In the dead of night…

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The world is about to change for Bo and I, in 12 hours we will be up in the air halfway between here and there… leaving our “now-home” and one step closer to our Indonesian “next-home.” It’s been a challenge getting our lives packed up and stored away whilst filling one 23kg bag with the needs of one small person and myself. Our belongings for the year ahead… It’s surprising really, how little we need to be happy.

Our minimalist packing includes:

A few good books that I know can be read in repeat (two for me, three for Bo), soft cotton clothing, two favourite toys, stretchy cotton blankets… and then all the little bits and pieces that make us whole again (camomile and peppermint tea bags, some of our favourite homeopathic remedies, organic baby products, and plenty of cloth for Bo’s bum)… and we are packed.

Bo is an intuitive little soul, as most children are. And I think she’s picking up on the change as she has become a clingy little girl this week. She’s not a crier (thank god) and spends more time gurgling and chatting to herself or to me (or the couch) than anything else these days.

During the day she needs me – not only to be close to me but to physically be attached to my body.  She needs to be in my arms, in a sling or nuzzled right up under my chin… which, as lovely as it is (and it is LOVELY), it has made it very hard to get the three million and one things that I needed to do this week, done.

So in the dead of night during her longest sleep of the day I crept around our little corner of my mothers house… packing. I sorted, culled and folded our belongings into neat little cardboard boxes. I dismantled her still-unused-free-to-good-home-second-hand cot, I took the sparkling elephants down from the window, I pulled down the camels from above her favourite spot and folded up our yellow quilt – and with a little sadness I packed them all away… for another day, another baby or for Bo, the toddler we will return home to. I find a little joy in the fact that I’ll get to see my-now-unimaginable toddler open up these boxes with me at the next year and discover these things for the second-first-time.

In the dead of night I find time to blog, to work, to pack, to finally eat and to shower – and somewhere in there to fully redesign these pages. At some point I crash, finding sleep in the cocoon of warmth next to my sleeping babe. Until of course she stirs and resumes her rightful place, firmly planted on my chest, deep in the cave of my neck – where the world is a wonderful place for our little Bo. I’m in good company, with Bo and a kindred spirit who somewhere north of where I am today is blogging about her very own “cuddle days” spent attached to her little monkey.

So here we go, a little weary starting our travels… but nevertheless my nomad life resumes and Bo’s begins for the very first time.

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