Every so often Sal needs to do a couple of days work in Brisbane and overnights there. If there is a Monday or Friday involved she can tack a bit of weekend on and catch up with her folks or her sis. She has taken AJ with her (once I think) and the grandparents get granddaughter good-times, but typically the little lady stays with me. Which is cool, because I get to spend whole days with her, not just the pre and post work bits of the working week.
Mind you, relatively speaking I get loads of time with the little lady during the week, mainly because I am a pig-headed sonofabitch who refuses to not walk my dogs - and AJ comes with me every morning - and I refuse to work my arse off beyond what I believe is fair and equitable. Result is that AJ and I get up at 5am, head out with the hounds at 5:30 and get back at around 7am, in time for Sal to take her to daycare at about 7:20. So I get a little over 2hrs every morning, not bad I think you'll agree. I usually get home a little before 6pm and at the moment the monkey finally stops arising about and gets to sleep at around 7:30 so I clock up over 90mins each evening. I dress her each morning and get her ready for bed most evenings as Sal takes her post-dinner bath. Yes, I am a lucky bastard and get a ton of time with my daughter.
I am loathe to say looking after her is easy, but mid-week, with a couple of exceptions, is OK. Months ago Sal and I decided that should AJ wake before midnight Sal would be on duty and after midnight it would be me. Sal craves sleep and claims she is unable to function - unable to function! - before 6am. She is, of course, lying to herself. But I've had enough of arguing. Luckily for Sal the little monkey never wakes before midnight and the result is I do every night's parent duties until my body collapses on me, at which point Sal steps into a breach she avoids like the plague at all other times. That's about the worst of it.
As each week progresses I tend to get more and more tired and have my moments in the wee small hours when the little lady pushes me a bit. I'm sure all parents do. But we always make up. Once I'm up and moving in the morning I can pretty well get through - berocca and large coof, kick-start - and quite often I'll have a catchup nana nap at the weekend. Sal's helpful advice of "just go to bed earlier" is rarely headed. With monkey asleep at 7:30pm I'll browse the net, watch some tele and chat with my bro for a couple of hours. I mean come on, 9:30pm is hardly burning much at that end of the candle. I could stop running, but tend to find I have more energy when in training than not, so that ain't gonna happen either.
And so it was wed-fri this week. Up at 5am, out with the dogs, he boys and AJ run around the park while I have a coffee and then back by 7am for a quick turnaround before I did the daycare duties. Even adding the daycare I still get to work by 08:30 - before most of my colleagues - and with a super-short lunch I head off at 3pm to collect AJ at 4pm. I can even run to work, keeping my training up, just about. Mileage does take a dip. Dinner is around 5pm, bath finishes a little after 6 and bed is about 6:45. Goodnight #1 precedes 45mins of messing about before sleep happens. This week we had a couple of moments in the small hours and a bit of a snap as she did the terrible-two "no" thing. Probably would not have been too bad, but she placed them back to back. Don't rip that letter open, it is for mum - rip. Pick your pajamas up off the floor - look at PJs, look at dad, walk off. A few tears, a couple of apologies and we made it relatively unscathed to the weekend.
This morning I was pretty much knackered. AJ had murmured at 3ish and I simply told her to go back to sleep, which she did. A little after 4 she woke again and I got her some milk. She went straight back to sleep and so did I. At 5 she woke again, asking me to turn the light on. Not today, I thought. No I said, either go back to sleep or get up, but I'm staying in bed. I gave her option three of jumping in to bed with dad and sleeping. She took that option. Well, I assume she did. I remember lifting her into mum's spot and the next thing I remember is her saying "dad, dad, get up" at 6:10. She could have been watching tele, pissing about on Facebook and smoking in the intervening 70mins, I was dead to the world.
