September Birthdays...

My 2 girls both have their birthdays in September. Yesterday was DD1's birthday and today is DD2's birthday. Last night had been chosen as the night for the family get together, DsD3 works shifts and has very few nights free and last night was one of the 2 Thursday nights off this month. (DsD1 was in Canberra with a school excursion from Wandoan, so she couldn't make it)
Yesterday morning I made the 2 birthday cakes...the usual Black Forest cake for DD2 and a Red Velvet cake as requested by DD1. I forgot to take a photo of the Red Velvet cake but 2/3 of it was eaten and I sent the rest home with DD1.

Homemade Black Forest Cake...

'Nibblies' platters to start with

 DH is assisted by my brother at the BBQ...it's a family tradition that those 2 always cook!

 Now why do they (DD2 and DsD3) have the laptop at the table???

DH and I don't have any grandchildren yet...but we have little Jimmy Hans :-)

Jimmy with his paws on DsD3 begging for food...

In 2011, at this time of year, I wrote 2 posts about the days on which each of my girls were born... here are those memories again...

On this day 30 years ago...

Thirty years ago was a Friday. My first baby was due on the following Monday. All day that Friday I had the compulsion to clean and I did. The vacuum cleaner didn't seem to be working very well, so I convinced my husband that we should go into the city for late night shopping and buy a vacuum cleaner, which we did! (now how mad/idiotic is that?) We lived only 5km from the city and in those days it was easy to find car parking there...but it's still idiotic lol!

We came home with a brand new cleaner, a Hoover I think, and then I made us dinner. And I remember what I cooked, Steak Diane and a tossed salad. After dinner I went to bed, leaving the washing up, as I was quite tired by then. I woke up at about 5 am with abdominal pains, so off to the loo I went. These pains kept coming back and then I decided to see what the time interval was. Hmmm every five minutes..could it be...could I be...???? Husband rang the GP who said that I should go to hospital. I was there and admitted by 7am and at 10 to 1 in the afternoon, DD1 was born.

This photo has become a family favourite; at first I didn't have the knack of folding the nappy so it was small. That means the nappy came to her knee. The little booties were knitted by the grandma of one of my students.

Still looking back...this time 27 years ago...

On Sunday I wrote about what I was doing 30 years ago. Now I'll tell you about what I was doing 27 years ago on this night. It was DD1's 3rd birthday of course. Mmmm now I can imagine you're thinking...so?  All will be revealed...

We decided that we would just have a small family dinner for E's birthday with just mum and dad, grandma and her god-parents Pamela and Garry. I had 3 more weeks to go till the due date for my second child so was starting to get tired easily. DD1 and I had made some little party hats for the guests and 'Aunty' Pam had made the birthday cake. Little miss went off to bed about 8 and by 10.30 my husband and I were loading the dishwasher and tidying up. I got to bed by 11pm and promptly fell asleep.

A rare photo showing my 'baby bump'; DD1's 3rd birthday

A sharp pain woke me at 1.30am. I sat up and then realised that my 'waters had broken'...oops!! Things were happening obviously. I woke my husband and then went downstairs to my mother's granny flat to first of all tell her what was happening and secondly to borrow a pair of slippers as I still hadn't bought a pair to go in my 'hospital bag'.
We arrived at the hospital by 2am and I sat in a little office giving my details to a midwife; everything was calm and unhurried. Then she said that perhaps she'd better examine me. When she did she said that I was 8cm dilated...hmm I'd read somewhere that that meant I was in stage 2 labour. All of a sudden things weren't calm any more. Normally in those days when you came into hospital, you had to have an enema (yuck) and a shower and change into their gowns...no time for any of that, they rushed me to a delivery suite.

Then there was a problem...my doctor had slipped away for a week's holiday with his family as no births had been imminent amongst his patients.  That's no problem though...the hospital rang his locum, a specialist. But Dr Lee was also on holidays. So his locum (another specialist) came all the way from Wynumn in the early hours of the morning to deliver the baby of a woman he'd never met before. Dr Smith arrived at 3am. Little Miss DD2 came into the world at 3.20 am Thursday 20/09. She was small...only 6lb 8oz but nevertheless healthy. And it was a very easy birth.

Next day when the family came to visit, Miss 3 suddenly looked so grown up! She proudly told anyone and everyone, ' I've got a new little sitzer; her name is Demphaner (Jennifer)', eventually the baby became known as 'Demphy'.

So my girls have their birthdays a day apart; not how it was meant to be at all!

PS I'm glad that I finally  wrote those memories down, because reading back through them now, I realise that I'm already forgetting details such as DD1 and I making party hats together.

Birthdays...and memories...

Today is DD1's birthday and tomorrow is DD2's birthday...how's that for timing? DD2 was actually born 3 weeks early and really took us all by surprise. Last year I wrote blog posts about those births  here and here as so many of the memories remain with me.
This year we are having a quiet family dinner, no extended family and only my DDs are available out of our 5 girls. The girls got their gifts, months ago as there were things that both needed back then. DH and I have put a $10 'scratchie' in with each card, so you never know...they may be lucky enough to win something! :-)
I thought that this year I would share some favourite photos of my girls from their early years:-

This is DD1 aged about 15 months,standing up in her cot.  In the cot she has her beloved lambskin (known as 'blaney') and a favourite toy from that time, her red sheepskin snake called Barbara Boa. Blaney is still around but just in little pieces as is Barbara. Notice the little bonds nightie she is wearing? well....

 I still have it, stored with other favourites in a little red box...

Like these little dresses worn by both girls :-)

And this little matinee jacket that I knitted

DD2 at about 2

DD2 wearing a dress that I made for her

Her big sister had a similar dress that I also made...

The girls with my mum, one Christmas morning

The first day of school for DD2; DD1 was going into Year 4

DD2 and I at Nanna's place at Ringwood, Victoria; she was about 18months old here

DD2 and I in the little rented house we shared 11 years ago...she was 17 

DD2 (on the left) on her first communion day

DD1 and I in a friend's pool in Cairns in the early 1990s

On the same holiday as previous photo; we are at the Port Douglas markets

At Kuranda (near Cairns); DD2 was surprised by the cheekiness of the lorikeet.

Modelling their new winter dressing gowns, made by me :-)

Aged 9 and 12 here

DD1 at the Year 12 formal; photo taken at the venue not at our house! lol. I sewed the dress.

DD2 at her Year 12 formal ( we bought the dress  on LayBY as it was more expensive than expected)

So there we have it, some photos from yesteryear...it's amazing how the years have flown :-) Once again I've made DD2 a Black Forest Cake but for DD1, her cake has come from Michel's Bakery!