#2625 Back to the local

I’ve been sharing a lot of coffee posts lately… and you gotta understand, it’s this simple thing that has me looking forward to something, no matter how small it may be to others, lately.

But today’s morning coffee was something else.

You see, when I was pregnant (and for years before that) with baby boy and Hubbie and I would frequent our usual Wednesday brunch spot…

We’d see prams, EVERYWHERE.

Mums and prams, mums and prams. Hubbie would joke they needed more prams there because it wasn’t the most spacious cafe to begin with, and so we said once our baby arrived, we would add ours to the mix too. 🤣❤

So happily, today was the day we returned there, to have our usual Wednesday brunch, and add to the pram club. 🙏

And add to it we did. I squashed the pram between our table and another’s and I even had people get up and move when we got up to leave, so tight the front of house is!

But we were there. We came back.

We did it. We came back with our precious baby boy in tow, and if you’d been privy to all our conversations before I fell pregnant, you’d know how much today meant to us. 🥰❤

#2611 March already

I’m grateful for two big things.

1. Baby boy is 3 weeks old today. 💙❤
2. It’s March!

To think he arrived into the world early Feb, and now we are in March. Most days, and all nights have been long, but the fact that the month has ticked over and he is close to being a month old, gives me hope that some days now will go quicker, pass easier, and bring more smiles than cries from him.

Despite the hardships, I AM trying to enjoy the little moments… him falling asleep on my chest. The way he smiles/laughs in his sleep.

We’re getting there. 🙏🥰

#2607 Nappy changes

The baby blues are a very real thing, and I’m trying my hardest to combat them.

I’m using all my years of practise with this gratitude blog to apply to these difficult days and quite frankly, depressing nights. Cluster feeding, minimal sleep, a crying newborn… no matter how much we wanted a child, the above is a concoction to make any person question themselves while going mad, especially when the above happens night after night.

But, little things, as usual. I noticed something last night during a nappy change, and it happened today too. Baby boy usually SCREAMS THE HOUSE DOWN during these, turning red, holding his breath, breaking the normal decibel levels… you know, the usual.

But at these two occasions, and it was a dirty nappy too both times, I might add… he was not screaming! He was looking around, taking it all in, totally peaceful, just chill, relax… so much less stressful for me! Just amazing. 2, out of 250 nappy changes so far, but still, it’s something.

Little things, for a little boy. 💙

#2600 The first pram walk

I’m going a bit stir crazy.

A very fresh newborn, sleepless nights, cluster feeding, and living and breathing within the same walls is making me go a bit nuts.

With such a beautiful sunny day, all four of us (👨‍👩‍👧‍👦) went for a walk.

Baby boy got to test out the pram for the first time, while Hubbie stayed close to baby girl who was on her bike.

At first baby boy was fussing, and I did turn around and start heading home. But then, whether he got used to the rhythmic movement of the pram on the footpath, or something else entirely, he settled and fell asleep! And I was able to follow my family around several blocks, using the pram baby girl had used, pushing a baby that I had dreamed of.

Little things. They’re actually big. 🙏💞

#2528 Menial task day

This is the most boring of boring posts.

But it’s given me such satisfaction to know that I had one of those days…

You know the day where you sit at the laptop and go through emails?

Where you begin claims?

Where you need to chase information, either via email, phone, and just sit there waiting for a response?

Where you sit and have a telehealth?

Where you do washing, and put away washing?

And dishes upon dishes?

Where you put away stuff that has been just sitting in a section of the house for WAY too long?

Yeah, one of those days.

Last week was so busy, and the weeks leading to it were so busy that I’ve been letting so much go, and not in a good, Elsa ‘Let It Go’ way either.

But today with an additional day off this week, I was able to just get stuff done, stuff that is very necessary, but also very boring, because you have to just, like, SIT THERE.

But oh my God. The satisfaction of just sitting there and getting stuff done, after weeks of running around and living off adrenaline, it was insanely good!

Yes, and that was my boring yet extremely rewarding day that I’m oh-so-grateful for. 🙏🤣

#2509 Symptoms at bay

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve had some kind of cold-hayfever hybrid these last couple of days.

