Pink or Blue...it really doesn't matter to me...honestly!

With only just over two weeks until my due date I am becoming increasingly excited to find out whether this is a pink or blue baby. Yes, we are one of those rare couples who have chosen to wait until the birth of our baby to find out whether it is a boy or a girl. 

We have always enjoyed the surprise of waiting until the very end of pregnancy to find out and we figured that this time should be no different. While I can totally understand why people want to find out early, and it was very tempting for us this time around, we have decided that not finding out is our family tradition and we wanted to keep it that way this time too.

The thing that I have been finding really strange this time around is the expectation that since we have two girls already that we are really hoping for a boy. I know of other friends who have been disappointed on finding out that number three makes three of the same gender, however this is not the case with everyone and not the case with us.

For us the idea of having another girl fills us with the joy of having another little person similar to the ones we already love and cherish. It is familiar, and we love the idea of these girls having another sister to play dollies with and share other girly things with. 

sooo much pink in this household

The idea of having a boy is also wonderful as it would be something new and an experience that we would miss out on if we have a little girl. With a boy, we will get to experience trucks and trains and buy blue clothes and will be able to give our girls a brother to give them the male perspective on things as they grow up.

I may  have to learn all about trucks!

As I have been thinking about this I can also acknowledge that with each will also come some slight disappointment. To have a boy will mean a change in the way we do things, possibly a more energetic little person in the house. And we won't be able to use the gorgeous little dresses etc that our girls have worn before.  However to have a girl will mean we may never experience what it is like to raise a boy, to know the differences of having a boy and then a man in the house. There are things that we will miss out on if this baby pops out as a girl.

One of the really common questions we get is..." I know you might want a girl, but I bet your husband wants a boy. Every man wants a son." In some ways this is true, he would love to have a son to experience the father- son relationship. He would love to have a little person who he can share common interests with and raise to be a man. However he loves his little girls and they really are Daddy's girls. For him another girl is more than just a female child, it is another person who he will share a relationship with that will be different from the others, even if they are all girls.

I do have to admit that I often wonder whether I would have had the same attitude if I had been having the third boy. I love having little girls and maybe I would have felt I was missing out on something not having a girl.  Of course I will never know now but I would like to think that I would have the same attitude as my husband does.

So as the due date approaches we look forward to discovering what our future holds and we will be super happy with our new little person whether they are a boy or a girl.

 

Were you hoping for a certain gender with any of your pregnancies?

Love This Show...But Why Do I Have to See That????

I always get excited when I see that a new TV show is beginning. There is the excitement of possibly finding a new show that can make me laugh, cry or just entertain me when I need to switch off at the end of a busy day.

While I try not to watch too much TV, occasionally there will be a series that I love (like Alias...if anyone remembers it) and will even go as far as buying the whole series once it is completed. This year I have started watching New Girl which is quite funny and quite light watching (which is good for relaxing). I also started watching Homeland which so far has been pretty interesting and I am quite keen to follow the story, however I have one problem with the show...do I really have to see other womens breasts every week?????

I know some of you are thinking, "Well, she is a Christian and a minister's wife...she must be a bit of a prude" Ok so that may be a little true but I am not trying to be a prude here I have really been giving this a lot of thought. It even sparked a conversation between my husband and I about the need for these scenes in movies and television shows.

If you have not seen the show, then I will explain that there have been a few sex scenes where there have been lots of shots of breasts. I actually have nothing against sex scenes in TV shows as long as they are tastefully done and are relevant to the storyline. So far in Homeland there have been some sex scenes that have been relevant to the storyline. One of the main characters has returned home after being a prisoner of war for about ten years (and he has possibly been turned by his captors) so some of the scenes are adding to the story by demonstrating his inability to relate normally to his wife in the bedroom. There was also a scene between the wife and the husband's best friend prior to his return which I think stands as a good contrast to the way he and his wife now relate.

It just makes me wonder why there is the need for this level of nudity (and only of women) in these shows. Is it to get the male audience in? Is it to shock us? Or is it just expected that TV will have scenes such as these now?

