A Quick Post Today.

- A quick post whilst Boo is having a rest.

- Boo had his surgery Monday. Tonsils and adenoids out and grommets put in his ears. He is not doing the best stayed in hospital two days instead of one due to vomiting and rejecting fluids and food. We came home yesterday. I am watching his nappies today if they are too dry he will be back in hospital to be put on IV fluids.

- I do love the snuggles but I hate seeing my boy in pain and discomfort.

- I am really tired, staying at the hospital with Boo was tiring. Now at home and constantly at him to drink and eat, is tiring especially when it is continuously rejected.

- Boo is up, that's it for now. Time for more snuggles and pain medication.

Sleeping with his Teddy. He looked so tiny in that big hospital bed.

A Post In Photos

 Just a warning there are a lot of photos in the post.

A week into the new year already. Slow down please is all I can say. I hope you have all had a great start to the new year.

We like to keep busy around here especially in Summer we are always out and about or in the backyard. Boo loves being outdoors, we have lots of playdates with little friends. He loves company. He gets upset if I take him to the park and there are no other kids there. I am always on the look out for free events around Sydney. Getting into the city is easy for us, we just hop on the ferry up the river and saves me the hassle of looking for parking. So we often go out on adventures, even if we just walk the streets of the city. Boo is a people watcher and he is happy to just to look and stop and have a run from time to time. Which is great for me because I get to take photos. We also go to art exhibitions. We do arts and crafts which he loves, the messier the better for him.

Here are some photos of what we get up to and the fun we have.

Sand Castle fun. The best part is smashing them down.

Wading in the rock pool.

The Wiggles Exhibition

Splashing in puddles.

Water play with buckets.

Doing a big painting .

but decided that painting his body was more fun!

Fun at the water park.

Visiting Cock-a-too Island.

Graffiti Exhibition at Cock-a-too Island.

I made a waterslide in the backyard with his friends.

He loves paying with water. The hose being his favourite, so filling up the pool is part of the fun.

Boo stayed up and watched the 9pm NYE fireworks from our back deck, these are the midnight ones.

Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks NYE

He was happy just to watch the clowns move the heads from left to right.

At the Graffiti exhibition

At the Graffiti exhibition

Feeding the bunny.

He participated in an art installation Tangled, he loved it!

He participated in an art installation Tangled, he loved it!

You can never have enough lego play.

Two Words

Thank you. 
All of you.
Yes you and you.
For being here for me, through another tough time in my life, the death of my beautiful mother.
Still grieving Max and then dealing with the death of my mum has been difficult, I probably haven't written about it as much as I have wanted to only because I can't express this grief and the feelings I have in words. So I stay silent. I don't like being silent on my blog. I need to write. I hope to write more in the new year.

I am also hoping for a better year next year. With good things happening around me, some changes, some travel and getting my business truly up and running.

I wish you and your families a very Happy New Year. Have fun and stay safe.

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I have to share this photo I just found whilst looking through some old ones. Max took it.

He loved his stuffed animals, I have mentioned that before. If he went to bed before me, he would always tuck a couple these little guys in on my side of the bed to greet me before I went to sleep. They always put a smile on my face. It was a nice little memory to have.

Merry Christmas And All That.

It certainly was a strange Christmas, quiet. I spent it split between my two brothers homes. One for lunch then the other for coffee, dessert and swim. The sun finally shown in Sydney. If you haven't heard already from all the whinging, Sydney has had a shitty wet and cool Summer, so far. It's raining as I type. But we were fortunate to get a swim in yesterday which was great. Boo had a wonderful day, he was really into Christmas this year, he was wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. It is just too cute to hear him say that. He loved opening his presents. It was so delightful to watch him.

I missed my Mum a lot and Max too. For Christmas Eve, I went to the Mary McKillop Chapel. My Mum used to go there once a month when they had a special service. I never went with her. I wish I had. I cried through the Christmas service whilst every one was singing Holy Night, regretting that I had never sat on the pew with her. I know she was there with me.

