We kept busy over the weekend. On Saturday afternoon it was in the mid-30s so we went down to Fairlight beach, which is tucked in alongside the harbour near Manly. It is a great beach for kids, with a sheltered rock swimming pool, clean sand, nice grassy banks to put a blanket down and plenty of flash apartments and houses for the grown-ups to sigh and wish they could afford. Alesia demonstrated her syncronised swimming routine, and rolled in the sand so much that we are still washing it out of her hair.
Keira spent her time in the baby sling, kicking happily and looking at the water and people and things. It won't be long before she wants to be in the water with Alesia. On Sunday Alesia went swimming again, this time at West Pymble pool with her Aunty Sallymae. By the time I arrived to pick her up at 5pm she was exhausted and promptly went to sleep at Sallymae's place before we had a chance to have dinner. When we got home on Sunday night she was awake thanks to her little nap so we sat on the couch and watched Princess Kylie on ABC. Alesia loved all the bling and dancing, and was very disappointed when I turned it off at 9:30pm when Kylie appeared in her cat suit and a gang of well-built male dancers dressed only in bling bling budgie smugglers.
I learned that term this morning listening to a radio item about a news story in England regarding the NSW Liberal party leader holding too many press conferences after just emerging from the surf in his budgie smugglers. The other interesting thing I learned thanks to the radio this morning (while driving Alesia through peak hour traffic to Family Day Care) is that the big storm we had last night is one of the biggest Sydney has had in years, and at one point lightening was striking at a rate of 64 strikes per second. The storm woke me up, but after the rippers we got in PNG during wet season I just rolled over again.
Alesia and I have been keeping ourselves busy at home. Above is an example of the fun Alesia can have when I am supervising things. We were both impressed by how well the cookies turned out. Below is an example of the fun Alesia has when I am not around. I discovered this modified toilet roll after Alesia went to bed last night. All I can say is at least she rolled it all back up again by herself!
And what is Keira doing while Alesia and I are having fun? She is very happy when she is sitting in her rocker and manages to get the foot of one of the toys in her mouth. She also works hard at rolling over onto her tummy and waving her head, arms and legs in the air. I leave her like that for as long as she can take it, then roll her back onto her back and she lies there for a few minutes panting and then does it all again. I figure it uses up her energy and probably helps her sleep better.
As I type I know that this time next week Chris will be back and we will be checking into our rented house near the beach in Elwood, Melbourne. I know that bayside Melbourne is not a patch on harbourside Sydney, but the coffee shops of St Kilda should make up for that and it will be nice to drive around a city that has wide and straight roads. Pity we have to make it through 11 hours of the Hume Highway first though....
