Weekending

It’s been a while! Some mild illness in the family (of the cold and flu type) plus a baby who loves to feed all night have meant that sitting down to write a blog post has slipped pretty far down my list of priorities lately. Plus, we haven't really been up to anything super exciting. Weekends in our house tend to be pretty low key since Ollie came along, but I thought I’d share what we did this past one. It’s nothing special, just a glimpse into the state of our current lives with our two little babes. 

Saturday

Mornings usually start pretty slow, and this past Saturday was no exception. Coffees, cartoons and lounging around in PJs until Ollie has his first nap are the norm. He usually goes to sleep around 9am, and this is his best (read: longest) nap of the day, so any plans we make to go out revolve around THE NAP. At any rate, we don’t have any plans so it’s a pretty relaxed start to the day. While Ollie is asleep the three of us get showered and dressed, and Andy makes a yummy bacon and egg breakfast that we eat with Ella at the table. 

When Ollie wakes up we decide to stay close by and go to a local park along the Merri Creek. The weather is lovely, sunny and about 20 degrees, which is just about perfect in Melbourne… not too hot, not too cold! Ella has fun on the swings, slides, playing in the sandpit and pushing me on the merry go round. She's so strong now, we used to have to help her by pushing with our feet to make it go, but now she wants to do it all on her own: "put your feet up mummy" she commands!

Ollie is content sitting on Andy's lap on a bench in the shade, watching the other children play. It won't be long until we can put him in the baby swing and he can join in the park fun!

On our way back home we stop to check out the creek. Earlier this week we got a lot of rain, and Andy and Ella went out in gumboots and rain jackets to splash in puddles. The creek was swollen and had flooded parts of the path, but now, a few days later, the water levels are back to normal:

Next we stop at a little ice cream shop that recently opened across from Ceres. Ice cream is Ella's favourite treat, and she probably has it far too often. It doesn't help that I love an ice cream (or gelato rather), myself, so I find it hard to say no. The shop is tiny, and run out of a garage Thursday - Sunday, serving four flavours of gelato and two flavours of sorbet. Ella has a blood orange sorbet, I go for a ferrero rocher gelato and Andy sticks with a traditional vanilla. They are all very yummy and it's lovely to enjoy these in the sunshine together. 

Next we all head home for a rest and Ollie's second nap. During this time I play Ella's favourite game: "You be the baby, and I'll be the daddy". Sometimes she is daddy, sometimes she is mummy. We pretend to go to daycare, where she drops me off while she goes to work. She tells me I need to play with Achara, who is her favourite educator. I ask Ella what she does at work, her reply: "work with the other teachers". Cute! Then Ella comes back to pick me up and I act super delighted to see her, trying to mimic her reaction when we actually do pick her up from daycare. Next we go home, she makes me lie down and pretends to change my nappy, and then she puts me to bed. I try and get her to pat me longer and longer and tell her to stay with me (as she does at bedtime), but she does not see the humour in this and tells me I just have to go to sleep. Harsh! Currently Andy puts Ella to bed most of the time so I take no responsibility for this one! You'd think this was the best part of the game, as I then get to pretend to sleep, but Ella only gives me about five seconds before she is demanding that I pretend to cry so she can come and get me to start the next day. And then we repeat. Over and over we play out this exact scenario, the amount of repetition a toddler can handle is mind-boggling! 

Ollie wakes from his nap about 40 minutes later, and is a bit cranky as he should still be sleeping. We end up taking both kids to Brunswick Baths for a swim. This is only the third time we've taken Ollie swimming. He seems a bit "meh" about the whole thing, keeping a pretty neutral facial expression the whole time. Ella loves the water and can actually "swim" a few meters on her own now which I find amazing. She started doing her lessons without a parent in the water just before she turned three, and her development has been incredible. I give a huge amount of credit to her teacher, Dave, who Ella adores and is fantastic with the children. (One of Ella's other favourite games is to pretend to be Dave and teach me and Ollie swimming at home.)

Once we get home it's time for dinner, bath and bed for both children. I think we have them both asleep by 7:30pm which is fab.

