Daniel's 4th Birthday

On Saturday morning we headed to the local park to celebrate Daniel turning 4 with our lovely family. With bikes, drinks, food and cake in hand we set up one of the tables in the lovely winter sun.

Eliza and Daniel hovered around the table keen to eat the different food that was being put out. I think I have now worked out a good portion size for our family gatherings which is nice. Muffins, cucumber sticks with dip, cheese and crackers, fruit and of course cake. This year Daniel chose a Humpty Dumpty cake which I had a lot of fun to make. 

Daniel went off to ride on his bike a bit with Oscar. Eliza stayed near the food and then went for a swing with Poppy. This was then followed by her having a bike ride too.

It was lovely to be able to catch up with family. 

Once everyone was back from their rides Daniel asked if it was cake time and Eliza decided to say hello to the cake. Back in May Daniel decided to have the Humpty Dumpty cake. I was very happy with this choice as it didn't require a lot of decorating and with having a newborn I didn't know how much time I would have to make it. It was actually a lot of fun to make and wasn't too time consuming. With Daniel and Eliza being sick they weren't to blow out the candles so Daniel had a candle in a mini muffin and Oscar took on cake candle blowing out duties. Helpful big cousin! Happy birthday was sung and then the candles were blown out. 

I had to feed Alexander so James took on cake cutting duties. Just the right amount of pieces were cut. Daniel found it hard to know how to eat his piece because it was covered in so much icing being a corner piece. Hehe. It was a tasty cake. 

This was then followed by more bike riding, 

more swings time and then present time. Daniel was very spoilt by his family!!

Alexander got to meet his 2nd cousin - Tim, his Great Aunty Julie and Uncle Pete and his Great-great Aunty Shirley. It was nice for him to have some cuddles with them.

It was a lovely morning at the park. 

When we got back home Daniel enjoyed exploring and playing with his different presents. His favorite were the mail box and fruit. He even chose to deliver letters to Eliza and James' doors during naptime. He told me 'Mummy, I tiptoed down the hallway so that I didn't wake Daddy and Eliza and delivered their letters to the door.' So cute!!

Monday morning was Daniel's actual birthday. He woke around 6:30 so James and I went into his room to say happy birthday. We then have him his first present - Swans pjs for a 4 year old. He was very excited about them. His other presents needed to wait until the night because James needed to head to work early but Daniel was fine with that. 

Once his sun came up we had breakfast, got dressed, had cuddles with Alexander

and then headed to preschool with muffins in hand. Early in the week I asked Daniel what he wanted to take into preschool to share with his friends for his birthday. He replied 'Fruit!' I love my boy who loves his fruit. I asked him if he wanted to take fruit muffins in and he said yes. He then decided on apple and pineapple muffins. I compromised with apple and cinnamon muffins instead. They were apparently enjoyed by the kids. Daniel especially enjoyed his muffin.

After preschool we came home, had a bath, had some popcorn for having dry undies for 4 days

and then opened some more presents - from Nana J and Boompa (Lego) and Grannie Jean (a gift card). He's pretty excited to go to the shops and choose his own present, although I don't think he fully understands what that includes.

He enjoyed chatting with Nana and Poppy on FaceTime and then with Boompa, Nana J, Grayma and Auntie Sue on the phone. Pretty funny watching him talk on the phone as he walks around the table and the room the whole conversation.

After Alexander finished a feed Daniel and I then started to build his Lego garbage truck from Nana J and Boompa. This is his first time building with Lego and he did pretty well. I am looking forward to him building with Lego as he grows up. 

We had dinner and then gave him his last present - more Thomas tracks and trains. He was very excited about all his presents, he stayed up until 9 playing with them all. 

Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet boy.

Mummy Guilt

Mummy guilt is something I've felt at different stages with each kid. Something that most, if not all, mums feel at some point. For me, I'm feeling it at the moment. Not hugely so it's making me sad or stressed but I do have it going on in the back of my mind a lot at the moment.

What is it over?

I feel guilty that I'm not spending as much time with just Alexander. I love sitting and feeding him but often I have one, if not 2 other kids on my lap reading books during that time. After feeds, instead of being able to just sit and spend time with Alexander, playing with him, chatting with him, interacting with him, I find I need to just place him on the ground under his mobile and then make a meal/hang out the washing, chat with Daniel and/or Eliza. I know it's just how it is and the short moments that I do get to spend with just Alexander I try to do exactly that, just they are few and far between.

I have felt guilty about my milk supply and not being able to fill Alexander up with each feed. It is hard when you are the only one who can do this job to not feel a bit bad. Fortunately though the motilium seems to be doing its job and he is now putting on the weight needed - 200g this week.

