A Fantastic Day

We had the most wonderful day today. Nothing spectacular happened, but it was a day our whole family enjoyed, and it will be a day I will remember with warm thoughts while Mr Accident and I are apart.

We started out with a HUGE sleep in. Baby snoozed until 7:45 so we did too. Then I left Mr Accident to mind her while I dashed to the shops and did the whole weekly shop in under an hour. It was a bit like a lame game show, "Speed Shopper" maybe? Or "What will Mrs Accident forget in the exhilaration of time pressured shopping?" It was fun to be unencumbered for a little while, and a quick break from baby reminds me how much I miss her when we're apart. I come back refreshed and happy to be a mum again.

Then Mr Accident and I took Bub to Baby Gym. I'm glad he came, I like it when he gets a little insight into our daily activities. I think he enjoyed it, he was willing to stay longer when it came time to leave!

After Gym we dashed into town to a 'Mums and Bubs' movie session and saw Star Trek. I loved it! It might have been because it's the first movie I've seen since Baby was born, but I think the dialogue and characterisations also played a large part. Next week we'll try to see Angels and Demons, since today went so well. It's also a bonus that the tickets are super cheap to these sessions too.

Then it was home for a tasty tasty chicken sandwich (fresh lettuce, BBQ chicken, Spanish onion, avocado, mayonnaise, tomato and salt and pepper on a fresh roll - wow!). We ducked over to a friends house for a cup of tea and a chat, then home again for a quiet late afternoon and rice paper rolls for dinner. Baby was a little gem the whole day, with giggles, great feeds and sleeps at highly appropriate times.

It's a really nice fact that such a simple day can bring so much pleasure.

I have spent two days holding a grumbling baby and swaying from side to side.
She was off colour and just wanted to suck, but didn't want to actually eat. She wanted to be held, but was unhappy when whoever held her tried to sit down. She fussed and fussed. She was ridiculously tired but too uncomfortable to sleep. She had a temper the length of Vin Diesel's hair. She didn't have any other real symptoms other than her teenage attitude, but something was wrong. My poor little baby. I think it was swine flu.

When I started to take this photo she was smiling!

Baby Gym

We love baby gym.

We like watching and chewing the maracas, and lying on the parachute.

We wiggle to music

and play on the giant soft tunnels and rollers

and the favourite - scooter boards! Wheeeee!


Sure, you might ask, what's a 14 week old baby need gym for?

Well, she probably doesn't, but as my grandmother says 'the only thing better than a sleeping baby is two sleeping babies'. And baby gym is a guaranteed knock out.

Ode to a trolley boy

Dear Trolley Boy,

yes you, Roger. The one with the tongue piercing. Did you know I use the supermarket you work at solely because they were smart enough to employ you? Don't worry, it's nothing romantic. I just appreciate the fact that when I arrived in a strange town, 36 weeks pregnant, you were kind enough to materialise by my car right when it was time to return my trolley to the rack. Somehow you understood that the 50 metre walk across the car park in the tropical heat, pushing a dodgy trolley, would probably be too much for me. Hormonal tears were imminent. You appeared, and smiled, and took my trolley. It made my day.

For a few weeks I shopped with my husband in tow and you didn't show up. I didn't really expect it. After all, your job only requires you to return the trolleys from the car park drop rack to the store front. There is no requirement for individual service or even a wayward smile.
But nevertheless, when I finally ventured out alone for the first shop after giving birth, with a five day old baby and an aura of muddled tiredness, you were back. As soon as the last bag was lifted into the boot. I was trying to work out if I should put the baby in the car while I returned the trolley, or schlep her with me in the sun. You appeared again like a fluro-shirted trolley angel and smiled at Baby. It made my day.

Since then, for the last three months you only missed me one day. I felt deserted, a little cheated. I knew you were at work, I'd seen you as I entered the store. You are distinctive, with that fluro vest, big dorky hat and camel back (as Mr Accident says, hydrate or die). Where were you? Had I offended you? Should I have offered more conversation during our brief trolley encounters? Was a smile and heartfelt thanks inadequate? Then I spotted you across the rain soaked car park, helping a woman. Another mother, with two sopping, bedraggled and grumpy kids. You were helping load her shopping into a Jeep Wrangler with no roof. I bet it made her day.

Convergence and Carrot Cake

Sometimes everything just comes together.

I wanted to make Mr Accident a cake for when he came back from a brief business trip a week ago, but the internet broke and so I couldn't get the recipe, even though I'd already bought all the ingredients...

then he came back and eventually the internet was fixed, but he'd eaten half the supplies...


then I went shopping and suddenly I had all the ingredients, the time and the inclination. So I mixed up a carrot cake, just in time for afternoon tea when my Mum arrived for a long distance visit. (How much am I still loving my KitchenAid Mixer?)

The recipe made so much mix that there was enough for a second cake, which was perfectly timed as a gift for my friend, since she is not only ridiculously, painfully, hormonally pregnant but her oldest baby boy just came down with a bad flu. I gave her the nice one on the left.


