OK, here it is, I’m a lazy blogger. Who knew it had been five months since my last post? Where did that time even go? Was there a rip in the space-time continuum? Did aliens abduct me? Was I suffering from amnesia and assuming a whole new identity? Well, nope, nope and nope. Just a lazy blogger. Oops.

So what has been happening since August 6 2014? Plenty! Highlight reel below:

– we headed to Albany for the ANZAC Centenary Commemorations. This was a great weekend, really well organised and executed. We enjoyed various events including the laying of 30,000 poppies on the beach, the parade down the main street and the re-enactment of the fleet departure. Callum and I stayed on after the weekend for another week, enjoying family time in Albany and catch ups with some old friends.

– I have started learning how to knit. Yay. Old school skills are the best skills.

– James’ mum and her husband came to stay. We had a lovely time while they were here and Callum loved having his Grandma and Pop around. James and I even got to sneak out for a date night! Oooooh! We also had Callum’s first Zoo trip with Grandma and Pop and James and I joined up as Friends of the Zoo given we live so close and its a great place to explore with Callum (although sometimes Callum is more excited about looking at bins – yes, bins – and ducks than the actual animals we’ve come to see…).

– my mum came for a visit in December, including Christmas. We had two weddings to go to in the weeks leading up to Xmas, so mum was chief babysitter! Both weddings were beautiful and we really enjoyed sharing these special moments with our friends. Callum had a great time with Nanna over the two weeks and we all enjoyed a relaxed Christmas Day with my brother’s extended family.

– after my mum headed home, we had a week together for the three of us before James had to go back to work. We had a couple of beach mornings including BBQ brekkie, another Zoo visit and some relaxed play dates with friends. Callum and I were a little sad to see James head back to work but someone’s gotta earn the spendoolies!

– Callum is growing into a fun loving, curious, spontaneously loving little dude. He is rapidly picking up more and more words and signs (we still do Toddler Sign, although it’s in recess over summer holidays), loves anything to do with water or wheels and is still pretty keen on playing with pots, pans and onions/potatoes

That’s us. Things coming up – a long weekend down south with some friends and their bubs plus a weddings, parties, anything trip to Queensland for one of my close friends’ wedding and James’ Dad’s 70th. Lots to look forward to. Somewhere amongst all that I’ll try and write a blog post or two. Daring.

James and I have officially survived a year as parents. Wow. Awesome. Who woulda thunk it? We rock.

Oh, and Callum turned one 😉

Once again life has been a little crazy with a hospital stay for myself a few months ago resulting in keyhole surgery. This was the first time I had spent the night away from Callum and it was very emotional. I had a horrid bout of gastro and then experienced severe abdominal pain after the gastro cleared up. As the pain kept coming and going I figured it was just a hang up from the gastro. Wrong! Ended up in Emergency (twice – the first time they kept me in overnight and then sent me home) and had a week long hospital stay. I couldn’t hold anything down and was on IV fluids only for a number of days. This also affected my breast milk production and that combined with some of the medication I was taking possibly not being approved for breastfeeding had my emotions all over the shop as I considered I might have to have a forced weaning. Thankfully it didn’t come to that. Phew.

So I knew I was really sick when I didn’t care that I couldn’t eat – apart from the breastmilk production concerns (note, I LOVE food). My symptoms had the doctors stumped so they decided to put a camera in through my belly button. Turns out I had bowel adhesions – extra bits of tissue attaching the bowel to the abdominal wall and after my nasty gastro part of my bowel had twisted around this tissue 🙁 Luckily the surgeons were able to remove the tissue via keyhole surgery whilst they were checking things out with the camera. Post surgery I was back to eating in no time – huzzah!

Just when we thought things had gone back to normal, Callum had a stay in PMH – the children’s hospital in Perth. After being diagnosed with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), (Side note – in order to confirm the UTI I had to catch a wee sample. Yes. That’s right. Callum and I had to hang out in the bathroom, Callum sans clothes, waiting for him to pee. Fun! Ha.) Callum was sent for an ultrasound to check if the UTI had impacted his kidneys. Oh yes, it had. Left kidney and ureter (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder) were inflamed. So off to PMH as the paediatrician there was concerned about kidney stones. Thankfully that wasn’t it and after a four day stay at PMH, three canula insertions, one traumatic catheter insertion and two scans that came back clear, we were sent home with additional antibiotics. Still not sure why Callum had the UTI or the inflammation but we have a follow up appointment soon so perhaps the doctors will have figured something out in the meantime.

In far more fun news, we have had some lovely visits recently from Callum’s Nanna (my Mum) and his Grandad and Janma (James’ Dad and his wife). James spent some quality time with his Dad doing manly things like rearranging our shed and building a work bench and Mum and I had fun making Callum’s birthday duck cake (Callum loves ducks) and organising his party. We also went to bunny chow together for lunch one day (delicious South African curry in bread) – do yourself a favour and check it out at Caffé Verro in Subiaco. Yum!

Callum’s first birthday party was a relaxed little affair at the local park, BBQ lunch, kids hanging out on the playground and the International Beer Shop conveniently across the road! We had a lovely afternoon catching up with friends and celebrating James and I surviving our first year of parenthood.

The weekend after Callum’s party we had our Combined Mother’s Group First Birthday Party which was also a relaxed BBQ lunch. One of the Mums kindly volunteered her backyard for the event and it was a stunning sunny day perfect for an outside chill out. The kids had a great time, there was an amazing rainbow birthday cake and we did a Kris Kringle style Birthday Present Swap.

And finally, I have recently started back at work two days a week. Eeek! We’re still working out our routine for this and its a bit of “lets see how she goes” thing for me.

Any thoughts on returning to work from other Mums out there?