Whew, it’s hot this evening! I checked my thermometer outside earlier in the afternoon and it said it was 35 degrees celsius in our backyard. This post is actually supposed to be a somewhat belated introduction to our newest additions – the chickens. One of them is so hot at the moment she’s wandering around with her beak wide open and her wings raised, so we just went out and watered them (read: hosed them down).

Anyway, meet Daisy and Lola!

Daisy foreground, Lola background

We found Daisy, who is clearly a hen being raised for her meat because she’s frankly quite the lard arse, wandering along a busy street with cars tooting at her every five seconds. We spent a while chasing her and finally caught her and asked around to see if anyone had lost a hen from their flock, which no one had. So we decided to keep her.

Which brings us to Lola, who was “adopted” from a local egg farm. She’s a fantastic layer; you can tell this by the fact that she looks…like crap, basically. Apparently good egg layers look a tad mangey because they spend all of their energy poppin’ out the eggs and they don’t groom themselves. So yes, Lola will lay twice or thrice a day. Nothing like going out to collect a fresh egg in the morning for breakfast, Blake loves it.

Blake proudly showing off one of his eggs...

Daisy, on the other hand, lays an egg every second day and a small one at that. I get the impression that she’s an older hen and she was clearly being fattened up. She’s in perfect condition and spends a lot of time preening and grooming herself. Both hens are quite tame and entertaining to watch. Blake loves them, he loves hand feeding them and finds it particularly hilarious when they mistake his chubby little toes for grubs and peck at them.

Feeding the chickies

We built them a coop. It’s a work in progress, it doesn’t have a functional door yet which is why there’s scraps of board up against it and the blanket is to provide a bit of shade, because today the sun was streaming in there. There’s a wire roof, too. We have a massive backyard though and really the coop is only just for overnight use and until they get used to it here.

Nearly completed chicken coop, just needs a door!

In other news, Byron now has three teeth (bottom right and both incisors) which make him look like an adorable little vampire baby, but Twilight has ruined the idea of that for me. He’s crawling; the same bizarre version of “The Worm” that Blake was once known for. Lots of things are changing this year, it’s actually amazing how as soon as 2012 hit, things started happening for us. Big changes are ahead, mostly concerning finances and occupation…I’m nervous, excited, relieved, but mostly massively excited.

Total bliss, can we just ban Autumn from ever coming?

This Summer has been a blast and I intend on making the most of the remainder of it, I just hope the warm weather holds out. There’s absolutely nothing like swimming in the sea – me and Blake love it, whilst Daniel and Byron sit on shark-watch on the shore, the delicate little petals. Byron screams the second his toes touch the sea. So does Daniel, to be honest.

Anyway, I hope you guys are all enjoying your Summer too! And all you folks in the other hemisphere, this is what you’ve got to look forward to, right!?

All you need is love...

My first son walked at 10 months old.

He met all milestones early.

Neither of my sons have experienced any serious illnesses.

They have great immune systems.

My second son is in the 95th percentile for weight and the 60th for height.

He’s been sleeping an undisturbed 10 hours straight and has been doing so for months.

I held both of my sons close and looked deep into their eyes while feeding.

I like to wear scarves for Byron to fiddle with during feeds.

He falls asleep in my arms as he feeds and we cuddle for a long time.

Feeding time has always been a deeply intimate bonding experience for us.

***

Do I sound like a breastfeeding mother?

I’m not. I formula-fed both of my sons; my second son was fed primarily from a bottle right from birth.

I am tired of the shame. I felt so
much guilt and shame for not being able to breastfeed my children. The way the lactation consultant patronized me when I couldn’t do it, the way she said “Well there’s obviously something wrong with you” when my blistering and blackened nipples failed to produce more than a mere drop of milk despite the constant expressing…it filled me with a sense of failure. And what for? My babies, as noted above, have achieved everything that breastfeeding mums give themselves credit for because they were lucky enough to breastfeed. But when my babies achieve it, I can’t congratulate myself. For me, it’s just the luck of the draw that my kids thrived so well despite the lack of the boob.

Is it jealousy, the reason why I feel a pang of annoyance and even offense when I read tweets like “My baby does [insert awesome thing here], it’s the breast milk!”? I think to myself…well, no, my baby does that too. I see people retweeting anti-Formula tweets about a baby’s death due to bacteria found in the formula; “This is why I don’t formula feed” they say, but no one ever points out that children have died after breastfeeding too, for example when the mother has taken narcotics. Freak accidents. Both incidents.

