Christmas in the city

Last year we visited the children's Christmas area at Myer, so we went there again this year. Again, the train was a great success. Louka also sent several emails to Santa and received replies addressed to lkbafffff and nnwqypf.


We also visited David Jones's animated Christmas windows. It's amazing to think that my mum took us to see them when we were kids, over 40 years ago. Of course, they have been updated since then.


We had lunch with Graham, then went to visit Trishy at the Art Gallery. Several floors of the gallery were closed to replace the escalators, but fortunately the members' room with the dolls house was open (though it could only be reached via the slow lift).

We'd just left the gallery and were heading back through the Domain, Graham rang to say there was a sale on children's clothes at Myer. I asked Louka if she'd like to look at clothes at Myer, she said "Do you mean Maiasaura, the dinosaur?" Well, no, sorry Louka, no Maiasaura at Myer.

Museum with friends

I mentioned to one of the other mothers in my mothers' group that Louka enjoyed the museum, and she said she'd like to take her daughter too. Then another mum joined in with her one-year-old, and an outing was arranged.

Diane and Kiana and Andrea and Amy got on the train at Chatswood, and we got on at Artarmon. The others had prams, so I carried Louka to keep up.

When we went in, we were told there was story-telling in Kidspace soon, so we booked in and had a cup of coffee to fill in the time. Louka didn't find the story-telling very rivetting, though Kiana sat there happily, but when the story was over and painting came up, she was the first at the painting table. She painted three rather nice butterflies by splodging paint on and pressing the paper in half, then wanted to draw a Tyrannosaurus rex.


Andrea had to leave, so we had lunch with Diane and Kiana before heading to the dinosaur exhibition. Both girls enjoyed "designing" and colouring dinosaurs on the computer. But they were getting tired so we headed home. Louka fell asleep in the sling very quickly, but Kiana stayed awake till we were on the train.

Louka's school

Yesterday Louka and I went for a walk to explore, and found Harbord Public School, which will presumably be Louka's primary school. It's quite large, with an original building from the 1920s, several demountable classrooms, and a modern new block. The grounds are rather nice, with big bush rocks, trees shading some outdoor tables, grass and an exercise area (playground). It seems like a nice school.

How does your garden grow?

With lots of tomatoes, we hope, in a couple of months.

Inspired by a Charlie and Lola episode and a visit to my sister's in-laws, Louka has recently been very keen to grow a tomato plant. So we went and bought some seedlings and a small watering can, and planted the seedlings today. Having watered them, Louka wanted to do more ― like pouring more potting mix over them.