She's had a very big year of adjustments. At Ellie's birth we were whisked away and she had to stay home for 10 days without us - the longest time we've ever been apart by far. Then the stupid reflux meant I was constantly trying to console a screaming Ellie, at the expense of Sophie's cuddles. I'm sure she would have happily traded her new sister in back then, but she still always adored her.
Next of course came Ellie's first surgery. Yet again, Sophie took a back seat while everyone focused their attentions on Ellie. I know of other older siblings who have regressed in small ways after the surgeries but Sophie just takes it all in her stride. I think the secret is in Aunty Bec. She is so happy to be with my family that it makes up for missing mum and dad!
For the next few years Sophie's life will be speckled with moments where her sister needs to come first. She will be pulled out of school for plastics reviews and surgeries in Hobart, she will miss play dates and parties. She will see her sister in pain. And there's not much we can do about it. Of course we will try and minimise the disruptions, but I want us separated as little as possible during this, and that means she will have to miss out sometimes.
So in July when I saw that a Peppa Pig Live show was coming to melbourne, I decided to give Sophie a little treat. And luckily, fate or karma or something was on our side, and everything came together brilliantly. I managed to get tickets to the show that was selling out faster than they could add dates, and we were doing ok financially so we could afford the airfares to melbourne. Much to my horror, a few weeks later they announced a show in Hobart... I'd just spent almost $600 on airfares to melbourne! But it turned out that we will be in Townsville visiting Drew's family then, so melbourne was the right choice after all.
All of this happened back in July, and it was a long wait until November finally rolled around. I confess I was much more excited than she was for most of that time! Sophie didn't really warm up to the idea until the day before we left. The night before our big adventure we stayed at Bec's so that she could take us to the airport for our 6.30am flight. Drew stayed home with Ellie - their first night solo.
I woke Sophie up at 5am. It was going to be a very VERY long day, but she was plenty excited. We quickly got dressed and organised our stuff, and then Bec drove us out to the airport. Once we were checked in to our flight we grabbed some breakfast from the cafe, and before long it was time to board the plane!
I was worried that she might have been scared when the plane took off, but she actually seemed a little bit bored! It was too cloudy for her to see much out the window, so she just sat there and talked my ear off about all the fun things we would do. Once we were in the air the hostess gave her a colouring in book and a muffin, and Soph was quite happy to spend the hour-long flight entertaining herself without too much hassle.
Landing was just as boring, and we were soon off the plane and out of the airport. We were travelling light, just a backpack and a stroller so we didn't have to lug a lot of stuff out of the baggage area. Once I collected the stroller we moved outside to find a bus to take us to the city. Soph was pretty excited about all the different transport she was going on!
Our first activity for the day was the aquarium, but we had to wait half an hour for it to open, so we entertained ourselves by chasing pigeons on the riverbank for a bit.
When the aquarium opened we brought our tickets and begun our adventure. I was really surprised by how much Soph enjoyed it. She spent ages walking slowly through all the displays, talking to the fish and pointing them all out to me. Her favourite by far though was the penguins. She sat on the floor in front of their window for 20 minutes, talking and waving to them. She even asked if she could take one home for daddy.
The only part she didn't enjoy was the crocodile room. It's dimly lit, with scary music playing, and as soon as she walked in she said "ohhhhhh. This is a scary room. Let's get outa here!" Of course, I kept getting us lost and leading us back in there, and she said the same thing every time!
Once she finished looking at everything we stopped in the cafe for some morning tea. Then it was time to go and feed the fishies. Let me say, at a cost of only $5, I totally recommend this experience. Sophie loved it. A sweet lady gave her a tub of fish food, and she stood on the edge of the oceanarium tank, throwing the food in piece by piece. The huge fish swam to the surface straight away, and some even jumped up out of the water. I just wish we'd been allowed to take photos to capture the look of pure joy on her face!
Next up on our big adventure was what we were there for in the first place - Peppa Pig! By some stroke of luck, the venue was just around the corner from the aquarium, so we were able to walk there without any hassles. It was very obvious we were heading in the right direction, when the foot traffic changed from hip young city people, to toddlers wearing Peppa Pig shirts! We parked our stroller in the valet pram parking, and soph insisted that she needed a "coloured spin" like all the ther kids had. I was a tiny bit disgusted to pay $20 for a toy that would most likely break before we left melbourne, but this trip was all about spoiling soph so I got it for her anyway. What was more disgusting was paying $9 for two bottles of water! Daylight robbery!
