That Was the Week that Was............Hell!

I miss Anna and Owen so much! We had such a brilliant time. Finn was in his element. He adores adores them. They are legal guardians should anything happen to us, and just knowing how much Finn loves them is just so comforting. He always wanted to be with them, which meant they didn’t get many lie ins! Stupidly we went to the airport to say goodbye. When we were there, Finn was really playing up and was so whingey. He kept saying “No, go to the airport” I got very confused as we were already there, until we realised he was saying “No go to the airport” as in let’s get outta here! And then when it came for the final goodbyes……..OMG! Finn just screamed and screamed “Don’t go” and was yelling for Uncle O, reaching out for him. Was utterly heartbreaking. He sobbed and sobbed, totally unlike anything he has done before. Couldn’t get a taxi for ages as I was worried he’d throw up he’d worked himself into such a state. And that was the start of the week from hell.
So, Justin was away, his two best friends in the world had left, and Finn just lost the plot. He whined all week. Now Finn can whine with the best of them, but this took his skills to a whole new level. Nothing was right. He would just sit on my lap and sob. I want Uncle O he’d cry. Quite often I’d catch him in his room making imaginary phone calls to Owen asking him to come home now. Sad little monkey. Worst thing is my patience was being worn away and I snapped a few times which didn’t help matters. It was just so bloody wearing! When I say he whined, I mean he whined the whole time! When he wasn’t whining, he was wanting to be in my arms, which is so unlike him. Poor Tilly really didn’t get a look in. Justin came back on Thursday and he saw just how strange Finn was being. We went to the zoo on Saturday , Finn’s favourite place, and he cried the whole time! But come Sunday, our Finn was back! And touch wood he has been fine since. The clouds have lifted! (Not going to dwell on the fact Justin goes to Oz on Sunday for five days…………..)
In other news, Tilly is on the move finally! Not proper crawling, more wounded soldier, but she is very proud of herself. She is such a fab little girl and is just always smiling. Easiest baby ever. (But I remember posting when she wasn’t a fan of sleeping, so not fully rose tinted glassed up!) I do remember though that Finn was a happy baby and now look!!!!!! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He isn’t really naughty and rarely has had a tantrum, he is just King of the Whines! Would much rather he did have tantrums as they are out of the way, instead it was just constant whines and no no no to everything.
I stopped boobiefeeding Tills a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t really want to stop and still feel crap about it, but I was just getting too thin. Was hovering just over 6 and half stone and despite celebrities happy being a size zero, let me tell you, it looks shite! Have put on 7lbs already and feel a lot better for it.
Right enough waffle. Will leave you with a few pics, including one of Finn with his early birthday present of rollerskates! For the eagled eyed amongst you, you’ll notice Finn has had another haircut. Hey, actually the haircut coincided with the whining going! Maybe he will be like Samson and instead of his strength disappearing, it’s the whinges! Right, where are those bloody clippers???!!!!!! Just must say, much love and massive cuddles to Sam on the birth of Jake. Fab fab news sweetie. Wish I could pop over for a cuddle! xxxxxx


Didn't really realise until I saw this pic, what a massive chin Tippy Toes has!!!





Wibble Wobble Finn

Tilly's new sleeping position, can't really tell from this photo, but she has her arse right in the air and her knees all bent up! Practising her crawling in her sleep!!!



Surfing Finn!

Tilly discovers Cornettos come in small sizes too! Not really sure at 9 months I should be encouraging her love of ice cream but what the heck!

Mama Who????

Well, Anna and Owen have one and a half days left…sob! Going to miss them so much. We have been having a ball, and as for Finn…………God, I really don’t get a look in. I went to the shops yesterday and Finn declared he was staying at home with Uncle O. From the minute he wakes up, to the minute he goes to bed, he wants to be in Owen and Anna’s company. Justin is in Hong Kong at the mo, so on Saturday when they leave poor Finn will be beside himself as boring Mama just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore!
The weather has been fab so we’ve spent loads of time in the pool. We've had trips to the zoo, the beach, a boatride, a trip to the circus.......just such a fab time. Hangovers have been plentiful (although Owen is a hardman and can drink anyone under the table!!)

But not all evenings were wasted by getting er…wasted! Proud blatant Mummy boast alert coming up for which I apologise…………… Finn cannot sit still for a minute, very rarely watches more than 10 mins of tv before he is distracted. But give him a jigsaw and he is totally engrossed. He can do 50 piece ones without any help and can do 100 piece ones, meant for 6 year olds, with hardly any assistance and has done one a couple of times totally unaided. So having watched the Jigsaw Nerd in action, Anna remembered that when they were out at Christmas she had seen a 150 piece Peapock jigsaw in Toys R Us. Knowing Finn’s obsession with our feathered friends, Anna contemplated getting it but decided it would be far too hard. But not any longer, so off Anna trots and discovers it is actually 750 pieces!! She had to get it though and it became the aim of their holiday to finish it!

