Naina has a fear of water. She's not been overly exposed to it; apart from baths, occasional trips to Perth and watering the garden. As her last trip to Perth was when she was 9 months old, most memories were long gone.
Prior to Perth, we'd set up a tub outside the bath, bring bucket by bucket, hot and cold water and she'd "chup chup" away, satisfied and happily. Attempting the next obvious step - in the shower with Deepti or in the bath with me was met with resolute behaviour. Crying, whingeing and refusing, under any circumstance (including bribery with toys) to sit in the water. Fail.
So the next step became the next logical in between step. Take the tub, in the bath and fill that with water. Sigh. This was going to take a while.
And any trip to the beach (Sorrento, VIC, Mar 2010), well had predictable results:
Not even close. And didn't get much closer.
Arriving in Perth, this continued. Unfortunately you can't see the celery stick going into the bath with her.
Pleased to say N got over her fears. Albeit slowly. With MUCH encouragement from dada. Here she is attempting to drink the pool. (Naina got wet in the pool whilst clothed several times, hence my commentary).
She did not drink the whole pool. I think her nappies absorbed what she couldn't drink. And also absorbed what she did drink.
So by the time we left, she was not only bathing sans tub in the morning in the bath, but attempting to swim in the afternoon in the pool, with dada's assistance.
Perth was enjoyable. I kind of forget how life is kinder over there compared to Melbourne.
Things in Perth are close to everything else. Walking from the airport to the car, car to the house, house to the shops, house to the city. Perth is close. But then other things are really far away. Trying to get to a David Jones that had kids clothes on sale was nigh on impossible according to google maps. Check it out:
It's frustrating being unable to find a nearby $2 shop when every suburban shopping strip has one in Melbourne. Naina is obsessed with chasing balls around and we could only find tennis balls. To avoid breakage, a search was undertaken to find a shop that sold balls. Two snooty baby stores in Nedlands advised that - no we don't sell those sorts of toys and the nearest $2 shops were in Fremantle or the city. Perhaps no one in Perth buys cheap toys for their kids? Maybe its all designer stuff, for the majority of the kid population? Seriously, the shops in Nedlands wanted $50 for a hat!
Nedlands and Dalkieth must be the most depressing places to raise a child now. There are a few parks, but very few playmates. All the kids must have been at the ski slopes in Switzerland, because we saw none in or around Naina's age. Either that or they've already got jobs as Engineers in the mining and gas industry. I remember growing up in the 80's (man, dude etc) and there were so many kids. If it wasn't kids, it was grandkids. None in mum and dad's street now.
That all said, Perth has some great things that Melbourne just can't match. Synergy Park. A cafe with bigger than texas style play equipment. I chased Naina up one of the play equipment and found myself higher than expected and with a sense of vertigo. The slide down challenged both of us; neither could muster the courage to go down.
Perth also does relaxed. I looked around at the lifestyle - it seems like none of my school friends and just one or two of my uni friends get home at 7pm Monday to Friday (like I do) nor are they on teleconference calls at 6am. Perhaps its the effect of everything being close - nothing is too far away. The distance from my parents house to James and Bronwyn's must be 10 km. 10 km is a thirty to forty minute drive in Melbourne, no matter what time, no matter what day. I reckon it was under 25 minutes in Perth.
So Perth has some great points, but then there are other parts that kind of make me feel glad we're in Melbourne now. If only for shopping and food.
Leaving Melbourne is kind of strange. It is home for all of us now, though this is only really true for N. But the rituals; letting neighbours know, unplugging the electrics, rushing home from work, dropping dvd's and books at the library, and then crawling along Kingsway. Ritualistic. N's been through it a while. Deepti and I have a routine, I drop her at the terminal she takes three suitcases, a pram, a baby, my backpack and her bag to check in and I park the car a mile away at long term parking. It works. We've done this too many times.
N was still alert, frustratingly, at 8pm, 830pm, 9pm, 930pm, 10pm, 1030pm. Read enough time for us to have to chase her around the airport when she got away from us. Over tired, over excited kids are generally NOT ideal passengers.
Anyway, despite my foiled attempt to get a spare seat (pre-select the aisle and middle seat of the last row of the plane), we sardined ourselves into our seats. N struggled, kicked, elmoed ( a new verb for treating elmo roughly) but finally passed out, about 20 mins into the flight and remarkably, we had a peaceful, albeit pinned to our seats by a spread out child flight (and pity the poor lady sitting in the window seat next to us). Being pinned to our seats is neither comfortable nor ideal but it was worth it. N got drink spilled on her, food and more drink, but did not awake. And she woke up as the plane landed.
