Bugalugs.

I have the hiccups right now. They actually hurt.

I bought this cardigan from my friend Celeste's site, Crowded Closet and I love it!
It's the Aztec Cardi.

I have no coats that fit me at the moment, they are all too small for my arms eek. I'm living in cardigans and capes, so in other words I am freezing and need to go shopping.

I'm sick of this weather, it looks warm outside but then you step out with high expectations and you nearly lose a toe from frostbite. 

I still try and go for a stroll most days, but having had the flu makes this harder than my usual non motivation would usually make it. 

I'm not sure that the above sentence made sense but I think you get what I mean. My brain has turned to mush. The only times I concoct a sentence these days are when writing these posts. 

The look of fear.

The look of 'my mum is hilarious'.

Nelly is loving her Skip Hop Alphabet Zoo Activity Mat, even if half the toys are now hanging over her car seat, she just loves Wally the Whale.

We struggle with Tummy Time to be honest. She hates it and screams bloody murder so I give up earlier than I should. The Husband is better at it than I am. When holding her and when she is sitting up she has a really strong neck, it's just the Tummy Time that she despises. Any tips?

This is my favorite One Pot Wonder.

I am getting better with time management and keeping the house in a relatively clean state with some form of dinner on the table, but this is what I make twice a week and then eat for lunch every day.

I think it's meant to be a soup but as you can see mine turns to mush, more like stew.

Lentil & Veggie Stew Thingo.

1/2 cup small red lentils 

1 can of cooked kidney beans (or four bean mix works fine too) drained and rinsed

2 tsp olive oil

2 medium carrot, diced

1 red capsicum, diced

1 green capsicum, diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

1 tsp curry powder

1 clove of chopped garlic

1 tsp dried basil leaves

1/4 cup of tomato pasta sauce or passata

1.5 cups water

1 vegetable stock cube

- Add lentils to 1 cup of water, bring to a boil, skim foam, cover and reduce heat to simmer - cook until soft for 10 to 15 minutes (sorry I lied, two pot wonder)

- While the lentils are cooking, heat the oil in a large soup pan and saute the carrot, celery, capsicums and potato for 5 minutes

- Add curry powder, garlic and basil leaves and stir for 1 minute

- Add red lentils, water and stock cube.

- Bring to a boil, cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes or until veggies are tender. 

- Stir in kidney beans. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

- Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Either eat alone or serve over rice like a curry. 

My own wardrobe consists of tracksuit pants, long sleeved tops and cardigans these days. 

Oh, don't forget the slippers either. I think that I have really hot feet though as I can't stand slippers.

So this is Nelly's wardrobe a few weeks back but since taking this photo we have received a tonne of gifts that solely consisted of clothes that I have had to retire the bigger sizes to boxes. How can one kiddie have so many clothes and her mum so little?

I had these birth announcement cards made my fellow blogger Iron Chef Shellie a few weeks back and I finally sent them out. Only 9 weeks too late.

The best way to procrastinate cleaning the bathroom? Hold an elf and take a selfie in the dirty mirror instead.

The Husband took these photos on his new blackberry Z10 at the wedding a few weeks back and the camera looks pretty shoddy.

No wonder I got asked if I was pregnant, my boobs need their own postcode. 

I went back to Mothers Group and about 10 mums seem to have dropped off and it was much more enjoyable this time, we could actually interact with each other and it wasn't as formal.

I'll go back next week, the girls are really nice. 

The only terrible thing about the Joolz Pram is the lack of storage. Sure, it has an under carriage (which is tiny) and a hanging bag but sometimes I wish it had more. 

The cup holder doesn't fit my giant Camelbak Eddy drink bottle so I need to buy a smaller one.

Nelly was playing Post Man Pat.

I usually would never put a baby or child in dark colours but here we are, looking rather grey. 

I have been complaining of a bad back for a few weeks now but I woke up on Wednesday morning for the 4am feed and could not move my neck without electric shock like pain shooting down my spine. 

I hustled to the physio at 10am and was told that I have severe muscle spasms and inflammation of my joints and spine, one step below a pinched nerve.

The Husband had to take care of Nelly for me as I could not move but after being manipulated and taking it easy, the pain is not quite so bad.

I'm going back tomorrow for another massage so hopefully that helps a bit. I've never had back issues but I guess I really need to work on my posture and bending correctly.

