Almost Posh: parenting

Guest Post at Elemental Beginnings

June 24, 2015
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Review: Adelaide Shores Resort

There’s no doubt having kids changes you, your lifestyle and your idea of a good time.

My idea of a holiday varies from that of my husband. I consider a real holiday to include plane travel, passports, big cities and shopping with foreign currency whereas he would be happy with a fishing rod and a tent in the bush with no access to running water or wifi.

Before having our daughter, one thing we did agree on was scoffing at the notion of spending time in a holiday resort in our own city, believing it to be the practise of xenophobes, tightwads and / or regular viewers of “South Aussie with Cosi”.

However, my sister-in-law decided for her 40th birthday, she would like to spend the weekend at the Adelaide Shores Resort with family and friends in attendance. A far cry from 10 years previous when we jumped out of planes from 12,000 feet and then spent the night in various bars in town until the early hours for her 30th (#changes), so arrangements were made, the car loaded, trailer attached and off we set on the whopping 30.6km road trip to our destination.

We arrived around 6.45pm on the Friday night and check-out was 10am Sunday morning, a total of 41 hours, for which we had brought with us a fully loaded VE Commodore and trailer. Although I managed to keep the wardrobe for the three of us within one suitcase (#changes), I did overpack for myself by about four tops and one pair of shorts. Also chronically overpacked for the toddler who spent most of the time in bathers or just a nappy over the two 40 degree days. A girl needs options though, am I right?

We had booked a Dunes cabin which indeed faced the dunes of West Beach and the toddler took great delight in watching the steady stream of runners and cyclists along the beach path. There were other cabin options available; this was the cheapest 2 bedroom option that included a private bathroom within the cabin itself. Others offered either shared amenities blocks or a private “en suite” (external) bathroom. Maybe ten years ago but not today (#changes). We also had my mother-in-law staying with us which was a great help in terms of keeping an unusually stroppy toddler under control.

Home 30.6kms away from home

The cabin was clean, basic, maybe a little 90s in terms of décor but the linen was soft and it had all we needed for our stay in terms of utensils, crockery, cutlery, cleaning products and a decent sized fridge. As we had decided to be reasonably self-sufficient and not buy meals apart from the Saturday dinner, we had brought our barbecue, loads of food, an outdoor setting and the toddler’s highchair. This, of course, meant prep, cooking, dishes and general cleaning up so not exactly a holiday in the usual sense of the word; in fact, we have a dishwasher at home so it was even more work! Still, it doesn’t feel as bad when you’re not doing it every day and a barbecue meant no pots and pans at least.

The resort has a huge variety of activities and is well kept with plenty of green lawned areas, shaded picnic gazebos with barbecues, two pools, a Splash Zone, several playgrounds including an air conditioned indoor toddler room, a games room, jumping pillows, pedal cars, bikes and go karts for hire and more. All this and the back gate of the resort (about 10 metres from our door) leads you right onto the beach. Unfortunately the gate closes at 9pm which was a little early. I’d have liked a late night stroll on the sand but we didn’t get the time.

Splash Zone action

I also don't have many photos to share as I went virtually phone-free for the weekend (#changes) and we had the GoPro for water-based activities.

When Miss L was eight months old, we went on a "real holiday" to Vanuatu for a week for my husband’s 40th and stayed at Warwick Le Lagon Resort. Travelling with a nearly two year old versus an eight month old infant presents different challenges. On the first trip, it was having an adequate supply of formula, somewhere to sterilise bottles, managing teething and lugging the pram everywhere. Now it’s chasing, reasoning, supervising, chastising and trying to understand why she won’t put her feet on the sand or sit up and eat her breakfast (#changes). Obviously different surroundings and abandoned routines have a big impact on all concerned. I didn’t sleep well myself so being tired on top of her stroppiness wasn’t helping and the dummy minimisation program went out the window.

Both areas were billed as family-friendly and this was certainly the case. In Vanuatu, it seemed other patrons hadn't quite done the research we had and one particular tribal-tatted singlet-wearing bogan had a real issue with infants crying in the breakfast room but that was the only hostility we encountered. She was fine on the plane apart from guzzling over and above our prepared formula supply which lead to a mad dash around Brisbane airport's international departures lounge trying to find cow's milk rather than duty-free booze (#changes).

Again, we took my mother-in-law along which was a great help to us as well as having the opportunity to treat her to her first overseas holiday.

I enjoyed being away from home (a change is as good as . . . ), the resort facilities and the beach but now I feel like I need a real holiday!

