Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Summer has arrived!


Our first real week of warm weather has hit us.  Temp rose to 35C today and the same is forecasted for the next few days.  Ella avoided the crowds at the pools and cooled down in our backyard. She was experimenting with lying down in the water today and even managed a few goes on hre back including getting her ears wet. Good practice for swimming lessons which start up again next week.

Australia Day goes sliding by

A long weekend is always a good weekend. After contemplating what play thing would go best on our small sloping patchy back lawn, we came across a slide.  Actually it was discovered and road tested out at a recent 2 year old birthday party that Ella attended.  We purchased it on Saturday and Andy assembled it while the two girls were napping.

Makhaya, Luca and Nana were there for the unveiling on Saturday afternoon.  As you can see from the pictures below it was definitely a hit!

 

Luca didn't do too much sliding as she was more interested in eating sticks...not too sure if that's a reflection of Cathy and Richies cooking??



As for the rest of the long weekend, Andy ran a 20km mountain race as part of his training for the 6 foot track in March, I managed to finish painting the final window (without any incidences) and we enjoyed a relaxing but hot bbq at Rocky and Jase's house.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Our mothers group headed to John Knight Park last week for some playtime.  After exhausting ourselves on the play equipment we wandered down to the waters edge to feed the ducks. There weren't many interested ducks to start with but by the end there seemed to be hundreds including 2 very large and intimidating black swans who came a little too close for comfort.

 

Socks'n'sultanas

The new craze to hit Aston Cres is apparently to eat your sultanas with your socks on your hands. Nothing is too much of a challenge for Ella!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Pregnant woman dives headfirst off wheelie bin!

As most of you know, my wife likes to be industrious (see, for example, last sunday's entry). That is, she likes to get things done around the house. Surprisingly, this yearning for domestic over-achievement doesn't end with pregnancy -- if anything it goes into overdrive during pregnancy. Last time around this meant driving around finding things for the baby. Seemed fair enough at the time, if a bit over the top. This time, since we have most baby things, it's concentrated on house improvements.

Today was a fairly typical day. While I enjoyed my usual Sunday long run, Nat took Ella to the nursery to buy some plants. When they returned Nat painted two windows (two coats each) and while I took Ella around to see Nana, Nat cleaned the house (top to bottom). Of course, when Nat programs this much in a day, the assumption is that it will all go smoothly -- a silly assumption since it never ever does. Today, removing the sash window to paint it was more troublesome than usual, since the awning was in the way. So I was forced to interrupt my cricket-watching to help remove the awning. You see how tough my life is?

I also had to help replace the awning at the end of the day, and this is where things went pear-shaped. I got the awning in OK. But putting it in place wasn't enough, because it's spring loaded, so you have to wind up the spring and then jam it in. So I pull it out again to wind up the spring. Nat wanted to help, so she climbed up on the ladder next to me to hold the contraption in place while I was winding - but in the transfer the awning pulled out of it's socket at the other end. "Don't worry", cried Nat, "I'll just pull the wheelie bin to the other end and climb up on that." Good idea, I thought.

There were two wheelie bins to choose from. The large, wide, stable recycling bin, and the thin, narrow, unstable green bin. Nat choose the latter and dragged it into place, smoothly and swiftly launching herself on the top of it. At exactly the wrong moment the lid turns inside out, and Nat's input of momentum turned out to be a little too much - the bin toppled and so did Nat - head (or perhaps shoulder) first into the rockhard Canberra dirt.

Despite the obvious downsides, there were a few upsides to this story. First, we got to show Ella that she's not the only one who needs to apply ice to bruised hands and knees. Second, it provided a natural break, which made us realise that there must be an easier way to put up awnings, and once we did it properly it was a one-man one-minute job. And lastly, Nat didn't achieve all her new-plant planting, so we don't have to plan any new tasks for next weekend.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Industrious Sunday

Our house has begun the transformation to accomodate Ella's sibling (who is now -19 weeks old). This involved changing the spare room/study into Ella's room, placing the study where the dining room was and sticking the table in the room next to the kitchen.  So the double bed in the spare room was dismantled and stored in the garage roof.  The bookcase and filing cabinet were relocated into the new study area. The desk was taken down from the garage roof and reassembled.  And finally Andy constructed Ella's new bed which only got half done.

