Flights, Fancies, Fears and Fluff

So - after a week of shunning work in favour of generally curling up into a little ball and feeling sorry for myself, and feeling even sorrier on account of being unable to curl into said ball due to extreme post surgery leg pain - it was time for a holiday!

Now this interstate holiday was meant to be just that - a relaxing time for us.

We did all the touristy things last time, this time we just wanted to see family and do nothing productive.

We had hoped to be able to take family out to dinner and tell them in person that we were starting our own tiny clan.. but, well, so much for that.






The day we left, we had to cram in a 2 year old's birthday party. I bought the kid a talking Hey Duggee! plush a) because the kid loves it and b) because the dad hates that show.

Can't figure out why..

We couldn't stay long because of our flight but we didn't want to stay too long either.
There were a million kids there (I counted, really!) due to a nearby 1st birthday party and Lucky Panda and I were just waiting for someone to do the routine "when are you going to have kids!?" thing that we just.. love... to hear.. over.. and over.... again...

It's like; we see you once a year, random person. Usually at a birthday or kid's event. Why the funkadelic monkey would I tell you about my downstairs mix-up and it's associated issues? You don't care about us becoming parents, you barely know us! You just want to validate yourself and your lifestyle but you can't think of anything else to say to us.

Fortunately, being so.. "unattached" has its benefits. Mainly meaning I can wander off and raid the buffet before someone tries to trap me in a fierce debate with another mother about how many micro-minutes someone's newborn sleeps or how much poop they've done so far.
I don't even feel rude about leaving. I'm here for a party, stop talking to me about literal shit.

Only one person spoke to us about what we were doing for the rest of the day and when we told them she said that she always found that kids prefer hanging out with childless adults anyway so we should be fine with seeing our nephews and nieces.

She didn't mean it in a mean way, and I understand what she was getting at but it still annoyed me.
I mean, 'childless adults'? She doesn't think our relatives would like hanging out with us if we HAD kids? Kids are keen on anyone who's not going to tell them to do their homework or brush their teeth but will play kids game with them and hang out/take them places.

I mean, family comes to visit? It should be a good, exciting thing! I know these kids act the same with any relative or friend of their parents, even if said relly/friend has their own kids.

I liked hanging out with my aunts and uncles as a child - they didn't cast me aside in favour of their own child (unless something urgent happened) and only one ever did that thing where an adult is shown something awesome the kid made and says 'oh, that's nice' without really looking.
I may or may not be holding a grudge over that. I had glow in the dark crayons, damnit!

*Cough* anyway, I personally was a bit apprehensive about going to see the relly's. I didn't want to be asked about babies but thought I would be and was a bit worried that if I was asked I'd either snark out something mean or start bawling my eyes out. Knowing me, I'd try something cool and mean but then start crying halfway through the sentence. I kinda suck that way.



Then, for extra points I would think of something kick ass to say hours later and then mentally beat myself up about it.

The flight down was horrible. So turbulent and stuffy. I actually threw up. There was a screaming baby on the opposite side to us and yet I got the dirty looks. Sure, the baby can't help it but if you want to explain to my guts why they can't carry on in these conditions then be my guest.
I used to get motion sickness a lot as a child but when I got my eyes fixed, began driving myself and dated a fisherman I found myself getting a lot better.

I admit I went off the reservation for a week beforehand and stopped my usual medication. I tried to reign myself in on that day and started them which was probably a mistake just prior to interstate travel but oh well, the more you know! Well, maybe not in my case. This has happened like twice before and I obviously didn't pay it any heed.

Plus the in flight snack was some sort of horrible barf smelling chips that apparently agreed with literally everyone else on the plane but was the final straw for me.

Also I used different headphones than normal which apparently disagreed with my Ipod because whenever the screen dimmed or locked the song would just stop which meant flicking at it constantly like a twitchy meth addict and causing the battery to go dead on a two hour flight.

I had a lot of worries, most of which were assuaged. For one thing, I was worried that the airplane seats would be agony but my legs were actually okay. Butt got a little numb, but that's to be expected I guess. Last week i was almost crying sitting in a cinema seat with leg room.
When we got to the airport - after what felt like forever - Evil (brother in law) and our two eldest nephews Roosterhead (14) and Lionmane (12) were there to greet us and it felt like no time had passed at all.

When we got to the relly's home the other kids Moo (10) Lemon (6) and Fairy (6) were waiting for us. Well, they gave me a quick hug (I wasn't allowed to carry the suitcases inside) then darted back into their corners in preparation to launch an attack on Uncle Panda.


I'm glad they didn't tackle me - my yelping shrieks would not be a good reunion maker.


Moo had just turned 10 on that day so there was a small celebration - mostly family - the gifts we brought for all the chillen's seemed to go down well. We tend to buy thing we'd like, so we know they're good. That way, if the recipient hates them, we can make use of them!

Panda had a beer with the blokey relatives.. but somehow I got cordoned off in the unsafe glittery temporary tattoo corner. I managed to limit them to one, that they coloured 'like Harley Quinn' in pink and blue. Internally, I wept for the lost red and black playing card theme my favourite comic character USED to have. Sigh. But it would be very poor form - and perhaps slightly embarrassing - to cry over a fake tattoo of the Karate Kid so I put on my brave face.



I really did almost cry that night though - I spent some time on Saturday meticulously preparing and packing all my medication aaaaaand I forgot my thyroid pills because they were in the fridge. I could have absolutely kicked myself if I had that much range of motion in my legs! So I had to book a trip to the doctors for that... and spent money I shouldn't have had to. Grrr.




The other kids were on school holidays - either out doing some sort of after school special or staying at friend's houses so it was just us and Roosterhead. That was kind of nice.. we used to be his go between - his mother and father live in states that are technically closer to each other than where we are, yet us going and getting him and carting him off to and from various airports seemed to prevent uncivil wars so that's cool.

Last year his mum just seemed to snap and kicked him out so he's been living with his dad ever since - which is great for his overall health and well being... but bad because we haven't been able to see him for ages. We'd still rather he was happy and further away than miserable and nearer though.

So we hung out with him for Monday, which was nice. I think you kind of have to be eased into a household with 5 kids. Last time we saw them all we were getting married and they were in full holiday party mode but this time they were all a lot more mature which made it a lot easier for me.
I gotta say, these are some polite and well behaved kids. I guess they would need to be but damn, my sister and I fought like professional wrestlers right up until the day she moved out so dayamn.