bouncing on the bed with this incredible little man:

and that IS a very positive thing.

Yes I am alive - really I is!

I really am still alive. Things have been busy. Alex has been continually sick with one thing or the other. I really hate daycare for making him so ill. He got bronchitis and I was home for 2 weeks with him until he was better, then he was only back at daycare 1 week and he got gastro, then both Hubbs and I also got gastro! absolutely disgusting it was. Ohh and then we gave Nana gastro too. Fun.

I am incredibly busy with work as well. In fact I worked almost all weekend remotely (nana came over to help with alex yesterday while I looked after crisis hotspots). I have no idea where the rest of my time goes. Either i am working at the shop, or doing something with Alex. (in fact it has taken me all day to write this blog post!)

Alex is thriving. He is over 15 months old now and running everywhere. Every day he grows up a little more and every day i am reminded that he is more knowing than i give him credit for. He seems to understand everything. I can ask him where something is and he will run and get it and bring it back to me.

He will eat really well with a spoon and doesn't make that much mess really. He eats pretty much everything we put in front of him (except if he isn't feeling well).

He has 11 teeth (4 top front, 4 top bottom and 3 of his "first molars") and it really hurts when he bites!

He has finally decided to say Mumma. He says quite a bit (most not totally recognisable though). eg "ish" is "fish", "eueueue" is "hello" (when talking on a phone). "ah ya ya" seems to be"I love you" in response to me telling him I love him. etc

He runs up to us and gives us the biggest hugs - wrapping his arms around our legs and looking up and smiling.

He can do kisses - but is very sparse with them - he really isn't a very cuddly kid.

He is very artistic. He loves doing artwork at daycare and they say he holds his paint brush or sponge brush perfectly and sits quietly concentrating on his art for ages at a time.

He hates me being at the computer and pinches the mouse at every opportunity.

He loves tv and gets the remote and presses buttons to change channels lol. He works everything out really quickly.

He loves to build things with his blocks and can sit quietly for ages putting blocks on top of each other.

He just is continually amazing me, day after day.

Personally things have been a little tough. I won't go into it but let me just say some money and a new husband would certainly improve things lol.

I will leave you with a few of my favorite recent pics.

New videos are up on Youtube as well - You can find them here--> http://au.youtube.com/user/bugsy1970au

p.s. if you want to add me as a friend on facebook send me your email addy for facebook and i will add you (i will tell you that this is bugsy when i do so you know who i am).

A tired little man:

OK - so maybe , just maybe he does have a little bit of red in his hair:
My current favorite pic - Alex and I :
My cheeky boy! He loves this cap and can put it on himself. Actually he loves hats and shoes.

A picture from today that just makes me smile:
What a poser!
Take care all.