Fasten your seatbelts

Alice is obviously having aviation overload this week.  Today's daycare update:

"Alice, Patrick, Amelie and Jaxon played with the aeroplanes this morning.  Each of them had a different job at the airport.  Amelie was to take the passengers onto the bus to Patrick, who then collected their luggage before going over to Alice, who flew the passengers to their destination". 

It looks like a pretty turbulent landing.

Not sure what Jaxon got up to.  Lamented the spelling of his name, perhaps.

 

Desperately seeking Gandad

All being well, we're off to New Zealand next week, having rescheduled our aborted trip from last Easter, (thanks to the lovely people at Emirates who let you change bookings made with airmiles). Alice is the only member of the family who is excited about taking her on a plane. I, meanwhile, am frantically stocking up on things that will keep her entertained for as long as possible (hey, every 5 minutes of a happy toddler is 5 minutes less time until we get there).

Alice is also excited, because to her, getting on planes and going to New Zealand is what Grannie and Grandad Y do. So every time I start to try to brief her on expected plane behaviour, she starts up with a chorus of, "Allie see Gandad". "Soon", I reply, since we do have 5 days with the Ys in Portugal in July, which really isn't too far away. "Yes", she says. "Allie see Gandad on a plane in Noo Zealand". I'm going to have to start saying we're going to Kaikoura or there's going to be trouble next week.

Allie have injection. Then Allie have Easter Egg.

Alice had her swine flu jab yesterday and was very brave. She seems to have bonded with the doctor so was perfectly happy with the whole visit ("My at the doctor.  Thank you, Doctor").

The doctor was running late as usual and so we hung out in the waiting room, playing with the toys that have become familiar (but which I am hoping that with grommets and flu jabs will become less familiar). Alice was in fine fettle and sang out her ABC song and counted to 20 for all to hear. The old people who seem to inhabit the waiting room just for somewhere to hang out (since they never seem to get called in to see anyone) thought she was amazing. They particularly enjoyed the counting as it got to "19….20….FORTY NINE!"

She sat down to read some of the books - a few of which we also have at home, so she knows them really well.  Receiving compliments from people all around, she gained in confidence and started an inpromptu story time for the Grannies, "My read a story. My read Maisy". She then flicked through each page of the book and recited it out loud, word perfect, which of course looked as though she was able to read an entire book. The oldies' faces were a stunned picture.

Back again in four weeks for the seasonal flu jab (they separate the doses for small people). Perhaps we'll have a little tap dance or a xylophone concerto perfected by then.

'Tis the season to be jolly

An Autumn morning at Coogee.  Gorgeous sunny days and lovely cool nights and early mornings.  Bliss. 

 

Dora the Explorer stage show

We had lovely fun at the theatre yesterday - we went to see Dora the Explorer live on stage for part of Alice's birthday pressie.

Spellbound is the only word for her reaction, except for when they had a musical number, when she went completely nuts.

Talking bit:

Musical bit:

Rest of the time:

Dora always asks the viewers what their favourite part of the adventure was.  My favourite part was when the baddie, Swiper the Fox, came on stage.  Everyone else was booing and hissing, yelling, "Look behind you" in the spirit of the best pantomime villain.  But he is Alice's favourite character and she was simply sitting forward, waving shyly, whispering, "Hi Swiper".

There was a minor tantrum in the offing at the end of the first half, which was averted by the promise of Dora being back "very soon".  It was more difficult after the final act, as Alice started to stage a sit-in, another little boy climbed over her and then Alice blocked his mother's exit, because she was "waiting for Dora".  Thankfully a nearby four year old started a full on screaming fit, beating her mother with fists and everything, so that distracted everyone and allowed a clear path for the mother in pursuit.

All in all a wonderful afternoon out, although the moral of the story is that even if you go to see a show designed for toddlers that your child loves, you can never, never, never take too many biscuits.

Help, someone stole my baby

Who is this child?????

"During indoor play, Alice engaged in an art and craft experience, having her hand painted in various colours and printing them onto paper"

Surprisingly intelligible update from daycare

"Alice put the little baby to sleep and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to it as she patted it."

Bless her - she is such a little Mum.  Although I don't tend to put the blanket over her head when I put her to bed.

Night 4 in the Dora bed

Fast asleep in the laundry basket at 10.30pm.  We just popped in to check on her before going to bed ourselves.

Cutie

To Zee or not to Zee...

Good old Dora has an adventure involving the ABC song. Since she loves to sing, Alice picked it up pretty quickly. She's a bit camera shy, but I can attest to the fact that she can get through the whole alphabet and if she will ever sing the whole song to the camera I will repost.

This is quite sweet though - she just wants to hug her Mummy and do a little dance. I'm in my jarmies so desperately trying to keep stage right.

I think she must be an aural rather than visual learner. We are completely nowhere on colours, with her wild guesses serving to only to amuse. The sky is "lellow", the sun is "boo" and yesterday we crossed the road at some traffic lights when we saw the "black" man.

Noo Bed

The grandparents having departed, we were left with no excuse to either start potty training or to move her to a big girl bed. Both seem to be pre-requisites on the mothers group circuit as soon as one's little darling hits the big T-W-O.

With neither Alice nor the daycare ladies* showing any interest whatsoever in the former, we pushed on with the big bed. Alice went through a phase in early January of asking for a big bed (she likes the stretcher type things they sleep on at daycare) so we were keen to take advantage of this as soon as normality had returned to Bondi Junction's fair shores.

Having waited a week to verify that the Yardleys really had departed and not just got lost on one of their thrice daily excursions to Westfield (still referred to by Grannie Al as Westlife on day 49 of the visit!), we dismantled the cot**, assembled the bed, laid out the Dora sheets, duvet cover and pillow case and cursed and swore our way through putting together the safety guard.***

The unveiling ceremony went very well. I had got a little panicked, as I had decided to read the Gina Ford chapter on moving little people to big beds after the cot had been taken down and she recommends that they be at least 2.5 yrs and to keep the cot up in case it doesn't work. Hey ho.

I'm no Nick Clegg, but am happy to disregard Gina when the moment suits or when I have forgotten to read her book in time and, touch wood, this has been one of them. Perhaps she has never tried Dora bedsets.

Alice slept right through the night last night (despite her snottiness, which has woken her most nights this week), only woke at 7am, when I woke her to check that she was still breathing****, and then refused to get up for breakfast or even to have her milk. Long may this continue.

*they'll be the ones to train her, I am promised. Hurrah.

** if you believe that "we" had anything to do with this handicraft apart from handing over used fivers to a man called Dennis, then you may be a person who has clicked on the "Next Blog" link at the top, rather than have ever met us

*** yes, we had to do this ourselves. Wish I had given Dennis an extra fiver

**** it felt like the first night she ever slept through as a baby!