So we're in Perth, it's 2 am Melbourne time and N is awake. And running. And bua and dadaji are at the airport. There's lights, there's tiredness, there's drifting to sleep, and then there's arriving home and there's more new people and places to run and things to touch like swings and wooden floors. A vase was broken within 20 minutes of arriving.
Finally in bed at 1am Perth time, 4am Melbourne time. I think all who have kids know what this means. Awake at normal Melbourne wake up time (8am, 5am Perth time) and off and running, jumping, singing and wondering why the parents aren't awake.
Naina doesn't get sick that often, for this I am glad. I don't think we'd last long with a sleepless baby. About once a year (so far) she picks up something, which she kindly passes on to me. Deepti has some sort of baby sickness antibodies so she seemingly never falls.
Last year her February flu was in India, involving vomiting and diarrhoea at opportune moments like driving long distances or outside temples. By the time N recovered, I got sick and was ill all through my last work conference in Singapore. Deepti was unaffected.
This year, we had the February flu - off the road. N sneezed a few times, vomited overnight, refused to sleep till panadol time (knocked her out in less than one minute) and generally resisted for all of 24 hours. She was fine. I was sick for four days. Thanks.
Deepti shrugged it off. I'm beginning to think there's something in that.
Something's changed. I can't put my finger on why. Naina's suddenly, well, changed.
Example, running has always been fun. But now there's more exciting and dangerous ways to run.
Not clear in video but that is my german record player she is bouncing up and down on whilst gathering breath.
She's started jumping with both feet coordinated off the ground (as in straight up and down). Sometimes barefoot on the pavement. Jumping on the sofa is also FUN. I swear she approaches escape velocity.
She's watering the garden in a socially acceptable manner. She understands complicated instructions - like come on Naina, let's water the garden:
There's the odd tantrum about of course (no videos as such). The shouting and screaming are disappearing, she's learning to soothe herself, properly. It's amazing to watch.
Even going to sleep is easier. What used to take an hour of rolling, getting up, walking about, rolling, crying has now dropped into about 15 minutes. I usually count to 10 minutes and she's sleepy and before I get to 15 minutes she's asleep. And she's decided that cow's milk is the one for her.
But the fun is really in the morning. She's still not quite sure where I go in the mornings, but knows I go to the bathroom, into the shower, brush my teeth and go downstairs. I get a commentary from her. "Jaana-shopp-ping" (Going shopping) "By! See! Aaa-wah! (several times, meaning bye-bye, see you, kiss goodbye - then bows head down so I can kiss her goodbye on her head from over the gates at the top of the stairs). That's the decipherable part. Naina's ability to think is vastly greater than her ability to vocalise. So there's something in there about Isabelle, slowly, sorry, mumma! mumma! and then running between the bedroom and the bathroom and returning with various souvenirs - pillows, elmo (poor elmo) and Deepti's dupatta's (scarves).
N's still unsure of my ability to lift her up and instead she grabs my hand and drags me where I should take her. Wednesday, she patiently waited for me to finish my dinner and wash my plate and then grabbed my hand. I didn't know where she was taking me (usually its to play ring ring roses - though N says, instead of a-tishoo a-tishoo, we all fall down, she sings asha asha awfa downe), but she led me instead to the stairs where she wanted me to open the gate, count the stairs as we walked up them (she knows the numbers 1 to 10, but doesn't quite have the order right in her head) and to talk to dada (my father).
All this change seems to have coincided with Deepti becoming busy with other stuff - baby #2 on the way, driving lessons, shopping sales and lunches with the Mother's group and attending Gymbaroo. Maybe I should have stopped being deadbeat dad a bit earlier!
Prani came over the weekend before Australia day. A special visit for N. Friday night at our house was all a bit too exciting with Green and Prani and all the new toys.
First came Elmo. N loves Elmo. Elmo mightn't love N after some of the headlocks she put him into.
Arm pit lock
Headlock
I think this one is called the sleeper hold. Elmo's expression says it all. I might black and white this one, give it a more grittier look.
Violence in Melbourne
The plan was to go to the beach and spend time in the Bay, but Melbourne's fickle summer weather intervened again and we almost got washed away. So the plan became to go to the zoo, with a long drive in order, so we headed to Healesville Sanctuary.
Naina definitely enjoyed aspects of the Zoo. The larger animals like the birds and emus interested her and then scared her when they came too close. All the other animals were too small or too far away. Which was a pity, but interesting how things need to be big and close (but not necessarily noisy) to be noticed by a 21 month old. However just the ability to run and play unimpeded by city life seemed to be most of the fun.
About to fall off
And then onto the famous Healesville Hotel for lunch.
Not even close. And didn't get much closer.