Timing is everything.

A day out for a good cause

Every year in Australia the RSPCA holds the Million Paws Walk to raise money. The idea is to show up with whatever pet you have and join in a mass walk, then enjoy a mildly dodgy sausage sizzle afterwards. The tv ad campaign tries to encourage animal diversity but usually only dogs come, and this year was no different.

Our puppies were very excited about the walk, but stayed reasonably well behaved all morning. We took bub along too (couldn't really leave her home alone!) and she had a fine time too. There was plenty for her to look at and she loves a nice perambulate. We started the walk 5 minutes late because she was finishing a feed and this meant while we caught up we had to negotiate many little 'landmines' along the route.

As dog owners, the conversation always comes up between Mr Accident and I about what if - what would our dogs do when faced with a certain situation? What if our family was threatened? Would the dogs realise and step in? Do the dogs know Baby is part of our family yet? Do they understand what she means to us?

Yesterday we had one of those questions answered in a very nice way. A massive Great Dane wandered over to say hello to our German Shepherd, Baya. They had a nice chat, then the Dane headed towards the pram to meet the baby. Our little Cavalier King Charles, Archie, who was about one tenth of the Dane's weight, manned up and threw himself between the pram and the strange dog. He was obviously very very scared, but was not going to let that giant touch his new little baby. It was very a nice validation of his affection towards us and Bub.

We have already experienced Baya's protective nature. When Archie was a little pup, about 3 months old, he bumbled over to a sausage dog to say hi. The grumpy little wiener whipped around and snapped at my pup, causing him to squeak and tumble backwards. The owner offered a half hearted apology of "Oh, sorry, he doesn't like strange dogs." I was very gracious, and replied "no worries, this will teach him not to be too forward....". While this occurring, Baya had heard the pathetic little puppy squeak from a distance and was powering through the crowd, dragging Mr Accident, surging in to protect her little friend. She arrived over the sausage dog a split second later, growling, teeth bared, and scared the tail off him without a single touch. I said "....and this is his big sister, she doesn't like strange dogs either." The owner was speechless, and kept mumbling "Alsatian.....Alsatian..."

Baya loves her family too.

And really, who could snap at this little fella?

Half a family

I've mentioned before that Mr Accident and I have jobs that require significant amounts of travel, often at short notice. We knew this when we met, when we married, and when we had little Princess, but now it has become a very immediate concern.

Mr Accident will be leaving in a month for a very long time. He will be away for his birthday, my birthday, Christmas, new years and our baby's first birthday. He will leave when baby is just learning to giggle, occasionally accidentally rolls over and has just discovered she has toes and thinks they are funny. He will come home when she is walking and on solid food.

C'mon Daddy, could you leave this?

I am trying to think of ways to keep Daddy in her mind while he's away. I am planning to take a decent photo and blow it up to life size and keep it where she can see it. Also, I was thinking about keeping a shirt of his so she will remember his scent. I am a little worried that after a while she will think Daddy smells like dust! As a last ditch attempt, if I can convince him, hopefully Mr Accident will acquiesce to will reading some books to her on a video. I think this will be the most effective but it will take some smooth talking on my behalf. He knows those tapes would be dangerous in the wrong hands!

She loves her Daddy, and I know how precious that is. I will be working very hard to keep that.

Grounded

Sometimes the number and quantity of screens in my house can be a bit overwhelming. There is an ad for a pay TV service on at the moment that lists "chews time" as a positive. It's definitely truthful, but it's actually one of the reasons I don't want to get pay TV. If I can waste so many hours already on the internet and with TV, imagine how many more I would waste if there was actually something on I wanted to watch? Scary!

So today I grounded myself - no TV until the 5pm news. Normally I'd turn it on in the morning for the morning news shows, and then when I turned it off later I would find the house was too quiet, and I would put it back on for company. Yes, I'm fully aware that it's a little sad to count an infomercial for the ab king pro as 'company' but hey, that's the sad truth. It was strange this morning not to turn it on, and I found myself reaching for the remote a couple of times. The upside was, when I was at a loose end, instead of losing hours and growing a fatter rear end, I did things around the house. We now have a clean pantry and fresh banana muffins, I reached the bottom of the laundry pile and everything that's not wet is away, and I went for a walk. And I'm glad I did it. And I won't be watching TV tomorrow either.

But I'm not ready to give up the internet yet!

The walk this afternoon was lovely. Ever since we moved up to the tropics the afternoons have been sticky, still and hot, but today was overcast with a stiff breeze. There were a couple of times where I was battling the wind with the stroller, but it was fun. I don't think baby has really felt wind before today, and she was surprised. She just sat in silence and let it flow over her. I think she enjoyed it too.

That stimulation was probably the reason she had a complete screaming melt down halfway through dinner, and went to sleep an hour earlier than normal.