Inside the theatre we had a little trouble getting the seat to stay folded down for poor tiny Sophie, but I managed to set her up with our bag behind her and she could sit semi-safely. She is so little - the size of a two year old - and she looked so cute sitting there waiting to see her idol.
As the lights dimmed and the curtains rose, her little face lit up and she was enthrilled. She yelled out when she was told to, and she got up and danced and jumped in muddy puddles with peppa. The show wasn't too bad from a parents perspective either. My only qualm was that their voices weren't quite a match to the real characters!
At the interval I knew soph was getting sleepy (she'd been awake since 5am after all) so I took her out for a bit of a walk. It was a good plan in theory, but when the show started again they turned the lights out and started playing very slow, quiet music, and she was out like a light within seconds! So, even though we'd come so far and spent so much money... She slept through the last 15 minutes. I didn't mind though. She was obviously exhausted and we were only half way through our day.
When the show finished and I woke her up, we headed back to the train station. The next part of our adventure was the part I was looking forward to. I had organised to meet a lovely cleft mum at the zoo. Hayley has been my rock during the Ellie journey, and I couldn't wait to see her in the flesh! What I wasn't looking forward to was navigating the scary train system to get to the zoo!
At the station we walked up and down the platform for what felt like forever trying to find the right line. My heart was pounding, I was so close to having a panic attack! My biggest worry was that we would get out there and not make it back in time to catch our flight. Finally I found where we were supposed to be, and just in time because the train arrived almost straight after. Soph sat down an looked out the window, asking me a million questions a minute about where we were going and what we would see.
When the train stopped at the zoo station we hopped off and I felt myself start to calm down. I knew that we had to leave by 4pm to give us enough time to get back to the airport, and I wanted to relax and enjoy our afternoon meeting new friends. In the end I relaxed so much I forgot to take a single photo, completely not like me at all!
We found Hayley and her beautiful children at the lions, and started walking around. Sophie and Hayley's little girl were having a ball playing and chatting, and we weren't seeing anything at all, just enjoying each other's company. It was lovely. I wish I could waste every afternoon like that! Hayley's husband arrived shortly after and we all sat under a gazebo and talked about nothing much until it was time for me and Soph to go back to the train station. It was a great break from a busy day and I'm really glad I got the chance to meet them in person!
On the train on the way back to the city we sat in an almost empty carriage. There was only one other person, a man sitting across from us. Above his head someone had graffitied the wall, and soph wanted to know who did it. I told her it was someone naughty and her reply? "No, I think it was that man there." The poor man looked up, grinned and said "oh no, it wasn't me I promise!" I was so embarrassed!
The train dropped us back of at Southern Cross Station, right where we needed to catch the Sky Bus back to the airport. We found the bus terminal and boarded the bus, where Sophie found a new friend in an older lady sitting behind us. She chatted away with her, playing 'this little piggy' and looking at all the cars passing by. Normally I don't like strangers spending too much time talking to the girls because it's a little creepy, but this lady was lovely.
After we checked in at the airport we found some dinner in the food court. I had forgotten to have lunch and soph had only had a fruit salad so we were both pretty hungry. We pigged out on hungry jacks and looked out the windows at the giant planes coming and going. They make the tiny dash-8's that fly out of devonport look like toys!
I was surprised by how much energy Soph still had by the time we boarded our plane home. I was expecting her to be a grizzling mess by that stage but she was still bright and happy. She pulled yet another embarrassing stunt as the air hostess was going through the safety instructions... Just as the lady stood at the front to start talking soph yelled out "I want my colouring in book now!" And the poor hostess was laughing so much she could barely remember what she was supposed to be saying.
We spent the return flight eating our in-flight snack boxes, colouring in, and trying to see things bellow through the window. It was another in eventful, simple flight. I guess Sophie just finds flying as boring as I do! Drew picked us up at the airport and we went home... Where miss Sophie quickly fell asleep and no doubt dreamed about her big city adventure!
I was so glad that I got to spend a whole day with just soph, making her the centre of attention for a little bit and showing her that life can still be fun, even when you have a sister with additional needs. I hope she can remember at least some of it as she grows up.
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