What is making me happy - family time

We have had a couple of lovely outings over the last couple of weekends, which has been nice after the three weekends of sickness we've had to deal with.

During the long weekend we took the girls into Sydney to see Vivid 2016. If you haven't heard of Vivid, it's an electric display of lights, sounds, and animations projected over some of Sydney's most iconic buildings and tourist attractions. The festival only runs for a short time during winter, and has become a popular attraction with Sydneysiders and tourists, so we found hundreds of people wanting to see the lights as the same time as us.

It's the first time we've had been well enough to go and see it.

We got in the city early and took the girls on their first ever ferry ride to Darling Harbour from Circular Quay. It was a gorgeous afternoon on Sydney Harbour, the girls loved sitting outside in the sunshine, enjoying the views from the ferry.

While there was a lot of walking for both the girls, they did pretty well, and even got to enjoy a ride on the carousel. Another first! After an early dinner we made our way back to Circular Quay on the ferry, where Popette and I bared the cold, and took some video of the Opera House all light up.

The lights and projections were amazing! The girls loved seeing the bright colours and patterns on the buildings.

Cherub got tired during the evening so needed a few horsey-rides on Daddy's shoulders, and at one stage Popette and I lost track of them both amongst the huge crowd in Circular Quay! Thankfully a kind stranger lended my Husband the use of their mobile, and we found each other again!

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon and evening. Spending time together as a family is something that makes me very happy.

What has been making you happy?

We are doing alright

I've had days when its been tough being Mummy to my girls. Some days they frustrate me so much that it's gotten me way too angry, all because they won’t listen to what I've said or when I've asked them to do something (call it selective hearing!)

At the moment, Popette (who is 7 going on 13!) is really pushing my buttons. She says "No" to nearly everything we ask her to do, often wakes up grumpy because when she's finally gone to bed (and stayed in it) she hasn't fallen asleep until late, she'll copycat what I say (drives me insane!), picks on her sister for no apparent reason. The list is looong.

Selfies with the girls

I don't know what I/we are doing wrong. Hubby and I are at our wits ends, and wondering what on earth is making her like this...is it friends? who she hangs around with in the playground? growth spurt? hormones? not enough sleep? or just us being terrible parents???? 

We feel as though we've lost our sweet, loving girl, to a moody, cranky, shouty, disrespectful wannabe teenager! Of course she's not like this all the time, and when she wants to be, she'll be super sweet and give me lots of cuddles, or only be too happy to help me with something....especially if it has something to do with feeding her stomach.

But there’s days when I can’t wait for her to go to bed, especially when all I've heard is her scream “No” at me over and over again. 

We have tried getting her to read for a half hour (sometimes longer) before going to sleep, to see if that makes her tired and stops her mind thinking. 

We've tried having go to bed later than her little sister, so 8pm rather than 7pm, but that hasn't worked.

We have tried different night lights, as we know she's scared of the dark, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

I guess she's at that age where she wants to know more stuff. She has lots of ideas, thoughts and questions floating around in her little head, then of course wants to discuss something around the time we are trying to settle down for the evening and have time to ourselves.

Cherub is still my sweet little girl...although there are days when she's picked up on something her sister has said or done, and tries my patience. Lately she's become obsessed with playing Wii, not so much the games but designing little people, changing their faces, hair etc. There's not a day that goes by when she asks me, if she can play Wii or go on the computer. I think we need to introduce some 'screen-free' days!

Poor Cherub has gone through a list of childhood illnesses over the past few weeks. This week she's been home with scarlet fever so has missed two days of preschool. We have been having "Mummy preschool" today, with her calling me "Teacher" which is cute.

It seems just when she gets over an illness (Cherub, Popette and I had hand, foot and mouth two weeks earlier) she comes down with something else. I'm hoping she'll be better by the long weekend, as our weekends have pretty much been non-existent for the past three weeks, apart from a visit to the doctors.

While I am not perfect or the tidiest mother, who knows all the answers to all their questions (Google comes in handy!), and who lets them probably play a little bit too much Wii Sports and have time on the computer (for my sanity), or provides them with everything their little heart desires....what matters most is that I love them both so so much! And I know they love us too, so I guess we are doing alright.

Do you ever think as a parent, "What am I doing wrong?"