One of the big problems I have is the fact that women who are acting in this show (and other shows) have to bare their chests in order to play these roles, while then men don't need to degrade themselves in the same way. I imagine that when the women who plays the wife was trying to get such a main part she did not think that she would have to be half naked in most episodes. 

Why does this beautiful woman have to strip off for this role?

However if it wasn't her someone else would have taken the part. So now when she goes on in her career there is always footage of her breasts hanging around. Even if it was a body double (although I am pretty sure it wasn't) it is still unfair that women have to be shown like this. Surely it could have been more tastefully done

I have kept watching the show as I am enjoying the storyline but I had strongly considered whether I keep watching. Thankfully, the last two episodes which I have watched since beginning this post have not had any nudity or sex scenes. I am hopeful it will continue this way as I don't want to have to be limited to watching ABC Kids just so I can avoid seeing these things.

How do you feel about this issue? Am I just being a prude or do you agree that it is unnecessary?

Easy Octopus (or Spider) Costume

It was my brother's 30th birthday recently and his party was an "Under the Sea" theme. This suited my brother perfectly as since he was tiny he was in love with all things to do with the sea. While most kids were watching Play School we were watching the Jaws movies! (of course we watched play school too).

Being pregnant, busy with life and having been away a bit lately left me wondering what on earth we were going to do it fit in with the theme. The lazy person I am I had decided to not worry about dressing up, but at the last minute I had an idea. 

This is what I came up with for the girls to wear:

It did not require much effort at all and was created in ten minutes.

I bought 2 packs of black knee high stockings (Pairs and Spares around $4 a pack), a $3 pack of safety pins and a newspaper.

I rolled up a piece of newspaper and inserted it into 6 stockings (12 to make two costumes) and then added a safety pin to each.

When it came time to dress the girls I pinned the stocking into their clothes and placed a stocking on each of their arms.

They surprisingly left their "tentacles" on for the while time we were there and were excited to be able to "wave their arms like Henry" This is a Wiggles thing for those who are lucky enough to not know what I am talking about there.

Anyway, it is not the most amazing thing I have ever created but it was easy and I thought you might be able to use this idea in the future.

5 weeks to go! Staying Positive as we Prepare for Baby 3

It seems just a few weeks ago that I revealed baby number three was on its way and now we are counting down weeks until he or she makes their arrival

 in mid March.

A new baby on the house whether it is number one or number twelve is always going to make changes, some will be wonderful others will be really tough. In the recent weeks I have been thinking about the impact this baby will have on our lives. Being the third baby in as many years will bring with it many challenges and I imagine it will take time for us all to adjust to our new family member. The funny thing is that in my mind this little person is just going to fit in and life will go on as normal. Crazy I know but I think I am trying to keep up a positive attitude.

I think this positivity comes from our past experiences. While our previous two children have changed our lives, neither of them have impacted on our lives in a negative way. When we first brought Emily home we found it hard mainly because everything was new and we were learning and trying new things, but on the whole we found the adjustment pretty easy. Claire arrived into absolute chaos with us being at hospital (for my husband) until 1am the night before she was born, then having him be admitted into hospital for a week two days after she arrived (along with Emily and I getting conjunctivitis and other family members getting sick too!)  So Claire just had to fit in with all the craziness and thankfully she was a super easy baby.

Most Daddys visit their babies in hospital. This baby visited her Daddy in hospital

Don't get me wrong the girls are very challenging at times (as you would know if you are a regular reader of my blog) but on the whole they are relatively easy to manage children. They generally sleep well, eat well, play together well and respond fairly well to discipline. Despite them still being very young (3 years old and 19 months old) I feel that we are in a good place with them and a new baby would be an adjustment for our family but won't turn our lives upside down.

Of course there are lots of times I wonder if I am deluding myself, especially when you hear people say that having three kids tipped them over the edge. However I guess I feel like there is not any point in worrying about something that has not yet happened and may never happen. When I was pregnant with Claire I did worry a lot more about whether I would love her as much as I do Emily or how I would cope managing two children and I found these worries disappeared almost as soon as she was born.

