Happiness

Life is good. Yes, we live beside the busiest road in Australia in a house that is not our own. A house that needs a bigger bathroom and less leaks in the roof when it rains, but it's a lovely big house with a huge garden and lots of space for us all. You might have guessed it has been raining a lot of late. I find myself muttering under my breath a lot when it rains here because it's not supposed to. The weather is one of the reasons we moved here. To live the outdoors life, in a city by the sea. Not much point being here if it's going to rain. And yes, I know it's good for the farmers, we've been in drought for 5 years blah blah blah. But I want to go to the beach and the park and the zoo. Anyway, it's going to be sunny again tomorrow. Rick arrives on Monday from London via NZ. We are very excited about his 9 day visit and have many excursions, a weekend away and some dinners in and out planned. Scarlett is excited about spending time with her Godfather. Rick sends her postcards from every trip he makes, no matter how small, and we have saved them all for her. Florence is less excited, but then he isn't her Godfather. I have found myself bursting into tears at simple domestic scenes we are enjoying. This morning in the family room at the back of our house, Flo was kicking on her baby gym, Scarlett and I were playing catch with the 'indoor-only ball' and Rob was reading the paper on the couch and I looked at my family all together and was welling up. I have become ginormous sentimental sook.

A few days away

Feeling a bit house bound of late, getting Flo into her routine, we decided to change the scene with a last minute trip to Gerroa, one of our favourite destinations from Sydney. Less than two hours south of the city it's a gorgeous village with one shop and one cafe that sits at the northern end of Seven Mile Beach , a spectacular arch of surf, stretching down the coast for, ahem, seven miles. The house we rented was gorgeous, with the most amazing views along the beach. It's so easy to entertain Scarlett at the beach. All she needs is a football and somewhere to dig a big hole. We liked our 3 day break at the house so much, we've booked it again for the weekend of my birthday with Rick who arrives from England at the end of April for a holiday with his Goddaughter Scarlett. Florence is now a month old and putting on weight and feeding well. Her big eyes have opened up more now and we are starting to see the family resemblances and differences between her and Scarlett. I think she has my mum's Welsh nose, while she seems to have Rob's eyes. Here are a few pix of us messing about at the beach and in the bath, and some shots of the house - check out that view.

A visit from the Russells

Our old family friends,the Russells, hit Sydney this weekend. Despite the age gap between her and 12-year-old Matthew, Scarlett fell helplessly in love and thought everything he did was divine. While Matthew and Ben camped on our lawn in a tent, Mark and Laura and us caught up on old times, reminiscing about our times together in London, before children. Long gone the days of multiple fag packets, cigarettes between courses, late night board games and early hour runs to the garage for more fags. However, we remained quite certain we preferred life now. Scarlett was a stunningly behaved child and Flo, mostly, snoozed throughout.

A very Happy Easter

What a top easter. It begun on Good Friday with a birthday party for one-year old Bronte Cummins at Zoe and Paul's house complete with Easter egg hunt. Our freakish offspring being the only child among the hoard who doesn't like chocolate used her time with her collection of egg booty licking it before spitting it out on the lawn. On easter Saturday we had Kendall and Brett, the godfathers, and Lara and Adam for lunch with their new baby Toby, born three days before Florence. It was my first opportunity to exercise my long dormant 'long boozy lunch' gland and, may I say, I used my time well. It was a glorious day with Scarlett bonding even more with Godfather Brett, at one point even inviting him to wipe her bottom after a poo, high praise indeed when you're three. On Easter Sunday we walked up the road to the local church for the Easter Sunday service. We were checking out the church as a possible site for Florence's christening and found and extremely friendly and family-oriented bunch. In stark contrast to my Catholic church upbringing, where the priest was often a terrifying, booze-laden, crazy-eyed weirdo, here we found an extremely friendly vicar who likes jazz and made jokes during his sermon. Happy easter one and all.

