Summer diners: Bbq'd pizza (for Saba!)

 Hmmm so the first attempt wasn't a huge success but they got better!

Did you know that you can bbq a pizza?!  Nor did I, but that's what we did last night and it was delicious!

In fact I think bbq'd is the only way I want to eat my pizza from now on.  It seems that the key is not to load too much on, tomato sauce, some good cheese and handful of fresh basil leaves is all you really need.  And then of course it wouldn't be a proper Italian style dinner if we didn't have fresh mozzarella, with tomatos and basil from the garden would it now!  The only thing missing was the wine (sigh, won't be long now).

* Psst Saba... I know your first attempt didn't go so well so I just thought I'd rub it in a bit ;).

And then right at the end Elena (my mum) thought it might be interesting to throw a banana on the bbq.  Sure it doesn't look terribly appetising, but mmmm it was delicious!  Just lacked the ice cream.

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Days like this

 

 

I feel sort of silly for complaining right now because really life is fantastic BUT this week I've been feeling really pregnant!  Up until now it has been quite a breeze to be honest and I've absolutely been loving it.  Somehow after visiting the midwife last week though and finding that the baby is lying posterior I have lost some of my confidence.  I stupidly spent days googling what 'posterior' really meant and completely stressed myself out.  A stupid thing to do!  Then as a result of sitting on a swiss ball for hours at a time, scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees (because crawling is supposed to help) and trying to make sure I am only sleeping on my left side I've given myself a sore back and my neck is playing up again.  I seriously need to chill out!  Today I'm off to a pregnancy osteopath to see if that can't help convince the baby that it should roll over.  Suddenly I also don't have the energy I had any more.  I'm trying to learn to take it easy and not feel guilty about it, lots of afternoon naps and mornings out in the sun reading my book!

Yesterday afternoon was so beautiful though.  After stopping by the antenatal teachers house to borrow her birthing pool (so generous of her and saving us a few hundred dollars!) we headed out to my grandfathers house for a swim.  The beach was dead calm and deserted (as you might expect on a Monday afternoon) so skinny dipping and nudie sunbathing was the order of the day... hence no real people photos sorry!  If I wasn't getting cold I think I could have stayed in the water all day.

Anyway sorry about the grumbling.  It really hasn't been a bad week, just exhausting. Better get used to that I guess!
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Swimming with the fishes

Well here I am sitting up at some ungodly hour of the morning with insomnia (yay!), so I thought I'd share my weekend.  I've got to say, as far as weekends go, this has been one of my favourites in a long, long time!  It has been everything that a summer should be.  On Saturday we drove up to Goat Island which happens to be a marine reserve. The water is full of fish, usually you only have to stand knee deep and they are already swimming all around you.  Anyway so we headed up there with our snorkelling gear and a picnic , and spent the entire day lounging on the beach and plunging into the rather cold water.  I have honestly never seen this place so busy, it was insane!  Later on in the afternoon we were met by some other friends and ended up at the Leigh Saw Mill Cafe for a drink (homemade lemonade for me) followed by some pretty damn good fish and chips in Warkworth.

Sunday morning I got up early and met my sister in town for breakfast before checking out the Avondale Markets.  Wow let me tell you, they were AMAZING!  You mainly go there to buy your fruit and veges, but there is something about this place that makes you feel like you are in a different country.  There are so many different ethnicities, strange looking vegetables, dried fish, pushy people... I just loved it.  I came home exhausted and had a 2 hour nap (which is probably why I haven't been able to sleep tonight) before heading to a friends house for dinner and a walk on the beach.

I think it's fair to say I went to bed with a smile on my face last night. It occurred to me this past week that my days of freedom are numbered so I better pack in as much now before baby arrives!
Right now my eyes really feel like they are burning out of my skull so I better make my way back to bed.
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First days of summer (and an 8 month bump)

 Today has felt like the first REAL day of summer.  It was hot and sunny... and the only way to really feel comfortable at 8 months pregnant has been to head to the beach!  The is the beach at my grandfathers place and is where I spent most of my summer holidays as a child.  The great thing is that it's difficult to get to (unless you go through his property) so most of the time there is nobody else there.  This of course means that you get to spend the whole summer running around in the nudie (or at least without a bikini top) which is a pretty great feeling!  I can't wait until we get to bring our little one here next year.

So we've hit 8 months, WOW!  By now I'm starting to get impatient, not because pregnancy is so awful, but because I am so excited to meet this little belly dweller!  It spends an awful lot of time wriggling and trying to get comfortable (much like its mama).  It also has a very strong sense of what it likes and dislikes, for example if I'm lying in a way that it doesn't like I get booted in the side until I roll over!  Demanding much?!  It loves listening and jiggling to music, gets very excited if we go somewhere noisy and it hears lots of new voices, seems to enjoy the sound of the shower (and starts moving as soon as I get out) and doesn't appear to appreciate me over eating (ermm sorry there has been rather a lot of that in the past week).  I'm not getting much sleep at the moment, although that has more to do with the heat, constant mosquito attacks and very frequent toilet trips more than the baby itself I think.  Otherwise I really can't complain too much.  We have another midwife appointment this coming week, but because our usual one is on holiday it will be with somebody else. Let's see how that goes!

Overall it has been a great but very exhausting week and I really feel like I need to take it easy for a while.  So I'm planning to eat lots of salads and fruit (because this constant over eating from Christmas is giving me a belly ache), plenty of swimming and generally just plenty of relaxing.  I try to have a little lie down every afternoon when it really gets too hot and spend most of my time reading some great books on childbirth.  In particular I am loving Ina May and her stories from The Farm and one that the antenatal teacher lent me on hypnobirthing.  Both are very inspiring and offer such a beautiful, unique view on birth.  I've got to say that at this point I am actually looking forward to the whole process!  I'm very curious to see how I handle it and I'm kind of looking forward to the challenge.  Ha ha but ask me again in a couple of months and I may be singing to quite a different tune!
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