I feel guilty about just wrapping him and then placing him in his bassinet and leaving him crying for a bit. Similarly with the spending time just with him, it is hard to be able to hold him, pat him to sleep, take that extra bit of time to help settle him. Don't get be wrong, I do return to him and I find that just placing my hands on him and saying 'shh, shh' in a rhythmic way seems to settle him when he's tired, but he will often cry for a bit before I am able to go back to him.  This is mainly because of needing to organise something for the older kids.

I feel guilt that I'm not playing with Daniel and Eliza as much. Daniel wants to play cricket and tennis so badly outside but I'm often not able to because of feeding or it's just too cold or the wrong time of day.

I feel guilt that I'm often sleeping through Daniel and Eliza crying or calling out at night. I don't know why, I guess I'm so tired I just need to sleep and that's what my body is doing. I don't know really. But as a result James is getting up a few times each night to one/both of the kids and he's feeling very tired as a result of that. I still wake up to Alexander but the other 2 I mostly sleep through. Before having Alexander I was always woken straight away to them calling out. Im sure it will return to that but in the meantime I feel bad that James is getting up and tired as a result of it and that I'm not hearing the kids.

So yeah, mummy guilt. It's a fun thing. It will pass and I'm sure new things to feel guilty about will come up. Ha

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

On Friday it was my birthday. This year to celebrate 100 years of Taronga Zoo they have a deal where it costs $1 for the birthday person's entrance ticket. James spoke with his boss about taking the day off so he could come too and she was amazingly supportive of it so after Alexander's weigh-in we all hopped into the car and headed to the zoo. We followed Jenny's back street directions and parked on the road and headed over.

First stop was the koalas. There were 2 sleeping in the trees. They looked so cute and cuddly. I had my own little koala on me who was very cuddly in the ergo.

Next we went to the reptile exhibition. I didn't want to spend heaps of time here because we see most of these animals at the Reptile Park but the kids loved looking at every window at every reptile. 

Eliza patting the turtle

The other difficulty was that being a week day there were a lot of school kids on an excursion so we had to wait for them to move on at different spots which made it take longer too. Daniel loves sitting in the pram and Eliza enjoy walking so they did this for the start, however, it did get a bit annoying having Daniel get in and out of the pram so I told him that he was to walk (and also because he is almost 4, he is more than capable of walking).

After getting the token photo on the Komodo dragon 

we continued down to the giraffes. They are such beautiful animals. We asked someone to take our photo and he did a pretty good job to get all 5 of us looking decent. 

We then went over to watch the orangutans. There were a few little baby/kids who were having fun playing together, chasing and rumbling. They then had some fruit thrown into them so they all sat down and enjoyed their food. We too enjoyed a snack and Alexander had some milk. 

After a toilet stop we headed down to the African animals. Eliza was now in the pram because she wasn't wanting to hold our hands and kept wanting to go her own way so for ease we clipped her into the pram. Daniel was enjoying walking and looking at the different animals and chatting about them. The kids paused to look at the zebras. 

Our family also got photos being fennec foxes with the tall ears. 

The kids loved watching the meerkats. There were 3 ones that were playing/fighting with each other. Daniel and Eliza thought it was hilarious watching them bite each other and roll on top of each other. They definitely got the giggles. 

We tried to see the gorillas, however, the real ones weren't there. We did enjoy having some photos with the fake gorillas though.

We continued past the male elephant and found the female elephants where we sat down to have lunch - tasty peanut butter sandwiches. It was so nice watching the elephants eat their lunch too. The way they use their trunks to hold branches it very cool. 

After lunch we walked through the rainforest walk, looking at some beautifully coloured birds and at massive fish. Daniel was keen to keep walking, taking me by the hand. He enjoyed pushing the doors open to enter the different rooms.

We then went to the marine animals section. Daniel climbed into the boat at the 'beach' and wanted someone to row him somewhere. James was very obliging. He also was excited to see rainbows each time the water was sprayed in the air.  

We then walked past the seals having a lovely swim in the water and went down to the Pelicans. James was fascinated by these birds. He poked his head towards one but pulled away as the pelican straightened his neck slightly. 

We continued down the ramp and again enjoyed watching the seals. They were just having feeding time and it was cool to see how well trained they are. I love watching the seals move around on land, climbing up the steps, diving into the water. They are amazing creatures. Lastly we watched the Penguins having a feed too. Pretty cute that they come when their dinner bell is rung.

We then headed around to the gondola - the highlight of the day. Daniel had been asking to go on it since we arrived. It didn't disappoint. We got some pretty cute photos of the kids on it too. 

We finished off with a quick play at the park (well, the coloured poles) with Daniel counting how many there were. 

What a fun day it was! We were all exhausted by the end of the day but it was very worth it. Alexander was very happy in the ergo which was great! I love having ergo babies!

This year at Taronga Zoo they are involved with vivid lights. The different animal sculptures look amazing in the day time. I think it would be fantastic to see at night!