Holiday at Ocean Grove

Remember a while back I said I wanted a holiday? Well I still do. Despite the fact that we did end up having one... sort of.

On July 5th, we took off to Ocean Grove for a week in a rented beach house. (I started writing this post the week after we got back, but it has taken a few 'sittings' to get it finished!)

The Plan...

Day 1: Pack the car the night before, leave home at 9.30 am and be at Werribee Zoo by 10.00 am. Leave the zoo by 2.00 pm and arrive at holiday house in Ocean Grove by 4.00 pm, with plenty of time to settle in before it got too late in the evening.

Days 2 - 7: Relax at the beach house, complete with extensive play equipment in the yard, toys, books and puzzles inside, so kids will require minimum adult-led entertainment. Mostly eat out, but use the fully-equiped kitchen for the occasional meal in. Play on the beach a bit, ride on the steam train at Queenscliffe, play mini-golf. Read lots of books. Gran and GrandPaul to join us for a few days so we can relax and do nothing much while they entertain the kids.

Day 8: Drive home after lunch, leaving early enough to avoid the worst of the traffic on the Ring Road. Arrive home with enough time to get some laundry done and to get organised for the rest of the week.

The Reality...

Day 1 (5 July): Leave home at 10.30 am. Stop off at Gran and GrandPaul's house (for the voucher to get into Werribee Zoo for half price which we had forgotten to take with us the previous day). Miss the freeway turn off to Werribee Zoo, detour through Werribee, arrive at the Zoo about 11.30 am.

Book onto the 12.30 pm safari tour then find that it is cancelled because the bus broke down. Wait for the 1.00 pm safari tour. Kill time by taking BallFiend on a walk to see some emus and brolgas while DeepSpice hangs out at the safari tour bus stop with Thumper. Get a call on my mobile from DeepSpice saying "get back here now! The bus is leaving in 1 minute". Pick up BallFiend and run flat out for about 90 seconds with him in my arms back to the bus stop. Enjoy the safari tour - highlights include a zebra pissing, a different zebra pissing and shitting,

an arthritic giraffe called Tony (RIP - he died about a week later), an ostrich frotteurising with our bus and a rhino pissing, and pissing, and pissing, and pissing... and pissing, and pissing... and pissing. Big animal, big bladder. Wander about the rest of the zoo - checking out the lions (well, lion - but it was really close up!), monkeys, wild dogs, cheetahs and hippos. Leave at about 3.00 pm.

Drive on to Ocean Grove. Muck up the navigation (stupid out of date Melways) and drive through Geelong instead of going on the brand new Geelong by-pass. Hit roadworks and get forced to take a detour halfway to Torquay before finally getting back on track towards Ocean Grove. Arrive at the beach house at about 6.00 pm. It's freezing - get the heaters on then make beds, prepare dinner (pasta bolognese, of course!) in the 'fully-equiped' kitchen that isn't, get over-tired hyperactive children ready for bed and finally sit down for a glass of wine before collapsing into bed ourselves.

Day 2 (6 July): Spend some time in the morning playing outside with BallFiend - trying out the enormous trampoline and playing croquet (borrowed from our local toy library) in the back yard of our beach house. Then out for brunch at The Dunes Cafe. BallFiend has a massive tantrum.

Short play at the beach. Wander around in the main shopping strip of Ocean Grove. Stock up at the supermarket and get some treats at the bakery. Home for dinner - another challenging night of cooking in a not-fully equiped kitchen - and an early night.

Day 3 (7 July): Gran and GrandPaul arrive at about 10 am. We go to a Maze and Mini Golf tourist attraction. Do the maze first, and stupidly take Thumper in the pram, so lots of carrying the pram up and down the stairs as we get more and more lost in the maze. Finally get back to the cafe for lunch and find out that all that is left is one sausage roll, one pie and a plate of scones, which we share between 4 adults and 2 kids. Play mini golf, much to BallFiend's delight. GrandPaul gets frustrated when BallFiend doesn't play by the rules, walks in the way of others trying to have their shot and generally behaves like a 3.8 year old. DeepSpice is too good at mini golf so we force him to play with a handicap - specifically, Thumper strapped onto his front in the Ergo baby carrier. She sleeps through most of the game.

Dinner at Ocean Grove hotel. We are the only people there when we arrive at 5.30 pm. When we leave at 7.00 pm, there are 2 other groups dining and a few at the bar. Guess we didn't need to book.

Day 4 (8 July): Queenscliffe. Steam train.

Lunch out with Gran, GrandPaul, Thumper and DeepSpice at The Apostle. Dinner out (just me and DeepSpice) at At The Heads while grandparents baby-sit. Thumper waits till we drive out the driveway, then screams non-stop until about 9.00 pm when she finally conks out. BallFiend sleeps on the couch while he waits for Thumper to settle in their shared room. Lucky for us, all was quiet when we got home but Gran and GrandPaul tell us that they spent most of the evening standing in the kitchen, drinking wine with a dim light on, so as not to disturb BallFiend who was attempting to sleep on the couch whilst Thumper settles in the bedroom! PS. our dinner at At The Heads was awful - badly cooked food and a noisy atmosphere with average service, despite charging $30+ for a main.

Day 5 (9 July): Gran and GrandPaul return to Melbourne. We go back for more Mini Golf at the competing tourist attraction across the road. This one is much, much better. We play the first 18 holes then go back for the second course - 36 holes in one afternoon! BallFiend starts to lose it at the end - gets tired and has a massive tantrum for the last 13 holes. Dinner at The Bark Hut restaurant - gastronomic highlight of the week! Highly recommended. Brilliant service - really welcoming of children, lovely food and cosy atmosphere, plus a short walk from our accommodation.

Day 6 (10 July): Drive to Torquay for the morning. Hot chocolates for morning tea. It's raining. Head to the beach. Rain has stopped for now. Get everyone out of the car, Thumper strapped onto DeepSpice in the Ergo again. Walk down to beach. BallFiend announces that he needs to do a poo. Get everyone back into the car and look for a toilet... and find one after driving only 100 m or so. DeepSpice takes BallFiend to toilet. BallFiend no longer needs to do a poo. Decide to walk to beach from where we have parked the car. Halfway there, BallFiend decides he does need to poo. Walk back to the toilets. BallFiend no longer needs to do a poo. Give up on trying to get to the beach. Set up a picnic beside the river, under ominous grey clouds and hope that the rain holds off. It does until we finish eating.

