Naina's bed time routine has settled a lot since Perth.
6:30pm: Dinner
7pm: Talk to dada in Perth.
7:02:03 pm: Stop talking to dada in Perth
7:03pm: Run downstairs to join Deepti
8pm: Return back upstairs.
8:30pm: Complete bottle of milk, running around, jumping on bed, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the fourth time (it's still a great book), In the Night Garden and a hindi phrase book, get into baby sleeping bag and lights off.
8:40pm: Asleep.
So it takes two hours after dinner to sleep. Naina's not an early riser, its usually around 8am before she wakes. So her bed time suits. Especially last two nights. Exhaustion amongst parents is striking. We may have beaten N to sleep tonight. Ahem. We fell asleep before she did.
Mostly, things are seemingly fitting in place. Language, slowly improving. Even little bits of witty dialogue.
Deepti: (Singing her own little nursery rhyme, whilst N is in bed)
N: Mum, mum, stop this please.
First words of adolescent protest, 10 years early. At least that's what it sounded like. A similar phrase appeared tonight. She seems to understand Hindi well enough but English is her preferred language. Except for a few key words - finished (cut-tham), water (paani), going (jaana), drinking (peena), good (accha) - it's all in English or with an Australian accent.
Tonight she decided that the sound FAK was funny and would repeat it for 3 minute stretches. Visible discomfort for me. Kind of too close for comfort. Hope she's grown out of it by birthday party time.
Routines, better. Bath time, bed time, seem to be going off with less hitches since Perth. There's still occasional uncontrollable crying when waking, during the day, but far less night wakings. Sleeping in a sleeping bag seems to be making her more rested and less malcontent and miserable during the day. The first night with a sleeping bag she played with it before being zipped up, and fell asleep quickly after lights went off. No more playing with it, but no (major) protests with it being used since. Though she was like Maggie Simpson the first night, insisting on running around whilst wearing it. She's learned its futile.
No reports of belting other kids, so far. Hamish copped one in Perth, that seems to be the last in a while. Biting is back, but pinching seems to be out of favour this week. Dramatic abducted by King Kong screams when forced to change a nappy, stop playing, wear shoes continue unabated. Followed by attempted slaps.
Meal times, easier. Self-feeding coordinated (at times). Eating chilli pickle is still in favour. Happier in a high chair the whole meal (no pinning down to eat anymore). Previously, Deepti had to pin N down to avoid loutish dinner time behaviour. If no pinning down (e.g. restuarant) lots of chasing up and down the street outside restaurant.
Loutish behaviour deserves its own post.
10 April 2010
05 April 2010
Ephemera
When we decided to end renting and start buying and moving, it seemed appropriate to clear out junk. Like get rid of stuff. Lots of stuff. 15 years of stuff accumulated and acquiring space in garage and cupboards around Malvern East.
This Easter Weekend has seen us crescendo in our waste disposal. Over the past seven months, the following items have been disposed of, as thoughtfully as possible:
Sep 2009: Two hard drives, two monitors, one television, 5 large garbage bags of my clothes, several broken computer parts including video cards, used dvds and cds, a zip drive (remember them with the extra large diskettes), 3.5 inch diskettes, 5.25 inch diskettes, reams and reams of paper used for financial purposes. Bottles of alcohol. Glassware. Shot glasses. Spare pram. Two broken oil heaters.
Jan 2010 to April 2010: A glass table on wheels. Spare cups and saucers. Serving dishes. A vaccuum cleaner. Nearly 100 cricket and other books. Nearly 60 LPs. 30 DVDs. Another 2 large bags of my clothes. A printer. Another hard drive. A keyboard. A Sony PSP. Several old mobile phones that were no longer working. A joystick. More dishes. A cot, a bouncy net, a baby pouch (#3), baby clothes.
The point of bosworthing this down in a blog is to highlight the pointlessness of so many of these purchases. Once they were in the house and accumulating space and not being used, it became - oh we can use for second child, or I'll get it fixed and we can use it again or you'll never know when you'll need a third baby pouch/my cousin in India might use it/ we can send it to so and so. All lies. We never used any of these things again, ever.
