Grief is a funny thing. Except it’s not funny at all.

I mean it’s odd. I thought it was predictable; someone you love dies, you hurt like hell but it gets better and then… it goes away. The truth is it never goes away, it will always hurt… but the hurt will be different.

This weekend marks two years since my father-in-law passed away. I loved that man, we all did. He was just one of the world’s most awesome human beans. You’d think after two years that I/we would start to get used to the idea of him not being in the world, but it isn’t so. I still get a bit cranky about it all. That he’s not here to see how awesome Lacey is, or to help us with things around the house, or to even see our new house. Oh, here comes the lump in the throat and the tears. He was the best Pop-Pop ever. He would have loved us being so close to him. I wish we’d moved up earlier so we could have seen him more. We {stupidly} thought we had all the time in the world. He would have been so excited about a new baby on the way. He was so proud of us all, and it just plain sucks that he’s not here.

Two years on, and it feels like just yesterday we said goodbye. The emptiness that’s left behind still aches, and breaks the heart.

So I might just have a moment this weekend where I stomp my feet and say how unfair it all is. Because it just plain sucks.

Or maybe I’ll just write this post and cry.

Have you ever lost someone you loved? Did the grief get easier, or just change?

There’s someone I want you to meet. Come a little closer. This is Miss Haidee. OK, she’s not a person… she’s a stunning online store that sells the most amazingly, beautiful little clothing for small people. Check out the store here.

Or browse through the photos in this post. Amazing, right? {Oh yes, I’m totally guilty right now to overusing the word amazing}.

Recently the team at Miss Haidee sent over a bunch of lovely pieces for Lacey to have. The top dress is my favourite. It’s all perfectly puffy sleeves, vintage floral print and such a sweet length.

All the pieces in the Miss Haidee store are one of a kind pieces. You can feel and see the love put into them.

Miss Haidee is giving one lucky reader, anywhere in the world, the chance to have their own custom dress created for them. Your little person will be in Miss Haidee heaven with their perfectly AMAZING dress. Yes, I said it again.

 

All you have to do is leave a comment below answering the following question: Who would you get a sweet Miss Haidee dress created for? Why?

Be sure to head over and like Miss Haidee on Facebook. They offer up discount codes to fans regularly, so you don’t want to miss out.

{boring bits}
One entry per person.
Competition closes June 10 2013, 11:59pm.
Open to all readers worldwide.

This is a sponsored post for Tommee Tippee.

Something happens when you have a baby. Well, for me anyway. I must have a filter that decides pretty much after things happen whether I’ll store them in my memory. I think it’s called selective memory, or something like that. Even the birth. I remember after giving birth, which was a dramatic experience for me, Hubby said, “We’re never EVER doing this again.”

I responded with, “It’s not that bad. I think I could.” And all the gory details were filtered out {and locked up into a little storage area of my brain} and only the beautiful ones were kept.
It’s only now being pregnant that I’m starting to remember things that happened, pregnancy must have unlocked that little store of memories up there in my head.

I’m remembering those very early days, transitioning into being a mama. We were like the rebel parents in the hospital. Hubby would stay over, and we weren’t really mastering parenthood that well. Early one morning a midwife came in, after Lacey had screamed non-stop for an extended period of time. Let me paint the scene for you: Hubby was on the bed holding the baby, I was on the floor trying to get some desperately needed sleep and the room was a mess {just our bag lying in the middle of the small room, taking up space}. Usually when staying somewhere we keep things neat and tidy, but this was no holiday. The midwife marched in, saw the scene and got cranky. She ordered us around, told us to clean things up and tried to calm the baby. Not that we hadn’t been trying to do all that ourselves. Being new parents was hard.

Adding to the difficult times was that I didn’t have enough milk and after persisting for so many days a kind midwife came in and suggested that I might like to try supplement feeding. You know, breastfeeding and bottle-feeding. At first Lacey wasn’t a fan, but we persisted offering her small amounts of milk from a tiny little cup and dropper.

I took home a tin of formula, a stack of tiny little cups and a few droppers and kept trying to feed her for that first month. It wasn’t easy, but she was clearly hungry. As she adjusted to the taste I decided to try bottles. So I went to the store, bought a bottle and gave it to her. Of course, it wasn’t that easy. So we persisted with the little cups, and tried to introduce that bottle regularly.

