And back again

Christmas Eve Eve

Packed while waiting for aurickandrien to arrive early in the morning. No, we don't leave anything to the last minute, really. We're all like highly organised and stuff :P Went to the Freo markets to get veges for aurickandrien and veges to take to Jurien. Bought Tao a pair of Stompers (soft soled little boots with "Stompers" written on the back of them, his first shoes :) aurickandrien had to run off after a while as he had an appointment in Perth, and we continued shopping around. Bought a sign for Josh's grandmother whom we were staying with, got fruit n veges, went home. Stuffed stuff into car, said goodbye and cuddled with the kittikitties, loaded dog and baby into car, headed off.

Went up Roe Highway through Midland just for a change (usually we take the freewya north through Joondalup and Wanneroo and end up on some road called Orange Springs Road), the ride through the Swan Valley was a much nicer drive. Tao fell asleep which was great. Pulled into a service station and the idiot dog started whining and carrying on and wanting to get out of the car, and because he's thick he completely did not comprehend or probably even hear us telling him to be quiet, and of course this eventually woke Tao up. Tao was not happy to be woken up in the middle of his nap. I pulled him out of his carseat onto my lap, after paying for fuel and buying food, Josh drove us across the tarmac to the carpark (with Tao still on my lap, so safe, must not do that when he's old enough to question the use of seatbelts) and took the whinging dog for a walk while I fed Tao. Tao didn't want to go back into his carseat, but we eventually got him back in there. Drove off eating, Tao eventually fell back asleep.

Had to make a couple more pit stops along the way to feed Tao, though he did eventually get himself back off to sleep. There was also traffic (specially trucks) to contend with, so it took about four hours to get to where we were going, and we were 15mins late (we told Josh's nanna 7) on a bloody 2-2.5 hour drive. Ahh well. We got there. Unloaded stuff, rearranged bedroom, had dinner, had shower, went to bed early.

Christmas Eve

Josh's parents rock up. Much fuss made of Tao. We head over to Josh's aunty's place to check it out seeing as it's finally complete, and also to deliver scraps for the chickens. House looks pretty good, there is a pool yet to go in. Josh's little cousins Marnie (6) and Jamie-Lee (4) fall madly in love with Tao and are in a constant state of wanting to play with him. They play nicely together, except for one mishap where Marnie accidentally pushed Tao over and made him cry for about ten seconds (problem solved with some cuddling), after that we had to leave because Tao was ready for a nap and couldn't get to sleep with people wanting to play with him all the time.

Josh managed to organise some backyard cricket, backyard meaning they utilised this dodgy as net at the school down the road from Nanna's house. They left while Tao was still asleep, but Josh asked me to bring him down when he woke up. I said okay and I think spent a lot of time on my laptop building Morf (the grey thing, not the green and black one with funky flame wings). Tao eventually woke up (as he does), got ready to head down to the school and after packing up stuff, realised I wasn't sure if I remembered the way. Carmel said she'd walk with me, but wouldn't stay long as people had to go places and people were coming over. Kitted out Tao in his sunnies and rainbow hat and headed off to the school.

His hat blew off on enroute but Carmel went back and retrieved it. Guys were playing cricket, Josh's cousin Taylor was bored and wanted to go home. Carmel sat with us for a while and watched, then took Taylor home with her. I sat and kept an eye on Tao and made sure the cricket ball didn't head in Tao's direction. Got a couple photos.

Cricket


Taylor being bored spectating, Carmel keeping an eye on Tiny


Tiny poking his tongue out at the camera and making cute noises


Tiny trying to grab the camera off me


Josh, Marnie and Tao back at Nanna's

Relatives keep dropping in at various points during the day, various plans made and things like that. We decide to give Josh's parents their Christmas present early coz it looks better at night, so we put it on display for them and turn all the lights off and let 'em check it out. They like it lots.

Christmas Day

Woke up early, had bacon and eggs for breakfast. Gave Josh's parents and brother their presents, decided to give Tao his present from my parents before all the kids rocked up for the grand present opening.

Tiny with his present, I opened up one end for him.


Tao after pulling his bead toboggan out of the box. He loves it XD

Everyone rocked up later and it was chaos and mayhem and anarchy as the kids looked for their presents. I sat back with Tao, and the kids kept finding presents and bringing it to him faster than he could process it and way before he had finished playing with the wrapping from the first one, so in the end I sat him on my lap showing him things and enlisted the help of Jamie to open his presents. She was only too willing to help :P He really cleaned up. I got a bottle of wine, clothes (yay! new clothes! finally!), Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (good book) and some other stuff. Josh got clothes and stuff. I lost track of a lot of things but probably should have had the camera handy.

Due to my issues I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to church or not, but it was decided for us when about 5mins before we were supposed to get ready to go, Tao did the hugest poo. It happens when he doesn't poo for 4 days. By the time we finished cleaning him up Josh figured there was no point going even though I repeatedly told him he could go if he wanted. Turned out that the mass went overtime coz the priest wouldn't stop talking, everyone came back late and exhausted. Went to another relative's for lunch, another game of bakcyard cricket got going. Went home late afternoon so Tao could sleep, went back again for dinner. Left before it got too late coz the girls couldn't comprehend "he doesn't want to play right now, he's tired" which is understandable coz they're young, but it's amazing how many adults do not get it o_O Tried unsuccessfully to organise room so we could walk around.

Boxing Day

Josh was up in time to watch cricket (yay). Went to same relative's for lunch to eat leftovers. Dropped in to see more relatives. Lazed around much, can't remember much either, mainly coz I'm tired. Simon left to return to Perth. We packed and gathered stuff together to return to Perth. Felt sad over tsunami memorials, remembered crying almost constantly when pregnant and after having Tao, coz it seemed unfair that I had gained so much while others had lost so much. And while it's great that the planet's fighting back, I think it's hitting the wrong areas. Sigh.

Today

Woke up early, had breakfast, stuffed stuff into car, Josh went to get fuel while I fed Tao, loaded up dog and baby, said goodbye, left. Tiny fussed a lot but eventually fell asleep. He slept most of the way back, got up for a quick feed on the side of the road, kept going. He fussed most of the way back. Finally got home, unloaded stuff, fed Tao, caught up with aurickandrien. Tiny stayed up and played for a bit, then we discovered when Josh decided to change him out of his trip nappy (a Bubba J pocket nappy) that he had done a decent size poo. I had a shower with him.

Josh went to play cricket with Yaser, I stayed back and continued hanging out with aurickandrien, Tao did another poo that leaked and managed to miss Josh's laptop power cable which he was standing over, but get aurickandrien's bag that he was standing next to. Took him to t he bathroom, cleaned him off, ran a bath for him. This poo wasn't so big, so I was actually able to flush the solids off in the toilet for a change. Put the nappies in the washing machine shortly after cleaning the mess outside up.

Josh and Yaser came back from their game, Josh ran aurickandrien home, I lanolised Tao's nappy covers (and want to order another one XD), put the laundry on and made a vague resolution to be better at stuff. I'll be more specific later.

Also later need to get my act together and organise Tao's birthdy celebration in THREE DAYS. Keep that free, will give details later ;)