What's new kitty cat?

Thought I should do another little catch up post for anyone who is remotely interested!

Just like your garden variety nutjob, I am asking myself some questions. You know what they say about talking to yourself...

1.What have you bought lately?

Not a great deal because we are on an economy drive at our house trying to save up for the big garden renovation which I will tell you all about soon. I did manage to grab a few bargains on Saturday at Kirribilli Markets. For the little Tinker I bought this sweet lilac cardigan, handknitted from alpaca wool. Isn't it gorgeous? It only cost me $36.50. I love a bargain.






2. What's on the menu?

Well the other day Stella McCartney tweeted about Meat Free Mondays and I think this is going to be something we will do in our house from now on. My husband and I are both fatter versions of our former selves and today we began our healthy new eating plan to lose some weight. I think Meat Free Mondays will assist in that. I promise to keep you updated (bored) about our new diet as it progresses... if it progresses! I'm not great at sticking to new regimes so don't hold your breath.

Tonight's dinner is this hearty vegetable and lentil soup that works out at $1.25AU per serve!





3. What are you reading?

No books at the moment, no time! Two of my friends are now bloggers so I am enjoying reading their posts. I thought I might share the links with you. It's funny because the nature of their blogs couldn't be more different. Both fabulous mummy bloggers, I think the subject matter will appeal to my lovely readers:

Apathetic Housewife

Super Organizer


4. What's new with Stepford Dreams?


Some of you have noticed I now have the http://www.stepforddreams.com/ site. Not sure if it makes any difference to anything but it sounds cool doesn't it?

Also I'm very excited about our Monday giveaways, so far they have been really fabulous and I'm pleased to say we have lots more scheduled.

If you have an interesting product you think other Stepford Dreams readers would love to hear about, please shoot me an email!

5. What's the Tinker been up to lately?


She is now 18 months old and every bit the tinker. She is incredibly cheeky and ever so beautiful. She really amazes me with her memory and her sense of humour.

I can't help but compare her to other children sometimes and I often feel so lucky to have such a bright and engaging girl. She has always been that way, never one to stare off blankly like a lump of child.

Even as a tiny baby she would really engage with people. Now that she is such a fabulous talker it is even more apparent how clever and complex she is.

Here she is looking up at the navy helicopters that fly over our us all the time. She was saying "Touch heycopter mama? Nooo! Too high ha ha. Touch? Nooo, silly!"





I have just enrolled her in Mandarin classes and I'm awfully excited about it. Learning languages is something I have always loved and I hope it is something my little Tinker enjoys.

The classes are held in a playgroup type format for parents and children and run for an hour and a half with painting, songs and stories. 90% of the session is in Mandarin and they are designed for children and parents who do not speak Mandarin at home. I'm so looking forward to it. We will do a trial session first to see if she likes it and of course I'll share our progress on the blog.


She had her 18 month vaccinations this morning and she was so brave because I bribed her with a jelly bean. It worked. I'm off to wake her up now because we are going to see the Playschool show live in concert with her BFF and her mummy. A fun play date. I will pack the camera!

See you later!

Monday Giveaway - Pork Chop Kids!

Ever so pleased to be starting the week with another giveaway!

This week our gorgeous prize comes from the lovely Meg at

Pork Chop Kids.

You might remember when I ordered the Tinker 6 pairs of these after stumbling upon Meg's fabulous store back in May? Well they were a hit in this house. The little Tinker loves them and I can't wash them quick enough because she goes through two pairs a day.

Always changing her mind and her outfits. She loves her little pork chops. They are perfect for my ultra-active girl. She bounces around the house day and night, regular socks are always falling off and getting lost. Not the chops!

They are the cutest, cleverest little things. I was so thrilled with them that I absolutely had to do a giveaway for the blog, so here we are today.




Meg says Pork Chops were born from the evolution of necessity…warmth, protection, easy diaper changes, no missing socks, non-skid and runway-ready fashion!

Meg is offering our lucky winner a pair of Pork Chops in the print and size of their choice! To enter all you need to do is check out Meg's store here and leave me a comment below telling me which print you like best and why.

You know the drill, Tinker will pick the winner on Friday morning. As always she is open to bribes. She likes grapes, cheese, chocolate and teddy bear biscuits.

