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.

Ready for the show!

The Entertainment Centre was buzzing with excitement and full of kids dressed up as their favourite Disney character all ready to watch the show.

When the music started, Sophie was into it! Dancing and wiggling her little bum. Unfortunately when the music stopped at the talking started she wasn’t as keen, but she is only 15 months old. As soon as the music started again she was dancing and clapping!

Checking out the seats.

Dancing with Minnie!

The Grandma a couple of rows in front us was also having a ball. Clapping and singing along to all the words!

The show really was great. Very colourful and exciting. I have to say, I think the highlight for me was Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid doing Beyonce’s Single Ladies!

Sebastian does Single Ladies!

Sophie's 1st Icy pole!

Clearly Mickey and Minnie Mouse were Sophie’s favourites. As soon as they were on stage she was mesmerised!

Hopefully they will be back again when Sophie is a bit older, so I can take her again!

The Disney Live Fab Four!

At 15 months old this is of course Sophie’s first live concert and I’m a little bit worried about how she’s going to behave, but with the all singing all dancing Disney characters up on stage, I’m sure she’ll be mesmerised from start to finish!

I remember the first Disney show I went to as a kid. My Mum and Nonna surprised my brother and I with a trip to Disney on Ice while we were in Sydney for the school holidays! It was so much fun seeing all our favourite Disney characters in real life and so big!

Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival promises to be THE event for kids this Summer holidays – a live concert experience starring their most loved characters and stars, where they can rock out to remixed songs they all know. There’s still some tickets left so be quick! Visit http://www.disney.com.au/disneylive/ for more information and ticket sales.

Stay tuned for all the goss on the live show and pics!

If only this was my wardrobe! (Image)

Sophie, my 14 month old and I have one big thing in common: we were literally busting out of our wardrobes. Last week I came to the end of putting up with what was a very messy little girl’s wardrobe. You see, I’m actually quite an organised person. I like things neat and tidy, but behind Sophie’s wardrobe doors was anything but neat and tidy. As she grew I bought more clothes but just put them on top of the old clothes. It didn’t take long before the drawers were bursting at the seams and the hanging space rivaled a very squashed retail sales rack.

So with the latest basket of washing staring at me to be put away, I decided to begin. Begin tidying up Sophie’s wardrobe. I pulled out all her clothes and sorted them into what was far too small and what actually fitted. The problem was that I loved seeing all the gorgeous little outfits hanging in there even if they were from a size 00! I ended up with ANOTHER large space bag of clothes bringing the grand total to 3 already! I found gifts I was yet to unpack, and clothes I had forgotten I bought for her. 4 hours later Soph’s wardrobe was spick and span.

Then it was my wardrobes turn. I gave myself a couple of days break and on New Years Eve morning with Sophie asleep and hubby out and about, I began. I started with shelves of stuff I hadn’t even looked at let alone used in the past probably 3 years. I got ruthless and just started throwing stuff out. Belts that were no good, pyjamas that were far too small and swimmers that I can’t believe I ever fitted into. Then I started on my shoe shelf. As I dusted off the boxes of all my lovely high heels I reminisced about the old days. The old days when every work outfit was carefully chosen with shoes to match. Sky high heels that at the time seemed easy to wear. These days… Well mummy mode has well and truly kicked in! I’ve got one pair of comfortable black heels I wear to hubby’s awards nights and the rest are trusty old flats. Unfortunately the word ruthless didn’t enter into the shoe clean out. After dusting off the boxes and the shelf they all got neatly stacked back. Throwing them away seemed too much to bare!

This unfortunately continued in the clothing department too. I’d had a massive throw out a few months ago and gave my brothers girlfriend all my lovely work clothes that even if I were to go back to work would require me to lose at least 15 kilos for me to fit back into. But my lovely casual and some dressy pre-Sophie clothes I couldn’t part with. You never know, I told myself, maybe one day after we’re finished having kids I’ll fit back into them. One day. So they all got packed into plastic tubs for safe keeping. You know, just in case. Finally I rearranged the clothes that do fit me and hung up the things I wear everyday so I can actually SEE what I have. I even found clothes I had forgotten I’d bought. It was like shopping without the having to spend money bit! So after about 8 hours spread over 2 days my wardrobe was complete. And it feels so good knowing that behind all the cupboard doors everything is neat and ORGANISED!