And if it is jealousy driving my feelings when I read such things, why am I jealous? My babies are content and thriving, we enjoy
each other’s skin-to-skin and eye-contact every time we feed, I have nothing to envy. Nothing but the admiration and approval of our very pro-breastfeeding society. I envy that.

I’m an awesome mum. My kids are awesome kids who achieve milestones and thrive. I always give them the best I’ve got to give and sometimes, breast is not best. I tried. My first son lost significant amounts of weight and wailed with hunger whilst I sat around crying and overcome with failure and depression, forcing him onto dry and infected nipples. I refused to put myself or my next son through that again the second time around and simply gave him my colostrum along with formula from Day 1. Both children thrived on formula. Why do I feel so ashamed and guilty?

I think society could use some more support and understanding for those mothers who cannot breastfeed, or those who chose not to. There’s nothing more hurtful to a mother than it being implied that she is not doing the best for her children. All these “breast is best” campaigns, they make us breastfeeding “failures” feel like second-rate mothers.

Think about it like this. To me it’s just as hurtful as if someone put “Vaginal is best!” posters all over a delivery suite. Yes, we all know vaginal births are the least risky and most ideal way to give birth. But some women can’t do it and some women exercise their right to just plain choose not to do it and have a c-section instead. But the consequences of their choice or inability isn’t constantly rubbed in their face in the media simply for the sake of making the mothers that COULD do it feel great about it…and the mothers that couldn’t feel shamed and hurt.

Sometimes it’s not a choice.

And so what if sometimes it is? Do women not have the right to make choices related to their own bodies without being guilted or shamed?

I don’t have time for a big recap of 2011 at the moment and will probably get around to doing one eventually, but for now (before it gets too late already!) here is a survey that I completed on the year gone by.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Got married, gave birth in a public hospital, drove alone with Daniel at the wheel (he got his license after being seizure-free for some time!), participated in a Pride march, went to lots of new places in Northern Tasmania, went to drag queen shows, went clubbing regularly, personal stuff related to the bedroom…winky winky! And some other personal things that needn’t be online.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My New Years’ resolution was to avoid drama, end toxic friendships and behave more maturely, not be influenced by others into lowering myself to their “level”. I kept that resolution and continue to stick by it. My New Years’ resolution this year is to manage my finances better and to behave more responsibly, sucking up the concept that as an adult I must often do things I don’t want to do.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Myself and my cousin’s wife

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. What countries did you visit?
None, unfortunately!

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
More of a sense of direction and money-management

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
1 Jan 2011, my wedding date. 25 May 2011, the date my second son was born.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting married to a man who is everything I could have ever hoped for, someone who meshes with me and just plain makes life better.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Living “in the moment” far too much. Making rushed decisions and focussing more on the pleasure of instant gratification rather than considering any future consequences.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not that I can remember. I did have low blood pressure throughout my pregnancy that resulted in a lot of fainting spells, sometimes in public and one resulted in an ambulance trip into hospital.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My iPhone 4 and a new laptop.

12. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, baby gear, and stupidly…a lot of roadtrips around the state, petrol, drinking.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting married, having another baby boy, the Summer

14. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Million Dollar Bill by Whitney Houston, the Freemasons remix…because I really love dancing to it when we’re out at the club, I literally run onto that dancefloor when I hear it!

15. Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Older or wiser? Thinner or fatter?
Happier (I’m married, have two exciting little boys, live in a comfortable and stable home, and I cut the dead-wood out of my life near the beginning of the year). I’m wiser (I learned a LOT from my mistakes this year), thinner (I lost around 20kg! Yay!)

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Saving money, working

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Not trying hard enough to be at work, often if we had conflicting schedules and no one was available to watch the kids, I’d take that as an easy excuse to not go to work. I could have tried harder to make more of an effort. This year, I’m going to take on every single shift. Money is the priority for 2012.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
With family at my mum and dad’s house.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
I didn’t really have one, but I watched Home & Away regularly

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope!

23. What was the best book you read?
Speedcleaning by Shannon Lush…changed the way I look after my house!

24. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Modestep!

25. What did you want and get?
An iPhone, a laptop, a new stereo, Pokemon White, a husband and a baby, lots of stuff, really!

