The Joys of Responsible Parenting

This morning started out with all the pleasures of parenting…

of Daddy and daughter on the football pitch at ‘Little Dribblers‘…

and Mummy and daughter walking down to beautiful Lyall Bay on a sunny, windless, Sunday with baby sleeping peacefully to the sound of the waves and the motion of her mother’s step…

and then a family united to play in the sand, watch the amazing surf (with me thinking, ‘This summer I really will learn to surf!), bask in the sunshine…

paddle twinkle toes in the sea…

and laugh at the cheeky seagulls forever eyeing up an easy meal…

But, this afternoon, we had to leave the pull of the beach to attend to one of the many random tasks of responsible parenting – in this case preparing the rented newborn car-seat for its return. It’s strange how such a ‘material’ task symbolizes some sort of milestone, signals a passing of time. For a while now Alice has clearly been past the ‘newborn’ stage and is blossoming week by week. It’s time to say farewell to the little seat that cradled Alice as a newborn and gear her up in her sister’s old seat (still facing backwards of course).

So, with Charlotte zoned out on the couch (she was sick in the night and is quite floppy), Sophie & Alice playing ‘schools’ with Daddy, I set about making sure the rented car-seat was spick and span for its return to Baby Star. And then I went to retrieve the old children’s car-seat in the garage to put in the car. The one that was last used a year or so ago, when Sophie used to munch on pretzels, raisins and crisps on longer car journeys to keep her amused. Well, what do you know, it was not a pretty picture! URGH!

This is what I was greeted with… mould, old food scraps, layers of gunk…

An hour or so later the seat looks brand new and is drying out in the sun to fully dry (thank goodness it is a sunny day).

Alice is now sleeping and the cleaning bug has caught Dan and Sophie. They are sweeping out the garage, hoovering the inside of the car and Sophie is singing out loud, with a large, wet, bubbly sponge in hand, ‘I’m going to make this car the shiniest in town’! LOVE the positive attitude 🙂

So, we’re all spick and span for the week – and thankful for the sunshine that gave us all a good airing this weekend!

Dan’s head certainly needed it yesterday, as he suffered with a mighty hangover from watching the Phoenix vs Boca Juniors game on Friday night. He masked his headache well, knowing there would be no sympathy from me. The girls decided ten-pin bowling at The Lanes, a session at the ‘Time Zone‘ arcade and a curry for lunch (at the super Great India) would be just the hangover cure! Alice decided to reach out for some nan bread to suck on (thank goodness ‘Baby-led Weaning‘ is all in vogue – it’s what Charlotte & Sophie did anyway – being the independent spirits that they are!) and Sophie declared she could happily eat curry every day and that it was much better than ‘Sub-Way‘!

Even with a hangover the parenting duties continue and Dan certainly stood up to the test – super Dad! As for me, I’m still staying dry (too tired and still breastfeeding round the clock).

* The bottles of ‘Bombay Sapphire Gin‘ in the photograph below are filled with water – such a pity.