First comes marriage. Then comes the baby.

Except when there’s a list.

These were the things we wanted to do before we became three. Two years ago we quit our jobs in Sydney. Filled with hope in one hand and a passport in the other we set off to start a new chapter in London.

From there we had a good vantage point to keep things going. We went to brave riots and see the great pyramids, eat at some of the best restaurant in the world, chase Northern Lights, see lions in Africa, the Grand Canyon, Chitchen Itza. The list also housed things we wanted to learn to do; surf in Baja, dance properly in our kitchen and ski over an international border. At the end it contained things I lobbied for – to perfect a signature dish, take a carriage ride through Central Park and maybe, just maybe cage dive with sharks.

Through the adventures I’m learning the list isn’t just about places, sights or things. It’s about the lessons we needed to learn along the way.

It’s about knowing you can still love your partner after 2 hours sleep in 48, when you’re both racked with Montezuma’s revenge. It’s about being able to laugh when they bring the wrong passport to the airport (that was me).

It’s discovering how one person needs to hold the other while the other dips, the strength you need to carry your own gear- and build your own family.

The list has haunted us for four years- a glorious millstone in our marriage. It’s now I get a proper sense of who the list is for.

Years before my husband had heard his parents lament the things they wished they’d done before they had him. So when his mum died too young she’d never explored all the streets of Paris or seen the sunsets of Santorini.

The list isn’t just for us- in a way it’s also for our unborn kids. So they never feel they stopped their parents from living large, and embedding in our lives the sense that you really do have to live every day like it might be your last.

More than anything, the list has been training for a new kind of awe.

We may have seen a lot of the world, but we know that before we have kids; we haven’t seen anything yet.

THE BABY BUCKET LIST