Return to car and drive back towards the holiday house (with BallFiend complaining bitterly about not having gone to the beach). Stop off at a different beach access, closer to Barwon Heads. Open the back of the car to get out coats and hats. A wind gust reaches into the car and snatches BallFiend's beach ball (that cost $2.00 from Coles). We watch the beach ball disappear over the cliff and presumably out to sea. BallFiend dissolves into tears. We start our descent down the cliff-side stairs to the beach. DeepSpice goes on ahead and, amazingly, retrieves the beach ball. We spend about half an hour pottering around looking in rock pools, while BallFiend moans about not wanting to go to the beach and wanting to go home.

Finally we decide to go home. BallFiend commences moaning about not wanting to go home and wanting to stay at the beach. Sigh.

Go out for dinner at Bolzano Cucina, an Italian restaurant in Ocean Grove's main drag. BallFiend takes an interest in the specials board, a blackboard hanging on the wall, and in the process of trying to look behind it, knocks it off the wall and nearly knocks himself out. Dinner finished by 7.00 pm, back home and kids in bed by 8.00 pm.

Day 7 (11 July): DeepSpice takes BallFiend to the Ocean Grove beach. Make a sand-mermaid.

Thumper and I meet them at about midday for lunch at the Dune Cafe. Return to the beach after lunch. Obviously suffering from sun-stroke (I know it is Winter, but he is a red-head), DeepSpice accompanies BallFiend into the water for a paddle!

Thumper and I play in the sand. She enjoys knocking over sand castles, tipping sand off the spade but most just eating the sand.

Go home late afternoon, make dinner, get kids into bed, then start packing ready for our departure tomorrow.

Day 8 (12 July): Spend all morning cleaning, washing sheets (and madly trying to get them dry in a dryer that wasn't cooperating), packing the car and simultaneously entertaining the kids. Depart about 11.30 am. Buy pies for lunch at the bakery which says "the best pies in the world" or something similar on the shop window. Take pies, and children, to a near by playground.

Eat pies. Discover they are not even close to the best in the world. Pack everyone back into the car and drive home. Unpack car, unpack bags, start on the laundry, preparing dinner, etc. etc. etc. Realise I feel more tired than when we left and that if it wasn't for the photos and the credit card debt, I wouldn't believe we'd even been on holidays.

I still want a holiday, but the holiday I want is a holiday from the responsibilities for caring for children, something I'm not going to get for quite a few years yet. Sigh.

--

My little metrosexual

BallFiend: "Mum! Come and look! They're wearing out!"

He sounds worried so I rush into the bathroom where BallFiend is looking in the mirror.

BF: "See they're wearing out."

Me: "What is wearing out?"

BF: "When I was in your tummy a long time ago there was lipstick in your tummy and it got on my lips and now it is wearing out, see?" (pointing to his lips)

--

Is it bleeding?

The clumsy fairy has been visiting my place and we have the bruises and cuts to prove it.

First some background... there is a string of jingly bells hanging in the hallway, which Thumper loves to gently touch each time we walk by. She's always a bit nervous at first so I usually jingle a bell or two, then she holds her hand up near, but not actually touching, the bells. Then I hold her hand and help to give the bells a little shake. At this point she grins from ear to ear and then finally has a go herself.

Yesterday BallFiend watched as Thumper did her bell-thing, then of course he wanted a turn. One of his favourite games at the moment is pretending to be 'this baby', where he demands attention by acting like a baby and saying things like 'this baby wants a cuddle', 'this baby wants some milk', 'this baby wants some food' or 'this baby wants to play a game'. So after Thumper had jingled the bells, BallFiend said "this baby wants a turn".

So I lifted (hauled!) him up so he could reach the bells. But whilst Thumper moves the bells with a gentle little wave of her pudgy hand, BallFiend gave the bells a mighty overarm smack. The bells smacked back. Right into his forehead. He screamed and covered his face and there was a very long moment where I thought he might have taken his eye out. Luckily it turned out to be a small, but very bleedy, cut and some swelling. BallFiend started yelling "Is it bleeding, is it bleeding?". Whenever he injures himself, no matter how minor, BallFiend always yells "Is it bleeding?". I think this might be my doing...

About 6 months ago, when BallFiend was washing his hands and standing on a crappy plastic step-stool in order to reach the basin, he was jumping about and so of course fell off, smacking his chin on the edge of the basin as he fell. He bit the inside of his bottom lip with his lower teeth and the outside of the bottom lip with his top teeth. All I saw was blood everywhere and thought that he must have bitten all the way through. Usually I am pretty calm and clear-minded in situations like this, but not that time. I panicked and called triple zero. To be fair, I was home with newborn baby Thumper and rather sleep-deprived. While waiting for the ambulance to come, I calmed down a bit and got an icy-pole out for BallFiend to hold on his mouth. By the time the ambulance arrived, the bleeding had pretty much stopped. The ambos were fine about the call out. They checked BallFiend out and said 'no sign of a head injury'. I spent the next few hours feeling like a bit of a dill. But still, better safe than sorry I suppose. Anyway, I think my initial panicked reaction has conditioned BallFiend to believe that any bleeding = serious injury. We get his 'is it bleeding?' panicky over-reaction at the slightest little scrape or bump. Sorry about that kid - you can get some therapy when you're older.

So, back to the bells... the application of an ice-pack with some pressure stopped the bleeding and minimised the bruising. (We probably could have prevented a bruise entirely except that BallFiend kept insisting on removing the ice-pack so he could see if his head was still bleeding.) BallFiend was back to his usual self within the hour.

So today, Thumper obviously saw BallFiend's bruise and decided to match it. We had just returned home after picking up BallFiend from kindergarten. Thumper was in the pram - a Phil & Teds three-wheeler, the kind that rolls really easily if it is on any kind of slope, you know, like at a railway station platform - and stupidly I had forgotten to put the wrist strap on. The pram was next to me on the front verandah while I unlocked the front door. BallFiend kept getting in the way, between me and the pram and the door (makes me think of an a nnoying yappy dog that jumps about everywhere). He had bumped his head(!) whilst walking past our car in the driveway and was whinging about it. I didn't have much sympathy as I had told him to walk around the other side of the car where there was plenty of room, but he insisted on squeezing through between the car and the garden bed. So I was trying to use one leg to nudge him aside whilst holding the pram's handle with one hand, holding the screen door open with an elbow and unlocking the front door with the other hand. (Anyone for a game of Twister?)

Just as I got the door unlocked I heard a thud. I turned around just in time to see the pram finish it's descent off the side of the verandah and onto the concrete driveway. It's only a small step down of about 20 cm, but it was enough. The pram landed on its side with Thumper out of view. I ran over just in time to see Thumper's face screw up and let out a massive scream. Thankfully she was strapped in (I always strap her in even if I do occasionally forget the wrist strap) or I think the injury would have been much worse. I righted the pram and grabbed Thumper. The bruise on her forehead appeared before my eyes. BallFiend kept up his whinging until I yelled and pleaded with him to stop whilst I somehow I got everyone and everything inside the house.