Then we stood back and checked it out. We really like the new study nook but unfortunately the new "dining room" is a little cramped.  Still, someone reminded us yesterday that our lounge room alone is bigger than the entire flat we had in Southampton, so we shouldn't complain...

Friday, January 9, 2009

Ella's Latest Tricks

As well as being educated (some may say bored) in cricket over the xmas break, Ella has developed some new interests as listed below:

1. Anything that involves water whether that be splashing in the paddling pool or playing with a bucket of the water in the sandpit.

 

2. 1,2,3 Go! A running race that involves running from one point to another eg Pippa's track in the back lawn



3. Playing with her doll.

 

4. Jigsaws.




5. Taking her pj's off while going to sleep!!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Picnic in the Gardens

On Sunday night we joined Al, Rob and Max for a picnic in the Botanical Gardens.  During January a series of concerts have been organised for Saturday and Sunday nights.  A local band called the Cashews were playing - who kinda reminded us of the Waifs.  It was a pleasant evening although having to run around after some little girl was slightly annoying especially once she discovered the stepping stones over the stream - needless to say she ended up wet! Max on the other hand didn't venture too far - what a good boy!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Unsupervised Play

My university (including Ella's childcare) has a habit of closing over the xmas break, while Nat's company are always desparate for people to work at this time. So, for the last week I've been playing the house-husband while Nat is off earning our crust. Needless to say, this is an opportunity not to be missed.

An opportunity, that is, to reshape Ella's personality somewhat. So, here's a few highlights of our week:

1. We missed the first half of the boxing day test, so had some making up to do. Needless to say, we spent a good two days watching the end of the test, although Ella needed a few sleep/play breaks. Still not a bad performance and I anticipate that by next year she'll be able to cope with a full uninterrupted day's play.

2. The sandpit played a very important part in our week. Particularly, when Ella is placed in the sandpit (see photo and note new deck which is finally completely complete) she can stay there for a significant amount of time, allowing me to get on and do something useful in the garden. We've worked on extending this time as the week has progressed.

3. Ella is also quite into having a "play" these days -- which means that I take her to the park so she can go on the slide and climb ladders. She's been gradually improving at this activity, and today we reached an important milestone -- I had a coffee at Riccardo's while Ella stormed off and played alone for a good 15 minutes while I had my coffee in peace. Of course, the playground is within view (I'm not that bad as a parent), but there was little chance I could reach the playground in time to perform a rescue mission if Ella decided to fall off a ladder. The main point about this is that I've always been scornful about the quality of Riccardo's coffee (even compared to their direct competitor, the franchise-laden Coffee Guru) but for some reason this particular coffee really hit the spot...

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Blue Lake Revisited

You may recall our aborted walk to Blue Lake a few months ago. Well, it wasn't really aborted, it was just that when we got up the top, the fog was too dense to see anything. Too stubborn to admit defeat, we decided to have another crack while we were at Guthega last week.

Once again, weather conditions weren't exactly perfect. Ella was rugged up in her blue fluffy overall suit, plus a parka and completely encapsulated by the baby backpack. She couldn't see much of the view, but at least she was warm. The climb to Blue Lake is pretty solid, especially with an extra load on the back and a strong wind in our face, but we perservered. No treacherous snowdrifts this time around, and a bit over an hour after setting out we finally caught sight of the elusive Blue Lake.

Needless to say, on a day like this the lake was more grey than blue (see photo), and Nat couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the colour of the lake. Nonetheless, the scenery was spectacular as always.

We were on a pretty tight schedule, as we wanted to make it back to the lodge before Ella's lunchtime sleep, so headed straight back down again. Ella found the pace a little pedestrian on the way down, and thought she could do a better job herself, so decided to walk for some of it. This got boring pretty quickly so we reverted to helping her jump off every little mound or rock. At the finish we decided that we deserved a coffee at the Charlotte's Pass hotel -- and soon after we got there the heavens opened with torrential rain for 15 minutes. We sat there in comfort feeling pretty smug that we'd got the walk done early, while the hordes of unprepared, shorts-wearing Kosciuszko tourists were still out there on the mountain somewhere...