ANd yet, despite throwing out more than 300 kg of junk, we still have more junk to get rid of! I feel like the house is more or less sorted (still arguing over various bits - milk shake maker, slow cooker, coffee table), there's a whole garage full of junk to get rid of. How to rid one's self of a foxtel dish? Technically, Foxtel can ask for it back, but they never do, yet it remains their property!
Hardwaste collection hunters will be pleasantly surprised when they walk past our frontage in the next few weeks!
This Easter Weekend has seen us crescendo in our waste disposal. Over the past seven months, the following items have been disposed of, as thoughtfully as possible:
Sep 2009: Two hard drives, two monitors, one television, 5 large garbage bags of my clothes, several broken computer parts including video cards, used dvds and cds, a zip drive (remember them with the extra large diskettes), 3.5 inch diskettes, 5.25 inch diskettes, reams and reams of paper used for financial purposes. Bottles of alcohol. Glassware. Shot glasses. Spare pram. Two broken oil heaters.
Jan 2010 to April 2010: A glass table on wheels. Spare cups and saucers. Serving dishes. A vaccuum cleaner. Nearly 100 cricket and other books. Nearly 60 LPs. 30 DVDs. Another 2 large bags of my clothes. A printer. Another hard drive. A keyboard. A Sony PSP. Several old mobile phones that were no longer working. A joystick. More dishes. A cot, a bouncy net, a baby pouch (#3), baby clothes.
The point of bosworthing this down in a blog is to highlight the pointlessness of so many of these purchases. Once they were in the house and accumulating space and not being used, it became - oh we can use for second child, or I'll get it fixed and we can use it again or you'll never know when you'll need a third baby pouch/my cousin in India might use it/ we can send it to so and so. All lies. We never used any of these things again, ever.
ANd yet, despite throwing out more than 300 kg of junk, we still have more junk to get rid of! I feel like the house is more or less sorted (still arguing over various bits - milk shake maker, slow cooker, coffee table), there's a whole garage full of junk to get rid of. How to rid one's self of a foxtel dish? Technically, Foxtel can ask for it back, but they never do, yet it remains their property!
Hardwaste collection hunters will be pleasantly surprised when they walk past our frontage in the next few weeks!
04 April 2010
Food in Perth
Food in Perth is great, maddening, exciting and different. Coming from food city that is Melbourne, it's not fair to compare two very different cities. Melbourne has a diverse restaurant culture fed by migrants and larger populations. Perth does somethings so well.
Recommendations
1) Station St Markets - much better selection of fruit and vegetables than any market in Melbourne, including Queen Vic. THough price is questionable. Picked up ciabatta from Lawleys, mum picked up exotic vegetables that are unavailable anywhere in Melbourne such as kaddu and loki.
2) Chilli noodles from IGA. Superb. Imagine noodles, deep fried, coated with chilli powder and tumeric with peanuts and more chilli. Naina loved them. Actually, it has kick started N's penchant for Deepti's chilli tomato pickle. Watching a two year old lick chilli pickle and them make yummy noises is a great way to relax at the end of a long day.
3) Yummy House. Chilli squid/calamari. Green got touched again, but I'd say it was worth it.
4) Cupcakes from Sweet on Cupcake on Waratah Road. Awesomeness, esp chocolate cupcakes.
Avoids
1) Sala Thai in Subiaco. Down hill since last time. Felt like I was eating medicine.
2) Anywhere where we ate fish and chips. D for disappointing.
Recommendations
1) Station St Markets - much better selection of fruit and vegetables than any market in Melbourne, including Queen Vic. THough price is questionable. Picked up ciabatta from Lawleys, mum picked up exotic vegetables that are unavailable anywhere in Melbourne such as kaddu and loki.
2) Chilli noodles from IGA. Superb. Imagine noodles, deep fried, coated with chilli powder and tumeric with peanuts and more chilli. Naina loved them. Actually, it has kick started N's penchant for Deepti's chilli tomato pickle. Watching a two year old lick chilli pickle and them make yummy noises is a great way to relax at the end of a long day.
