#2367 Family day

I try to do one of these days every school holiday season, and so it was today. I timed a visit to my parents/sisters house when I had to be on that side of town, so that it all aligned perfectly.

Then we spent the rest of the day having a great time.

Sis and I laughed as we watched baby girl and her cousin testing out my Dad’s new bed, all the special new massage features on it, and totally agreeing that a normal bed just wasn’t gonna cut it anymore, as they laughed and giggled about.

We had a beautiful lunch courtesy of Mum, and I have to say the homeland Sarma really agreed with me. Sarma is basically cabbage rolls stuffed with meat, and when you haven’t had something so agreeable in a while, let’s just say you make the most of it, right? 😁

I had a lovely catch up with my parents, just talking about nothing in particular at all, but having one of those catch-ups where you feel all warm and fuzzy and happy afterwards, as if all is right in the world… even if sometimes, it feels like it isn’t.

And then sis surprised me when she presented me with a kind of scrapbook album that included the headband I wore for her wedding, when I was her flowergirl, a whole 28 years ago! We both can’t believe the flower headband is intact, and sure the flowers have gone brown, but they haven’t disintegrated! Incredible. It was such a super sweet token, so full of love, and I know I will cherish the wedding token as I will the memories, forever. 😍🥰

It was such a beautiful day, I already can’t wait for more. Knowing us, the day will probably come sooner rather than later. I already can’t wait. 😉💖

#2286 Bacon and eggs with fam

I had brekkie with my wider family unit this morning. 🥓🍞🍳

And sure, some important people were missing, but it was still lovely. That will come too. 😜

We had woken up in a different place, and although we were getting up in different beds ‘on the other side,’ getting out on the other side of the bed too, there was no bad luck at all.

Only good. There is only good when your nearest and dearest are involved. 🙏💖

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

#1838 Like old times, and milestones

Living through lockdown has given us a new way of connecting with other people… online.

I am still working from home, and today we played this online Pictionary game. You have to draw on the screen from a selection of words you’ve been given… and the rest of the room, (people participating) have to guess what you’re drawing.

I thought it was pretty cool, and it was Friday, so later my mind wandered where it usually goes to on Friday nights… to my friends. We spent a lot of Zoom calls together during those few months last year, and so I got to really get used to seeing their faces, talking about anything and everything, and just connecting in a way that honestly, we never really had before.

The lockdown had given us a new opportunity to learn even more about each other, through a multitude of topics, discussion, and debate.

And it was great. I realised no matter how much they talk, how much we disagree, how much we maybe shit each other up the wall… we are ultimately stuck with each other for life. That’s it.

And I love it.

So, missing my crew, I sent the random message out: “Anyone wanna play a game online?” Well to be expected, most were busy and couldn’t, but one such friend said “sure, give me a sec.”

And so I’ve spent the last hour or so of this night, chatting to her online while we played online Pictionary!

She is one of my oldest friends. I actually can’t remember if we were friends first in grade 1, or grade 2… I have no idea. I have no idea because after a while, your memory starts to get blurry. I never believed it when I was in my teens, or late childhood. I couldn’t understand how people would say “I can’t remember” about a huge, momentous milestone in their life. I used to think, “how can you not remember something so important?”

Well, now I know. Because as life goes on, your head gets filled up with more and more stuff, and the other stuff that you don’t think of as much, well it starts to fade.

So, so true. Maybe that’s why I’m so adamant about capturing every written word. It’s my own personal record for my unpredictable mind.

Anyway, you get my drift. We’ve been friends for about 30 years, not a word of a lie. And while we laughed at each other’s funny drawings, and tried to make sense of the game, we also caught up and reconnected, and it made me realise that technology, lockdown even, brought a few pretty good things with it.

A Friday night spent watching something on TV, or just letting the hours while away on random stuff around the house, was instead spent sharing some laughs and having fun with one of my oldest besties.

And then, in amongst all that… a milestone! Baby girl got fed up with me on the computer playing games, and put herself to bed!