I made Christmas cards this year, like I do every year only this year I didn't send them. I didn't want to, I didn't have the same Christmas spirit. So I didn't.

I hope all that celebrated had a lovely day with family and friends. I tried. I mostly succeeded.

All About a Boy I call Boo

Age- 2 Years 3 months 25 Days
Weight Approx- 15kg
Height Approx- 92cm

He is very funny, he has a wonderful sense of humour.
He is a very happy boy except for when he doesn't get his way.
He is very cheeky and is constantly in trouble.
He is very affectionate and gives random kisses and cuddles.
He has lots of girlfriends. One particular one, they are very fond of each other.

Here they are in action!

He has just discovered the word "mine" so EVERYTHING belongs to him.
But he does love to share...most of the time. He wont eat something without making sure his little friends have one too, what ever it may be.

His language has been delayed but in the last few weeks he has discovered new words and strings them into sentences, he constantly surprises me.
Mummy gone. More pasta please. My turn. Cockadoodle doo is his word for the week. He has had problems breathing at night with a stuffy nose for quite some time now.
He constantly wakes of a night, I don't recall the last time he actually slept through the entire night. Mainly because he can't breath. He is an early riser, he is usually up anywhere between 5 and 6am. It makes for one very tired Mummy.
We have been down the allergy route but have recently discovered that he has obstructive sleep apnea and glue ear. Both possibly affecting his speech. He has had a hearing test and all is well with his hearing. He just chooses not to hear me at times!
He is booked in for the 23rd of Jan to have his tonsils and adenoids out and grommets put in his ears.
I'm really not looking forward to it, but I am hoping it will sort out his issues. Well the surgeon tells me it will! If his speech doesn't improve after his surgery, I will look into getting him into a speech pathologist.


He has his favourite teddy that he sleeps with and drags him around the house when he is tired.
His favourite movies are Toy Story 1 & 2 and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
His favourite TV shows are, Charlie and Lola and Fireman Sam.
His favourite books are any Charlie and Lola book, Upsy Down Town and The Little Yellow Digger.
He loves playing with trucks, his play kitchen and his Woody doll. Santa is bringing him Buzz and Jessie, I can't wait to see his face.
His favourite foods are, sushi, sausages and ravioli.
He loves going on adventures. He is very inquisitive and just takes in his surrounding.
He is a people watcher and is happy to sit in a crowd and watch and learn.

I seriously do not know what I would do if he wasn't in my life.
He makes laugh, he makes me cry with happiness, yes he makes me angry too.
He makes my heart so full and puffy.
I love you lots Boo xx

The Missing Pieces.

Christmas is going to be very different this year....without my Mum, without Max.
By this time my Mum would have baked hundreds of Italian biscuits and made cannoli and all the specials xmas treats she used make. This year we wont be enjoying any of them. It's sad that Boo wont remember her, that he wont remember her love for cooking and food. The wonderful talent she had that bought us all so much joy, that Max was always in awe of. I have been crying a lot for Mum lately, I miss her terribly. It was her birthday on Monday, it was a prticularly hard day to get through, but all the firsts are, I know because I have already experienced it with Max. I just need to get through this Christmas the best I can and enjoy it for my Boo's sake.

Boo helped me put the Christmas tree up yesterday. He loved helping. The only problem is that he has continued to put the decorations up and down on the tree since yesterday! It was a bittersweet moment, watching him put the decorations up. It was something I always wanted to share with Max. I kept thinking of the discussions I had with Max about when we would upgrade our tree and it was always wait till we have kids and we will get a bigger better one then. So now I have a kid, a bigger tree but no Max.

I bought Boo a Little People Nativity set and gave it to him once we had completed putting the tree up. He loves it. I really gave this gift to him on behalf of my Mum, I know that if she had seen it she would have wanted to buy it for him. You see ever since I can remember, my mother put out a nativity. She would lay down the plastic fake grass and build her nativity with all her ceramic pieces that she had bought from Italy when we went there when I was 5. Over the years some of the pieces had broken and were cracked or glued backed together, it had gone through all of us kids. It didn't come out for a few years not until the grandchildren started arriving then out it came again, every Christmas up until the last.

