Emily

Why my three-year-old likes you

You're wearing the same shoes as her.You have fun hair.You let her style your hair.Your favourite colour is purple.You also like yellow. And red. And orange. And blue. And green. And brown. And black.You're fun.You tell stories.You tell ...

Book review – The Shining Girls and The Fault in Our Stars

I am lucky to be a part of the best book club in (online) town, The Pink Fibro Book Club facebook group, hosted by the wonderful Allison Tait.Every month, we read a book. And every month, we talk about it. And, every month, the opinions are as ...

Conversations with siblings

"Y'ello?... Hello?... What?... Mate, I can't hear you... Can you speak up?... Look, you're just gonna have to leave me a message."BEEP.This is how many of my conversations with my brother go. I call his phone, he 'answers', I wait, knowing what's ...

The kindness of strangers

I was out walking with the kids recently. (Compelling start to the story, I know. Bear with me.)I was pushing Mitchell in the pram, and Ashleigh was walking. So, despite my lead sentence, I was not in fact walking, but dawdling. Stopping and starting ...

Once upon a book review

On a recent trip to the library, Ashleigh chose the books she wanted to take home and we headed to the desk. I'd slipped in an extra book, and she noticed.Ashleigh: What's this book, mum?Me: Just an extra one to borrow, Ashleigh.Ashleigh: ...

Mother guilt relents

I have been suffering from a case of the mother guilts. Big time.I tend to overanalyse everything anyway. But becoming a mother, something that didn't come with a rule book, gave me plenty to second-guess and feel guilty about.And becoming a ...

Tiredness vs exhaustion

We've clicked past the five month mark. Five months since we became a family of four. Things are going well. We don't have a routine - no on the hour, every hour rituals - but we have a general daily pattern, and life gets easier by the ...

Laughter

Mitchell laughed yesterday afternoon.It wasn't his first laugh; he's laughed before. Many times. But this was more than that. This was a sustained bout of giggling.Ashleigh was dancing. Her favourite book (this week) is about ballet, ...

A new approach

Tomorrow is this blog's anniversary. I've been blogging for two years.Two years! WOOHOO! I have to admit I'm proud of myself for keeping it going this long.I didn't have any concrete plans when I started my blog. I still don't. It is what ...

‘Literally’ isn’t dead, literally or figuratively

'Literally' has a 'new', secondary meaning.This from Merriam-Webster:literally (adverb) 1 in a literal sense or manner; actually. 2 in effect; virtually.The interweb has exploded - again - with posts and comments from people outraged that the ...