Adelaide without kids

I turned 31 last week.  Thirty one.  Turning 30 is a huge deal, it’s kind of a milestone of sorts.  But 31?  That just makes me feel old.  I became friends with The Jess’ (my sister in law) friend Romana 5 years ago when we were both pregnant at the same time.  Hannah and her daughter Violet are now best friends, and we’re good friends too.  For her birthday, she decided to visit The Jess in Adelaide.  Without Violet.  She asked if I wanted to go too.  A girls weekend away, seeing The Jess, and a break from the kids…how could I say no?  Plus my birthday is a day after hers (although she is 3 years younger than me), so we made it a birthday weekend away, all by ourselves. Yep, I left the kids at home for another round of Daddy daycare.

Our plane

Originally, we planned to don cute dresses and go out dancing.  Not that I’m good at dancing, I don’t have a rhythmic bone in my body, but I still love doing it, and don’t get to very often.  Dancing and morning all day sickness don’t really go together very well though, so we gave the dancing a miss.  No, I’m not the pregnant one, that would be The Jess.  She and Jim are expecting their very first baby in October.  Or maybe babies.  Twins do run in the family….

Instead, we giggled way too much playing Cards Against Humanity whilst downing copious amounts of chocolate.  Romana and I also giggled like school girls at a sleep over when we went to bed.  Air travel gives me gas, gas is funny, and I had lots of it all night.  Hence the giggles.  I’m not sure why I just shared that with you, but I am sure that many of you are secretly laughing and/or sympathising, so why not?

The next day we went to the beach, but not to swim because we both forgot our swimsuits.  Plus the water felt like it was about 0 degrees, and who wants to swim in freezing cold water?  Excuse my photos, they were all taken on my phone (so they are not exactly of high quality).

The Jess’ “oh-my-gosh-this-water-is-freezing” face as she puts her feet in the water

Pregnant women need rest, so we watched Bridesmaids at Jess’ house after having lunch and decadent dessert at a chocolate cafe.

My bailey’s mousse and ganache deliciousness

The Jess eating her dessert

The Jess and Romana at the chocolate cafe

It just so happened that the Fringe Festival was on whilst we were there, so in the afternoon, we headed into the city to have a look.

Jess decided to join the circus

Me and The Jess. We couldn’t help ourselves. I’m still not sure why Hoe was randomly written on a wall. I don’t normally wear leopard print, but Jess and Romana wanted me to, so I did.  It’s Jess’ dress.

I’ve seen freak shows in movies before, but I didn’t know they actually existed.  Guess what? They do.

Lizard man. He shot an arrow and another guy caught it blindfolded. As you do.

Rubber man. He makes like Gumby and gets his whole body through some tennis racquets.

This guy has like 26 world records for swallowing things. That balloon he’s holding? Swallowed the entire thing, followed by a sword which popped it, followed by a giant pair of tongs which retrieved the popped balloon. Gross yet fascinating.

The next day, we went home.  I wish I could have stayed longer, but you know, a family, and uni stuff awaited me back home, so it was just 2 nights and 1.5 days and then a flight back home.

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

A bike for Christmas

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!  I turned over, still half asleep, and looked at the clock with blurry eyes, not recognising what the beeping until a few seconds later.  5am. It was my alarm.

“Merry Christmas Boo! Did you sleep ok?” I asked Aaron.

“Not really.  You?”

“Horribly. Between the wind and the garbage trucks at 3am, I hardly got any sleep.”  Maybe some of that sleeplessness was due to excitement. I couldn’t wait to see the kids’ happy faces when they opened their presents.  But seriously, who allowed the garbage men to collect the bins at 3am? So uncalled for.

Aaron and I wanted to be showered, and have our stockings already opened before the kids woke up. They are too young to sit around watching us open stockings, they want to open their own, and we didn’t want to miss them opening theirs by being distracted with ours.

Daniel and Hannah with their stockings. Daniel was still half asleep and had no idea what was going on.