It’s actually the second time she’s fallen asleep on her own like this, but the first that she did it intentionally… the first time she went to bed as I set up watch over a huntsman in our room, making sure he didn’t hide anywhere, waiting for Hubbie to come home and get rid of it. I’d told her to wait in her bed for me another 20 minutes, and instead she had fallen asleep.

But tonight, tonight was intentional. I was there chatting away, and then went to check up on her… I even kissed her head… and she remained sleeping. Peaceful. Absolutely beautiful, as all sleeping children are. 🤣

So, a good night all around. Looking back, looking forwards… as long as it’s done with the right people…

You’re alright. You’re doing alright. 👍💖

#1660 Day 162 of getting there: unicorns and castles

It’s refreshing to see your child happy over such simple pleasures.

Like a change of bedding. Baby girl is always super rapt when I change her quilt cover and sheets. It seriously, brightens my day.

Imagine how hilarious it would be if all adults jumped up and down on their bed screaming “YES!” because their bedding was now pink, instead of purple.

But she continues to do so. Even more today, because it wasn’t just any bedding… I changed it to the Unicorn themed one she got for her birthday. It’s all unicorns and castles, it’s got pretty pink and purple hues, amongst stitched gold string to highlight the unicorns hooves, and it’s just… GORGEOUS.

No wonder she loves it.

She thinks she’ll have the best sleeps ever under those magical horn covers.

Maybe we all need unicorns and castles in our life. Some magic would not go astray in these times… 🦄🏰

#1546 Day 48 of getting there: Saturday mornings

With my old work, I never looked forward to Saturday mornings.

Because I always worked them.

Even Friday night’s were a lost cause to me. I’d spend them getting ready for the next day – making my lunch, getting my clothes ready, and telling baby girl I’d be home about 4pm.

But now… Friday night’s I’m putting my feet up.

And Saturday mornings are nice and slow.

Because I’m HOME.

I love it. ❤

Baby girl and I cuddle in bed after a good sleep in…

And then we eat breakfast, from the couch.

Because we can.

Then… wherever the day takes us.

Wherever.

Even in iso, Saturdays are superb. ❤

 

 

 

#1428 Reading together

It was bedtime reading time. But it wasn’t just bedtime reading.

It was bedtime reading the night Hubbie went back to work.

Ohhh. The horror. The agony! The sadness.

The day before you go back to work is actually worse than the day you are back at work. Thinking of the routine, the inescapable work days ahead, the hours, the holidays you could be on…

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh.

Which is why tonight, Hubbie wasn’t even in baby girl’s bed with me as we started to read Room on the Broom. He was up in our room getting ready to go to sleep, while baby girl was eager to read the book that we had only seen the on-stage production of, days earlier…

while Hubbie was STILL on holiday.

Sigh.

I started to read. Then baby girl started to read. We were taking turns. I had told her I would read most of it (wanting to get her to bed earlier) but of course somewhere along the way, she changed her mind. As usual.

She started to read more.

And, Hubbie heard it.

I heard his footsteps coming down the stairs. He couldn’t help himself. 😉

Before long he was on the other side of baby girl, the three of us squished into her king single bed taking turns reading Room on the Broom. 🙂

And I realised, sure, sleeping in every day as a family IS great… but you don’t need to take time off work to enjoy life. You don’t need to be on holiday to make memories with your loved ones, and set up traditions so that there are reasons to smile every day with them, rather than just a few weeks a year, when you are not working.

Like reading a book together, in bed. 🙂

#1418 Holidaying at home

We have wanted to do it for so long.

But finally, we really feel like we are holidaying where we live.

It’s the best. Circumstances beyond our control (me no job?!?!) have meant that we were definitely NOT going anywhere far this summer… but to be honest, last time we went away for a few nights, all we wanted to do was go home to our neck of the woods, and explore.

With Hubbie on holiday lately we’ve been able to do that. Look around our side of the world. Admire beaches and take long walks, eat yummy food and drink even more coffee, head off to other towns and kinda be a tourist, but then…

Drive home and feed the cat and sleep in our beds.

And there is NOTHING like sleeping in your own bed.

And it truly did feel like we were away… after some time at home in the late afternoon, we then went out locally for dinner… something we always do when we go away.

They say taking a holiday makes you appreciate your home more.

