By halves
The week that was
Dear diary,
It’s a big exciting week this week, my little sister’s wedding is on the weekend. Gilligans don’t do things by halves, so it is an all in, whole family occasion. Mum’s on the flowers, Dad is on bump in and logistics, my other sister and I on bridesmaid duty. Simon is on Seren duty, of course! Seren will be coming to the ceremony, then heading back to the hotel room to go to sleep (praying), and Simon’s parents will be there while he sleeps in an adjoining room next door (yes this cost us a fortune.) The Seren plan is multi-step and complex to say the least, with many moving parts - not unlike an FBI operation really. I can’t lie and say I’m not anxious about the weekend - I just want Seren to be comfy and happy and not overwhelmed by being somewhere different. I also ideally don’t want him to have a big tantrum during the ceremony when he sees me up the front and can’t get to me. He was so great at my Nanna’s funeral, but he was with me and Simon the whole time. This will be a little bit different with me not able to be with him, but he’ll be able to see me. And also maybe I’m stressed because it won’t be appropriate for me to go to him, either! “Stop the wedding! Seren needs a cuddle!!”
Then of course there is the stress that Seren won’t go to sleep. Simon is so good about the sleep stuff. He’s always just deadpan like “He’ll always go to sleep” and true to his word Simon always gets him to sleep. Part of the wedding plan is Simon takes Seren from the ceremony back to the hotel, puts him to bed and then comes back to the wedding, hopefully hardly missing anything. I can’t remember if I mentioned but we are staying the night before in the hotel room too to get Seren used to sleeping there (yes, that cost a fortune too) so, hoping that works in our favour. I am aware that to people who don’t have kids this sounds completely and utterly insane… I wish it were haha.
(I just re-read the above before scheduling this… can you tell I have severe anxiety? Haha… imagine my brain when we all go to Queensland for my exhibition later in the year!)
Daylight savings has truly sent me this week. I’ve been up at 4am rather than my usual 5am and I’ve been eating lunch at like 10.30am. The days are LONG and Seren’s in a MOOD for half of them. Also, summer ending is just a shame! Dark, cold days ahead. I hate it! We do have A LOT of chocolate from our Easter weekend though, which is great for my second lunch at 2.30pm, haha.
We were supposed to have a chill Easter weekend but it ended up being a busy one (by our standards). We went out with my family for dinner on Saturday night, visited Great Nanna Pam on Sunday morning, then onto Simon’s parent’s house in the afternoon. Another zombified Sunday evening for me!
I actually have this week and next week off from my part time job. I took some leave as I wouldn’t have access to much babysitting help with everybody getting ready for the wedding, and I thought it would be nice to chill out a bit before hand. But now I’m kind of purposeless and am thinking I probably didn’t need to take two whole weeks off but it’s done now and will probably be good for me. I predict I’ll again be zombified after the huge weekend so might be good to have some days up our sleeve to recover. Not that there is much recovery time with a toddler but at least not having anything to actually achieve can be nice.
Seren giving me all his prized possessions.
Today on any other week I would have been working but instead I took Seren to the shops so I could get last minute wedding things like seamless underwear (?), press on nails (??) and new novelty snacks for Seren to keep him going/entertained in a pinch over the weekend. The pre planning with a kid for something like this is wild, we’re going to bring half the house and half the contents of the fridge. Finally got his outfit sorted though - it’s going to be colder than planned so I had to last minute get a plain cardigan to match. Target came through. Mum got all our clothes from Target as kids and I’m starting to see why. A pair of pants from Purebaby are like $60-$70 but got a couple of things from Target at $10-$20 a piece. Seren is actually a size 3 now (he’s not even 2…) but he’s squeezed into the biggest size of this cardi which I thought was a cute plain option. His whole outfit is super preppy (??) which I didn’t mean but what else constitutes a nice outfit for a little boy? It’s so challenging to dress boys. I just want like nice classic pieces but they are always expensive and then he also ends up looking like he’s going for early entry to Harvard. I also wasn’t going to go as far as to get him a mini suit, sorry. I did get shoes (only been talking about it for like a month) but they haven’t come yet!
P.S, I’ve reached 500 subscribers! As promised, a little giveaway for paid subs - the winner is WendyPettigrove I’ve sent you a message on Substack to get your postage details :) Thank you so much everyone for your support! I’m aiming for another 500 now!
Wishlist:
Seren’s Easter haul was substantial this year. He’s still not having chocolate, I figure we may as well delay it a long as we can. So family bought him a bunch of toys and books and clothes which is super generous. Simon’s Mum got him a Purebaby top (I’d) we’d been coveting, and my Mum and Dad went crazy with various cars and trucks. Seren’s current fixation is on this truck book (pictured below), and my Dad bought him a copy to have at their house too so now I cannot ever escape the countless requests. I was going to like do a TikTok taking a photo every time I had to read the stupid thing in a day but as with most things I didn’t follow through. Let’s just say it is a lot. It’s not even a story he just wants to point to each car or truck and have me tell him what they’re called. I think it’s good for him to develop his language but man it’s repetitive and dull!
It’s funny how the interest in cars/trucks was literally just intrinsic to Seren. Me, I could take or leave cars and trucks to be frank. I may have to soften my stance.
Already worn and washed!
Watching/listening:
We finished season 2 of Paradise. It was super addictive and watchable. Plot wise there were little things that bugged me - like at the very end it got a little wishy washy, similar to an “Oh wait it was all a dream” trope. Overall it was strong and I enjoyed it. It’s a little more simplistic compared to something like Pluribus or Station Eleven but I would still recommend it!
Inside a book/magazine from my collection:
The second half of last week’s Women’s Weekly magazine from 1979 :)
Best wishes,
Minna
It is crazy how intrinsic the vehicle obsession is. I literally can barely tell car brands apart and my 2 year old is already an expert at it. He also cries constantly to be allowed to sit in the car whenever he catches sight of it which is infuriating to me! So I feel your pain about the book. We have a book called goodnight goodnight construction site which has actually been quite good for bedtimes as all the machines go to sleep.
I also belatedly wanted to thank you for the recommendation about the silicon drawing maps, I bought them and they have been a huge hit!
Good luck for the wedding I am sure Seren will sleep - these bubs often come through for us when we really need it I think.