We were super naughty and ate some of the s’mores Pop Tarts that I got in my stocking. Aaron managed to find all sorts of American goodies for me. I guess it was more of a pre-breakfast snack. We had a proper breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, and hash browns after church. But you know, it was Christmas, so calories didn’t count. Especially since I went for a 4 kilometer run that evening, which, at the time, was my longest run ever. I’ve since completed a 5K run, after which, I nearly exploded, but that’s another story for another day.

My Christmas evening run. I had to make the most of the cool weather.

We went to Aaron’s Mum (YaYa) and Grandma’s house to open more presents and have lunch. Nothing like the gigantic gathering of relatives my family in the states has, but it was a gathering none the less. Christmas time is always weird for me over here. It just doesn’t seem right having Christmas in the summer.

This year felt a little more normal. The clouds opened and saturated the area with what turned out to be the most rain on Christmas day since 1942, and the coldest in 5 years. A mere 21 degrees (69.8f).  That’s more like a Seattle Christmas. Only far warmer.

Hannah decided she would be the present hander-outer. Which of course was difficult, since she can’t actually read.

“Mommy, who is this one for?”

“That one is for Aunty Jess and Uncle Jim.” I told her.

She skipped off, present in hand and gleefully handed it to Aunty Jess. “That’s not all Aunty Jess, there’s a coffe machine too!” Hannah told her as The Jess opened up a box of chocolates.

Everyone froze for a second, looking at each other wondering what to say, quickly followed by bursts of giggles.

“Well, I guess you can open it now then.” I said, giving The Jess the wrapped coffee machine.

Everyone opened presents all at the same time. There were no turns, there was no order, just chaos as we all got handed presents and opened them at our leisure.  Turn order would have taken hours and the kids would have been over it after 10 minutes.  Maybe when they’re older….

Daniel was running around putting things on his head and trying to steal Hannah’s things until he opened a box full of Dora figurines, his present from Aunty Jess and Uncle Jim. He does love Dora.

After about an hour of present opening (I know, there were way too many presents, Grandma and YaYa always buy the kids way too much stuff and spoil the them rotten), it came to the end. I took Hannah out of the room and when we came back, there was a big thing sitting there, in the middle of the room, covered in sheets.

“Hannah, that’s your present.” We told her.

She excitedly ran up to it and pulled the sheets off, revealing a shiny new pink bike with a basket, tassels, and even a seat in the back for her dolly.  Or in this case, an obnoxious penguin that sings Jingle Bells over and over again. Hannah cuddled that penguin all day.

Hannah on her first bike ride

She was over the moon. Immediately, we took her outside to give it a spin, which we filmed with our new GoPro camera (that Aaron and I got each other for Christmas) mounted on her handle bars.

Hannah got to ride for about 15 minutes before it started pouring down rain.

We stuffed ourselves silly at lunch time, followed by a decadent, choc mud mirror cake that I made from an Adriano Zumbo cake mix. Oh. My. Gosh. Delicious. It was an expensive mix, but totally worth it.

Adriano Zumbo choc mud mirror cake. The one that I made.

And then after the kids went to bed, I went running. On Christmas. As you do. And yes, I am a hypocrite. Earlier that day, I told The Jess she was crazy for wanting to work out on Christmas, and earlier in the week I told another friend the same thing. Oh well….

Hannah doing gymnastics on the handrail

Hannah with one of the sparklers Aunty Jess got her

Grandma’s table decorated for Christmas lunch

The Jess and me with our Christmas earrings

Hannah after eating her small piece of mud cake. We had to take her shirt off because it was covered in cake

The gingerbread house Hannah and I made in November. She finally got to have a piece on Christmas day

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

Radelaide

I’m back from Adelaide! I could have done some blogging when I was over there, but I couldn’t be bothered. Sorry. I didn’t even check my emails. I was too busy spending time with Jess and the kids.

We walked around the airport before departing to expend some of the seemingly endless toddler and preschooler energy. Both kids LOVED looking at all the planes.

“Is that our plane? Is that our plane? Can we get on it now Mommy?” Hannah kept asking me.

