Shopping

Sorry to keep posting daycare updates - time is eluding me at the moment and I know that readers will be eager for news.


"During outdoor play in the Dolphin yard, Alice chose a shopping basket and carried it around the yard, picking up any small toys she could find. She turned to the teacher and said, "Allie shopping!" She's a bit too familiar with that word...

Stomping update

"On Wednesday, Alice extended her group literacy experience through transition. During group time, Alice listened to the story 'Thud!' about monsters and their thudding footsteps and then on her way to the bathroom, she did her best thudding footsteps, stomping her way."

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!

Many a musical interlude seems to be enjoyed at nursery, with Alice forever coming home singing new ditties. Some of them we don't know, and Alice's tunefulness is still to be developed, so we are left guessing what the song might be. Quite often, however, she'll come home singing an old favourite that has yet to be unearthed from our childhood memories - ie we haven't sung it to her yet.



"One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive" was just one such number. A familiar little ditty. With a twist. Alice has learned this song from Aussies, so sings it like one:

"Waaan, two, three, four, foyve, once oy caught a fish aloyve", she drawls. I thought this was hilarious until I realised that she actually does have an Aussie accent in all her words. And it's pure Strine. (Unsure overseas readers should kindly say that word out loud with your best Aussie accent and you should guess what word it corrupts. If not, answers on a postcard to Alice's address). It's a bit like us all being from Edinburgh and Alice breaking out into broad Glaswegian.

"Nao" is "No"; everything is intonated as a question; and when she starts pronouncing the second r in prepared, I'll know that her Antipodean-isation is complete!

I don't mind at all, of course. I had just expected that she would sound a bit more like us until she started school. Or a bit more cultured, like her Great Auntie Janet in Melbourne. But as our Aussie compatriots would say, "Tell her she's dreaming".

Par-tay

Alice held a select gathering for some of her chums at the end of January, when she had returned from her sojourn at Noosa.

She was completely obsessed with her Makka Pakka cake and kept asking to see it in the fridge during the morning before the party and then asking for another one to be made in the following days. Mummy was pretty pleased with it, all in all, as you can see.





It didn't look quite so fetching when I stuck candles in his nostrils, but hey ho - the Night Garden fans are a tough crowd and enough of them said "Makka Pakka" to make me feel good.



It's safe to say that the after party was Alice's highlight - after the bulk of the party bags had been handed out, Little Friend Cora and some Big Friends stayed around as Alice opened her pressies. Alice was generous enough to allow Cora to help, in between spells of playing in the ball pool. They had a ball. Literally.





Footnote: And yes, that really is a lawn mower standing up right in the middle of a child's party. Daddy got all, "In my day..." about putting it away around the side of the house. Yes, Stu, in your day, children often played with lawn mower blades. What larks. Happily, no Night Garden fans were harmed in the making of this party.

The Big 2.0

We celebrated Alice's second birthday and Australia Day on the Sunshine Coast, in very sunshiney Noosa. It was an idyllic trip - lovely restaurants, babysitters, shopping... Ahem, I mean, great swimming pool, lovely beaches, four adoring adults and lots of presents.

Alice enjoyed the pool and the beach enormously - she mooched about happily in the water and had lots of fun building sandcastles and doggedly trying to fill up the moat. She must have walked for miles in her attempts.


We ate at some beautiful places, but Alice enjoyed most of her meals at the local Surf Club which served food at all times and did a "mean" bolognaise sauce. Here, she waits for her dinner to arrive with uncharacteristic willingness to smile for the camera.



So the actual day was spent opening presents; enjoying brunch at a local eaterie; going off on a birthday bird hunt, in case any needed chasing...



...swimming...



...if you can call it swimming; snoozing while her parents went out for a posh lunch to celebrate her; going on a ferry ride down the river...



...and actually being allowed out for her own nice meal later that day.

"Allie had fun"; "Allie twoooooo" "Ganny sing Happy Birthday" were the main refrains that day.

A bit behind the times

Lots to catch up on, which may or may not be achieved this week. Second birthday and Sunshine Coast holiday are all to follow.

In the meantime, a little photo from daycare (where she will now be going 4 days a week, since Mummy is working hard).

"Big smiles from Alice today as she made her way up and down the slide while at the pirate ship!"