Celebrations!

Despite my newbie status as a blogger, I am now back from a short break. We are returning to our normal, everyday life after a few days of celebrations. We had Mother's Day on Sunday and then Tuesday was Elliot's 3rd Birthday. My parents came up to celebrate with us for a few days and my brother made the journey up just for the day on Tuesday to celebrate with Elliot. I hadn't told El that Uncle Carl was coming up and he was beside himself with excitement!

Mum and Dad arrived at around lunchtime on Sunday so we had a quiet morning celebrating Mother's Day just the four of us, and then a lovely dinner with my parents. I was woken by the boys thundering down the hallway with some lovely presents, along with lots of kisses and cuddles and proclamations of best Mum ever! On opening the presents I found a cookbook, a DVD, the craft activity Elliot completed at Playgroup earlier in the week and my regular Mother's Day present of my yearly membership to the Australian Breastfeeding Association. We then had a lovely breakfast cooked by Matt and then we eagerly awaited the arrival of Nan and Pop!

Elliot was very excited in the lead up to his birthday and he requested a Toby cake (Toby is a steam tram from Thomas the Tank Engine). After last year's questionable Postman Pat Van cake, I was a bit apprehensive but gave it a go. A couple of bar cakes, a ridiculous amount of butter icing and waaaaay too much black food colouring later, we had a representation of Toby that I'm actually really proud of! It was not as stressful as I was imagining it would be. It actually turned out to be a lovely evening decorating the cake on the eve of Elliot's birthday with my husband, my mum and my dad offering support, suggestions and some laughs too. Mum got into the action too and for a while had black hands from kneading some colouring into the royal icing!

The Birthday Boy with his choice of Make-Your-Own-Pizza lunch

Blowing out the candles on his Toby cake

I love the reminiscing that comes with each birthday of my children. I love to look at the clock and think (and say to those around me) 'this time 3 years ago I was ...' . I absolutely can not believe that it was a whole three years ago that I was cuddling a teeny tiny newborn (he was only 2.8kg) and wondering what our journey together had in store. Those newborn days of feeding and sleeping and feeding and cuddles are so blurry and crystal clear. It seems like yesterday and at the same time it seems like a lifetime ago. There is such a dichotomy of motherhood. It is in one instant the most challenging and rewarding thing a woman will face, one that brings the most pleasure and intense pain and heartache.

I'm sure over the coming years there will be even more ups and downs. I've spoken to mums of older children and they say that the journey doesn't get easier, it just gets different. Newborn wakings are replaced by wilful toddlers, which are replaced by the next stage of challenges. Personally, I can't wait!