What a week

Max has been sick all bloody week, and I am exhausted. He's not sleeping properly, and I am exhausted. He's cranky, and I am exhausted. Did I mention that I'm exhausted??

Poor Sam is suffering too, because I'm spending so much time with Max. After a headbutting incident, he ended up telling me that Max has been getting too much attention. Poor kid. I ended up taking him to the library yesterday and then we went and got a milkshake together, just him and I. Was really nice....and we didn't have any tantrums, or whining, or anything all day. Guess I should make more of an effort to do that at least once a week.

Handed over my first photo order today....they are really happy with them. Have gone all out with presentation - lime green tissue paper in white, glossy boutique style bags. White, glossy folders to hold bigger photos, or white boxes for the smaller ones. Brown ribbon, green ribbon, and nice labels for my logo have been printed out. Should have taken a photo of it I guess!

Speaking of photos....need to post some updated ones!

I'm sure there has been heaps more happen, but I'm too exhausted!!

Sorry.

Have been slack here. Really slack, I know. I'm not even sure why.

So, what have we been up to? I've done my 2nd photo shoot....went really well. A gorgeous family.....can't wait to show them the photos (hopefully tomorrow).

Did I mention that my first scrapbooking page was published this month? That was pretty exciting! Max is sick at the moment...poor little fella. Bad cough. Hope he gets better soon.

Clydey's b'day yesterday - we went out to Ali and Gary's for the day and Gary and Clydey played golf, then took Sam and Ryan to see Shrek 3. Sambo ran around the whole time apparently!! No frozen coke next time!!

Man, I should be editing photos, so will just do our high point and low points for now - and I promise I'll be back again soon.

High - Seeing my scrapping in print. Having my first order of $400.

Low - Max being sick. Also realising that I have less than a month before Max actually starts crawling properly....he's almost there. It's terrifying.

Boo Hoo.

My baby is growing up. My littlest baby that is. He has been waking up at night more often, and as much as I try to resettle him, it seems that he is really hungry. So I figured it was time to try him on some rice cereal. I figured that I would give it a go, he wouldn't go for it, and that would be it, right?

Ummmm. Wrong.

He didn't gag. He didn't spit it out. He sucked it off the spoon. Happily.

As I said, my baby isn't exactly a baby anymore. He's not quite 5 months old, but boy, it's gone so quickly. I think I've kinda half decided that another baby is getting more and more unlikely....so it makes me so sad that today might be the last day that I have a fully breastfed baby. *sigh*

Although saying that, we went over to Matt and Esther's last night for a bbq with them and Ali and Gary (and all the kids of course), and when Clydey picked up Ava for a cuddle, Ali and Esther watched him, then turned to me and said "You guys are SO having another baby!". Clydey really would love a little girl, a little princess. Me, I don't mind either way - sure a girl would be great, but I love having boys.

So, anyway. Hoping that a little farex has filled Max up and he doesn't wake up 3 times tonight!

Now workwise - was supposed to have a shoot this weekend for Sam's day care mum and her family, but due to the rainy weekend we've had, we have had to reschedule. I have another one next weekend, and 3 more in the pipeline. I can't believe how easy it's been to get work so far. I know it won't keep up being this easy and I will actually have to do some sort of advertising...but for now, it's great!

Anyway, off for now to finish watching Ugly Betty and find a recipe for Pineapple Upside Down cake!!

There is someone up there looking out for me.

I'm sure of it. I've always landed on my feet with anything I've done. Never gotten into (too much!) trouble. Always landed that job I wanted. And now, been blessed with 2 beautiful boys....who really are champions!

