What's Been Keeping Me Busy Lately?

One very mobile Bubby.

All day, everyday, all that I ever do is keep this little baby out of trouble. He has been commando/worm/caterpillar/seal crawling since 6 months but he finally managed to crawl properly a few weeks ago. He gained his freedom and I completely lost mine. On the same day he also learnt to pull himself up on furniture to stand. So, if I'm not chasing him I'm preventing this from happening:

Don't worry, he was okay. I caught him and didn't drop the camera either.

Other than crawling and pulling himself up on furniture, legs and table cloth he also has a penchant for pulling cords preferably ones that are plugged in to the playstation, laptop, socket or tv. I gave him his own cord to play with but he ditches that and goes for the ones that could potentially kill him or worse, break the playstation.

3 AM, We Meet Again.

Source

It's been a while since we've been together and I hate your guts more than ever. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, my arse. Has anyone ever really had a 7-8 month old who slept through the night? If you have then

a) you are extremely lucky and should buy a lottery ticket. Or maybe not because you've probably already used up all your luck.
b) you are lying to yourself or in denial. You know, 3am is technically early morning hence your baby is sleeping through night if he stays asleep until at least midnight..
c) you are lying.
d) you are sleeping through the night and don't hear your baby's cries.
e) you are Tizzie Hall and don't actually have a baby.

ETA: I just read somewhere on the interweb that Tizzie Hall has actually had a baby in 2008. I wonder if he slept through the night and how many times he's had to cry himself to sleep because his mother has ignored him.

Long Unplanned Hiatus. Decluttering and Culling. Happy Shoes.

It's been 19 days since my last post. The hiatus was unplanned. Hubby has been home so we have been spending time as a family. Now that he's back at work I actually have time to write. Every blogger I follow seems to have embraced decluttering in the New Year, being a joiner, so have I. I'm not quite as good at it as every piece of junk I own seems to have sentimental value. Hubby was ruthless, though. The culling/decluttering conversation went something like this:

Me: (trying to hide a canvas shopping bag)
Hubby: (in a stern voice) Throw it out.
Me: But it's still good.
Hubby: Throw it out.
Me: But my dad gave it to me.
Hubby: Throw it out.
Me: But I could use it for...
Hubby: Throw it out.
Me: But..
Hubby: Throw it out.

The day's conversations were pretty much a repeat of that for different items. So on New Year's Day that's virtually all we did. Some people find it cleansing and calming but it makes me panicky that I might have thrown out something that I will eventually, maybe years down the track, maybe have a use for. The culling that I found uplifting would be my wardrobe culling. I threw out all the clothes that I kept because they still fit (I never grow so that's a lot of clothes) even though they were very old, ugly, don't suit me or just out of fashion. I kept a lot of them to wear around the house or to bed. I made the decision to throw out anything that doesn't make me look good. I was ruthless there. After all if you look good, you feel good. Now that I've gotten rid of unwanted clothes I can see what's missing. White tops, for example. I need more white shirts, blouses and tanks. Time to hit the sales or what's left of them. I also got rid of my maternity pants. Not that I'm not planning on having another one but I hated wearing them when pregnant. They never stayed up and I spent most of my day pulling them up. So they're gone. There were some ancient outfits that I kept. Like the pink Snoopy polo shirt that I've had since grade 4. They still fit me perfectly too. I told you I never grow. The next thing I have to tackle is my shoe cupboard. It's actually the linen closet but there's no linen to be found in there. Just shoes. My shoes. That is going to be very difficult and very emotional. How can I ever get rid of my patent leather ballet flats that I wore to death on our honeymoon? It was new when we left Sydney and after 22 days of walking on cobblestones and gravel the leather on the heel had peeled off and was worn down to the bone.

Speaking of patent leather ballet flats. These are my happy shoes.

There's something about red patent leather, isn't there? I wear these shoes with everything, especially navy. They make me happy. Everyone should have a pair of red patent leather shoes.

