Sunday, March 29, 2009

Catching the Bus

The latest fad in our house is catching the bus. Ella & I used to catch the bus a lot last winter, but lately we've been concentrating on riding our bike to work together. But last Monday the bike was still at work from last Friday; the bus was the only option. Ella found this quite exciting -- she even got to press the button -- and wasn't afraid to tell people. "Ella catch bus" she would say proudly to anyone who was listening.

By Thursday afternoon the bus memory was still strong in her mind, and when I asked how we would go to work on Friday she told me: "Ella catch bus". I could hardly deny her. The novelty hasn't yet worn off, and she apparently walked around childcare all day, informing her friends of the finer points of catching the bus. (She now claims to also be able to stop the bus.)

The down side of catching the bus is that I have to walk across campus with Ella. She won't let me carry her, but she can't walk the whole way. This is worse than the bike in every way -- it takes longer, requires more mental energy and is actually harder work. I hope the fad ends soon ...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

1 night forward, 2 nights back

Yep that's we're we are at in the Ella changing rooms and in a big bed process.  We thought over the weekend we had cracked the night sleeping as she managed for both saturday and sunday nights to sleep through.  Unfortunately this didn't continue and for the previous 2 nights one of us has been up between the hours of 3 and 6am trying to convince her it's not time to play!  Last night involved quite a bit of door closing and crying. Hopefully this means she learnt her lesson??

And as for day sleeps well that's a whole new saga - no where near being cracked!

Bronze Anniversary

Andy and I celebrated our bronze wedding anniversary yesterday which means we've been married for 8 years! Combine that with the 7 years it took to get hitched and we've been together nearly as long as we've been apart....Spent the evening dining at Mezzalira, an italian restaurant in the city. Nice food and an enjoyable child free evening.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Big Week

And we're shattered - Andy and I that is. I suppose we have mostly ourselves to blame.  As Geri is due to arrive in about 9 weeks time and we managed to visit Ikea on our visit to Katoomba last weekend thus purchasing the final furniture for Ella's room it meant that Ella not only changed rooms but progressed to sleeping in a big bed!  

Now Ella has been a fantastic sleeper (gauging from other parents stories). She pretty much slept through the night from 10 weeks. Not sure if this week she is trying to prepare us for the upcoming intrusion of our sleep (with Geri's arrival) or just exerting her new found freedom.

The week so far:

Monday
Tucked Ella in at 7.30ish.  Waited for the little patter of feet coming down the hallway - never eventuated. All we could hear was Ella saying to herself 'Ella big bed.' Waited for the thump of Ella falling out of the bed during the middle of the night - never eventuated. Waited for the early morning wake up which wasn't that early at 7am.  

PERFECT and here we were thinking this was suppose to be hard!

Tuesday
Last night went to plan so thought we'd just do the same. Tuck Ella into bed at 7.45ish.  Not very much longer she walks down the hallway.  Repeat this process a few more times until we realise she was pretty much jumping straight up and following us out. Change of tatics - close the bedroom door - which results in lots of tears. After a few minutes return to calm her down and sat in the room until she drifted off to sleep.  This whole process took 1.5 hours. 

Wednesday
First day time sleep - takes her 1.5 hours before sleep comes and I end up falling asleep with her. 

Change of tactis for bedtime. Tuck her in bed at 8pm, close the door but Andy stays in her room.  Takes about 1 hour for her to drift off.

9.30pm she sleepily wanders out into the lounge room. Andy takes her back into bed and resettles - 10 mins.

1.30am woke to hear Ella chatting to herself.  About 30 mins later she hopes out of bed, gets lost in her bedroom and starts crying. Go in, change of nappy, resettle and she is asleep 1 hour or so later.

Thursday
Day time sleep takes about 40mins and I manage not to fall asleep this time!

Same again as previous night. Tuck her in at 7.30ish stay with her for about 40mins before going to sleep.

2am Ella walks into our room.  This time she is really awake and doesn't manage to get back to sleep until just after 4am!

Friday
Off to bed at 7.45ish. Takes about 50 mins for her to drift off.

Wanders into our room at 5am wide awake.  Andy takes her back and she's asleep again by 6.30am.

