Just for something different

Yesterday afternoon, Charlie woke up from his afternoon nap, and we went and hung out washing. The sky was grey and gloomy, but there was no rain. Georgie was playing on her swing, wanting desperately to be pushed, and Charlie was grubbing about on the lawn, eating grass. I finished hanging out washing, and swung Georgie on the swing, but as I did it, I was conscious of all the things I should have been doing.

The bed was still unmade. Dinner was not planned or prepared. The pile of folding really needed my attention.... but all I wanted to do, was escape. To take my babies and run away somewhere to have some fun.

And so we did.

We put on our boots, and I strapped Charlie into the baby carrier, and we went for a walk.

As I walked along, with my little girl's hand in mine, and my little boy's big blue eyes looking up at me, I wanted to freeze time.

In this moment, we are happy.




We walked down the road and stopped at people's fences to see the 'puppies'. At one point we crossed the road, because one big puppy was a bit scary.

We looked at the grey clouds above, and we watched the cars drive past.

We saw parents dropping their children off for band practice at school, and I watched a mother zip into a parking bay to drop off a girl with a violin and a boy with a cello and thought to myself 'pretty soon that will be me.'

We walked past the childcare center where I used to work, and I watched parents duck in and out to pick up their little people, and I thanked God quietly that I didn't have to be one of them, and that my little people were with me, and not in a room with too many other little people.

We decided to keep on walking to the nearby playground, and I watched my little girl's steps slow a little as we walked up the 'big hill!'.

 

We walked past the hospital, and I looked down at my boy, who had fallen asleep, and I remembered how he was born there just six months ago.

 

 I noticed teenage boys being cool at the skate park, and looked down at my boy thinking 'pretty soon that will be you.' 

We got to the playground, and as my little girl climbed up to the very top and went down the twisty slide, giggling, (all by herself) I asked myself, "When did she get so big?'

As it got darker, we decided it was time to go home for a bath, and we slowly made our way back, while listening to the faint snatches of song, coming from the school.

At home, there was no dinner cooked, and there was plenty of housework that needed to be done.

But my children will only be two years, and six months old, once.

It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.