Party time?? or Spending time?

We are having a tea party on our lounge room floor today, another raining weekend in sydney so needing to come-up with more inside fun things that don't involve spongebob-squarepants dvds played over and over!

While giggle girl was supposed to be having a sleep hubby and i started making all the naughty food goodies for our picnic. I was making mini pancakes with strawberries and he was making fairy bread we started to talk about how kids party's USED to be.....back when we were young....lol.

Giggle girl's first birthday was a bit of an extravagant event, 300 helium balloons, an army tent (middle of winter) and a jumping castle.....but heres the finer details, the balloons were a gift from one of her 3 sets of grandparents, the army tent was FREE borrowed from hubby's work and the jumping castle was a tiny one that cost $40.

I remember going to parties as a kid where there was a table with all the party food, fairy bread and chips and party pies and sausage rolls. the kids played games that were easy and free to set up, musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey.

Now you can arrange for your little princess and friends to have a manicure and pedicure, full glamour makeup and hair and then photo shoot......for a 5 year old! As an adult this sounds like bliss and I would sign up right now! But 5 year old? Why are children encouraged to grow up so fast?

I have heard stories on some of the mums forums I'm a member of, stories of parents hiring private catering companies for kids birthdays, taking out bank loans to have bigger and better parties than the year before. This is insanity!

What happened to the fairy bread and party pies?

So my question for you today is what is the most over the top kids party you have seen?

Love and Smiles
Z.
xox

You're a bit young aren't you??!

I was 21 when I fell pregnant with giggle girl so apparently that makes me a "young mum"
I always just thought i was a mum....my age had nothing to do with it but that's not how it was viewed from the outside. I was incompetent and foolish based solely on my age, or what my age was assumed to be by how I look.

I worked in a teeny-bopper retail store until i was pregnant and some customers were just very lucky they made their smart asred bigoted comments during work hours and not just as a comment to a passing stranger on the street.
i was asked many, many times if i was planning on keeping the baby, i was told i was too young to be a mum, asked if the father had stuck around and so on. It was actually almost amusing to see them backpedal when i told them i was 22 and married! All of sudden it was all congratulations and excitement, all the "normal" reactions a pregnant woman should receive.

After having giggle girl I was quite isolated as we were living in a new location and didn't have many friend around, let alone friends with kids

So joined up with a young mums group ran by my local YWCA. I figured it was an opportunity to be out of the house and meet some like minded mums who were of similar age to me.
the group was run from mums aged 13 to 25, but i figured most would be in the middle like me, i was also interested to see how a very young mum managed motherhood, because i sure wouldn't have coped well at the same age! (I dont cope very well some days as it is!)

From this young mums group there were different guest speakers there each week to discuss a wide range of topics ranging from DIY pamper sessions made from things at home through to budgeting and financial management of household expensive. A great program run by a very patient wonderful woman, Gina.

There were about 8 mums that went regularly many had been from disfunctional families or the foster system themsleves. I was the only one that was married and the only one whos parents were still together. The lack of education among the group was astounding as well, i was only one of two who had finished high school. There was also only myself and one other girl, who went on to become one of my very best friends, who are still with the fathers of their children.

I found it so very frustrating that I was trying so hard to make sure that was proving to myself and the world around me that just because I was a young mum didnt make one iota of difference to what sort of parent I was and that my age was irrelevant. Then there were these other mums who were more than happy to sponge of anything and everything from welfare, they were more than happy to perpetuate the negative stereotype of young parents. The final straw for me was finding out one of the other girls was pregnant again to her abusive boyfriend and she was still smoking weed. I never went back to that group. I felt too different from everyone else, for once in my life i was a minority. I think it was the first time ever!

So my experiences with other young mums hasn't been wonderful, I have only 1 or two mummy friends who are the same age as me and none younger, all the rest are older by at least 5 years This isnt intentional, i just havent found people I click with yet that are younger than me (except my husbad, he's a year younger than I am so he isn't even 23 yet!) I find it really sad as i KNOW that there HAS to be lots of young mummies out there doing a wonderful job with their bubbas.....why did i just have to meet ALL the crap ones! :(

What sort of experiences have you had with young mums? Are you a young mum? Where am i going wrong with meeting other mums my age without so many issues??




Love and Smiles
Z.
xox

Ode to a Vagina.

I love my Vagina. Its cute and neat and clean-looking but most of all it gave me a outlet to have a healthy baby girl.

I have seen ALOT of vagina in my short time her on earth ,4 years working in various strip clubs helps with that, i have probably seen more vaginas in the flesh than most men! i have also heard them called every name under the sun.....Ginny, muff, pussy, vag-jay-jay and even one girl i knew called hers "china"
Im a straight girl, im not even bi-curious but i can identify a good vagina when i see one.

Now my gripe with vagina's at the moment is that hardly anyone knows what they REALLY look like unless you work in the adult industry or are a gynecologist. Most teenage boys have a unrealistic idea of vaginas as men's magazines only show airbrushed neatened vagina's that show no inner labia or irregularities. This to me isnt right! how come only "innies" are considered aesthetically pleasing?

No wonder there is a cosmetic surgery market making a mint from womens insecurities. vaginaplasty, labidaplasty and re-virgination (hymen repair) is all because we don't ever see real vaginas on real women......not all airbrushed and edited to look the way magazines think we should.

The most amusing product i found was my new pink button which is essentially makeup for your muff! Really who notices that your genitials arent as pink on the inside as they used to be? why are there no products for men to use before a big night on the town "ball sweat be-gone perhaps?

