#2349 The coolest Aunty

We were at my sister’s last night, and as usual baby girl brought her backpack, ipad, books, her teddies and the kitchen sink. 🙄😁

It became apparent late last night when we got home, that one of her toys was missing and a quick look in the car today confirmed to us that she had most likely left it over there.

So I sent sis a message, asking her to keep an eye out for the cat plush toy with the whiskers. 😊

The response I got, is the thing all aunty’s should aspire to do.

We should ALL take a page out of her book!

These are ‘some’ of the photos I got!

She had me pass on messages to baby girl too…

“Thanks for letting me sleep over!”

“Meow meow!”

“I’m having fun with Caramel.” (Their cat!)

“I’m about to have a snack and can’t decide.”

We all absolutely loved it! It was so fun and inspiring, and it brought that light-heartedness when baby girl was already missing one of her favourite stuffed toys.

It was Hubbie who said what a cool aunty sis is, and I couldn’t agree more! We should all do these beautiful things for the little ones in our lives, whether they are our own kids, our nieces or nephews, or just precious kids we know…

Baby girl had the biggest smile on her face, and later wrote back:

“I miss her have a wonderful week at someone else’s house.”

😭🥰

#2151 Musical furniture

They say a change is as good as a holiday!

So when you move furniture during the summer holiday season, well it’s like two holidays then isn’t it? 🤣

We did a quick change up of the furniture in our family room this afternoon. We’ve recently gotten a 2-seater lounge for the deck, but without realising it we’ve also purchased a 2-seater lounge for the family room too… when we aren’t using it outside, we are bringing it inside.

Lo and behold our furniture is doing double duty, and it’s GREAT. Totally 2 for the price of 1.

Because it’s spending half its time indoors, we had to move a couple of other things.

The big brown bookcase, which was against a brown brick wall, is now sitting near my work desk, against a white wall, and it is POPPING!

And the white toy shelf that was against a white wall, is now against a brown brick wall, and that is POPPING too while at the same time not at all a point of focus, which is IDEAL.

Then we have this plant in the corner of the room between my desk and the bookcase, and suddenly that green plant is POPPING!

And then we look over at our new outdoor/kinda indoor 2 seater and that is POPPING too!

It looks great and we aren’t even done!

I can’t wait to use it more during my actual holidays. 🤗🤗

Photo by Ilya Shakir on Pexels.com

(How I wish it looked like… one day 😉)

#2121 The Christmas miracle

Meet baby girl’s toy cat, Daisy.

This toy is a Christmas miracle because she got lost last week… at school.

Any parent whose had a child lose something at school knows that chances of getting it back can be very slim.

The thing about Daisy though, was it was baby girl’s absolute favourite toy when she lost it. She came up tearfully to me at the school gate the day it happened, and proceeded to cry as she said she couldn’t find her.

Lost the usual way, in the playground of course. What shit me though was that baby girl had left Daisy on a bench when a teacher asked her to help pack up some toys during lunchtime… so baby girl had obliged, going off to help, only to come back and find that Daisy was gone.

She had been helping, and had in turn being shafted.

On the way home, with quivering lips, she told me that a friend had told her if she crossed both fingers and closed her eyes and wished with all her heart that Daisy would come back, then she would.

She almost broke down again, and with it went my heart.

I emailed her teacher as soon as we got home.

“Look, I know she shouldn’t have brought her to school, and she has certainly learnt her lesson… but could you point her in the right direction as to where she could look, as she’s very upset.”

Each day though brought with it a lost and property search resulting in a no-show. Baby girl had listed today actually as Daisy’s birthday on our calendar, and as the day approached she slashed the date with a cross and started to bawl that they weren’t going to spend the day together. 😭😭

Meanwhile I started concocting a plan. I would go to the place where we bought it, hope against hope they still sold the same toy, then get Elf to present it to her one morning with the note: ‘here is Daisy’s cousin!’

No, I couldn’t lie to her and tell her it was Daisy. But I could ease her pain and make her feel better with the next best thing.

I was chatting to another Mum at the fence today when baby girl ran up with a cheeky look, bag over her shoulder, holding something behind her back. She does it often, and it’s usually a pencil she won in a raffle, some new art work or a colourful drawing.

When she drew out Daisy, I WAS IN SHOCK!

She had been found!

Baby girl was so happy! I was so happy! Hubbie was so happy!

I can’t believe it! It is truly our little Christmas miracle. Her happiness is ours, after all. 💖💖😻😻

#1965 Afternoon ‘yes’ time

It’s been a week of school holidays and I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything for baby girl.

With her. Today, despite, the cold, wind, rain, and 10 degree day temperature, we headed OUT.

You know, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Winter won’t stop me no more. As long as I have my freedom…

… and there’s no lockdowns, I’ll throw on a beanie and a jacket, thank you very much, and LIVE MY LIFE.

Which is what we did.

We kind of just wandered in and out of shops on the Main Street. I snapped a beautiful shot of her reading on the floor of our local bookstore…

And then we headed to get, what else at 3pm?

Yes, that’s right. Babycino and coffee. ☕🥛

But when she spied the pancakes on the kids menu, instead of her usual cookie, I turned into ‘YES’ Mum.

She was sooo rapt.

We had a beautiful afternoon, and nothing pleases me more than seeing her excited and happy face.

Even this $4.50 purchase at the cheap shop, as I like to call it, well it’s kept her busy all night, but lo and behold she got all the little hoops on the bars, a few times already. Parents, you will understand this. 😂

I hope we can have a lot more fun, excited and ‘yes’ moments in the next week too. 💖💖

#1854 Our new bird

Meet our new bird.

