Eventful Monday

Phew, yesterday was crazy. We had an extra early morning with Dom (who it must be said is not usually one for sleep-ins), and had to take the zombie-like bleary eyed looking after him in two shifts. He ended up waking up from his morning nap about the time he usually goes down for a nap and it kind of left me feeling like the whole day was slightly out of whack.

We were busy though and went for two rompy walks (one to the park to feed ducks, another to Kotuku park and playground). We saw swans, pukeko, a sun-bathing kotuku and a pair of dappled greys being ridden down towards the beach. Of course Dom was most excited by the various dogs that we spotted and an affectionate neighbourhood Siamese cat who sauntered over to the buggy to purr loudly and demand fusses from us.

Then there was an exciting email. It seems that my brilliant hubby is going to have an article he wrote published towards the end of the year. I was super impressed at how speedy their response was and how glowing the acceptance email was. (Man, I want an acceptance letter – not just for the obvious glee at getting published and paid for writing, but to see if they often include praise of your writing as well).

It eerily followed on from a dream I had not long after Matt sent the article off. In my dream, he had it accepted but was then insisting on sending the magazine a picture of a cartoon dragon he had drawn (it didn’t look dissimilar to Trogdor). I tried to tell him not to, that dragons had nothing to do with the article but he was adamanet that the magazine would think it was cool. I was unaccountably really upset and worried by this in the dream.

I now seem to recall that I was the one who told Matt to write the article back in the holidays and suggested the magazine to send it to (and found the correct email address). I vaguely remember him promising to buy his wife a pressie with the money if it was accepted but maybe that was in the dream rather than real life. Such a promise is somewhat wishful thinking but it is at least more plausible than the cartoon dragon incident.

At the end of the busy day, we decided to have an early dinner and it was just as well. For at the exact moment that Matt was taking Dom out of his high chair, there was a power cut. There was just enough light to stumble around and find things but it was still somewhat inconvenient. It turns out baby-proofing your home so that there are no matches anywhere in reach of young hands actually is a bit of a pain in a dark power cut.

Luckily, we located torches and then could find matches as well. I was worried that Dom would be freaked out by the whole situation but he thought it was fantastic. We went out onto the street to check it wasn’t just our house and he loved watching the headlights of the cars driving by. We set up a bright lantern in the lounge and Matt and I performed a cabaret of song and dance for Dom. He thought it was great but I doubt many would share his opinion. We have no plans to start touring with our act at this stage and I think everyone should be grateful of that.

It turns out playing with various toys by torch and lantern light is just as fun for little toddlers.





The power came back on after a while. We breathed a sigh of relief and I went to switch on a heater in the bedroom as it was getting cold. I was just remarking that “I love electricity” when the power went out again. I believe it went out when I was exactly half-way through the word electricity.

Important life lesson. Never say ‘I love electricity’ after a power cut. It angers the gods of all things electric and they take your power away again.

It was now close to Dom’s bedtime. We chose to forego the usual bath and went straight to the bedroom. We let him watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba on the laptop while we all snuggled on the bed under the duvet. Even the cat came and joined us.

I was beginning to give up hope of the power coming back on after a while. We had ourselves warmly set up in the bedroom with enough light to read by and started to settle Dom down to sleep. He went to sleep a little later than usual but was wonderfully behaved throughout so that’s a bonus. The power came on a while after he went to sleep so we even got to watch a bit of TV and have nice evening with heaters, lights, clocks, hot drinks and various other benefits of modern living.

It really made me appreciate the many creature comforts that we have these days. While they may not be essential to survival, they sure make winter nights more pleasant.

I love electri… you know what I mean.