Two today!

My little girl is two years old today. She woke up early, and I had to get her to wait till Daddy'd woken before opening the presents we'd laid out on her table last night.

We then went to meet the other mums and kids (well they sure aren't bubs any more) at Bales Park, picking up some mini-muffins on the way. Louka played in the sandpit and on the swing, and
generally just happily wandered around till noon. She then fell asleep in the car.

In the evening, she had two phone calls to wish her happy birthday: from Trishy and "Grandpa" Mike. Louka said "hi".

Words and more words

"Bye-bye Tisha" said Louka to my mum as we left my parents' place today. That's the first time she's attempted a name, other than "mum" and "dad". She also pointed to a picture of a large and a small pig, saying "mum pig, 'ouka pig". I've given up counting her vocabulary, as she seems to say anything she hears now.

On the other hand, her wonderful pottying seems to have regressed a bit. Only about half her nights are dry, and she did a poo in her pants.

And she doesn't fall asleep until we get in the car to go home.

Chinatown at night

Some of Graham's friends from Perth are in Sydney and invited us out for dinner last night. They are staying at the BreakFree On George, with Chinatown out the back door. And they invited us for 8pm, which meant we either had to catch the train that got us there 20 minutes early, or the one that got us there 10 minutes late. We opted for the latter.

Of course the first Chinese restaurant we tried was booked out for Chinese New Year celebrations. But in Dixon St there were waiters holding out menus in front of every open-air eatery, so we picked one pretty much at random. Louka sat happily in the high chair for a while, and ate some steamed dim sum with relish, but then got bored and wanted to go for a walk. I took her to look at the Chinese lions at the end of the street, but she was more impressed by a light over an intersection which had spaghetti-like strands that lighted up in different colours. When we got back she sat for a little while but then Graham had to take her for another walk.

After dinner we all went for a stroll through Darling Harbour, watching the flying foxes (which the Perth folk had not seen before) and playing in a playground, until it started raining. Then we headed to the station for home.

It was about 11pm when we got home, and Louka was still wide-eyed. A very late night for a little girl.

Visiting the Blue Mountains

Yesterday we visited Tania in the Blue Mountains. We had also hoped to see Alicia and her new house, but Alicia was sick. I hope she gets better soon, and will be well next time we're up her way.

Tania gave us a great lunch of bread, cheese, salads and wine. We sat in her lovely "Queensland room" (a verandah protected by flyscreen - we're thinking of doing the same in our new house) and listened to the rain rattling on the roof. I love that! But it did mean that we couldn't go for a walk.