Not Who You Think I Am

image credit flatrock.org.nz

Picking the busiest moment to slip through the sliding door behind a leggy blonde, I covered my face with Good Housekeeping Magazine (ok fine I'm lying it was Hello Magazine) I anxiously looked for a spot far far away from The Target.

The option was either up the back next to a smartly dressed set of Chinese grandparents or along the side next to a group of 12 year old boys waiting for Squad to start. I went for the Grandparents. I figured with the magazine in front of my face I could pass for their badly dressed niece.

"The Wheels on the Bus" had started. I was trying to peer over the story I was reading about Prince Harry (who BTW is now kinda cute... does that make me Mary Kay Letourneau?) when The Target appeared to look my way so I instinctively bent forward and pretended to tie my shoe. This gave the grandparents reason to raise their eyebrows. I was wearing ballet flats. OOps.

No matter, the main thing was that The Target hadn't seen me. Things were going well. It was already 9.15 and as far as I could hear (from the cheap seats) there was no crying to be heard and I may have even seen a smile and heard a laugh at one point.

Where was I? Why was I carrying on like the hot chick from Get Smart at 9am on a Saturday? I was at my local swimming pool. Watching my Tinker and her Papa take toddler swimming classes. Why the disguise, despite the fact that I actually like Hello Magazine? Well I happen to be one of those parents who has to hide out of view whenever my child is doing an activity without me lest she breaks down in tears.

Yes, seriously. Now usually I go and grab myself a coffee and then I hide behind her best friend's mum but this week her BFF missed class so I was forced into solo espionage. It sounds awful doesn't it? The thing is, Tinker actually loves swimming class. She has been going since she was 4 months old and she only cries when she can see me. Sure the answer might be for me to don a swimsuit and actually join her in the pool but lets be honest here. Who wants to get their post-baby body out at 9am on a Saturday when they have a perfectly willing husband? Not me.

So the incognito act it is. I scanned the pool on Saturday and as far as I could tell I was the only one behaving strangely. No other parent seemed to be doing it. So I wonder is anyone else a closet spy or am I all alone with this embarrassing charade?

Weaning Baby, Weaning Mama

credit fisheaters.com

I was going to start this post by noting that breastfeeding has been in the news a bit lately, what with the tragic suicide of Katy Isden but then when I thought about it a little more I realised it has been in the news for ages. It is always in the bloody news! Breastfeeding is one of those topics that always draws a crowd and usually an opinionated one at that.

For as long as I have been reading parenting magazines and perusing parenting/childbirth Internet forums I have found the term Breastfeeding Relationship a little hard to swallow. I can't quite say what it is about it that I dislike, but it really annoys me. Not as much as Birth Rape though, that is one term that really gets my goat. I'm getting angry just thinking about how much I hate that term. Don't get me started! Another concept I have never really grasped is the ABA Meeting. I don't feel the need to attend a get together with a bunch of mothers who breastfeed. It seems off to me, like we should also have meeting for mothers who push red prams, or others who feed formula or mothers who don't eat meat. I don't know, it irks me.

My little Tinker is now 16 months old and still breastfeeds. Well, that was the case until I got sick last week and discovered that 2 days of vomiting not only dehydrates a person but it also stops lactation. My daughter has never been a good eater, so she is quite attached to her 4 daily breast feeds. I had no intention of weaning her, my plan was to allow her to self wean when she was ready. I had guessed it would be from around age 2 but I didn't really know.

Now that I have had to wean her all of a sudden I have had to face some unexpected feelings. Guilt is one of them, of course. I think mothers are just programmed to feel permanently guilty aren't they? Feeling bad that the child tripped and fell, feeling bad that the nappy wasn't fastened correctly so it pinched her skin, feeling bad that the garden still isn't finished and the child doesn't have a lawn to run on yet, feeling bad for parking the child in front of Teletubbies so Mama could have a shower alone... It goes on. Feeling guilty wasn't a surprise but what was surprising was my grief.

It wasn't because Tinker was throwing herself at my chest 20 times a day yelling "mama please, mooolk? all gone mama? mooolk all gone? Nooooo!" because that was sad and it did break my heart but I think the sadness that I felt at the loss of... dare I say it... our breastfeeding relationship was actually real and it wasn't felt in response to her being so upset. I felt sad for me. I felt sad that I could no longer be the ultimate comfort for my baby and I felt sad that I couldn't allow her to gradually stop doing something that came naturally to both of us.

