In this blog…Christmas was approaching so it was party and family event central! Unfortunately not all of our family are social butterflies!

Monday:

Mia was up at the crack of dawn! Advent calendars make her get up even earlier due to ridiculous excitement levels! I used to love my sleep!😩Then she was singing “Santa Claus is coming to town” at the top of her voice! Anyone who quotes “Christmas is magical with kids” really needs to listen to this at 6am!🙉

I gave her my phone to play with while I warmed up to the world and this was the result! At least she’s being creative at dawn I suppose!😴

I wonder what the “P” on her forehead is for?! Perpetual pain for parting Mummy from her pillow prematurely thus pissing her off purely for personal pleasure?! Possibly…?

Work is starting to quieten down seeing as most of the schools I deal with have broken up for Summer Holidays. Now is the time I should be tying up loose ends but I feel like I should be on holiday too! I have no motivation and there are ridiculous amounts of chocolate etc around the office which I am struggling to avoid!🙈

Tuesday:

Scratching in the roof woke me up at 4am! Possum?!?!

Dozed back off. Mia was up with the birds showing me the contents of her advent calendar again!  I went with it and humoured her today.

Showcasing the advent calendar contents!

Door slam. Ian left. Door slam. Ian came back because he had forgotten something.

I was awake but still not ready to move yet, when my friend knocked on the door to drop off a belated birthday present for me. I had major bed head but she was nice enough not to mention it! 👻

Anyhow, I admitted defeat and got ready for a shift at the election office. I took Mia and plenty to keep her entertained.  However, she was singing Christmas carols at the top of her voice, which wasn’t conducive to recounting ballot papers! Somebody ended up losing count, so I had to take her to one side and tell her off in that aggressive whisper that Mums do so well! You know the “Don’t dare embarrass me in public, child!” kind of whisper, complete with clothing grab to prevent runaways and psycho “Mummy is serious right now!” eyes!👀

It was the last gymnastics lesson of the term and, while spectating, I had a little boy trying to steal my friend’s water bottle and then bite me! Three times! If there was ever a time for an aggressive whisper and psycho eyes from the Mum, I would say it was then…but it didn’t happen! I bit my tongue and didn’t make a fuss that her child had cannibalistic tendencies and she certainly didn’t seem fazed!😬

It was gymnastics assessment day and Mia got upset because she didn’t get level 6 but she only just got level 5 what felt like 5 minutes ago! Then one of her teachers told her she was leaving so we had a heavily sobbing child.🙈I tried to cheer her up by letting her have one of those crappy powerballs out of the machine there, but then she got a Spider-Man one and cracked it because it was “for a boy!”  Wish I hadn’t bothered!😐

I got Ian to go into the roof and investigate the scratching and he shone the torch and could see eyes apparently!!!👀 Going to call the real estate tomorrow!  Then I heard more scratching, got Ian to come and listen and he now thinks it’s the trees outside (aka thinks I’m crazy). Um, no it isn’t!😤

Pilates was cancelled which gave me more of an excuse to be lazy! Early night…

Wednesday:

Today’s dawn creation was a video!  It is pretty cute. I think it’s the puppy dog eyes!

Busy training a few different courses today.

I rang the Real Estate about the scratching who were going to contact the landlord…

Then Zumba! I love to dance my frustration out…especially with the lights down low! Hips-a-flying everywhere!😜💃🏼

Thursday:

I dropped my car off for a service and LOVED the brand new courtesy car!😍 Plus Mia said she wanted to swap cars so the new one was a hit!

I went to the doctors because I’m still exhausted all the time and he suggested HRT.  Not into that one as there is a risk of breast cancer, which my Mum had, which makes me nervous.🙅🏼

Tutored then went to my acupuncture session, where he strongly advised against HRT!  I must say, the most confusing thing about this whole premature menopause/infertility/underactive thyroid/hormone imbalance has been who to listen to and what course of action to take!  Everyone has an opinion and very unhelpfully, none of it really coincides with anybody else’s!🙄In a state of confusion as per usual!🤔

We went to see the Christmas tree light switch on at Grand Central and saw Santa.🎅 I stood on a piece of waterlogged turf when we first arrived and my foot fully submerged into a muddy bog…while wearing flip-flops! Great!😒 5 minutes later they had put safety cones up so obviously I was the guinea pig!😒😒

Mia possibly did the funniest hula-hooping I will ever see!  Exhibit A for your perusal!🙊

GH was in a slightly more cheerful mood than usual, so I was quick to capitalise on this and got him to agree to dinner at Chong & co. which was delicious! Ate like a little piggy!🐷😋

“These are a few of my favourite things!”❤

Friday:

Day off!🎉 Went to get my eyebrows, which were masquerading as hedges, waxed by the lovely Cheree @ Stella Skin and Beauty and then met Dani for lunch at Ortem café where we had their Christmas-themed milkshakes! So yummy! We won’t think about how many calories might have been hiding inside!🙈

Quite a chilled day, which was lucky because…

Saturday:

Saturday was MENTAL!😅

I was up at the crack of dawn for Parkrun and managed to sneak out before Mia woke up and begged to come too! Result! That may sound mean but she’s all enthusiastic about it until we start running and then she wails her way around the course, so it’s best for all concerned if she stays in bed!

