Wednesday I was determined to get us out of the house and do something fun as I feel we are turning into slugs that drive everywhere. So I was skipping playgroup - it's at the wrong time (Rowan's nap) and Ellis doesn't seem to like it too much (aside from the cookies which is how I usually get him to go - "don't forget, you can have a cookie."
With the pressure off, I puttered around the house and let the kids do their thing - they are better in the morning and this made the entire getting ready to get out the door somehow less stressful. We'd go when we were ready - no playgroup start time was going to determine our day.
I decided to walk to the Regatta city cat terminal. The weather station on my iphone said it was going to be nice. I loaded up the double stroller and off we set. We got to the neighbours house when a tropical storm set in. I quickly rolled down their driveway and we hung out in their carport until the deluge stopped.
Fortunately, it seemed to be a rogue cloud and we were off again. I was trying to figure out the best way to get there - I seemed to pick the wrong way everytime. Not a pedestrian friendly city. I would get to one corner only to have to cross to the other side to cross the street. Plus the lights..... so slow. Was discussing it with Cyp's boss - they do not have car sensors in the pavement here like at home. The lights are fixed - it is a pain.
Ellis kept a running commentary the entire way. "Now which way are we going.... How come?"
"How come? How come? How come?" This has replaced why and he says it about 10 billion times a day. It doesn't matter what my response is - if I try to give a rational response, this leads to more "how comes?" So eventually I revert to "because" and that seems to satisfy him better.
We got to the Citycat stop just as a citycat was arriving, so that was great. Rowan was dutifully having his nap at this point. As we entered the city district, I thought Brisbane really is a lovely city from that angle - soaring bridges over the river with beautiful tropical trees and flowers and a great blue sky with those puffy white clouds that G. Anita has noticed in my pictures. It is a nice temperature now - still warm but has the fall feeling. Landlord/neighbour Sue said to me that I probably still thought this felt like summer - yup. Brr - she shuddered. It's about 25 still during the days.
We went to the State Library first ("How come?)" because I wanted them to play for a bit before we hit the waterpark. We went through the forest walk only to discover we couldn't go our usual way as there was a fence ("how come?") blocking the ramp so we had to turn around and go back - typical - no signs to let you know that it wasn't wheelchair/pram accessible anymore.
The corner (kids area) at the library had been revamped - they change it every 4 months- it is really good and I saw another mom from playgroup there. Yah - it's better than playgroup and it's free.
Ellis befriended a little girl with a wicked cough (sigh) and they ran around like maniacs. He seems to gravitate to girls and I think it was Tracey who pointed out (or actually maybe it was Cyp) that he gravitates to dark haired girls as they look like Dora.
He then glued himself to the computer there - I was on the other side of the room with Rowan when a little boy came screaming and wailing over to his mom who was sitting next to me.
"HE POKED ME!"
I had a sneaking suspicion it was Ellis - actually, I knew it was. This kid had been crowding Ellis on the computer. I decided to pretend I only had one kid. Rowan destroyed a few more displays and I decided it was time to go so went to get Ellis at the computer - all the waiting kids were keeping a respectable distance away from him now.
We managed to avoid the library cafe somehow and headed to the waterpark where there were two other kids playing. It was fantastic! We ate lunch on the "beach" and then I got the kids into their cozzies. They were being saint like really - Rowan didn't put sand in his mouth. Ellis waiting for me to dress Rowan. I felt like supermom the day was going so well (no - this is not leading to a disaster, it kept going well).
Ellis ran around all over - but I could see him as no one else was there. We're hardy Cdns I guess - but seriously, it was still warm. Rowan kept crawling full speed ahead into the deep water and eventually I got tired of having to rescue him from drowning himself. I think he was partially trying to figure out the walking thing. He realized that falling into water didn't hurt as much. He also kinda reminded me of a dog as he would go crawling so fast into the water, when he reached the deep part he would start four legged paddling. I think he almost floats.
Caught the citycat home and then had to hike the 2.3 km home (up hill). Was totally thrashed by the time I got home and so was Ellis. Meltdown city. I ignored him and he eventually stopped. He couldn't maintain sanity through dinner so went to bed halfway through (and fell asleep). It was fantastic.
Oh and to top it all off - it was Lost night and Rex was on. YAYAYAYAY! What a great day.
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