We’re only a couple of weeks away till her FIRST birthday! Kenzie is now 50 weeks old. We’re off to Brisbane this week and we managed to perfectly time Kenzie’s sleep so that she would sleep throughout the flight to Brisbane! After one high pitches squeal as she was getting comfortable, she was out and slept the whole flight.
So far, here is her tally:
Nappy Changes: 38
Sleep: 97 hours
Feeds: 88
Kenzie’s still got a mild case of the sniffles and dry cough. We were hoping she’d be better before we got to Brisbane but it didn’t play out that way. We’re hoping she’ll be better soon so that we can get her the flu shot. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to have the vaccination done this week as we wait for Kenzie to get better. There’s been a recent death of an unvaccinated toddler and it’s so heartbreaking!
Our first night in Brisbane has Kenzie feeling uneasy in her new surroundings. She would wake up in an unfamiliar setting and would freak out. Her day naps went from 30-90 minutes long to close to 3 hours. It was an indication to is that her night sleep wasn’t great.
What I love about being in Brisbane during Ramon’s work trips is that the places we stay at have a pool and Kenzie has so much fun! We’re also walking distance to libraries and museums that all have a child-friendly area for crawlers.
After weeks and weeks of “Stranger Danger”, Kenzie has loved attention and doesn’t mind when she’s held by other people! Maybe her birthday party won’t be so scary for her with so many people around! We found that the trick was to be outside of her comfort-zone. She’s familiar with faces and voices and she knows certain commands. She’s growing and developing so fast!
After exposing her to many play areas and other kids, Kenzie has still got to learn boundaries as she grabs hold of other kids. We’ve also found that she’s very little in comparison to her peers and we love every teeny bit of her!
We visited libraries and museums during our trip and loved every bit of it until we encountered a rude security guard who was obviously on a paper trip. Not only did he respond with “that’s not my problem” when we explained we had baby essentials such as nappies and wipes, he did not tell us about the cloakroom. What a way to ruin someone’s day! I have worked in management and my biggest pet peeve is when people are on power trips and feel like it’s okay to belittle others! You must respect people! All people! Not only could he see that Kenzie was strapped in a baby carrier on someone’s chest, but the security guard clearly wanted to exercise his “power” to make himself feel better. We have sent a strongly worded complaint to management and will be following it up next week as we do not want any other parent to feel what Ramon felt that day. It’s hard enough being a parent but having to deal with rude and ignorant people is the icing on the cake. We had been up since 5am to prepare for our expo and didn’t need the last leg of our interstate trip ruined.
There was going to be no way we would be able to time a nap for Kenzie for our 8:30pm flight back to Sydney at the end of the week. We hung around in the Qantas lounge for a few hours as we waited for our flight. Not only were we surrounded by free food and drinks, they also had a kids play area for Kenzie to play in. It tired her out and she napped for a while before our flight. We knew it was either going to be a flight from hell or Kenzie will surprise us and behave on the flight home and we were surprised to learn that Kenzie was an absolute dream! We were mentally prepared to give every passenger in board our flight an awful experience but Kenzie sat still, stayed quiet, entertained herself (without much need of an iPad) and allowed us to have an enjoyable flight home. She was so well behaved! After this experience, we have decided to no longer take evening flight as it did take a toll on us the following days. It takes us 30 minutes to walk out of the terminal, collect our bags and walk to the car and almost a full hour to drive home (through $20 worth of tolls with no traffic). By the time we got home, Kenzie had fallen asleep in the car seat, it was midnight and we still had to unload the car and unpack. It was exhausting!
Kenzie’s been an explorer and is very curious. She’s walking around everywhere and it’s getting harder to keep up with her. Her little legs are moving so fast one second she’s in your line of sight and the next I’m losing my house yelling for her to come back. Kenzie’s learned to listen (most of the time) and turn around and walk back towards us if we yell “No” and “Come Back”. It’s been good when it works but we’ve noticed that she’s started to test us these days to see how far she can get before we get angry.
We had so much luggage to bring for our Expo, we had no weight for any of her books and decided to buy some while in Brisbane. Ramon bought her Noni the Pony and a board book version of her favourite Hairy Maclary book from Big W (as they were half the price of Myer/David Jones/Dymocks). She loved Noni the Pony so much and got excited when she saw the car and dog in the page that she grabbed hold of it and ripped it. Definitely unavoidable but Kenzie’s love for animals has only grown as she’s gotten older.
Sleep deprivation really hit us like a tonne of bricks this week. With Kenzie being uneasy in Brisbane, our Expo and traveling, we have felt exhausted and drained. Unfortunately, as parents, you can’t sleep in for another hour or nap a few hours in the middle of the day. I was relying on two cups of coffee and a can of V energy drink to get me through the days. Ramon was able to help me get extra sleep by working from home and giving me the opportunity to sleep in for a couple more hours on a couple of days. It’s been so hard running on little sleep. Some days I feel like I need to stop this business to focus 100% on being a mom but I enjoy being both a mom and an entrepreneur. Balancing work and life has proven so difficult and I am no longer scared to ask for help. My pride has been put aside as I ask for help with Kenzie, with the business and with myself. I used to think it was a sign of weakness but it’s only helped me become a better mom and tick off a few things on our “to do” list for the business. Let’s hope next week is a little “easier”.