I thought I would write a blog on travelling overseas with kids. It is one of the questions I get asked the most by almost everyone.... from people with or without kids. They always ask - How do you do it and Why?.... Like we are some crazy people. My daughter who is under Four has been to Europe 3 times and Fiji once, and my baby has been to Europe twice..... I don't say this to skite and boast, but to point out that we wouldn't do it so often if it was hard. We feel very fortunate and lucky to have done this amount of travel as a family.

Anyway my answer to everyone is-

I haven't written a blog for ages, but in the last couple of weeks I have had some time to do some scrap booking, which is my hobby. Since the kids have been born I don't get much time, but as they are getting older and the eldest is now wanting to do her own book, I have found more time. I love scrap booking because of the memories. While I am doing a page I am often reminded about a moment I would have forgotten. This brings me to my point.

I am terrible at remembering to take photos or video. Just this weekend I went to my Mum and Dads place for Mums birthday. I took our camera, but didn't take any photos. It is so silly. I am lucky that I have family that take lots of photos of my children and I can usually get photos of the important moments like birthdays. I don't think you can take enough photos, especially now where we don't have to print them all, they can just be stored as data. I am going to make a pact to take more photos of the everyday moments. I know being able to look back at these moments one day will be priceless.

How do you decide how many children to have and how do your resolve when you and your partner disagree?

I don't have the answers to the above question, but I thought I would write about my experience.

I didn't always think I would want nor have children. For most of my teenage years and my twenties, I didn't want to have kids. I loved my husband, career and life. I had heaps of friends and hobbies and I just didn't want children.

When I reread my last blog I realised I missed addressing one big issue ‘Sex'. I think one of the big changes we all face after having children is the changes in our sex life.

These changes happen for lots of reason, but from talking to friends it seems that the main reasons are we feel drained from having given to our children all day, the last thing we feel like is giving some more away to our partner. We are tired physically and emotionally. There can also be physical changes to our bodies and often we don't have the time.

When you have a child it greatly affects the way your relationship with your partner functions. I am sure this is no surprise to anyone, but ‘how much' it did, was a surprise to me. I thought I would write about my experiences.

My husband and I had been married for 5 years before deciding to have children. Our life had a cool rhythm of work and a very busy and enjoyable social life. Our weekends were full with parties, visiting friends and the odd game of Texas hold'em poker . We spent lazy weekend mornings sleeping in until 9am, often going out for brunch ect.

I thought I would write a few notes on my thoughts about birth.

Giving birth is first and foremost painful!!! But there is so much more to it.
I was the kind of person who once I fell pregnant I read heaps of books and blogs about giving birth. I watched heaps of TV shows and watched a friends own personal birth DVD. My advice is don't listen to bad birth stories. I don't usually tell my story in any detail (although I don't class mine as a bad story), because it might worry a pregnant person. I wanted to be as informed as possible, which meant I analysed everything and had a detailed birth plan. As most women do, I of course wanted no pain relief, a completely natural birth; I felt that would be best for both my baby and me.

I thought I would write a few thoughts on having my second child and how I thought it would be easier than having my first. In some ways it was, but I admit that once I had my first child and survived (I mean that in the nicest possible way, maybe that's for another blog) I thought I would know what I was doing, or at least feel like I knew.

I had been through the usual things like unsettled baby, sleep problems, and all the wonderful bits as well. I thought I knew how to cope with all of these things. One thing I was aware of was I knew that I wouldn't have as much time with the new baby as I had with my first. I also didn't want my eldest to be jealous of the baby (although a little jealously is going to happen of course). I read lots of book, blogs and articles of tips on how to minimise this. The tips did help and I think that we did ok.......

Saturday Morning
My husband and I have spent the last 12 months getting to this day. I have spent the last week making up dummy chains, both plain and personalised. I have printed order forms, stickers, posters etc. Today I feel so nervous and excited. I have no idea how my products are going to be received by customers.

Let me take you back to how Wiggly Worm gifts started.

Three weeks ago, I started paid work for two days a week. When I say started back paid work I mean at my office job in the city. Let me tell you how it went and how I felt.

The night before my first day, I organised the girls kindy bags, but there are always things that they need for bed, that they will also need at Kindy, like their comfort blanket, called a ‘snuggle' at my house. Sometimes you forget how much stuff two little girls need. I ironed my clothes. I felt organised. My girls usually get up just after 5am. I woke at 5.20am and it was silent. I was wondering why I hadn't heard from the girls. But after checking on them I found they were both still sound asleep. So, I headed to have a shower on my own!!! All the mothers out there will understand that having a peaceful shower on your own is to be treasured. After getting dressed, my girls where still asleep. It is always the way. The day you need them up and running they are asleep. Why doesn't this happen on the weekend!

So, I set the breakfast table and then I heard that they were both awake.