I sat down and examined Thumper properly and she calmed down a bit - the screaming stopped but then she seemed to go a bit floppy and sleepy for a minute or two, which made me more worried... until she started screaming again. I attempted to put an ice-pack on her head but she kept pushing it away. Then I gave her a breastfeed which seemed to work it's magic - she calmed down properly and I even managed to keep the ice-pack on for a little while.

I watched her while I deliberated about calling triple zero again, or nurse-on-call or something... but after about half an hour she was back to her cheery self. I checked the internet for signs of a head injury and she didn't seem to be showing any. So I figured she was OK and was just trying to look like her much-adored big brother.

So now they have matching bruises - although Thumper's is more impressive, the size of a 50 cent coin. And I better watch out or I will be getting a visit from child protection.

--

Darling

BallFiend and I were discussing family relationships... along the lines of DeepSpice is your father and I am your mother. Gran is your grandmother and GrandPaul is your grandfather and StompyDad is your grandfather too. And CutLuce and DesignerSis are your aunties and DesignerMonkey and Wigward are your uncles.

BallFiend chimed in with "Yes, Auntie CutLuce and Uncle DesignerMonkey are my aunties and I am their darling!"

--

Sock it to me

Thumper's got a new game she just can't get enough of. We call it 'pass the socks'.

Here's how to play:

1. Take a pair of socks (if there are none handy, BallFiend will just pull them off Thumper's feet).
2. Fold socks into a ball.
3. Give socks to Thumper.
4. Thumper gives socks to you.
5. Give socks to Thumper.
6. Thumper gives socks to you and cackles with delight.
   
7. And so on, ad infinitum.
   

In the extremely unlikely event that the game becomes boring, use BallFiend's variation: throw socks at Thumper's face or place socks on Thumper's head, or just throw socks randomly around the room and then laugh maniacally as Thumper crawls around chasing the socks then proceeds to suck on the socks, until she is ready to initiate another round of the pass-the-socks game.

Enjoy!
--

Suffer

Another linguistic beauty from BallFiend during a conversation this afternoon... I had just said something along the lines of 'if you don't eat your dinner and then are hungry in bed, you will just have to suffer'.

BallFiend: What does suffer mean?

Me: Suffering is when you can't have something you want.

BallFiend: No, it's when you can't have something you need.

What an astute kid - his response blew my mind!
--

Transformer in our midst?

It's sore here and all the way around to my hub-cap.
- BallFiend describing his sore knee.

--

Water, water everywhere and not a drop (you'd want) to drink.

I woke BallFiend from his afternoon nap to find him in a very in wet bed. He still wears a night-time nappy, but since toilet training, he has never needed a nappy for day-time naps - he has always woken up if he needed to go to the toilet.

Now, with just two days to go until we depart for our holiday, I have been madly trying to get all the clothes washed and ready to go. But wet bed-clothes jump the queue. With the washing machine loaded up, I take BallFiend off for a quick shower. Usually if BallFiend has a shower it is with either DeepSpice or me when we shower in the morning. This time BallFiend got to shower by himself... although I might as well have got in anyway, given how wet I got standing in the doorway of the shower cubicle!

Back to the washing... Unfortunately BallFiend's quilt turns out to be a bit too big for our little washing machine and water leaks out of the tub, all over the laundry floor. I clean up as much as possible with the mop, then use rags to soak up the water under the washing machine. So now there's rags to add to the washing pile.

Once the quilt is hung up to dry I put the next load on - BallFiend's pillow, pillow case and sheets. The pillow is too tall for the washing machine and the top creeps up higher than the edge of the tub, deflecting the spray of incoming water over the edge. So once again, there is water all over the laundry floor. More rags get added to the washing pile.

To round things off, I decide give Thumper some nappy-free time - partly because she has a bit of nappy rash at the moment and partly so she can practice her crawling (so far, she has only been doing commando style but is working hard to learn the more traditional hands-and-knees version). So of course, she produces a small puddle. To save on generating more rags that need washing, I use BallFiend's dirty socks to mop it up. I figure they've been wee-ed on enough times before when he was toilet training, and they're about to go in the wash anyway.

As much as I'm looking forward to getting away on our holiday, right now I'm mainly looking forward to staying in a house with a dryer!

--

Hee-haw!

BallFiend's learned how to insult people, namely DeepSpice and me. Whenever we do something that annoys him he retorts: "No mama, you donkey!". It's hard to not to laugh when one is trying to discourage such behaviour.
--

Strange Day

It's been a strange day...

I had insomnia from about 4.00 am, and had just got back to sleep when BallFiend woke at about 6.45 am. Lucky for me, DeepSpice got up to get BallFiend breakfast and, even luckier, Thumper stayed asleep. By 8.30 am, BallFiend had decided he was tired and got into bed with me. DeepSpice took the opportunity to collapse back into bed as well, so the three of us were snuggled in bed until Thumper woke at about 9.00 am.

I brought Thumper into bed with me for her morning breastfeed -- my favourite one of the day, because we breastfeed lying down -- however, it was very challenging with BallFiend squirming around next to us and pushing his toys/balls in my and Thumper's face. We have a double bed, nothing so roomy as a queen or king, so with four of us in the bed, it was rather crowded.

After she finished feeding, the quiet snuggle-time was quickly replaced with playing, as BallFiend performed increasingly silly antics in an effort to make Thumper laugh. Unfortunately it all ended in tears when BallFiend launched himself backwards and collided with DeepSpice's nose. I heard a horrible cracking noise and DeepSpice bellowed in pain. After getting DeepSpice an ice-pack, I took the kids out of the bedroom to play elsewhere, while DeepSpice lay in bed for another hour or so recovering.

Thumper chose this time to revert to her pre-six-months-old behaviour of spewing all over the house. By 11.00 am she had spewed about seven times and we'd changed her clothes twice. Very weird, given she has had no signs of reflux for nearly 4 months now.

Later on, I went and did the grocery shopping - without kids! It was the first time I'd made it to the supermarket for a 'big shop' in about a month, so there was a lot to stock up on, and as luck would have it, about half the things on my list were on special. I shoved my heavy trolley around the supermarket, enjoying the schadenfreude of watching other people who were accompanied by their kids

BallFiend had a massive tantrum in the middle of dinner... oh wait, that's not really unusual...

