Friday, November 27, 2009

Our Holiday Aim

It's always good to have something to do while on holidays and as we are in Playground Paradise, commonly known as Perth, Ella and I decided today that our aim is to visit a different playground everyday. So far we have been here for 10 days and have played at 8 playgrounds! The list includes: Morris Buzzacott, Kings Park (x2), Fremantle Town Hall, Tomato Lake, South Beach, Heathcote and today's park as seen below is Lilla Park in Mosman Park.




Saturday, November 21, 2009

Playground Paradise

There is no doubt having children changes your life. Leaving the house without forgetting something (nappies, wipes, change of clothes, snacks, hats....) is an achievement. Also the focus of our activities are different too. We now look for child friendly venues and activities.

Today it was a trip to the zoo incorporating the mandatory Andy coffee stop. Our party included Aoife, Cath, Carolyn (Aoife's Nanna), Ashley, Nathan, Annwen, Jan (Ashley and Nathan's Nanna), Andy, Ella, Katy and I. A real gang which at times was challenging to keep everyone together AND happy but we managed quite well. Highlight of the zoo trip according to Ella was the zebras, giraffees and penguins. I personally liked the Galapagos tortoises - they were massive!

This afternoon we left Katy asleep with the grandparents and headed off down to the river. Andy wanted to go for a run while Ella and I found another fantastic playground - this one was in the shape of a ship. We have renamed Perth to 'playground paradise'! Of course after breaking into a sweat from all that playing (and running for Andy), it was off down the slope for a dip in the Swan River. With all that action, hopefully it will mean Ella will sleep past 5.30am tomorrow morning.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Perth

Arrived a few days ago...pretty bad start leaving Canberra as the qantas computer network was down which transpired into a 45min wait to drop the bags off (they had to go manual) followed by a late departure.

Needless to say Ella was quite excited by going on a big plane. She didn't manage to get to sleep until well after 10pm while Katy drifted off just before 9pm. On arrival at Perth Ella woke up and was chatting away to Grandpa. Her conversation included how she had gone on a big colourful plane that flew like a butterfly - not sure where the second part of this sentence came from but it was very cute!

At Nanna and Grandpa's it took another few hours for Ella to get back to sleep and then she seemed to wake up early too! So she has been struggling to adapt to Perth time - been up very early 5am each morning despite being very tired. It's now 10am and she has crashed so perhaps this may help to get her into the right zone.

What have been doing so far? Well the first day we spent changing sleeping arrangements after the first nights experience. Ella is in our room on a mattress while Katy has her own room. We also had a car seat drama which was fixed by the lovely people at Kidsafe and we bought Rachel and Craig's Phil and Ted's pram from them. Andy dropped into UWA for the arvo just to touch base with Greg.

It was raining most of Wednesday and with everyone at work, the girls and I entertained ourselves at home for most of the day. Our only outing was a trip to the shops to buy dinner stuff.

Yesterday we visited Great Nan. Ella was fascinated by the 2 chickens and kept feeding them aniseed leaves. Great Nan gave us a dozen eggs and some silverbeet to take home.


Then in the arvo we met up with Aoife, Cath and Carolyn at Kings Park. Cath dragged me along for a run while the girls played together (??) on the fantastic massive Sticky Beaks playground and Katy discovered grass! Ended up at Cath's for dinner.





Tuesday, November 10, 2009

First Dip

With the weather finally warming up, we thought it was time to dust the cobwebs off the paddling pool. After Katy got over her initial cold water shock she seemed to enjoy herself.


What do you want Ella?

Bedtime for the past month has become a real battle. On completing our normalish routine dinner, bath, occasionally milk, books and bed Ella has decided to hop out of bed. When Ella first began to sleep in a big bed at the beginning of the year - this behaviour was easy to control. Our system back then was 3 strikes and you're out. This translated into if Ella got out of her bed three times the door to the bedroom was closed.

Now fast forward to the present and this system no longer works because Ella is tall enough and clever enough to open the door. So we resorted to staying in the room, having no communication and as soon as her feet hit the floor to put her back in bed. Some nights this process only takes 10 mins and other nights it takes over an hour!

Last night was one of those long nights. Unfortunately I was flying solo while Andy attended a meeting and Katy complicated the evening by waking up during the battle! Anyhow I did manage to have Katy back asleep and thought Ella had finally crashed so out to the lounge room I snuck. About 5 mins later I hear a little patter of feet coming down the hallway. With my anger rising I calmly asked "What do you want Ella?" She quietly replied "I want mummy."
My anger quickly disappeared and my heart swelled with love. I picked her up, gave her a great big cuddle and kiss, took her back to bed where she fell asleep with no further problems:)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Fun and Games

Ella, Katy and I had a fun afternoon yesterday at home and without a sleep - who would of guessed??

Started off with Katy 'sitting' on the couch next to me playing with the beady thing. Then Ella saw and joined in the fun too. Nice to see them beginning to play together.


The CD player was next on the list. Ella listened and read Hairy Maclary and Percival the Caterpillar then changed the CD's to music nursery rhymes.

Then while Katy was playing under her gym pulling a scarf down, Ella was getting nude!!


Ella pulled out the train box so together we built and played trains.


Then when our attention span was wavering and the tiredness of not having a sleep was looming we decided to play hide and seek inside. It was quite hilarious actually. We took it in turns to count to 10 then go searching. When it was Ella's turn to hide invariably she was either hiding under our doona or her doona giggling and calling out 'I'm in here mummy!' Of course Katy and I played along 'searching' all the other rooms before finding her.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Cousins


Mia, Makhaya, Luca, Joshua, Ella and Katy