Adventures of the dancing queen

Short but sweet.

Well, everything I typed disappeared. Bummer. I'll see if I can remember what I said.

Our adventure to dance class started with a bus trip. We took the bus instead of walking today because after class, we were planning to go check out another more modern stroller.

Holding hands.

Pom-poms love!

Rainbow ribbons.

What a shadow!

It turns out the last day of class (our 2nd) brought with it a "performance" for the parents as well as a photographer from the local paper. The kids are very photogenic in their outfits, of course, and rank right up there with pictures of baby animals in the cuteness factor.

Amelia surprised me this class and actually participated in almost all of the class. The only thing she skipped was jumping over the stuffed animals and crawling through the tunnel. Just not interested in that. But going to the magic line, playing under the parachute, twirling, stomping, whatever, she seemed interested in doing it this week. Hooray!

After class, we mosied over to the woman's apartment, but not before Amelia had to use the bathroom... 5 minutes after we left the studio. Luckily, there was some kind of Catholic looking facility complete with lots of sisters in uniforms who generously allowed us to use their toilet.

We found our way and Amelia even WALKED for a good part of the trip. Amazing because that kid never wants to walk and will act as if it's the end of the world if you ask her to do so. She will cry and say she can't walk. I don't know where that comes from. It bothers me though and I don't really know how to change it.

Eating her snap peas. Thanks mom & dad!

Once at the apartment, which was much smaller than our old 1 bedroom, we checked out the stroller. It seemed much larger than I had anticipated and yet Amelia barely fit. Scary. She got in and out a few times, as if to put her scent on it. And then got distracted by the alphabet floor tiles. In the end, I did not buy the stroller. It seemed like $90, while it's a good price for that piece, was too much for something we might not be using for very long. I guess we're just going to keep the relic.

Talking to her pie.

Eating her pie.

Not sharing her pie.

Our next stop was lunch in Randwick. We found a place to eat, a little cafe, and Amelia gobbled up her chicken pie. We caught the bus home and then it was time for a nap--both of us were pooped!

The popcorn has arrived!

Well not really popcorn, but you would think that was the special package Amelia got by her utter excitement. She played for at least an hour with the popcorn (it's not the styrofoam kind, but rather the kind which disintegrates in water.)

Actually, my parents sent Amelia a care package with a dozen packages of freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joes, along with a variety of other not to be missed items. I think she ate one entire bag at the first sitting! Since then, we are trying to have just handful with breakfast.

So excited about the popcorn.

The circle in the center was after
Amelia "swam" through the "water."

Before the package arrived, Amelia and I met a new friend for coffee and then onto Waverly library storytime. (We had been waiting for almost a week for it. My dad put the wrong address on it and then, after calling to change it, they still tried to deliver to the wrong one. It took them another 2 days to get it right!) I met a nice woman named Milly at Powerhouse Museum a few weeks before and we finally figured out a day to get together. Her daughter, Ruby, is about a year younger than Amelia.

This was their first time at the library and found it to be a great storytime experience. The librarian put on a little puppet show of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. And after the video, the kids colored in butterflies. It was perfect! The 4 of us headed to the mall for lunch (surprise!) and met Milly's husband Matt. Both kids were pretty knackered (I love that word) and in need of a nap. We said our goodbyes.

I later sent Milly a text to see if she knew of a babysitter because my anniversary was coming up. Guess what Milly did? She offered to watch Amelia for us on Saturday night so we could go out! That is kindness you don't see every day. Thanks Milly. You're a dear!

My green ballerina

No two ways about it... Amelia loves GREEN! I love that, when faced with beautiful costumes in frilly and fluffy pink, she finds the one in blue and green. We visited the Mothercare store at the Entertainment Quarter on Monday, after lunch with Eric. She showed Eric the dollhouse from last week, but then found her dress and stayed in it the rest of our stay. 

Thankfully, Amelia is very good about leaving things in the store. We always say, you can play with it while we're here, but we're not buying it. This works. She even will make a bargain with me when I say no to something, she'll say, I just want to hold it. Ok. I can't argue with that. I just remind her it's in-store only.

Playing with the dresses.

Pink is pretty, but not pretty enough!

This is almost like her owl dress.

Girl in fairy costume playing with trucks.

Which car?

I love kids.

How does she do it? She found the one
toy in the store that's blue and green too!

I went online later that night to see if I could find a green ballerina costume. They really don't exist. And the pretty green/blue dress is almost $60. It's not worth it to buy something that expensive. She has the owl dress which looks very similar. All the other green ballerina costumes have a Disney character on them or seem a little too old for a 3 year old.