We put the kids to bed in the same room (third night running). The previous two nights, we have put BallFiend to bed first and then waited till he was asleep before bringing Thumper in. But tonight I put Thumper in her cot at 7.30 pm, whilst DeepSpice read BallFiend a story in the lounge room. I was hoping that she would be asleep before BallFiend came to bed. But this is when my luck ran out. So BallFiend came to bed anyway, and Thumper listened as DeepSpice went through the usual goodnight ritual with BallFiend (which includes a 'talking story'). Then DeepSpice left the room, with both kids quiet but awake. BallFiend was out like a light - asleep in no time, but not Thumper... As I have been typing this post, I have been in to resettle her twice and DeepSpice once (last time was at about 8.30 pm). It is now 9.00 pm and she has been mostly quiet, so... fingers crossed!
--

Now that is manly!

I've been learning to crochet. Scream daggy all you want, I don't care. It's giving me something to do, something that gives me a tangible result at the end of the project. Unlike caring for two kids all day... the only tangible result from that is the pile of soiled nappies waiting to be washed and overflowing basket of clean laundry waiting to be folded and put away. (Although I suppose, technically speaking, the fact that the two kids are still breathing at the end of each day could be counted as a tangible result. But it's not quite the same, and let's face it, if I failed in this regard, the authorities would be turning up at my doorstep.)

I've been amazed by how easy crochet is (ie. compared to knitting). I tried to learn knitting, under the instruction of Gran, and although I learned the basics - made a few scarves, etc. - I could never fix up mistakes, so if I didn't actually have Gran right there beside me, projects tended to stall indefinitely.

Crochet is a different story. So far, I have made several practice-pieces - just trying out different stitches, then I made my first project - a beanie for BallFiend: Now I am 90% of the way through my second project - a matching scarf:
I've also been amazed and excited by the range of things that can be made using crochet. Then I found Ravelry - an online community of knitters and crocheters with free patterns galore! My enthusiasm escalated. At last count, I had about 20 items 'queued' for future projects. When it comes to crochet, it seems, if you can think of an object to make, then someone has probably created a crochet pattern for it.

So I'd come to the conclusion that crochet is not at all daggy and that many of the things that can be crocheted are practical, and often truly beautiful... then I saw this one: Manly Tank-Top. Think I might need to make one for FreeloadingPhill to help him on his latest quest.
--

more questions

"Why don't we have an eating mouth and a drinking mouth?"

- BallFiend, during dinner tonight.

--

Getting long in the tooth

Thumper has a second tooth, just cut through yesterday, only 7 weeks after the first tooth made it's appearance. At this rate, she should get her full set of 20 baby teeth just in time for them to all fall out when the adult teeth come through!

In other teeth news, DeepSpice and I went to the dentist two weeks ago. It's been a long time between appointments - I hadn't been since before I was pregnant with Thumper and for DeepSpice, I think it has been even longer!

We took BallFiend along for the 'experience' - he got to see the set-up and the dentist gave him a free tube of toothpaste. I had X-rays taken and my teeth cleaned with the sand-blaster thingy that dentists use these days. My dentist found the beginnings of one cavity (though not serious enough to require urgent action). But here's the really unfair bit: DeepSpice's teeth were fine! Not a hole in sight... and he doesn't even floss (or at least I never see him do it). Humph!

One last tooth-related thing while I'm on the topic: a while ago BallFiend described his toothbrush as a 'teethbrush' and we realised he is right. It should be called a teethbrush, unless like Thumper (until yesterday), you only have one tooth.
--

Just gagging

Lunch today was nicely finished off with a sweet, tangy mandarin. Thumper loves 'em, BallFiend won't touch 'em with a ten-foot pole, despite their decidedly ball-shaped shape. Anyway, Thumper had already downed 5 or 6 segments with no problems when she suddenly got that funny look on her face and started going red. She was gagging on the piece that wasn't going down the right way... and simultaneously trying to shove the next piece in her mouth.

I wasn't concerned about the gagging - it happens from time-to-time, especially with the baby-led solids approach, but one does have to wonder how the human species has survived if the gag-reflex doesn't trigger the "stop-eating-for-a-minute-till-I-stop-gagging" reflex!

A few seconds later, one whole mandarin segment came flying out of her mouth, propelled over the high chair tray and landing on the table, easily travelling 40 cm. What a kid - she'll be able to do party tricks when she is older with a gag-reflex like that.

--

I can add

Scene: breakfast time, I'm sitting across the table from BallFiend.

Sound effects: Pararrrp, pop, pop, pop

BallFiend grins and says:

"I did this many farts (holds up 4 fingers).
I did one, two, three (counts three fingers) down there (points to other side of room) and I did one up here (counts his thumb).

Charming! But I am impressed with his ability to do addition: he had in fact done three 'over there' a few minutes before sitting down to breakfast.

--

old dog, new tricks

"My old dog died and now I have a new dog. This is my new dog. See my new dog, Mum?"

- BallFiend talking about his (imaginary) dog.

--

Extractasaur

After hours and hours (well, at least two) of playing with playdough, this is what BallFiend came up with:

I give you... Extractasaur

The artist, showing off his latest creation, Extractasaur.

It looks even better with the table-tennis ball held behind it (this was just a lucky shot, BallFiend was actually just in the process of burying the ball in the playdough).

--

This kid has management potential!

BallFiend: Team Work! I want to do team work. Let's do team work.
Me: What sort of team work do you want to do? Do you want to team work clean the house?
BallFiend: Ah, I just want to do team work.
Me: Yes but what do you want to do team work for?
BallFiend: I want to do team work on you! (Then BallFiend grins and hugs me.)

--

Excuses

Tonight BallFiend is being difficult about going to sleep. Since DeepSpice did the official 'goodnight' process at 7.30 pm, BallFiend has called out several times: "Mum and Dad!". Eventually, I went in to tell him to be quiet and go to sleep. Here's the reasons why he was calling out:

BallFiend: There's a blurt monster in the back room.

Me: You don't need to worry about that.

BallFiend: Who's looking after Thumper?
Me: She's asleep in the other room.

BallFiend: My belly button has a sore spot.
Me: That's why you need to go to sleep - so it can get better. Goodnight.

--

talking and talking

I had the radio on and the presenter was doing a series of interviews about various current affairs.

BallFiend: "Do they just keep talking and talking?"

Me: "Yes, they do..."

BallFiend: "What happens when they get tired of talking?

Me: "Then someone else takes over and keeps talking."

--

Big question

"When do you get old and die? How do you die?"

- BallFiend talking to DeepSpice, during the nightly settling-BallFiend-ready-for-sleep routine.

...and in case this ever happens to anyone else, DeepSpice's reply: "That's too a big question to answer when you are just going to sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow." seemed to work quite well.

--

Sog

"But how did the floor get all sog?"

- BallFiend, on seeing me mop up water spilled from Thumper's cup.