I think we’ve been there, done that.

Now we are just holidaying here and appreciating here MORE. ♥♥♥♥

 

#1412 Made up stories in bed

The three of us have the best time making up stories at bedtime.

We’ll be in our bed, or baby girl’s bed (yes we can all squish into baby girl’s king single!)

We make up stories based off alterations of our name and things that have happened that day, or stories we’ve heard.

Tonight Hubbie was Tato Doce, and I was Mama Candy Cane.

Iggle piggle from In The Night Garden was drinking black coffee, and vomited, and there was a girl called Karisa who was going cray cray because it was school holidays. 🤣

The laughs we get out of our stories are priceless. Baby girl can barely get the words out as she tells her story, she is laughing that hard. Then I’ll throw her an exaggerated quizzical look, or I crack up and laugh along with her, which sends her into more of a laughing fit, and then I laugh MORE, and on and on it goes.

Meanwhile Hubbie, the only non-night owl amongst us three, looks at us wearily, yet still amused with that small smile on his face, as his girls go apeshit.

❤

 

 

 

#1303 Homer in hiding

The other day while at the MILs, Hubbie went in search of some personal items he had left behind in his old bedroom, what seemed like eons ago. Baby girl went up to search for him… and came back with an additional, someone.

Something.

Homer.

This massive stuffed Homer doll that was almost as tall as her, had been hiding out in Hubbie’s wardrobe all this time. I have no idea where he got it, only to say that I was definitely there when it happened, and it was probably at some Melbourne festival like Moomba.

Baby girl was rapt.

At some point last night a game developed… it was nearing bedtime and as she left her room to get something, I remained behind with a firm grip on Homer…

But alas, as things happen in sitcoms and cartoons, so too do they happen in real life.

Because I ‘conveniently’ (as all TV plot points are, convenient) fell asleep… and this led to Homer creeping out of my arms and into baby girl’s bed!

D’oh!

She loved it. We repeated the game a number of times in a variety of ways, all with him ending up in her bed, reading a book, and the sight of him like that in her bed made her crack up in laughter every time.

It was funny. We did it this morning. We did it again, tonight.

I ramped up the game when she went to grab a book from her school bag…

I grabbed some ‘friends,’ a blanket, book and beanie, and voila –

Homer was now fully decked out in her bed.

She could not contain her excitement and laughter as she re-entered. I was meant to be ‘accidentally asleep,’ and yet I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.

He was wearing her beanie, her slippers were now his, and he was covered by a small blanket as his friends gathered around while he read “Thelma the Unicorn.”

It did look very amusing if I do say so myself.

Your kids being happy is one thing… but being the reason that they are laughing is an entirely different feeling.

It left me feeling incredibly chuffed and grateful tonight. ♥

 

 

 

Do, d’oh.

#1286 Friday fun day

First on the agenda for mine and baby girl’s day off together?

Cuddle in bed under the covers. Ahhh. Because with all our early school starts we haven’t done that in ages.

After lots of laughter together, breakfast and brushing of teeth, it was time to…

Build LEGO.

It was this 6+ marine biology type set she got for her birthday, and she had been wanting to build it all week, and had waited pretty patiently all week… ’til today.

It took 1 and a half hours to build 3 of the 5 sections… and it still wasn’t done. We had an impromptu interval where we got up and danced to the ipod music, the sun streaming through the windows, encouraging Mister F near us and our bird outside, we’ll call him Orange-cheeks, to dance along. Mister F stared wide-eyed while Orange-cheeks did a kind of bob, and we just laughed.

The bigger fun came in the afternoon. After a quick coffee and babycino stop, dressed as Snow White as per her Book Week character from the day before, we went to the park.

Now it was sunny, but it was also, breezy. So cold, I ran to get our jackets from the car as she headed toward the monkey bars. Nice move Melbourne. Nice move.

Despite the cold, it was so good to be out. So close to the water. Amongst the grand old trees. Just reminded that soon, the weather will shift, adjust, and these park days will be more frequent and enjoyable.

As she lay in bed tonight baby girl said “Mama, I had the best day ever with you.”

I smiled. “Me too honey.”

♥