Sophie kissing her 'bubba'!

I’ve realised that this Sunday I will be 20 weeks pregnant, half way, and I haven’t even blogged about it yet! Yes that’s right, we are adding to our little family with baby #2 due on 7th October.

It’s funny, I thought being pregnant the second time around would be, well maybe a bit easier. You’ve been through it before and I thought this one might be a bit less full of wonderings. But boy was I wrong!

You see when you’re pregnant for the first time, it’s full of not knowing what to expect. Questioning everything (well I did anyway!) Why does that feel like that, is that normal? But then second time around you have the comparison. Comparing each pregnancy, wondering if the same thing was happening at the same time last time. Was I as big last time, or am I smaller this time? If I’m smaller does that mean the baby isn’t growing? You know, all those usual mummy to be angsts.

And of course the comparison’s begin early on trying to figure out if it will be a boy or a girl! I remember very early on during those couple of hazy nausea weeks, I thought to myself, I don’t think I’m throwing up as much as the first time. But I’m definitely more tired. I’d find myself laying on the lounge at 10am while Sophie pottered around in her playroom and within minutes I was out like a light. One time I was woken by Sophie kissing my cheek, and covering me with her little jacket! Cute much?!

Thankfully though as you have each scan all fears are put to rest and you stop worrying so much about comparing this pregnancy to the first one, knowing that everything is ok, and every pregnancy is different.

Then of course the worry turns to, how am I going to manage with TWO! But I guess you just figure it out as you go. And not knowing what we are having is killing me! So now the countdown is on… 19.5 weeks down, 20.5 weeks to go!

It was just a regular Monday night, sitting on the couch watching awesome trashy reality TV and suddently we heard funny yelling noises. We shusshed each other and searched for the mute button on the remote. At first we thought maybe it was a child yelling, then we thought it was someone yelling for a lost pet, and then it got the better of hubby and he went to investigate.

As I was peering out the front window, hubby comes running back from across the road, I flew open the front door and he exclaims, quick get some old towels, a lady across the road is having a baby.

Special Delivery!

Oh, um, HOLY SHIT! I raced upstairs grabbing the first old towels I could find and we both flew back across the road. The partner was trying to get the poor lady into the car and she didn’t make it and was lying on the front lawn, clearly in pain. I mean it was CHILDBIRTH for crying out loud! They quickly got towels underneath her, John sat down next to her and held her hand, which she promptly started squeezing the shit out of, the partner was on the phone to ambulance, and was clearly and understandably very stressed out. John tried to keep him calm, I ran out onto the street keeping an eye out for the ambo’s, praying they would hurry the fark up and suddenly the partner yells, Holy fark I can see the head!

Another neighbour came out and popped a pillow under the lady’s head and offered words of encouragement.

I’m standing there thinking, ok, ambulance HURRY UP! Then with about 4 more pushes out pops this tiny little perfect baby boy, straight into his Dad’s arms!

I spot the ambulance down the street and start waving my arms like a crazy lady. They pull up and take their sweet arse time getting out of the van, and I’m ushering them saying, the baby’s out, the baby’s out!! They were so calm and professional, grabbed their stuff, and did their thing. Clearly I would make a great calm ambulance officer… NOT!

So the Dad cut the cord, they wrapped up little William, checked out the mum, got her on a stretcher, and off her and her new baby boy went to hospital, followed by Dad in the car.

Talk about a surreal Monday night!

But this Mummy is feeling the mummy guilt of the old TV. You see up until a couple of weeks ago Miss Sophie didn’t give two hoots about watching TV. Sometimes I’d have ABC Kids on and she’d stop and watch the opening songs of shows then once the music stopped she’d be on her merry way pottering around the house.

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Then one afternoon I flicked the tele on and up popped Hi 5. Sophie was mesmermised. Totally transfixed. Ok, I thought, this could come in handy. You know when you just need 10 minutes to do something, like have a shower, without an 18 month stuck to your leg.

Then all of a sudden Sophie became obsessed. Yep OBSESSED with Hi 5. I’d go in to her room of a morning and this is what I’d be greeted with “Hi Mum, Jack Jack, Hi 5″!

Then there were no Hi Mums, just Hi 5, oh and Jack the dog still got a mention. And the sheer enjoyment on her little chubby face when that music starts and her little hand does hi fives in the air and she starts singing along, hi hi hi hi hi, seriously makes me smile!

