Having a FAT day

I guess we all have these every now and again. I suspect that it may have something to do with the entire 250 g block of Cadbury Rocky Road chocolate that I ate for lunch yesterday (no, unfortunately I am not joking). But to give you a bit of perspective on what a FAT day in Cristina-land involves, you need a bit of history (navigate to another page if you do not wish to be bored with gratuitous personal details). I have, for many years, had a love/ hate relationship with food. I LOVE to eat, am a complete chocoholic (see above evidence for this) and enjoy my food a lot. But I also have very poor body image, and have battled with the psychycology of food and eating for most of my adult life. I spent a few years in my early 20's in the grips of anorexia, getting down to my all-time low of 43 KG (about 94 pounds). Back then I existed on a diet of nothing more than an apple and two pieces of toast per day, plenty of cigarettes and LOTS of exercise. Since then my weight has fluctuated up and down, dependent mainly upon my life circumstances and what is happening in my head. I hit my all time high when pregnant with DS - stopped counting at 83 kg as it was far too depressing.... I am currently hovering around the 60 kg mark (132 pounds) and am not happy. I feel the need to be about 5 kg lighter, but am torn as to how to achieve it. I have to be careful that I don't fall back into old (bad) habits, yet I use food as a comfort and response to stress. Ahh, it almost makes me wish I still smoked..... Anyway, there is not much point to this blog post other than to vent a bit, put in writing how blobby and out of shape I feel, and to have a bit of a whinge. I really need to get back into some regular exercise, as this has pretty much ground to a halt with the arrival of winter and the sweet Miss A. Motivation levels are incredibly low, so perhaps I should go and stand naked in the mirror and get that push I need to head on out to the garage and get on the treadmill!!

Alice in Action!

My New Best Friend.

Well, here she is. Isn't she gorgeous???!!! For the past year and a half, my kitchen has had the misfortune of having a 'decorative dishwasher' installed. Decorative because the only purpose it served was filling in a rather ugly gap under the bench top. When we moved in here five years ago, the new owners had just bought this you-beaut new stainless steel dishwasher. Yay!! I thought, having never lived in a house with a dishwasher before. Little did I know that this was the dishwasher from hell. It broke down so many times that after the sixth attempt at repair, I just gave up. So, 18 long months later, I finally have my new buddy. I installed it myself (big round of applause thanks!) and it is currently purring it's way through a huge load of dishes. Mmm, my soul is now deeply satisfied at the thought of no more hand washing of dishes....
As to the divine Miss A, she is doing famously. She is right in the middle of a language explosion at the moment, and is adding new words to her vocabulary every day. She has now surpassed 140 words (Big Sis is keeping count) and never fails to amaze me with her skill at saying new words. Will post some new pics after I download them from the camera.

Big Girl Hair Cut

This week I took both my big girls (well, one slightly less big than the other!) out to the salon for a bit of a hair cut. This was Alice's first 'proper' hair cut in the almost eight months that she has been with us. I have been regularly hacking at her fringe to keep it out of her eyes, but this time the hairdresser cut the back as well so she has this sweet little bob happening. Tried to get some nice pics but in true Alice fashion she refused to smile. At least her Big Sis co-operated! Not too much else to report, aside from one bad night when we experienced our first night terror with Alice. As mentioned before, we have been frantically busy this school holidays, and several times Alice has missed her daytime nap, only getting to grab a quick snooze in the car. This, I think, led to a pretty severe sleep deficit which in tum led to the horrible night terror. She woke up screaming inconsolably on Tuesday at about 9pm. I raced in to see what was wrong and she was sitting up in bed, shaking and crying. I scooped her up but she fought against me. She was still screaming, and yet not awake. I realised what was happening, and just held and rocked her until she calmed, which took about ten minutes. It was heartbreaking to see her so very upset, but being unable to make things better. After she settled I read up on night terrors in some of my adoption books, and apparently they are quite common, and I should really have left her in the cot to cry it out. Apparently they have no memory of the terror, and waking them can do more harm than good. But aside from this, Alice has been just fine and an absolute delight. She is such a happy little person, and is developing a really cheeky personality. Stubborn at times too, but that's OK - she takes after her Mum!!

School Holiday Buzz

Wow - a week of school holidays has passsed already and I have been mega-busy. Playdates, catching up with friends, doing 'kid stuff' etc has kept us pretty flat out. Here are a couple of pics from Thursday, when four of our batch mates got together and the girls enjoyed each other's company. Will post more when kids are back at school!!