This blog should just be renamed 'The Mez & Nelly Show' as that is all it is about now.

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

Breastfeeding. That's what this post is about.

It's not a "Breastfeeding is good and Formula is bad" post. I don't believe in that crap.

When Nelly sees the nipple she opens up like Jaws (a lot more scary than this photo) and it makes me laugh every time without fail.

After Nelly was born, she latched on immediately to bring on the colostrum which is produced before milk comes in but despite feeding every two hours she did not have any wet nappies for 24 hours which was a cause for concern for everyone involved.

I had hoped that my augmentation would not impact on feeding in any way but even though my surgeon had assured me that it wouldn't, you just cannot know until the time came so obviously this thought was going through my head in the hospital and I was getting ready to blame my self.

One of the midwives decided to just manually 'milk' me which involves having your already sore nipples squeezed to ensure that milk/colostrum is being produced and let me tell you, that crap hurts, however it did show that there was liquid in there but that was not good enough for me, I needed my baby to have a wet nappy already.

We were asked if we were open to topping her up with formula to which I jumped at.
At that point I lost all my prior reservations about formula and just wanted to know that she would be fed, whether it came solely from a breast or tin. All I wanted was a happy, nourished baby.

As soon as we started the top ups of 30ml after each feed she started to wet her nappies much to my pleasure. Who knew that a wet nappy could cause so much joy?

Nobody tells you just how painful breastfeeding is at the start, and that is only because of the pain your nipples feel. They get all cracked and bleed, sticking to your breast pads.
To help this you can use lanolin or a cheaper (more painful) method is to express a little bit of milk and put it on your nipples and let air dry.

Think that you are too modest to let anyone see your boobs? Yeah, I thought that too.
By this stage you will not even blink if someone walks in on you doing this. You are used to your nipples being seen by every man and his dog every 3 hours.

The day that we were discharged from hospital, The Husband, Nelly and I were driving to my Family Dinner when I got all hot and my breasts started to ache and went rock hard within 20 minutes - my milk had come in, no doubt about it. A hot bath with hot facewashers on them helped, as did feeding as often as I could.

A milk drunk baby is a peaceful baby.

I have not had any problems with breastfeeding yet (knocks on wood), except for on two occasions when I had been unusually stressed and my milk supply really slowed down which lead to the baking of Lactation Cookies and giving Nelly two bottles of NAN formula to fill her belly before her night sleep.

I cannot understand why people try and guilt mums if they chose (or have no choice) to give their babies formula, it's really nobody elses business and as long as that baby is being fed, that's really all that matters - surely?! I really hate this mum shaming about how they gave birth, how they choose to nourish their child and how they raise them. Everyone has an opinion.

This is the recipe that I use for lactation cookies:-

1 cup butter
1.5 cups brown sugar
4 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (often known as linseed)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups of oats
1 cup or more of chocolate chips (I use a mix of chocolate chips, almonds, macadamias, dried apricots and dates after my mum made these for me and they taste so much better with the mix of all of these)
2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast (don't hold back as this is one of the main active ingredients)

Preheat the oven to 180c

- Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed/linseed and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes
- Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well
- Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the butter mix. Beat until blended
- Stir together the dry ingredients, except for oats and chocolate/nut mix
- Add to butter mixture. Stir in oats and then chocolate/nut mix (The mixture should be really, really tough to mix)
- Scoop or drop onto tray lined with baking powder. As the mixture is crumbly, it is probably easier to use a scoop.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on size of cookies.

This mixture makes a heap of cookies so when mum made it for me she froze two rolls and I have just been cutting them in half and baking as I go along.

Don't be put off by the yeasty smell, these bad boys actually work.  I really didn't think that they would but the morning after devouring half a dozen I was leaking all over the place and was able to express 100ml in minutes when it usually takes half an hour to get at least 50ml.

I use the Medela Swing Pump but pumping just isn't a skill of mine unfortunately.

What I do manage to pump goes into a Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottle and Nelly takes it like a duck to water. It's nice for Dad or other family members to be able to feed the baby as it's such a lovely time.

My brother Joseph did get disgusted when some milk dribbled on to his leg, definitely repulsed by the idea of his sisters breast milk!

They actually taste really nice, not as nice as a peanut butter choc chip cookie perhaps but even The Husband has enjoyed munching on them.