--

Smoking macaroni

I made macaroni cheese for dinner last night... thinking that it would be a huge hit with BallFiend, because after balls and balloons, pasta is his next favourite thing, closely followed by cheese. He would eat pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let him. I got BallFiend to help me make it, by getting him to grate some zucchini and carrot (gotta make it a little bit healthy!), make some breadcrumbs by rubbing bread between his palms and then sprinkling the breadcrumbs on top.

But when it was served, he wouldn't eat it! For some strange reason, he doesn't like cheese that is"too-cooked". DeepSpice has since pointed out to me that BallFiend doesn't even like toasted cheese sandwiches or the cheese melted on pizza. Anyway, eventually BallFiend picked out the macaroni and did his best to scrape the sauce off. Then the really disturbing thing: he placed a macaroni between his lips and said "Look Mum, I'm smoking".

When I asked him how he knew about smoking, he reminded me that we had seen a man smoking at the tram stop that morning. I've have really tried to ensure that BallFiend doesn't see people smoking and in the past he hasn't really noticed when someone is smoking nearby, but obviously he has reached a stage where simple distractions are not enough.

So, to all smokers out there: please go and do it somewhere out of sight of impressionable children, thank you.

--

Peel that baby

"You just peel and peel and peel and peel and change and change for a long time."

-- BallFiend, on how to change Thumper's nappy.

--

I want a holiday

It's been a whole year since we last had a holiday and I really, really, really want another one. Time to get into planning mode. But there's a few logistical issues to contend with: last time we holidayed, Thumper was on the inside. Now she's a squirming, wriggling, commando-crawling baby with a toddler-sized attitude. Also, we barely managed to pack all the stuff needed for two adults and one 2.5 year old boy into our car. No idea how to fit even more stuff, now that there is an extra person in the mix, even if she is only 2 feet tall! Then there's the cost - the family income is somewhat depleted since I have been on maternity leave. Fortunately, most places that accommodate kids don't tend to charge for them to stay. Unfortunately if you want a kids-stay-free type of deal, we all have to sleep in the same room. And quite frankly, BallFiend snores! Plus if the kids are asleep in the same room, we would have to creep around all evening before going to bed ourselves. Not much fun.

So I'm trying to decide what sort of holiday to have, where to go, and how to get there. Drive or fly? Self-contained and self-catering or a hotel where we always eat out? Local, interstate or international?

I don't really want the hassle of flying, especially international - organising passports, delays at airports, kids vomiting on planes, taxis, currency exchange, etc. So maybe a road trip is the answer. That way the kids just vomit in our car instead. But there are some really great deals on international holidays to south pacific resorts... maybe it is worth the pain of getting there?

I usually prefer self-contained accommodation so we can self-cater. But right now I would love a holiday from the drudgery of cooking and cleaning. (I desperately want a holiday from the witching hour - if only a magic fairy would appear and do the 5.00 - 8.00 pm shift and get the kids fed dinner and into bed!) So a resort style holiday with all meals included would help somewhat. Although, with two kids, eating out isn't restful either - we constantly have to be on guard about BallFiend's behaviour, and to a lesser extend Thumper's.

I kind of like the idea of a Club Med style thing where everything is provided: no cooking, no cleaning, no planning activities for BallFiend. But apparently the resort at Lindeman Island is really run-down. And getting there involves a plane and a boat ride at the very least.

Another place I've been considering is the RACV resort at Inverloch. Sounds quite good, but no kids club, so we would have the pleasure of BallFiend and Thumper's company all day everyday.

And where-ever we go, there's all the hassle of packing and unpacking. I feel exhausted just thinking about it. Maybe we just stay home, hire a nanny/chef/housekeeper and relax as best we can.

--

Spoon!

There's a story that my great aunt used to tell, that StompyDad loves to retell to the point of annoyance: that my mother "could eat out of an eggcup at 6 months" (or sometimes 7 or 8 months depending on the mood of the storyteller).

Well, I can hereby declare that Thumper can spoon-feed herself out of a ramekin at 8 months. She probably could have done it at 6 or 7 months too, except we never gave her the opportunity because we are using the baby-led style of feeding. Last night, she was having yoghurt and DeepSpice offered her the spoon to hold. She did really well - got at least 2 or 3 spoonfuls successfully to her mouth. This morning, she was having Vitabrits and again used the spoon. She was ever so proud of herself.

Maybe I'd better offer her a boiled egg in an eggcup for lunch? Although, my great aunt's story doesn't actually specify what was in the eggcup... could have been a chunk of banana for all I know.
--

In a manner of speaking...

"Mum, am I making speech bubbles?"
-- BallFiend

Clearly DeepSpice has been reading too many comics with BallFiend.
--

And she's off

Thumper is on the move. She officially started crawling at about 6.00 pm tonight. She is one day short of being 8 months old. BallFiend crawled when he was 8 months and 2 weeks old. (I know, I know, you're not supposed to compare your children.)

I was in the kitchen, getting dinner organised and looked over to see her scooting across the floor chasing a toy block. Interestingly she is crawling commando style, just like BallFiend did. However she has a bit of a variation - she holds her left arm across her body and uses the entire forearm to pull herself along with, as well as using her right hand. So far, she isn't using her feet at all, they just wave about in the air, kicking wildly, as if she is swimming!

About a week ago, Thumper suddenly started being really difficult to get settled in the evenings. All her life, bedtime has been pretty straight-forward: put on her PJs, feed her and stick her in the cot. She goes to sleep. Suddenly, it all changed - I put her in her cot at about 8.00 pm but she cried and cried and would not go to sleep. I tried feeding her more, holding her in the quiet, dark room, then we tried controlled crying. None of it worked. The DeepSpice tried holding her and finally she fell asleep in his arms. This went on for three nights in a row.

We were racking our brains trying to work out what was going on:

• separation anxiety?
• teething? (her first tooth started peeking through on Monday 3 May)
• the cold weather?
• unimpressed that Shaun Micallef didn't win the gold logie?

Then, two nights ago, I made sure she went to bed a bit earlier - 7.00 pm. And it seemed to help a lot. So I suspected that the unsettled behaviour was due to being over-tired when going to bed. But now that she has started crawling, I think that may have had something to do with it. Her brain working overtime, trying to put all the pieces into place to figure out how to crawl.

Ah, babies... a puzzle, wrapped in a enigma, embedded in a mystery.

--

aka Thumper

For some reason, Thumper seems to accumulate nicknames like some women accumulate handbags or shoes... or is that handbags and shoes? Here's the list of things we have called her at various times over the past 7 months:

• Leaky
• Wet and Windy Winnie
• Button
• Girly-gums (that one is GrandPaul's)
• Bubba-lee
• Winnie-woo
• Winnie-poos
• Skinny-Winnie (GrandPaul again)
• Mini-Winnie
• Winnie-Pinnie-Poo (thank you BallFiend)
• Wee Winnie Winky (BallFiend again)

Strangely, BallFiend doesn't really have any nicknames other than the standard Aussie thing adding an '-ie' to the end of his actual name. Which of course we also do for Thumper, so these two cancel each other out.

