It was something of a whim planned spontaneously the night before.

“Mama, look, I found my free ticket to the play centre!” Raven reported. She had been looking for it for a couple of weeks. It was a complimentary pass she received for celebrating her birthday there early this month. (Which reminds me, I still need to blog about that.) She found it inside one of her presents — a Frozen makeup box filled with palettes of pink blushers and blue eyeshadows, shiny lip gloss and glittery nail polish.

Stuff that sort of make me cringe internally when I watch her smear them on her face for fun. I make a mental note to myself to teach her how to apply makeup when she turns 16.

Or 32, like when I did.

“Ask Papa if he’s happy to take you there tomorrow,” I replied. A cop out. I wanted to finish reading my book, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. A novel I bought on impulse at Kmart when I couldn’t find the one I was looking for. I’m glad I did because the story is beautifully written and you learn new words along with their meaning in context of the women who employed their use back in the days when society didn’t exactly value them as much.

So, anyway, we drove her to Kids Space Play Centre yesterday. Because Jeff couldn’t say no to her polite request and I couldn’t get away from her loud one asking me to be there, too.

“I love Mama! I want Mama to be there!” she cried when Jeff told her I wasn’t coming.

And so I did my reading there on Comet table, one of those long ones reserved for birthday parties but the play centre was a bit quiet. There was only one party at the time.

Raven had her babyccino and cookie combo. I had my potato wedges. Jeff had his hotdog in a bun. Amongst the three of us, there were two water bottles, three cups of coffee, and a tetra pak of Nippy’s iced chocolate.

I’m starting to think the whole concept of complimentary passes is a scam. Parents end up paying more for food and beverage than the price of one entrance fee.

Needless to say, Raven had a lot of fun. She met a new friend through Jeff whom kids couldn’t help but gravitate to because he actively runs around, jumps on bouncy castles, goes down the slides, and somehow ends up with kids following him around and wanting to play with him, too.

I keep telling him he should be in the business of kids entertainment. He doesn’t even need to dress up as a clown. He’s got that covered already. Naturally.

But the highlight of the day, hands down, was Jeff and Raven winning a Bluey stuffie from the claw machine! Raven was so excited she got a prize and Jeff was so proud to have won it for her. That Bluey is so precious now. Raven slept with it last night.

“Mama, do you know what I’m sad about?” she asked me at bedtime.

“You don’t watch Bluey with me anymore,” she continued before I could ask what.

So at 8:00 this morning, we did just that. Nevermind that we were almost late to her class. I gave it my full attention. Today’s episode was Curry Quest. Raven even brought Bluey the stuffie to the lounge room and sat her on the couch so she can watch herself.

I want to rekindle our tradition of watching Bluey together. I can’t even come up with a decent excuse as to why it stopped and I don’t intend to. I apologized to her and promised to do better.

For something as simple as sitting next to each other and enjoying watching an episode together, I had no idea how much those 7 minutes meant to her.

And really now, what’s 7 minutes?

*Raven at 6 years old