As for breastfeeding in public, I suggest a light weight scarf which you can just drape over baby and if you are wearing nursing bras and nursing tops or just tops that pull aside, nothing really needs to be seen by the public.

Some of my best nursing clothes are just cheapies from Kmart surprisingly.

Also, breast pads. The Rite Aid ones are terrible. Do not bother. Go straight to Johnson & Johnson contour pads. They are fantastic.

At the start before your milk supply regulates make sure that you wear breast pads otherwise you will be soaking everything you own, including your sheets.

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead.

This is the first time I have managed to paint my nails in two months, and it was a crap job but such is Murphy's Law that when your nails are drying a baby is bound to start crying.

The pink is 'I Theodora You' with 'Lights of Emerald City' over the top.

It bubbled really quickly but I didn't use top coat so that could be why. Ahh the monstrosity that my nails have become is shameful.

Nelly switches it on when she sees the camera. She is definitely my child even if she doesn't look so much like me as she does George Costanza. 

My hair is finally long enough to wear in a bun again. Life is good.

Except for when you are in Chemist Warehouse with a baby in one arm and a jumbo box of nappies in the other which is digging into your fat hips and causing pain and that's when you start to notice people are staring at you.

You start to think that perhaps there is vomit sliding down your back, or their has been a poo explosion and everyone can smell it but you. You really have no idea why people are looking at you.

Then you get back to the car and discover that your bun has unraveled itself and there is a sock dangling from your head. 

I mean, it could have been worse but if you don't know the ol' sock bun trick you may be slightly confused. 

I took this bun photo the day of my first Mothers Group and as I had been told horrific tales of Mothers Groups where all the mums are incredibly glamorous and put together, wearing their Sunday Finest and toting around Louis Vuitton nappy bags I thought that I would at least go to some effort, brush my teeth and all that. 

Nope. I was over dressed. There is a first for everything, I know.

I feel like I may have been slightly judged because of this and I felt like saying "My house is a mess!!! I usually only wear pajamas and have matted hair!". The girls all seemed really nice but as I don't have a car of my own I have to walk 6km to get there and it's a bit hard. 

I have friends with babies though who I catch up with all the time, so would it be terrible if I didn't go back?

Went to a lovely wedding on Saturday and ate some great food.

Had the ol' "Expecting baby number two already?!!!" thrown at me. 

That was awkward. Had to admit I am just fat.

 Definitely awkward. 

Didn't stop me eating dessert though. 

This is the Jayson Brunsdon dress that I wore, however I chucked on a better bra and a purple necklace but the necklace didn't last long - hard to feed with a baby trying to grab your necklace and strangle you.

When I bought this dress my breasts were full of milky goodness however both times I have worn it they have been drained which leads to it gaping and a safety pin is needed. 

Hopefully it will be too big for me all over soon enough. 

In more exciting news, my rings fit again. Hurrah!!!! 

Well, two out of three fit. Close enough.

Nelly is looking smashing here for Orthodox Easter. 

She won the egg smashing competition, but I think she cheated to be honest with you as that is usually my title to take out. 

Nelly is in a Target ensemble which I wish came in my size.

I've finally bought more bow headbands for her so we can mix life up a little. 

However, they are huge. Novelty huge.

See.

I've been asked to do a post on breastfeeding so just to warn you that that is what my next post will be about, if you have no interest or if this grosses you out just ignore Mondays post!

Kangaroo Capers

See the new badge on the right? That's my sisters business! Kangaroo Capers!

Support the family and small businesses all the way, you know.

"Kangaroo Capers was born in Ireland in 2011, to provide a kids party entertainment package that was 100% personalised, themed and unique to the children involved.

The brainchild of owner Cat, the business combined her talents of engaging kid's of all ages with her 15 years experience in the education and childcare world. It was a perfect fit!

Inspired by her mother who regularly out did herself at birthdays (teenage mutant ninja turtle pizza throwing competitions spring to mind!) and who never shied away from making costumes, Cat recognized that a great, personalized kids party was all about how you themed it.

50 personalized kid's parties and 5 holiday camps later, Kangaroo Capers was going strong, until it was time to relocate back to Cat's home country, Australia.

Now, Kangaroo Capers continues to entertain the one-of-a-kind child, by providing unique craft kits, home-made costumes, décor and gifts, party favours and more.

We believe that your child is 100% unique so why should they settle for the same as everyone else?  Take a look around, we promise you will like what you see!"

