1st birthday gift ... a snowboard?

A friend just sent me this YouTube video of a one year old snowboarding. Colour me impressed!

Noisy Daddy and I are avid skiers and we can't wait for the day when we can suit up little Stickybeak for his first skiing attempt, we just didn't think that it could be so soon!

We were imagining enrolling him in ski school when he was about three or four years old but this video of little Ava Marie has got us thinking. Actually, scratch that, it made us excited. I even believe the words "let's move to a ski town" escaped my lips. Maybe it was just my snow-deprived state talking.

Due to pregnancy and bub's subsequent arrival we have missed a few ski seasons now, northern and southern hemisphere, so we are champing at the bit to get back on the slopes. We are planning a snow holiday this winter (can't wait!) and have been looking up outfits for the little guy (check out this cutie, love the dinosaur spikes) but I think the shopping list just got upgraded.

As it turns out, the winter also happens to be Stickybeak's first birthday. We were probably going to buy him a kick arse toy, maybe something like a Wishbone Balance Bike, but I think we just got upsold to a snowboard.

We definitely weren't planning on buying him ski equipment for some time but I don't think we can resist now!

-- Natalie

What do you think ... is it too soon? When did your little one start lessons?

By the way, little Ava Marie continues to impress. Check out this video where she is swimming, surfing, skateboarding and horseback riding - all at the age of 2! I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here but I think we have found Stickybeak's future girlfriend.

The one rule of driving

Do Not Disturb.One of my favourite blogs at the moment is Crappy Pictures - it's cute, funny and right on the money. The only annoying thing about it are the commenters. Every post people will write 'OMG that's so true, you are writing about my life!!' -- EVERY POST! 

Her latest post is on eating out with her husband, before and after kids. Before kids they splurged on fancy restaurants and degustation menus, after kids they splurged on drive thru*. After I read this I thought 'OMG that's so true, she is writing about my life!'**

We went away for the weekend recently, just a quick trip down to the South Coast. Normally we would stop in at Berry and have a nice lunch at the deli, with perhaps coffee and cake. If we were with friends we would stop in at the pub for a nice lunch with beers. Travelling with Stickybeak changed things somewhat. There is one rule when driving a long distance with a baby: if they are asleep, DON'T STOP.  Any break of more than five minutes could result in an awake baby who then either: needs a feed, needs a change, or just needs to not be in the car.

So we had our fingers crossed that a stop in Berry would work out but it wasn't meant to be. Stickybeak was fast asleep and, in keeping with the rule, our options for lunch were reduced to either burger and fries or deep fried chicken and fries, all ordered through a crackling speaker box.

Before we had Stickybeak I could count the number of times we used a drive thru on one hand, after Stickybeak (and just in the space of a few months) I have lost count. Once you have a baby you start to wish everything was drive thru - supermarket, chemist, ATM, etc. But at the moment it's just food, and bad food at that, and where I live there is only one chain on offer (something I never thought I would be upset about!)

So what do I want? I wish I was so organised that I would never need to order food on the run (or in the car) ever again, but life with a baby just isn't like that. So instead here's hoping a new chain of drive-thru cafe/restaurants opens up, offering good coffee, quality pastries and fresh, healthy sandwiches that are easy to eat with one hand. More realistically, I wish petrol stations had a drive-thru option so I could get a sandwich, bottle of water and a chocolate bar without waking up the baby. Is that too much to ask?

*it almost hurts me to write 'thru' instead of 'through'.

** yes I have left a comment on her blog saying as much :)

The countdown begins, first stop Daycare.

Image sourced by Photopin

Well after what seems like weeks of getting ready, today was the first time we left DreamBaby at childcare with his older brother CheekyMonkey.

I don't return to work until Wednesday but I kind of feel a little lost, it's not like I don't have a zillion things to achieve in these next two days but I do feel a little sad I don't have DreamBaby all to myself.

I stayed strong and didn't cry but there were a few mums who lost it before they walked out the door and my heart went out to them.

Come to think of it I do believe they they need extra staff on these days, not for the kids mind you but for the parents! As soon as you left the room they could whisk you away for a quick debrief, let you have a little cry hand you a tissue or ten and send you on your way with a strong coffee and the yummiest pastry.

The caffeinne and sugar hit would be enough to propel you safely to work and hopefully, fingers crossed before you know it you'll be back to pick up your kidlets.

Wishful thinking I know, but a girl can dream.

Did you have a hard day saying goodbye to your little one, when you dropped them at Daycare or school today?

photo credit: ArloMagicMan via photopin cc

A little bib obsessed

It seems silly now but when getting ready for Stickybeak's arrival bibs weren't on my radar. I was washing sheets, blankets, wraps, onsies and singlets by the dozen - and even plenty of hats and socks - but no bibs.

