The 2 AM Wakeup Call. Window Shopping.

Well, after months of sleeping through the night Bubby is waking up in the middle of the night again. I thought he might be cold so I doubled up on the sleeping bag. Unlike before when he'd sometimes wakeup and cry for about 30 seconds and fall asleep again, this time he wakes up screaming. We'd do the whole controlled crying thing because I'm done with the 3 AM feed but he'd wake up screaming a number of times. I know he's not cold or hungry. It could be Wonder Week 55 as he's very clingy and temperamental lately, too. Or it could be that he's teething. I noticed that his gums are a bit swollen and a little red but I can't feel any teeth yet. So if this is due to teething I'm afraid this will be a drawn out process. Poor Bubby, he didn't have any problems with his first 6 teeth. I think maybe molars may be involved this time. I'd rather teething than the dreaded Ear Infection again.

Meanwhile, I'm still window shopping for an outfit for my brother's wedding in November. I really want something that is floral and floaty as it's a spring wedding. I have this ASOS dress in mind:

And these Next Direct dresses:

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Or alternatively I could recycle this maternity dress that I wore to a friend's wedding in February 2011 when I was 6 months pregnant with Bubby.

This photo always makes me laugh. I look so frumpy and uncomfortable. Well, if memory serves me right my feet were very swollen (yes, I know they don't look swollen but they were, my anaesthetist also laughed at me when I complained about my swollen feet and ankles after my C-section because he thought they were 'slender') that night from my shoes (which were also my wedding shoes and yes they were also uncomfortable on my wedding day). I could barely stand that night hence the awkward pose. Supermodel pose it ain't but I had a lot of fun that night and this was the time when I really enjoyed being pregnant.

My New Favourite Store - Daiso Japan.

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I don't actually know what my favourite store was or if I had one before Daiso Japan. I've always wanted to go but it was always too far away for me to travel. Now that it's only a 5 minute drive I'm going to have to visit it at least once a week. It's a 100Yen store or if you're unfamiliar with that it's like a discount store but everything is cheap (everything in store is $2.80!) cute and colourful, think pastel coloured toilet brushes, brooms, gloves and clothes pegs.

These gloves make me want to do the washing up.

I've been looking for plain white pegs (which I never found, until now) because I don't like the boring multi-coloured ones that you get from the supermarket. If I had known these pastel coloured ones existed I would not have settled for boring red and blue.

I bought some pink trays to organise my socks, stockings, scarves, belts and undies. I also bought a facial lotion with sake extract. Why spend $$$ on SKII when you can get the same ingredients for $2.80. I also got this lip gloss: 

It's a nice subtle shade of pink and it comes in a nice pot, the lid is like a big diamanté.

It's perfect for work and it's not drying. I think I'm going to get the darker shade as well.

I got a haircut and I like it. While I was getting a haircut my parents and brother took Bubby to Softplay. He thoroughly enjoyed himself and didn't want to leave apparently. It tired him out good too as he slept for just over 2 hours in the afternoon.

Next Saturday is his belated Birthday Party. I have planned the menu (there will be green beans and green peas for the birthday boy) now I have to think of decorations.

Nail Polishes and BOGOF Sale. Things That Annoy Me. Things That I Like.

I bought these polishes from a chemist, buy one get one free on top of 20% off. I love a BOGOF sale, they're so rare nowadays. I now know why it takes chemists so long to dispense a script: a) it's because they can't decipher the hieroglyph that is a doctor's handwriting and b) they want you to browse the store while you wait and buy things you totally don't need. 

The shades are Orchid and Jaded. I'm wearing Orchid here, it matches my pink sapphire ring perfectly but it's hard to tell because of the flash. It's a crap photo. I took it at work and tried to do it quickly. Wearing rings side by side looks odd. I normally wear the pink sapphire ring on my right hand but I can't take a photo with my left hand. I also don't normally wear three rings on my ring finger but my fingers seem to shrink in winter and my e-ring and wedding band felt loose so I wore another ring on top so they don't fall out. Excuse my wrinkly hand and gnarled fingers.

Idiot drivers annoy me. Like this fool who 'forgot' to pay for parking despite the numerous signs including the big one at the entrance that says pay for your parking before returning to your car or something to that effect. She had to dash out of the car creating traffic behind her. Also annoying are drivers who rummage through their bags/pockets/wallets for their ticket when they get to the gate. Aargh, have your ticket handy before you even turn on the engine, people.

Having to do laundry on a cloudy winter's day annoys me. It seems like a pointless exercise to hang up clothes on the line when you know they won't dry and your fingers are frozen and numb by the time you're finished. The alternative is to hang them up inside the house. There are clothes hanging on the back of just about every chair, the banister and Bubby's playpen. We really need a dryer. I love winter but I don't like cloudy or rainy days. Well, I don't mind them so long as I can stay home all day and read a book or watch a movie or sleep which probably won't happen until Bubby is old enough to go out on his own.

I like a full freezer. All of the plastic containers and ice cube trays are Bubby's food. He's not going to run out of food for a while yet.

I visited a friend last Saturday and she has this setup in her backyard for her little girl. I'm jealous.

I love flowers. This bunch is a thank you gift from an intern I supervised at work. I much prefer flowers over chocolates, they last longer. You can also look at them as much as you want without being tempted to eat them. I don't really like chocolate but if it's there, I'll eat it.

While Bubby was fast asleep this afternoon I made myself a cheesy toast. I was able to sit down and eat it at a leisurely pace with a cup of tea. Simple luxury.