3) Yummy House. Chilli squid/calamari. Green got touched again, but I'd say it was worth it.
4) Cupcakes from Sweet on Cupcake on Waratah Road. Awesomeness, esp chocolate cupcakes.
Avoids
1) Sala Thai in Subiaco. Down hill since last time. Felt like I was eating medicine.
2) Anywhere where we ate fish and chips. D for disappointing.
03 April 2010
Naina's got a new bed
Obviously its not for sleeping.
And to answer Deepti's question - no she wasn't!
And to answer Deepti's question - no she wasn't!
Random thoughts of Perth
N is better around more people than less. She is intensely social. Whilst still cranky Miss N, she found time to make friends with everyone who entered mum and dad's house, except my dad, who she remained a bit distant from unless it involved the pool, when she was his best friend/pool buddy.
She's an energizer bunny. See video in next post, but her energy for jumping is endless. She's got excellent calves. For jumping running and kicking (us).
N seems to know whenever I am asleep. She becomes some sort of guided missile, determined to wake me by sitting on my head.
Babies are close to indestructible. During aforementioned ice storm, N was jumping on the bed, landed awkwardly, hit her head on a book shelf and got an egg (really, an egg) bump on the back of her head. Intense (seriously intense) crying, howling, whimpering, I was despatched to pharmacy for Panadol and left with a sickening thought, she needs to go to hospital, she's cracked her skull, massive internal bleeding.
Come home, she's asleep, awoken to give aforementioned Panadol, less intense howling, we ring Emergeny who ask a few questions, like is she conscious, moving freely, bleeding. A few minutes of questioning, the nurse asks - ok, what's she doing now - she's smiling and laughing. Right. Ok nice nurse at PMH, we probably won't be bringing her in as she also demanding chilli noodles.
Her vocabulary, especially hindi improved. Her Australian accent is coming to the fore (ask her to say Yay!).
Our apologies to Benita and Andrew and Toby and Shelley and lots of other people. We were car-less for long periods and unable to meet. But we hope all is well.
She's an energizer bunny. See video in next post, but her energy for jumping is endless. She's got excellent calves. For jumping running and kicking (us).
N seems to know whenever I am asleep. She becomes some sort of guided missile, determined to wake me by sitting on my head.
Babies are close to indestructible. During aforementioned ice storm, N was jumping on the bed, landed awkwardly, hit her head on a book shelf and got an egg (really, an egg) bump on the back of her head. Intense (seriously intense) crying, howling, whimpering, I was despatched to pharmacy for Panadol and left with a sickening thought, she needs to go to hospital, she's cracked her skull, massive internal bleeding.
Come home, she's asleep, awoken to give aforementioned Panadol, less intense howling, we ring Emergeny who ask a few questions, like is she conscious, moving freely, bleeding. A few minutes of questioning, the nurse asks - ok, what's she doing now - she's smiling and laughing. Right. Ok nice nurse at PMH, we probably won't be bringing her in as she also demanding chilli noodles.
Her vocabulary, especially hindi improved. Her Australian accent is coming to the fore (ask her to say Yay!).
Our apologies to Benita and Andrew and Toby and Shelley and lots of other people. We were car-less for long periods and unable to meet. But we hope all is well.
Just some random... March 2010
Breaking the dog bowl. Note - we don't have a dog.
Rest break on way to Sorrento. Horsey rides are fun at the moment.
Not even close to the water.
Hail storm in Perth. Quite a frightening storm. Dad's car written off, house leaked in three spots. Nearly every plant in garden shredded. And hail like I've never seen.
Rest break on way to Sorrento. Horsey rides are fun at the moment.
Not even close to the water.
Hail storm in Perth. Quite a frightening storm. Dad's car written off, house leaked in three spots. Nearly every plant in garden shredded. And hail like I've never seen.
Water Water
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.
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.
Just some random... February 2010
Babies are good at sleeping in unusual positions.
Holi 2010! Happy Holi everyone!
Holi 2010! Happy Holi everyone!
Perth
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:
View Larger Map
Viewer note - not the actual path used.
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.
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:
View Larger Map
Viewer note - not the actual path used.
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.
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