Left to her own devices ...

... E decided to wear her hat inside and show her toys a good time.

Of Little E and crocodiles

Little E is besotted with Spot (the dog) and all of his friends are popular too. By far her favourite is Spot's crocodilian companion, Tom. Recently we were on holiday in Balingup and happened to be in a shop where they had a basket of assorted small plastic animals for $1.95 each. Upon being presented with a kangaroo, wombat, koala and crocodile, E had no hesitation in choosing the crocodile, who she instantly named Tom. For some time now all crocodiles have been referred to as Tom, but I think this has really cemented it.

 Tom watches E while she sits in her highchair and eats.

He has slides.

He jumps on the trampoline.

He goes swimming in the sink and in the bath.

And being less than two inches long, he regularly gets lost. About ten times a day Little E is to be found, wandering through the house, demanding "where Tom? Where Tom?" To which I invariably say "where did you see him last?" - to which she usually has no answer.

We've lost Tom for short periods before (which according to E is because "Tom run away! Tom run away!") but on Friday he disappeared and only made himself known again this afternoon. In the meantime we had purchased a replacement Tom for $2 from the Zoo shop (figuring he could be put away in case of later emergencies if original Tom turned up). It turned out that original Tom was having an adventure on the lawn by the lime tree, and I discovered him upon going to water the tomatoes that are next to it. E had seemed unconcerned when presented with replacement Tom, but upon realising original Tom was back she immediately started referring to original Tom as "better Tom." She couldn't tell us why he was better, but replacement Tom has been returned to his rightful place in the cupboard as emergency stock.

I wasn't altogether grateful for original Tom's Lazarus-like behaviuor, when less than an hour later E was loudly demanding "where Tom? Where Tom?" I certainly wasn't expecting the reply "in microwave!" (followed by delighted giggles) "Tom being silly!"

Deep and meaningful observations at the hairdresser

Upon being seated in a special high chair with a cushion and draped with a Disney themed cape, E proudly announced "E's getting all pretty!"

She was pretty good, albeit wiggly and excited, throughout the 20 minutes or so the haircut lasted. She mostly amused herself with her reflection in the mirror. After sticking out her tongue and examining it at great length she told the entire salon "E's got a tongue!" A short pause followed, during which she conducted a further examination and then told everyone "E's got teeth!" Keen to pursue any line of discussion that would keep her still I asked "do you have a nose too?" She looked at me and replied "everyone got a nose, Mummy!"

The cleverness of toddlers

We spent quite a bit of Saturday searching for D's phone, which mysteriously disappeared from the bedside table where it had sat overnight. We thought there was a chance Little E might have wandered off with it when she came into our bedroom first thing that morning. We checked all the obvious places, and all the not-so-obvious places. It wasn't anywhere. It had been turned to 'silent' at bedtime, so we couldn't ring it to find it.

Finally on Sunday morning E and D had the following conversation.

D:  E, do you know where Daddy's phone is?

E: I hid it.

D: Where?

E: Under the bed.

D: No you didn't, I checked, it's not there. Show me where?

E: There.

And so it was. Jammed in the corner between the mattress and bed frame. There all along, just waiting for us to ask E where she'd put it.

Our resident monster

The teething monster has come for a visit. He's not our favourite visitor, even if he does bring a housegift each time he arrives. He also brings weeks worth of finger sucking, dribbling, and night time waking which seem a pretty poor tradeoff for a few lousy teeth. This time he brought molars so he's definitely less than popular. The best you can say for him is that these are the two year old molars* so they'll be the last of his offerings. And after they're in? That'll be it. We'll be done. And he won't be getting a repeat invitation.

* inaptly named, as I discovered after googling, as apparently they can appear any time between 21 and 33 months. Little E is 23 months so they're quite early for her.

Suburban Day

A play at home. A two minute walk with the pram to the shops half a block away. A hair trim for E so her fringe would not constantly be in her eyes. Other than running around the hairdresser when we arrived yelling "running away!" she behaved perfectly. She sat on my lap and the cloak went around both of us. She was fascinated by the actual fringe-cutting (fortunately only two minutes' worth) barely moving throughout.

We then crossed the road to the lovely local cafe, where I had promised E we would have morning tea if she was good during her haircut. Seeing as she had been very good, I relented to her demands for both orange juice with a straw and a biscuit. They kept her busy for long enough that I got to have a pot of tea and most of a newspaper. I love tea at this particular cafe; they use tea leaves in a little teapot, and fine bone china cups that look as they belong in a display case rather than in a modern cafe.

