Day 10: A Day in Photos

When I was studying up on blogs of Americans in Australia before and during my move here, I loved getting a glimpse into just plain, old everyday life. That was my impetus for this prompt - a day in photos. I'm sure many of our challengers will have some interesting or exciting days to share, but this day for me is an exceedingly normal Monday with nothing particularly interesting on the schedule.

This is what the first part of my day looked like. What, you don't see anything but one light - a street light across the way? That's because my alarm clock baby "went off" at 5:15a.m. Partner-in-Crime had just recently come to bed, as he works overnight, and I laid there for a bit uttering threats to him about quitting my job (mother) right then and there.

Instead, I dragged myself across the hall, rescued her from the evils of her crib, and proceeded to lay on the futon while my early riser completed her morning toy inspection, where she ensures that every toy is still in order, with occasional snuggle breaks, which involvedclimbing on top of me and poking me in the eye. I decided I'd lay there until the number on the clock began with at least half a dozen.

Morning toy inspection. Also diligent in checking to make sure the toy basket is still fit for passengers.

We trotted ourselves out to get started on breakfast. This might be a good time to mention that, as the stay at home mother of a toddler, I have surrendered myself to the necessity of routine. Routine is not a recipe for boredom, but for saving sanity. On the days when we make exceptions and go off routine for special events, there is always payback, so most days, I'll take my routine, thank you. This day that I am showing you, it is intended to be wildly routine.

Thus far, one saving grace of my morning is that Hushpuppy still relents to spending time in her activity center, clanking beads, playing Baby DJ and, as she's doing here, admiring herself in the mirror. I meanwhile, unload and load the dishwasher, make coffee and our breakfast. My Bellini ("Spaceship") gets a couple of good workouts every morning. First, I froth milk for my coffee, which makes me feel fancy pants. Then, I blend up our daily green smoothies. Sydney Smiles and another mutual friend inspired me to get back onto the green smoothie kick, and it's a boost at the start of my day. Plus, Hushpuppy likes them, which means she's getting tons of fruit and veg first thing in the morning. This morning, I went a little tropical. Gettin' wild around here!

After breakfast, I do a morning cleaning sweep - dishes and food cleaned up, counters wiped, laundry started. I've been neglecting laundry for a few days, so I had a hunk to fold. I was reminded of this joke I saw online the other day, as I folded with Hushpuppy under my feet and opening drawers. She also helped by dancing, as we rocked out to my current favorite CD.

At this point, routine dictates that we head across the street for a walk and play in the park, or sometimes on Mondays, we have a play date with friends. But, our friends are busy today, and it  looks like this outside today. I so wanted to show you one of our beautiful Sydney days...

Instead, we inspected more toys and then, bam!, the morning bottle put Hushpuppy to sleep. Wha?! This is over an hour earlier than her normal nap time. Red alert, people! We are OFF ROUTINE! I repeat, we are OFF ROUTINE! All bets are off ...

So, I took the chance to get myself dressed and make-upped, did some emergency nail work, took a quick tour of my garden (8 potted plants), and sat down to work on this post...

With her most beloved friend.
Sorry about the foot, Kelli.

Kiddo woke up just half an our later, and now I have no idea how the day is going to unfold. Because it still looked grey, and I thought I ought to show you something other than the inside of my apartment, I gave her a quick snack and then we headed out to my rainy day standard activity, a soft play room in a local shopping center. It's not so local that we can walk there, though, so we hopped on the bus.

My baby is a highly experienced public transport rider. She usually spends the whole bus ride scanning the other passengers to see if anyone is going to smile or make faces at her. 

While we were at the shopping center, I made a stop by Coles to pick up a couple of things i needed for dinner. Hmmm ... Aussie grocery store ... what can I show you?...

Top left: in case any of you doubted that we really ate kangaroo burgers. Kangaroo mince.
Top right: A couple of flavors of chips - chicken and Thai sweet chili
Bottom left: Coke price - $12 for 15. On sale.
Bottom right: Canned veg section. 4 shelves of beetroot. Yet, not a black bean in sight.

By the time we got home, P-i-C was waking up, so we all grabbed some lunch/breakfast. And another cup of coffee, holy heaven, did I need it.

We only had P-i-C for a couple of hours today before he took off for his weekly sailing, and the rain that had been threatening all day did not materialize, so we decided we'd take a family walk to the park across the street. We started out in the playground.

Then we took a family stroll around the trails that run behind the park. Hushpuppy and I do this walk almost every day.

A few things we saw on our walk. Top left - Australian ibis.
Top right: Banksia, a very Australian plant.
Bottom left: I always like this tunnel under the road that's decorated with Aboriginal style painting.
Bottom right: Galahs, cute little grey and red birds that are related to cockatoos (which we sometimes see, too)

Kiddo was looking sleepy, and sure enough as soon as we brought her home and gave her a bottle, she was out. If you don't spend much time with babies, it's hard to understand what a big deal this is, but this is literally the first time in months that she's had an afternoon nap. All bets are off, y'all. Well, I was not going to squander this opportunity. Afternoon nap for me, too!

OK, time lapse, and woops ... we both slept from 3:30 until 5p.m.
We wandered and played for a bit, and then I consulted Jamie to discuss dinner plans.

While dinner was cooking, we had time for a quick splash on the patio.

On offer for dinner was Jamie Oliver's vegetable rosti recipe topped with soft boiled eggs. I've made this a few times, and it's a tasty favorite. We devour it.

Since P-i-C was out sailing, it was just Hushpuppy and me for dinner. I love eating meals with her. It's such a time of discovery and skill-building for her, and I love watching her try new foods and work out how to manage different sizes, shapes, and textures. She was gifted a cute dinner set for her birthday, so I thought I'd let her give it a try tonight. She didn't exactly get it "right," but had a lot of fun playing with it.

After dinner, we slowly made our way through the bedtime ritual. Bath. Bottle. Brush teeth. Book(s). Lullaby. Bed. I've got to find a way to say "lullabye" that starts with a B.

Bath baby.
She toddled off before I could get her pajamas on, and I found her licking the bowl.
We got some Aussie books for her birthday that we've been reading at bedtime.
In the pajamas, and ready for bed.

Finally, at 8:30p.m., Hushpuppy is asleep, and I can relax. HAHAHAHAHA! 

This is waiting in my bedroom, and then there's the kitchen.

...alright, cleaning done, adult beverage in hand, P-i-C home, blog post written, and I don't have the energy to take another picture. This was a lot of work - imagine if we'd actually done something interesting today!

Oh, hey, if you do want to see something interesting that we got up to yesterday, take a look at Sydney Smiles' post on this prompt. She was smart enough to photograph yesterday when the three of us had a great time doing the Color Run.