So I spoiled my Baby Gurl a little, YOLO.

Oh what a life! I am almost done my lit review. It is currently sitting at just over 5,000 words and mostly just needs an introduction and conclusion. The body parts of Internal Experience, Expressive Writing and working with the Non-Dominant Hand are all done bar the editing. I have two more days to work on it before it needs to be submitted and I currently feel like I just might make it! It may not be my best work but at least I will be able to submit something that can at least pass - even if the overachiever in me cries at wanting to make it a High Distinction paper. A pass will do. They cannot expect us to write an adequate and comprehensive literature review in only 8 weeks when we also have lives to live, ffs! Interestingly enough though, it has made me seriously consider pursuing research in the future but as yet, my path is still a little hazy, so who knows where I will end up?

I find it interesting that I am on this journey and sometimes I feel like a teenager again just without the raging hormones, as I try to find my way in the world, the path I'm meant to be on. Especially when I have a teenager of my own trying to discover and forge her own path. Said teenager turned 15 today. It's so strange how that happens, one minute they are begging to you to watch them and take their photo and the next they are hiding in their rooms no longer wanting you to watch them and no longer wanting you to take their photo. I have three children. The eldest is 21, then there is my only daughter who turned 15 today and my youngest is 10. Miss 15 has been Miss Independent since the second she was born. She slept through at 6 weeks in her own cot, fell asleep by herself, by the time she could walk she was dressing herself and I wasn't allowed to choose her clothes, the second she was old enough she ran her own bath and showers. She is not a needy human by any means but it is still jarring, going through the photos as I make her yearly birthday collage of photos from baby to now and realising my one and only Baby Gurl is growing up and one day so very soon will be flying the coop, probably before her older brother does, if he ever does. 

I got her some great presents this year too. I thought I would share what I got her, in case anyone out there has their own 15-year-old girl to buy presents for and isn't sure what to get them, what they would like. Perhaps it is your best-friend's kid or your neice or grand-daughter but if she's a girly girl like mine, then maybe they would like some of the haul I got my girl. I kind of love birthdays and I love gifting people and this year I decided I would get her 16 gifts, one for each year she's been alive and one for the year to come. None were terribly expensive and even the ones that could have been expensive were the cheaper versions of it, so while 16 gifts sounds like a lot, I didn't spend a butt tonne of money. Places like catch.com.au helped me source things cheap and I also found a save the animals site that often gives away jewellery and all you have to do is pay the postage that helped keep the costs down. The biggest expense for me was tickets for me, her and her younger brother to go see the Alice in Wonderland stage show because she is a fan of Alice in Wonderland.

So this is what I got her:

1. Alice in Wonderland stage show tickets.

2. A beautiful white and rose gold make up case.

3. A 10" ring light for those cute selfies.

4. A rose gold and white small bluetooth speaker.

5, 6, 7. Three rings from the save the animals site, a rose gold fox, a silver and bronze cat and a cute little cubic zerconia rabbit.

8. She is into crystals right now so I also got her a gorgeous rose quartz wrap bracelet.

9. LOL this one is kind of lame but I also got her some pink emergy boards.

10, 11, 12. I bought her three notebooks from Officeworks, one of them was rosegold but the other two I glued canvas on the front and decorated them for her and drew some messages inside (see photos below).

13, 14. You simply cannot give a person notebooks without also giving them all the pens in all the world! I bought her pack of 62 gel pens that came in two separate cases that I wrapped individually. Glittery, neon, metallic, all the colourful awesomeness.

15. A sandart flip frame. I'm not sure if you have ever had one but I love them and knew she would. The frames filled with sand and water and you flip them and watch the sand fall in different patterns each time.

16. Last but by no means least and is actually one of her favourites because she adores them, a snowglobe. I got one with flamingo's in it because she loves flamingo's.

So if you need any ideas at all, she absolutely loved every single one of these gifts and they really didn't cost me a hell of a lot other than the stage show tickets. The ring light was only $10, the bluetooth speaker was $30 and the make-up case was $40, the rest were all $10 or under. I could have saved this idea (the one gift for each year of existence idea) for her sweet 16th but I'm looking at getting her a Pandora bracelet or Gnoce bracelet and charms for that one, plus her phone contract will be due for an upgrade so she will get a new phone that I will pay off slowly over the following 3 years!

Here are the photos of the books.

But you know what? Today isn't just the anniversary of the day my Baby Gurl was born, it is also the anniversary of one of my Birthing Days and in honour of that, I bought myself a Birthing Day gift because any excuse is a good excuse to buy crystals, amiright? I got myself a little tigers eye necklace and a green aventurine necklace for funsies.

That's all for today though, must keep putting one foot in front of the other and remind myself to keep breathing. In Joy!