On Wednesdays my mum looks after my 17-month-old nephew, Tyler. Today I finally got to spend all day with them, now that classes and exams are over. Here’s some photos of what we got up to.

G’night! xo

Josh and I got back from our week-long trip down south yesterday. Overall we had a great time and got hang out with his family, the highlight, of course, being meeting baby Riley! She is a precious, perfect little dumpling and we are both smitten. Ski-jump button nose, round cheeks, long fingers and toes, and very dainty. She makes the sweetest faces while sleeping and often purses her lips or scrunches them up into a pouty ‘O’ which is so heart-melting. Oh my goodness, I could gush on and on!

Yep, boyfriend + baby photos is dangerously heart-melting stuff.

George, Riley’s fuzzy big brother.

By Saturday night was starting to get a bit sick. Started with sneezing and coughing along the sinusitis lines, then progressively got worse and hit me so hard on Sunday I spent most of it in bed, same with Monday! It was a bit of disappointing end to our stay since I really wasn’t up to doing much. Today I went to the doctor and diagnosed with the obvious sinus infection and also Bronchitis, which I haven’t had a very long time. Let me tell you, I really dislike privet hedges at the moment. They are evil, evil foliage with evil, evil flowers!

At least I have been feeling a bit better today. Good enough, in fact, to finish the last couple of things off on my blog design overhaul which I couldn’t finish on Saturday. It feels good to finally have that marked off my to-do list!

Time for me to work on my giant blog subscription list. Nearly 500 posts, people (from only 3 days of not reading)! You all obviously have a lot to say (which is good because blogs surpass magazines for me so it means I have reading material coming out my ears).

Finally, here are a few shots from Christmas Day, mostly of the kiddos and during the morning. By the afternoon I was pretty exhausted so photo-taking was at a minimum by then (because I’m pretty much the only one that takes photos around here, haha).

Nephew and brother-in-law.

He was so excited.

My niece was pretty subdued most of the time. She was still half asleep and more interested in a morning drink than tearing off wrapping paper.

But, of course, once her older brother kindly tore the paper off for her, she was very into the gifts!

My eldest nephew (13) and Romeo.

Little Rabbit in the new playhouse! Stay tuned later in the week for a showcase of the playhouse.

Our tough guy! Despite the bag whacking him in the face at least once, he continued, haha.

Persia with the teddy bear I made for her. Details of ‘Purple’, as Persia named her, to come soon.

My niece, Courtney, striking a silly pose. This kid is amazing and so full of energy, love and kindness. Adore her!

My two eldest nephews, recently teenagers! They’re two of the awesomest boys I know, with the best senses of humour.

So, there you have it! The majority of the day captured on film, but you can see more of it here.

Today was my second-to-last exam, French. I am not particularly confident about it and I will actually be surprised if I managed to do well enough to secure a pass for that class. I really, really hope I don’t fail, but it’s been a rough semester for several reasons and I really did not put the effort into French that I should have. Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyway, after I my exam I went and hung out with my eldest sister and her two kiddos for awhile. It was a brilliant way to refresh and take my mind off study! Here are some photos from today, as well as a couple of recents.

Persia and I. Please excuse the unflattering-for-me photo! My skin looks horrid. :S Just look at Persia, isn’t she cute?!

Sometimes you just gotta treat yourself. I like to do that with massages and flowers. The massage will come next week, as my treat for finishing exams, but today I wanted a little floral pick-me-up.

From last week we have these two cuties! Two of my favourite boys in the whole wide world who are rays of marvellous (an hilarious) sunshine in my life. Sometimes I get scared that I won’t find motherhood as satisfying as being an aunt – like, what if I can’t cope? I’m sure I will love it though, once it does happen, and that I will be able to enjoy my babes like I enjoy being around my nieces and nephews. I adore kids!

Ro-Ro in a jet! It was a pretty cool ride actually. I kind of wanted a turn.

Seriously, so in love with this boy! When he’s not teething he’s the most laid-back, happy baby. He was going through a bad teething day when this photo was taken and he still managed smiles! Also, you can’t really tell in this photo, but his hair is getting super curly.

And last one, from September.

I got have my photo taken with a Sylvanian Families character! Toy stores are the best.

I’m sitting on the couch listening to number one hits of Michael Jackson (CD raided from my uncle and his partner’s collection) at a reasonably loud volume and totally dancing while sitting on my arse.

My extended family has had two losses in the last month. My third cousin, Troy, was killed in a car accident a month ago and then his grandmother, my great aunt, died on Monday night from heart failure. Troy was 22, she 84. His a complete shock, her’s not so much because of long-term health issues. Last time I saw him was 9 years ago, her two weeks ago. I couldn’t attend his funeral (my mum represented our family), I am attending hers tomorrow.

I am surrounded by death at the moment, not just in the very real personal form of losing family, people I’ve known all my life, but also because I’m taking a paper on the sociology of death and dying. So, no escaping it, really.

I don’t want to though. It’s so much a part of life and it’s necessary for me to feel connected to it, in some way. To be ‘okay’ with it, if there ever can be such a thing. Death is fucking shit. Losing people you love for good, is shit. No two ways about that fact. But we are all immortal and we all go at some point, and I want to be somewhat at peace with that. It is not something I want to avoid thinking about and dealing with.

