News in Brief – The August ’17 Edition

Around the traps at the moment there’s a whole lot of this…

The washing never ends. The wood pile is depleted at this time of year. The TV is on a bit too much as it’s so cold and windy outside. Books are strewn from the tornado almost-toddler.

But look! Pretties from lovely people in Instagram-land. Clever Rach (who could just be my soul sister from another mister) made Eleanor and Harriet these gorgeous aprons, sent with love from near our old home on the Limestone Coast, as well as some other treasures and beautiful prints for their bedrooms. Ain’t Insta friends the sweetest? Some of my closest friends I met on Instagram…or have never even ‘met’ actually! But they’re lovely and supportive and there. Important.

It was somebody’s (read: Matt) birthday last week, and as per usual he was away at his annual work conference, which just so happens to always fall on the week of his birthday. So we celebrated when he got home with a mere sliver of leftover birthday cake from the girl’s cousin Otis’s birthday party, one single bent blue candle and a hastily wrapped gift and handmade card by Eleanor. Happy thirty one turns around the sun! I/we got him a weather station, after he expressed mild interest in one a few months ago and my ears pricked up. I always have to be on the constant look out and ear to the ground for a potential birthday/Christmas/Father’s Day gift. So hard to buy for! Ugh. And Father’s Day is always the week after Matt’s birthday. The ‘train station’, as Eleanor refers to it, is quite the hit though, he loves telling all and sundry exactly what the temperature is inside and out, when it drops .2 of a degree you bet you’ll hear about it. I went with a pretty basic model of just temperature and rain gauge, as I thought if it really floated his boat he could upgrade to those schmancy ones with a wind turbine whirligig and frost warning whatchamacallit. The fancier more expensive ones that I looked into though didn’t have a rain gauge though? The best feature in my opinion, no more running out to the rain gauge in the pouring rain and holding it up to get an inaccurate reading. The future has arrived at Brindabella – huzzah!

Meanwhile, Eleanor has finally been diagnosed with ‘peri oral dermatitis’ after literally months and months of on-again-off-again rashes around her mouth and nose. Our family GP Dr Pete (who coincidentally delivered Harriet…or was the ‘attending’ doctor anyway, wasn’t actually there!) hit the nail on the head when he asked if the dermatitis 1% steroid cream I had been using was actually not doing anything, if not making it worse. Turns out ‘dermatitis’ is a silly name for it, more of a rosacea issue. Anyway, it’s finally improving with twice a day day applications of a (bloody expensive) lotion for four weeks. Poor Blossom, it’s a bit stingy and she is not a fan. But it’s looking so much better already after just one week.

This also happened this week. I fed Harriet for the last time.

I could write lots on the topic of feeding Harriet (in fact I have) but in the end there’s not a whole lot to say. Other than, it was more about me than her. I know that. So, I made a day, a weekend as ‘deadline’. She was only having a bedtime feed for the past two weeks, and even then was not getting much milk I’m sure. It was more a habit of the bedtime routine. On Friday night we went out for dinner (unheard of!) and left Harriet for bedtime with Matt’s parents…so I didn’t feed her. And she went to sleep. Just like that. I knew she would…but still I wanted to have a ‘last time’ feeding her. So on Saturday night I sat in her room on the bed for the last time and fed my little Peach. Almost 14 months, tongue and lip tied and so much feeding and screaming and feeding. We did it. Oddly I didn’t get as emotional as I did when I fed Eleanor for the last time…probably because I came straight out of Harriet’s room and into Eleanor’s room as she was screeching about something or other at bedtime. No rest for the wicked! I am sad that Harriet is no longer ‘a baby’ as she’s not being fed anymore, but also so happy to see her bloom and grow without that little piece of me, one apron string at a time being snipped. And I was completely ready to get my body back and have Daddy put Harriet to bed once in awhile. Harriet has always been so dependant on me, so it’s bittersweet now that she’s not.

On Thursday night I am attending this local event. Exciting! Creative Women in Gippsland: I’m there. Any event which requires me to leave the house without children is exciting, but this in particular looks like it’s going to be jam packed full of local creative goodness, my idea of a helluva good time. I had to create a short video showcasing what it is I ‘do’…which got me all head-scratchy and introspective. I often find it hard to articulate what She Sows Seeds ‘is’, my elevator pitch needs work. A lot of work. But in the meantime, here’s 30 seconds which pretty much sums it up…

Now somehow it is September this week – Spring! At last. I am absolutely unfurling and stretching and reaching for the sunshine. And for the first time in a long time, I’m not breastfeeding or pregnant (or trying to get pregnant!) Huh. Come at me Spring.

Got any peri oral dermatitis war stories?
Did you have a ‘last time’ feeding your babes?
Impossible to buy for husband?
Got a decent elevator pitch? Hit me with it!