Hannah was very good on the flight. She ate her snacks and looked out the window. Only at the end did she start with the “are we there yet? Are we there yet? Mommy when are we going to be there?” questions. Daniel on the other hand….

Daniel was quite tired. I got the flight that departed just before his bed time, if you remember. Unfortunately, he didn’t sleep a wink, and instead was very grumpy. Luckily though, he didn’t scream. As long as I was rocking and/or bouncing him. The. Entire. Time. Sigh. My back was killing me by the time we arrived, but at least I didn’t have a screaming child and all of the plane staring at me with annoyance.  Although I’m sure the poor lady who got stuck sitting next to us must have been annoyed with all the bouncing. And with Daniel reaching behind himself to push buttons on her keyboard without my knowledge. Cheeky monkey.

I’m so glad the flight was pretty fast. It even arrived 10 minutes early.

Getting off the plane

We were going to ride the bus everywhere during our stay, until we found out that the bus to the zoo cost $20 per person per direction. Hiring car seats cost $35 per seat for a week.

Chasing Meerkats that were running from side to side in their enclosure was a favourite activity at the zoo. Apparently Daniel LOVES animals. Even the cardboard cut outs of animals.

The meerkat was not very cooperative with the camera, but the kids were running after it as it ran from one side of it’s glass sided enclosure to the other.

We went strawberry picking at Beerenberg Farm where Daniel tried to eat green strawberries and had tantrums when I wouldn’t let him.

The Jess, Me, and the kids strawberry picking

The Jess lives in a swish new apartment in a brand new building right across the street from a beautiful beach. Daniel had a blast chasing seagulls back and forth along the beach (hmm…I sense a pattern here) and playing in a tide pool while Hannah enjoyed making sandcastles and collecting sea shells.

Daniel playing in the water

The Jess and I even got a couple of runs in whilst the kids were asleep (don’t go calling CPS/DOCS, Jim stayed in the apartment with the kids). I think I’d go running everyday if I lived at the beach. Beach runs are awesome. 

The view from our run. This photo was taken while I was running….

The Jess’ apartment is crazy long, so the kids had a ball running up and down the crazy long hallway, chasing each other and giggling. She had her birthday while we were there (the purpose of our visit) and Hannah and I made her a super delicious black forest brownie cake. My own creation.

The Jess blowing out her sparkler candles

The one day The Jess had to work while we were there, I took the kids on the bus to a shopping centre. I got their hair cut (Daniel’s for the very first time!), and then took them to the little playground inside the centre.

And then this happened:

The egg on his head.

Daniel was so excited about the little toddler sized slide in the play area that he would go up the stairs, down the slide and then run around to the stairs again. On about his 10th pass to the slide, he tripped and went forehead first into the pointy end of the wall on the side of the slide stairs.

I had to find a doctor, convince him to see us even though they didn’t have any free appointments, and pay some money because they didn’t bulk bill.

Then, because I had to take Daniel to the doctor, my two hour bus ticket expired and I didn’t have enough cash to pay for another ticket.

“I’ll just go to the ATM and get the next bus.” I told the driver.

But everyone is nice in South Australia (everyone I encountered at least), and he let me ride the bus for free.

The Jess sometimes refers to Adelaide as Radelaide. Because you know what? It’s pretty rad. People are nice, it’s clean, there are really awesome parks all over the place, great beaches, etc., etc. I really like Adelaide. Maybe I’d be singing a different tune if I’d visited in the height of summer where they have heat waves for days on end with temps over 40 degrees (104f). Ick.

Waiting at the airport

Hannah at the beach

Posing with the fake rhino

cheeky boy

Me and the kids

Hannah putting a hat on Daniel

Holding hands on the bridge to see the giraffes

Daniel with a steel rhino

Hannah with her very first sparkler

me and my big fat strawberry

The Jess, me, and the kids strawberry picking

Hannah with her strawberries

Daniel giving me a kiss. I know, he’s so sweet!

