From a Butterfly to a Starfish (to a fishwife)!

Beautiful Mads has officially entered the terrible 2's, but guess what? She is far from terrible. She is pure delight. Of course she has her wingy, demanding moments (who the hell doesn't?) and occasionally she makes a visit to the 'naughty corner', but on the whole she is funny, charming, full of life and very reasonable. She seems to have a kindness and an emotional understanding way beyond her years. She is thoughtful and seems to just adore being around people and having a good old fashioned chat.

She had the most amazing second birthday celebration. Her four adoring grandparents flew in from Adelaide to help celebrate this momentous occasion. She had visits from loads of friends, cousins, uncles and aunts. Once again, I almost buggered up her birthday cake, but thankfully my dear friend Martin managed to save the day by hiding the fact that I had burnt it by making some extra icing and covering it with lovely flowers made of smarties.

Her birthday party was the usual chaos of friends and family running around the local park enjoying a Sunday afternoon celebration. As usual, Maddie and her beautiful boyfriend Linus found time to sneak off for a private moment together to blow their party whistles and hang out together. They are SO incredibly sweet with each other. She genuinely cant get enough of him!

I spent most of the afternoon running around like a headless chook, but I did take a moment to stop and look around at one stage and my heart filled with happiness as I watched my amazing, inspiring parents chatting to our friends and doting on their little granddaughter. I watched Simon's mum and dad and his auntie Sue and Uncle Gordon (who have treated Maddie like their own flesh and blood from when she was a tiny baby in London) laughing and carrying on the way only the Nicholls family can!

Watching our parents laughing, chatting and carrying on made me think about how ridiculously lucky we are and what wonderful role models they are to Simes and I. Our parents are quite simply kind, selfless, generous, amazing people. They don't seem to be able to do enough for us. They have always offered us so much support, guidance and unconditional love. Simes and I are both fiercely independent and I think we sometimes forget how incredibly lucky we are to have such amazing families. Our parents are funny and eccentric and whenever they are around we are swept up with their love and fabulous energy. I never feel judged or criticized by them, I just feel loved and supported. I'm sure they have views about how things should be done, but they just let us get on with life and acknowledge that we are doing the best we can. You can't really ask for more than that!

I think Mads is pretty stoked about being 2 and has even started using the 'big girls' toilet, but there is one thing that is causing her a bit of anxiety. It is time for her to move from the butterfly room (1-2 year olds) to the starfish room (2-3 year olds) at nursery. She just isn't digging it at all. Every time I drop her off and try to take her into the starfish room she absolutely loses it. She is happy to migrate across the hallway at some stage during the day, but she insists on starting her day with the butterflies. I can't say I blame her. It always takes me a while to adjust to change. I say let her straddle the rooms for a few weeks. Eventually she will be ready to make the move.

Oh, we did have one minor drama this week. Maddie swore for the first time. It was the dreaded 'F' word. The little fishwife was having her evening bath and she dropped one of her toys, feeling a little frustrated about the whole situation, she looked up at me and said (and I quote) "for fucks sake mummy". I almost passed out. I managed to hold back the laughter and gave her a very stern talking to. I explained that if I heard that word come out of her mouth again, she would be in the naughty corner for quite some time! I then chastised her father and insisted that she must have picked it up from him!

This week marked the end of an incredible work journey for me with the red carpet premiere of Baz Luhrmann's epic 'Australia'. The past 8 months have been the most challenging, exhausting, painful and exhilarating months of my career. Regardless of what the film does at the Box Office, I know I have put my heart and soul into the promotional partnerships and that our team have done the very best we could with the marketing and PR campaign. The premiere was an absolute circus. I have never experienced anything quite like it. Everyone was there... rock stars, actors, sports stars, politicians, you name it! It was an incredible thrill. But even more thrilling is the idea of getting a bit of balance back in my life and working more normal, manageable hours.

Christmas is around the corner and I can't wait to head home and spend some time with our families. I definitely need a breather and I know Maddie will have a ball hanging out with her family and friends.

Big love xxx