Wombat Bend is a lovely playground

This morning we drove to Westerfolds Park, where we used to stop off and go jogging on the way to work. I had visions of us putting the kids in our backpacks and walking for a while, then letting them run around a field. I remember that there were fields.

There probably are fields, but there's also a new playground which was being installed just at the time that we last went there a couple of years ago. Our office moved, so Westerfolds Park  was no longer on our way to work.

The playground is just lovely. It's all planted with native plants and trees, and there are winding paths and sculptures set into the ground, and a maze, and a flying fox, and a whirling thing where you strap your kids into seats on cables, and they whirl around with silly smiles on.

Hazel loved going on the slide, and Ivy whirled and swung (with a silly smile). Hazel found some glazed tiles with pictures of cars ("CAR! CAR!"). Ivy poured dry sand down her shirt. Both girls made friends with a 13-month-old boy who waddled around and whacked Ivy's head gently. "Gently!" said his mum. Ivy bowed her head under the rain of very gentle blows.

We will go again. I hope Chrissy can bring her boys before they fly away to colder climes.

We are home and Ivy has a cold

These things are connected.

Words Hazel says

Knee
Toe
Car
On, off, on, off, on, off (while switching a lamp on, and off, and on, and off...)
Cat (used to be pronounced "aa-oo" but now "cat")
Dog
No
Yes
Up
Down
Car
No
No
No
Up there! (usually means "aeroplane")
Kite (as in "kite surfer")
No
Book
Car
Car!
Wheel
Rice
Meat (that one is new tonight)
Plum
Bum
No
No
No!
Sand
Water

We went to a cafe

All four of us! And we sat down AT A TABLE!

It gets better.

There were two highchairs, and neither was in use, and only one was only a little bit broken!

There's more.

Trudi got two coffees and two babycinos, and the girls enjoyed their little cups and spoons and fluffy milk, and we drank our coffees at a leisurely pace. I did not burn my mouth. The girls ate a small plate of little cubes of various cheeses.

We did all this at the Bega cheese factory, which has an olde worlde touriste trappe with old dairy implements which put me in the mind of horrific obstetrical instruments from the eighteenth century. Not that similar, but somehow a bit similar. Aside from the grim reminders of past milking technologies, we had a very pleasant time.

Doesn't Ivy look grown-up here:

We went to Bega to see a panel-beater, and to get an estimate for fixing our car. Yesterday afternoon it was pelting down (the last hurrah of that cyclone), so we went to Merimbula Aquarium. The girls were mildly interested in some of the fish, but they loved the two flights of carpeted stairs. Anyway, anyway, anyway. The carpark at the aquarium is cut out of the side of the hill, and we parked against a cliff. and a bit of the cliff fell off onto our car. Minor damage, safe to drive, but if we don't fix it, rust will set in. Sigh. Insurance, blah, blah.

The panel beater said he could do it, but not until next week and it would take four days, so we will wait until we get home. Easier to be without a car at home. There is no tram or train here in Merimbula.

In other news, Hazel has learnt to say No. She says No a lot. She says No. No. No! No. In a cute broad Aussie accent. I spose that's how we sound... it's not like she learned to speak by watching Neighbours. Trudi is trying to teach her Yes, but that seems to be a much tougher concept, and harder to pronounce.

Pre-surfing chix

Yesterday we took the little tiny girls out on my bodyboard, in their little tiny wetsuits. One at a time.

Here's Ivy being a surfie chick:

There's no photo of Trudi taking Hazel, because I didn't think to take a picture when they were out. I was surprised that both girls really enjoyed their zooming around. They've both been a bit wary of the sea, what with its wet sand and its (tiny) waves.

Earlier in the day we went to a bush park, where I envisaged the girls stamping around in the undergrowth, getting virtuously dirty in the leafmould, but instead they found the newly installed decking and ran around on that. City kids:

Our little girls are growing up

Our housesitter, Pip, messaged Trudi yesterday:

Egg!

One of our baby chickens has grown up enough to produce a little egg! They are 4 months old.

Four beach visits in two days

We are in Merimbula.

The EIGHT HOUR DRIVE to get here was fine. Unbelievable. We stopped off for a wee and a run around at Trudi's aunt and uncle's place in Traralgon. I had not met Grethe and John before. They are very kind and Grethe gave me some plum jam, plus we ate some banana-and-coconut cake. The girls went mad running up and down their carpeted hallway. Considering installing a carpeted hallway at our place.

We had another stop at a park in Orbost, and then pressed on. The girls were marvels. Ivy had two short naps, and Hazel had three! But they could not get to sleep at night. They were way too exhausted and keyed up. They both were finally asleep by 9pm.

Trudi and I are plum tuckered out. We have a lie-down when the girls have their after-lunch nap. Lunch is at 11.30am these days, because they are pink-eyed and weepy by then, and have to nap at midday.

The girls have tiny little wetsuits. They are size 0.5.