I’m afraid of dying, but I’m more afraid of the people I love dying. Because I have to live with that loss, somehow, but if I die and there is an afterlife I might get to see all those people I love who’ve gone before me, and if there isn’t one, well I’ll be dead so I won’t care.

I can see why some people prefer to believe in the afterlife: it’s more comforting. ‘Forever’ with the people you love exists, an eternity with them is then real. You would never have to leave your parents, your children, your lover, your friends, your pets, your whoevers.

Just got back for a wee shopping expidition. There are two birthdays next week, one of which is my dear cousin’s 21st! Sadly, I only got one gift as I couldn’t decide on what to get the other person. However, I did reward myself with a few things after my horribly hectic week! Because beauty products make me happy, as ridiculous as that sounds.

Don’t you just love moustaches? Especially pink ones?

So, clockwise we have: Schwarzkopf Hair Repair leave-in conditioner for coloured hair, L’Oreal Casting Creme Gloss in ‘Iced Chocolate’, Revlon Beyond Natural primer, Revlon PhotoReady foundation in ‘Shell’ and Studex gold studs with a blue stone.

After I had had enough of shopping (yes, there is a limit for me) I thought I might catch a movie, but Dear John, the one I wanted to see, isn’t showing until late afternoon. Poopy!

Anyway, here are a couple of web cam shots of Tyler and I. He was four months yesterday! I love Fridays because it’s my day off uni and my mum looks after Ty, so I get to play with him.

He’s the best monkey, ever!

Today I hung out at the zoo with my eldest sister, her kids, and friends of theirs. I always love going to the zoo, and because we arrived fairly early we were there around feeding time, meaning we got to see many of the more elusive animals. Unfortunately I only had my phone’s camera and not my DSLR, so I decided not to snap any shots of the animals. Besides, even if I wanted too, the little rascal below wouldn’t let me put her down! I think she’s missed me. Usually I see her when I’m with my mum and my niece is very much a granny’s girl. I felt all special and needed, hehe.

The animal highlight for me today was probably the baby baboon, who was doing roly-polies on the grass, chasing adult baboons and generally being comical and kid-like. He (it was definitely a boy) was an awesome little dude! And with ears for miles.

We also did some resting by the elephant…

…where the boys climbed trees…

(My nephew is currently obsessed with Spiderman.)

…and so did Persia, with help. And yes, she has got her finger up her nose, the current fascination.

This one is nice and blurry because they were both over being on the elephant statue by the time I finished shooting a little video and snapped this.

So that has pretty much been my day. I did bake a cake in a mug, but the boyfriend didn’t have any cocoa powder so I improvised and turned it into a coffee cake. It came out a bit tough and dry, so perhaps I overcooked it and/or added a bit too much flour to sub the cocoa powder I didn’t have. I do want to try and find a nicer recipe though because it’s a neat idea and super-easy for those times you feel like a sweet baked treat but don’t want to slave over it for an hour. Or go to the shop, for that matter.

I’ve had quite a busy and exhausting day. Toddlers will do that you to, though! On Thursdays my mum looks after my 17-month-old niece and today I tagged along with them to do grocery shopping and pick up a few stationary supplies I needed. Persia is a pretty good baby and quite happy to sit in the trolley while going round the supermarket, though this is much more successful if there are snacks on hand. If there aren’t any, she’ll eat the plastic bag the bread comes in. I’m serious! Luckily we were armed with some goodies for her to munch on while mum and I battled the unusually busy store. There were swarms of people everywhere! It really is never like that at that time of day, unless it’s going to be a holiday. It was scary in there!

After our errands we brought my niece back to our house for a few hours. She played with other people while I sorted and almost-successfully reorganised 3 sets of drawers in my room. My arts and crafts supplies are all in one place, my stationary is nice and handy, and last semester’s course stuff (notes, research, assignments, etc.) are neatly stored away. Now I just need to find room for the pile of other stuff I couldn’t fit anywhere!

Earlier in the afternoon I took a break from all that sorting, just in time for Persia’s nap. She had her bottle and slept on my bed while I half-napped next to her. I love doing that. Sleeping babies are so wonderfully adorable. Sadly, her nap was cut short because my dad was building something and took that moment to use a hammer rather loudly! Poor Pershi woke with a fright but was content to lie on the bed finishing her bottle and poking me in the eyelid every time I shut my eyes to rest, lol. She’s probably the only person in the world I would tolerate poking my eyelids!

Right, I shall go and put my laundry away while pondering what to do with my stuff!

I tried posting last night, but my site was down. Anyway, here we go…

• My brand new nephew, Tyler! He was born on January 13 at 12:06pm. I may be biased, but he’s perfect, really! Hehe.
• While he’s technically not the only thing I’ve been loving this week, he’s the only one I really care about sharing! Hehe.

I babysat my niece today and before nap time (hers, not mine ) I grabbed my camera to take a few shots while we played. I’m slowly becoming more comfortable with the various manual settings on my camera, though by no means am I anything but amateur! Still fun to play though.