Ha ha. I never said he was a real bird.

Baby girl got this from the shops today. It’s a tiny, chirping bird that records your voice and repeats it back to you, and it’s the funniest thing ever!

We were all mimicking it this afternoon, trying out different words, phrases, parts of songs, and the bird repeats it back, slightly up-tempo, in this high-pitched avian voice.

Now, we ALL want one!

#1828 Balcony brekkie

So what else does one do when you’re locked at home, it’s beautiful weather…

Did I mention locked at home? 🤣

Well, kind of. Many Melburnians would agree with me. Others would call me over-dramatic, but I am a writer so…

LOL.

With not much to do, and with so much time to do it, I looked outside, felt the air, and said to baby girl:

“Why don’t we eat breakfast on the balcony?”

It’s a nicer experience actually, without the gazillion cars going by. I actually don’t really notice them, it’s only that Hubbie loves to bring it to our attentions time and time again.

The cars, oh man, the cars. God help us, THE CARS.

But now, during lockdown? There are minimal cars.

It made our tea, toast and toy experience that much more serene, peaceful, and chilled, up there, on a day where we didn’t do much, AT ALL.

Hey, maybe we schedule snap lockdowns once a month, just so we can get some time off? Anyone?

Ok I’ll duck –

#1761 Images of Christmas

Elf on the Shelf this morning… playing Go Fish with his Christmas/fantasy friends.

Re-discovering my Christmas mug again… yes, it IS the most wonderful time of the year.

And then hanging up our big Christmas baubles out the front… and discovering that 2 hours of solar light, was enough for them to shine, for even just a bit.

🎅💖💖🎄

#1734 Day 236 of getting there: The Christmas Toy

Has this happened to you as a parent?

You go to the shops with your brood. Somewhere like Target, hell, even Safeway (Woolies for you young folk 😉)

Your child asks you, “can I have a toy?”

Glare.

“No!”

“Please?”

“You already have a million toys.”

“Just one more, please?”

(It is ALWAYS one more).

This was baby girl and I today. I had to grab some bread after work, and so we headed down to the local shopping centre…

But we had time to kill afterwards, and so we strolled around.

We ended up in Target.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Soon she was asking me that question.

“Can I have something, please?”

Glare.

“No.”

“Please?”

Glare.

“Find something for $2 okay! $2 only!”

Now, before you accuse me of being a cheapskate, be mindful that this girl has gotten a gazillion toys during shopping centre walks. She doesn’t need any more, and yet…

There we were, walking around for toys.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I called it early, and said let’s go home… there was nothing for $2, hell, even the chewing gum was probably $2.50. (It ain’t 1990 anymore).

But she was desperate. This young shop-a-holic was looking around, frantic to find something, anything to take home…

And then she found it.

A bloody singing reindeer.

And perhaps unbeknownst to her, but it GOT ME.

Because it’s Christmas-y you see. And I LOVE Christmas. In fact, the thought of Christmas is saving me this year.

This reindeer sings “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” while his antlers and nose flash up. It is pretty cool, and he is pretty cute.

$2 though? Hell no! This was $19, but I always knew she wasn’t going to find something for $2, just as I knew a ‘stroll’ through the shopping centre would lead to this. 😉

This singing reindeer actually reminded me of a sweet memory I had from a few years ago. We were living on the other side of town, and it was late October. We had just gone into Big W, the Christmas decorations were up already (of course) and baby girl had been standing in the trolley, falling in love with this singing and dancing Christmas tree on the shelf that sang “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT. And so we got it. And I just remember the amused expression on my face as we went through the centre, baby girl in the trolley pressing the button so the toy tree would sing the Christmas song on repeat, with people around us turning as we passed, curious about the noise, also perhaps wondering why the hell they could hear a Christmas song and it was only October…

But, I loved it.

I wonder if today’s shopping trip will go down in the memory bank like that one… 😊

#1722 Day 224 of getting there: shopping and magic

Today we went SHOPPING!

It was probably to our advantage though that we got there so late. There were still plenty of people about, so you can imagine how crazy it would have been earlier in the day.

And look, probably good for our wallets too, that we weren’t there for so long.

It was busy, it was fun, and it was magical.

Magical? Magical how? What, I assign magic to going back to shopping…?

Well, kind of…

Check this out:

We set baby girl a challenge a week ago… and nevermind what it was, but she did well, and this was her prize. This longed for bloody crystal flyer that’s been all over the freaking kids channels on TV. 🙄

IT FLIES, you see. You charge it with a usb (just as well so I don’t bleed my money out on batteries) and then it just propels into the air from its stand, and you place your hand underneath it AS IT HOVERS.

So it sounds simple, right?

This fairy bashed into our walls, cupboards, got tangled in our hair (YES) dozens and dozens of times, before baby girl got the knack of it.

Above, she is getting the knack.

So, it was a pretty magical day, in a way.

A fairy bashed into all corners of our house, but after practice, magic happened. ✨

That sounds like some kind of metaphor…

#1707 Day 209 of getting there: Declutter day

There was nothing else to do on a day like today.

An iso grey day.

But DE CLUTTER.

It wasn’t even planned. (Seriously, none of my days are anymore).

It all kinda flowed. From de cluttering baby girls toys, to attacking closets, emptying old boxes, organising files, and cleaning out drawers…

I did one after another after another. And considering how grey the day was, and how flat I felt at the start… I felt pretty damn productive and awesome after the day’s work.

There’s nothing quite like clearing and organising your external state, to help fix your internal one. Don’t tell me the two aren’t connected – they are.