Daniel eating some of our pickings

Playing in the weird sculpture park

Playing on the big thong

Playing in a fountain

Hannah and Daniel playing in a fountain

Daniel, Hannah, and The Jess in front of the museum

Hannah giving the busker some money

Hannah dancing to a street performer

Hannah and The Jess riding the tram in Adelaide

Licking the spatula that we used to get cake out of the pan

The egg on his head.

The Jess blowing out her sparkler candles

The view from our run. This photo was taken while I was running….

Daniel playing in the water

Hmmm… WordPress seems to have changed their media uploading page. I can’t find the slideshow button, so you get a gallery instead. It’s so annoying when they change stuff and you have to relearn how to do everything. Humph.

Anyway, the verdict on flying at bedtime or when fully awake? Fully awake hands down. On the way home, we went to the airport straight after Daniel’s nap. He sat in my lap nicely the whole time, eating snacks, playing with his dinosaurs, and watching Peppa Pig on the iPad. Not a whinge was heard, nor was he at all restless. I didn’t even feel bad playing Peppa Pig without headphones because there was a family sitting in front of us, and guess what their kids did the entire flight? Yep, Peppa Pig on the iPad.

Sorry if there are spelling mistakes or sentences that don’t make sense. I’m tired, so I’m going to bed without proof reading it. Oh well. Also, please click the banner and vote for me. My rank is falling since I haven’t been posting. Pretty please? Thanks.

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

Under the jacaranda

I love this time of year. It’s hot, but not disgustingly hot, and the Jacaranda trees are all in bloom. Wherever I look, I see beautiful purple flowers covering the trees. The flowers fall off the trees and make lawns and sidewalks turn purple. And we all know how much I like purple.

There happens to be a Jacaranda tree in the neighbours yard that hangs over the half-fallen down fence and drops flowers all over our garage area. The day of the storm , the sky was overcast, the flowers were newly fallen, and Hannah and I had some free time whilst Daniel had a nap. In other words, perfect portrait conditions. And believe you me, I took advantage of it. I had to before the sun came out and put horrible dark shadows and bright patches all over Hannah’s face, and obviously before the pretty purple flowers blanketing the driveway turned to hideous brown mush that gets all over your shoes and makes you slip.

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Being 3, she currently enjoys putting on her best fake smile for the camera, which, even though it’s totally fake and obviously fake, is pretty adorable. See the fence behind her? It’s missing half the boards, and another quarter of them are attached only at the bottom and hanging off towards the driveway, nails and all. Sometimes they completely fall off and I have to get out of the car and shove them up against the fence so they don’t scratch the WRX as I drive past. Stupid fence.

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Ball in the toilet

The weather has been so nice recently. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Or making obnoxious noises. Bloody birds. We can wear shorts without being too cold or dripping with sweat. So of course we want to be outside.

We don’t have a yard (or even a balcony), so we invite ourselves to Grandma’s house when we feel like getting our hands dirty. The backyard is filled with all sorts of kids’ things. A slide, cubby house, tricycles, mini trampoline, etc. Not to mention my vegetable garden.

My purple pea plant. It’s so big it grew over it’s support fence. The pea pods are a deep purple colour. Awesome, I know.

The kids also love seeing Grandma (and YaYa, when she’s there) when we visit. Hannah especially. Hannah adores Grandma.

Last time we went, Grandma wasn’t there. No worries, I have a key. We played anyway. I got out Hannah’s tunnel and the kids spent most of their time pushing balls inside the tunnel and giggling.

Melissa & Doug Happy Giddy Tunnel

I got all this stuff before Daniel was born. Hence all the pink and purple…

“Mommy, I have to go poo poo!” Hannah yelled. She clearly needed to go right then, too busy playing to notice or acknowledge the need to go before she really needed to.

At home she’d just let herself into the bathroom. But at Grandma’s house, the door handles tower above her head. She can’t even remotely reach them. I had to go with her.

“Ok, I just have to get Daniel. Just hold it a little longer baby!”

Daniel was in the tunnel. He saw me coming towards him and decided to crawl as fast as he could to the middle, giggling as he went.