And here it is in all its glory! We’ve stuck it together and gonna put it up in Minn’s room. It was funny as when we opened the box and saw the teeny tiny pieces, I said to Finn, “Ok, you put two pieces together and I’ll buy you that pinkie bag” (long story, please don’t ask….but I do worry about my son…he is such a mishmash……..pinkie loving, jigsaw, peapock, digger mad surfer dude!) So Finn merrily has a quick look, picks up 2 pieces and fixes them together…..correctly I may add!! Little bugger!

Next month my big sis and her 3 kids come out for almost a month so not too long to wait for a sister fix, but it really will be sad saying goodbye to A and O. Justin sent me a text from HK to say that we cannot wait till next summer to see them when they get married so we are seriously thinking about a trip to the UK early next year. (Well, we have to win the lottery first!!!!)
Anna and Owen, I know you’ll read this (you’re out at the mo having a rare evening to yourself!) Thanks for such a brilliant holiday and for loving my two kiddies as much as you do. Love you both very much and will miss you huge amounts xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Uncle Ohwinn
Welcome Home!
Did you have a lovely time at your friend’s stag weekend? Mama says you might have a bit of a headache. Why’s that?!
So you’ve been in Holland eh? I know that that is in a continent called Europe. Asia is a continent too. I live in Asia. Isn’t it funny that in a week you’d have been to two continents. Europe and Asia. Amazing! What?? You didn’t know? Surprise!!!!!!! ( balloons and confetti need to be falling from the ceiling at this point!) That darling auntie of mine, standing next to you as you read this, has bought you both a ticket to come and see us…… next week! Yes, next week! Happy Birthday!!!!!! And she has had a word with your big bosses and got time off for you! Isn’t she a sneaky lady?! Dadda and Uncle David say that is common amongst the Hazel girls……..you still wanna marry her?!
Just think…….lazy days by the pool, trip to the zoo (Maybe we’ll see peapocks again?!) chilli crab, tiger beer……….and that’s just for me!
We are going to have so much fun!
Really excited to be seeing you again Uncle O. And Auntie Nanna too.
See you at Changi on Sunday!
A lot lot of love Finnbinminn xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Her Mother's Daughter After All

Happy Easter! Hope you all had a fun-filled choc fest!
Ours started by the pool and not the beach for a change! Blimey, don't know what came over us!
Tilly is just like Finn and loves the water, be it her bath, the sea or the pool. They really are true Aussies.....I'll be the Brit on the beach whining the sea is too cold and hiding under the towel! Thank goodness they take after their Dadda!


Felt a bit bad as Justin, Finn and I indulged in vast quantities of the brown stuff and poor Tilly wasn't allowed any. She kept looking and trying to reach some, but I refused..............for about five minutes! Sod it! Just the once and it was Easter!!!

Needless to say it was a hit........maybe she will take after me! Few trashy magazines and she'll be well away!

Land Down Under

G’day!! Well, all back safe and sound. The start of the trip didn’t bode well……..a couple of days before we were due to fly out we all started to get a cold. Turned out this wasn’t just a normal cold…it was The Cold from Hell. Oh joy of joys. You know you hear the urban legend about the night from hell re ill children? Well it isn’t a myth…we lived it! The night before we were due to fly to Oz, Tilly woke at 1am…streaming cold, her throat was husky, she was miserable as sin. I felt her pain….I was there too and I couldn’t swallow, breathe, sleep…..brought her into our bed and finally at 3am she fell asleep. Took her back to her room and climbed back into my bed……for Finn to wake……this is the boy who hasn’t woken up in the night for over 2 years…….he came into bed with us all snotty, coughing, feeling like pants…….he fell asleep at 5am. The alarm went off at 530. Oh how much did I want to get on a plane for almost 8 hours………..er, not much really!

Won’t even mention the flight………..poor Tilly, she really was ill.
So arrive late at night, all knackered and had to be up early to get to the hospital. Tilly had another night of being poorly.......

Turned up at Westmead, and they gave us our own room so we didn’t infect everyone else! Lepers! It was then a case of seeing lots of people, having lots of tests and lots of talking. Poor Mister Finnbin…he was feeling so miserable and still had to endure people prodding him, taking blood (lots of blood!!!), x-rays etc etc. Despite his cough and cold, the docs were really pleased with him but we had to see what the tests revealed first.

And then we were free!!! To be honest, all we did was go back to the hotel and sleep…we all felt so rough.

