Bunbury trip

I approached our Bunbury trip with a sense of trepidation but it wound up being extremely fun!

There was the very nice Mantra Hotel, complete with view...

... and the fact that someone else cleaned it, and produced food for us, and someone else paid for it! I was a lazy Mumma while we were away and mostly fed E food from packets and jars (albeit the expensive organic variety) - she did not seem to object and it was a nice break for me.

Ironically, D being in trial and in Bunbury, away from all his non-trial work, meant that E and I saw more of him than we do at home, as trials start at 10am and finish around 4pm. At any rate, she and I had no trouble amusing ourselves for the two days D was occupied. We went to Big Swamp Wildlife Park, which I had never heard of, but is only a 5 minute drive from the centre of town. Amongst others, it has kangaroos, wallabies, emus, rabbits and chickens, but the hands-down winner for E was the walk-through parrot aviary. The birds were ridiculously tame and complete gluttons:

We all enjoyed the heated swimming pool, and E and I enjoyed the beautifully calm beach on our front door step. It was a much greater success than her first trip to the beach, although she was mainly interested in sitting in the shallows and attempting to eat sand.

E, social little creature that she is, also made a new friend...

On the whole the trip was a real pleasure and rather than regional circuits being a hassle I am quite looking forward to D being told that he has been allocated more Bunbury trials!

Trials and tribulations of travelling

We bought a portacot yesterday, beacuse D's work is sending him to Bunbury for a week at the end of the month and Little E and I are going with him. I thought it would be a good idea to get E used to sleeping in said cot before we go. Yesterday afternoon I set it up and stuck her in it with a bunch of toys to play with and she thought it was great. (I also thought it was great as I set it up next to the piano, which meant I got to play the piano for a bit without an excited baby on my lap alternately struggling to thump the keys randomly and with all her strength play too, pull the lid closed on both our hands, and pull pages out of the folder of sheet music).

Today I moved the cot into the spare room, waited until Little E seemed tired, put her in her sleeping bag, handed over Pooh bear and walked out. She screamed. And screamed. And screamed. At.the.top.of.her.lungs. As though someone was torturing her. She normally manages a bit of grizzling and fussing at nap time, but this was quite impressive. I sat in the lounge room alternately calling myself a mean and nasty parent and thinking that I was glad I tried it at home, during the day, rather than in a hotel at night. I sat on the couch staring at the clock. She screamed for 12 minutes (the magic figure that Save Our Sleep claims babies of this age should scream for before you go in to comfort them or they fall asleep). There was then abrupt silence. After another minute I very cautiously stuck my head around the door. She was fast asleep, looking completely angelic and peaceful.

I still can't decide if it's mean and nasty parenting or a necessary stop on the sleep road.