“DANIEL! Come on bud, you have to come out now.” He kept going towards the other side. Thinking I could outsmart a 1 year old,  I ran over to the other end of the tunnel to nab him and bring him inside with us. I couldn’t leave him out there by himself. He likes to climb the cement steps that have no fence on the sides and could easily fall face first off the top. I know because when Hannah was little, she did that once. Except there happened to be a wheelbarrow full of weeds right next to the stairs, so she didn’t get hurt.

As I got to the end of the tunnel, he giggled and crawled to the other side again. Did I mention how cheeky my son is?

“Mommy, it’s too late!” Hannah was grabbing her butt through her pants upset that there was something besides her butt to grab. (I’m glad she wasn’t grabbing inside her pants….)

“Ok baby, I’m just trying to get Daniel, hold the rest in if you can!”

Cheeky boy was still going end to end in the tunnel, giggling all the while. I picked up one end of the tunnel and held it in the air so he couldn’t run around it anymore.

“Ha! Got you!” He tried to escape, but my grip was too strong. I carried him inside with one of the pink balls in his hand.

I looked in Hannah’s underwear. 1 little nugget.

I pulled down her underpants, nugget still inside and put her on the little potty. Daniel was running around at the other end of the bathroom, pulling on all the towels.

I opened the lid of the toilet and brought the underwear over the bowl, shaking to remove the nugget.

“NO DANIEL!!!!”

He came out of nowhere. Cheeky little ninja boy.

I could see the bright pink ball in my peripheral vision, quickly going from chubby baby hand to water in the toilet bowl.

I reached out with the hand that wasn’t holding the underwear in attempt to grab the ball before it went in the toilet.

But it all happened so fast.

I missed.

Just as I reached out with my non-underwear holding hand, the poo nugget fell from the undies, hitting my arm at the same time the ball hit the toilet water.

Sigh.

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The zoo and Luna Park

In addition to the little family get together with a Mickey Mouse cake, and way too many presents from Grandma, Aunty Jess, Romana (Hannah’s best friend’s Mum), and I took her and Violet (her best friend) to Taronga Zoo. AND, we had the yearly joint birthday party with the other 7 kids from our antenatal class. This year, it was at Luna Park (you know, the amusement park right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge that was shut down for ages due to noise complaints from all of the richies living in the multi-million dollar apartments over looking the harbour. Well, it is really loud with all the rides and music and screaming…).

Hannah about to blow out the candle on her Mickey Mouse cake

We took the kids on the train to the zoo, with the plan that Daniel would sleep in the pram on the train and then be all rested and cheerful when we got to the zoo.

Yeah right.

That didn’t happen. Sigh.

Instead, he proceeded to scream for most of the hour long train ride. I pushed the pram forward and back, forward and back a million times whilst everyone stared at me wondering why I was not picking up the screaming baby. Hannah was happily playing a Dora The Explorer iPad game in the other pram seat.

Phil and Teds Dash Buggy With Doubles Kit Black

Well people, I was trying to get him to sleep. I put a blanket over the sunshade of the pram so he couldn’t keep himself stimulated from all the people faces and scenery flying by. A lot of times, he does scream in the pram before falling asleep. It’s the wind down.

I think he would have slept too, if the old asian man in the seat across from us didn’t get up from his seat and pull the blanket up so Daniel could see, followed by making goofy faces at him for half an hour. I tried explaining that I was trying to get him to sleep, but was met with a toothless grin, nodding head, and broken english “He just want to see. He happy when he can see.” Sigh.

By the time we got on the ferry, it was almost lunch time.

More screaming. He was hungry and wouldn’t sleep.

Finally we got him to sleep after lunch. At the zoo. After I breastfed him at a table in the food area. A man came over and asked if he could have one of the chairs I wasn’t using. As he was asking he saw that I was, in fact, breastfeeding a baby, and he went bright red mid-sentence.

Fisher-Price Little People Zoo Talkers Animal Sounds Zoo

Hannah had a great time at the zoo with her best friend Violet. Hannah got a camera for her birthday, and she and Violet took a lot of photos at the zoo. I made a blog for Hannah’s photos. It’s interesting what 3 year olds take photos of. Here is her zoo post if you’d like to see it.