Instead of one, I will have two little helpers this time around

So here I am 5 weeks out from meeting our new little person and feeling pretty good about it all. I am positive for lots of reasons and I know that this little person was in God’s wonderful plan for our family. He (God) has blessed us in so many ways and I know that He will care for us as we adjust to being a family of five. We know that no matter how hard it gets He will provide people whether they be blood family or church family to support us in whatever we need.

So watch this space and follow me on my way to being a mother of three very small children.

What were your fears when approaching the birth of your children?

Renovation Rescue: The Doll House

Emily was given this dollhouse a couple of years ago but as you can see it had not been properly cared  (by us) for so I decided to do some renovations.

BEFORE:

A little bit of wallpaper (scrapbooking paper from Spotlight), some new furniture from a store on ebay and a couple of Polly Pocket dolls and here is the final result.

AFTER:

Living room

bathroom

kitchen

We gave this to Emily for her recent Birthday and she loves it!

Part 2: The Beginning of the End...how it turned out.

As most of you already know I put my girls (3 years and 19months) into childcare for the first time on Thursday.I thought I would share with you how the day went.

We arrived at the centre at 9am (which was a little bit later than we normally will be dropping them off) to make it a shorter day. We dropped Emily (3 years) off in her room and she went straight for some puzzles set up on the table and seemed comfortable with us leaving. We then took Claire (19 months) into her room as she happily chatted and looked around, unaware of what was about to happen. As the carers approached her she became shy and clung to me,  so I sat her down and played with some toys for a while, telling her mummy had to leave soon. I could see that the carers were not really wanting me to hang around (and delay the inevitable) so I kissed her goodbye and started to leave. As I walked out the door I heard her cry "Mummmmmy!" it nearly broke my heart to leave her, knowing it was not just for an hour or two but for the whole day in such an unfamiliar place.

My very attractive children..no modeling careers here

The start of a sad day

I could feel the tears coming to my eyes as I walked out, I was hoping no one would talk to me or look at me as I was about to burst into tears. I had to go back through Emily's room to get back out so I said goodbye and got a distracted hug and then headed out the door. I didn't make it to the car before the tears started to flow and in the car I was free to let it out. I literally sobbed all the way home knowing that my little girl was in there crying for me but I was not able to comfort her.

By the time I got home I was ok but threw myself into housework until the house looked spotless. I actually smiled to myself as I looked around thinking, "Wow, it is going to stay this clean for at least FIVE hours". 

I called the centre at about 10.30am although I was not sure whether I should. I did not really feel I needed to, but I thought I should just check otherwise I would be a bad mother. As expected Emily was fine, but Claire was described as fragile, but better than she had been when I left. I did not really feel reassured but this but it was the message I was expecting to get.

I did quite well for the rest of the day. I had some uninterrupted computer time, caught up with a friend for coffee (uninterrupted), had an uninterrupted lunch and met with someone else...all uninterrupted. As hard as it was initially, the freedom I had and the things I was able to get done helped me to enjoy the day.

When the time came to pick them up we got Emily first. She had a lovely day, she was sitting next to another little girl and they were both putting their shoes on, and chatting away. We were told she had used to toilet, played nicely but did not eat much lunch and just rolled around during nap time (no real surprises there). 

Heading down to Claire's room we could see her through the window standing up while they kids were being read a story. We did not want to interrupt the story so we watched her for almost five minutes. I know this might be a strange thing to say but she looked different. The light had gone from her face and eyes. She was not sad but she was just not herself. She had a blank look on her face, and even though she was pointing to pictures and chatting about the story it just did not seem like my little Claire standing in front of me. She was just one of the others kids.

We were told that she had refused to eat anything (very unusual for Claire who eats her own food then gobbles up other people's food), and had been pretty sad until sleep time when she was given her special blanket and had a 2 hour nap. She had only been awake for an hour when we arrived and I guess she was just getting on with it but still feeling lost and sad. She didn't cry when she saw us but hugged me hard and said "home!".

While seeing her like this was really hard I know it will get easier for her and she will make friends and enjoy the activities that she gets to engage in while there. It wasn't an easy time for any of us but I wasn't first mum to experience this and thanks for all the wonderful comments on facebook and on this blog I know my experience is similar to others and am told it gets easier.

So now  I am actually looking forward to next week and the freedom I can have.....at least until this new baby arrives :)