So now we have our own nativity and I want to put it up every year and remember my Mum.

*Boo insists that the lamb should be in the manger instead of baby Je-sus.

Where have I been ?

I have been neglecting my blog, my blogging friends, commenting, reading of late and I don't like it. I need my blog, I need my blog friends and I miss you all. I do.

I have been focusing on my business which has been really busy, I love capturing beautiful people. But I am still juggling it all. I write so many posts in my head by the time I have the time to blog, I no longer have the energy to write coherently. I am hoping this is just temporary, I have a few more booked out weekends before Christmas then I hope to have a break for a few weeks so I can fine tune things and also get time to blog when I want to.

I have lots to tell you and hope to fill you in, in the very near future. But in the meantime please come and tell me what you have been up to or say hi, because I miss you all.

We Heart The Zoo

Took Boo to the Zoo again, I didn't realise that it had been so long between visits, 6 months in fact. I have promised to take him more often and renew my yearly membership. There was a big difference in taking him this time compared to the last. He was so engaged with the animals, he loved seeing them all. The main attraction was seeing the three new Tiger cubs born in August but have only just come out to the public. Oh so cute! If I could take one home I would. He was calling animal names and mimicking sounds, it was so delightful watching him. This time I took him to the children's area which we didn't get to last time, there is so much to see that we have to pick and choose what to visit. He loved it.

Here are some pics I took of the day.

Missing Someone.

I came across this on FB and it's just so true. Between missing Max and missing my Mum, it happens so frequently to me. Some times I surprise myself as to how well I am getting on, keeping very busy is helping I must admit. Then there are other days, when I do don't do too well.
I went to a friends wedding yesterday it was a gorgeous day and a beautiful wedding. Lots of fun catching up with friends, lots of laughs and giggles like the old times. But I wish Max was sitting with me at the table enjoying the day, getting up and having a dance, laughing together, enjoying some wine. Telling me I look beautiful although I never felt it, he made sure he told me how beautiful I looked and smothered me with hugs and kisses.

Days like that are the days I miss him so much.

What? Really ?

Has it been 2 weeks since I updated? Well those weeks have flown and I have been really busy.
It has been that long since I launched my business and I am happy to say it has started to take off with my Christmas special. It's pretty cheap and I am not making much money out if it just yet, but I want to get my work out there and get work by word of mouth and it seems to be working. I just hope it continues to once I charge my fixed prices. I don't want to be known as the cheap photographer either. It's a risk I have to take

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my work, it's always nice to hear. I have updated my galleries with my recent work if you would like to have a look.

I have learnt a lot in the last couple of weeks, that is for sure. I did two product shoots one for baby onsies and another for cloth nappies. There were 7 babies under the age of one. I was quite nervous at the thought of it but once I got going I was ok and the little ones were all great too. It was a new experience for me and glad I had the opportunity to do it.

A lot of people are starting to want family portraits done which is great, but since one of the partners or both are usually working the shoots have to be done on the weekend which means I have to find someone to look after Boo. If they are baby shoots I have been able to to do them on Boos daycare days and that has worked perfectly. It has been challenging to get someone to look after him on the weekends though, they are either working or studying or have their own kids to look after. I am hoping that once I go onto my fixed prices and I can book in a few sessions on the one day then I can pay a sitter but for now it's just not feasible.

I think I got the raw end of the deal. My Mum used to look after my nieces and nephews when they were little. Like ALL the time. I was still living at home back then and I would wake up on a Sunday morning to some little body jumping into my bed, I would usually be nursing a hangover after having a big night out, as teenagers do. Or hearing them asking my Mum why was I still sleeping it was almost lunch time? So last Saturday morning, I thought I would payback my niece and threw Boo into her bed to wake her up so she could look after him for a few hours....insert wicked laugh here....
I have booked Boo in for 3 consecutive days at family daycare next year, that will help.

So that is where I am at, I am loving every minute of my new job. I often think of Max and my Mum and wonder what they would think. I know they would be so supportive, I miss them both for that. A lot.