Last weekend was the Luna Park party. Hannah has been looking forward to it for months. Every time something came in the mail, bills, menus’s for delivery Chinese food, whatever, she would get it out of the mailbox and happily exclaim that it was from Luna Park, about her party.

I think she could have stayed at Luna Park for 3 days straight, riding rides repeatedly, and still not get bored. She’s a daredevil.

I’m have a giveaway on my reviews blog at the moment, win one of two book packs containing What to Expect When You’re Expecting, What to Expect The First Year, and What to Expect The Second Year. Entering is fast and easy, and open to people worldwide. Go here to enter.

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My manky arm

Finally, my arm has been freed.  6.5 weeks in a cast, and I was going a little crazy.  And it was starting to smell.  Every time my right hand was anywhere remotely near my face, a horrible smell wafted to my nose.  Ick.  I could only imagine what my arm looked like under that cast….

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The nurse/doctor/whatever she was, took the rather scary looking, but won’t actually hurt you cast cutting saw, and worked her magic.  Twice.  The first magic didn’t work so well.  Then she had to cut the other side too.  And then use scissors.  Silly cast wanted to take my arm hostage forever.

My arm and hand looked disgusting. There appeared to be caked-on dirt all over it.

They let me use the sink to scrub at my arm.  The brown wouldn’t come off.  Luckily the smell did.  Ick.

On closer examination, the brown was actually dry disgusting skin, still half clinging to my arm.  Ick.  It wouldn’t come off.  My arm looked like something from an f-grade horror movie.  And my wrist didn’t want to move.  I guess being immobile for 6.5 weeks does that to a person.

After inspecting my arm at home, I realised the hair on my arm was a man-ish black colour.  Not so pretty if you know what I mean.  Not only that, but the back of my hand seems to have decided that it wanted to grow some hair too.  Some man-ish black hair.

I suppose my other hand has a little bit of hair too, but it’s light coloured peach-fuzz type hair. And there isn’t very much of it.  It seems that being covered up made my arm hair thick, dark, and multiplying.

And then there’s the underside of my arm.  That pretty much looks like a giant clump of small volcanoes.  All of the hair (extra hair, remember, I got extra hair while in the cast…) that tried to grow couldn’t quite get out.  So now it’s all ingrown. Ick.

Looks like I’m going to resemble sasquatch for a little while.  Hopefully just a little while. Excess thick black hair is not the sort of battle scar I want….

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Hannah turns two!!!

Tuesday was Hannah’s 2nd birthday. Oh. My. Gosh. I can’t believe she is 2!!!!!  Where did the time go?!?!?!?!?!?!  Seems like yesterday, I was pushing her out and riding the steep learning curve of parenting.

We already had a joint Cowboy/Cowgirl birthday party with everyone from our antenatal class (yes, the antenatal class we attended when pregnant with Hannah), so on the actual day, we went to Featherdale Wildlife Park (where we tried our best not to freeze and blow away as it was crazy windy), ate some cake, opened some presents, and had a look at an apartment for rent.  Here is the day in photos.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet little girl!!!

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Mommy tells lies

Hannah:

I’m so excited.  Mommy has been telling me all week that we’re going with Aunty Jess to IKEA to get a brand new big-girl bed!  My friend in the U.S. has a big girl bed, and she can get in and out of her bed whenever she wants.  No big high bars to stop her from climbing out.

Mommy told me I was supposed to sleep on the way, but I was way too excited!  How could I sleep!  Sorry Mommy, no sleeping here.  “Go to IKEA, Hannah get a big girl bed!”  I told her instead.

When we finally got there, Mommy and Aunty Jess took ages to finally get to the children’s section.  There was fun stuff EVERYWHERE!  I saw a big chalkboard, a play kitchen, lots of play dishes, wooden toys, stuffed toys, tables and chairs.  I really liked the play kitchen.  It had a sink, an oven, a microwave, a cupboard, and even burners!  I could do a lot of cooking with that!