We then crossed the road again to the playground. When E first started enjoying playgrounds this one was too big for her as it involves a ladder rather than stairs and has a rather steep slide. She has always lacked both fear and sense so far as playgrounds are concerned, and is now big enough that the ladder is no obstacle at all.  

Lots of slides later she requested "going home?" and I was ready to oblige. At home we spent the rest of the morning in the garden, she in her "little pool" and sandpit, and me attempting to handwater the berries, tomatoes, herbs and hydrangeas. So far this summer the twice weekly sprinkler plus handwatering on the days I am home seems to be keeping them happy. For lunch I offered "Daddy pasta" (bolognese made by D) which was rejected despite initially being demanded, and a toasted cheese sandwich, which she ate about two bites of. I decided she was full of orange juice and biscuit and could just have a big afternoon tea.

"Sleepy time" involved 15 minutes of patting and wriggling, but did eventually take place. The afternoon involved more of the same in the garden and inside with books, puzzles and "watching Bop."

A suburban day. The kind in which we didn't venture more than 200 metres from our front door. The kind I hoped for when we left our inner city apartment pre-baby. The kind I definitely enjoy now (albeit in moderation).

* There are photos on my private blog for anyone interested.

Little E and her Beloved Bop

Little E has a not-so-secret love. She begs for him morning, noon and night. She would gladly spend all day with him but her (electronic) access is doled out in strictly measured doses (usually when Mummy is preparing her lunch and dinner). She has memorised the names of all his friends and can recite his numerous biographies. She mispronounces his name with all the earnest enthusiasm that only a toddler can muster. Her devotion is, frankly, driving her parents nuts.

Spot the dog came into Little E's life via the loan of several books. After several hundred readings in the space of a month or so, I attempted to give them back. Upon seeing the enthusiasm that resulted from me producing the books from my bag and putting them on her bench, Lovely Friend E declared that she was not going to be the one to deny Little E such pleasure. And so the books remain on extended loan, and E's enthusiasm now extends to the DVD which I bought her thinking it might buy me a minute or two of peace every now and then. Although she does enjoy a wide variety of books, E will always return to Bop. She will sit and look at them by herself with concentration that is very impressive for someone not yet two years old.

So, regardless of the ever diminishing levels of Mummy and Daddy's sanity, innocent little Bop brings Little E such pleasure it's hard to begrudge him. Other fans may enjoy this site I discovered today: http://www.funwithspot.com/au/

All the mornings of childhood should be like this

On Monday Little E and I had a lovely outing, just the two of us. We drove to Hillarys Boat Harbour, which is about 25 minutes up the coast. It was an easy drive with no screaming. When we got there, she consented to go in the pram and remained in it until we got to the child-friendly beach. There is a playground there that E loves that is just hard enough to be challenging for her but not so tricky that my heart is in my mouth every moment (given she has neither fear nor sense so far as climbing is concerned). She clambered up the ladder and through the tunnel, stopping at every window to gleefully "peek boo!" everyone on the outside.

The beach itself was about as stereotypically beautiful as anyone could hope for; clear, clear water with barely a movement of waves, white sand, not too hot, crowded but not excessively so with happy families at vac-swim classes. I am crossing all my fingers and toes that this morning will have got E over her beach fears. They certainly weren't in sight as she pranced and splashed and we did dozens of ring-a-rosies, giggling every time she splashed down. We had a mid-swim break to sit on a towel whereupon she insisted upon feeding half her strawberries and grapes to me, after which she actually demanded to return to the water.

Then it was time to wash the salt off ("shooow-a time, shooow-a time!") and put dry clothes on. And then the highlight of the morning for E - ice cream time. She hoovered her way through an extravagantly priced strawberry gelati ($4.60 for a child sized scoop?!), smearing it all over her face as any self respecting child should. After that she announced "home time? Eli watching Bop?" (Bop=Spot). And seeing as it was a conveniently timed request, and she was very pleasant about getting back in the pram, we made our way back to the carpark, and then home.

At home she did get a few minutes of her beloved Bop whilst I produced cheesy pasta, and then she went to bed without fuss.

A lovely morning all round.**

** Followed by a completely feral afternoon in which she screamed every time the little friend who had come to visit touched one of her toys, barely wanted to move from Mummy's lap, and then got put in her room for repeatedly touching the DVD player after being told not to. Sigh. Such are the inconsistencies of toddlerhood.