I’m really conscious of how obsessed Sophie has become with Hi 5 yet I still find myself putting on the DVD so I can get things done around the house. Hence the Mummy Guilt. Before I had kids I was never one to sprout that my kids would never watch TV. But I always hoped I’d have a happy medium.

Thankfully when I check on Soph in her playroom she’s often just pottering around playing with toys or looking at her books, so I think she just likes having the music on.

So the other day I bought a CD player and some Hi 5 music CDs to try and break the DVD obsession! It’s helped a bit, but she asked for it to be put on the TV.

Then yesterday a friend commented that a husband of a friend of her’s is a paediatrician, and apparently TV isn’t that bad after all for kids. You know as long as they’re watching something like Hi 5 and not the movie Fightclub.

How much TV do you let your kids watch? Do they have a favourite show they always ask for?

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When I started this blog some 3 years ago it was all about the writing. Opinions, venting, ranting, using it as my therapy.

Then Sophie came along and posts started to become less. But in between all that I started getting product review offers. As I’ve mentioned before, most bloggers blog for love and not money. So why shouldn’t we enjoy a few goodies here and there.

Then I started to find that because I’d made a commitment to review a product or event they started to become the majority of my posts.

So after I was contacted twice in the last couple of weeks to become involved in a new parenting app and another children’s stage show, I decided to have a good think about it, instead of saying yes straight away.

I decided that I needed to get back to basics. Use the time I was using to write product reviews to write about the stuff I used to. More life stuff, kid stuff, mummy stuff.

And with spare time about to become even more non existent (more on that soon) it’s time to keep it simple and just get back to writing.

It doesn’t mean I’ll be updating the blog as much as I’d like, but I’m hoping to write more than I have been.

And a little thanks to Jodie for getting me thinking. xx

When it comes to beauty and skin care in general I’m definitely as no fuss as you can get. Cleanse in the shower, a bit of moisturiser, a dusting of powder, mascara if I’m lucky and some lipgloss. So when I was asked to test out the Kosmea Eighth Natural Wonder Facial Serum the first thing I checked was how fuss free it would it be.

I once had a 2 step cleanser that required one product to be put on before you get in the shower left on for a couple of minutes then the second product put on top and then washed off. Needless to say 99% of the time I forgot the first step only used the second, and then gave up altogether on that product.

Kosmea Eighth Natural Wonder Facial Serum

So as soon as I learned that you just simply place the Kosmea Serum under your normal moisturiser, I figured I could cope with that!

With all new beauty products I first test them on my hand a day before using them on my face. Might sound a little precious, but I’ve had my already slightly pink cheeks blow up and my skin feeling like it was on fire before with bad beauty products. Yes, I’m a sensitive soul. Well my skin is anyway.

So after my hand didn’t erupt in a frenzy I started using the Kosmea Serum after cleansing and under my moisturiser. It went perfectly with the moisturiser I’m already using which is a natural based product called BOD. Both products contain rose hip oil which I absolutely love. And it was important to me not to upset the balance of my skin care products as I know that mixing different brands can be risky and different active ingredients in skin care products don’t always get along.

“Kosmea Eight Natural Wonder facial serum contains the wonder ingredient, age defying, anti-oxidant hibiscus extract proven for its ability to “freeze” fine lines and wrinkles, giving the skin an instant youthfullness and vitality.” Thankfully I didn’t have a mountain of wrinkles (wouldn’t be good at age 28!) but I did notice a change in the brightness of my skin, especially around my eyes.

The texture is lovely and thankfully not heavy at all. I can’t stand heavy sticky cream on my face. The smell is lovely without being overpowering, and it soaks into your skin quickly, therefore you don’t have to hang around waiting to put your moisturiser or make up on top.

And then of course there’s the price. I’d hate to think what I’ve spent over the years on all things beauty! I refuse to pay an enormous amount for one product, so at $52.49 only on OKMe, for a serum I think it’s quite reasonable.

There are far more expensive products that deliver little or no results at all.

Thank you to OKMe for the offer to try Kosmea Serum, I’ll definitely continue to use the product in the future.

