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Its my birthday present! Lame maybe but I like that I can make something for myself. Made from Karaoke soy/wool.

I have been making many things for the baby. I am not buying much at all, I don't need to. Above is J holding Junior in Victorian baby's cape crocheted in Karaoke soy/wool. He notices babies now and calls them 'bay'.

Receiving blanket in soy with corn edging. Think I will enjoy using this. I love making blankets but babywearing and co-sleeping usually means you don't often use them.
Lots of crochet baby things...

The yarn is fair trade and organic alpaca 4ply dyed to be a gradual gradient in Gypsy Rainbow colourway by Jolly Jumbuck, which was lovely but maybe not the best choice with the pattern. Without a diagram I couldn't work out the pattern so I made it my own way. Its very long using 110grams but hope it may be useful.

Have been knitting too...

Dreamerz organic cotton/milk singlet.

This Versa for J. I hadn't made anything for him in a while so it was sad when he didn't show much enthusiasm for trying it on. Versa is a fun pattern though so I am glad to see it in action.

Finally finished putting the squares I made in 2010 together, 16 crocheted and 4 knitted.

Also another WIP finished. Most of the work for this bath mat was in tearing up the sheet to be crocheted.

Also been working on my embellishing which I am quite happy with. I think organic wool is a joy to do needlework with as opposed to cotton which I struggled to do.

As for what our family have been doing, the children have been enjoying spending time playing with the neighbours. They often play together since we moved here but even moreso lately. They go to different schools so I think that is a good thing. Not that they are in same grades anyway. Av is younger and being 5 is asked if he is going to school. Thankfully he is happy to stay home and learn as he has been in the past 5 years.

This week we took the kids bowling as they sometimes enjoy doing. J loves it too. Here they are playing air hockey which is a fun pasttime too.

We had our first family BBQ! I am vegetarian so its not as exciting as it was for the kids and hubby! Rye bread around sausages with fruit/veg juice to wash it down.

On Australia Day (Invasion day) we decided to take the kids to Eureka Skydeck. They know the building well and spot it whenever we are near the City. Last time we went there was also Australia Day 2 years ago when J was only a small baby. This time we went in the evening. I think many people had the idea to watch the fireworks from a new height.

Since I am posting photos and most of my photos lately have been cruddy (can I blame the camera?) so I want to share this one which is offensive to children apparently. That is why my children think its normal and wonderful, right?

Witnessed in our house by children for almost 11 years. "Some Western person say that's disgusting...." This is the longest I have breastfed for (28mths and counting) and I can't see what the fuss is about. Not to say its not challenging because to me it really is, yet its normal. Full stop.

Holiday recap so far

Christmas has come and gone.

We had a fairly relaxed day at home and at each of our mother's places. The children got many gifts even though they didn't get much from us. I think they were happiest with the gift they asked for and received from us.
New Year was celebrated in the City. It was very crowded yet surprisingly pleasant.

Family days out have been great.

Whether at the beach near home or on a day  roadtrip its good to see the family enjoy time out.

Melbourne museum is a favourite with our children. So much to see and they get to play too. I know I learn something new each time we go.

Brickvention is a Lego Convention held at the Melbourne Town Hall. The boys were so keen, they even waited 2 hours in a line that went around the block.

We took a family day out in Bendigo. I don't remember it being so far from home! But we did enjoy the day. We first visited the Bargain Room at the Bendigo Woollen Mills before having lunch by the lake. We visited Cold Rock Ice Creamery and the conservatory.

I have been having a go at embellishing knitted items. I am quite happy with the strawberry I did on this vest. I am getting the hang of it and I wont say I completely suck at it now.

I have been making a lot of newborn items so I wont bore myself or others with copious amount of pictures or details so just a few examples. (If you are interested, find me on Ravelry.)

Crocheted singlets made in 4ply cottons for testing. As you can see I enjoyed making these as there is 4.

I have made lots of mittens, booties, bonnets and hats.

Bibs too.

Of course a few soakers too many

This was a test knit, Lee pullover. I did a heart embellishment on it which was a little rough but I think I am getting better.

I have been having many pattern ideas but usually they stay as pictures or notes in a book. I would like to develop some pattern ideas but I don't think I have enough passion or enthusiasm for it.

Test crochet hat, Urban Shells to fit a child.


The children have such a short time at home before school starts. Grade 6 and grade 3 for my big girl and big boy. Av will be at home, he has wanted to learn to read so he trialled Reading Eggs online which he really enjoyed and I can see he has learned a lot. For a child who had no real interest in the alphabet, he has surprised me with learning phonics and the like.
J has been going to the toilet all  the time now, he has been out of nappies for a couple months. Sometimes he sleeps with us, sometimes not. He comfort feeds and to me he is still very much a baby but his speech is slowly improving so its nice to hear him communicate in more verbal ways.
Currently in week 25 of the pregnancy with a very active baby and gladly no nausea to speak of these days.