Interestingly, the Thumper moniker that she earned in utereo -- due to the vigourous thumps I could feel from about 20 weeks onward -- still fits beautifully: she loves to lie on her back and simultaneously thump her feet on the floor and her hands on her belly. I can't believe she doesn't wind herself!

--

An argument FOR contraception

My last 12 hours:

• 10.00 pm - getting ready for bed.
• 10.30 pm - power fails, causes house alarm siren goes off. The internal speaker is right outside the bedrooms
• 10.45 pm - DeepSpice finds a screw-driver then disconnects alarm back up battery to stop alarm. Thankfully kids didn't wake.
• 11.00 pm - in bed.
• 12.00 am - Thumper cries for a few mins, wakes DeepSpice (not me though). She goes back to sleep on her own.
• 1.00 am - Thumper cries for a few mins, wakes DeepSpice and me. She goes back to sleep on her own.
• 2.00 am - BallFiend awake and crying, DeepSpice attends. He got up to get water and lost his soft toy soccer ball (which is his equivalent of a teddy-bear).
• 2.30 am - DeepSpice back in bed.
• 3.00 am - Thumper cries or rather screams. I feed her. She screams more. I change her. She screams more. I feed her again. She screams more. I hold her to calm her down. Put her in bed once calm. She screams again. Repeat ad infinitum.
• 3.45 am - put her in bed anyway.
• 3.50 am - still screaming. DeepSpice tries patting and uses 'hypnosis' talk.
• 4.00 am - Thumper gradually calms... just 'cry-murmuring' now. DeepSpice back in bed.
• 4.15 am - Thumper screaming again. DeepSpice resumes settling.
• 4.30 am - Thumper quiet, but still awake.
• 4.40 am - I'm asleep.
• 6.00 am - Thumper crying. I feed her.
• 6.45 am - I'm asleep, Thumper next to me, presumably asleep too.
• 7.50 am - BallFiend wakes and calls out "Mum and Dad, can I please get up?!?".
• 8.00 am - assist BallFiend with toileting (a big poo! Thank goodness it wasn't in his pants!).
• 8.15 am - serve BallFiend and my breakfast, make porridge for Thumper.
• 8.30 am - DeepSpice gets up. Feeds Thumper porridge.
• 9.00 am - DeepSpice changes Thumper's nappy.
• 9.15 am - write this post.

--

Thumper, a post just for you!

My dear second child is already suffering from classic second child syndrome... not many photos taken, only gets a passing mention in this blog, lies around waiting (and very occasionally crying) while her mother or father attend to her older sibling before her needs are met.

Poor Thumper. Well this post is just for you...

First, I want you to know that despite the lack of recorded history about your life thus far, you are not neglected and are very much loved. Usually if we get a minute together, I spend it playing with you rather than writing about you or attempting to photograph you. Anyway, attempts to take photos are often thwarted by my poor photography skills or sometimes by your older brother stealing the limelight, or simply demanding attention. Unfortunately he is mobile, so tends to bump into stuff, hurt himself and cry. Soon you will be mobile too, then you can get your own back.

So Thumper, here is your 7 month old report card. it was meant to be a 6 month old report, but I didn't get time to do it and now here we are, a month (and a week!) later, and I am finally writing about your life so far...

Growth and development

Physically, you are long (ie. tall, except you don't stand up yet). When you were measured at 5.5 months of age you were 65 cm in length, only 1.5 cm shorter than your brother was when he was the same age, yet you weighted 6550g, which is 800g less than your brother was at the same age. So tall and skinny, except for your gorgeous, chubby thighs!

You passed all the developmental tests at your last Maternal & Child Health Nurse assessment with flying colours. As she noted in your health record book "development = age". In other words, you are normal. I could have told her that... only need to look at you!

Health

Your health has been excellent - just one minor bout of the snuffles a few months ago, not even serious enough to call it a cold. You contracted this from your brother - he did have a cold and shared the germs with you during one of the many times that he was cuddling and kissing you. Other than that, you still have reflux and we kept you on the medication for it (Losec) until you were 6 months old. Then the bottle ran out and we decided to see how you went without it. After a week, you seemed to be coping fine, so we didn't buy another bottle. You still have the occasional spit-up (sometimes with 'solids' food mixed in with it, which is quite yuck!) and quite often have 'silent reflux' but it doesn't seem to trouble you anymore. However, you still need a good burp after a feed. They are often impressively loud!

Accidents and Bumps

I'm sorry to say that you have suffered a few knocks. BallFiend can be a bit rough at times, not intentionally, but toys get thrown and occasionally connect with your head. Or a round of rather vigorous cuddling see you knocked over or squashed. The scariest time was when you were 18 weeks old (12 January 2010) and BallFiend fell on your neck. It was a hot day and you were lying on the back deck, in the nuddie, having a kick. BallFiend was also galumphing about when he tripped over, his knee landing somewhere on your neck/chest. You were winded for about 10 minutes - making this short, sharp crys. My finger was hovering over the phone ready to dial 000, but after a while you got your breath back and were fine.

Unfortunately you have endured occasional aggression from BallFiend. The first ever time was on xmas day 2009 when he smacked you on the forehead. It was late and we had been out all day at VolubleK's house and he was tired and you were crying (you were tired too). He only hit you because he wanted to talk to me and your crying was distressing him. Since then, you have been hit on no more than 5 occasions - in each case, it has been when BallFiend has been tired and has had trouble controlling his emotions. He is only 3.5 years old after all.

I have to own up to bumping your noggin myself on two occasions - both in the past fortnight: once when getting you into the car, I bumped your head on the car door; and another time when I was picking you up off the floor I bumped your head on the bookshelf! So sorry about that. If it's any consolation, you didn't cry for long and you still seem to be incredibly intelligent! You should also know that the day before I bumped your head on the bookshelf you did the very same thing to yourself when you rolled over.

Gettin' goin'

You first rolled from your tummy onto your back when you were just 15 weeks old (23 December 2009), but that was more an accident than done with intention. You are much better at it now, but it still often happens by accident and you always look very surprised to find yourself staring at the ceiling.

A couple of weeks ago, you rolled from your back onto your tummy for the first time. But you still haven't mastered this trick yet, and have only done it a handful of times since.