You can purchase the Kosmea Serum here: http://www.okme.com.au/kosmea-eighth-natural-wonder-facial-serum-50ml.html

Disclosure: I received the Kosmea Eighth Natural Wonder Facial Serum to trial from OKMe. No financial payment was offered nor accepted for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

I hope you and your family have a great time at the Show!! I’ll be in contact soon via email.

2012 Newcastle Show 16-18 March

Thanks to everyone who entered!

To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I went to a local show! I’ve never been to the Newcastle Show and I was probably about 15 or 16 when I went to the local Tamworth Show, way back when!

I’m really excited to be taking Sophie, even if she is far too young for the rides. But that’s ok with me, given that I’m a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to things like that. Give me the Merry-go-round and baby animals any day!

And to celebrate the 2012 NAB Newcastle Show, Puff Pieces has 4 tickets to give away! More about that soon.

Now onto the show!

Do you love cooking? Does watching people ‘show off’ give you a bit of giggle? If you answered yes at least once, then you are going to love the brand new live stage show and competition at this year’s NAB Newcastle Show.

“Show Offs”, the newest attraction in the Entertainment Centre, will serve up a feast of entertainment including live demonstrations, tastings and the search for Newcastle’s first “Show Offs” cook.

As well as the competition, ‘Show Offs’ provides Show goers a chance to see, learn and taste an array of local produce and exotic flavours during the event. There will be interesting and informative demonstrations, celebrity cook offs, Healthy Harold from Hunter Life Education, the Bush Tucker Man and much more.

Major sponsors of the event, Newcastle Fishermen’s Co-op, will be highlighting local seafood and showing off quick, tasty and healthy meal ideas. Carrington Place Restaurant and Dairy Farmers will also showcase their culinary talents.

And of course it wouldn’t be a show without all the usual favourites!

Everything for the young and young at heart will be on offer including fireworks, all the fun rides and everyone’s favourite; a big selection of show bags. And let’s not forget the woodchop event, Varley Showjumping, Pickles Auctions Toyota V6 HiLux Heroes or Brian’s Dog & Duck Show, plus all the competitions for everything from cows to cooking.

Children will also be spoiled for choice with Kidz Zone, a fun attraction where kids can pet cute animals, see miniature model trains, get their face painted and much more. Plus NBN’s Big Dog and Hunter Life Education’s Healthy Harold will make a special visit to meet and greet the youngsters.

Now onto the competition! To enter is simple. Just leave a comment on this post telling us your favourite thing to do at the Show.

Entries close on Monday 12th March at 9am. A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Monday 12th March 2012 at 10am.

Good luck!

More show info:

The Agricultural Precinct will feature the Australian Year of the Farmer Exhibit plus educational elements such as the Scarecrow and Mini Garden competition. Kids will also have the opportunity to plant their own seed to take home. The PETstock Dog Arena will be a favourite with special Police Dog demonstrations, but the entertainment doesn’t stop there.

While the ladies are enjoying special treats such as the fashion precinct, the boys will be busy with adrenaline pumping entertainment including ARD Motocross and HighVelocity Trick Riding.

Skills On Show will once again bring leading Hunter manufacturers together in the Exhibition Centre to showcase trades and skills. With expanded exhibition space and additional interactive elements such as the BHPB training sandpit and WesTrac interactive module, Show patrons will love the hands-on experiences on offer.

It will also be easy for families to get to the Show this year without worrying about parking. A free bus loop service will be available from Surfest and the Hunter Stadium.

With so much on offer, The 2012 NAB Newcastle Show is a must for all families. Don’t miss the colour, fun and excitement from Friday 16 – Sunday 18 March. Tickets are just $12 and available online with PROticket or at the gate on the day.

If you’re not a Novacastrian and would like some background information before reading my rant please head here: http://www.theherald.com.au/newssearch.aspx?q=figs&sb=rel&so=asc

I never felt the need to weigh in on the Newcastle Figs debate. Probably because, to be completely honest, I wasn’t really that interested. Until now. The other day I was driving down King St, the street parallel to ‘Fig St’ and there were at least 6 cop cars parked there. I glanced over to my right to see the large construction fence in place plus an enormous police van.

My first thought, what an absolute waste of police resources. Why aren’t those resources being used to combat the moron’s that cause upteen problems on the streets at night. Or to catch dickhead drivers. Or to…. I could go on and on, but I won’t.