Toilet training trauams

This is one of the things that my pre-pregnant self would be horrified to find out.

I have just been googling for something called "Potty Time Tinkles." 

Potty Time Tinkles? Hello? Where is the grown up world when you want it? Obviously lurking somewhere beyond the door, in a land where poo-poos and wee-wees do not get done on the rug. 

So far I have discovered that Potty Time Tinkles has some competitors, known as "Potty Patty" and "Potty Scotty", for the little madam and master who need help comprehending that the white plastic edifice is not just for perching on whilst doing puzzles or building block towers. Naturally, Potty Patty and all her little friends and enemies are quite ridiculously priced. (I have to say, that if you were the designer, why wouldn't you charge extortionately? Your target audience is parents who have spent half the morning standing unfruitfully (excusing the pun) in the bathroom exhorting the virtues of the toilet, only for the desired deposit to land on the carpet the second they have given up and taken their eyes off said toddler. At this point $49.95 for a small plastic doll doesn't sound too bad).

So. Obviously the focus at our house this week is all things below the belt. How is everyone else's week? And does anyone know of a miracle working doll or other fantastic toilet training tip?

The post holiday comedown

It's in full force at our place today. The house is a mess: toys, multiple loads of dirty washing, half unpacked shopping. Little E probably wonders where her in-house entertainment team has gone: she had five days worth of Mumma, Dadda, Granny, Grandad and Aunty Katherine all dancing to her tune and she's now stuck with boring Mumma who started the day by wrestling her around the supermarket and is now attempting to tidy one part of the house whilst E  alternates taking apart another with demanding food.

And E has learnt how to maneouvre the lever door handles that are on all our internal doors and so now takes great delight in letting herself into any room she pleases, including the ones that are stuffed full of things we would prefer she didn't touch ... sewing machine and supplies, CD towers plus 500-odd CDs, a desk covered in papers waiting for the magical 'someday' that I can be bothered filing them ... This is particularly annoying me today because I spent the last week attempting to change the door handles to round, hopefully less easy to open ones, not being able to figure out how to do it, and requesting each evening that D help me ... of course it didn't get done. E's other recent accomplishment is that she has got tall enough to reach the bench top, the last bastion of all things not belonging to her. I discovered this upon coming in from the clothesline to be greated by the kettle and an enoormous puddle of (thank God, cold) water on the kitchen floor.

She also seems to think she no longer needs nappies (or clothes for that matter). I do not think I am psychologically equipped for toilet training. Let's face it, after a few days away from the real world I do not think I am psychologically or in any way equipped for being a full-time parent at all.

Incidentally, the holiday was lovely and I will write about it at some point when my little angel is asleep.

Image from http://mydualities.files.wordpress.com/2011/0/woman_pulling_hair_ out.jpg

Here's to holidays

Through either good luck or silly planning, after not having had a proper holiday in about a year, we have wound up with two down-south holidays scheduled in the space of six weeks. The first was with friends in the CHOGM week, to take advantage of the public holiday and the fact that the courts all closed for the week, so it was a good time for D and lawyer friend S to be away. The second is next week, for a friend's wedding.

Round One was declared a success. We stayed at the beautiful Bunker Bay resort just outside Dunsborough. It is a series of villas that are surrounded by bush and designed to blend with the natural environment. It is also close enough to the beach that you walk through the resort, and through a short bush track, and emerge on sand.

It's not the sort of place we'd ever have stayed pre-E, but with two toddlers it was perfect. Buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant was included four mornings out of the five, and we all made complete pigs of ourselves. E happily demolished a plate of "eggy," "ham" (bacon), fruit and pancakes each morning. Unlike the rest of us, she usually managed lunch each day too!

The main room of our villa.
There were also two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

E had a fantastic time swimming in the hotel pool with her Dadda. She appears to have forgotten the beach since last summer and was quite scared of the waves, but she loved the pool. The weather was cool enough that I was more a fan of the deck chairs and the view, but D was very devoted and went in with her each time she demanded it.

See what I mean about the view?

And the weather - check out those grey clouds!

Although travelling with E and with another toddler had its challenging moments, on the whole it worked out really well. Each grown-up couple managed a lunch out, plus a dinner at the hotel restaurant. We did two group trips to Simmos ice-creamery where E enjoyed smearing her first ice cream in a cone all over her face, a trip to a local animal farm and a 3km walk from Cape Naturaliste lighthouse to a scenic lookout. Amazingly, E consented to stay in her pram for almost the whole thing and Little Friend T did pretty well in an ergo carrier on his Dad's back.

The reward at the end of the walk

E and I very much enjoyed having five days solid with D. E's language continued to increase in leaps and bounds: memorable additions to her vocabulary included an amazed "Mama! Biiiiiig duck!" when she saw the resident emu at Simmo's, and "go in pool! go in pool!" every time we walked past it.

The only good thing about the holiday being over is that the next one is now only a week away!

More photos on the private blog for those who are interested.

The sleep saga continues

Since she was about 9 months old, Little E has been a pretty good sleeper. She sleeps through the night. She self-settles. She's been on one day nap since she was about 11 months old, currently of about two hours duration.

But for the last week or so it's been taking her an inordinately long time to fall asleep at night. During the day she puts herself to sleep with minimal fuss, perhaps 10-15 minutes of talking to herself and then she's out. All of a sudden, at night, without anything else having changed, it's taking more than an hour (previously she took half an hour or less). She wakes up at the same time in the morning, just an hour shorter on sleep than previously. She is then grumpy all morning and needs to have her nap an hour earlier, making for a very long afternoon. This evening I put her to bed an hour earlier, thinking that maybe I was letting her get over tired. That was an hour and fifteen minutes ago, and she's still in there, in almost complete darkness, chatting away.

Any thoughts?

A happy footnote to teethbrushing traumas

Hallelujah, Little E is not going to have cavities before the age of two. I whinged at length here about what a tough time we were having with teethbrushing.

The magic solution? She gets to watch two minutes of Playschool on YouTube while we brush her teeth. Everytime she wriggles, or tries to shove away the toothbrush, or yells, we pause it. We only press 'play' when she sits still with her mouth open.

I have to confess that when Lovely Friend E first told me that this was what they do for their little boy I thought it sounded a bit ridiculous. Now I am a sworn convert. It worked from almost the first night. Before I boast too much, I should add that Little E might be wilier than I am confessing to, as *somewhere* in this house, are not one but two toddler toothbrushes. I say "somewhere" as we suspect that Little E has stashed them somewhere tricky. Perhaps we need one of the clever inventions in the picture ...

* Image from http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.outblush.com/get/women/images/2007/04/happy-toothbrush-holder.jpg

My baby is 18 months old

... and not really a baby anymore. It seems like Lovely Little E has done lots of growing and developing in the last month or so. She has cracked 11kg and is almost 80cm tall. Her hair is longer, and has become quite wavy at the ends. It's not the same length all round though, much longer at the back. I'm waiting for the top bits to lengthen before we attempt a proper hair cut.

She can use a spoon and fork pretty well, although it's very much a case of her using them when/if she feels like it, her fingers the rest of the time, and if it's bluberries and yoghurt then she might well use her tongue! She can drink extremely competently from cups with or without handles, and she can also deliberately pour a full cup of water all over the floor and then say in surprised tones "oh no! oh no!" When told it is time to sit in her high chair she races around collecting an army of toys and sitting them on the table in front of her high chair to play audience to her meal time. One doll or teddy is never enough; having put one up she races back to the toy shelf insisting "moremore! moremore!"

So much language, 50 or more words now we think. Recent additions are "Granny," "Amber"  (Grandma & Grandpa's dog - "Am-bah!" said in tones of great delight) and a slurred version of her name. We are working on "down please Mama" as a means of telling us she has had enough to eat, rather than announcing this fact by standing up in the high chair and launching herself at whoever races toward her (the lack of a five point harness is proving a real down side to the Ikea high chair!) She has to say goodbye to everything and everyone: "bye bye park," "bye bye shop," "bye bye trolley."


Aside from four or five days recently during which we think she had hand, foot and mouth disease (so gross!) her sleeping continues to be a dream (excusing the bad pun). A good two hours in the middle of day, then 7pm to 630-ish am.


Her play is more sophisticated and imaginative. We recently acquired a plastic stove (thank you verge collection), a plastic farm house ($4 - thank you op shop!) and a beautiful wooden doll's house (thank you friend's garage sale). All of these are very popular. For some reason her favourite thing about the doll's house is the little high chair that came with it - surprising given how keen she usually is to get out of the real thing!

It is a lovely age.

The small blue instrument of torture

Little E does not like to brush her teeth. Correction: she does not like to have her teeth brushed. She is perfectly happy to "brush" her teeth, ie, walk around chewing on a toothbrush. She is happy to "brush" her teddy's "teeth." She is happy to use her toothbrush, or Mummy's toothbrush, to smear toothpaste in and around Mummy's mouth. 

But when it comes to having her teeth brushed? It is a two person job. One to hold her hands away from her mouth, the other to hold her still with one hand and brush her teeth with the other, while she screams as though extremely bad things are happening to her. It doesn't make any difference if someone else brushes their teeth at the same time as her, or if she gets to look in the mirror while it happens, or if songs about brushing teeth get sung, or if someone reads a book to her at the same time. She gets cream (moisturiser) on her back and tummy, which she loves, as a "reward" after brushing her teeth, but it doesn't seem to make brushing anymore attractive to her. I laughed when I read something which said toddlers should brush for two minutes as we're lucky to manage 20 seconds.

Needless to say, it is a pretty unpleasant process. I thought about taking a break from brushing to try to defuse the trauma but when I managed to look in her mouth while we were outside one day I could see plaque on her teeth. Obviously the 20 seconds we're managing isn't really cutting it.

Does anyone have any tips? Or know of any picture books that feature children brushing teeth? 

 




Image from http://www.surfersam.com/funny-pictures/brush.jpg

Wine-ing and whining

Today I had the good idea, that after a 3-5pm session at playgroup, and a quick stop at the IGA on the way home, that immediately upon getting home, I would walk Little E to the BWS on the corner to buy a bottle of wine. If you've been in Perth today, you'll know that 5:20pm was about 10 minutes before it poured with rain. We actually made it to the bottle shop and back before the proper rain hit. The problem was not the rain.

The problem was Little E; tired, hungry, bored with shops. Wanting to touch and grab every.single.thing between the door and the fridge full of nice cold white wine at the back of the shop. Who did not want to be held, and screamed "no more, no more!" when I insisted on holding her while I dithered over what to choose. Who then wriggled so hard that I put her down and then tried to pull casks of wine off the shelves. (I  suppose I should be grateful it wasn't bottles of scotch.) Who, when I gave up and grabbed the first thing I saw, threw herself on the floor and wouldn't get up. Who made me feel like a complete alcoholic and derelict parent for daring to want a bottle of wine to go with dinner on a Friday night.

The second we left, and she was not in the boring shop any more, and she was under the umbrella with Mumma, in the lightly sprinkling rain, she gave me kisses and cuddles and was perfectly adorable. Whereupon I felt bad for being cross at her.

In this situation, there are just no winners except for the toddler, are there?

(Or perhaps for this Mumma, who did in the end, get her bottle of wine to go with dinner and is feeling much more magnanimous about the situation now that Little E has been in bed for several hours).

The end of an era

Little E had her last breastfeed on Monday 11 July 2011. I didn't know it was going to be her last one; we stopped the next day because I was sick and taking medicine that wouldn't have been good to pass on to her.

She was fifteen months and one week old, so there was absolutely no nutritional need for it, and she was only having one feed a day anyway (just before bed); but had matters not been taken from my hands I think I would have let her continue for as long as she wanted to. I don't know how long that would have been, perhaps another month or two? The feeds were very quick, 5-10 minutes max, and she was getting pretty wiggly, so I think she would have stopped herself sometime soon.

Because I was really unwell, lucky D got the job of persuading her that it was ok to go to bed without special cuddles with Mumma in the armchair. The first two nights she put on a bit of a performance, by the third night she went to sleep quickly and without fuss. The fourth night I was back in her room reading stories etc with D, and she seemed to briefly remember that she hadn't always gone to bed without milk, but only cried briefly. She now doesn't even look for it and takes somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes to talk herself to sleep each night.

I am sorry that the decision to stop or not was taken from us, but I am glad that she is big and healthy enough that she doesn't need milk anymore. I am also pretty excited at the prospect of buying some new underwear in a month or so!

Family dinners

 Image credit http://fyi.uwex.edu/swys/files/2010/12/FamilyDinner.jpg

We have an exciting new evening routine which involves us all eating dinner together, and ideally the same dinner, at about 5:45pm. it doesn't happen every night, but I'd say we're managing it four out of five times at the moment.

Previously I was feeding E at about 4:30/5:00, and usually something different to what D and I were having. She now has four molars and is getting more competent with a fork. She's also a lot less keen on the high chair if she's in it by herself, so putting her at the table with us is a good distraction.

Not every meal has been a success, but the ones that have been include:

* Roast chicken and vegetables;

* Stir fried beef with bok choy, mushrooms, beans and rice;

* Chicken drumstick casserole; and

* Pasta bake with spinach, mushrooms and cottage cheese.

It's not glamorous food, but it's healthy and I'm pretty pleased about only having to cook one meal for all of us. I have happy memories of family dinners when I was growing up and I'm really happy that we're finally able to do this. It's exciting to actually set the table and use placemats and serviettes and a water jug rather than D and I eating in front of the TV after E is in bed.

Lovely Little E at almost 16 months

E is a delight to be around lately.

She is a very busy, important litlte thing. Quite steady on her feet, she trots and bustles around the room, perfectly intent on completing whatever task is at hand. She has started engaging in the cutest imaginative play. Big favourites are her teddy, plastic dolly and a little dog on a string who barks when pulled around. She is obsessed with feeding all three of them and putting them to bed. When I suggest "is dolly hungry?" she grabs the cloest block and shoves it at dolly's face whilst yelling "yum yum, yum yum!" If I then say "does dolly want to go to bed?" she shoves dolly into her wooden cot and throws her blanket on top. Two seconds later dolly invariably wants to get up , whereupon her blanket is ripped off and dolly grabbed by one arm so she can wake up. She gives dolly and various other toys cuddles which involve clutching them to her chest, rocking back and forth and vigorously slapping their backs. (She also sometimes gives D and I lovely cuddles which involve resting her little head on our shoulder and then patting our backs).

Every day we notice more and more language. Her latest additions are "Dee" (Daddy), "bean" and "where's it gone?"

She still loves books and is developing firm favourites if not obsessions. The latest ones are anything with flaps, particularly Spot and a Peek-a-boo book, but still Shirley Hughes and books with photos of animals. Her favourites we can do 10 or more times a day; often as we hit the last page she turns straight back over and demands loudly "more! more!"

A large part of why I am finding our days easier is that I am getting a really decent break in the middle of the day. We seem to be in a reasonably fixed routine (famous last words!) of waking up between 6:00-6:30am, having a big breakfast, snacking throughout the morning, a small lunch at about 11:00-12:00, then sleeping from about 12:30pm for 2 - 2.5 hours. She then wakes up happy at about 2:30-3:00, has afternoon tea and plays pretty happily until about 4:30/5:00 when I turn on Playschool so I can get dinner ready. We are trying to all eat dinner together at about 5:30/5:45 depending on when D gets home.

Although I am still hoping to find a few days work a week I am really enjoying my days at home with E, and I think I will look back fondly on this time.

Adventures at a damp and deserted zoo

The District and Supreme Courts are in the middle of their two week winter break, which means a bit of down time for criminal lawyers. Each year, D's work uses some of the time to hold an advocacy course, and this year, for no apparent reason, they held it in the conference rooms at the zoo. On Wednesday morning E and I dropped D off and then braved what looked like yet more rain to put our annual zoo membership to good use.

It was a perfect day to be there. The combination of weekday and weather had obviously put most other people off (without the zoo pass I definitely would not have been game). We got there as it was opening and for the first hour almost literally had the place to ourselves. Little E loved it. She has got the walking gig under control enough that I am happy to let her trot around the more contained areas on her own. I mainly put her in the pram in order to get between areas beacuse although she is quite steady she is definitely not fast. But in the African animals section, the Australian wetlands and the Australian aviary she toddled alongside or ahead of me and loved it. Often she looked back to make sure I was coming along beside her, or held her hand up for me to hold, accompanied by the most heart wrenching little "mumma?" She got to stand right up close to the glass in every exhibit without having to fight hordes of other kids. She pulled at plants and stuck her fingers in puddles. Despite the threatening skies it didn't rain at all. 

It looked and felt as though we owned the place:

Beautiful morning sunshine winning the fight against damp grey sky

Checking out some botanical action on the path between the Australian wetlands and aviary

She trotted as fast as I have ever seen her go down the slight slope on the huge and empty lawn and had a fantastic time playing with a fallen palm frond.

Look at my grown up baby in jeans and hoodie and big girl shoes

Later we sat together in the cafe and had morning tea. E was ridiculously pleased because I let her have the three tiny teddy biscuits that came with my tea. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for two and a half hours. 

I've said before that I can take or leave the zoo, but in these conditions it's an outing I'll gladly repeat.