My family and I are embarking on a new journey. We are adding to the family. We have just told our friends that we are pregnant with bub number two! We are very excited about this and can't wait to meet the new addition, even though it is numerous months away yet!

I must say, much to my husband's horror, that I could get addicted to this. I love waiting to see who has been created inside my womb. I was the same when pregnant with Rascal and it has been an absolute joy to find out who she is and who she has become so far. I am now itching to see who this number 2 bubby is. Will it be a boy or a girl? What will their personality be like? What will they look like? And I could go on and on. I could seriously get addicted to becoming pregnant and waiting to see who the little person is. We might end up with 20 kids! Well, I seriously doubt that, but I am addicted after all!

Will it be a boy or a girl? That is the question. I get many people, and I used to be in the category, who say things like, 'I bet you're hoping for a boy' or 'this one had better be a boy." And surprisingly, now that I'm on the other side, I don't actually think like that. The decision has already been made and it is out of my hands. I have loved having a girl with Rascal and I would honestly love another girl. I would also love to have a boy, so I wouldn't mind if it was one of that variety either! I used to shake my head in disbelief when people said 'I just want a healthy baby.' I would be thinking, 'as if they don't want a boy!!!!'  It's funny how the mind changes as you enter different life stages. Because I seriously, honestly, one hundred percent do not mind what it is. I will definitely find out, as I don't have the patience to wait, but I will not mind! 

I am looking forward to this journey again. Looking forward to feeling a baby move around in my tummy. Looking forward to meeting them and finding out who's been in there kicking me. It will be a ride!

Libby :)

Rascal is 16 months old now. About 16 and a half if you want to be finicky. She has always been extremely cautious about everything, but lately this seems to have gone out the window as far as going 'up' is concerned. She has just discovered climbing. Now I know that many children discover this very early on, but remember that Rascal has always been extremely cautious. Just recently, she decided that the footstool of my rocking chair, which also rocks, was an interesting place to climb. She climbs up on it and rocks dangerously, and Mummy, who isn't used to such stunts of daredevil level, holds her breath most of the time! One time, she rocked a bit to ferociously and off she came, head-first into the cot, which is a lovely soft landing spot, NOT! There were tears and Mummy admits to saying "I told you so." She still goes on it though, so apparently not fazed!

This morning, Daddy was sitting on the bed, tying his shoelaces. Rascal was sitting in an empty suitcase that has been there since I returned from a trip over a month ago. She loves this thing and sits in there to read her books. Anyway, the next second he knows, Rascal is sitting on the bed next to him. She now climbs onto the bed. 

All this climbing is great and I am gradually adjusting to it, but the problem is, no matter how hard and how long I have been trying to teach her to turn around to go down, it just doesn't seem to be getting through. For months I have been reminding her to turn around, turning her around physically and helping her to learn how to do it. She was on the bed a few weeks ago and refused to turn around when Daddy was telling her to, so I said 'just let her go so she knows what happens when she doesn't turn around.' (Note that our bed isn't high, but a lower design). So he let her go. She dove off head-first. And kept crawling in the direction she wanted to go. No hesitation. No injury. Great lesson learning!  So whereas climbing is one thing, I am waiting for the day that she head-dives off something too tall and seriously injures herself.... though I hope it never happens. 

It's funny how, as a mother, you have to readjust your mindset every few weeks or months. Once they start rolling, you can't leave them somewhere they could roll off. Once they crawl, you have to move everything dangerous away on the floor. Then they stand and you have to move everything the next level up and so on. It is a constant readjustment of attitude and thought. But I guess that's the challenge! And most of us rise to it with very little injury to ourselves. And, amazingly, very little injury to the babies!

Libby :)

Rascal has always been quite a neat child. She makes a small amount of mess when eating and playing but nothing to write about. Her birthday cake smash, for example, consisted of her making dainty little pinches at the icing and eating it one pinch at a time. So I guess, although she is outside sometimes, she doesn't have a lot to do with dirt. 

Our family has just moved house to a newly built house. It is lovely, and, as we designed it, exactly what we wanted. So there have been a few weeks of hectic moving followed by a few weeks of finding a spot for everything, which hasn't concluded yet. In the last week, though, we have tried to make a garden out of our dirt. And, quite frankly, we don't care if we never see a piece of dirt again!

Rascal has had several opportunities to be involved in the dirt. The first time I intentionally dressed her in dark coloured clothes and then let her loose with a pile of top soil. She wasn't that interested in the top soil, only the road. Luckily we live in a small court which isn't a through road, but I couldn't believe that she wasn't interested! I guess she's just not a messy child. After a few minutes she played in it a bit but preferred the water and grass and other things to play with. 

Because of all our landscaping, the house has become a dust zone. She loves this and will crawl along through the 1mm dust layer on the floor, leaving her tracks everywhere she goes. She plays with the dust, eats the dust and loves to help me try to vacuum the dust (which I have given up on until this is all finished). So it appears she likes dust, not dirt. I can't wait til it's all over and dirt and dust don't rule our lives anymore! 

Libby :)