I never make new years resolutions because I know I’ll never keep them. But I have promised myself that when 2013 rolls around our wardrobes will be as tidy as they are today.

Now to get hubby to do his wardrobe… I have a feeling that will be MY next clean out!

Oh, and Happy New Year!

So I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

See you next year!

I’ll be in contact soon via email.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered.

Sophie sit still for this? I don't think so!

Motherhood is challenging. Some challenges are easy to overcome and some reduce you to tears. But this latest challenge with Miss Sophie rivals climbing Mount Everest. As in climbing Mount Everest would be easier. Easier than what? Well I’m glad you asked. If you asked Sophie, and if she could talk she would tell you that her father and I were trying to amputate her little chubby fingers and pull her little toes out one by one from her little chubby feet.

But no my dear friends, this isn’t what we are trying to do at all. We are simply trying to cut her fingernails and toenails. It’s such an ordeal that we have given up many a time. But it’s now getting to the point where we could enter Soph into the Guinness Book of records and give that fingernail lady a run for her money.

We’ve tried while she’s having her bottle, while she’s munching on food, while she’s chilling out playing with toys. But no luck. I think at this rate if we get one a week cut we’re doing well.

I’ve contemplated cutting them in her sleep but once she’s asleep I daren’t wake her up so I chicken out!

My next brainwave is to cut them while she’s asleep in the car. So all we need to do is plan a big drive where she’ll fall asleep, I’ll sit in the back and chop away and problem solved. Now we just need to find the time!

I’m hoping as she gets older she’ll understand what we are doing!

How do you get your little one to stay still while trying to cut their fingernails and toenails?

Don’t forget to enter the Disney Live ticket giveaway!

You could be watching Disney Live! soon...!

It’s easy peasy to enter. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post, (you’ll see the comment button at the end of the post) telling me who your or your kids favourite Disney character is. Then ‘Like’ Puff Pieces on Facebook. Just click the ‘Like’ button on the Facebook box to the right or head HERE to my Facebook page. Yep, it’s that simple!

You can only enter once, and the competition will be open for 2 weeks, closing on Monday 12th December 2011 at 7.30am. The winner will be chosen at random by www.random.org and will be announced here on Monday 12th December 2011 at about 9.30am, and also posted on Puff Pieces Facebook page and notified by email.

So what are you waiting for… start ‘Liking’ and commenting away! Good luck!

Abu the monkey!

Growing up, Aladdin was one of my absolute favourite movies. I thought Abu the monkey was the cutest thing I’d ever seen and Princess Jasmine the most beautiful. I wished that I could have a pet tiger and sing like she did. A Whole New World was my favourite song and I’d belt it out off tune all the time. Their adventures looked like so much fun. And who wouldn’t want their very own Genie and magic carpet!

The best thing now about having kids? It gives you the perfect excuse to relive these memories, watch the movies and introduce them to the wonderful world of Disney.

Watching Sophie bop around, wiggling her bum to the beat of any music, including ad’s on TV often has me in hysterics, so I can only imagine what she’ll be like when we go to the new Disney Live! show in January! The all dancing, all singing cast full of all our favourite Disney characters will no doubt have plenty of tiny little feet tapping and little bums wiggling to the beat of the music. I’m so excited and can’t wait. I mean Sophie’s so excited and can’t wait. Ok, so she doesn’t even realise she’s going yet, so I’m excited enough for the 2 of us!

Disney Live is coming to Newcastle Entertainment Centre on January 17-18. Tickets are already on sale through Ticketek. Follow the link HERE.

The whole Disney Live! gang

And don’t forget to stay tuned for a very exciting Disney giveaway next week! Yes I will have 4 tickets to give away to one of the Newcastle shows!