Head cold, nose dropping like a tap at times, sneezing. I know we whinge about the weather, A LOT here in Melbs, but I swear to God this is no exaggeration:

I wholeheartedly blame Melbourne weather.

Everywhere I turn I hear of people catching something. And how can you not be sick? One day we’ve got the air con on and visiting the beach for the first time, sweating under doonas overnight…

Then the next we’re rugging up in jackets and shivering and putting on the heater because apparently winter never actually moved on, it just lay dormant to tease and torment us into a false sense of security before f$%*ing everything right up.

Rant over.

We had a family member’s house to go to tonight, and I honestly didn’t know how I would cope. At times during the day I sneezed so much my eyes went watery, used my fair share of Aloe Vera Kleenex, and my nose-head area was pulsing and feeling the pressure more than Mercury and Bowie.

Of course we notified said family members of my current state, and they were still happy for us to come.

And then that thing happened, where my symptoms went on pause for several hours.

You know how you tell someone you’re under the weather, but then you see them and suddenly there’s no sneezes, drippy noses or clutching heads? 🤦‍♀️🤣

(I mean it’s great, but you look like a bullshit artist).

It’s like your body gets distracted and puts a hold on things.

I don’t know if it was just focusing on something else, being in a different place or what, but for about 4 hours tonight, I was good!

Sure, it only lasted 4 hours, but it allowed me to have a somewhat good night despite my head and nose. 🤣😫🤧

Little things, little things. 💪💪

#2504 Whiplash but no floods

Our house got whiplash last night.

Whiplash in its truest form. Only whiplash feels like a bit of an understatement… this was like a ferocious beating, not just from the wind, but the rain. The intensity was so great, it awoke us after 4am and kept us up for well over an hour. We even headed downstairs to check if our bird who sleeps outside, was in fact, still there (and still alive!)

But, we got through it. And hearing about all the damage and flooded properties today around our area and other parts of the state, I can say one thing with utter gratitude…

I am sooo glad our house is elevated.

It’s in an elevated part of the street, and I think in horrible weather spells like this, it means the world. Sure, we still get the ‘Bay Beating,’ and it comes right for our bedroom window which faces the street, and the Bay. We hear it all, and it wakes us up every single time there’s a frightening storm like last night’s one.

But fortunately, where we cop the weather extremities, we are spared the water lodgment. Flooding, intense water rushes, they bypass us, and head down, somewhere else…

It may seem like little things, but also in the house scheme of things, it’s kinda big too. 🏠🙏

#2480 The return of the coffee walk

How can a coffee walk feel soooo good?

I think because this doesn’t happen that much any more.

Or, it hasn’t for a while, until now.

Me, alone.

Day off.

Weather, acceptable.

Feeling good.

FRIDAY!

It was a mild morning as I set off after school drop-off to get me some coffee in my writerly keep mug. As I started walking, I realised just how relaxed, and happy, and peaceful I felt.

Why?

It wasn’t just that coffee is back in my life. No, it’s something else that makes me happy, and it’s the journey.

The process.

The anticipation of coffee, and the walk to getting the coffee, there’s just something about it, I don’t know…

Is it self-indulgent? Is it because it’s me time? Taking time out? Enjoying life?

It is the smallest of things, and yet it feels like everything. This morning, it was everything.

It’s a good thing I think, when little things can be everything. Let’s inject more little things like this that make us happy, into our lives.

💖💖☕☕

#2353 Half way through June

We are over the June half-way mark peeps!

Photo by Luke Webb on Pexels.com

WOO HOO!

And I did my annual dentist check up today, excruciating teeth clean and all…

WOO HOO!

And when I picked up baby girl from gymnastics tonight, it wasn’t even that cold!

WOO HOO!

And tomorrow is Friday!

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!

#2331 Some quiet time

Well, it was Wednesday, but I was missing my Hubbie. ☹️

He had to work today. I felt a little lost honestly… I didn’t want to go where we usually went, or sit alone to have brunch.

So I got a takeaway coffee and went to look at the water.

It’s the simple things that are most important. Spending time with someone. Sharing a coffee. Having a heart to heart.

Even just being alone with your thoughts to reflect.

There’s nothing like the meaning of life and death to shake you up a bit and make you take stock of the in-between, that is, the life you are leading.

🙏