26. What did you want and not get?
I’m desperate to get Skyrim

27. What was your favorite film of this year?
Melancholia and HP7P2

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 23 and I can’t really remember what we did! I know we had a really nice dinner with family and I got an awesome massage.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More travel, but we did do a LOT of that this year anyway. We just need our finances to be a little more stable before we can do any more extensive travelling. I would have loved to have seen my sister more throughout the year (I only saw her at my wedding all year). More money would have changed things immensely for the better!

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Definitely a lot more revealing and bordering on a wee bit trashy when I go out, as I lost a lot of weight. Lots of fishnets and lace and tight dresses. For casual clothes, I wore a LOT of black. Contradicting what I said in that first sentence, I’m a little more conservative (in a casual setting) than I was in 2010 – I dye my hair more natural colours now and removed all of my facial piercings.

31. What kept you sane?
Going clubbing and having date nights alone with Daniel. It makes me retain my identity amongst the demands of motherhood and it’s fantastic for our relationship. Having fun together is so important for us.

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Dita Von Teese

33. What issue stirred you the most?
Marriage equality, animal welfare issues

34. Who did you miss?
No one, really. Like I said, I would have loved to have seen more of my sister but she has lived interstate my whole life anyhow.

35. Who was the best new person you met?
Oh, tough question! I have met some incredible new people since we started going out to the same club regularly. I’m very happy to say that this year I’ve made more friends than I have in any other year; it’s been a very social year for me.

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
Don’t be tempted by instant gratification and getting pleasure in the here-and-now, think hard about your future and where your decisions will lead you later down the track. Suck up unpleasant obligations for the sake of the greater good.

A belated Christmas post! Christmas 2011 was Byron’s first Christmas, at 7 months old. It was Blake’s third Christmas, him being 29 months old (wow!)

Blake was so excited in the lead-up to Christmas. It was all about the “crissmix twees” this year, he loved them and pointed them out wherever we went. We even had a bit of a scare when he nearly did a mad dash across a road to see a real one up close in someone’s lawn, which wasn’t even a Christmas tree, just a random undecorated pine. We had to pull him back by his shirt!

We went Christmas lighting this year which was a bit of a failure as it doesn’t get dark until 9pm here during Summer and both children were so tired (Byron slept through it entirely). Blake was half-asleep and let out a half-hearted “Wow, crissmix lights, niiiice”…I think he thought he was dreaming.

We spent Christmas morning at home just with Blake’s grandparents and had our now traditional Christmas breakfast of French toast and eggs after unwrapping some gifts. Also now traditional is the wearing of Christmas pajamas to bed on Christmas Eve and throughout the morning! It’s adorable. Next year I want to get some adult ones! Blake opened lots of Little People toys from Santa this year and spent the morning playing with his Wheelies ramps. He is also very keen on puzzles with an amazing memory, so he played with his new ones and I quickly learned the ones I had bought were far too simple.

We spent some time alone at home after breakfast before going to a traditional Christmas lunch with the family. Blake and Byron opened lots of gifts from aunts, uncles and great grandparents! Byron, who now eats four solid meals a day, had ham and potato and roast vegetables pureed for his lunch and he loved it so much that he grabbed for the spoon and whined between each mouthful, because he wasn’t being fed fast enough! Blake also loved his lunch and clearly felt very grown up eating at the table with the adults.

It was magical this year, watching Blake rip into his gifts and thank people for them, so excited. He would often reach for a gift and we’d say “No Blake, that’s Byron’s” and he would say “Oh! Dere Bubble!” and toss it towards Byron. Then, upon seeing Byron couldn’t open it, he’d open it in front of Byron and say “Wow Bubble look!”…I’m serious, this stuff is seriously heart-warming for a parent. Blake and Byron were absolutely mesmerized by the decorations and lights, too. I’m so excited for next year because I’m positive Blake will know and remember what exactly “Christmas” is and will probably even understand the concept of Santa.

This year we asked him if Santa (who he recognizes and associates with Christmas) was going to drop off gifts for him, at our house. He looked horrified and said “No mummy! No Santa. No Santa thank you please mummy.”

We also asked him if he wanted to leave some biscuits and milk out for Santa and the reindeer and I swear he nearly laughed at the idea of leaving good food outdoors. “Noooo” he said. “Noooo” in his deep little “Don’t be so silly” voice.

Playing with new toys at Nanna's house

Daniel and I both had a magical day at Christmas this year. Children bring all the magic and joy back into the holiday season for an adult, it’s truly a thrill! I can’t wait until 2012′s Christmas and dread tomorrow when I will have to take down the decorations and the tree, much to Blake’s dismay – and Byron’s, as he will no longer be able to tear the baubles off for teething relief.

