#3046 Looking sunnies again

Yesterday amidst all the sleeplessness I went and did something that peeved me right off.

I broke my sunnies. They looked broken anyway. I had placed them on the passenger side seat when out doing jobs with Hubbie and baby boy, and I did that because when I put baby boy in his seat, often my sunnies hit the top of the car since they’re on my head… being all sleep-deprived and crap, I thought ‘let me spare them.’

And then my butt spared them. 🤦‍♀️

I didn’t hear any crunch, but I did suddenly feel them against my lower back when I sat down, of course since I had forgotten I had put them there a minute ago, you know sleep deprivation and all…

I was really shattered. I was so upset already about other things, (including no sleep forever) I started to cry. Hubbie was like, ‘don’t cry over your sunnies.’

But it was so much more.

I was like, how much more shit could I take?

Secondly, I really loved this pair.

Thirdly, if I could get them repaired, how could I even go anywhere what with our crazy schedules?

And last, I actually had a voucher for a Sunglass Hut, but again, NO TIME, so again, this just felt like another job to add to the to-do list, the current ever-growing list that seems to always have stuff being added to it, with no set end date, a real proper frustrating work-in-progress list.

But then overnight, something happened.

Other than sleep (praise 🙏) things were occurring to me.

I had already decided that I needed to get some more navy pants for baby girl for school, and that we might go this afternoon.

I had also realised that this shopping centre had a Sunglass Hut. I bought my sunnies from another centre, which is why I kept forgetting this other, closer one, could actually, possibly help me with my problem…

Anyway, fast forward to this afternoon, and we popped into the Sunglass Hut. I was there, showing her my sunnies, asking about repairing them…

And the sales assistant had a look over, and then very gently popped them into place!

I WAS SO GRATEFUL!

She even tightened the sides and gave my lenses a clean (bless) and I was oh so grateful I bought some more sunglass lens cleaner so she could at least get something out of my visit.

Sure they are a little firm on that damaged side, but I’m so happy I get to keep wearing them, I don’t care.

And that my friends is the extra light in my day that gave me a jump in my step. 😁

#3014 Sunday many things

I was lucky today to have many things to write about that I was grateful for. 🙏

I could have written about the chocolate fest late morning when we had coffee and pancakes/waffles at Max Brenner. 🤤

Or our shopping trip where we finally hit the shops and actually bought stuff (not just chased after baby boy).

Or the fact that I had prepped baby boy A WEEK just so that he could wake today at his normal time, NOT an hour earlier because daylight savings had ended. (Pushing his naps and bedtimes back later and later each day).

BUT.

The best part of the day was this evening, where baby girl and baby boy were laughing at each other from across the coffee table, running around and literally going hysterical with shrieks of laughter, and I called out to Hubbie “that’s it, they’ve lost it, they’ve both had caffeine.”

And on and on the laughter went. 🤣😁🩷💙

#2963 The holiday morning

Today was one of those really great, cruisy, go-with-the-flow holiday days.

I think what set the tone was the morning. It was oh-so-chilled. Hubbie and I had the best time, doing the most simplest of things, and we were trying to work out why it felt so good, why it was so good. We broke it down to this:

We started off with a simple walk alongside the park/water views. This we hadn’t done in a while, but it was also done while pushing baby boy in the pram for his morning nap – we were being productive, while enjoying the calm. Ahhh.

Next we stopped for coffee and a bite to eat. Still, baby boy was napping! Success. Only waking up when we were done. Check and check.

We meandered on down the Main Street. We popped into streets here, there. We took turns carrying baby boy and having him in the pram. We looked into those specialty shops that we haven’t poked our heads in for ages, and even went into another and both bought some clothes – other than baby boy’s christening, I HAVE NOT BOUGHT NEW CLOTHES I CAN’T REMEMBER WHEN.

Then we sat on a nearby bench to feed him as he was hungry. We were right in the middle of the Main Street, Hubbie was holding him as I fed him a peanut butter sandwich, and it was just still, cloudy but sunny too, just lovely.

And we were like “why did these past couple hours feel so freaking awesome?”

It was this: we felt like we were holidaying in our town.

It’s a hard thing to nail, because of the fact that you need to let go of all of your routine, something so very engrained in you when you are in fact, home. You are not away. You can’t think of jobs, you can’t think of the next thing, what is waiting for you at home, the weekend, the night, etc, etc.

You are just in the moment, like holiday people. Do I want to buy sushi? Yeah I want to buy sushi.

Do I want to walk into this shop? Yeah I wanna look at this seaside apparel.

Do I want to feed baby boy on this bench that we never sit on? Yes we bloody hell will.

This was absolute key. You have to live in the moment, forget about routine, and just be.

Enjoy. I need to try to capture this essence and apply it through the year. It is so, SO hard to do when you’re in the midst of work/school/raising kids/maintaining a home/ life balance, but I will try, damn it, to do these holiday things, ALL THROUGH THE YEAR. 🥰

#2911 Looking for the dress

Today was a bit of a weird disaster day.

I’m feeling quite desperate to find a dress for baby boy’s upcoming christening, with less than a month away… and so we headed down to the biggest shopping centre in Victoria.

Chadstone.

The whole family, including our 10 month old baby boy.

ON BOXING DAY. 😬

Let me just say, we are never doing that again. We are all a bit scarred from the event, so much so that I think we won’t be going to Chadstone on a regular shopping day anytime soon.

I didn’t find a dress… kind of. I tried one on, and the size above is a tad loose, the size under a tad tight.

There is no in-between ‘just right.’