Recently I was talking to Cat about some of the products that she sold and she was proud to tell me that they were hand made in Melbourne by her supplier, to which I replied 'Why not have it made in China for a pittance and have a better profit margin?' to which she simply said 'I prefer to support Australian suppliers.' 

So she has morals, better than mine clearly. 

Cat has all sorts of kids party goodies, decorations, aprons, tooth fairy pillows (which are a tad menacing with no mouths) and baby massage knowledge to share with you. 

Are you, like me, wondering why she didn't call the company Kangaroo Kapers? You know, play with the K? 

Cat is making this chevron apron for me in my size so that I can wear it and pretend to be trendy and domestic. Hahahahaha I know, that's a hilarious joke by me. 

Has anyone seen the Modern Family episode where the Tooth Fairy gives Lily a $100 for her tooth? That kids is the funniest actor. I'm glad they replaced the old Lily, even if this one if 3 years older.

What sort of things do you think Cat should bring into the business? I think really cool custom party hats would be a great idea.

Kangaroo Capers Facebook (currently giving away a voucher)
Kangaroo Capers Twitter
Kangaroo Capers Pinterest 
Kangaroo Capers Etsy

I'm very proud of Cat and wish I was in Perth to help her with her markets.

Hopefully y'all can Like her facebook page to give her a bit of support!

Two Months.

I can't believe that my ridiculously cute child is now two months old.

How does time go past so quickly? The first and last two months of pregnancy seemed like they went for two years, but the past two months feel like two days.

We spend our days cuddling, playing, singing, laughing and having mini photo shoots in between the land of nods, cleaning and cooking. 

{Nelly is wearing Bebe leggings & a Target top}

Sometimes I wonder how on earth I will love my future babies as much as I love Nelly. 

How have I turned into such an emotional gusher? I don't even know who I am anymore. 

This photo was taken seconds after she was born, the other photos I am bawling my eyes out and it looks as though I am screaming in horror but that's just my hideous crying face at play.

Happy Two Months little tacker. 

Snappit - A Review {and Las Chicas}

This post is a review on Snappit- who sent me a Nikon Coolpix S800c.

I was contacted in order to review Snappit yonks ago but after receiving the camera I was so busy I just simply forgot to do the post so my apologies on that.

Before being contacted I had never even heard of Snappit. How bad is that? I guess that I don't have much interest in cameras though so that could be why.

Snappit is an Australian website which is grey market free, and completely authorized to sell all of their products.

They stock' Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax, Samsung, Leica and JVC cameras, as well as a wide variety of accessories including Sandisk memory cards and Lowepro cases' (according to their website).

I have done a little bit of research on the camera that they sent me which is $351 on Snappit to compare the prices on other well known Australian sites:

Teds $399.95

JB HiFi $374

Digital Camera Warehouse $449

Okay it definitely pays to shop around.. It's pretty obvious who came out on front.

You can read unbiased customer reviews and upload photos on Snappit which I like as I like to buy things based on other peoples recommendations, whether it be a new shampoo or tech products.  

My camera was posted registered and thanks to my slack postie who never comes to the door with packages, I trekked to the post office for it and was rather excited.

I took the camera to lunch at Las Chicas with Blithely Unaware and She Wore It Well  and found myself slightly puzzled by it's modern technology, such as touch screen and android options.

As you probably know, I am quite fond of the ol' iPhone photos so all of this high tech-ness left me a tad frazzled. Perhaps I should read the manual, but what fun would that be.

All of these photos are taken on it's manual setting with no flash. 

The photos actually show up with a slight orange tinge on the cameras screen but thankfully that is not the case on the computer.

Latte with three sugars? Don't mind if I do.

The Macro setting was not on (or at least I didn't turn it on) so this isn't too bad a shot considering. 

French Toast with Banana and Strawberry

Oh imagine going to brunch and eating a hot meal with two hands. Those days are now over for me people.

Anyway, this was delicious. 

Breakfast Burrito 

Some form of Pork Belly roll thingo.

Let's not forget to include what Orlando had for lunch.

I would include photos of what Ari and Nelly had but I think that would be considered indecent exposure.

All in all, I am happy with the camera after seeing the photos on the computer as they looked odd on screen. 

I am going to try and use digital cameras more often over my iPhone. 

So, what sort of camera do you use? Have you heard of Snappit?