Pre-Christmas Sydney

Today I thought I'd brave the pre-Christmas rush and go into town to do some Christmas shopping. We got off quite early so I decided to take the Meadowbank ferry instead of the train. Louka enjoyed that, as she could run around the deck, and examine the nail-polish on the toenails of a family (red for the mother, blue for the girl and boy). Oh, she did look out occasionally too.

We met Dad for lunch, except he'd had a huge farewell morning tea and didn't want any lunch. So instead we visited the Myer toy department, where they had a Christmas play area for kids. Louka wanted to go on the train. I was dubious, since it was children only, but the staff assured us they'd stop the train any time a child got upset, so on she went. And it was another child who got upset. Louka went happily round three times, but threw a tantrum when it was time to get off. She was pacified by playing with crayons on "letter to Santa" paper, but threw another tantrum when I got hungry and dragged her off to get some lunch.

I got some takeaway from Iku, of which Louka liked the blood-orange juice. Then on to Dymocks to buy books for Christmas. I found the ones I was looking for, bought them, and was heading out when I thought it would be good to get something for Louka to read on the train home. That took a lot more searching than the Christmas presents! Eventually I chose two: one by the author of The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek, which she loves, and one about Big Bear and Little Bear whom she liked in another book.

After a nice banana smoothie from DJs, we headed home. Louka was in a good mood when we reached home, but she happily went to bed and to sleep.

Wollemi pine

For Christmas we gave my parents a little Wollemi pine, which they planted at their weekender in the Blue Mountains. We often ask after its health, but this time we thought we'd go and see for ourselves. The weather in the Blue Mountains can be very cold in winter (and hot in summer too) so Spring seemed the ideal time to visit.

The rain the previous week, or perhaps just the Spring, had caused the pine to sprout a crown of new pale green leaves. At first I didn't recognise it; it looked like some sort of fern. It was not until I got closer and saw the older growth that I realised what it was.

I tried to get Louka to stand beside it for a photo, and to compare sizes, but she wasn't interested.

Later we went for a walk, and she was interested in the king parrot we saw, and the hollow base of a eucalypt which she could just squeeze inside ― not like the huge tingle trees at Walpole in WA.

Daddy's greenhouse

With the expectation of our own garden, Graham is getting enthusiastic about growing his own fruit. He's bought a jungle full of fruit and nut trees (including a coffee tree, though from what I've read home coffee roasting is way too hard and not worth the trouble).

To protect his precious trees from the elements, he's also bought a light-weight greenhouse. It goes together a bit like a tent: the poles connect end-to-end, and the cover goes over the top and ties on with velcro.

It's much more exciting looking at Daddy's trees when they're hidden in their own house than when they're just sitting in pots on the lawn!

Vomiting!

Yesterday morning we met my parents on the city-bound train and had morning tea with mum in David Jones.

Louka fell asleep when we got home and slept for a couple of hours, but when she woke up she vomited. She was never a vomity baby, but at first I didn't worry. But she kept vomiting every half-hour or so, so after dinner we decided to take her to Westmead Children's Hospital. Unfortunately the GPS led us to the hospital's delivery entrance so we got a bit frustrated driving round looking for Emergency.

Eventually we found it, and the triage nurse checked Louka out thoroughly. She had no fever, and she weighed 12.65 kg (she's still losing weight!). They prescribed 6ml of hydralyte every 5 minutes. Louka loved it. After more than 1½ hours she hadn't vomited so we got an information sheet from the nurse and took her home. She fell asleep just before we got home, and hasn't vomited since.