So, I was dreading last night. I was prepared to be up ALL night. Max ended up going down very easily after a feed....however, he was exhausted from being up screaming all afternoon, so that wasn't too strange. But.....he then stirred around 10pm, so I put a sleeping bag on him and gave him a feed. Went to bed around 11pm. Sam cried out for me sometime after midnight...so I ended up falling asleep in his bed for a while! Around 1.45am I heard Max cry out. Ended up poor Clydey was up with him....rocking him.....not realising that he was hungry! He didn't want to wake me! So I fed Max...put him to bed, and then got woken up at 6am for another feed....and then he went back down until 8.30am. Not a problem. No screaming. No fussing. Nothing. What a little champion! He had a few sleeps today and although he was slightly harder than the usual dump in the cot with his dummy....it was only a matter of some rocking and that's it!!

Sambo cracked me up today. He didn't sleep again...think he's dropping his day sleeps. He's happy enough to rest for a while though, so we'll just keep that up. He was in his bed for an hour and a half today...then he started calling out to me. I got him up, and he went outside to play for a while. He was being very quiet so I went to check on him....he wasn't outside. Next thing I heard Max making noises...I knew he wasn't due to wake up yet...so I went in there. And there's Sambo in the cot with Max. I looked at him and said "what are you doing in there?". He looks at me and goes "Oh, just doing a poo, Mummy"....as if that was normal. As if that's where he always does his poos. (don't freak out, he's still not toilet trained, so his poo was going into his nappy!!). Unfortunately, I burst into laughter...and then couldn't get mad at him!

Anyway, Max didn't sleep too much this arvo, so not sure if that's cos Sambo woke him up before it was time, then he had trouble getting back there. He went down very easily tonight....so I am really hoping that's as hard as it gets for us! Now to just work on Sambo dropping his!!!! Baby steps, baby steps.

Ok, just a few photos from today. How cute is Max, with that lazy eye and all!! And this is the absolutely gorgeous jacket Cas sent over for Sam for his b'day - gave it to him early so he could get maximum wear out of it!!

Dear God, shoot me now.

Operation Dummy Ditch has begun. Clydey and I talked about starting it this weekend as we are sick to death of getting up to put Max's dummy back in....but after spending the better part of an hour walking in to replace his dummy today....I've decided this is it. He's been screaming for almost an hour on and off. It's awful. I had to leave the room. He settles for a little while....then starts up again. And let me tell you.....he has a heartbreaking cry. Every time I walk in there, his poor little bottom lip is quivering and he keeps looking at me as if to say "what did I do to deserve this?". I am so tempted to just go and give him a dummy....but I can't keep this up. I'm too tired, and so is Clydey.

Ok, just been in and there is no consoling him so I guess I just have to leave him scream. God this is awful.

Ok, thinking of other things. Firstly, a very big congrats to Sal and Ant on the birth of little Amy. What a doll. Wish I was there to be able to take photos of her. Thinking of you guys.

Secondly, did my first paid shoot on the weekend. Really happy with how it went. Well, actually, I was shit scared and to me it shows in the first lot of photos, but then you can see that I relaxed into it and started doing the kind of photos that I do best. Will show some off once I've shown the family.

Have another shoot this weekend, and another the weekend after (hey, is that silence? Good boy Max. Oh no, started up again). So, looks like this photography business is all systems go! Really have to pull my finger out and register my business name.

Ahhhhhh...silence. And only approx 2 hours after it began. That poor kid. And poor me. And I have to get him up in half an hour to go pick up Sambo. Dear god. Maybe I can keep him up until bed time and he will be so worn out that he'll just crash.

Oh, here he goes again. Might just go get him up.

Ok, we are both here now. Me and my poor little exhausted, red eyed, runny nose boy.

So...back to my photography business. Things are looking good.

Ummmm....what else? Sambo is great - I took him to a Playschool concert on Monday. He hid in my lap. But he says he enjoyed it!!! Max had his 4 months needles last week. Screamed the place down, but settled fine afterwards.

Ok, highs for this week: ummmmmmm....will get back to you on that one! I guess how well my very first paid photography gig went.

Lows for this week: too many - the interrupted sleep with Max (he was WAY better as a newborn!), Sam's day care mum letting us know she's leaving around August, Operation Dummy Ditch (or more specifically the last 2 hours.).