So, merry Christmas and a happy new year to all! How were your holidays!? I will upload some more photos from Christmas to my Flickr album soon. For now, I’m off to celebrate my first wedding anniversary!

I’m going to be doing a series of posts on organizing the home as I go through my own and get it ready for the new year. Our pantry is probably the hardest place for me to organize. I envy those who have walk-in pantries like people tend to have throughout the US, but they’re much less common in Australia (or at least in all the houses I’ve been to). Our kitchen is poorly designed and since we’re only renting, we can’t make any structural changes so we must make do with what we have. And what we have is a very awkward corner pantry with many spots that are difficult to access due to the depth.

See? Totally awkward corner cabinet, with bonus awkward folding doors that are prone to hitting me in the face.

So I decided to tackle it using some $2 storage containers from K-Mart and a few handmade labels (my label maker has run out of ribbon! Oh no!)

My first brain-wave was to use a Lazy Susan in the back corner of one of the shelves I find hardest to access. Now it prevents me from wasting space back there and I can just turn the wheel and have all of my sauces and jars available at a glance. This comes in so handy.

I also decided to attach some racks to the back walls of the pantry so that the space isn’t going to waste. This prevents a lot of clutter and gives me a place to store my herbs and spices and some jars of spread without having to shuffle through several other items. I attached them with Selley’s removable adhesive hooks.

I put baking supplies (such as sugar, various flours, essences, etc) on top of a serving tray so that the whole lot can be easily taken in and out of the pantry with ease, since when I’m baking I usually need more than one item from that category. {following photo unrelated, don’t worry, the tray isn’t invisible!}

I sorted everything else into the storage containers and labelled them. I’m going to make some nice pretty labels soon and will post a blog update about labelling when I do, but for now they’re simple but effective enough. Things that I want to keep out of the kids’ reach went on the top shelf, like our medicine box and cleaning products. I also have a basket for seasonal dinnerware and disposable plates for use with guests.

At the bottom of the pantry are surplus items and shopping/lunch bags, as well as a basket just for the cats’ food.

Ours is a totally awkward pantry but since I’ve organized the space this way, it has really helped to keep things tidy and even Blake knows how to independently access his container full of snacks. Yay!

I feel like half of my week is spent reorganizing and tidying the kids’ play room, so I’m constantly trying to think of the most effective way to store things and ensure that they always have a “place”. I’ve always found that games with several small pieces, like jigsaw puzzles, are the biggest pain in the neck to store. We’ve had to throw so many in the trash because so many pieces had just disappeared into the bloody mysterious abyss in this house that so many things – usually socks – get lost in.

So this morning I decided to do something about it and store them properly. I’m using large zip-lock/resealable bags and keeping puzzles in those from now on and they can then be stored on shelves in the same way you’d keep books.
You can cut out the fronts of the boxes that the puzzle came in, to slip inside the bag too so that they can be easily recognized. If it didn’t come in a box or you don’t have it anymore, take a photo of the completed puzzle and slip that in instead. Or you could just do what I did and write a descriptive label on the bag.

The same method can be used for storing board games.

Knowing kids, pieces will inevitably still go walk-about, so I stuck a coloured sticker on the back of each piece and the board itself (each board game has its respective colour) and also put the same coloured sticker on the puzzle’s bag so that I can see at a glance where the piece came from.

If anyone else has any tips or ideas on how to store stuff like this, share them in the comments!

I was reading a blog post earlier today over on The Feminist Breeder about babies. In particular, babies and sleeping. One commenter made the grand sweeping statement that “Everyone struggles getting their babies to sleep at night and every mother who says their baby slept through at three months old is lying to make us feel bad”.


Guess what? My second son slept through at three months. Really truly honest. In fact, he slept through even earlier than that. He continues to do so to this day, at six months old, teething. I swear he is the reincarnation of a sloth.

I have no interest in making other mothers feel bad. I have no need to lie. I’m confident in my parenting ability and I’m quite happy to tell you that my first son “slept” horribly (read: thrashed around, talked, screamed, head-banged and generally acted like a wee demon) and also continues to hop into mummy and daddy’s bed in the early hours of the morning to this day. He needed to be strapped to his bed with a Safe-T-Sleep Sleepwrap like some kind of psychopath until he was well over a year old.

