narrating kayoz

Whirlwind week in Melbourne

I've just been in Melbourne for a week, and would love to blog it all properly, but when is there time?

We hadn't been down there as a family for four years, and sometimes it seems like we have more friends in Melbourne than we do here, so it was a bit of a hectic week. I would have liked to stay for longer, but when you are imposing on friends with your two children - well, it's a whole different thing to when you could just crash on the couch without much impact. So a week seemed about the limit. Not to mention that we had someone house- dog-, cat- and chicken-sitting for us, and they had to leave yesterday.

Anyway, during the week we managed to get to Scienceworks, with the family with whom we stayed, swim in the Yarra with some other friends who live out at Kangaroo Ground, tour the Children's Garden at the botanic gardens with a friend we stayed with for a month back when Liam was a baby and who now has a two year old of her own (and I highly recommend the gardens to anyone with youngish kids, but take a change of clothes and a towel!), have a picnic with a friend, a play & a coffee in Fitzroy Gardens with Chris's brother and partner, and brunch at a lovely cafe out at Belgrave with my sister and family. We also got to spend quite a bit of time with my sister and her new baby, and of course with the people with whom we stayed. They have a Liam too (although theirs is ten), and while there was a little friction towards the end (our Liam got upset and felt forgotten when their Liam had a sleepover with another friend), they got along really well, and ten-year-old Liam was very sweet to six-year-old Liam, especially when he realised about the forgotten feeling.

It was very hot though. Maybe next time we do Melbourne we should pick a different time of year, we always seem to be there in Summer.

Firecracker night

Kaely and I are sitting in the study hiding, while the rest of the family (including Pa and Nanna) is outside setting off fireworks and sparklers. Mikaela does not like fireworks.

Three best moments of December 25

My three favourite moments of today:

1. When Mikaela woke up this morning and came out to the living room (that is, I carried her out): Liam was desperately trying to interest her in her Santa presents, but all she had eyes for was the Christmas tree, put up by us last night and decorated by Liam while we slept in (till 7:30). She was too busy oohing and aahing over it and the pretty wrapped presents under it to be interested in new toys.
2. When Liam disappeared after lunch, while the rest of us were still at the table: I wondered what was keeping him occupied, and when I went to find him he was quietly drawing and painting (with glitter paint pens) with the new super pack of drawing stuff his Pa gave him. Seeing Liam quietly occupied is not all that common!
3. Driving home late enough (after 9pm) to see the Christmas lights and listening to Liam point them out to Mikaela, and Kaely fairly sing with the pleasure of seeing them.

Okay, opening all those lovely pressies was fun, and the food! Yum. Oh, and the lavish praise for the gingerbread house Liam and I made was rather nice too. But those were my favourite moments.

Holidays with children

We went to the coast last weekend, after driving up to Sydney during the week for a funeral (and to visit a friend of mine and her baby). We were away for a eight days total. I won't say it was a total nightmare, although the fact that it was 38 degrees on at least one of the coast days (and unbearably hot and humid the whole time) and that Liam, Mikaela and I all got mildly sick during the course of the week and Mikaela was teething (she finally got her first tooth last Sunday) didn't help. Actually the first half of the week - a lot of which was spent in the car - went surprisingly well.

However, it wasn't a holiday I'll be wanting to repeat in the near future. I composed this little sort-of haiku one day when I was trying to get Kaely to sleep in a hot airless room:

Family holiday

Unbearable heat, mosquitos

No flyscreens, no cooling, no TV

No play dates

Summer hell

My relaxing beach house fantasy

I left out the best part of our coast trip, which was the day trips down to Mossy Point (20 minutes South of my MIL) to hang out with my cousin and his family. They were staying in the house I grew up visiting for holidays every year.

I love that house. It is full of wonderful memories of childhood holidays with my family, teenage holidays with friends and Before Kids holidays just with Chris. We spent most of our honeymoon there in fact. And it was lovely to hang out with my cousin and his family too. He has an eleven-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son* who gets along famously with Liam. we could have stayed there but it was a little crowded (cousin's brother-in-law was staying as well, and another cousin was there with her partner and  baby for some of the time) and besides, it's nice to spend some time with Liam's Grandma too.

I am a bit jealous of my cousin though. He's there for two weeks (still there now as I type), and a couple of years ago he was there for a whole month in summer, something I've only ever fantasised about.** When was the last time we went on a holiday that didn't involve visiting family?

Our next big holiday plan is to go up to Forster (mid-North NSW coast) to visit my grandfather, and maybe go up to Byron Bay (about a day further north - two days with a baby) to visit some friends. We haven't been up to visit Grandpop in more than three years, and haven't seen the friends since they moved up there two years ago. And it will be nice to see them. Still, if I had my druthers, I'd spend the whole two-week holiday down at Mossy Point relaxing, and just let other people come to us.

____
*Technically the daughter's a step, but she's only ever known him as her dad, and that since she was about two. He also has another son who's about ten, but he lives with his mum and left to go on holidays with her the day we arrived.

**My lotto-win fantasy includes spending whole summers down there - with laptop - getting lots of inspired writing done while children play quietly in the background.

Holidays with in-laws

We've just spent a lovely few days down at the coast staying with my mother-in-law.

Last time we visited my MIL we arrived Friday night and left Sunday morning - and I felt that was about my limit. I have something of a reputation in my family for talking a lot. One of the charming nicknames my step-dad had for me as a child was motor-mouth. But I have nothing on Chris's Mum. Nothing. She is a full on extrovert who spends most of her time alone. Enough said? (Actually, probably not. I should probably add examples of how she started up talking to me while I was in the middle of reading to Liam, how she kept talking as we walked out the door, barely pausing for breath as we strapped the kids into the car and got in ourselves, but you still wouldn't really get it. You have to see to believe, I tell you.)

This time was different though. This time, instead of being tired, cranky and pregnant, I was tired, happy and - importantly - in charge of a baby. When you have responsibility for a baby you can say "No, no. You go to the beach now, don't wait. I'll just stay here and get Mikaela to take a nap." Then you take yourself off to the spare room (where Liam sleeps - we sleep on a sofa bed in the living room) and Close The Door. A few minutes later there is blessed relief as Chris, Liam and MIL troop out to walk to the beach. And then silence. Pop Mikaela in the bassinette. Make Tea. Listen to - nothing. For an introvert (that would be me) this is the definition of holiday bliss.

Oddly, Chris seems to cope far better with these too-busy holidays than I do, even though he comes out far more introverted than I do on every scale. Then again, she is his mother.

Now I will just have to get myself a laptop and all will be absolutely perfect. Of coruse, by the time I do that Mikaela will probably be school-aged and my excuse for staying home will be long gone. Maybe I can invent working holidays, where I send them to the beach while I stay home to "work".