But I tried, I can tick it off my list, and there may just be life in that dress yet…

#2908 Christmas feels on Christmas Eve Eve

I was pushing baby boy up the escalator with baby girl right behind me. All of a sudden, before we reached the main floor of our local shopping centre…

Trumpet!

The classic sounds of Christmas carols started loudly making their way over to us. A trumpet player was playing “Jingle Bell Rock” with a guy following with a musical speaker, and a Santa Claus and Mrs Claus too, with an Elf.

Shoppers were everywhere, but most funniest were those pushing big trolleys of food for their Christmas feasts, trying to get around the Christmas music and costumed folk, some looking bewildered at all the Christmas shenanigans, others smiling and laughing, much like we were as we reached the top.

We made our way around them as Santa and Mrs Claus sat on a nearby bench, and when they saw baby girl they urgently called her over to sit between them! I encouraged her, and as she sat down the Elf girl took a polaroid picture of them, handing me the cute photo.

Awww.

Baby girl and I kept laughing about the music and Santa folk, counting our lucky stars that the music started as we entered the building, kinda ideal, like in the movies…

Christmas movies. 🥰🎄🎅💖

#2895 A BIG shopping day

I was a bit unsure, even nervous leading into today. After all I knew we had a big day planned, looking for our outfits for baby boy’s upcoming christening.

But it was a really good day. He was in a great mood, the first plus. We were busy, sure, with breastfeeding stops, snacks and lunch stops, nappy changes, even finding places for him to crawl… taking turns holding him when he grew tired of the pram, and then organising his main nap time in the pram in amongst all this.

But he was honestly a trooper. We were there for 6 hours! Hubbie got his suit… baby girl got her dress… (and we even found elf on the shelf in a climbing position in the shopping centre tree!)

And now it’s just me. Of course. 🙄 I am yet to get my outfit, but I am told I will have a day devoted all to me and getting this dress for the christening. 🙏

Here’s hoping baby boy is just as good for us on that shopping day!

#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.

😁🙏

#2842 The very spendy caterpillars

I couldn’t help but think of the classic children’s book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as I thought back to our shopping trip earlier today.

Hubbie and I went to Target with baby boy because I needed some more navy blue leggings for baby girl’s school uniform.

We got a lot more than a few pairs of $7 navy leggings. 😬😬😬😬

So you know how in the story, the caterpillar eats through food, after food, after food, after food?

Chocolate cake.

Ice cream cone.

A pickle.

A slice of Swiss cheese.

And on and on?

Well, I felt we were a bit like that caterpillar, but instead of eating, we were BUYING.

‘On Wednesday morning, Hubbie, baby boy and I went to Target, and we bought…

3 pairs of navy blue leggings,

A matching Chicago Bulls top and short set, size 1,

a new Bonds onesie,

an ACDC top size XL,

a Cold Chisel top size XL,

and a light-up, spinning, noise-making 6 month+ baby toy.’

All of a sudden, these caterpillars weren’t feeling too good.

They overspent. 😬😬

But I’m sure they’ll come out the other side, all of them beautiful butterflies with their purchases. 🐛🦋

#2787 Aldi love

I’ve jumped on the ‘I love Aldi’ bandwagon about 10 years too late, but I’m finally here. 🙌

You see, when baby girl was a baby, I used to frequent Aldi often… for the nappies. I found that they were the only ones that didn’t make her leak as a baby, so I just stuck with them into toddler-hood.

When we lived on the other side of town, I had the BEST SET UP with our local shopping centre.

That centre, oh-so-close to home, had:

An Aldi

A Big W

A Safeway (NOT Woolworths!)

A Coles

AND

A Target!

When I went shopping, I was set. I would often start my shop with baby girl navigating from within the trolley, at one supermarket, looking for specials and seeing where the best fruit and veg was, before moving on to another shop.

I even had a Big W and Target there, and that was so useful for those everyday items, bits and pieces, kids clothes, and of course toys that I had to succumb to every so often.

But when we moved, alas, no such set up.

Here, wherever you go, you will only find –

either a Safeway…

or a Coles…

or an Aldi.

Not together.

Only recently has one of those centres upgraded, and there is a Coles and Safeway now within the same space.

Therefore our Aldi shopping ceased a long time ago.

Enter baby boy. Naturally, I started buying Aldi nappies for him, as I did so many years ago, and they are still magic, as they were, so many years ago.

Also enter, increased cost of living. 😬

Over the past few months, we have found so many alternative products that are HEAPS cheaper at Aldi.

Tuna.

Butter.

Tiny teddies.

Toilet paper.

Dishwashing tablets.

Corn chips!

And the list just keeps on and on!

Today I did a little shop with baby boy in tow… I needed more nappies, and decided to have a little peruse around the shop.

I got washing machine cleaning tablets.

I got cheese and cracker packets.

I got parmesan cheese!

Now of course, there will be many times where I can’t find what I want at Aldi (the popcorn we bought once was really mediocre, and the bran cereal, Hubbie just can’t).

But for every other time, where the quality is the same as the brand names, or even still, they sell the same brand product for cheaper… well I will go Aldi first.

What are your bargain Aldi buys? Let’s share. 😁😂💖🙌

#2786 Just one thing

The best part of my day…

Hubbie and I went to a shopping centre this morning, and grabbed a coffee to go. We actually wanted to sit down in a nearby booth, but all were taken.

As we received our coffees, still waiting on some food, one older couple finished their coffees, and asked if we wanted their table? We must have looked a sight, balancing pram, baby, coffees! We accepted so gratefully, then happily obliged as they asked about baby boy, engaging in small talk about cute babies and how they can be boys, or girls. 🙄😅