I'd promised AJ we'd go to the beach and she could have a swim but I woke up not knowing if that would be today or tomorrow. But the the dogs needed walking, so I had a bit of time to make my mind up. We took the weekday park route and I thought we could head to Wild Sage in Cammeray for breakfast until I got there at 7:30 and was reminded that they'd do a coffee but no grub until 8am. Bollocks. I could feel a faff approaching. We headed home and I thought about breakfast at home but AJ had babycinno on her mind and I am always up for a cafe breakfast. Fed the dogs, packed a bag and headed to Dee Why. We'd got up late, so a slightly later breakfast was no big deal.
Got to the cafe at about 8.30, AJ heading straight in to our usual table. No high chair today, she's a big girl. The waitress recognises us and is a big fan of the little lady; after breakfast - AJ asked for the bill and paid - she got a couple of stickers, something she was extremely happy about. As we headed towards the water she had her arms thrust out front so the world could see the stickers, one on the back of each hand. I'd hoped we'd go straight to the pool, but we had no chance of getting past the play park.
Alex loves the play park, and it is quite shaded, so in we went. Straight over to the slides and ladders, she clambered all over it and then over it again and again. I suggested the pool a few times, to no avail. We had a go on the swings and then were back to the slides and climbing. She is getting quite adept and agile and has hardly any fear or trepidation. Only slipped a couple of times today.
An aside; I wish that when I was teaching AJ about waiting her turn and sharing that those parents who don't do likewise would get their ignorant fuck arises out of my grill. Ahem, luckily the majority of parents are great and are not bringing their kids up to be be selfish fuck wits.
I needed a piss, which AJ was gracious enough to grant me and therefore we headed towards the loos and the pool. Relieved, she had a quick dip in the pool and then, before we fried, we headed back to the car. Little lady was getting tired and we were pretty much spot on her nap time. Damn I'm good! We drove off, stopped at the Long Reef pie shop for provisions and just after that she was spark out. Plan now was to head to the national park, find a shaded spot to park in and then I would grab an hours shuteye too.
About 25mins in I found a new car park, Carrs Creek Reserve, pulled in and parked under a tree, in the shade, next to the water. Sorted. Open windows, recline seat flat, time for a kip...unless Alex wakes. Which she did. Grouchy and clearly not in the mood to sleep in a stationary car. I was in no mood to argue and drove off. Did some mental maths with times and sleeping requirements and decided to head to Berowra Waters. It is a lovely spot, a bastard to run and it would make a pleasant change to drive through instead of do it on foot. There is even a small cable-pull-ferry, which I felt sure Alex would like.
And she did. She woke just before we got to the ferry. The ferry was on the other side of the water, so I stopped the engine and we got out. I took a couple of pics as the thing was pulled back to our side - the crossing takes only a couple of minutes - and then we got back in the car. It was lunch time, we crossed Berowra Waters and pulled into the marina car park for lunch at the marina. There was a play park that I thought looked promising until I realized it was not shaded. We headed in, found a shaded table and after spotting a few (scaled, swimming) mullet we shared a fish and chips lunch. The little lady pretty much matched me, wolfing down her "half." We went exploring after lunch, I asked if she wanted an ice-cream and she gave a no-nonsense "no." Er, OK.
We walked around the waters edge and I took her to watch a couple of fishermen gutting and cleaning their catch. Then it was back to the car for the journey home. The journey took us up and over and back down and up through Galston Gorge. Surprised that I'd not driven it before. Jason loves it on his bike...at least three of the switchbacks are not quite as much fun in a 5m+ 2ton bus, but I can see the appeal on two wheels. It is very pretty. The cyclists on it are bonkers. They bomb down at 50kmh and then haul are up and out again. It'll get your heart pumping. Think a motorbike is the best option.
Epic diary post eh? Figure it is worth putting down, every so often, life as it happens.
We got home at about 4pm, and then the weekend becomes very much like any other weekday. We had our dinner, we had the bath and we had some arising about before falling asleep at about 7:30pm. I wonder how the night shift will go?
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