I remembered! Whoo hoo hoo! In previous blog attempts at setting a day of the week for a type of blog post, I’d sail right past the next week and face-palm two months later. But here I am with this week’s Thursday’s Three Thank-yous. Even if you’re not applauding the effort, I’m totally chuffed.

While I contemplated cheating again and splitting a thank-you into 3 parts, I ended up having quite the list. Here’s the three that have made the cut.

1) The non-movie afternoon

I’ve heard of mother’s groups that are total nightmares – and that’s bound to happen sometimes, when you lump a group of perfect strangers together whose only commonality is sudden parenthood and sleepless nights. And Before Arddun, the idea of getting together weekly with a group of women to talk Baby seemed slightly bizarre and, well, contrived. So I’m completely stoked about my mother’s group because we all get along swimmingly. No malice, no bitchiness, no competition. Just lots of support, laughs, and mutual bewilderment. Perfect.

Tuesday was long-awaited. It’s been months since I’ve watched a movie with Arddun in a cinema and while the home of her little friend, Leila, isn’t Hoyts, it’s probably even better. Huge projector screen, large cushy seats perfect for feeding or balancing a coffee on, and a humongous play area for the babies to entertain themselves between meals and sleeps. Plus, we were going to order in for once – so no bake-offs that won’t get eaten because we’re too busy yakking or feeding or putting our children to bed.

Well! We ended up not doing the movie because we had such a ball catching up. And then I stayed behind for a much-needed cup of tea while Arddun and Leila played. (By “play”, I mean that Leila would pick up a toy and Arddun would help herself to it and then crawl away, thankyouverymuch. Am now teaching Arddun the concept of not coveting thy neighbour’s Lamaze toy.)

I wasn’t kidding when I said that the best way to break the ice in Canberra is to become a mother. I am loving all these new friendships. Mother’s group meetings are much anticipated in this household, I tell you what.

2) Skype

After a comedy of errors, both my mum and I finally got Skype and running with BOTH web cameras and microphones and speakers (sorta) working. And so what did we do? Have breakfast/lunch together. Because Singapore is behind by 3 hours, mum’s having breakfast right when I’m having an early lunch. And then Arddun woke up to join us. Truly enjoyable, and it almost felt like we were sitting around the same dining table exchanging news. Now to get the in-laws’ Skype set up…

3) Feedback

I don’t usually get comments or feedback on my blog posts. I know there are readers out there, judging from the site traffic. But most of my readers seem to be lurkers. Whether they agree, disagree, laugh, cry, or want to hurl a shoe in my general direction is quite a mystery to me. Suffice to say, as much as the typing and posting is cathartic, sometimes it gets a little lonely. Like, Hello? Is anyone really out there? Or is it just spam bots, running around chocking up traffic points.

And then this week, I got comments and emails telling me how much people enjoy reading what I write. Some private, most left on Facebook, but still feedback. And it made my heart smile. (Daaawww!) The encouragement to GO AND WRITE A BOOK AND GET PUBLISHED! seems to be the common hymnal in some of the comments, and maybe one day I’ll find the guts and stamina to go sit down and write “for real”, but meanwhile there’s this blog. And if I’ve made you smile or think and you’ve taken the time to tell me… thank you. It’s heartening to know I’ve made a connection.