From Parkrun, I dashed across town to collect Mia’s dance USB from the concert. Then dashed home to shower and change Mia and I into party attire. First up was Sharlise’s 3rd birthday party. Last year I dressed Mia in a party dress and there was a slip and slide and paddling pool and she got very upset with me! This year, I was prepared and dressed her in swimwear…and there was no pool and she got very upset with me!🤷🏼‍♀️Can’t win!

We left there and dashed home to get changed for Jessie’s Christmas party. However, I made the mistake of lying on the bed and “resting my eyes” for a minute…an hour later I shot up in shock and sleepily got us ready! 😴

One of the Grandmas there was an amazing face painter and was very accommodating, so when Mia asked for a “Christmas tree on my whole face”, she duly obliged!🎄

I had driven so had to watch my alcohol intake and by 9pm was severely flagging!😴 Mia, however, is a dirty stop-out and was not ready to go home, which she demonstrated by having a full on tantrum and throwing herself on the ground when I asked her to take her dress up outfit off! After several more embarrassing floor-flings, wails and empty threats from me, she finally conceded defeat!🙄

Sunday:

I attempted a lie-in which was nice while it lasted. I could happily have lounged about all day in my pjs but we have taken on the role of social butterflies and must keep up the flitting!

First up was the PEACE Christmas party in Laurel Bank park, which the CEDAR Centre had a stall set up at, so we went to show our support. Mia got spoilt as per usual, with free cake, a visit to Santa and a present and free face paint…again! Giant Christmas trees are really hard to scrub off and despite several face wipes and a bath, Mia still had a green tinge to her face! So what did she bloody ask for this time?! “A Christmas tree on my whole face!” Of course!🙄

I needed a Christmas dress for Mia for the Carols at Candlelight event that night, so we trotted over to Target and ended up getting a cheap but cute little red number, which technically was meant to be a nightie, but who really cares?!🤷🏼‍♀️

I actually managed to get Ian to agree to come with us, even though he said it wasn’t his “thing”, but I reminded him that it was Christmas and we do family things for Mia, so he came. Well he was GH from the minute he set foot in the park, so he probably shouldn’t have bothered!🙄 We were meeting our friends Bianca and Rita and their families there but they messaged that they hadn’t arrived yet, so we were walking down and ran into Jessie and her group. “Sit with us!” they said. Mia was very excited to see their kids so we put down our picnic rug and had a chat for a bit.

Ian said he was hungry, so Mia and I embarked on a food mission which incorporated what felt like the longest twisted chip line in the Southern Hemisphere! In the queue we saw our friends from dancing, who had seats right near the stage! “Come and sit with us!” they said. I explained that we already had a spot and that I was on a food run, so couldn’t, but when we got back to the spot, so many people had sat in front of us that we could no longer see anything. Plus GH hadn’t spoken to anyone and had appeared to go to sleep! When I nudged him, he had graduated from Grumpy Husband, to Grumpy, Hungry and Cold Husband and also moaned that the twisted chips were cold! “Well you could have lined up and got them just as easily!” I snapped back!

Bianca and Rita messaged to say they had arrived and had a spot! “I already have a spot and I’m not moving again!” I messaged back, probably sounding quite shirty as that’s how I was feeling!😤

“I think I’m going to go home!” announced GH.

“What?!?! Well you can’t, I drove!” I retorted.

“Yeah, I think I’ll just walk.”

“Are you serious?! That’s crazy!”

“I bet I’ll still be home before you! I’ll move you down to Bianca and Rita and then I’ll go!”

I was fuming and also had to explain to the others that we were now moving as our other friends had a spot and didn’t want to move and that Ian was going home! Drama or what?! And just a little embarrassing!😳

We found the others and Mia was just happy to be seeing so many of her friends in the same day! GH left and my friends asked why and I ended up embarrassingly blubbing! I (sort of) understand not wanting to go to an event like that and not liking crowds, but why go in the first place if you’re going to leave and why can’t he just suck it up and be a family at a family event like everyone else seemed to be?! It felt like a direct snub and hurt.😭

We stayed to watch the fireworks after the carols, which were pretty impressive and then drove home, to find GH had actually walked all the way home before we got there!  Mia had crashed out on the way home.

Sleeping Christmas trees are pretty cute!☺🎄😴

“Why did you leave, Daddy?!” asked Mia when she woke up.

“Oh, it wasn’t really my thing, sweetheart.” he replied.

Hmmm, well going to family events on my own all the time isn’t my thing either! But what can I do to make him realise that?!🤷🏼‍♀️