Summary of the decade dubbed the "Naughties"

This will test my memory, trying to remember the last decade. Its hard enough remembering what I did yesterday. How could I forget I became a mother in 2000....

My first child surprised us all by being a girl! We didn't try long to conceive her, we were married 2 months before I became pregnant with her. I knew I was in the family way when we traveled to WA and came back driving across the Nullabor and just didn't feel quite right. A doctor hadn't a clue so waited til we came back home to see the family doctor, not having a clue ourselves what to do next. We didn't know about home pregnancy tests (now I know they are unnecessary - I knew I was pregnant!) and what on Earth do you do when pregnant anyway? Trust the doctor? Well I couldn't even back then. But I did all that was expected, went to all the appointments and thankfully only one ultrasound and it was quite stressful anyway. The labour went well as the midwives ignored me - probably assuming I would labour for at least 10 hours. We didn't rush in so by the time I arrived in hospital I was in established labour and it went fast. Obviously they had no idea how far I was. When a midwife asked to perform the first internal (which didn't happen), I was required to get out of the shower where there was much relief. My waters broke and 13 minutes later my daughter was born. I had a tear that required much stitching. I found that hard to deal with and took gas. Having a baby and becoming a mother was a surreal feeling.  I was shocked by how difficult being so depended on was yet I adored my daughter and didn't want to be a way from her.

Unfortunately in many ways I ignored my instincts and did things like controlled crying, avoiding co-sleeping and not breastfeeding beyond 12 months. When you know better you do better. So after some trials and being sick with Graves disease which required 2 weeks in hospital with surgery, I finally became pregnant again.

We co-slept  from day one. I had a son in 2003, we as a family became close, we fell in love, it was a wonderful time. Unfortunately it was a traumatic birth for me. I had  a borderline third degree tear which took 6 weeks to recover from. It was a beautiful time in our family though, my daughter at 3 years, 2 months became a big sister. She told me she loved me for the first time when she first met her brother. And she started to become more outgoing when he arrived.

I thought my idea of having 5 children was not ideal at this stage. I could be happy with the boring average of 2 children, the pigeon pair. We left it to nature - as we do, and soon enough I was pregnant with my third child. My eldest son was quite unwell with severe eczema and still in nappies when our next child was born in 2005 so it was challenging. He was 2.5 years old and I believe quite put out by the new arrival. I had wanted to accidentally have him at home, having a freebirth appealed to me. I thought it would be my only chance at not being treated disrespectfully by strangers who thought they knew better. I wanted to avoid a tear so read up about breathing rather than pushing through contractions. I still had a tear but my recovery was better despite the place of birth, the hospital again. I had planned to birth in the birth centre but I was kicked out for borderline iron levels which meant I was high risk according to them. This meant I had a drip and catheter post birth, not with consent. As soon as he was born, I knew I would have a freebirth the next time. I had had enough. I researched unassisted pregnancy and unassisted birth and I was not going to do it any other way. There was no question....

Until of course my husband expressed shock that it was still on my mind when I became pregnant with my 4th child. Ultimately it was my choice, so we planned for a homebirth, buying a birth pool which was actually something my husband had always wanted for us. Water birth was just something not available to us in hospital. It was the best choice I ever made for our family. I am still dealing with issues related to my hospital births but being able to knowingly avoid it was exactly what I needed to do. In 2008 I had my wonderfully normal physiologically natural birth at home in water.

It was special - I brought  him out of the water myself after a short undisturbed 1.5 hour labour and foetal ejection reflex where it took only about one minute to push him into the world. (I pushed for less than 3o minutes in all my labours).

I had my first babymoon and I could easily say I was on a high for close to a year. I never knew I could enjoy pregnancy, birth and the newborn stage! It was awesome, no other word for it. I did things as my instinct dictated, we still breastfeed, co-sleep and cuddle as needed. J is 27mths now and we are expecting our 5th child in this new decade - May this year.

Okay that was just about my babies. I have to add that I did see some bands live and participate in other hobbies that I adore (I do not want to estimate how many kilos of yarn I have knitted and crocheted into wearable garments or other items). I saw magic dirt (the best band in  the world) play a few times which I am grateful for, the bass player passed away sadly also.

We traveled to quite a few beautiful coastal  and rural towns and loved our roadtrips.
I became an aunty to nieces and nephews and we lost my Pop, my husband's biological father and sister.
Thankful for my photos that helped me to remember some of these things, also for being online so I can try to keep a regular journal of happenings in my childrens' young lives.

In summary this decade was a learning decade. I learned to be a better mother, wife, person. And guess what? Still not perfected so I keep trudging forward doing all that I can with the knowledge that I have been fortunate to require all the while making more mistakes to learn from. And I still don't know how to trust in people, but I have learned a lot about love.