Back when I was nannying we had a similar situation. I had a little newborn on my hands, and everyday I’d take her into my employer for a few breastfeeds. As the baby grew my boss would express a few bottles and I’d offer them to the baby, but she wasn’t interested. It seemed like such a waste of milk. One day I headed to the shop, bought a few different bottles and over time I tried her on them to see if she would take any, and then one day she did. I cheered and danced and rejoiced. Our lives just got easier.

The same thing happened with Lacey. I went to the shop, bought an array of bottles and kept persisting, with expressed milk and formula too. I was determined to do whatever it would take to make my little girl content, and one of the best ways to do that is with a full tummy.

And then it happened. One day I found the perfect bottle and she took it. She drank it. It was like a miracle. And she slept. Total miracle. I may have cried. Tears of joy, of course.

That bottle was like a saving grace for us. I managed to breastfeed for another 14 months, as well as bottle-feeding. That saving grace bottle way back then, was from the Tommee Tippee range. When I look back it’s like it’s surrounded by a glowing light with singing angels all around {you know like when a miracle happens in the movies?}. It was that big of a deal.

Last year Lacey and I were invited to an event with Tommee Tippee to launch their new range, Tommee Tippee Miomee {it’s like a graduation from their range we used when Lacey was a baby, developed by all the big guys – biomedical engineers, paediatricians, midwives and mothers}. It was like coming home, it was where our lives really began, well our more contented lives.

Over lunch we listened as the team passionately explained how the range was created, and how it all works, mimicking a mother’s own breast {yes, boys you can tune out now} whether you’re bottle-feeding, breastfeeding {and expressing} or a bit of both . Knowing that I was going to try for a baby soon, it was all very interesting to me and totally on my radar. Plus I was a little nostalgic having Lacey sitting next to me.

I’m excited today to be offering up a beautiful array of Tommee Tippee® Miomee® goodies that I’ve personally selected and packaged up for one lucky person. The selection includes bottles from the Tommee Tippee® Miomee® range including this 2-pack and this 2-pack, milk storage containers and lids, an insulated bottle bag and an electric breast pump. To be in the running, just leave a comment below answering the following question: Where are you at in your parenting journey? Trying for a baby? Pregnant? Or already a mama?

Competition closes June 1st at 11:59pm
Winner will be announced in this post, and will be notified by email.
One entry per person.
Open to Australian residents only.

If I told you there was a hippopotamus on my roof eating cake you wouldn’t believe me, would you? No. Because we all know hippos don’t eat cake. Right?

But if I told you that right now there is a magpie on my roof making noises like a police car, you’d TOTALLY think I was normal and believable, wouldn’t you? Well, there is. We have a magpie that makes noises like a police car. We really do. I tell no lies.

I first heard him a few months ago, and I wondered why on earth there were so many police car pursuits in the sleepy area that we live. It didn’t make sense. But I shrugged it off and bought deadlocks for the windows just in case.

And then it kept happening and it sounded like it was just outside my window. So I looked, and there was a magpie. Still, I shrugged it off. Magpies don’t make noises like police cars.

Except they do. I came to realise that the noise was indeed coming from a magpie and I wasn’t actually crazy. Huzzah. I told Hubby and he feigned interest and belief*.

One day I was across the road playing with Lacey and Ma was along for the ride, and the siren {aka magpie} went off. “You hear that Ma?” I asked. “The siren? Yes…” she replied. “It’s a magpie, not a police car.”

Cue shock and amazement and disbelief. “Don’t lie,” she insisted, “It’s a police car.”

The disbelief continued for a couple of minutes, with the siren continuing in the background, and I tried to push my point, failing. I pointed out the magpie, and urged her to move closer. The proof was in the pudding. I was right. Huzzah.

A few moments later my neighbour Val walked past, and I decided to ask her, “Have you ever heard that magpie that makes noises like a police car?”

Well, didn’t I look like the super crazy neighbour? No, she hadn’t.

Of course, I’ve tried to capture the bird. Not capture, as in put it in a cage and keep it in captivity. No, I’ve run around the house with my phone reached up to the sky trying to capture the noise… without luck.

But let it be known, I’m the crazy lady who hears magpies that make noises like police cars… and I also run around with my phone to the sky. Never a dull moment here.

*Until he saw it for himself, and became part of camp crazy.