Top weekend

We started the weekend with a visit to Wylie's baths on Friday afternoon to catch with our old mate Saska on her last afternoon in Sydney before flying back to London. Saska lived in Sydney for 10 years before heading home to England the year before last. Her leaving celebrations, dubbed the festival of Saska lasted some days and even made it into the paper. She was back in Sydney for her pre-40th birthday celebrations and the second festival of Saska was on again. We hosted a dinner and went to her 40th birthday dinner as part of the 3 week festival. our afternoon at Wylie's was quite the mother's meeting - us with Florence (Scarlett at nursery) Sue sans her son Wilf (also in nursery), Melissa with baby Lotus, Tracy pregnant with her first and Saska, being honorary bottle feeder of the Duthie offspring, keen as ever to give Flo her bottle. After an afternoon swimming in the ocean pool and basking in the sun, we headed round the corner to Barzura for champagne and rose before Saska had to leave. That night the Duthies headed out to dinner en masse. Florence slept in her pram throughout despite it being a very busy noisy restaurant, but then they sleep through anything at this age. Scarlett was a model diner, only drawing on the table cloth a bit and not throwing any of her pizza at the waiter. Saturday was a scorcher devoted to kicking a ball in the back garden, riding bikes, stocking up on food and heading to the pool. In the evening we packed up the pram and the esky and walked up the road to the local church where a brilliant jazz trio played among the gravestones. About 100 or so people gathered at sunset to listen with picnics and we dined on double smoked ham, pecorino, ciabatta, red wine and champagne, again while Flo slept throughout. It was quite magical. Then at 7.30pm we headed home in the dark to observe Earth Hour until 8.30pm where pretty much the whole city turned off its lights for an hour to bring attention to global warming. Even the harbour bridge and opera house had their spotlights turned off and most of the skyscrapers turned off unnecessary lights making a dramatic difference to the usual city skyline view at night. We lit candles and kept the telly off to do our bit too.

Out and about

We're pretty sure Florence enjoyed her first day at the beach yesterday, despite sleeping throughout the whole experience. After a few wet and windy days - very unusual for Autumn - more typical sunny days returned this week and we headed for Balmoral. We also managed a couple of trips to the pool, which were fun for Rob and Scarlett but less thrilling for Flo and I who aren't allowed to swim yet. Tomorrow night Florence will visit her first restaurant for dinner and on Saturday attend her first jazz recital in the graveyard of our local church. Doubtless she will sleep through it all.

10 days old

We can't believe 10 days has passed so quickly since Florence popped into our lives. She is being a model baby and has slipped pretty much into our fascist feeding and sleeping routine so that she is waking once a night for a feed. She nods off pretty much whenever she feels like it in the day despite our best efforts to keep her awake - pinching, sticking pins in her, hosing her down, playing really loud, really bad 70s rock etc - but by bedtime at 6.30pm she's unconscious until we wake her at 10.30pm for a bottle and then she wakes us at about 3 for another. Then she's out again until 7am. I'm relieved to be sleeping better than I did when I was pregnant now that my nocturnal bathroom visits have ceased and I can sleep comfortably on my tummy once more. Oooh and gin. It's lovely that gin. Bottle feeding rocks - for me and her, although Rob is slowly trying to introduce me to solids. We have had lots of visitors, lots of champagne and Florence has been baby sat for already as we went out to a 40th on Friday night. Scarlett is being a really sweet big sister (despite being a a bit of a stroppy sod to us) , soothing her when she cries, helping with feeds and giving big kisses and cuddles at sleep times. She's also sharing all her toys with Flo and eats all her meals sitting next to her. We're off to the shops now to show Florence off to all the Italian ladies at our local grocer who were also convinced we were having a boy.

Introducing Florence Elizabeth Mary

On St Patrick's Day at 3.20pm our second saintly daughter Florence arrived with all the speed and grace of a baseball being fired from a batting cage machine. To say her delivery was rapid would be to understate greatly. After a couple of hours of regular bearable contractions, things started to get a bit intense and I asked for an epidural. But there was no time for that namby pamby pain relief nonsense. Then I went from not even halfway dilated to giving birth in 30 minutes. I will not give details of the pain except to say, if I had been handed a gun I would have used it on myself and would have given away any state secrets in my possession. As always though once she arrived all memories of pain and suffering were replaced by feelings of adoration for our perfect little parcel. Today I am shattered as the woman sharing the hospital room with me was not blessed with a saint and her baby cried all night - and I mean all night - while Florence snoozed throughout. We are now all home and happy to receive visitors bearing flowers and cold chardonnay.