Latest Pics

Finally blew the dust off the camera this evening and took some pics of my gorgeous girl. Although she is in dire need of a haircut, I still think she is gorgeous!! I have just done a brief count of her current vocabulary and it is well over forty words right now. She has become a real little mimic and is trying out new words every day. In the pic she is with one of her favourite toys, Eeyore. She says 'Eeyore' beautifully, and loves to give him big cuddles. So much cuteness, can barely stand it!!!

The Sweetest Thing

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best. Take this morning for instance - pretty much a normal morning. I had just put the dinner on to cook in the slow cooker (marvellous invention that) and I was doing the dishes. Alice was indulging in two of her favourite past times - eating breakfast 'on the run' and digging around in the drawer where I keep all the plastic containers. So I am washing away, Alice is happily playing, and all of a sudden, she comes running to me. 'What's wrong sweetheart?' I ask. She looks up at me, smiles and says 'ca!" This is Alice-speak for cuddle. So I bend down, open my arms and she comes to me for a snuggle. A couple of months ago, this would never have happened. My broken baby is healing, and it is the sweetest thing....
And just for a bit of gratuitous eye-candy, here's the yummy Bono singing one of my fave U2 songs. Enjoy!

Thursday again

Seems to be that Thursday is becoming 'my' day for blogging. Not sure why the urge to blog always seems to strike on a Thursday, but here I am again. Not a great deal to report this week. Alice is well, although a tad grumpy for pushing through tooth number four - WHOOHOO!! This has coincided with some pretty atrocious nappy deposits which have burned her precious nether regions, so she has been a little on the miserable side. She has, however, been making huge leaps in her language this week. She is now copying most things that I try to get her to say, and can say 'tea towel' perfectly (very useful word that - she may be put to work drying dishes before she turns two!!) She has also begun to put two words together, such as 'ta ta Eeyore' when she wants her Eeyore toy. VERY cute...

School holidays begin tomorrow, which is fabulous. I love having the big kids home, even though their bickering drives me mad at times. They really enjoy having more time with Alice, and I have a couple of extra helpers around the home!

Must head off and tend to some chores before the Sleeping Beauty wakes from her slumber. No pics I'm afraid - far too slack to take any this week.

My Gorgeous Kids

This photo is deceptively simple - a big brother reading to his little sister. What is interesting though is the story behind it. I am pretty strict with my kids and the TV - they are allowed only half an hour a day, and always after all chores and homework have been done. DS had done everything required of him yesterday and asked if he could watch the box for his half an hour. I said it was fine, and off he trotted. I was in the kitchen getting tea ready, and had popped Alice in the lounge room with her big brother to keep her out of harm's way. She started fussing and whining as soon as DS came into the lounge, and he put on the TV. She continued to fuss, and then the fussing stopped. Curious to see why, I snuck a look around the corner. There was DS, snuggled up on the chair with is mei mei, happily reading to her. The TV was on, but he wasn't watching it. He had forgone his TV rights in order to read to his fussy little sister. What a beautiful boy I am blessed with. He loves Alice so very much, and I am so very thankful for his presence in my life.

Monday Meanderings

I have a few spare minutes before Madame is due to awaken from her slumber and just wanted to put a few thoughts to cyber-paper. I guess you have all heard of the terrible earthquakes in China this last week. I feel so grieved for the millions of people whose lives have been irrevocably changed by this catastrophic event. The parents who have lost their only children, the children who are now orphans, the husbands who have lost wives, and the wives who now have no husband. The suffering is immense and my soul is wracked with grief for them. In times like these it is so easy to feel helpless, and jaded with the world, to feel an honest and fervent sense of life being unfair. I pray that those left behind, who are now struggling to come to grips with their radically changed lives, can experience the peace and comfort of God as they take each new day in their stride. The world just seems to be so full of suffering and despair at the moment - not only earthquakes in China, but war in the middle east, cyclones in Burma, political and social unease in Zimbabwe and many. many more horrible situations. My prayers are with all those affected by these events, and my thoughts are with them. Once again, I feel so very blessed, yet wonder why I am so fortunate? I have no answer to this question, but I am determined not to take a second of my very blessed life for granted. Hugs to all my cyber friends - peace and love be with you all. xxx