Mommy showed me the beds.  She really liked the one with the sheep on it, but I didn’t like that one.  After climbing all over the beds, and bouncing a little, I decided that  I liked the pretty girly day bed one best.

“She has good taste.” Aunty Jess told Mommy.  Turns out Mommy liked the sheep one better because it was cheaper.  She said we were going to get the sheep one anyway.  Humph.  Why do you ask me which one I like if you’re not going to get me the one I want?

After much more shopping, and getting through the IKEA maze, and me getting cranky because I was so tired, we got to this funny place with really big high shelves full of boxes.  Mommy went to the bed section to get my new bed.

“They’re all out.” Mommy told me.  “I guess we’ll have to get the one you liked best sweetie.”

Yay!

Aunty Jess lifted the boxes onto the really big trolley.  Mommy says she can’t lift things right now.  Mommy used to lift things, so I’m not sure why she can’t anymore.  Maybe Baby Brother doesn’t like it.  “That’s what I’m here for.”  Aunty Jess said.

“Daddy put together Hannah’s new bed!”  I asked when I got home.  Daddy was telling Mommy that he didn’t think there would be time to put it together, but I know how to get Daddy to do what I want, so he went to get his tool box as soon as I asked.  I love Daddy!

I got to help Daddy put it together with all of his different screwdrivers and wrenches.  Daddy calls them spanners, but Mommy calls them wrenches.  I don’t know what to call them.  Maybe I’ll just point and say “that” when I want to use one.

My new bed is so pretty!

Putting things in my new bed

I didn’t want to sleep without all of my toys, so I started putting them in the bed.

“No sweetie, it’s not finished yet.  We have to put the mattress on still.”  Mommy told me.

“I’m not sure how this is going to work.”  I heard Mommy tell Daddy.  Uh-Oh, that didn’t sound good.

Daddy put the mattress on, but it fell off on both ends.  How could I sleep on that?  I’d lay down and end up falling head first under the mattress!  Daddy turned the page in his how to make it book.  His face looked funny.

“Is there anything left in the box?”  he asked Mommy “there are supposed to be slats.”

Mommy looked through all the boxes, but she couldn’t find anything.  I kept putting my toys in the bed.  I didn’t want to be without them my first night in my new big girl bed!

“I’ll look it up.”  Mommy said.

“Oh.  I was supposed to get the slats separately.  They are included in the price, but the website says I’m supposed to get them separately.”

“I’m sorry sweetie, you can’t sleep in your big girl bed tonight, Mommy forgot to get some of the parts.”

Don’t be silly Mommy.  I kept putting toys in.

“Sweetie, you can’t sleep there tonight, I’m really sorry, but I forgot to get some of the pieces.”

“Hannah’s bed.”  I said.  I was really sad.  Mommy told me I’d be sleeping in my new bed, but now I wasn’t allowed to.  Daddy put

moving my toys from my new bed to my portable cot

up my portable cot.  Mommy told me I’d have to sleep there and then we’d go to IKEA again tomorrow to get the missing pieces.  Fine.  I put all the toys from my new bed into the portable cot.

This morning, we went back to IKEA.  I was really excited, but it took us so long to get there!  Mommy said people forget how to drive when it rains.  Lots of cars were in the ditch and all the other cars were barely moving.  I’m glad Grandma was in the back with me to keep me entertained.

Mommy took me to Target to get some new sheets for my bed.  I really wanted Minnie and Mickey Mouse sheets, but they didn’t have any.  Mommy showed me some other sheets and I picked the pink polka dot ones.  I didn’t really like them any better than the others, I just like to say polka dots!  Polka dots!  Then we saw some Minnie Mouse sheets in another shop, but Mommy said they cost too much and I couldn’t get them.

“Who would pay $95 for a set of children’s sheets?!”  She said to Grandma.  I don’t know how much 95 dollars is, but it sounds like a lot.