Apart from rolling, you are becoming increasingly mobile -- not crawling as such, but wriggling across the floor by several methods. The first way you started to move, when you were about 23 weeks old, was lying on your back and using your heels to pull yourself across the floor. Here's what I posted on Facebook on 22 February 2010:

Thumper is slowly creeping across the floor whilst lying on her back, using her feet to pull her body along. She is now half-way under the coffee table!

Then you learned how to spin 180 degrees whilst on your tummy. By combining rolling, spinning and wriggling, you could really move around a bit - often travelling about 60 cms in half an hour. Then you learned how to move backwards when lying on your tummy by pushing with your arms. This is a recent trick and you still don't seem to be able to do it intentionally. You get very cross when a toy that is just out of reach gets further and further away as you creep backwards, when I can see in your mind you feel like you should be moving forwards. Sometimes you get stuck, backed up against a couch or table and then you alert us that you need rescuing with a loud, grumpy wail. It always give us a bit of a laugh!

Eating

You started eating 'solids' (ie. food other than breastmilk) when you were nearly 6 months old. We are using the 'baby-led solids' method and since you were about 4 months old, DeepSpice and I had been sitting you on our laps whilst we ate so you could join in the meal. When you were 23 weeks old (14 February 2010), you grabbed a floret of broccoli from one of our plates and chomped away like a pro! And you have never looked back. You love joining in at meal times, sitting up in the high chair and grinning away whilst you shove food into your mouth, much of it gets swallowed too (we see the evidence in your nappies!). It is clear from the look on your face that you feel that you are very grown up when you join in family meals.

Overall, it is great that you are so happy to feed yourself - I really appreciate that I don't have to sit around and spoon-feed you all the time. We tried baby-led solids with BallFiend too, but he wanted to be waited upon, hand and foot, and would only eat when spoon-fed - very time consuming! The only down-side to letting you feed yourself is the enormous mess!

Things you eat include:

• porridge for breakfast (we usually do spoon-feed you this, as it's a bit hard to pick up with your hands)
• bread or rice crackers with avocado or cream cheese spread on them
• whatever we all eat for dinner - last night was steak, steamed vegies and mashed potato. Other times, you have had trevally or salmon, stir-fried vegies, roasted vegies (you love sweet potato and pumpkin!)
• sticks of cucumber (these seem to be your favourite at the moment - perhaps because you are teething? Although there is no sign of teeth yet)
• fresh fruit - banana, nectarine, apple, peach, pear, etc.

Talking

You make all sorts of interesting sounds these days, not just crying anymore. At about 4 months you went through the typical stage of 'crowing' and occasionally you still make these noises. You have a funny laugh made by rapidly inhaling and exhaling. A different funny laugh made by a sharp inhale of breath that sounds like 'Eeeeee!" BallFiend loves to mimic this in an effort to get you to do it again. Sometimes you screw up your nose and snort, again inhaling and exhaling for greater effect. You have also started to do a more child/adult type of laugh - of the 'ha ha ha' kind.

Another favourite sound is blowing raspberries, which you learned to do from watching your big brother. Usually you just make raspberries using your lips and tongue, but you have also learned to blow them on the back of your hand, after watching BallFiend blow raspberries on his arm. You are a great copy-cat!

DeepSpice and I have been doing baby sign language with you since you were about 5 months old (just as we did with BallFiend), and to our great delight, you started signing back almost straight away! At about 6 months of age, you signed "mum" and "eat" on the same day, a week or so later you signed "drink". BallFiend didn't sign back till about 9 - 10 months of age. His first sign was 'milk" closely followed by "ball", no surprises there!

Sleeping and waking

Your day (often!) goes something like this...

4.30 am - 5.30 am -- wake for a breastfeed and then go back to sleep (usually in bed with mum and dad)

7.00 - 8.00 am -- wake up, breastfeed

8.00 am -- breakfast (usually porridge), play

9.30 am -- usually a quick breastfeed, then back to bed for a morning nap

12.00 pm -- breastfeed then lunch, play

1.30 pm -- back to bed for an afternoon nap

3.30 or 4.00 pm -- wake, breastfeed, play

5.00 pm -- short nap before dinner

6.00 pm -- breastfeed then dinner, play

7.30 pm -- into pyjamas, ready for bed, breastfeed

8.00 - 8.30 pm -- off to bed.

Of course, often your preferred sleep times are messed up because we have to go out to drop BallFiend off at or pick him up from creche, kindergarten, kinder circus, or because we are going out to playgroup or shopping.

You are an incredibly resilient little thing, even when you are tired out from missing your naps, you don't scream and wail, you just nap in the car or pram as much as you can, then power on... even if you only get a 15 - 30 minute nap. It never ceases to amaze me, because when BallFiend was your age, my life revolved around settling him off to sleep, tiptoeing around so as not to wake him and scheduling all our activities around his sleep times. Since birth you have always had the ability to self-settle off to sleep and all I can say is that this is wonderful! Both you and I are better rested because of it.

However, it is not all roses... throughout your short life you have had many bouts of waking during the night. This is fair enough until you are 12 - 16 weeks - all little babies need to wake for a feed. In fact, you surprised us greatly when you slept through the night (9 hours!) when you were only a week or two old. Since then you have often slept through (at first 9.00 pm to 5.00 am, then as you got older from 8.00 pm to 7.00 am). But you also keep us on our toes. Just when we get used to full nights of sleep, you go through a period of waking at 4.00 am every night, or 12.00 am, or 2.00 am. No idea why. Sometimes you are hungry but often not... sometimes you just wake up. A week ago, you went through a stage of crying out loudly in your sleep but not actually waking up. One night you screamed at 11.30 pm, 12.00 am, 2.00 am, and 5.00 am, all without ever actually waking up. If only your dad and I could have slept through it too! The next morning we were utterly exhausted and having BallFiend wake at 6.30 am didn't help!

Still, overall, we are getting a lot more sleep than we were expecting.

Interests

As is typical of a baby your age, you are interested in everything! Most things are explored by your mouth. Your current favourite things to gum are the foam puzzle-shaped floor mats and shoes. I wonder if you are going to have a major shoe obsession? Whenever you see a new shoe, you try and chew on it! Lucky for you, you have been given a lot of hand-me-down clothes from LittleMissL, LittleMissP and PetitAmi, including bags and bags of shoes!!

Another major interest is watching BallFiend. You never seem to tire of watching him jump and run about, and I can see from the glint in your eye and the grin on your face that you are desperate to be able to move so you can go with him. Watching the two of you interact is sheer delight. BallFiend makes a silly face, or nuzzles your tummy with his nose, plays with a toy in front of you or even just laughs and in response you laugh like crazy too. It is gorgeous to watch. I never expected that BallFiend would enjoy playing with you so much. I thought the age difference would mean he would have little interest in you. I can only hope that your close relationship continues as both of you grow older.