Sunday

Sunday starts out the same way as Saturday with a lazy morning. Ollie has a great two hour nap from 9-11am, allowing us lots of time to play and have a big breakfast with Ella. Once he wakes up we head to The Docklands District for the afternoon. We only recently discovered that this is a pretty good place to spend the afternoon with kids when we went on the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel when Andy’s parents were here. It’s only a 15 minute drive from our house, and there are lots of shops, restaurants and other attractions. There is the Melbourne Star, of course, some fairground rides for kids, art exhibitions, mini-golf, and an indoor playcentre. 

Ella always gets super excited when we see the Melbourne Star from the car, so she is doubly excited when we arrive and see it up close. Thankfully she doesn't want to actually go on it again, so we start by taking her on some of the fairground rides. It isn't very busy, so they let parents go on the rides with their kids for free. Ella and I have a blast going on the rides together. We only buy enough tickets for three rides, but that seems to satisfy her. 

Next up: you guessed it, ice cream! Two ice creams in one weekend, terrible parenting! (But SO YUMMY!) Once we finish our ice creams it's time for Ollie’s afternoon nap, so we decide to split up. Andy takes Ollie for a walk in the pram and Ella and I go to H&M. Both her and Ollie could do with some new summer clothes, however we don't have a chance to get to the boys section as Ella is so enthralled with all the different things for little girls. This is the first time I’ve ever taken her “shopping” and although I don’t want to enforce consumerism or gender stereotypes, I have to admit it is pretty fun. It is nice to see her pick out things she likes, as usually I just buy her clothes and she wears whatever we pick out for her. Lately though she has started becoming more vocal about what she wants to wear. (She’s going through a phase where she doesn’t want to wear matching shoes, which I love as I think it shows some individualism and personality, but it drives Andy crazy!) I limit her to three items so we pick out a few things and then swap them over until she is satisfied with her selections: a sundress, a butterfly hat (my favourite) and some hair ties with pom poms on them. 

Andy doesn't have any luck getting Ollie to sleep so we decide to head home. Both kids fall asleep in the car. In order to give Ollie a chance to get in a longer nap we stop to get some groceries, Andy doing the shopping while I stay in the car with the sleeping beauties. Ella stays asleep almost the whole time, but Ollie wakes about 10 minutes later; he still needs a moving car in order to stay asleep. Thankfully he is happy playing on my lap, people watching in the parking lot until Andy returns. 

When we get home Ella and I go to say hello to our new neighbours. I saw them move in earlier in the week and noticed some toys, including a very cute cubby house, in the driveway. I'm curious to see if they have kids and how old they are. Turns out they have a three year old girl, who is just a few weeks younger than Ella. Perfect! The girls stay outside riding their scooters while I chat with the mum. She seems nice so hopefully once they are settled we can get the girls together for a playdate. I’m pretty happy that there is a child Ella’s age so close by!

Once we get back to the house Ella is ready for a snack so we have a few strawberries that Andy just bought. Ollie has started eating some “real food” over the past two weeks, however he’s been limited to veggie purees and porridge so we give him a strawberry to gnaw on. His first taste of fruit, and I’d say he liked it as he attacks the berry with gusto! Not surprising I guess, who doesn’t like strawberries?! 

Next it's time for Ollie’s evening nap, and since I’ve had very little exercise over the weekend I take him out for a walk in the carrier instead of putting him down in his cot. It's hard to believe I used to do this every day to get him to sleep at this time. We've come a long way with his naps! It's a lovely evening and I enjoy getting out to see families still outside playing and having picnics along the river. I think, we must do this sometime, a picnic dinner sounds so much easier and less stressful than a cooked dinner at home.

Bedtime is a bit of a fail with both Ella and Ollie. For the first time in a while, Ollie doesn't want to be put down in his cot awake, and after a few failed attempts I end up feeding him to sleep. And due to her late afternoon nap, Ella isn't tired and won't stay in bed. I let her do some yoga with me, we have a cuddle on the sofa, and she finally dozes off just before 9pm. We have learned the hard way that we have to avoid letting her nap if we want her to go to bed at a reasonable time. 

Shortly after Andy and I go to bed ourselves, refreshed and ready for the week ahead.