Saturday
Another change of tatcis for daytime sleep. Andy was in the room with her but she wanted to play with him so he's come out and closed the door.  A little bit of crying has occurred.  It's coming up to 45 mins and there is only the occasional noise -mainly the light switch going on and off!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Katoomba

We've just taken a(nother) long weekend -- this time to go to Katoomba so that I could run the six foot track marathon from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves. The race itself was lots of fun -- but there's a full account of it on my trog which you can read here if you're interested. But the weekend was also designed to spend some time out of Canberra (probably for the last time before Nat pops) and relax with Rob, Al and Max; as well as Susie, Patrick, Josh & Mia.

The first thing we discovered upon our arrival was that we scored with our accommodation. It was a relatively old cottage, but the view from the back deck (see photo) was pretty special. It was perched right on the edge of the scarp, a few hundred metres from the three sisters and looking out to Mt Solitary and Narrow Neck. Looked even better in the morning with fog lying along all the valleys.

While we were enjoying the view out one side, we didn't really notice what was happening on the front door step until we decided to go down to town for a coffee. I was just walking out the front door with Ella, when I saw a gigantic snake loitering on the door step. I slammed the door in his face, and we snuck around to the window to watch this snake, as he tried to get through the window, and then curled up next to the woodbox. Ella was so excited -- she ran around saying "Big Nake" and trying to touch it through the glass. I was scared witless, and despite the glass between Ella and the snake, still wasn't comfortable with her trying to play with this creature. Nat rang the owners of the house to ask if this was normal (it wasn't) by which stage the big nake had started to move off. After discovering it was probably a python (non-venomous) Nat plucked up a bit of bravado and trailed along after it (Ella in her arms) to get some good photos. I stayed inside until it was gone...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Parent Lesson #41

Don't give your keys to your 22 month old toddler to play with while you unpack the car (and then forget she has them) as when you require them again it will involve spending a large proportion of time trying to locate them! By the way, they were in the 3rd drawer of the kitchen along with the rolling pin, salad servers, tongs....

Monday, March 9, 2009

Ella Goes Bush


Today was the first day of the proper orienteering season in Canberra, so the whole family trekked down to the other end of town to have a run. Ella hasn't been orienteering for some time now -- last time she was shorter than the control stand -- now she can actually see where she's putting her dibber. The highlight of the day remains hearing the control unit beep, again and again, as she puts her stick in.

The event was at Mt Taylor, and Nat & Ella did the short blue course together (where the walk to the start was almost as long as the course itself). As you can see, Ella can at least do part of the course on her own two feet, but Mum had to resort to the backpack on several occasions.

Meanwhile, I went up & over the hill a few times on the long course. Took me a lot longer than expected, which meant we had to jump straight in the car afterwards to make it home in time for some visitors. In all this haste, I left my compass on the roof of the car. It slid off on the first corner and I ran back, just in time to see it get crushed to smithereens by the next car ....

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Pooh-Bear Corner

Many of our friends will know that Nat & I have a habit of taking self-timer photos at strategic times/locations during our life. This was a trend which started on one of our early trips together -- down to the coast from Canberra almost exactly 14 years ago. (Yes, no typo, that really was 14 years!) The photo in question was taken at Pooh-Bear Corner, a particular hairpin bend part-way down the Clyde where a small cave by the roadside has been adorned with a couple of reflectors and a few sacred offering to Pooh-Bear for as long as I can remember. Of course, this was the pre-digital age, so I have scanned in the photo to reproduce on this blog. Note the youthful complexion(s), unusual choice of trousers and impractical haircuts.
So, the reason I'm bothering to tell you all about this is to chronicle the latest addition to our self-timer collection made last thursday on the way down to the coast. I guess a few things have changed, not in the least the number of Pooh-Bear replicas now inhabiting the cave, the gradual expansion of our clan, and the advent of digital photography, which allows us to check one's hair is not in one's eyes ...

Monday, March 2, 2009

I LOVE swimming

Mossy Point, a small coastal town just south of Bateman's Bay, was our destination for a perfect family long weekend.  There is the beach with decent waves (great for dad) as well as a little tidal river (fantastic for daughter). More importantly for the coffee connoisseur (Andy), the Muffin shop a 5 min walk sells great coffee. Unfortunately he was only able to sample one coffee (without a muffin as they had sold out) on the thursday afternoon.  On Friday morning we ventured to our muffin shop to discover it was closed due to an unexpected family death and wouldn't open until Monday (after we got home) - I swear Andy nearly cried!

Anyhow he was in brighter mood by that evening when we were joined by Abby, Zoe, Belinda and Jase.



As we discovered Ella LOVES swimming regardless of how cold she gets or what the weather's like! She also enjoyed running along the beach and at one stage nearly out ran Jase who was in the middle of a run!