Life under a Pepper Tree

Week 50 I looove weeks like this!  I seemed to get so many jobs crossed off the list.  Christmas shopping pretty much sorted. Christmas cards posted. Christmas gifts to far off rellies & friends posted. Presents wrapped. Stuff just kept getting crossed off my numerous lists and it felt great!  I had the day off work on Friday to get some of the shopping done, and in the afternoon I went to Dylan's daycare Christmas party.  It was so cute to see him run around with his little friends, eat party food, get a present from Santa, and have a great time all round.  It was also nice to see some sunshine minus the threat of thunderstorms today, although the day isn't over so there's still a chance yet!  Dylan got his cozy coupe out today and was zooming up and down the driveway.  My hubby decided he is just getting too big for having the floor in the car, so he removed it, and now it resembles a "Flintstones" car with foot power...

We HATED Santa! I took Dylan into the city last week to go visit Santa at Myers.  I had been in Myers around lunch time at the beginning of the week to do some Christmas shopping and I noticed that there really wasn't many people around. There were no queues at all to see Santa.  I figured having little to no wait times was at least a step in the right direction when it came to a successful Santa photo.  Last year, we went to see Santa at one of the local shopping centres. Dylan wasn't even 1 year old.  We plonked him down on Santa's lap, and he happily sat there pretty oblivious to what was going on.  He looked up at Santa a few times and it just didn't faze him.  It turned out a pretty good shot I think! But this year... oh dear! He took one look at that bearded man in the red suit and wouldn't go near him! I tried sitting him on Santa's lap, but it ended with screaming, crying, wriggling, and a really really bad photo that I wasn't goi...

So, Friday night I had my work Christmas party.  We had drinks in the office, then headed to a pub in Circular Quay for a couple more, before jumping on our boat ride across to Chowder Bay to the spectacular Sergeants Mess .  It was a brilliant night, great food, fantastic wines, and awesome people to chat and mingle with all night. I truly had a fab night which absolutely flew.  The night was just a blur... not in a I'm so drunk I can't see straight blur (although those 25,000 champers may have contributed to the speediness of the evening)! It all went so quick, and before we knew it, my lift home was there, the ugly lights had been switched on and people were stumbling out the doors.  Come Saturday morning... oh goodness, shoot me now. My head was spinning, but it wasn't stopping one weeny boy waking up early and calling out for his mummy who hadn't been there to tuck him in the night before.  It was 6:30-ish and I was up.  I looked atrocious....

Week 49 This afternoon we finally got around to putting up our Christmas tree.  As I dragged down the dusty box, I could see Dylan was excited.  He ended up helping me put together the entire tree, while hubby lay on the lounge.  As each row of branches came together, you could just see he was processing what was going on.  He had to help when adding the baubles, and the tinsel had to get dragged up the hallway and back with happy squealing going on before it was allowed anywhere near the tree.  There were big smiles all round when the tree's lights were switched on. We've also got some outdoor Christmas lights on our front veranda.  Each evening before bedtime we take Dylan out there to enjoy the "twinkle twinkle" as he calls it.  His eyes just light up. Its so lovely to see something so simple seem so special.  There was some beautiful lighting happening out there, a bit of a break between storms.  A portrait of my son, on...

Week 48 Wow! Week 48?? That just sounds so strange, like maybe its almost the end of year! How crazy to think 2014 is almost done.  Its been a pretty good week so far. I only worked 2 days this week, and took my 3rd working day off to go get some Xmas shopping done minus one weeny boy.  I'd have to call it a mostly successful trip too which is a relief.  And I've been baking a bit this week which is kinda nice. A yummy banana cake with lemon & coconut icing.  Hubby wasn't that keen, oh well, more for me! I also baked and painstakingly iced some gingerbread men.  I've learned a few things too.  1.  Don't try making them more "healthy" by using wholemeal flour. 2.  Buy a decent gingerbread man cookie cutter. The one I used was rubbish. It just didn't cut the dough nicely so we had some really rough edges. 3.  Use a smaller nozzle on the icing piping bag. It was waaay too thick! Just edging the cookies mea...

Today marks exactly 1 year since I had my very first day back at work from maternity leave. I just can't believe its been a whole year, yet it also feels like a lot has happened and a lot has changed since I had that first day back at work.  I feel like I'm in a good routine now. I don't feel quite so lost at work, yet I'm always learning which makes my job pretty darn enjoyable. When I left for work this morning, it was a very different feeling to a year ago.  I still miss my weeny boy, but at least I know he's in good hands at his daycare.  We still have big cuddles and loads of kisses when I say goodbye, but my heart doesn't break quite so much. A year ago , Dylan was just on 11 months old. He had done his first ever commando crawl on the 21st November and then walked by the 10th December. He still seemed like such a baby. He was so wobbly on his feet, but had a determination to get mobile.  The toys he played with were very much baby toys, and now the ones...

Week 47 Saturday was super hot, so we filled up his little clam-shell pool and let him kick and splash and have a great time.  It was a much more successful "swim" than earlier in the week where I found that those cute little boy-leg swimming pants are NOT the same as a swim nappy.  Not only was I fishing poo nuggets out of the water, but they were sprinkled all across the grass in the backyard. Lets just say I won't be walking out there barefoot again for a while! Joining in with Jodi and Project 52 . Bel