No, instead these police resources are being used for the safety of the removal of the Figs in Laman Street, Newcastle, because of the greenie protestors. Look, don’t get me wrong, I care about our environment. Ok, so I use disposable nappies, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want clean fresh air, and grass for my daughter to play outside.

But I’m a realist. And realistically, spending millions, yes MILLIONS of dollars fighting protestors is beyond ridiculous, especially when these trees are being removed because of safety issues. And plus they’re replacing the trees! Yes that’s right replacing them with properly grown, more suitable figs.

I’ve heard comments that Newcastle should be ashamed of itself for the removal of the trees, due to their history and how it wasn’t good for our children. I’m sorry but what is embarrasing is the absolute waste of Council money on this. Even more embarrassing for Newcastle is the fact that there were death threats made against Councillors. Death threats. Over trees. Seriously give me a break. It is so absurd I can barely put it into words. How dare someone think that a tree is more important than another human beings life.

I don’t know the exact in’s and out’s of the whole debate and frankly I don’t wish too. What I do know is that some people clearly need to pull their heads in and see the more important things in life. My child’s safety when walking down the street is more important to me than the history of the trees. And to threaten another persons life, that not only affects them but the rest of their family as well including their children just makes me sick.

Millions of dollars and death threats. That’s what Newcastle should be embarrassed about.

We’re all guilty of judging other parents, and offering advice, but what happens when judgement is misplaced and unneccesary.

Recently someone commented that they can’t wait for John and I to have a second child, implying that we’d then appreciate how hard parenthood really is. Because apparently John shot their child ‘a look’ when their child was misbehaving and the parents were doing nothing about it. Did the comment piss me off much? Um, yes just a tad. To fully appreciate this comment, let me start at the beginning.

When I was pregnant there were many, many people rubbing their hands together smiling like a stupid cheshire cat waiting to see how my darling ex-bachelor husband would handle fatherhood. I even had the suggestion made to me that if we sold tickets there’d be a line around the corner wanting to catch a glimpse of John in the early days of fatherhood.

I could have easily jumped up and down telling everyone to stick there comments where the sun don’t shine, instead I smiled sweetly and rubbed my own hands together knowing full well they’d all be shot down when John turned out to be a wonderful Dad. I wouldn’t have married him if I didn’t think he’d make a wonderful father. And of course his little girl came into the world, melted his heart and had him changing nappies before he could ask, what’s that smell?!

John’s own father even commented he was pleasently surprised at what a hands on Dad his son was. No pleasent surprise for me, I always knew he would be.

So our gorgeous daughter has been and is a wonderful baby, full of personality and cheekiness, a good sleeper and a good little eater. That’s not to say we don’t have shitty days or shitty nights, but over all we’d like to think we’re doing a pretty darn good job. So why not compliment this instead of being negative and making comments like the one that started this whole rant.

I don’t doubt that 2 kids is much harder than 1, but it doesn’t necassrily mean that you know more or are better parents then someone else because you have more children.

The most amazing pieces of advice usually come from those who don’t actually have children of their own. I was recently told that I needed to put more effort into my blog. I needed to get myself and Sophie into a routine and set aside blogging time for myself to improve my blog.

How nice would that be, regular time set aside for myself to blog. That would be great. In a perfect world. And we all know that said perfect world, unfortunatelty does not exist. While Sophie is in a great routine (thank you ‘Save our Sleep’) not everything is the same everyday. I’d love to say, right I’m going to blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But what happens when Tuesday night Sophie screams for an hour at 11pm because her mouth is hurting from teething. Or we sit up at the hospital for 3hours from 1am because her temperature sky rockets to nearly 40 degrees. Or when I put her down for afternoon nap and sit down for my scheduled blogging time and she throws up all over her cot.

Unfortunately as I’ve mentioned before this blog has taken a back seat to motherhood, and rightly so. Posts are few and far between but blogging doesn’t always have to be everyday, or always 3 times a week. Most bloggers aren’t paid for their writing (happy for that to change if anyone wants to pay me!), it’s all for the love, and in my case, it’s cheaper than therapy.

So back to my original rant about judgement. At the end of the day, those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. And before you judge another parent, just remember, we’re all doing the hardest job in the world, all with different children, all with different beliefs. And don’t forget to look in your own backyard before criticising others.

Rant over.