Usually I am the epitome of organisation... things planned weeks in advance down the the last detail. But these days, with two kids to care for, planning is something that almost never happens. I always thought that the best things come to those who plan, but this experience proves otherwise...
Saturday afternoon rolled around and an invitation to come for Sunday lunch was received by telephone from Gran and GrandPaul. We accepted their offer and raised them one: "Any chance you could mind BallFiend whilst we go and see a movie?" DeepSpice asked. "We'll take Thumper with us." he hastened to add.
We had two movie vouchers due to expire on Monday. The vouchers were the result of my recouping hard-earned reward points on a former credit card. The credit card was associated with the old bank which we gleefully abandoned in order to get a better interest rate on our home loan at another bank. However, after we refinanced the home loan, I kept the credit card account open for some months, so we could accumulate enough reward points to get something vaguely useful... yeah, like a toaster that fries an egg at the same time.
A few months later, while I was still trying to accumulate enough points to get a measly $10 gift voucher or similar, the old bank sneakily charged us an annual fee without notice. When I complained, they refused to refund it even if we cancelled the card, so we were stuck with keeping the account open for another 12 months to get our money's worth. So I kept playing their game, trying to make just enough purchases to earn the exact number of points to get a $10 gift voucher, only to discover that I now had too many points and might as well try and earn a few more so I could get a $20 gift voucher. This stupidity continued until eventually I gave in and just redeemed my points for whatever I could get.
So that is how I ended up with a $10 Darrell Lea voucher and two movie vouchers. Both vouchers arrived a few months before Thumper's birth, just when I was too tired and sore with pelvic instability to either (a) trapse around shopping centres to find one of the few remaining Darrell Lea stores or (b) sit for ages watching a movie. So the vouchers were put aside to use up after Thumper had emerged.
So of course they all got left until the last minute, because that is how parents of newborn babies live their lives. The day the Darrell Lea voucher was due to expire saw DeepSpice wandering around the CBD looking for the one and only store and successfully returning home with a small box of chocolates for me. And that brings us to now...
A week ago, I remembered that the movie vouchers expired at the end of November and suggested to DeepSpice that he could arrange baby sitting with Gran and GrandPaul or I could give the vouchers to CutLuce or DesignerSis to use up. Of course, neither of these options were followed up, and I had pretty much resigned myself to not getting to use the movie vouchers. So when the phone call inviting us to lunch came, we decided to try going all 'Gen Y' and do things 'last minute'.
Gran and GrandPaul said "Yes, and you can leave Thumper with us too if you want." At first, I couldn't believe it... that I might get to see a movie after all. Then I even started contemplating actually leaving Thumper with them. I had initially ruled this out because of the feeding logistics. Thumper is fully breastfed and I am not very good at expressing milk, nor had Thumper ever tried drinking expressed milk from a bottle. But on Sunday morning, at the last minute (well, a few hours before lunchtime actually), I decided "what the hell - let's leave Thumper too. She isn't going to starve and I can be back to her in 30 minutes if it is urgent." I managed to express 25 mls of milk, and grabbed a bag of frozen milk (expressed two months ago during the early-breastfeeding-super-engorgement phase) and a bottle. Then we raced off to drop the kids off at Gran and GrandPaul's house.
We arrived with about 40 minutes to go until we needed to leave for the movie. And from this point on, the day just got better. Gran and GrandPaul had a tasty lunch (well, brunch really since it was just after 11.00 am) waiting - pide, smoked salmon, salami and salad. Just as well too, as otherwise DeepSpice and I would have been eating nothing but jaffas, popcorn and choc tops for lunch! We dashed off to the theatre with about 25 minutes to spare, and despite getting caught up in a roadwork-related traffic jam, still made it just in time to score a parking spot right next to the theatre.
The next potential hiccup in our not-plans: I noticed that one of the vouchers had actually already expired a month earlier. No idea why they couldn't send me two vouchers with the same expiry date. I rehearsed a sob-story in my head as I handed the vouchers to the box office attendant but she didn't even glance at them. Just handed me two tickets for the movie and we were on our way. After the movie, as there were no frantic messages from Gran and GrandPaul urging us to "come back now!", we decided to go for a coffee. Then about an hour later and still no frantic messages, we decided to push our luck and stop off at the supermarket - ah, the joy of shopping with out children in tow!!
Unfortunately at this point, the luck ran out. The frantic phone call came from GrandPaul, accompanied on backing vocals by a screaming Thumper: "Better come back now, she is refusing to drink milk from the bottle." Apparently she had been calm when she woke from her three-hour sleep, then got a bit upset but calmed down again quickly with some loving attention from BallFiend (what a star!). But now, she had finally realised she was hungry and she just didn't get the bottle concept at all.
So we abandoned our shopping expedition (having managed to purchase only one item, but luckily the most important one: a chocolate advent calendar) and dashed back to the hungry Thumper. Of course, just as we walked in the door, we were informed that she had decided she would partake of the bottle, thanks very much! Still, she clearly preferred the real deal when it was offered and BallFiend was happy to have us back too.
I was impressed with what Gran and GrandPaul had accomplished in our absence: (a) a sleeping baby for most of the time; (b) BallFiend had a swim and did some more toileting practice (remembered to get out of the pool to do a wee); (c) GrandPaul purchased a real pine xmas tree; and (d) BallFiend helped to decorate the tree.
The afternoon was nicely topped-off with an invitation to stay for dinner - although GrandPaul's plan to cook a lamb roast hadn't been realised, so DeepSpice and GrandPaul went and got some oh-so-not-healthy fish and chips for us all. Then we got BallFiend ready for bed and headed for home.
PS. The movie was really good too - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasuss.
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