You love to have songs sung to you - your favourite seems to be "Humpty Dumpty". You also seem to enjoy it when I sing "The Grand Old Duke Of York" and lift you up and down in time with the lyrics. In fact any time you get picked up and whizzed around in the air makes you giggle like crazy.

You also like to kick - whether lying on the floor or sitting in your high chair, your little legs are constantly kicking. If you are in the high chair all we see above the table top is your body jiggling about; but a glance under the table and we see you chubby little legs kicking away.

Another favourite game is 'peekaboo' - it always gets an up-roarious laugh out of you. Both BallFiend and I play this with you.

Anyway, that's probably enough of my waffling on for now. Keep up with the good work, but please don't grow up too quickly!

--

Bad bananas

We always have at least 2 over-ripe bananas in the house these days. We buy a bunch of quite green ones, because everyone eats lots. But inevitably, they all ripen suddenly and are past the point of being nice to eat in the blink of an eye.

I am getting bored with making (and eating) banana cake/bread; and banana milkshakes only use up one or two at a time. So I did a search on the Web for other recipes that use up old bananas. I found this one for Banana choc-chip biscuits.

It sounded good, so BallFiend and I tried it out this afternoon.

They looked good, they smelled good...

They taste terrible! Rubbery, not crunchy and the flavour is rather blah. Needs to be sweeter.

--

The anatomy of a table

BallFiend: "Where is the head of the table?"

Me: "You're sitting at it."

BallFiend: "Where's the foot of the table? Is that the foot?" (pointing at the other end of the table)

DeepSpice: "No, that's the head of the table too."

BallFiend: "Why are they both the head?"

Me: "That's just what they are called.

Thumper: Ahhh-waaa!

StompyDad: "It's funny isn't it... I'd never thought about it that way before..."

BallFiend: "Where's the table's feet?"

Me: Tables don't have feet. They have legs though..."

Dinner conversation at our place this evening.

--

Nipples, part 2

BallFiend: "Gran, why do you have nipples?

Gran: "When I had a baby, I breastfed him."

BallFiend: "So why do you have nipples now?"

Gran: "Everyone has nipples."

BallFiend: "Are you going to have another baby?"

Gran: "No, I'm not going to have another baby."

BallFiend: "But you might have another baby.

Gran (with emphasis): "No. I'm not going to have another baby."

--

Nipples, part 1

Why do babies have nipples?

-- BallFiend, whilst watching me dress Thumper.

--

Snail-girl

"Look Mum! Thumper's a snail!"

- BallFiend

--

Have a ball at the Zoo

Went to the Zoo today with several other playgroup mums (ArizonaGal, The Bibliophile, The Seamstress, The Librarian and HM) and between us our eleven!!! offspring (BallFiend, Thumper, LittleMissL, MasterS, MasterW, LittleMissIz, MasterF, LittleMissF, MasterL, MasterM and MasterT).

The main purpose of the visit was to see Mali, the baby elephant, but also to have a change from 'the usual' (a local playground). The plan was to meet at the Elephant Barn at 10.30 am and see Mali when she was brought out at 11.00 am.

I was aiming to get to the Zoo by 9.30 am and see a few things beforehand. However, despite rushing around the house since about 8.00 am, we only just managed to make the 9.59 am train. On our way to the elephant area, we stopped off to see a few animals - the platypus, the meer cats and the tiger. Then, whilst walking along the Elephant Trail, just as we were passing the tiger enclosure, we met up with The Seamstress and her boys MasterL and MasterM.

We continued on together, past some very inquisitive pelicans, and arrived at the Elephant Barn right on 10.30 am, to find ourselves at the end of a very long queue. In the queue ahead of us were Jovial Jo with MasterW and LittleMissIz and even closer to the front of the queue ArizonaGal with LittleMissL and MasterS.

We waited half an hour in order to (eventually!) see Mali for 5 minutes along with 150 other people, before we were moved on so the next 150 people could come and do the same.

Mali, the 6-week old baby elephant, out for a stroll.

Might as well have watched a video really. But I do understand why the Zoo has such limited viewing times... Mali is only 6 weeks old after all! I did the same with my 6 week old babies - tried to protect them from too much excitement and ensure they got the rest they needed. But it was a long time to wait - especially for a bunch of three year olds. I was very impressed with how patient BallFiend was.

After Mali, we went on to see lots more: Orangutans, Seals and Little Penguins with the other playgroup friends. Then we all stopped at the cafe for lunch. After lunch, most of the others went home but The Seamstress and I (with our kids) continued on to see the Gorillas, Monkeys and other primates, a crocodile (of sorts), Lions, and Giant Tortoises.

BallFiend and MasterL

And then there was one - just me with BallFiend and Thumper (as The Seamstress needed to take MasterM home for a nap). We decided to stay and see some more, starting with the Reptiles and Frogs. After a stop-off for a hard-earned icypole, we went on to see the Bears, Big Cats, Turtles, Lemurs and finally the Giraffe and Zebras. By this point I was exhausted so we headed for the train station.

So, with all these exciting things to see - I'm sure you are wondering what was the highlight of the day for BallFiend? Was it the Lions (he is a Leo), was it the Bears (nearly - they had a ball toy in their enclosure and he couldn't understand why they weren't constantly playing with it), or was it the Giant Tortoises, which were 'this big'.

BallFiend explaining
just how big the Giant Tortoises are.

No, of course not... on our way to the exit, along the Main drive, BallFiend found a ball, surprise, surprise. A small, black one about the size of a walnut. "Can I keep it Mama?" he asked. (He calls me 'mama' whenever he is around MasterL or LittleMissZ who both call their mothers 'mama'. He also calls me 'mama' whenever he wants to suck up to me.) He was ecstatic when I said that he could. (It crossed my mind that we could hand it in to Lost Property, but I didn't think a little plastic made-in-China type trinket would be something any sensible parent was going to bring the child back to the Zoo to find and I was too tired to be bothered anyway).

BallFiend's highlight from his day

at the Zoo - a small, black, plastic ball.

When we got home, BallFiend accidentally dropped the new ball on the floorboards and it was then we discovered this was no ordinary ball - it pops open to reveal a little man inside!

The ball pops open to reveal... a man!
BallFiend's excitement at finding the ball
was nothing compared to this discovery!

So when DeepSpice got home and I encouraged BallFiend to tell him about our day, there was not a mention of the Zoo, just a show-and-tell about the new ball.

Sigh.

--

The Hexagon Hole

BallFiend: "Daddy, why did they put a circle piece on a hexagon hole?"

BallFiend had carefully counted the number of seams on his big-Earth-beach-ball and worked out there are six side panels capped by the two circular panels.
--