HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SUPER HERO.

FOUR. Today you are four. From the moment you came out of my womb you were my Super Hero.

Love you so much Little J

CHESTER ONE YEAR OLD

In twelve months, Chester, you have gone from this...

to this

And change so many lives for ever.

Happy birthday gorgeous. Thank you for making me a Grandmother, and letting me be your Jiji 

A BELATED SHARE OF MY BIRTHDAY

At the beginning of the month I turned 47. It was a good day. A quiet day with the people who matter to me the most.

I also took some great photos of the day...

Does age matter to you? My only concern about aging is that I am running out of time to do all of the things that I wanted to do.

41/52 2014

On Friday Justin celebrated his birthday. 32. Still such a baby, yet so grown up from the boy I met at 24.

Presents opened in bed. Breakfast. Both of us getting tattoos. Justin and I that is, not Justin and Jarvis. It was a nice day. A good day to be with the man who has changed my life. 

TICK TOCK

Numbers creep up on you. Before you know it you are 46, and when you tell someone your age they hit you back with "are you THAT old"? Age, the number it is, has never bothered me. I guess I am opposite to my Mother who liked to skim a few years (well more than a few) of her actual age.

I am vain enough to admit I do not like what age is doing to my face. I almost did not publish the image of me below, because of the saggy chin and crepey neck. However, I was happy yesterday. I had the best birthday. So, that image even in all of it's sogginess is a reminder of that day.

Bar from the ravages to my body, the other thing that bothers me about the number is time. I often feel as if time is/has run out on me. I am now too old to have more children. How annoying I did not meet and fall in love with Justin until so late in life.

I am also trying to be firmer with myself. Stop procrastinating. Stop thinking I have forever to achieve things. The problem with this, is I realise how quickly time passes so I want to grab every moment and enjoy life with my two children. I will spend hours in the garden with Jarvis digging in the dirt and looking for the perfect stick on our walks. Yet, to find that time to dedicate to myself I find harder.

So torn. Part of me just wants to watch and be with my children, and very very soon grandchild. But part of me wants to achieve more. I have a list of goals, (but that is for another post).

So how do I make time slow down, so I can fit everything in? 

More gnomes for my garden!  

 Is the answer to finding more time on the ceiling?

FLORAL TWIRLS AND KIDS KISSES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN

In my mind Justin is still a boy. When I first met Justin he was a soft gentle soul, in his early 20s. A baby compared to me. Justin has always seemed so young. He even got asked for ID at a pub when he was 29. I had to go to the bar and buy his drink. Yes the heavily pregnant woman bought the scotch for her toy boy. 

Even last year when Justin celebrated his 30th in Paris. I still thought him so young. But this year we both were walking around saying 31!!! WHAT? How did that happen so fast? Where did the last year go?

Justin's birthday was a easy day. Waking to presents. Taking Jarvis to his first movie. A yummy lunch. Full body massage for Justin. Then out to dinner, Justin, Tamika, Jarvis and I went to an "All you can Eat" ribs restaurant. Hot Chocolates for desert and Jarvis's first baby chino.

Nothing over the top, but it is the quiet days with my family I like the best.

What ever age he is, I am grateful to spend another birthday with him. Even more so this year as his birthday fell in the week in between his two weeks in Cambodia and his two weeks in Hong Kong. 

As a late birthday present, why don't you pop over to his blog (Yes I have a partner who blogs!!!) Justin Ma Photography or to his Facebook page and give him some love. Well a like will do!

BUBBY IS TWENTY.

How do you measure love? Do you judge it like a gift? Judge it by the pretty wrapping? But love it a hard thing to measure and judge, sometimes it is that present that is hard to wrap, the one that looks like it was wrapped with your eyes closed.

Motherhood is like that. It is not the pretty present that the media presents it to be. It does not sit there neatly in a box with pretty gift wrapping. Sometimes motherhood is your darkest, hardest, and even worse moments in life. But that is no measure of the love that you have for your child. How do you explain to your child how much you love them? How do you measure that love, especially when that child means so much to you?

I love, Tamika my daughter. Even saying that sentence fills me with love. But that statement is not lyrical and effusive. It is the clumsily wrapped gift..That statement does not even come close in expressing how much I love Tamika, and how much she means to me. Tamika is my child, yet she also "gets" me as a person. Raising her has shaped the person I am today.

Tamika was twenty yesterday. No longer a baby, a child, or even a teenage. But she will forever remain my Bubby.

Years ago we started a tradition of a Macca's breakfast on her birthday, even though she was 20 this year, Tamika still wanted to continue the tradition.

Tamika loves her brother, but yes... she is trying to fit him into a suitcase. No babies were harmed during this experiment.

Bubby is so special she got three cakes.