Ok, must be off to make sure my boy still loves me.

damn.

Again, ages since I've posted. I really have gotten slack at this!

Ok, our week in a nutshell.

Max has discovered how to roll from back to front (he had being doing front to back for about a month now), and he is constantly flipping himself over once he is put down.

Mother's Day was wonderful - I got a lovely voucher for a massage, and we went to Toowong cemetry for a photo shoot...which was actually a disaster cos sambo just threw a tantrum. Need to go back again.

Ryan turned 3....and I finally got to catch up with the girls...it's been over a month, I think!

Meggie was here for a night before flying down to Adelaide for a week. Back tomorrow.

Picked up my PlanSmart kit for starting my own business.

Hit the "Cancel Enrolment" button for my uni degree. Still absolutely terrified about that, but I can go back to it if I decide to.

Clydey has decided he should go on a diet.

Nat and Sam made me a cake for Mother's Day...a lovely green carrot cake!!

I got me a version of Photoshop CS3. YIPPEE!

I got my Moo cards to use as business cards. They are awesome, and I love them. Best of all, they only cost me $25US which includes postage and they were here in a week!

Ummmmm...I can't think of anything else! We are all well. The boys are great....they keep me laughing, and busy.

So, the HIGH of my week - I can fit back into my jeans.

the LOW of my week - how scared I am about quitting uni and starting up my own business, even though I know it's the right thing for me right now.

Oh man I suck!

man, it's over a week since I posted last. Slack, slack, slack!

So, what have we been up to? Well, last Friday we went up to the Sunshine Coast to housesit Esther's parents house. Wow.....it was awesome! The place is set up for kids, cos Esther is always there with Harper, so there were toys and it's all pretty much child proof. We spent a lot of time with Phil and Shamus as they live just around the corner from there. We spent some time on the beach, some time relaxing, some time with friends....lovely! Took some photos of Phil and Finn...but unfortunately I downloaded them to her computer and we couldn't burn them onto a cd to bring home, so Phil has been left to edit them herself!! Ah well...lucky I taught her all my tricks of Photoshop while we were there!! Phil and I (and all the boys and dogs!) drove up to Marcus Beach (half an hour away, up near Coolum) to take photos of Esther and her family. 17 odd people....boy oh boy, it wasn't easy...but I really enjoyed it and we got some awesome photos! Some of the ones I've edited (took over 350 of them), so I'll post the best of what I have so far!

So, back here on Monday and it seems the week has absolutely flown by. Tues I did some cleaning while sam was at daycare. Wed I had Harper for the morning while Esther did some stuff, then Esther and Amos came and spent the rest of the day here.

Yesterday we went to Australia Zoo with Esther and her family. I nearly didn't go...but was tired and figured if I stayed at home I would just get really cranky all day....so off we went! I'm so glad I did, as it was an awesome day. For once I didn't take my camera...figured with both boys I would be carting enough stuff around! I just enjoyed the day without being concerned about good photo opportunities! Sam loved it...he patted a koala on the way in, fed animals in the petting zoo, loved feeding the kangaroos (well, one special one that god his whole bag of food - "He's still hungry, Mummy"!!), and patted another koala. I was so proud of him...normally he wouldn't be brave enough to do that....but when he asked to pat and feed the tiger...I unfortunately had to say no!! He also patted a wombat on the way out. It was a very tiring day...but oh, so worth it!

Today, Ali picked up Sam for day care, then Esther dropped Harper off for a little while to get some stuff done. After they left I picked Sam up early as Nat wanted to spend some time with him. We ended up going to the shops, then came home and while they made a cake for me for mothers day, I sat at the computer and just did nothing! Nat has also made dinner for us.

So, that's our week all up. Busy, busy, busy. Haven't taken any photos of the boys for a while as I have been so busy editing these ones for Esther, that I haven't had time for anything else.

Ok, hopefully will be back before the week is out!!