The next day we drove to see Justin’s dad and stepmum for the night. Finn had an absolute ball……he fed the kookaburras that come everyday to see Harry and Trees (not surpsrised…they are fed raw steak!), played with the horses that live at the end of their garden and best of all got to drive their lawnmower! Finn has a mini obsession with people cutting the grass so was beside himself!! He was so good at driving it too.











After all this adventure we drove up to the south coast where we had hired a cottage with Justin’s brother and his family. His girls, Phoebe and Poppy are similar ages to our two. Was sooooooooooooo cute how they got on. Had such a lovely time and was so chilled and relaxed, despite the weather being a bit pants. But at the back of our minds was the results….hate the waiting……….then on Tuesday they rang……….all clear! Lungs 100% perfect, no infections, everything really good!! How fab???!!! How brill is my little man?????




The Cousins

Finn's new best friend....Chewbacca.

Poppy and Tilly

Finn meeting Skippy!

How gorgeous were the koalas?

Sorry it is such a waffle....am off to bed.....still not feeling quite right.....need another holiday!!!!!

All Shook Up!

Well the earth moved for me darling! Literally! Put the kids to bed for their afternoon nap on Tuesday and as I was shattered, thought I’d lie on our bed and read my book for a while. Had only just made myself comfy when the weirdest feeling came over me. Just felt very dizzy as if the whole room was moving. Sat up but it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference, I still felt so wobbly. Wondered if I had an inner ear infection, or if I was seriously dehydrated…….such a bizarre sensation. Even though the actually feeling only lasted a minute or so, I felt queasy for a good while afterwards. Wasn’t until I turned the news on later that afternoon and found out it had actually been an earthquake in Indonesia that was so large the waves were felt here too. At least I wasn’t going mad!!
Wasn’t until the next day I realised that the novel I was reading at the time was called “Little Earthquakes”!!

In an attempt to get the big headed, fat giraffe a.k.a Tills, off her back, we decided to put her in the door bouncer that was Finn’s. Tills loves it and whenever she is in it, and I mean whenever, Finn has to serenade her, unfortunately his instrument of choice is his drum!!! Which he plays very loudly!





Well, we are off next week on a visit to Oz as Finn has his yearly check up. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I hate this. Beyond hate. Here we merrily go to the doc every few weeks, Finn has a sputum test, and we go home. We can keep our heads firmly buried in that sand. In Australia it all seems a lot more real and we go from room to room where he undergoes lots of tests. The only analogy is a bit like the MOT on your car……!! And then we sit and wait for the results……ok ok we will be waiting in a holiday cottage here, so that makes it all a lot nicer! We are spending a few days there with Justin’s brother’s family. They have 2 girls. Phoebe and Poppy, the same age as our two. Last year Finn aced all his tests and the docs were delighted. No sign of infections, x-rays on his lungs were perfect…….praying we get the same news this time. Postive vibes please peeps!

See you in a couple of weeks! Will leave you with Minn who has stolen my new sunglasses! Mama not got glasses he likes to tell me. Minn got glasses.......little bugger!

Tilly, the big headed giraffe.

OK, maybe she is forgiven........my baby girl has a tooth. Hopefully that is why she has gone from sleeping through, or just waking the once, to waking every couple of hours. Didn't even know she had one coming until I saw it! But since it has broken through over the weekend, Tilly has gone back to sleeping at night. Hurrbloodyrah! Was just surprised by it as sure Finn didn't get his first until about 10 months. I cried when I saw it as it is another sign she is growing up and I hate that!!

Took her to the doctors today as whilst giving Tilly a cuddle snuggle on Saturday night, Justin found a couple of pea sized lumps on the back of Tippy's head. I knew they weren't bones that hadn't fused, but I also instinctively knew that they weren't dodgy. You know when you worry and can't sleep cos you are concerned over something.......this wasn't the case. Despite my non worries I deliberately took her to a paediatrician who is also an oncologist, as I wanted to make sure nothing would escape her. The doc said it was just sebaceous cysts. Caused by Tilly being on her back a lot (told you she was a lazy arse!!) And also as "Tilly has such a large head, is heavy and very long" she finds it hard to hold her head up. Hmmmmm, nice description of my daughter....a fat, giraffe with a big head!!!!!! I don't think she is big at all......tall yes, but only weighs about 16lbs. Poor sausage!! Good job I love her!!!!!!


Tills the Giraffe





Justin took this photo a few days ago when they both had woken early from their afternoon naps. We plonked them in front of the tv (great parenting) and they chilled out.



Right, off to bath kids as off downstairs to Lor Lor's where we are going to watch the Oscars and bitch about the dresses!! Have seen a few already and am seriously disappointed by a lot of them!