I’m also happy to admit that the fact my second son sleeps like such a dream baby probably has zilch to do with my parenting. I’m no super mum. I’m just lucky. It’s luck. Sure, I’m a lot less fussy and significantly less strict on routine this time around – Byron is ALL baby-led. But at the end of the day, I still wholeheartedly believe that it’s luck. I’m sure glad he’s my second kid, too…’cause if he was my first I may have assumed that all babies were this “easy” and had a nasty shock when any future babies turned out to be the screaming banshees we all know too well.

Unfortunately, the fact that Byron slept through so early had the Internet know-it-alls crawling out of the woodwork, accusing me of underfeeding and starving my son to death. Meanwhile the kid’s guzzling down enough milk to satisfy a baby twice his age every 2 hours during the day and charting in the 95th percentile for length and the 60th for weight, not to mention pooping for Texas, but who really cares about those facts eh? Clearly the bouncing, laughing and jolly chubby boy I have in my lap is just wasting away and I deserve to be reported to DHS, so that someone can please take this poor child away from his disgrace of a mother.

Y’know. Because he sleeps through.

I mean, for real. In the mummysphere, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

How about we all just let each other be and acknowledge that all babies are dramatically different?

And let’s acknowledge that hitting the holy grail in terms of “easy babies” isn’t about us lying to make you feel bad. That’s your paranoia talking. It’s about luck, as far as I’m concerned. Pure and simple. And at the end of the day, we are ALL lucky to be holding our wonderful bundles of joy. Whether it’s incessant wailing at midnight that you hear, or the soft sighs of a baby dreaming…our homes are oozing with life and the sounds of a family that some may never get to experience. We are all lucky, whether we have a sleepy baby or a nocturnal one. Stop judging, stop branding other mothers “liars” and accusing us of setting out to be queen bee just to make the rest of you feel sub-par. Stop worrying about everyone else; you may be one mother among many, but you are your child’s one and only. The two of you are all that matter.

Bugger, it happened again and I’d been going so well! I seem to have a nasty habit of taking these unintentional hiatuses. Life just gets busy and I’m constantly thinking about how I want to write, constantly listing off ideas of topics to write about, but simply never finding the time.

The past few months have been busy, lots of fun. Blake has been going to early learning sessions which have seen him come a long way in terms of engaging in reciprocal play and developing his vocabulary. He has had massive explosions in learning and I’m so impressed. It has also been a busy few months for us socially.

One of the highlights was our very first Halloween party! We invited just a few friends around (we didn’t want to overwhelm Blake with too many people) for a lunchtime party and decked the house out in Halloween decorations! It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time. We hope to make it an annual tradition!

Our living room all decorated for the kids' first Halloween!

We also marched in the Flamingos (our favourite club) float for Tasmania’s first Pride Parade! It was a great sunny day and it was great fun dancing down the street to Born This Way, with lots of support from onlookers! I’m so happy to see bigotry rapidly dissolving out of our society. Like I said on Facebook recently, the more threatened people feel, the louder and the harder they’ll fight…but soon, the bigots will be part of a small minority and no one will want to hear their disgraceful opinions. This is a new generation, a new wave of acceptance and appreciation of difference! Speaking of Flams, we have been clubbing every Friday fortnightly and only just surviving the following weekend, which explains why my promises of “I’ll post a blog this weekend!” go broken.

We have also been on a few roadtrips up the north of the state, once with the children. Blake loved seeing the monkeys at Launceston but didn’t tolerate the hotel stay very much. I went on the chair lift across the Cataract Gorge! We also stayed in Burnie as part of a fundraiser for Tassie’s representing drag queen for the Queens of the Galaxy, who is one of the many new buddies we have made this year. I must say, Burnie itself isn’t much of a must-see destination but the drive there was simply stunning and I wish I had taken my camera. It was beautiful driving up there, looking forward to a night of frivolity!

This is Burnie. Told ya.

We’ve also been doing a ton of hiking and have completed most of the short walks in Southern Tasmania. My favourite so far was the Waterfall Bay walk near the Tasman Arch. Oh my gosh, the scenery was just breathtaking as you walk along the cliff’s edge, right on the peninsula. Luckily the weather was fantastic and we enjoyed blue skies and deep blue ocean, even Blake loved it.

Simply stunning. Places like this make me proud to be Tasmanian.

Longest walking track name ever!?

