There are photos we take that are material – we can print them out and keep them to look back on fondly.
Then there are the photos that we live in the moment, there are no cameras to capture it, but we keep it in our minds eye to try and eternalise it forever.
The material photo from today was this sweet moment:
And the memory one was later this evening, swaying and dancing in the lounge room as I held baby boy, singing to Elvis in the background “The Wonder of You” while baby boy grinned with his little teeth showing.
The best memories evoke strong feelings, and today both the material and mind do so for me. 💙❤
Today was one of those days where so much was happening, so much was on.
And it had to do with all of the people that I love. 💖
First, I am tentatively so excited that I had my first Mother’s Group today. It’s for Mums of multiple kids, and those who have big gaps between kids, or who are new to the area – a yes, yes, and yes from me! I met some lovely Mums, and I have a good feeling about the group. Baby boy was trying to crawl around, doing his downward dog pose, while also trying to put everything in his mouth. I am excited for him… and I am excited for me. 🥰
Next was baby girl’s turn. I went to her school assembly to watch her in the senior choir perform two songs in front of half the school! I didn’t realise at the time how much it would pull on my heart strings, watching her up there singing. Oh my goodness – my heart was so proud and so full. 🥹
Lastly, but definitely not least, is Hubbie. And it was his birthday today. 😍🎂
I am beyond blessed to have shared such beautiful things with all of my family today. And now I want to share something else…
It’s been a while since we’ve been to baby storytime at the library, but I made an effort to get there today.
It was Winter last time. Today, Spring. Baby boy is older, sitting up mostly unassisted, and is now way more interested.
There’s a few songs I’ve come to love, both old faves and new tunes. I mean, baby songs are so cute in general. How can you not enjoy bouncing a baby up and down? 🥰
But then, a song from the past, one I loved singing with baby girl when she was little, in fact even featured in this post.
“Galumph went the little green frog one day
Galumph went the little green frog!”
It was the frog song! Galumph! I leant over baby boy and sang to him, doing little actions with his hands, happy that 5 years after the last rendition, the frog was still going!
I’ve heard so many parents say that one reason they like to have their kids closer in age together, is to get over the baby stage sooner – the nappies, sleepless nights, crying, trying to work out what the F*&K is going on.
And while I totally get it, I am actually really enjoying the stark contrasts between baby girl and baby boy’s worlds.
He is about to get his first tooth. I saw it today, his bottom left, the top of the gum starting to open up to let out his first food-biter. It woke him up an hour after bedtime, and I had to rock him to sleep as he tried to settle on my chest amongst the teething pain.
But then there’s baby girl. She started piano lessons today, and was super excited to recommence gymnastics for term 4, while telling me about her choir participation at school, and how one song they’re going to perform soon is Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know.” This is one of my favourite songs, and I took great joy in singing along with her today as she practiced.
Such varied worlds. Such happiness and joy in both. I love watching them grow, no matter their age, no matter what is going on.
Early parenthood, with its many challenges and tribulations, has me not liking the stressed, crying, anxious, unhappy person I’ve become.
So it was nice that I had a little of the old me come back today.
I’d picked up baby girl from school and we were driving home, trying to keep baby boy from his usual car crying with a sing-a-long, The Wiggles classic “Rock-a-bye your bear.”
It was working. Baby girl was singing and he was keeping quiet.
Then we started to improvise. She was getting tired of the repetition, and so I chimed in, instead of “bear’s now asleep,”
‘Baby girl is getting tired.’ ‘Mummy feels like sleeping.’ ‘Baby boy is wide awake.’
And so baby girl and I cracked up, both at the irony of us getting tired in trying to get baby boy calm/tired, and with all the funny sentences we were improvising with.
Each evening baby boy has what we call his ‘hour of power’ – when we can take his brace off and he can kick and squirm and jiggle all he likes!
But when we put him back in his brace, sometimes he fusses… but I tend to think that has more to do with tiredness and general upset, than it does with going back in the brace.
So as Hubbie puts him in the brace, I sing a song to distract him.
It’s amazing what we forget, and what we remember. I used to sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ to baby girl, years and years ago to distract her, when Hubbie used to put her brace back on at the end of the night.
I remembered this only when I started to think of what song to start singing to baby boy.
So of course tonight, again. I have to catch his eye, otherwise he will sometimes start wailing.
Tonight, success. Once I have his attention, he is all eyes on me.
Now as you know it’s a short song, so I usually do several repetitions, sometimes up to 10 as the brace goes on.
