Labour Day Weekend

Ok so this post is really, really late! The second weekend in March was Labour Day weekend here in Victoria, which meant a Monday off work for everyone. The weekend started with my birthday on Friday… 37 years old! Yikes, does that mean I am now in my late thirties? Nah, I’m going with mid-thirties for one more year. In the morning Ella woke up before we left for work and wished me a happy birthday, which was so cute. Then she said “Just one present for you. A little, tiny one.” Hmmmm ok then Ella! 

I had a pretty busy day at work but my colleagues brought in some cake for us to have at lunch which was nice. Andy and I managed to leave just after 3pm so I could enjoy a long evening at home. My parents made us a yummy steak dinner and I had a few presents from everyone, including a spiraliser and the promise of a new nappy bag from Andy. I don’t think he was confident enough to pick out one I would like on his own! Ella made me a card at daycare earlier in the week. Inside it said “A birthday message from Ella: Chocolate”. Yes that was her only message. Chocolate. My parents took her to Kmart and told her to pick out some presents for me and she picked… yes, some chocolate. She knows me well. Either that or she was just hoping I would share with her. 

Saturday morning was the start of a hot day, so we just had a lazy walk over to Ceres, the environmental park across the street. Ella insists on bringing her shopping cart with her every time we go for a walk. I think it is driving my parents crazy when they are home with her during the week. However, my mom is the one that bought the cart when she was here last time, so she only has herself to blame! But I think we are all trying to think of a way to make the cart disappear.

On Saturday afternoon we went to a friend’s house for a BBQ dinner. They have a 15-month-old daughter, which reminded me of how tough that age is. Looking back, I definitely think the 12-18 month age range was the most challenging to date. At that age, your toddler is mobile, probably walking, and wanting to explore everything around them. However they can’t communicate with you very well yet, which can be frustrating for both child and parent. I am really, really enjoying this stage now with Ella, where she is curious about this, engaging in lots of imaginary play, and able to convey her thoughts and feelings to us. Even when those feelings are “I’m angry!” and she shows us her angry face. It’s hard not to laugh at that as it’s exactly like the angry face on her “emotions flashcards”. 

Sunday we did our usual swimming lessons at Brunswick Baths. I think Ella is getting bored of the lessons for her age group, but she can’t move into the next class until she is nearly 3, in June. Once that happens she will go into the pool by herself, so no more daddy and Ella swimming lessons! That will be pretty cool. She is super confident in the water now and I’m really happy we started (and stuck with) swimming lessons when she was a baby. We will definitely start lessons with number two once he/she is about six months old again. 

We treated ourselves to brunch after swimming, at possibly my favourite Brunswick café, Rogue District. They have some of the most amazing sweet brunch dishes, such as Tim Tam hotcakes, sticky date hotcakes, raspberry & white chocolate waffles and french toast. I had the french toast, which came with rhubarb, fresh berries, and maple mascarpone. Yum!

After that we took a quick trip to Northlands, a nearby shopping centre. Andy and my dad are loving having each other around to play board and card games, so they wanted to stock up on a few more. They ended up with like six new games so hopefully that will keep the two of them busy for the next few months. 

After that we just went home and stayed in because of the heat, and I must say I am looking forward to the cooler weather of autumn approaching. (I’ll have to remind myself I said this in July, when it’s freezing and raining and I’m stuck indoors with a toddler and a baby!) Ella helped me make these delicious oatmeal raisin cookies:

On Monday Andy and I went to see Ed Sheeran at Etihad stadium. I bought these tickets way back in May for Andy’s birthday, so we’ve been waiting for this for a long time! I used to go to gigs all the time when we lived in London, but here in Australia it is super expensive so it is now a very occasional treat. I don’t think we’ve been to any concerts since before Ella was born. I was very interested to see how Ed Sheeran would perform in a stadium as it is just him and his guitar, but we were not disappointed! He is absolutely brilliant, and the sounds he creates with just his guitar, his voice, and a looping machine are incredible. We had floor tickets, so I was a bit worried that I would be too tired to stand that long, but the atmosphere was fantastic and Ed kept me up and dancing the whole time. It was such a fun night out with Andy and I’m really glad we went.

And that was our weekend! So two weeks later I’m ready to actually publish this post… better late than never I guess!