Ready? Set? Go!

As of 5am tomorrow, Vegan Chickie will embark on her solo holiday to New York and Paris, while the Bare-chested Chef, Chicklet and I attempt to run this family and household without her for two whole weeks!

As daunting as it feels .. due to the unbelievable stress that Vegan Chickie has been experiencing and sharing in the days leading up to this .. I am quite excited about having so much time with my little Chicklet and it will be fun sharing the numerous activities that have been planned in advance, watching the long list of dvds, attending her swimming lessons, enjoying bus rides to and from our coffee dates and creating new adventures together along the way.

No doubt we will have some hurdles (I can imagine Vegan Chickie snickering at the word 'hurdles') along the way, but we will manage and we will survive.

So my final message to you Vegan Chickie, if you are reading this on the plane, is 'WE'VE GOT THIS! Relax and enjoy yourself!'

It has been another full and fun day today.

It started with a smiley good morning at about 7.30ish and an invitation to a coffee date in Civic with VC and Chicklet. We got dropped off at the shopping centre, ordered our coffee and a muffin and sat in the comfortable chairs by the children's club while Chicklet made some friends and climbed over the play gym.

A little bit of shopping for more stickers to put on the 'safe area' and I bought myself a top before the Bare-chested Chef arrived to take us home.

The first priority was to adorn the safe space with the stickers, then we created a piece of artwork each with some more stickers, followed by a game of 'Minion Rush' on my Ipad. She wanted to watch me play the game and offered words of encouragement every time I failed to pass a level. "It's okay Bozzy Wozzy. Just keep practising and trying. You will get better. Don't give up!"

She was right. I must have played for at least an hour, at her insistence, and reached level 6 eventually.

We had a nice lunch and then played with a bunch of her stuffed Octonaut toys, a couple of crocodiles and a dinosaur or two, using our imaginations.

Next on the agenda was a water balloon fight! The Bare-chested Chef spent a good deal of time filling MANY MANY water balloons and putting them all into a washing basket ready for us to play.

I got a couple of pics before the camera needed protection, so I brought it inside and then ventured outside to face the music, or in this case, the water! It was a lot of fun and Chicklet giggled herself silly running up and down the grassed yard, chasing Mama and throwing her balloons, making them explode over us and then squealing with delight.

The fight probably only lasted about 30 minutes, if that, but it was hilarious and Chicklet declared "That was too much fun!!!" when it was all over.

We decided to have an early bath and put on our pyjamas before climbing onto my bed to watch a dvd. She hadn't seen 'Chicken Little' before and it had been a while since I had seen it, so we got comfy with a plate of snacks (pear, blueberries and sunflower seeds) and began to watch it.

Well! She went through the full gammit of emotions! Angry at the people for being mean to Chicken Little, then sad because his Dad didn't believe him and then scared because of the spidery aliens. She was jumping up and down, yelling at the people, hiding her face, calling out to Mama - I was fully doubting this choice of dvd and I kept assuring her that everyone would be happy in the end - much to her disbelief!

Finally, to my relief, it was over and I was preparing for a big debrief to make sure she wasn't going to have nightmares tonight, when she jumped up and yelled 'Can we watch it AGAIN!?'

Luckily, dinner was ready, so we had a break from the movie briefly .. but as soon as we'd finished eating, it was back to the bedroom to watch it again! We got halfway through it before Mama announced bed time.

No bed time stories from me tonight. Chicklet is sleeping in Mama's big bed so that she gets to say goodbye in the morning. Tonight is special cuddles and stories with Mama night.

It's already 10.30 pm and I think it's time for me to get some sleep in preparation for a big day tomorrow.

Nite all.