The Number Garden

Yesterday I made the mistake of staying home in the morning. The kids slowly get more and more wound up and made more and more of a mess. I basically follow them around the house just trying to maintain a certain level of order. It's mostly Rowan I guess - Ellis just sits in front of the computer all day. He's addicted I'd say. Rowan goes from room to room pulling stuff from doors, cupboards and dripping cheerios from his snack cup. We may have lost that snack cup and secretly I think I'm relieved. Ellis was not this bad - I can remember that as I remember Emilie was. I can remember thinking "phew - I'm glad Ellis doesn't cart stuff around the house like that." Or maybe it's just that we have too much stuff now. I should do an inventory of stuffed animals - the problem is, we still have mine and Cyp's when we were kids (can you imagine what kind of dust mites live in those guys?). Rowan really likes books - mainly to eat, at least he has a varied diet. A lot of Ellis's books were in pristine condition - there is one Peekaboo book that Suzy and Max had given him. Rowan loves it! It is slowly being shredded into pieces - at first I was like "don't bend it!" and now I'm like - oh well - it keeps him happy and really what am I saving it for? It is meant to be used by a destructive baby.

I gave Ellis a choice of what to do after lunch (always phrase questions as a choice for Ellis - I'm still very forgetful about this and I always end up paying) and he picked the number garden at the Botanical gardens. We had to walk as Rowan hadn't napped yet. Ellis always likes to ask what would happen to Rowan if I let go of the stroller. Yup - he would go flying - so would you by the way. Did I mention that Rowan threw his sippy cup out the car one day? The car was parked on our street. I didn't notice, but when I driving home I saw it lying in the middle of the road - about 300 metres from where it started. It has big chunky handles on both side yet still managed to roll that far. We live on a big hill.

Ellis loves the number garden - they have installations for kids - you get a little trail map. There are 17. Good thing we walked to the garden - it was Mother's Day and it seems that everyone else had that idea too.

We stopped in Anzac park on the way home - it was also packed - I noted recently that it has been ranked as a top 10 playground in Brisbane. I watched Ellis playing - he likes to climb on top of the big truck and dance around. He is going to go sailing off one day. When other bigger kids climbed up there, Ellis would give them subtle pushes. Next we moved over to the sandpit. He took it upon himself to tell some bigger girls that they weren't playing with the equipment properly. Then when they tried to build a sand castle, he kept running through it. One girl gave him what for - I just stood back and pretended I didn't know him. We moved on and this time he stole some green mangoes (actually - I'm not sure what they were) that another girl was playing pretend with. Rowan tripped and smashed his nose so I decided it was time to go.

We stopped at the fish place on the way home - maybe they were hungry. Rowan was very excited to sit in an adult chair and fortunately, Ellis remembered we had brought his leapster. All was going well till Ellis decided he had to pee in mid meal. We managed.

While we were out walking our neighbours/landlords invited us to dinner. Hmm. I know that they are trying to be helpful, but sometimes it is just easier to feed the kids at home on their own turf and then put them to bed. I accepted though as it would be good to talk to an adult. I had to figure out how to get Ellis to go willingly though. At first he thought we were going to Sue and Bob's so he was excited about that. Nope - Ted and Sue - our neighbours. Hmmm.

"Let's go to the store and get dessert." I said.

"ok" said Ellis.

Off we went - I managed to get wine and even a few things at the store - Ellis was very well behaved.

When we got back it was time to head to Ted and Sue's - Ellis ran to get in the car.

"uh - Ellis - we are going next door."

"how come?"

"We are going to our neighbours."

Hmm - puzzled look - but he followed - I had the cake in my hand after all.

Ted and Sue's house is pretty amazing - they are at the top of the hill - they have a porch that wraps the entire way around their house - a 360 view of Brisbane.

As soon as we got there, Rowan became Mr. Clingy and Ellis started jumping on their furniture. Hmm - how was this going to work. Fortunately, Ted and Sue have two kids that are older - 15 and 12 maybe? Jack and Lucy ("we had a cat named Lucy." said Ellis) were ordered to mind the children. I felt a little bad for them but then was like - oh well. They took Ellis outside (Rowan was glued to me) but came back a short while later. Ellis abandoned them after getting bored outside and came running upstairs. Plan 2 - they have a Wii. Phew. Ellis disappeared again. "They have different CDs!"

They also have a dog Monty. Rowan just sat on me the entire time going "Da? Da!" After that got tired, I started playing fetch (with Rowan that is).

Ellis got bored of the Wii too so Sue decided dinner must be ready. Ellis apparently could smell the broccoli downstairs (he has quite the nose on him). We ate in stages - kids first. After Ellis hadn't eaten a few bites he said "where's my cake?"

"hmm - someone's been bribed." said Ted. Well, if it works....

I gave Rowan my wallet so I could eat dinner. Afterwards, Ellis went downstairs again to watch TV with Lucy and we talked a bit more until Rowan started falling over every two seconds. He was tired.

It was easy to get the kids to bed - both crashed quickly. Too bad there was nothing good on TV. I don't watch V.