Not a sponsored post but my God, if anyone does want to sponsor me to go on my own holiday and write wonderful things about it, I am so down.

February 24, 2015
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Shopping Wins and Fails

ASOS

January 28, 2015
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Wardrobe Malfunction: Shopping With Toddler

family

Obviously, this is never going to be a wholly satisfying or relaxing experience but quite often, it’s either drag the little ones along or wait weeks for some alone time that you haven’t already got earmarked for some other self-indulgent activity like the dentist, physio or waxer.

This is Miss L and I at our local Kmart. Note the sultanas on the floor.

That striped dress will feature in a future post.
It is actually hanging up.

Yes I picked them up. As I did the further half a box that were upended in the change rooms at Target.

I’m wearing a Suzanne Grae zip front top from Savers, my best ever pair of dark skinny jeans I bought at Harris Scarfe about four years ago and some jazzy new sparkly silver ballet flats that my sister-in-law gave me.

(That mark is on the mirror, not my pants)

Pretty practical, right?

Wrong!

So we’re standing in the queue at Target and Miss L suddenly cries “Zip!”, leans forward and gives mine a healthy tug downwards. Guess who wasn’t wearing any form of singlet or top underneath?

By comedic coincidence, she has also managed to snag some of the fabric so the zip gets stuck. As I stand in line simultaneously trying to protect my decency and spare others the sight of my daggy old bra while also using both hands to yank the zip up, she happily sprinkles a few more sultanas around the place.

These I did not pick up. I’m sorry.

Finally, by pulling the zip down even further, I manage to free the fabric and then restore the zipper to its rightful place. As Miss L started up an increasingly demanding alternating request for either dummy or bottle, I managed to complete my transaction (ironically for some new bras to replace the current one) and get out before suffering any further humiliation.

Lesson Learned: When you have an inquisitive toddler at chest-height in the trolley facing you, you are not going to want any form of zipper within their reach and if you do, wear a singlet underneath.

Have you suffered any kid-related wardrobe malfunctions in public?

January 14, 2015
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Emails to Miss L

family

I’d kicked around the idea of starting a blog for a year or more before I launched GhetteauxPosh. However, my world at the time was full-time mum and I couldn’t really see myself adding my voice to the huge number of successful mummy bloggers already out there. My wry observations about parenting had already been made by people like Laura at Laura's Plog and there wasn’t much else going on in my life at the time.

“Oh man, nappies! Amiright?”

Encouraged by Bridie at bridiemarie.com, I started blogging on a much more niche topic; fashion. Well, to be fair, I just write about whatever I like really, and what I mostly like is fashion so it’s what I mostly write about. I don't claim to be a style maven but I like shopping for and wearing clothes so why not blog about it.

This time, I’m going to throw a little parenting into the mix by revealing I recently set up an email address for my daughter, Miss L.

She is 20 months old.

This post may or may not be an excuse to post some cute pictures of my daughter

Before she was born, I dutifully bought a baby book with the intention of lovingly filling out each milestone in perfect penmanship, complete with handprints, artfully scrapped photos and mementos.

This eventually happened around about her first birthday in a slightly less polished format than I had envisaged; think double-sided tape and a box of coloured pens. Luckily, I had kept a bunch of scribbled Post Its in a memory box that were able to supply key dates. But honestly, I found it a massive struggle to remember to go into the room, get the box from under the bed, open the box, fish out the pen and the Post Its and jot things down. It sounds like a simple and easy thing to do but it just wasn’t.

Mums, are you feeling me?

More arbitrary cuteness

I am, however, quite often in front of a device capable of sending emails; whether it’s my desk at work, my computer at home, my phone on the bus or my iPad on the couch.

So my plan is to send her emails over the course of her childhood and to share the email address with close family so they can do the same.

I'll stop soon

Touch wood but I also see it as a touch of insurance, should anything happen to them before she’s old enough to know them, she will hopefully have special messages to keep.

I want her to know how funny and cute and clever she is. I want to capture the little things, like how she calls grapefruit “gallaput” and refuses to wear shoes without socks as well as the major milestones. This weekend, her first sit on the potty produced results and then she went into a big bed for the first time!

When she’s old enough, I’ll give her the log-in details, maybe around a special birthday, and I hope she enjoys reading them.

One day, all this will be yours

November 24, 2014
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Guest Post at Elemental Beginnings

Review: Adelaide Shores Resort

Shopping Wins and Fails

Wardrobe Malfunction: Shopping With Toddler

Emails to Miss L