Getting some more vitamin D

In the schoolbag this week are a few drawings...

1. My friends and a cat (EV is in the middle beside the hole the sellotape ripped in the paper and the cat is the one on the far right).

2. Flowers in vases (another morning drawing distraction exercise, I love how the vases have become part of the flowers with the stems underneath them).

3. My family (EV's in the middle).

Sydney Again!

EV and I went to visit Little Dude and his Mummy in Sydney over the weekend. We had a such a fun time (except for the bit at the airport when EV had a meltdown about leaving her dada behind, later when we arrived at the house she declared she missed dada and he's her best friend).

That was all soon forgotten once we got to Little Dude's digs and got settled in. It was raining pretty hard so we decided to hang out at home for a bit then we went to the mall for an ice cream. Sunday was a beautiful day so we got ready early and headed to Taronga Zoo. The Koalas were the first hit of the day.

 

Then we checked out the reptiles. EV was a bit scared at first, but when she realised she was safe from this lizard she started playing up and poking out her tongue at it.

The next exciting thing was seeing a baby elephant get a bath. Followed by the seal show.

 

After all this action we caught the zoo cable car back and headed to a Balmoral Beach for some lunch.

One thing I love about Little Dude's mummy is that she has great taste and always knows the good places to go for coffee and food. And it wouldn't be a visit to Sydney without a visit to a beach after all.

The next day we sent Little Dude to preschool and the girls went to the park (seems unfair really but it was nice having a girls only day). All EV wanted to do when she knew we were going to Sydney was to go to the Blaxland Riverside Park, which has the best playground we have ever played on. EV got stuck in to some climbing.

She started off on the small climb but was super eager to climb the big wall to get to the big slides. And with a few nudges she made it to the top, and did a classic EV victory dance.

Then it was time for a quick rest and some more climbing and hanging, and racing Aunty Sez to the slide!

TA DA!

We love hanging with Little Dude and Aunty Sez so much, thank you for sharing your home and your toys with us! Looking forward to the next visit!

This one's for you Pop Pop.

Counting and Writing

It's been a busy couple of months in our house and I realised that its almost a month since I was last here! I did a quick scan of photos from the past month and this is what I can sum up. Its all about counting and writing at the moment.

Even the pastry brush is not immune from being counted. The writing is coming along really well and EV has taken it upon herself to write her whole name by copying it. She is still getting the letters in the wrong order or back to front but I understand that this is part of the development of writing. Some kids even mirror write (which I haven't seen EV do). Some days I will see she has written her name backwards in the morning and in the afternoon she has written it the right way round.

Now she comes home from school with cards and letters she had made for people. The other day she wrote a letter to our friend James, which was her just her name in the middle of the page. She said it was so he would know her name when she went to visit him. Seeing EV writing had taken me back to my earliest memory as a child when I was about 3, I was writing in an old appointment diary of my dad's. Its such a vivid memory for me, I can see the coloured felt pens and I remember really thinking that I was writing important things.

 At the moment EV is also hugely into imaginary play which she tries to rope me and dada into at every opportunity. Last night she decided my name was Barbie and called me to a "meeting by the pool" and the night before I had to be a knight that slayed a dragon to rescue "Princess Rapunzel" from the castle. I'm sure the flies on the wall are having a good laugh at me.