It’s the weekend and it’s raining. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
We can’t complain too much though. Gardens are getting watered. Their rain slicked driveways also happen to make an excellent canvas for sidewalk chalk. The colours become more vivid and the glitter more intense.
The wet spell has had other effects around the suburb. People geared up for a big Friday night out gave up half way through a beer as a bus home to their doona and the telly won over the prospect of getting soggy and cold in a beer garden.
And then there were the rest of us who took one look at the sky when we woke up and decided that the clouds were telling us to proceed directly to our nearest shopping centre. The Chase and Westfield were hives of activity today.
A sleeping Toddler SSG and I dropped into the official opening of Pottery Barn at Chatswood Chase and we were given this Clancy bear for our troubles. I heard that there was Messina gelato on offer as well.
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| www.potterybarnkids.com.au |
I have a special place in my heart for Pottery Barn Kids. Walking through a store takes me back to those blissful (or should that be blissfully naive) days of being pregnant and in that phase of motherhood where it was all about the getting. The books (that Baby SSG never read), the right baby sling (that Baby SSG loathed on sight) and the travel cot (that yes… Baby SSG never slept in). Lists were copied diligently from baby websites, the allowances for clothing quadrupled and the advice from knowing people that there was no point in spending heavily on a change table (because the bed or the floor was where most of the changing would actually take place) duly ignored. That unshakeable conviction that so long as you had the ‘right’ gizmo, sleep, feeding and crying would all fall into place. I can laugh now but gee I was earnest and ultimately bewildered when reality kicked in.
Out of all the frivolous things I bought, thought, it was the
Pottery Barn monogramed hooded bath towels with the gingham trim that got the most use. In fact, we still use them now. They’re still fluffy, the embroidery is still as strong as the day I received them and Toddler SSG still loves being swept up and ruffled dry in them after his bath. The only thing I haven’t been able to achieve is a photo as cute and perfect as the Pottery Barn catalogue’s. Do you think trickery and Jedi mind games take place on PB Kids shoots?
Away from the idyllic world of parenting that is a Pottery Barn store, real world parenting was taking place at a cracking pace. With Toddler SSG asleep, the pressure was on to get through my list of shopping. Most of it pertained to him anyway. A backlog of slowly drying washing and a bit of a growth spurt has seen us reach a critical low in pyjamas and sweaters.
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| www.target.com.au |
Target came through (as usual) with pyjamas. The store is mostly full of new season T shirt and shorts sets but there were some great bargains on flannel and leggings sets. Sadly, there don’t seem to be anymore Giggle and Hoot themed pyjamas. The flannels from this year were a huge hit with Toddler SSG. I did, however, manage to find a set of George pyjamas for $20. Will the toddlers of Australia manage to sleep this spring / summer without their nocturnal G&H wardrobe? Only time will tell.
As I rifled through the racks at Cotton On Kids, it hit me. He’s really growing up so fast, isn’t he? It’s not just seeing his personality and sense of humour evolve each day (usually at the dinner table and usually over the use of food as art or a physics experiment) but also physically. He no longer perches delicately beside me on the sofa nor does he look enveloped by his car seat. How dare those days go by so quickly and how dare I not savour them as much as I should have? The young girl on the register at CO Kids probably wasn’t the best person to explore this with. Youth. It always puts melodrama and nostalgia in perspective.
You can’t leave the Chase without dropping by Kiehl’s. I’m strictly on a buy to replace plan when it comes to makeup and skin care at the moment. I’ve got too much stuff and too little time in which to use it. Kiehl’s Clearly Corrective toner is an old favourite and one I always to have a back up bottle of.
It’s going to be spring next week. Do you think the weather will play ball?