Mix in lots of cheese and wine dates with friends, playdates with lots of other kiddies, random for-no-reason barbecues and birthday parties and Father’s Day and Christmas shopping…all in between my return to work after maternity leave…you can see why I haven’t found the time to write!

But I’m BACK! In the thick of the holiday season, I have a lot of plans for this blog, perhaps giving it a bit more of a “niche” than it has at present. I have a lot of ideas in my head that I hope will make for enjoyable blog posts – mainly centered around home life, children, organization/planning, that kind of thing. Stay tuned!

Oh…and Blake had his first salon haircut, and Byron has started eating solid food!

And they're both doing very well.

How are you guys? I hope you’re well. By the way, if you have any ideas, suggestions or requests for blog posts here, feel free to post them in the comments! I could always use some inspiration.

We are raising a new generation of children who will experience something that we never did. We are parents who have our entire existence chronicled on Facebook, on a new timeline from birth to present (can’t wait to see the frenzy when that new timeline rolls out this month), accessible at the click of a button for anyone who has access. We are parents who blog and document everything. We are parents who once took seriously the warnings to keep our personal details, even our real names, off the Internet…yet now we are a generation of parents who create YouTube channels on behalf of our small children, gladly sharing their real full names and locations, in the hopes of having their singing talents discovered. Yes, parents of Sophia Grace Brownlee, I’m talking about you.

Seriously. It freaks. me. out. to imagine creating a YouTube channel on behalf of Blake, using his full name as the username. And uh, aren’t you supposed to be over 13 to create a YouTube channel anyway!?

I read and appreciate blogs from all over the world, written by parents who are sharing their experiences with everything from their experiences with divorce and marital problems to their child’s developmental assessments, behavioural issues and health problems. Sharing it all. Making money. “Professional bloggers”. But when will it stop?

When will they grant their children the respect and privacy to not have their personal medical conditions broadcast online? Will their children ever have the choice to keep those matters private, will the posts ever be deleted when the child gets old enough to say “You know what? I don’t actually want the whole world knowing that I have an ASD and how it nearly broke up my parent’s marriage”?

I feel like some bloggers forget that their children are actual real live people who will one day grow up and desire privacy. People who will want to own the choice as to what is shared about them online, what they disclose. And yet half of these people have their entire lives documented publicly already. Their parents make a living from their openness and willingness to share the deepest, darkest details of their lives, at the expense of privacy. As if schoolyard gossip and bullying isn’t bad enough without parents and friends knowing the ins-and-outs of a cat’s arse because “Did you know Little Joe’s mother keeps a diary on the Internet? “

Sometimes I wish I was able to be more open online, because I can see how it benefits other parents and people in general. I can see how it broadens connections, invites opportunities, creates friendships and support networks. But I can’t. There is always something holding me back. I ask myself, all the time, does the entire world need to know this? Will my children, years from now, want this information on the Internet?

I am often asked to blog more, vlog more, share more. And I’m just not comfortable with it since starting a family and having their privacy to consider. It makes it hard to blog. I only feel OK sharing the most banal of details and it’s boring and it feels strange because other bloggers feel comfortable sharing so much. Maybe I’m just past it or something. Am I in the minority here? Am I still one of the only people who still freaks out when they find out that they’ve accidentally broadcast their full name on some random website because of a sneaky little connection to Facebook?

Probably. Meh.

So, I’ve been intending to make this post for quite a while now but time just keeps slipping away from me and I haven’t had the chance. I’ve been asked about it several times over on Formspring and I keep saying I’ll do it, I’m so sorry for keeping you guys waiting. I’m just going to make it quick.

26th May, 1 day after giving birth

The above is a photo of me one day after giving birth to Byron, just to give you a bit of an idea where I started out with the weightloss and toning. And also just for the hell of showing you what a post-partum tummy looks like. That thing definitely doesn’t just deflate over night. Well, to be fair, it does deflate overnight…just not enough.

30 Day Shred, before and after

And those are my before and after photos (plus measurements) from the 30 Day Shred. Before I started the 30DS I was just walking for 45 minutes a day or interval running three times a week.

So I did the Shred for 26/30 days and lost 6kgs. I caught up on the 4 missed days at the end; I just did an extra 4 days of Level 3.

My posts covering the 30 Day Shred are here:
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3

I’m now doing the 6 Week 6 Pack program which I’ll review for you guys soon too. It’s not as enjoyable as the 30DS, let me tell you.