Being of average emotional intelligence I can't put my finger on why it is so important to me, but it is. All the other overwhelming feelings you get as a new mother were not surprising to me. I was not surprised at the protective lioness I became nor the completely irrational sleep deprived nut case I became after a year went by and I still didn't have my baby sleeping through the night. However this grief about having to wean her, and wean me has been a real shock.

I'm torn between getting medication to kick start the lactation again or just persevering with this weaning process. So far I have managed to get her to a point where she isn't hysterical about not having the breastfeeds in the day time but she is still hanging on to the 7pm and 7am feeds. For now there is a small amount there but it won't last so I guess in a few days it will be gone and I suppose she will then have to accept that she has weaned. And so will I.

I'm interested in your thoughts on this topic.

I do not have a juicy bum

I have an almost large for my frame, dimply flattish bum so no thank you I do not wish to wear anything from Juicy Couture a la fellow mummy of a 1 year old Christina Aguilera but I wonder, is there a great tracksuit/sweatsuit alternative for those of us who don't want to get about the burbs with the word "juicy" written on our posteriors?

Jeans? Yes they used to be my never fail emergency pants. Unfortunately since having my daughter the only pair of jeans that I can get over my thighs are my maternity jeans. Last weekend I made my husband confiscate them and hide them downstairs in the mancave so I wouldn't be able to find them again.

It is not ok to be wearing maternity jeans when you are 15 months post baby. It's just not ok but I refuse to buy a new pair of regular jeans 4 sizes bigger than the 23 pairs I own that are NOW way too small. So what to wear on those cold ratty mornings when you need to whisk the baby off to the supermarket for a grape emergency. (more about my daughter's grape addiction another time) could I really venture out in a pair of trackydacks?

I have always been against them in public unless you are A.)Paris Hilton B.)An athlete (maybe after my 4k run I will qualify as an athlete? or C.)A middle aged housewife who has given up on trying to look presentable.

Please don't let me be C.) already? How did that happen? One day I was in The Maldives on my very luxe honeymoon and the next day I am here searching for a pair of tracksuit pants to wear in public. Oh gosh!

Any other pudgy mamas out there who are struggling to hang onto the old pre baby body and not be tempted to buy a velour leisure suit with juicy on the bum?

Poo Poo Prada

Well we all know that a baby changes everything. You have the sweet little coos and first baby smiles and then the first little words and adorable attempts at walking.
You also have the endless daze of sleep deprivation, post baby fatness and a very desolate social calendar.

Being an inanely organised person, I researched all of this in great detail before my tiny little bundle arrived. I was prepared for the late nights, the spew on the shoudler, the bleary eyed walks at 4am... I was even prepared for the post baby body.

One thing I was not prepared for, one thing I could never have imagined is a concept so gross, so ikky and so awful that I am not sure how to word it...
I was not prepared to carry jars of baby poopoo in my darling Prada cream deerskin bowler bag.

I'm not sure anything could have prepared me for that! Yes, the days of the DINKS wasting ridiculous sums of money on bags, shoes, suits are well and truly over but who could have predicted my old life would get such a slap in the face?!

To subject my stylish little friend to transporting such an horrific item really was cruel on my part and I wonder now if she will ever forgive me. Will all my bags turn on me in support of their deerskinned comrade? If there was a War Crimes Tribunal for gross atrocities towards handbags- am I the new Slobodan?

The most pressing question now is- will I have to become one of those true frumpy mummies who carries either a chunky pleather copy of a Kelly or worse still one of those hideously loud hibiscus print Oi Oi things?

To be honest, I just don't know. I'm going to hold a round table tonight. I am hoping my bags will forgive me. After all, they are all I have left. My post-baby body will never allow me back into my beautiful clothes so I resort to slumming it in the height of frumpiness to cover my post baby belly but all the while I carry my beloved accessories to remind me that under all this one-size-fits-all casual wear is a stylish yummy mummy dying to get out.

*Oh and as for my baby girl, she is ok. She just happened to be very unlucky in 08 and she contracted a hideous bug so we need to keep checking the bacteria levels. Noice, huh?*