When we got home, Mommy put the slats on the bed and I helped her put my new sheets on.  I put all of my favourite toys and

putting my toys in my bed

blankets on the bed too!  Mommy wanted me to sit in the bed while she read me a story, but that’s no fun!  I can get in and out of the bed all by myself!  As if I was going to just sit there in bed when I could be getting in and out and playing!  Silly Mommy….

Ready for my nap!

Mommy laid me down, tucked me in, turned on my sleepy music and then shut the door.  Ha!  I wasn’t going to stay in bed!  I played for my whole nap!  I pulled all the clothes out of my closet, got all the dirty clothes out of the hamper, took my sleepy suit and pajamas off, and played dress ups!  I even got to play with the baby monitor!  I can turn the music off and on whenever I want!

Nope, I didn’t sleep at all.  But then I started getting cold.  And I pooped.

“Mommy cuddles!!!”  I yelled.  Mommy ignored me.  Usually when I start getting cranky, it means I’m going to sleep.  But I wasn’t.  I was standing up at the door waiting for mommy to come in and dress me and change my nappy.  I had to take it to the next level.  I screamed and cried and screamed some more until Mommy came in. Don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of time to sleep in my big girl bed tonight.  I love my new bed!

I made a mess in my room and took my clothes off. I didn't sleep...

UPDATE:

Mommy read me a story while I laid in bed.  As soon as she left, I fell asleep in my brand new big girl bed!  But in the middle of the night I started coughing.  I’ve had this cold that everyone has for a while, and sometimes the coughing wakes me up.  Usually when I wake up I’m in my cot.  I was a bit scared, I was all by myself in a big bed. The coughing was starting to gag me.  I yelled for Mommy and she came.  She picked me up and cuddled me and told me it would be ok.

Then YaYa came in and the dogs ran all around my room.  Oh, play time!  “Hannah go outside!”  I said to Mommy.  Mommy told YaYa to go away and yelled at the dogs to get out of my room.  I was wide awake now.  Humph, I thought I’d get to get up and play.  Mommy held me while I finished all my coughing and then laid in bed with me until I fell asleep.

But then I woke up coughing a while later and I was all alone in my bed again.  I called out to Mommy and she came and got into bed with me.  Mommy stayed with me for a long time, and I went back to sleep.  I woke up coughing a few more times after that, but I wasn’t scared anymore.  If Mommy isn’t scared of my new bed, then I shouldn’t be either.

I just hope Mommy isn’t too tired today.  She gets grumpy when she’s tired.

 

Pike Place market with a toddler

another sign shot with the sun behind it

Pike Place Market is a busy place.  My Dad, Mom and I took Hannah there on Friday.  Since we’ve been here, she hasn’t wanted to be strapped in anything. Not shopping trolleys, car seats, the pram, or otherwise.  But there were so many people and so much to see that she happily stayed in her pram and took everything in.  No cries of “Mommy up!  Mommy out!” or anything of the sort were heard.

Vendors were everywhere, selling everything you could think of, from flowers to hot fresh apple cider (which is delicious, and only $1.50 a cup!) to t-shirts.  There were tons of flower vendors.  I’m not sure how all of them possibly made enough money, but I suppose they somehow did or they wouldn’t be there.  We saw the famous fish throwers, and tried some chocolate pasta (tasty, by the way).  They had all kinds of fruits and vegetables, spices, hand made trinkets, clothes, and jewelery.  People were wandering about everywhere.

It’s kind of hard to manouvre a pram through the large crowds in the small aisles, especially if you are there with other people,

Dad taking photos

but that’s part of the fun. Often, I lost my parents in the crowd.  Hannah and I would just stay put, taking photos while we waited for them to find us.  It was easier for them to look for us, since they didn’t have to negotiate foot traffic with a pram like I did.

There isn’t really a lot for a toddler to do at Pike Place, but seeing everything seems to be enough amusement.  Plus, I bought Hannah a punnet of fresh blueberries which she happily munched on while we slowly looked at everything.  There is a grassy bit of land just outside the market that overlooks a freeway and the Puget Sound, where you can see ferries coming in and out and let rambunctious toddlers go for a run.

All images copyright Sheri Thomson, unauthorised use prohibited.

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