1 bottle, 1000 memories

I'm the kinda person who goes on a holiday and snatches random souvenirs. I've got signs from a restroom in Phillip Island, a sinker from a pier at Ocean Grove and bits of grass from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Stadium. I've got bits of random crap everywhere. The only reason I do this, is because I'm a tightass who refuses to pay for a tacky teaspoon. There's a hundred memories stored away in my crappy collection of random. Worthless to anyone else but priceless to me.

Earlier today, Max found this at the bottom of a toybox




This was one of Max's bottles from RCH. I was bored one day, so I snuck into the kitchen and filled it up with rice bubbles to make him a rattle*. He was barely 4 months old at the time and had zero interest in it. So, the rice bubble, bottle rattle came home amongst a mass of better toys and stayed hidden down the bottom, until today.

Every day at 3pm, the RCH kitchen delivered the bottles. It was always 6 bottles, with 240mls. They weren't allowed to be heated in the microwave, it was strictly boiling water only. The boiling water wasn't allowed out of the kitchen and Max wasn't allowed inside the kitchen. That part, drove me nuts. When Max decided he was hungry, it'd be a frantic dash to the kitchen. It broke me every time to leave him crying in the room.

Max had his first drink from one of these bottles, the day after leaving PICU. The fear which was immediately followed by relief, so great it still chokes me up today.

Today, Max still had zero interest in the rice bubble, bottle rattle but seeing it made me smile. There's 1000 memories inside this 1 bottle. Some of them are sad, some of them are happy and a few of them are angry. Every single memory reminds me of how far we've come......




.....and we've only just begun.



*I can afford a real rattle but I thought this was more interesting


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone