Back from the brink of chaos!

Woooooow, what a few weeks we have had. It's all been a little busy with sickness (chest infection me + monster), referral to the audiologist for the monster and me starting my own wee store! Put that all together and there wasn't much time to blog...I know DISASTER! but anyway we are back and lots to catch up on.

The wee monster got her fist cold, i have never seen so much dribble + snot + coughing + sneezing in all my life.  The poor wee dot just couldn't drink her milk due to the bunged up nose and sleep was a disaster as lying down made things worse. I could have coped, but i had "man flu" and getting up 3x+ per night made for one angry mummy monster. I'm sure my head spun round a few times ala the exorcist! The husband nearly wore it all as he sleeps like the dead and even an elbow to the ribs couldn't wake him to help. New mantra "we aren't thrown things we can't cope with" i must keep reciting this until i believe ;)

Next 'hurdle' the monster has had a hearing issue for a while, i thought maybe it was selective hearing as mummy monster suffers from this repeatedly hehe. But the GP referred us to the audiology specialist and after 5 tests the right side seems to be not doing so good. Hmmm, back in 8 weeks to get re-tested. In the mean time we are keeping up the baby sign language (for hearing kids) as this helps a lot and she is already understanding "milk" and "bath" and "food" which is pretty exciting. I'm a wee bit worried about the hearing issue, but also glad it's just one little ear and not both or something worse....glass half full!

I have also channeled my inner creative goddess *ehem* and started my own wee store creating little toys for little people!! I have always loved craft, art and making things in general so now i can put this all together in my store Little Sabine and i will be selling on FELT orders are rushing in already and i am brimming with excitement!



Dancin' feet

I have lot's to learn about kids shoe sizing, i had bought a size 4 shoe for my niece's 1st birthday. I thought they were pretty big, but on return home and trying them on my monster i found that a size 4 probably wouldn't fit a 1 year old. Why don't they just mark them with age? Common' make it easy for us pleeeeeeeeease. Anyhoo...needless to say Beenie has now got a brand new pair of shoes, she doesn't really wear shoes at all (just socks) apart from special occasions where she gets all dressed up and prettyfied (this word is out of the Ali dictionary of kiddie words ha ha). Sabine loves standing up and having muma dance with her to music (Brooke Fraser is pretty cool apparently, not too sure about muma's singing though), and now with her new special dancin' shoes the dancin' is now AMAZING. The light sparkles the shoes over the entire carpet and it's like 2 disco balls on her feet. New game....tick!

Sunshine outings

Getting back my love of sport

Over the last couple of weeks i have had a great change both physically and mentally with my fitness level and i now feel like i am more 'training' than just moving my body trying to loose weight. When i ran track i was pretty tiny, 5'6" and 53kg. And I think from memory i had 11% body fat, hmmm now i think it's a little bit more than that hehe. I still don't fit a lot of my clothes, i was a small size 8, but I'm getting there! My fave pair of knee length jean shorts can now get over my thighs and button up....but i can't move or breathe ;) I told myself after the monster arrived i was going to get back my fitness sensibly and gradually so not to injure myself or get divorced by my husband by making him a runners widower. Having previously had 3 stress fractures all at the same time i know the pain and frustration that can be caused by too much too soon. Additionally a good marathon runner friend of mine sustained a pelvic stress fracture after her first born by going back too fast and too many miles on lax ligaments and a post-baby stressed body (she has been whispering in my ear giving me good words of wisdom for gradual progression). 

MANTRA SO FAR - SLOW AND STEADY

It all seemed so hard, mentally and physically, i couldn't run like before. Slow, heavy body, laboured breathing and feeling weak after loosing all my muscular strength. But patience has paid off, and i feel stronger, can run for longer, run like i feel like a runner (YAY!) and actually do decent runs off into the hills (even up the hills shock horror!). I got up this morning at 6:30, lay there for a while and then I was up, excited about where i was going to ride. Putting on my cycling kit was great, i knew once i was off i could actually ride and fast too. Not like the overweight jelly belly i felt like before that looked like someone had tried to stuff a sausage into a skin far too small.

The focus i have had on trying to get strong and gradually increase my fitness rather than focus on my weight, is really paying off. I am still no-where near where i was, but I'm getting there! And with race season opening in a month i am inspired and i love training in the heat so bring on summer! I have lot's more tracks to run and explore, new races to enter and hopefully feel faster and fitter than ever before! I even managed an hour session in the pool yesterday, swimming well zooming through the water in the fast (yay fast) lane.

I hope by the end of summer, my little monster will be there cheering me on from the sideline with her papa. It was hard putting my love of sport on hold for an entire year, but having Sabine has made me realise i can conquer the hardest of challenges. She will now be my inspiration when I'm out training and racing, to make her proud of her muma.



Me - pre baby out racing



Friday is "Colour Your World Pink Day" for the Breast Cancer Foundation

A subject I am very passionate about...please support The National Breast Cancer Foundation tomorrow in any way you can. Dress Pink, eat Pink, sing Pink, Pink Baloons, Pink Cake, Dress you buba pink from head to toe, Pink Ribbon in your hair, Pink colar on your dog, give a friend a pink flower. Bust most importantly....DONATE TO PINK! xoxox

A Quote from Audrey Hepburn:

Princess of catnaps

9 times out of 10, this cute little face is what i see EXACTLY 45mins from when she goes to sleep in the daytime. I used to get all stressed out that she wasn't sleeping very long in the day, i mean all the 'books' say she should have a good 2 hour lunchtime nap. Yeah whatever! I was getting so over the top neurotic about these 'catnaps' and thinking she was going to suffer horribly if she didn't have these, but i realised (not so long ago) that i should just embrace the catnaps and stop worrying and have happy buba. I think in my endeavour to try my hardest to make her go back down for more sleep was in turn making her more upset and the vicious cycle began. If i see a sneaky yawn and an eye rub i do try and see if the gentle head rub secret weapon will work. If however, the monster as per usual is flapping arms in the air, grinning from ear to ear and doing an abb crunch good enough to put me to shame, i tend to think the monster isn't tired hehe. So my new mantra: "stress less and enjoy the good times."

Beyond puree

My monster is constantly eyeing up what i eat now, and little reaching arms and fingers and trying to grab food as i try and try as i might to get it to my mouth. We had tried steamed broccoli and carrots before which were a hit, but tonight i gave her some bread (just wholemeal to avoid grains that i don't think would digest well in little tummies) with a thin scraping of margarine and marmite. She has mastered the art of putting things in her mouth (this includes everything and anything including socks and toes!), so i thought the finger food would be fine. I wasn't so sure on the flavour of marmite though. But....it's now the current favorite. And anything that didn't make it to her mouth was happily nibbled up by the resident vacuum cleaner (aka Hobbes our Greyhound!). Having her two front teeth is also helping chewing and mushing food up in her mouth, and i now have to be very careful if i dare to pop one of my fingers in her mouth as those little things are razor sharp! I think my next job will be finding new healthy and yummy things to eat that are easy to pick up and much on.