And tonight, as I was singing, baby girl joined in on my repetitions…
then as Hubbie was finishing up, he joined in too…
So by the end we had baby boy looking up at all 3 of us, twinkling our fingers in the air and singing –
I thought it was a lucky break, a blessing when I napped on the couch yesterday afternoon and wasn’t woken by our bird, Orange-cheeks. Sometimes we bring his cage inside, and that also brings in a lot of his shrieks and whistles and all around bird noise.
But it wasn’t a blessing, or a lucky break. He was winding down, becoming extra tired, getting ready for his biggest sleep yet.
Our sweet bird passed today. And we’re so, so sad.
I’m not grateful for that, not at all… rather I’m grateful that we had him for so long (21 years!) and that we had such a special bird enter our hearts in this life.
I’m grateful he got to live a good, long life.
I’m grateful so many of our friends and family got acquainted with him.
I’m grateful he got to experience so much of the world with us – 4 houses, 4 suburbs! 2 of Hubbie’s parents’ houses and 2 of ours.
Yes, he lived in a cage, but he bore witness to some crazy nature world war 3 shenanigans. If birds could talk!
But he could sing. And whistle. Constantly shrieking to get our attention, this bird was high maintenance! And then when he had his audience he’d sing you a song. 🎵
He imprinted on me, all girls in fact, a real ladies man. 😏🤣 But that’s probably because I fed him when he was a newborn, he was hand-reared. Despite this, he was officially hubbie’s bird, and this in itself became a joke because he didn’t like him, but instead liked his mum, his wife, his daughter. Anyone but him.
Still, hubbie cared for him, being the only one who fed him and cleaned his cage.
Orange-cheeks was a great imitator, known for copying the sound of a phone ringing, a sweeping sound, and even copying the physical action of me shaking out our laundry from the outside line (shaking his head down!)
When baby girl was born, he whistled the sweetest tune to her when I brought her to the window. Not long ago now I brought baby boy to see him, again through the window… he didn’t whistle the first time he saw him (maybe because he was a boy! 😬🤣) but he came through on the next occasion.
He was a real character, a one-of-a-kind, and until I saw it for myself, I didn’t know a bird in such a small package could hold so much personality.
…
I found him today. I had to tell baby girl after school. She thought I was joking, then burst out crying after she realised his cage was missing. She sat on my lap and we hugged each other, faces pressed close together for a while. Soon she went to pat Mister F. I could understand why.
I never realised how much atmosphere his bird calls provided. Didn’t realise until tonight, when the evening was deadly quiet. When we ate dinner, he wasn’t outside, eating his bird seed along with us. We had never realised, until his absence, how much of our every day lives he filled.
21 years. 21 years of schooling, a lot of different jobs, getting married, our moves, other pets, and our kids. He’s been there through it all.
His sweet song, funny imitations, clear favouritism that provided comedic relief, and who can forget those orange cheeks.
Today was a big day, more so for baby girl. She had a friends birthday, and then we all went to a wedding in the afternoon.
The day was beautiful in every way. But there was a particular moment in the night that had me grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Towards the end of the night the band left their musical posts to have a break, and some people, being a little loose and happy and brave, ventured up to the mics to talk, sing and entertain the crowd.
Baby girl got excited, and joined in.
At first I was like ‘stop,’ because she was kinda yelling at the beginning. Like, if you’re gonna talk in a mic, don’t yell, it’s loud as it is… but as she watched the other people comment in the mic and sing along to the backing songs, she started to do the same.
I let it go. I watched her “ooh, ooh” along, make comments, get embarrassed every time in between, BUT… come back for more.
I was fascinated. I was fascinated because she has expressed an interest in singing and dancing for a little bit now, but I think the thought of performing also makes her very nervous.
And here she was, in front of a room full of people, singing along to Paul Simon’s “Call me Al.” 🤦♀️🤣
It was beautiful to watch. I think she thought I was going to tell her to stop again, but instead I took out my camera and took as many snaps as I could.
It might just be a kid thing, wanting to hear her voice amplified, sure… but you know, with a lot of these things, you just never know.
I will always be there, encouraging and cheerleading for her, just in case.
And her dancing, my God I was impressed. The times she was on the dancefloor tonight was the biggest joy to watch. Even though my extra weight was bearing down on my heels, so many times I got up just so I could dance with her.
My girl. My singing girl. My dancing girl. My growing up girl who I love watching every, single, time, and every, single, day.
carcrashgratitude 