Nappy Brain on the Waterfront

For someone who always prides themselves on being super organised, in control and having a good memory, becoming a mummy of not one but two boys has made for some interesting 'nappy brain' moments.

I'm not sure whether its sleep deprivation or the amount of 'stuff' one has to remember when going out and about with 2 boys or both! Today was just one classic example of a nappy brain moment.

Noah was back to daycare yesterday and today, and as I had promised to pick him up today, I decided to go and get him a bit early so we could take advantage of a lovely, sunny and relatively wind-free afternoon to ride his new bike along the waterfront. Given how confident he is and how much enjoyment he is getting out of riding, we're keen to make the most of any opportunities to get out and about on the bike. We even tried to take the bike to the zoo earlier in the week but found out it's a no biking zone...shame, but I guess it makes sense given how hilly some of the paths are.

Anyway, we drove along Oriental Parade, with me thinking that there would be plenty of free parking once past the Pay and Display spaces. Sadly there were very few 120 min parks with most being coupon or resident parking. So after driving the entire length of the parade, I turned the car around and went all the way back to the Pay & Display spaces which at $1.50 an hour were reasonable anyway compared to the usual $4.00 an hour in the centre of town. Then began the fun of getting everything out of the car ready for our outing, which went a little like this:

• Meg out of the car with backpack full of essentials
• Open boot, get out Noah's bike and helmet and put by the kerb
• Get stroller out, put into upright position, clip sunshade on, put carrycot inside stroller
• Open Noah's door, change Noah's croc slip-ons for shoes and sox (easier for bike riding)
• Wipe excess sunscreen out of Noah's ears after his attempts to apply own sunscreen
• Noah gets out of the car, I put his helmet on and ask him to wait by the kerb
• Open Mylo's door
• Go back and redo Noah's helmet after I manage to squash one of his ears in the helmet and he gets upset
• Get Mylo (who by this time has fallen asleep after all the driving up and down the parade) and his wrap/dummy out of the car (which then wakes him up)
• Lock the car
• Put Mylo in stroller, finish attaching the sunshade, lift the brake, off we go
• Get 100 metres down the footpath and then realise my mistake....can anyone guess at this point?
• I have to tell Noah 'Sorry Mummy forgot to get a pay and display ticket, we'll have to go back to the car'
• Walk back the 100 metres to the car, actually we walk more than the 100 metres and start to wonder where the car is
• Stand somewhat bemused by the side of the footpath thinking 'I'm sure we weren't parked this far down the road'
• The penny drops.....I'm looking for our blue car and I'm in the red car today so have walked straight past it!
• Walk back the 20 or so metres till we find the RED car
• Open my wallet to look for $1.50 in change - nope no coins
• Attempt to do TXT-A-PARK instead (God BLESS text a park it has got me out of lots of tricky moments)
• Attempt to send the text and my mobile tells me I have too many messages in my inbox/outbox, aaagh!! When my phone can hold over 500 messages and I have been getting warnings for the past few days that it's getting near capacity, why is it this text that must fail to send! Then my phone asks do I want to delete some first so I can send the message? Sure I do, since there are 2 other people waiting behind me to use the machine by this time!
• Delete one message quickly so I can have enough space to finally send the text and get my ticket which I put in the RED car!
• Off we go again, 2nd time lucky as we decide to venture down the footpath in the other direction towards Waitangi Park while I mourn the loss of all the brain cells I have clearly lost in the past few months and years!

The rest of our afternoon, however, was delightful. Apart from forgetting the camera altogether, I think that pushing the stroller would probably have prevented too many photo opportunities anyway (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!), so we'll just have to make do with my prose instead!

We headed past the boat marina, across the bumpy bridge which Noah thought was great fun as he bopped up and down on his bike. We headed round the back of Te Papa to see if there were any ducks in the mini lagoon (which there weren't). We watched the Bluebridge ferry coming into the harbour alongside what seemed like a tiny personal pleasure craft, and Noah was fascinated by the statue of Solace in the Wind leaning out over the harbour.

Then we headed down a ramp (me with a careful watch on Speedy Gonzales on his bike, keeping the stroller between him and the water at all times!) to see the water up close and personal. We followed some ducks who were bobbing in and out from under the jetty whilst trying to steer clear of all the people out on croc bikes (2 or 4-seater side by side pedal bikes)

On the return journey we spotted some small, grassy hills in the distance near New World which Noah was keen to roll and tumble down (his latest thing!). He spent a good few minutes entertaining himself, trying to avoid the bees in the clover and getting grass stains galore whilst I continued to rock the stroller to keep Mr. Mylo asleep.

After a quick chat to Daddy on the phone with Noah checking that toad-in-the-hole was still on the menu for the evening, we headed back to the car, a much more straight forward exercise this time round. That was apart from the little pit-stop Noah had against the side of the car after informing me he needed to go wee wees, and me doubting he would last the 15 minutes home, especially knowing that Mylo was gagging for a feed as it was. Oh well, what's a little wee on the road between friends..as I raced to get everyone and everything back in the car, Noah informed me 'You're stepping in my wee Mum' every time I went backwards and forwards with children and belongings. So ends a lovely afternoon out with my boys...!

And I shall try not to let the fact that the organised and usually in control head on my shoulders seems to be bobbing around a little these days like one of those toy dog heads you see in the back of car windows!