I am 3, hear me roar

Thursday was Scarlett's birthday - she turned 3. After a morning in bed opening her lovely presents and cards, we gave her the play kitchen we had been hiding in the laundry loo for the last month. At nursery she had a huge fuss made of her and had a cake. In the evening we met up with the godfathers Kendall and Brett, our friend George with her kids Sophie and James and our old mate Ann-marie who was over from Auckland for the week and we all had a special birthday dinner out. It was all a bit much for Scarlett however and after a long day of fuss and no sleep it ended in tears at bedtime. On Saturday we had Scarlett's party. Zoe and Paul arrived with a Princess jumping castle. Scarlett just about wet her pants - had she been wearing any. It was such a hot afternoon, Rob filled up the paddling pool and the kids went crazy, stripping off all their clothes, leaping in and out of the pool and then jumping on the castle and down the slide like slippery eels. It was a hoot. The adults in the meantime sat on the deck in the shade, eating sausages and gulping down much needed liquid refreshments. Today we gave Scarlett the last part of her birthday present - a new pink fairy bike from Nanny and Grandad. She was absolutely thrilled but a test drive up the driveway has revealed she needs to grow her legs another inch or so before she'll be able to ride it with the zeal and panache such a glorious bike deserves and mainly so that Rob doesn't have to bend over pushing her along as she tries to reach the pedals. I am now less than two weeks away from my due date and counting the days. Getting up in the night to visit the bathroom two or three times isn't half as much fun as it once was. Anytime you're ready, baby, is fine with me.

Zooolander

This is my first week off work and frankly I have been counting the days. We had a busy weekend of swimming and children's birthday parties. Scarlett was invited to her mate Sophie's 4th birthday party which required her to dress as a fairy princess. Here she is looking exquisitely calm and thoughtful. Moments after this photo was taken, she declared her fairy dress 'too itchy' and it was removed in favour of a more subdued gown. That's 100% polyester for you. At the party, a chaotic mix of 'live fairy entertainment', cordial, and sandwiches made from hundreds and thousands, Scarlett got her face painted before we dragged her off to bed for the afternoon, so we could return later to the party venue for adult portion of the evening, a right old knees up for everyone except the pregnant lady in the corner. When you are sober, drunk people are total idiots. Oh to be one of them again. On Monday I got to join Rob and Scarlett for their regular sojourn to Taronga Zoo. We discovered that the new elephant enclosure has an indoor annexe where you can visit and stroke the elephants. It was brilliant. We had a big cuddle with an elephant and were amazed at how hard and firm his trunk was and how spiky his hair was. Later Rob and Scarlett bumped into our old friends the Mckendrys who were hanging out at the gorilla enclosure.

A pair of queens

There was a right hoo ha in Sydney on Tuesday as the superliner Queen Mary 2, the world's biggest queen class vessel, pulled into Sydney harbour for the day. On the same evening the QE2 came in, making it the first time the two ships had crossed paths in Sydney harbour since the 1940s. The Queen Mary is absolutely enormous and was quite a spectacle. Traffic was brought to a standstill around the city, and thousands of office workers abandoned their usual positions smoking fags at the entrance of their offices for vantage points around the harbour to get a look at the floating monolith. We joined the crowds, driving down to Mrs Macquarie's Chair and spending the afternoon at the pool there right across the bay from where she was docked in Woolloomooloo. In the pic you can see the QE2 in the forground, and the massive QM2 in the background. Sydney is blessed with so many gorgeous public spaces right on the water to enjoy days like this. Spaces that in many other cities would be reserved for apartments and houses for the very rich or for office blocks - just look at the Thames. Virtually the whole of the north bank, and much of the south, is lined with office blocks and busy roads. Or New York where almost all of the green public space is away from the shore. We took advantage of Sydney's great harbour aspect again yesterday when Rob, Scarlett and I went to Redleaf Pool in Double Bay. It's an amazing shark-netted harbour swimming pool with pontoons to swim out to and sunbake on, a lovely beach, great cafe and fantastic views of all the zillionaire's homes. The point is we got to enjoy the same view as them - for free. It was a glorious day of swimming - something Scarlett can make a good fist of now without any floats - sunbathing on pontoons, lunching and making secret camps under towels. Today is my work leaving lunch before I head off tomorrow. A visit to the Dr last night revealed the baby's head is partially engaged, ready for blast off.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

