Life of Louka: April 2009

Big day in town

We went to see the mammoths at the museum today. I was surprised that Louka seemed more interested in the hut constructed of mammoth bones than she was in the huge reconstructed mammoth father and child, or the skeleton, and her arm was too short to use the mammoth trunk to pick up a ball. She watched a video about disinterring mammoth remains from a block of stone (or possibly frozen mud); there was a reconstruction of the block there with the tusks sticking out looking very strange.

She was happy to move on to the dinosaurs, but even they have lost a lot of their interest. She watched the movie once, dug in the sandbox and designed her own on the computer, but didn't want to see the actual displays. So we headed to the bistro for lunch.

After lunch we went shopping for some winter pyjamas. Louka still kicks off the doona, so the fleecy all-in-one type with feet works best. They only go up to size 3 so she'd better start using the doona by next winter*.

Then she noticed the monorail and, since I'd promised to take her for a ride on it, I thought this was as good an opportunity as any. We got a carriage to ourselves for the whole round trip. I don't think it can make too much money. Louka quite enjoyed it, but wasn't excited. She didn't remember the last time we went on it, when she was about 18 months old and cried the whole time.

* When we got home, she watched Play School, had afternoon tea, and fell asleep ― under the doona.

Lunch with Carmel

We were going to have lunch with Carmel and Suzanne today, but Suzanne didn't make it. Louka and I were late, as we just missed a train, so Carmel had been waiting about 10 minutes for us. We met at Basement Books again (so at least she had something to look at) and looked for a nearby eatery. Today, they were almost all closed down! Carmel suggested the renovations of her former office building at Central had significantly reduced the number of workers requiring lunch in the area. Of the three remaining options, the chicken shop seemed the most promising, so Louka and I shared a tub of chicken breasts and some chips while Carmel and I got up to date with what we'd each been doing. Carmel had come all the way from North Sydney, so she couldn't stay all that long, and Louka started demanding a burger (which I thought she deserved since she'd been very patient while Carmel and I talked) so we weren't able to walk with her back to the station.

Clothes for Jungle

Sometimes Louka likes trying to dress her dolls and bears. And sometimes, Jungle is her favourite doll. So it seemed like a good idea to make her some clothes. But I really didn't know where to begin, so I sent a call for help to Marnie.

Marnie kindly invited us over for a sewing day, saying she had plenty of doll clothes patterns for all kinds and sizes of dolls. So while Marnie made scones, I leafed through her pattern books and came up with a pair of simple pants and a blouse-y top. Then after morning tea, Marnie thought she'd see what she could come up with, and drafted from scratch a very smart dress with matching underpants. Then because the table was too crowded to work on the hat (for herself) that she wanted to make, she started on a smart red jacket for Jungle!

Meanwhile, Louka played with clay, got me to show her the fancy stitches on my sewing machine, and went outside to see the two rabbits (which were not allowed inside because they chew cables). They were very cute though.

Perth again

We had an early flight this time, and Louka was still asleep when the taxi rang to say it was arriving. So we scooped her up in her pyjamas and carried her downstairs. She woke up slowly and sat quietly in the taxi for a quick drive in the still quite dark morning. And when we went got to the airport and changed her into day clothes, her nappy was still dry.

She was happy on the long flight, amused by the activity set they handed out, by the food and by a little bit of Wiggles on TV.

Several things had changed since our last visit. Deb and family have a new house in Kalamunda, and Bruce and family have moved back to their house which is close to Deb's. Kim has new people living with her. And of course all the children keep growing, and looking more and more like their parents.

At Nanna's place, Louka really enjoyed exploring all the little paths and stairs through the garden. It's a wonderful children's garden, where they can disappear within a single turn of the path. Fortunately Louka always wanted one of us to go with her; but maybe not next year.

At Deb's place she promptly appropriated all Shakey's toys but didn't play with Shakey much. Shakey is walking now, so not a baby any more.

Within ten minutes of meeting Kofi, he and Louka declared themselves best friends. They ran up and down a hill of woodchips together, and Kofi taught Louka to say "made you look, scaredy chook!". At the zoo they had stick fights together, and on the merry-go-round I couldn't get them to look at me, they only had eyes for each other. This mutual fascination did seem to wear off a bit by the end of our visit but they're still good friends.

At Golden Bay Louka went into the big waves with me holding her. She squealed like a kid on a roller-coaster, and said it was "fun, but a little bit scary". She then took me on a long walk along the beach.

Of course, it was also Easter, so there was chocolate. An Easter egg hunt, where Louka found a dozen little eggs, plus bigger eggs and bunnies as gifts. There was a big chocolate ice-cream in a cone at Hillary's, which necessitated another dip in the sea to clean off. And on the flight home there was another chocolate ice-cream cone.

We also:

Went to Mandurah where there's a great playground, as well as a nice seafood restaurant.

Went to the most extensive and amazing playground I've ever seen, at Kings Park.

Visited Hillary's Boat Harbour.

Had yum cha with Gigi.
Visited a friend of Pat who painted kangaroos on her fence.

Swam in Nanna's pool.

On the flight home, they allocated Louka a seat apart from Graham and me. Of course, we reshuffled and Graham got the seat apart, but we were a bit shocked that they would even consider allocating a three-year-old a seat on her own.