Winter a la Aussie – part 2

I left you back there, monitoring my sand warmed toes and I just had to split the day in two, as the amount of pictures was becoming ridiculous. I did take a few, mind you. After the lull I had the last few weeks it felt good to be inspired again.

After some play, running and sand tossing, Dodman was ready for some mama love. He weasels his way to my lap, gently and quietly. Sits and lightly taps me on my chest – his sign for “I would like to nurse, please, if its not too inconvenient”. To my question if that is what he wants, he gives the affirmative giggling smile:

Its unmistakable. Its the same when he lies in bed and waits for me to snuggle next to him, while I unbutton a shirt or lift a complicated layered arrangement. It is pure excited joy that cannot be contained, so it bursts out of him.

And then time just seems to pause…

I love to run my nose through his soft hair and kiss the top of his head, being able in a split second to run through all the memories I have of it from the last 22 months. It was soft and wet smelling of birth; it was gentle and pulsating; it was a bit crusty at times; or sweaty in summer.

Its our place. Our pause.

Life and playgrounds call though, and not long after, a certain bubble butt was off causing havoc on the slide. The problem comes because he thinks the best thing one can do on a slide is to climb it, and yet all these other kids keep on insisting to do some other activities on it. He has been doing this from the time he learned to walk, if not before that. At first he would not get far before splatting flat on his face on the way down. But now he can get to the top with little difficulty.

And sometimes even slides down, just to see what the fuss is all about.

The girls had fun too, going up the climbing wall or whizzing by on the flying fox.

And then it was time to head back home. Usually our tradition calls for a fish and chips to mark the end of a beach day, but since we are on a money saving budget and trying to minimize spending we decided to just grab some chips and nibble on them in the car on the way home.

One thing led to another and we ended up chatting and sorting through hot potatoes in the car, with its doors wide open, and testing the dog knowledge of Miss Fab with each passing of a leashed pet on the promenade. It was a nice way to end the day.

Maybe only topped up by the tired warrior that greeted us once we got home: