I have a little shadow. She is lovely and sweet and fun (and *often* naked).
Even when I hide to steal just two minutes of personal space, she finds me.
And I love that.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Dialogue at the breakfast table this morning
Ellie (enthusiastically): Stephanie, you get to come to school with me today!
Stephanie (mournfully): I don't want to go to school. I want to stay home.
Ellie: Well...going to school makes you taller and stronger and then you can be a teenager and then you can be home whenever you want!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
She's in!
Today was Stephanie's first day of school! She went for two hours, and when I arrived to pick her up, she was so engrossed with the button frame--tongue out, brow furrowed in concentration--that she didn't even notice me. She wasn't even sitting with Ellie; she was happily working on her own. Lydia tells me that she didn't cry after I left (though she cried before I wriggled loose) but she did cling to Ellie for a long while. Ellie got her interested in a few things, helped her set out her own morning tea, and stayed close to her for most of her morning. Much to Lydia's surprise, Ellie informed her at one point that she had set up Stephanie with some drawing because, "I need to get back to my own work." Wow. They both did beautifully well! This mama, on the other hand, was teary when no kiddos were watching this morning, cried her way back to the car after prying Stephanie loose at the classroom door, and generally wore herself out in the first hour of separation. Mamas. Whatcha gonna do?
Monday, March 14, 2011
Stephanie's photo timeline
Each child in the class has a photo timeline of their lives. This is displayed on their birthdays, and it helps them tell stories about themselves to others. Parents are supposed to send the timeline to date on the first day. These are the photos I printed out and laminated to send with Stephanie tomorrow.
This is our wee girl, one picture for each birthday starting with the first one. It is such a gift, watching her grow.
For the record, I was hard-pressed to find cute photos of her with clothes on around her birthday time (summer)! There aren't many!
This is our wee girl, one picture for each birthday starting with the first one. It is such a gift, watching her grow.
For the record, I was hard-pressed to find cute photos of her with clothes on around her birthday time (summer)! There aren't many!
Milestone in progress
We are a Montessori family, which means the kids start school when they turn 3. Stephanie has been three for a couple of weeks now, so we knew the day was coming. Montessori classes are mixed age. The youngest class is 3 to (almost) 6, and the school keeps siblings together at this level, which we love. Stephanie will go into Ellie's class, and Ellie cannot wait to show her the ropes. This happens just in time, because the decision has been made to move Ellie up to the next age group a bit ahead of schedule. She will transition out over the remainder of this term and will start in her new class in term 2. For now, she is ready and waiting to welcome Stephanie into her domain.
Their teacher, Lydia, came for the home visit this past Friday. We chatted about Stephanie's readiness. Markus and I had decided to start Stephanie in slowly. While the school wants kids to go every day from 8:30am to 1:30pm at age 3, we feel this is a bit much and certainly too much from the start. We've decided to start Stephanie with 8:30 to 11am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and build from there. Stephanie has never been to daycare. She hasn't really ever had sitters. She is always with me. This will be a huge change for us both! I have my reservations, but I'm trying to be sure they are my reservations and not Stephanie's. In many respects, I think she's ready to go. While she hates the actual moment of separation from me almost every time (even when separating to be with Markus), I know she is over it the moment I am out of sight. I am thankful that Ellie will still be in the class to help her transition. They are such good sisters and Ellie is such a loving nurturer that I'm sure Stephanie will be in good hands (of course, her teachers are great too!). My lingering concerns are about her personal learning style and ways of doing things (so out of the box and so different from Ellie, whose obsession with order made her take to Montessori like a duck to water). We'll see how she goes and take it slowly. Of course, I realize I'm going to need intervention in the carpark if/when she cries at the door. I will hold it together until then, but that's the best I'll be able to do. It's a milestone in progress, for both of us.
Their teacher, Lydia, came for the home visit this past Friday. We chatted about Stephanie's readiness. Markus and I had decided to start Stephanie in slowly. While the school wants kids to go every day from 8:30am to 1:30pm at age 3, we feel this is a bit much and certainly too much from the start. We've decided to start Stephanie with 8:30 to 11am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and build from there. Stephanie has never been to daycare. She hasn't really ever had sitters. She is always with me. This will be a huge change for us both! I have my reservations, but I'm trying to be sure they are my reservations and not Stephanie's. In many respects, I think she's ready to go. While she hates the actual moment of separation from me almost every time (even when separating to be with Markus), I know she is over it the moment I am out of sight. I am thankful that Ellie will still be in the class to help her transition. They are such good sisters and Ellie is such a loving nurturer that I'm sure Stephanie will be in good hands (of course, her teachers are great too!). My lingering concerns are about her personal learning style and ways of doing things (so out of the box and so different from Ellie, whose obsession with order made her take to Montessori like a duck to water). We'll see how she goes and take it slowly. Of course, I realize I'm going to need intervention in the carpark if/when she cries at the door. I will hold it together until then, but that's the best I'll be able to do. It's a milestone in progress, for both of us.
Three!
Our girl is three years old!
What I left out of the last post because I felt it deserved its own post was STEPHANIE TURNED THREE while we were down in Albany! The Birthday Girl spent almost the entire day in her Birthday Suit. The clothes came off while we were at the boatshed market early in the morning (it fronted a beach) and we were in the rest of the day, where she could be free as the little bird she loves to be!
We started the morning with our family's traditional birthday bretzel which I'd made at home and brought down with us. It was our first morning in Albany after an after-dark arrival, so Stephanie woke up on a farm on her birthday with kangaroos, cows, an emu and horses (her favorite!) in view. We couldn't have planned a better start to the day for our animal-loving girl!
In the afternoon, our friends joined us for cake and good times.
The water balloon toss was a HUGE hit with tons of giggling all around...until Will was twice over the victim of an exploding balloon. We changed up the order (I had been tossing to him, a rather unfair disadvantage for him) so the kids were mostly tossing to each other, and they had a blast. We kept it to three water balloons (Stephanie turned 3!), so it left them wanting more. I think we'll definitely keep it as a birthday tradition.
And of course, we appreciated the special guest, Enoch the Emu. This was our first day with him, and Alan showed us how Enoch would come when you whistle. He let the kids stroke him, and Stephanie was enthralled. She spent every day after chatting with him at the fence. But what third birthday in Australia would be complete without photos like these?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE! WE LOVE YOU!
What I left out of the last post because I felt it deserved its own post was STEPHANIE TURNED THREE while we were down in Albany! The Birthday Girl spent almost the entire day in her Birthday Suit. The clothes came off while we were at the boatshed market early in the morning (it fronted a beach) and we were in the rest of the day, where she could be free as the little bird she loves to be!
We started the morning with our family's traditional birthday bretzel which I'd made at home and brought down with us. It was our first morning in Albany after an after-dark arrival, so Stephanie woke up on a farm on her birthday with kangaroos, cows, an emu and horses (her favorite!) in view. We couldn't have planned a better start to the day for our animal-loving girl!
In the afternoon, our friends joined us for cake and good times.
The water balloon toss was a HUGE hit with tons of giggling all around...until Will was twice over the victim of an exploding balloon. We changed up the order (I had been tossing to him, a rather unfair disadvantage for him) so the kids were mostly tossing to each other, and they had a blast. We kept it to three water balloons (Stephanie turned 3!), so it left them wanting more. I think we'll definitely keep it as a birthday tradition.
And of course, we appreciated the special guest, Enoch the Emu. This was our first day with him, and Alan showed us how Enoch would come when you whistle. He let the kids stroke him, and Stephanie was enthralled. She spent every day after chatting with him at the fence. But what third birthday in Australia would be complete without photos like these?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE! WE LOVE YOU!
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Down Albany way
Last week, we disappeared down to Albany for a week. Thank goodness. It has been a record hot summer here in Perth, weeks of unrelenting heat and unforgiving Aussie sun. Albany is about a five hour drive to the south, which makes it significantly cooler. It was cool enough to cause Ellie to exclaim, "It's wintertime!" when we stepped out of the car (and by Perth standards, it nearly was). Albany experienced a bit of unseasonably strong wind and some rain, dropping the temperature from Perth by half. Good thing we packed our fleece jackets, pants and sneakers! We were actually cold sometimes. Amazing.
Our good friends and previous neighbors have been encouraging us to make a trip down to Albany for almost as long as we've known them. Alan is from there, and his family are mostly still there. His sister owns some vacation properties, and they set us up in a fantastic spot for the week. It's called Parkfarm, and it is beautiful. It's a free-standing house (four double beds in four bedrooms, two baths, big common spaces and a kitchen) with a wrap-around porch set on a big piece of property just outside of Albany.
Waking up each morning to the wind in the trees, looking out across fields and seeing no other houses (his sister's house is hidden by the trees) and instead seeing their pet emu, Enoch, some kangaroos in the distance and some cows and horses milling about...sooooo relaxing! A week down there was just what the doctor ordered. The girls couldn't have been happier. Markus and I wanted to explore the area, but they were happy just to stick around the house most of the day. There was a child's swing hanging from the porch rafters and a perfect-sized table and chairs with Play-doh toys set out and ready for us.
They also enjoyed meandering over to the family house and helping to collect eggs from the chooks.
About half of our trip down wasn't great weather, but we didn't mind too much. We simply enjoyed being away and keeping life simple for a week. Albany does have some fantastic pristine beaches that we weren't able to enjoy nearly as much as we would have liked, but the beach here at home is none too shabby. We did join Alan and the boys at Mutton Bird Beach one morning, and the kids had a blast paddling in the shallows and climbing on the rocks, despite the grey skies and cool temperatures.
Each day, we drove around the coastline to Middleton Beach and enjoyed early lunch at the Bay Merchant Cafe. Fantastic spot. I highly recommend it. They serve breakfast and lunch all day, meaning we could actually eat lunch when we like to (around 11am) and the sandwiches were inventive and excellent. We went so often that the owners introduced themselves. We're on a first name basis now. We also made a visit to Whale World, a museum about the now-defunct whaling industry and its base in Albany. The girls really liked exploring the whaling ship (especially Ellie, much to our surprise).
Along the way, we stopped to see two natural rock formations made by the sea, a natural bridge and a deep sheer drop cut into the bouldery coast over the ages.
On Sunday, we went to the Albany Boatshed food market and picked up some beautiful crabs (my first!) and some fresh produce to serve alongside it. Alan and Rosemarie and their boys joined us for dinner. They dug up some potatoes from the family garden just before coming over. That dinner was fabulous! There is nothing to compare to the taste of super-fresh food. I made three dipping choices for the crab, and we didn't use a single one. The crab was so fresh and wonderful just plain. Another night, Alan brought over some fresh marron and we had another big meal. Hooray for good food!
On our last full day, we drove 30 minutes over to Denmark to explore. Our first stop was the famous Greene's Pool swimming beach. Oh. My. Goodness. So beautiful! I had a touch of a headcold that day, but I wasn't going to pass a chance to swim there. It was crystal clear, shallow and well-protected from waves. A wonderful spot!
Then, we drove around and discovered The Lake House winery for lunch. It is very small and the lunch menu is limited to (expensive) sharing platters, but the quality was fantastic! The girls were happy too, and we were surprised to realize when we got back into the car that we spent nearly two and a half hours enjoying lunch there!
The drive back was long and not too fun, but the trip was completely worth it and very relaxing! Thanks again, Rosemarie and Alan, for enabling such a great vacation! If you would like to see more pics (just in case I didn't put nearly enough in this post), there are tons in our flickr pool if you click on the sidebar.
Our good friends and previous neighbors have been encouraging us to make a trip down to Albany for almost as long as we've known them. Alan is from there, and his family are mostly still there. His sister owns some vacation properties, and they set us up in a fantastic spot for the week. It's called Parkfarm, and it is beautiful. It's a free-standing house (four double beds in four bedrooms, two baths, big common spaces and a kitchen) with a wrap-around porch set on a big piece of property just outside of Albany.
Waking up each morning to the wind in the trees, looking out across fields and seeing no other houses (his sister's house is hidden by the trees) and instead seeing their pet emu, Enoch, some kangaroos in the distance and some cows and horses milling about...sooooo relaxing! A week down there was just what the doctor ordered. The girls couldn't have been happier. Markus and I wanted to explore the area, but they were happy just to stick around the house most of the day. There was a child's swing hanging from the porch rafters and a perfect-sized table and chairs with Play-doh toys set out and ready for us.
They also enjoyed meandering over to the family house and helping to collect eggs from the chooks.
About half of our trip down wasn't great weather, but we didn't mind too much. We simply enjoyed being away and keeping life simple for a week. Albany does have some fantastic pristine beaches that we weren't able to enjoy nearly as much as we would have liked, but the beach here at home is none too shabby. We did join Alan and the boys at Mutton Bird Beach one morning, and the kids had a blast paddling in the shallows and climbing on the rocks, despite the grey skies and cool temperatures.
Each day, we drove around the coastline to Middleton Beach and enjoyed early lunch at the Bay Merchant Cafe. Fantastic spot. I highly recommend it. They serve breakfast and lunch all day, meaning we could actually eat lunch when we like to (around 11am) and the sandwiches were inventive and excellent. We went so often that the owners introduced themselves. We're on a first name basis now. We also made a visit to Whale World, a museum about the now-defunct whaling industry and its base in Albany. The girls really liked exploring the whaling ship (especially Ellie, much to our surprise).
Along the way, we stopped to see two natural rock formations made by the sea, a natural bridge and a deep sheer drop cut into the bouldery coast over the ages.
On Sunday, we went to the Albany Boatshed food market and picked up some beautiful crabs (my first!) and some fresh produce to serve alongside it. Alan and Rosemarie and their boys joined us for dinner. They dug up some potatoes from the family garden just before coming over. That dinner was fabulous! There is nothing to compare to the taste of super-fresh food. I made three dipping choices for the crab, and we didn't use a single one. The crab was so fresh and wonderful just plain. Another night, Alan brought over some fresh marron and we had another big meal. Hooray for good food!
On our last full day, we drove 30 minutes over to Denmark to explore. Our first stop was the famous Greene's Pool swimming beach. Oh. My. Goodness. So beautiful! I had a touch of a headcold that day, but I wasn't going to pass a chance to swim there. It was crystal clear, shallow and well-protected from waves. A wonderful spot!
Then, we drove around and discovered The Lake House winery for lunch. It is very small and the lunch menu is limited to (expensive) sharing platters, but the quality was fantastic! The girls were happy too, and we were surprised to realize when we got back into the car that we spent nearly two and a half hours enjoying lunch there!
The drive back was long and not too fun, but the trip was completely worth it and very relaxing! Thanks again, Rosemarie and Alan, for enabling such a great vacation! If you would like to see more pics (just in case I didn't put nearly enough in this post), there are tons in our flickr pool if you click on the sidebar.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
We've received a few valentines in the mail (thank you!), but we haven't mailed any ourselves. Instead, I offer this, from us to you...
Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Ah, the joys of shared germs
Ellie has been back to school for a week now, so it was only a matter of time before she brought home Other Kids' Germs. Ellie stayed home sick today. She has a bad case of the sniffles, some sneezing, and a tiny cough that may not stay so tiny. Exhausted, no appetite, but thus far no fever, thank goodness. She looks wrecked, poor thing, not that she'd nap if I paid her a million dollars (but that's just as well because I'm fresh out). I'm hoping it will dissipate over the weekend. It doesn't make for a particularly thrilling weekend, but at least we'll all be here together. Having Markus home for tag-teaming will be great since Stephanie currently feels just fine thank you very much and wants to party at a pace that far outstrips her sagging sister. For now, they're both flopped on the couch with a movie so they can rest (though Stephanie is talking non-stop through it). Ah, the joys of shared germs.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Primed for government work
Ellie is rule-obsessed. Even her imaginative play is completely rule-bound, which makes it challenging for other kids (including Stephanie) to play with her and remain within all set parameters. Over the course of the summer holidays, we tried to create opportunities for her to live free from so many rules, such as water play or free art time where we emphasize how fun it is that there are "no rules!"
We've had mixed success with this training, as evident by this little snippet from this afternoon's painting on tree bark. As we set up, Ellie explained,
We've had mixed success with this training, as evident by this little snippet from this afternoon's painting on tree bark. As we set up, Ellie explained,
There are only two rules:
The rule is you have to use a lot of paint to make nice color on bark.
The other rule is there are no rules.
Those are the only rules! Just two!
I think we're making headway, don't you?
If the goggles fit, wear 'em!
Stephanie had her first swimming lesson today, and she is particularly proud of her new goggles. In fact, she's still wearing them. Three hours now and counting...
Monday, February 07, 2011
Back to "normal"
I've just uploaded a large batch of photos to the computer, and you've missed a lot of great stuff! I know I keep saying this, but I really need to get back into the blogging habit here. So many moments, big and small, so worth sharing with you. We've had a lot of big changes in the past few months. First the move, then Oma arriving, then Ellie's school holidays, then Oma leaving, then Ellie's new school year...whew! Today was the first day in a LONG time that felt "normal", and the familiar is such a wonderful thing. Just how "normal" was it? Stephanie went to bed and SLEPT within minutes. This has not happened since the move. Every night has been a two-hour (or more) battle of wills...but tonight, she slept. It's probably fair to say that it finally felt normal to her too. We had such a great weekend together as a family, especially yesterday, and today was routine. That is so comforting to a small child, and we like it too.
Yesterday, we decided to get out and about a bit, and we made reservations for lunch at the Millbrook Winery in Jarrahdale, about an hour's drive from home. To make it more enticing for the kids, Markus located a new playground friends had recommended we visit. They had dubbed it the "Dr. Seuss playground", and we were intrigued.
Aside from the red and white striped poles reminiscent of the Cat in the Hat's hat, we couldn't see much Dr. Seuss about the place...but the girls LOVED it!
Stephanie climbed up and jumped from the little mounds over and over and over again.
Ellie thoroughly tried out just about everything.
They would have stayed and played happily for quite a long time, but that vicious Aussie sun drove us back to the car and on to Jarrahdale, where we stopped at a little roadside shop/cafe for a snack and a short walk before Mama and Papa enjoyed lunch at the winery (and the girls enjoyed the bread). On the drive home, we stopped at the zoo for an hour or so. The girls had fallen asleep in the car, so they missed seeing this:
In case you heard about the fires in Perth yesterday, this is the closest we got. Although our house smelled strongly of smoke due to open windows upstairs, the damage was in the hills, miles from us. For now, the only news I've heard is there are no fatalities (thank God!), but dozens of homes were lost as the fires raged out of control in very strong winds yesterday (gusts up to 60kmph). Australia is really copping it this year on the natural disasters front. The fires here are always a summer threat, but it's worse this year because of such low rain this past winter; the land is bone dry. Queensland was just hit with a record-breaking cyclone. Catastrophic floods in and around Brisbane before that. The word is that this is all due to La Nina, a phenomenon that should abate after summer. Let's hope so.
Yesterday, we decided to get out and about a bit, and we made reservations for lunch at the Millbrook Winery in Jarrahdale, about an hour's drive from home. To make it more enticing for the kids, Markus located a new playground friends had recommended we visit. They had dubbed it the "Dr. Seuss playground", and we were intrigued.
Aside from the red and white striped poles reminiscent of the Cat in the Hat's hat, we couldn't see much Dr. Seuss about the place...but the girls LOVED it!
Stephanie climbed up and jumped from the little mounds over and over and over again.
Ellie thoroughly tried out just about everything.
They would have stayed and played happily for quite a long time, but that vicious Aussie sun drove us back to the car and on to Jarrahdale, where we stopped at a little roadside shop/cafe for a snack and a short walk before Mama and Papa enjoyed lunch at the winery (and the girls enjoyed the bread). On the drive home, we stopped at the zoo for an hour or so. The girls had fallen asleep in the car, so they missed seeing this:
In case you heard about the fires in Perth yesterday, this is the closest we got. Although our house smelled strongly of smoke due to open windows upstairs, the damage was in the hills, miles from us. For now, the only news I've heard is there are no fatalities (thank God!), but dozens of homes were lost as the fires raged out of control in very strong winds yesterday (gusts up to 60kmph). Australia is really copping it this year on the natural disasters front. The fires here are always a summer threat, but it's worse this year because of such low rain this past winter; the land is bone dry. Queensland was just hit with a record-breaking cyclone. Catastrophic floods in and around Brisbane before that. The word is that this is all due to La Nina, a phenomenon that should abate after summer. Let's hope so.
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