General busy-ness!

What a busy month January always is! Always lots of out-of-town (and this time, out-of-country) visitors... umpteen dozen birthdays... the usual trying to get back into the swing of everyday life... dealing with horrendous humidity that saps you of your energy... and that sort of thing. It's all in a day's work of course, but to me, January always seems to fly by.

On Saturday morning, Aunty Meaghan got back from her 5-week trip to Europe, bearing lots of gifts for us all! She brought Anthea little clog slippers from Holland, a double-breasted duffel coat from London, a dress-up flamenco dress from Barcelona (for later on!), beanies from Prague, a necklace from Switzerland.... amongst other things!!! :) The Swiss chocolate was sooooo good... and she even brought back a beautiful woollen coat and Swarovski crystal earrings for me! How generous she is! I love her, and missed her terribly, so am looking forward to her visit tomorrow immensely! :)

Anthea is continuously a joy to us... not that we don't have our unsettled difficulties and such, but on the whole, she's really good. She rolls over now - all the time. No more lying on her back playing happily with her toys, if she's put on her back, that's the cue to start rolling. Problem is, she can only roll from her back to her front, not the other way... and she doesn't like lying on her tummy! So I put her down, and before I get two steps away, she's on her front, and she starts to grizzle...

The other day she was down for her afternoon nap... and when it was about time for her to wake up, we heard her cooing and laughing, so went up to say hello.... and found this:




















How cute does she look with her "monocle" on?!?! :)

Here she is on Daddy's shoulders... having the best time!




















And lately, she's enjoyed sitting in the highchair while I do dishes or whatever......




















So generally, my days are full and busy, and I love being a Mummy. :) I have 10 more units to go to finish my Certificate 3 in Community Pharmacy, so I'm really really really trying to get them done.... but it's not happening. :( And I'm not really sure how to put more hours into my day to do them, either! I'm flat out getting washing/dishes done and trying to do some dusting or vacuuming! And by the time Annie goes to bed at night, I'm ready for bed too! Any ideas???

Today I rang a friend with whom I hadn't spoken for a while, so it was lovely to catch up with her and hear what she's been up to..... and I was able to ask questions like "My hair is falling out in clumps, I think I'm going to go bald! Did that happen to you and does it ever stop?!?!" Then, what a surprise, she emailed me a bunch of photos of her kids so that I could see how they've grown. :) She reminded me that I hadn't blogged in a while, so I particularly hope she enjoys these pictures. :)