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November 23, 2001
Friday November 23rd, 2001.
The Wheels Of the Bus…
Pixie had her very first trip on a bus today. A momentous occasion for a toddler. It all started some days ago, when I was driving Pixie around town (on one of our many and various shopping excursions of late…don't you love birthdays and Christmas…such an excuse to shop!). Anyway, she would shout out with great excitement everytime she saw a bus drive by, "Bus! Big Bus!" So, in a generous holiday-spirit kinda-mood I said, "One day Mummy will take Pixie on a bus. Would you like that?" She answered, "Ticket?" I said, "Yes. Pixie and Mummy will hop on the bus, buy a ticket from the driver, and go for a trip."
Well, little did I know what I'd started! For the rest of the drive I had to repeat this little 'story', over and over and over. Then, when we arrived home, Pixie threw herself violently onto the floor and with great heart-break wailed, "Bus. Bus. Bus. Pixie and Mummy. BUS!" She screamed and cried and was rather hard to pacify….
Yes, I forgot. I forgot that for a toddler if something doesn't happen NOW then it might as well never happen. It took a lot of calm explanations for me to get it into Pixie's head that ONE DAY SOON we'd go for a trip on a bus, but not today. Anyway, everyday since then she's been asking, "Bus? Ticket? Soon?" So this morning I woke up and said, "Today's The Day kidlet!"
So with great fortitude on my behalf, and great excitement on Pixie's, this morning I pulled out the pram and wheeled it up the hill and around the corner to the bus-stop. Pixie mumbled in the pram the entire way, "Bus. Ticket. Me. Pixie." I smirked and giggled and wondered at how such a simple thing as a bus-trip could create so much excitement and anticipation.
Anyway, after much waiting at the bus-stop, and much shoo-ing away of the ever so persistent Aussie-fly, and much babbling on Pixie's behalf, "Bus. Soon. Coming."
The bus finally hurled around the corner and stopped to pick us up. While I was wrestling with the pram (why is it that when a bus-load of people are waiting and watching the damn pram decides today is the only day in it's history that it will REFUSE to close down?), a nice grandmotherly Asian woman also waiting at our bus-stop scooped Pixie up and took her onto the bus ahead of me. She thought she was helping, but as soon as Pixie was taken onto the bus without me she began to wail and scream and deafen the entire bus! Needless to say, by the time I'd clunked up the stairs with my stupid pram I was beginning to regret this little excursion. As I pushed my ticket through the machine the pram decides to spontaneously fly open again (rather awkward in the narrow bus-aisles), and Pixie is screaming loudly enough to alert the entire neighbourhood of her abduction! Anyway, to cut a long story short…Pixie sat on my knee and clung to me for the entire bus-trip….tentatively glancing around occasionally, her heart pounding like a little kitten's in her chest.
The girl surprises me sometimes…I generally think of her as bossy, boisterous and courageous, but sometimes she gets scared and shy and clings to me like I'm her only hope. It melts this protective mother's heart; I am always thankful for a good clingy cuddle. Nothing feels better than those little toddler hands and arms wound tightly around your neck!
So anyway, it appeared that Pixie did not enjoy the much anticipated bus-trip, until we got off at the shopping centre and started shopping. Then she kept twisting around in the pram and asking, "Bus?" The girl couldn't wait to get back on and relive the experience it seems. This is what I love about life with a toddler - everyday experiences take on a whole new perspective because they are big, memory-making, first-time experiences for my Pixster. And so our somewhat awkward trip on the bus becomes a thing of great wonder and magic. This my friends, is why I wanted to become a parent!
Doing It Alone!
Jay has been in Sydney at a conference since the wee-hours of Thursday morning (he departed at 4am). So it's just been me and the Pix for two days. This is a rare event -Jay has only left me overnight once before in the Pixster's lifetime, and that was when she was 4-5 months old. Needless to say I was dreading the experience, wondering if I'd be up half the night imagining kidnappers trying to break the door down and steal my Princess! But to my surprise and wonder, looking after the Pix on my own has been a revelation. It has been surprisingly different. Pix and I have been closer than ever these past two days. Two little buddies, doing our own thing and loving it. Pix has been so much more affectionate - it's been delicious having all her cuddles all to myself and not losing half of them to Daddy! :^) Just this evening we decided to be decadent and drive to Red Rooster for a chicken and chip dinner. While we were munching on chips and licking our greasy chicken fingers, Pixie kept bestowing me with big beaming smiles (like she was in love with me or something!!) and then scooting across the bench-seat to give me big cuddles. It was delightful. All the other mums in the chicken and chip shop were jealous of course, and I felt like the most beloved mother in the universe at that very moment. So afterwards we walked to the shop for a chocolate frog (well, after all those cuddles the girl deserved a treat!), had a play in the park, and wandered through the supermarket where I bought the girl a flower-lay (necklace) which she wore (and refused to take-off) for the rest of the evening.
Sometimes Pix and I just hang-out like that, dawdling through shops, buying treats together, playing in the park, and I feel so content, and so proud. My little girl likes to hang out with me, we have such good fun together, and it's like all the loneliness I've ever felt in my life before is swept into oblivion. Pix and I are more than mother and daughter, at those times it feels like we are best-mates. I love it when it feels that way, when the responsibilities of parenthood vanish, when my little girl suddenly becomes my best-buddy, when I don't need to scold or correct or any of those boring-parent-jobs, and we simply hang-out together, enjoying the day and enjoying each other. At those times Pixie doesn't seem like a child. She seems like so much more. It's like we connect somewhere deeper, like she doesn't need me to "parent" her, she just needs a companion, someone to share her discoveries with, and someone to help her into her car-seat when our adventures are through. :^)
It's Almost The Girl's Birth-Day!!
Well, in two days my little Pixie girl will be TWO YEARS OLD!!! It's momentous, it's exciting, it's such a time for celebrations. But we're not having the girl's birthday party until the following weekend, December 2nd, because a few of our friends are away this weekend and we don't want them to miss it.
So this Sunday, on the girl's birth-day, we'll have a quiet day together, doing all the things Pixie loves to do. She'll open her presents, and her Nana (Jay's Mum) will come across for a BBQ tea and some cake.
Then the following Sunday it's PARTY! PARTY! PARTY! We've invited about 5-6 families, and we'll have a lunch-time party in the backyard. Pixie knows all about it. She's been talking about it for weeks: "Pixie party. Hats. Cake. Candles. Balloons," then she points to the backyard and says, "Soon." Ha! The girl's a party animal, she's gonna LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!
And then, when the party's all done it'll be time to start Christmas plans and preparations!!!! WOWEE, I love this time of year!
Now, anyone who wants to do a Christmas Card exchange this year, with yours truly, please leave your e-mail address on my message board and we'll exchange addresses…time to start thinking about Christmas cards and all that fun stuff. I can't wait to have Christmas cards from all over the world adorning our mantle-tops again, so get in the holiday spirit and drop me a line, and Pixie and I would be happy to send you a little Chrissy card from down under!
I'll need to write again in a few days…tell you all about our party plans and the girl's birth-day….we're giving her a 4-piece swing-set for the backyard. She's gonna flip when she wakes up Sunday morning and sees it in the backyard!!!! Yee-haw!
Much love to you all,
Eloise.
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