Kitchen (Mis)Adventure - Marion's Kitchen Thai Basil and Chilli Stir Fry

I love cooking (when I feel like it, not when I have to) and I love cooking shows. I like watching MasterChef  Australia and I think that I only missed one episode of Season 3 which was on the night I gave birth. In fact, it was on the TV while I was being prepped for an emergency C-section. I remember trying to watch it while my epidural was being topped up. I figured that was the closest I was going to get to watching my favourite show with a glass of wine. I'm sure somewhere in the back of my mind I contemplated delaying giving birth until after the show has finished. 

I usually dislike at-home cooking kits but I am a huge fan of Marion Grasby from Season 2.  After months of walking past her Marion's Kitchen range in the supermarket aisle, curiosity and lack of cooking motivation prompted me to give it a try. I chose Thai basil & chilli stir fry.

I like how each individual packet of ingredient is numbered and comes with easy to follow instructions. However, I don't like that she instructs you to stir fry the vegies first followed by the meat. I do it the other way around to make sure my vegies are not overcooked.

The sauce was a generous amount, she recommends 300g of meat, I used 500g and there was more than enough sauce. The end product didn't look like the sample picture on the box maybe because I used chicken instead of beef and mine looked more saucy. I added cashews to mine.

I expected it to be better than your average boxed cooking kit but since most of them are just plain awful it wasn't that high an expectation. It was actually really good. It tasted just like it was from a Thai restaurant. It was wonderfully fragrant and it tasted like it was made from fresh ingredients. It was flavoursome and mildly spicy. I would definitely buy it again and I'm looking forward to trying her other kits.

Bubby's First Christmas. Bubby's First Tooth.

As you can see, Bubby was quite spoilt. This doesn't even show the high chair my parents bought for him and the toy and outfits I got for him from the end of year sales. Hubby and I spent the better part of Christmas eve buying presents for Bubby. We were like little kids let loose in a toy store. We Bubby has almost the complete stuffed toy characters of Sesame Street circa 1980's. He has Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, Mr Snuffleupagus, The Count, Grover and Elmo (although he's not from the 80's). We now only need Bert and Ernie. I really have my doubts if half of his toys are for him or for his parents. We also got him Scoobie Doo (Hubby and I did a divide and conquer of Toys r' Us and each of us ended up with a Scoobie). I was also going to get him the Super Mario set but had to restrain myself. I ended up letting him choose one Mario character. He smiled at most of them but King Koopa turned out to be his favourite. He squealed with so much delight when I showed it to him that I nearly bought him all of the King Koopas on the shelf. He also got heaps of toys from my in-laws. Now our house is filled with stuffed toys and lots of  "yellow plastic crap" as hubby calls them.

Christmas this year was so much fun. Everyday is so much fun.

Bubby's first tooth erupted today!. If I didn't see it I wouldn't think he was teething. He's his usual bubbly and cheeky self. I shall post a photo if he'll open his mouth for me without his hand in it.

ETA: A screenshot from a video my brother took:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

I probably won't get a chance to update until after Christmas, so if you're still reading we wish you a very Happy Christmas. May you have a joyful and merry time with your loved ones and be showered with presents. I know we will as we already have the best present of all!

Love Affair - Stripes

I noticed that we tend to gravitate towards stripes. Bubby, especially, is almost always in stripes. Exhibits A - Z:

I miss this grow suit so much. It was my absolute favourite, sadly he's way too big for it now

Daddy wears stripes too.

My favourite matching daddy/Bubby outfits. Bubby's cardi and beanie were knitted by my mother-in-law. Bubby wore it almost every time we went out in winter. Sadly, it's now also too small. Maybe my mother-in-law will knit a bigger version...

My very own navy/white stripes.

The whole family does stripes on my birthday.

Nautical-themed birthday party.

Even our bed linen is striped/nautical.

Bubby's pram blanket is also striped.

And long before Bubby came along his parents were already having an affair with stripes. Come to think of it, we also love navy.