It’s the 17th of December. I’ve finally finished my Christmas shopping. I only had a little bit to do really, I got most of my shopping for the kids done earlier in the year. I think they’ll all be pleased with their booty. Beth has got Muppets posters and a Pepe soft toy doll from the Muppets. As it must be it’s the same ratio in size to Miss Piggy and Kermit who she got last year. She’s got her disco ball coming from Santa as requested, sadly I couldn’t convince him to include the jacuzzi or the trip to Universal Studios in the limo like she wanted!
Beth’s had an up and down week. Last Wednesday her school was meant to go to an excursion to a park at a place called the 1000 steps which is near here. Down the bottom is a fabulous playground and then if the kids chose (one tip what Beth would have chosen) they could attempt to do the huge walk which by all accounts is a big one even before you get to the said steps. Anyway, the plan was that I pick her up there at 1pm before they head back to Dandenong. It’s only five minutes from me and would have been quite handy. My mistake was telling Beth that this is what I would be doing. I got a phone call during the day to tell me that due to a shortage in diesel the school bus wouldn’t be taking them that far after all and the plans had changed to go to a more local to the school park. I asked Beth’s teacher to explain this to Beth knowing that she wouldn’t be happy as she knew I was picking her up early. To make matters worse I got a flat tyre when out and my wonderful in laws had to come to the rescue as they do so often. Well, Bev tells me (my mother in law) that when it came time to pick Beth up she came out in tears, so upset that they hadn’t gone to the 1000 steps as planned. Poor love, I don’t know whether it was really the park or the promise of an early day but she was most put out. When I got home and went in to get her, once again her response was “You’re alive!” She hadn’t said anything to her teacher or my in laws so I’m not really sure if she thought something was wrong but even if she did a little bit it must have been awful for her. I wish I could convince her that nothing will happen to me. I think she associates the fact that I was 13 when my mum died and she is 13 now. It’s gone on for a while now, not to the extreme but clearly always in the back of her mind. Perhaps a social story might help.
I took Beth for an eye test on Saturday. The optometrist says she has better than 20/20 vision which was a relief. We then popped in to Big W to get a few clothes. Of course Bridie has weaseled her way in to come knowing we were going to the shops as she’s a real clothes horse. They both ended up with thongs (the kids you wear on your feet if you’re not from Australia, don’t want to alarm anybody!), t shirts and shorts and I got shorts for Bill. Beth has worn the same pair of crocs for three or four years so she picked some quite pretty thongs with a flower in the toe. She is a bit of a nightmare with clothes though, I don’t think she cares that much so if she says yes I often don’t know whether it’s because she wants to stop or because she really likes something. She’ll do something dramatic like say “Awesome” and fling her hand out but who really knows? She was quite helpful though, helping Bridie pick shoes which took longer than the rest of the visit put together. She was also rather annoying at times, doing things like saying yes to Bridie when I’d said no. And quite convincingly so too. If Bridie was nagging for a new dress for example and I put my foot down after the third time, saying something like “Don’t ask again or I’ll put everything back and you’ll never come clothes shopping with me again” or something equally as dramatic, Beth would whisper “Don’t worry Bridie, of course you can have it, just bring it with you.”
I’ll leave you with a Beth funny. We were looking at the shorts for both girls and Beth pointed at a pair she liked which were almost obscenely small. I pointed out “They’re too short Beth.” Her response “That’s why they’re called shorts Mum!” Thanks for that love, you’re probably right!