This is our last full week of Summer before Autumn officially starts on Scarlett's birthday, March 1. This weekend saw the arrival of the Chinese Year of the Pig. In Chinese lore this is considered the luckiest year to be born in which bodes well for Duthie number 2. Inside a fortune cookie I just opened it says 'Confucius say only a fool sees pork on the menu and does not order it'. Mmmm, did Confucius really say that I wonder. Another cookie ode tells me 'People born in the year of the pig are kind, honest and chivalrous, with an enjoyment of good food.' Pork presumably. We have just had a busy weekend - perhaps a little too busy. I went to see Notes on a Scandal on Friday night which I loved - Judi deserves the Oscar more than Helen in my book. Saturday we went to the Orange Grove organic markets for basil and tomatoes, but ended up buying a mushroom quiche, blood orange juice, a loaf of Sourdough, fruit juice ice pops and honey cured bacon and egg rolls as well. After a lunchtime nap we headed to the pool for a late afternoon swim before sunset. On Sunday Rob was up and out early to meet Rob and Ewan for a bike ride around the Bay Run, Scarlett and I joining them later in the park for coffee. Back home I just collapsed, realising I haven't been slowing down nearly as much as I should, despite being 36 weeks pregnant. Every day we are up and out either at the pool swimming laps, at the beach, at the shops, rushing about, I just felt so exhausted I could hardly lift my head off the couch. So while Rob took Scarlett out to the pool and to the Mardi Gras Fair Day I slept for about 3 hours with the air conditioning on in the bedroom. Heaven. Must do that more often. Not much point having an out of work husband if you don't make use of him while he's off. On their return, Scarlett joined me in bed and zonked out for another two hours, me nodding on and and off with my book. Then we packed up the car with food, drink, chairs and rugs and headed into the city for Tropfest, the world's largest short film festival which is held in The Domain every year. There are huge screens set up and the films are broadcast to live sites around Australia. The winner gets their film shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, gets flights to LA to meet with film industry dudes and prize money, so it's a big deal to win. Most of the past winners have gone on to work full time in the film industry. Every year there's theme or an item that has to be included in each film - this year it was a sneeze. There was a huge crowd but we got a great spot on the grass with good views of the screens and Scarlett was an angel only declaring it 'boring' at about 9.30pm, understandably as this was hours passed her normal bedtime. It's great that she's at an age now when we can do stuff like that with her. The winner was a film about where imaginary friends go when kids grow out of them. Where indeed. Only two more days at work as I pack up on Friday.

House & bump

Here are a few shots of our new house and my bump, being compared against that of my friend Lara who is due a week before me. Those of you who have visited us at our old house will note the new garden is about 400 times the size of the old one.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Yesterday, as Rob and I gulped back tears, Scarlett had her very first haircut. It has never even been trimmed before, but as it had got so long and consequently knotty, we decided it was time. Brushing Scarlett's hair had turned into a nightly negotiation and we were sick of her resembling a child from a Barnardo's children's home poster with her food-slathered hair pasted across her face. Oh and she asked if she could have it cut. So we took her off to Clara's the local hair salon, where for $15 she was transformed from scruffy little girl to stylish bob-wearing grown up girl. Bizarrely it seems that it wasn't only hair that was cut away - a particularly frustrating period of terrible twos naughtiness that appeared since our return from the Uk has also vanished. Today she was more angelic than I can ever remember her being and Rob and I kept looking at each other and wondering what happened to the real Scarlett. Long may it last.

Hooray for Charlie

At about the same time we started telling people we were expecting a baby, three of our friends announced they were too. Lara and Adam are expecting their first baby about 10 days before us and Rob and Freya about 10 days after us. The most anticipated for us however was the arrival of the baby of our fantastic friends in England, Liz and Mike. Their first baby, Ruby, our god-daughter, died a day after she was born in January of last year. In September of last year Liz called to tell us they were pregnant again. We were beyond thrilled to get a call from Liz on Saturday morning telling us they had had baby Charlie Alonzo last week. Here is the little prince looking absolutely adorable, and the Bailey family altogether. Am not sure Liz and Mike could look any prouder. Hooray for Charlie.