#3028 Sunday’s Murphy drive-by

You know how often you’re looking forward to something for so long, then Murphy’s Law gets in the way right before the time comes and stuffs it right up?

Well we had a catch-up planned with my bestie and her fam, organised for weeks and weeks now…

Then Mister F needed urgent vet attention this morning. 🤦‍♀️

But it’s OK! We made it work, and still got to catch up with them, just a little later. 🙏

And happily, the catch-up was fantastic and everything I thought it would be. 🥰

So those Murphy fairies didn’t quite get us this time, it was just enough for a scare. 🤣

#3000 Testing the boundaries

Firstly, ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

WOO HOO!

3000 posts on Car Crash Gratitude. Well I’ll be damned.

🙇‍♀️

Second. This weekend was a busy but really fun and fulfilling one. And what made it interesting was that we tested baby boy’s boundaries a lot.

First by going to a 21st birthday last night, where we stayed well past his bedtime… even with his later than normal afternoon nap, he was in a different place, with a lot of people, touching and looking at a lot of different things, and just generally getting animated by everything.

He was upset when we had to change him, sure. Let’s just say good thing we were far from the party and the music was loud, because he screamed. But we soon settled him, held him, and he was asleep in our arms.

Today we had a kids birthday party. We drove in the car before his nap time, the drive was long, and he got upset.

Eventually he fell asleep, and then he kept sleeping! But he woke there, at a dinosaur party, once again with all these different people and things, and he was kept really busy and happy for hours until his drive home again, having another late nap in the car.

It’s been a bit of a go-with-the-flow weekend, where we couldn’t look too closely at wake windows and nap times… we’ve been doing it non-stop since August last year. His random routine, and then strict routine after we spoke with a sleep consultant, meant we didn’t really steer too far from what he was meant to do for his age.

But now that he’s 1, we made a pact that we would try to go to as many parties and functions as possible this year because we missed out on so much last year… and that means he has to get adaptable! Flexible!

Sure, he gets upset at times. We don’t let him get too upset, there is ALWAYS someone nearby.

But what I think is happening in the process too is he is actually becoming more friendly, social, going up to random people curiously, not crying when people pick him up or hold him.

It’s actually helping him.

So our pact, which is kinda for us, is kinda for him too, and so far it’s been going alright.

🤞🙏

#2989 The meaningful coaster

Baby boy is into everything.

Gets into everything.

Touches everything.

Eats everything. (Yes, really 😝)

With his fascination of taking things out of places that he’s not meant to be taking, he’s recently discovered my little stash of wooden coasters.

These got forgotten as soon as he was born, along with all my other nice things. I used to use them on weekends with baby girl, when we would both make toast and tea, and then sit on the couch leisurely watching Friends, or some Netflix game show, just like stretching into our weekend…

Ahh, those days. 🤣

He’s been focusing in on one such coaster, my turquoise one, and I remember it was my favourite one but I kinda haven’t thought about why or which quote it held, until today. He took it out, and when he wasn’t looking I picked it up and put it back in it’s spot.

But I paused to read it’s message:

Yep. That was it. That quote, that held so much promise and hope for me, the coaster I bought while I was living in this house all those years ago, with all of those wishes and plans for the future not knowing how I would get there, and now one of those wishes has been majorly fulfilled, with my little dream holding it in his very small and curious hands. 🥰

And life is interesting, because I keep trying, I keep striving, and sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t. But like today, I looked at that coaster knowing that in many ways I have succeeded, and I felt a little more powerful and a little stronger than I did before.

…

I felt headachy before. I made a tea. And I deliberately took out an old and special coaster to set my tea on. 🍵💓

#2971 No more hermits

About a month ago, the invites started rolling in.

Birthday parties… it looked like end of Feb to March was going to be busy.

With the super low-key last year we’ve had in relation to attending parties like this (as in, we rarely attended), it was no surprise then that we said we’d had enough.

Baby boy was now 1. Sure, he still had a routine, but we were over hibernating.

With the first invite we received, we looked at each other and said to baby boy “buckle up, you’re gonna get a lot more flexible.” 😅

Tonight we attended the first of those party invites. We drove far, but we entertained baby boy in the car with snacks, toys and YouTube. 

I followed baby boy around the party, but I was surrounded by people and making conversation and being social.

Baby boy was overtired and crying by the end of the night, but he’d also had a great time, and we’d had an equally great Saturday night!

Then driving home late, we pulled into Maccas drive-through (I needed a hot tea, so Hubbie got a cheeseburger 🤭) and all of a sudden, it was feeling very Saturday night like.

Going out with kids, albeit one of them a baby, requires so much planning, but it was all totally worth it, and we are now so here for it.

Bring it on! 🎉❤

#2957 Birthday leftovers

We are pooped.

That’s the 6th party we’ve hosted since announcing our pregnancy a year and a half ago.