I didn't even think to buy any. Thankfully a clever mummy friend gave me a bag of hand me downs. You would think that given she thought that a whole bag of bibs would come in handy that it would register with me like the neon sign it was. But ... no. (I'm sharp like that.) So in all my wisdom I ignored the bibs and they stayed in a bag in the spare room for months. That is, until we brought Stickybeak home.

It turns out that it's common for babies to vomit, like, after every feed and whenever you lie them down. I'm sure I knew this BB (before baby) but somehow it skipped my mind post baby. Anyway, the term used is 'possetting' and it generally doesn't call for alarm, it is just wet and messy. Which we soon found out. On our first night home with Stickybeak we went through two outfit changes (which babies hate by the way) and a cot sheet change before it occurred to us that a bib would be really handy (yep, sharp as a tack!).

Since that night we became a little bib obsessed (ha!). That bag of hand me downs became our favourite thing and we started becoming attached to certain bibs, we even had nicknames for them. There was Panda, Big Rig and Bear - ok, they weren't especially clever names but in fairness we did have other things going on.

What, me vomit? - Stickybeak models one of our favourites.Panda was a cutie, it had a picture of a Panda face with the words 'Panda To Me' - and it says something about my mental state that it took me a few weeks before I recognised the play on words. But we particularly liked the randomness of Big Rig -- it was a large bib with a picture of an oil rig on it with the tag line "because future drillers need feeding". It was ridiculous, and it was perfect because you need a little bit of ridiculous in those first few weeks.

Maybe it was the sleep deprivation but we would be excited when our favourites came back from the wash. "Look who's back," we would say. "It's Panda!" I'm sure it seems silly, writing this five months down the track it seems silly to me now, but in those first few weeks when everything was a challenge it gave us a little something to smile to each other about at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Sadly, Panda and Big Rig have been retired. They certainly earned it and besides the vomiting isn't so much of an issue anymore. And now that Stickybeak has started solids we are in a whole new bib ballgame - I'm talking about bibs with sleeves! It turns out the wet and messy doesn't go away it just takes a different form.

So what's the moral of this story? For new parents: don't forget to wash the bibs. For the friends of new parents: whatever gift you buy you can't go wrong by throwing in a couple of bibs too. The more ridiculous the better.

Create: Rudolph the Reindeer

Each year I like to create something new to my existing box of Christmas decorations. Previous creations have been Christmas stockings and Gingerbread Men tree decorations, but this year I just had to share my unexpected Reindeer creation with you. Isn't he cute!

My new creation on show.

I love Chrissy decorations which have a clean stylish aesthetic and when I stumbled upon this wooden reindeer in a $2 shop and I just had to have it. It was a little pricey at $16.95 but as I had just earned $90 for market research yapping for 2 hours about nappies I decided it was a no brainer and so along with a few other items I took it home and stashed it away in my study until I had time to look at it away from prying eyes.

My wooden reinder from $2 shop.

Imagine my disappointment when I assembled the reindeer (it slots together in 3 spots) the designer had failed to consider the leg placement and the weight of the antlers. Therefore any sudden movement or bump means the decoration collapses onto itself. Making it essentially useless in my household with 2 kids and 2 cats.

Not to be discouraged I thought maybe if the legs had been cut on an angle this problem wouldn't occur, yes after all these years my design school training had not gone to waste.

To prove my theory I copied the reindeer onto an empty shoe box and got cutting. See pictures below.

Copying the reindeer onto shoebox

Originally I thought this would be a great idea to make as an alternative to a Christmas card. You could colour in one side and write a message on the other and pop into an envelope to your loved ones to assemble. A great activity for the kids when they are older.

Cardboard reindeer in action.

I still might make the cardboard cards, but I decided to take it a step further and create a version made from felt. And christened him Rudolph!

The Reindeer in pieces.

I used exactly the same pattern as the cardboard creation but did a few things differently. Firstly I ironed some thin facing onto the felt before cutting out the pieces. I then found some white wool in my box of treasures and started to blanket stitch the four pieces individually, stuffing it with polyester filling as I went. To secure the pieces and avoid it collapsing I decided the most practical solution would be to use a small pearl bead and loop to act like a 'hook and eye'. This would keep its clean look and still allow the reindeer to be stored flat when packed away with the Christmas decorations.

A closer look at the bead and loop.

If you would like the cardboard template you can get the scanned images of the reindeer here, Page 1 and Page 2. I'm now going to make it in a slightly smaller version by scaling the design to around 60%. I'll post any new creations in the next few days.

 What Christmas decorations are you making? Post a link to your creations.
-- Hannah