My vagina changed after i had my daughter but i like it the way it is, scars and shaving stubble included. I would post a photo for you all but im not sure if blogger would boot me off so i will leave you with a picture of a disgusting (but kind of funny) tattoo i found.

As long your vagina doesn't look like this i think your fine :)

Love and Smiles
Z.

Dont look now! Its nudity!

We have had 3 of my husbands mates staying her for the last week or so. None of them have kids or have even lived with a girlfriend before so staying with us would have been a huge change for them.

The thing that seemed to have the most effect on them was not the early mornings, tantrums or having to keep it down while she was going to sleep, it was the nappy free time that was guaranteed to make them run for the hills.

We are doing a modified version of EC toilet training. So we try and have some nudie-bum time for giggle girl every day (if we are home)

Its a trend i have noticed alot recently, as we have a lot of single childless male friends, Its like they are too afraid to be around a naked child in case of being branded a pedophile, even if they have only innocent intentions. We met up with another couple friends who have a 2.5 year old daugher and it was a hot day so the girls were skinny dipping together in the paddling pool, the other single friend who was there wouldn't leave his hiding spot in the other corner of the year where he couldnt see them and looked about as comfortable as someone stretched out on a nest of fire ants. Young children dont learn modestly until they are older and are taught it, so rather than having to walk past two little girls bending and splashing in the water he peed in a garden rather than walking past them to the toilet, all so no one could accuse him of being a deviant (which he is not!)

Dont get me wrong, i don't just parade my naked daughter around a bunch of men. The statistic recently advertised in Australia recently was that 1 in 4 girls are sexual abused in their lifetime scares me shitless! Im the ultimate in paranoid mums when it comes to that sort of thing. With everything else in a childhood i realise that they cant be wrapped in cotton wool, but im the scary mama bear you don't want to mess with if anyone touched my baby!

It been this way since Adam and Eve (apparently....but i will keep religious views to myself) all of a sudden nudity is evil and sinful and ALWAYS sexual. to me naked is just naked, its only sexual when you want it to be.



My husband isnt a big naked person, but i am (i used to be more so but my post baby body scares me a little) but even he is ok with showering with giggle girl. I know if people knew about this some would be mortified! A man showering with a little girl, there must be something perverted about it.... But there isnt, its no different than me showering with her, apparently society thinks that's ok..... whats the difference we both contributed 23 chromosomes to her, its just becuase i have a vagina and she has a vagina it makes our relationship different apparently.

But i know this doesn't just happen with men and their daughters. I have a good friend who is a big fan of naked and has two sons so far and another on the way, people are horrified (including her husband) that her sons see her naked. She has no problems with it, the kids dont even notice anymore, to them its normal, so whats the big deal. She also figured that it gives them realistic views of what women really look like, so by the time they are teenagers they will know that not everyone looks like a pin up model.

Even as an adult I have no problems with being naked around my mum and her being naked around me (maybe a little jealous her stomach is now flatter than mine...lol)

Maybe I'm a bit of a hippy at heart?


So, how do you feel about naked?


Love and Smiles
Z.

Life lessons I learnt on a big night out.

Like most mums I don't get the chance to go out alone very often.....hell I don't even get to pee alone very often, if its not giggle girl its the dog watching me..... but my mum was visiting for the weekend so i jumped at the chance to go out with my husband and some of his mates last Friday night.
The mates were from Western Australia and had never been to Sydney and what better way to give them the real Sydney experience than a night in Oxford Street and Kings Cross.

For those of you unfamiliar with Sydney (or Australia in general) Oxford Street i would have to say is the gay and lesbian epicenter of the country and the Cross....well..... it was described the other night as the "place god forgot" its a strange mix of red light district and hip clubbing area. Hookers and hot spots....interesting mix.


So this is what I learnt over the course of our night

1. Check train time tables before leaving...being stuck at various train stations for almost 2 hours almost peeing my pants....not fun! (and very dangerous after having a baby!)
2. Even being 30kg heavier than my pre-baby weight i still have the ability to convince random old guys to buy me expensive drinks.
3. Transvestite prostitutes should shave the 6 days of beard growth before heading out to work.
4. Working girls in the cross have GREAT taste in shoes, but don't like being asked where they shop.
5. Being the only girl in a group of 4 guys means that automatically no one hits of you, especially when you introduce your husband.
6. No one wants to hear about your baby when they are drunk, unless they have one of their own.....then its a great talking point.
7. Female bar managers are awesome!
8. Don't ask random people if you can choose a pro for them.....they don't think its funny.
   
9. Wear comfy shoes! (i didn't, big mistake!)
10. Random compliments from strangers make your night.....make sure you give some to someone next time you are out.
11. Most of the girls i saw with great legs were really guys....that's NOT fair....lol
12. paying $25 dollars for a long island iced tea is too expensive, ask how much drinks cost BEFORE they make them to avoid arguments with HUGE islander bouncers.
13. God there are some HOT gay guys around!
14. Don't get home at 4am if you know that bubba will be up at 7:30. it makes for a very long day for mummy.
15. Don't wear fishnet stockings if you have fat legs and are walking long distance, the chafing is amazing!

This is the inside of my thigh......it even has the fishnet pattern!



I had a great night, its just lucky i only do it once in a blue moon...... I'm going to be napping when giggle girl does for the next week just to catchup on lost sleep! Im just glad i wasn't hungover, that would have been unbearable!

So now you know about my weekend...how was yours?


Love and Smiles
Z.