We’ve revelled in the joy, excitement and anticipation with our family and friends, not to mention the countless people that came to visit us in our home after baby boy was born.

Now, we rest.

What is left? A messy house, cut up cake, and a lifetime of memories, with promises of more to make.

This is how we do it. ❤

Happy 1st Birthday party to you, our sweet baby boy. 😘💙

#2913 Playdate reach out

I may have been just as happy as baby girl was this evening when her friend’s mum sent me a message asking if she was free for a playdate next week.

Just as she was happy to be thought of, so too was I as her mum, to know that someone is thinking of her on the holidays.

I love the girly excitement. 🤩❤

#2903 My little Christmas tree

For a while now I’ve wanted my own little Christmas tree, in my own little corner of the house.

We have one in the lounge room, baby girl has a little one in her room, and then we have Christmas decorations scattered throughout the house.

But I’ve been thinking I want one for my work desk…

The idea stuck with me, and even though we are in the last week before Christmas Day, today I received in the mail the little Christmas tree that I ordered online last week!

I happily decorated it with the sweetest things… you see, almost every year sees me get a little special bauble from one of my friends, and because they are all random and miss-matched, yet still festive, well I felt like putting them on my own personal tree kind of made sense, don’t you agree?

It’s the sweetest little Christmas tree, it holds a lot of love, and I will be looking at it tomorrow when I work from home. 🥰🎄

#2901 KK ’23

Look, I gotta say, I was pretty busy leading up to today. It takes effort just to keep meals on the table, clothes laundered, dishes washed, and some semblance of order in the house going when I’ve got baby boy climbing everywhere, crawling everywhere and testing everything with his mouth. 😬

But the extra work was 100% worth it. I had my bestest friends over today for our annual KK Christmas catch up.

Love, laughter, lightness, lifelong friends… what more can one ask for?

Lucky are we. 🥰🎄🎁❤

#2881 Flexi days

I was a little unsure and nervous heading into today.

We were going to be on the other side of town, at a shopping centre for several hours, before visiting some family friends mid-afternoon, all the while working around baby boy’s several naps and feeding schedule while trying to also give him floor time.

Somehow, it all worked… and we even made an impromptu stop at my sister and parent’s place while on our drive home.

Sure, many times baby boy got unsettled, or tired, or wanted to be held, and we did our best to keep him happy…

But we managed it, he handled it, and it’s another positive sign in the right direction. There will still be tricky days, but I feel like today showed me that more of these flexi days are around the corner, and I for one am HERE FOR IT.

😁🙏

#2872 Playdate karma

So baby girl had a playdate at a friend’s house straight after school today. Her friend’s dad picked them up from school, and they walked to her friend’s house where she spent a good 4 hours before I picked her up.

This is the second time that this friend has had her over for a planned play… the first time they went to a jump centre during the last school holidays.

I was pondering how nice it was of this family to have her over, two times in a row, and I hadn’t had their daughter over once! Granted, they know we have baby boy and I am a ‘tad’ busy, but still, I was thinking how nice these people were, how they are the type of generous, kind-hearted people happy to have your child over without counting whether or not you have had theirs over…

Then I realised. I used to be one of those people!

The years before having baby boy, even during my pregnancy even, I was having baby girl’s friends from her earlier years over constantly. Both her friends had multiple siblings, and as baby girl was an only child then, I was more than happy to oblige. It was beautiful for me to see her playing with someone else, having the sound of more than one child’s laughter trickle through our house.

I would have them over repeatedly, offer to drive them to birthday parties, I even organised this doughnut decorating class one school holidays, and picked them all up!

It all made sense – this was my good playdate karma. 🙏

All the times I had helped out other mums, in turn giving my girl someone to play with, well it was now coming back full circle when I needed it most. Sure, it wasn’t from the same people, but that’s not how karma works, it’s ENERGY.

And what a crazy flow-on effect today has been… because she had her playdate today, I decided to risk it and try go to my parents house for a visit (I usually have to rush home due to baby boy’s scheduled naps, etc, and with school pick-up that doesn’t leave much time).

Not only did he sleep on the car drive over, and in the pram for his scheduled lunch nap, but he randomly fell asleep in the car on the way home! So easily, like a FLEXIBLE CHILD, WHAT THE?????

Because of his later nap, his bedtime was then pushed way later, and he got to see his sister after her playdate, but also, I am now sitting here with a tea because I only got to sit down 20 minutes earlier… this may all sound hectic, but I never stay up late, I go to bed between 9:30-10 because who knows when baby boy will wake up during the night…

But because he’s gone to bed later, it’s given me the flexibility for a little extra me time tonight. 💖

All because of playdate karma. 💫💫

The moral of the story? Help out your mum friends. It feels wonderful for the good energy to come flowing back at a later date. 🙏🥰