Kitchen (Mis)Adventure -Chicken Noodle Soup and Nicoise Salad

On Friday night I made chicken noodle soup and Nicoise salad for dinner. I don't think they go together but hubby insisted.

Photo I took last year of my chicken noodle soup. I didn't take a photo of Friday's version, it wasn't plated as nicely as this anyway.

Not a photogenic Nicoise salad. I accidentally cut one of my eggs crosswise instead of lengthwise.

The chicken noodle soup is just what one needs on a cold winter's night. There something not right about my salad. I think it's the kalamata olives, it sort of had a bitter after taste, or it could be because I substituted lemon juice with Italian white wine vinegar. It's not that I didn't have any lemons, I have tree full of it but it was too cold to go outside and harvest one.

My lemon tree, photo taken on a different much colder and wetter day.

Carefully choosing his green beans

Bubby liked the soup and he absolutely loved the green beans (the tuna, not so much). This kid loves his green vegetables, how lucky am I?

A is for Apple. A Gruesome Find.

After several weeks of half words and speaking in syllables Bubby finally said his first proper word and he's been saying it all day. We thought it would be plane (pluh) or bird (bur) but it turned out to be Apple. He's never tried to say the word but while watching his Brain Baby ABC dvd he said apple very clearly the first time. I have to say that I love that he loves the Brainy Baby dvds and would sit on his own watching intently for the entire duration of the show which is around 25 minutes. Whoever said that babies have a short attention span?

I made a pretty gruesome discovery in the backyard this morning. What did this, what was it and where is the rest of it?!

Finally, New Post!

It's been a long while, I know. It's hard having only limited access to the internet. I have barely gone on FB in the last seven or eight weeks and I felt disconnected from the rest of the world. We have moved but still living out of boxes. The first day of the move went well and I managed to unpack and organise my kitchen in one day but then we all came down with some nasty flu/super bug and asthma. I was so sick I had to take a week off work and probably should have stayed home another week. I've never taken that much time off from work and worse still was that it was one of the busiest weeks at work so I ended up doing work at home in lieu of complete bed rest.  Anyway, there were a lot of things I wanted to blog about but they're all old news now so here's the last eight weeks in photos in totally random order.

My brother teaching Bubby how to play the piano in matching outfits, no less.

Bubby enjoying a fine day at the park. His first time on a swing and he loved it.

Isn't that nice? Some random house we passed by on one of our walks.

This is how my parents put Bubby to sleep. I must get me an iphone.

Living with the in-laws for seven weeks was good as I didn't have to cook dinner but I had to battle one and a half hours of traffic with a cranky baby in the back seat. I'm so glad I don't have to do this anymore.

I love the people I work with. Someone's send off before maternity leave. They planned to do the same for me last year but I ended up going on leave much sooner than I planned

I mentioned before that my shoes went into storage by mistake so I had to get new shoes :). I got these in two tone cream/black too (Second pair half price, how could I say no?) I already bought a pair of black patent ballet flats before I spotted these ones. Hubby made me buy them :).

I also got these as I needed heels. I was going to buy them in black too but I knew I already had black heels.

The in laws didn't have a full length mirror (shock horror!). I don't actually get to see if my bottom matches my top until I get to work where there's a full length mirror in the back of one of the labs. It's a fat mirror too, I weigh 44 kg and this mirror made me look heavy, or maybe it's the outfit, the blazer made my hips look really wide. Quite often my outfits don't look cohesive like this mess for example, a cream blazer over a dark green vest over a white blouse and grey trousers with nude shoes. As I said I only have a vanity mirror and have to get dressed in the dark at the crack of dawn (to beat the God-awful traffic).  That and I really need to update my wardrobe.

15 minutes from the city but I feel like I live in the bush. It's nice. Except for the rain. We actually have views of buildings which you can't see because of the rain/fog.

Bubby turned 1! I took the day off, actually the week because I was so sick. Needless to say it was a non-event. Had I planned a party I would have had to cancel it as everyone who came into contact with us came down with the flu. We did have cake (three, actually) and hubby got Bubby presents. I haven't gotten him anything yet but I will. I'm planning a party for him in mid July, it's not like he'll know it's a month and a half late.

Cake #1

First taste.

Bubby takes it upon himself to start unpacking.

It's never too early to put them to work.

Kitchen at the new house. I have a walk-in pantry, for a one-year old :).

Fleeing the scene of a crime.

Today's weather is really bringing me down. My driveway is turning into a river.

A few more millimetres of rain and I will have myself an infinity pool.

I'm upset that I missed this year's Vivid Sydney due to being sick and the rain. I missed last year's too due to having just given birth and all. Customs House and the Light Sculptures look really good this year. Bubby would have really enjoyed it as he's obsessed with lights. I hope the Sun shines tomorrow. 

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm still alive and relatively well, just crazy busy with work and no Internet connection at home except on the iPad which is not really conducive for blogging as I can't post photos and what's a blog post if it has no photos, right? I'm trying to make up for the lack of posts by trying to fit everything in as few sentences as possible and since there isn't much to talk about not that I ever really had much worth saying this post will have very few albeit very long sentences.

Anyway, happy mother's day to all the mums out there! This will be my first mother's day and I'm pretty excited!

We move to our new house in two weeks! I can't wait! It' 10 PM on a Saturday and I still have so much work to do. I hate bringing work home but I can't work the crazy long hours that I used to so i'm forced to do them at home late into the night. I am so not the work at home type. Thank goodness Bubby went to sleep early. I might actually have the chance to finish one lot of work so I can enjoy tomorrow. I better sign out and stop procrastinating. I still have to visit Rue La La and Gilt.