Conked out in the stroller.

After a fun filled afternoon with Eric and playing dress-up, we head home. It was incredibly windy. I had to hold the blanket on otherwise it would have blown away. I guess spring is Sydney's windy season. And, as I've said before, Amelia really, really, really dislikes the wind. If I had the towel from the day before, that would have been much better for her and my back. (You try walking uphill, pushing a toddler in a giant stroller while trying to hold on to both sides of a blanket! Not an easy task.)

I was surprised to see that she stayed asleep in stroller for at least another 30-45 minutes once we got upstairs. That was our big outing for the day. And the grocery store.

Manly beach and the case of the missing shoe

The day we decided to go to Manly beach happened to be the day of the Sydney marathon. This is slightly important to the story.

One of Eric's co-workers called to say they were taking the 10:30 ferry to Manly. We wanted to be on the same ferry as them so we hurried our asses up, got out of the apartment, down to the bus station to buy out $2.50 family fun day passes, down to the train station, on the train, and then we waited for the train to leave. Amelia refuses to walk so we had the dinosaur stroller with us. It's not bad except the elevators take FOREVER! We eventually just picked her up and took the escalator down.

The quickest way to Circular Quay is train + bus. So we exited the train at Martin Place, ran to the bus, only to find out the buses weren't actually going any further because of the marathon. Ok. Put Amelia back in stroller and go. Go fast! We walk (I lightly jog to keep up with Eric and his lengthy legs) to the ferry at Circular Quay. It wasn't actually that far and it was kind of fun to see the streets closed with all of the runners. Another thing which brings back San Francisco memories.

Eric pushing Amelia to the ferry.

The finish line!

Sydney Marathoners

I felt like we, too, made it to the finish line. Left our apartment around 9:45 and made it to the ferry before the 10:30 departure. There were loads of people waiting too.

What a queue at the Quay!

Waiting to get on the ferry.

One thing about Amelia: she intensely dislikes the wind. Any kind of wind. Wind from a hand dryer. Wind from the car window. Wind from, well, the wind! And being on the ferry was no exception. We had to stay inside (though I did pop outside for a little fresh air). During the 30 min. ride, we found ways to entertain ourselves.

Our seats

Dancing on the seats.

Peek-a-boo!

Up and over!

Once we got to Manly, we found the Third Floor folks and then headed off to our destination: Shelly beach. It was a nice long walk to the somewhat sheltered beach but we had to stop at beautiful ocean pool first. Amelia just had to go in it! Eric and I and Amelia went in, though I didn't stay in for too long--it was freezing! Not sure how Amelia did it really, but kids have some weird ability to be in icy water and not be bothered. I've seen this phenomenon at Norther California beaches where, even at the height of summer, the water hurst to go in! We saw lots of kids in this pool and I just wondered if there was something I could do to make my skin more resistent to the cold.

Manly has lots of sculptures, even at the pool!

Ocean water pool.

Playing on the steps.

View from the pool.

Finally, after an hour of so of getting in and out of the pool, it was time for lunch. We finished the walk to Shelly and, of course, they have a little over-priced cafe. We get our sandwiches and head to the sand. Big mistake. Not only is it windy (strike 1), and Amelia is over tired (strike 2), but we have to figure out how to get our behemoth stroller over to our blanket (which happens to be the one we just bought for Amelia at Ikea.) Eric folds it up and carries it over. His friends were all planning to go snorkeling so no one was around to watch the stroller (really, we should have just left it by the cafe--I mean, really, who would want to steal that thing????)

Shortly after getting to Manly, I bought a rather cheap beach umbrella. Another big mistake. I noticed not one single umbrella on the beach, only tents with mesh air vents. You know why? The wind. Of course. Eric had put the umbrella up and not 2 minutes later did that thing take flight, tumble end over end and then almost impale another beach-goer. So it's super sunny, windy and now we have sand in our over-priced lunch (which we haven't eaten yet). Hmph.

My little ghost!

After eating our sandy sandwiches, Eric took Amelia to the water. Oops. That didn't work. It was too sandy and her feet were dirty! Ok. Time for a nap. That was about 15-20 min of beach time. Next, gather everything back up. Pack it in the bags, carry everything but the stroller and umbrella back to the  cafe area. Eric went back for the stroller while I wiped Amelia's feet. Got her in the stroller and walked back towards the pool, hoping she would fall asleep. It was super windy and the little blanket we brought with us barely covered the stroller's hood. It was my feeble attempt to stop the wind from keeping Amelia awake. Eventually it worked.

I pushed the stroller all up and down the boardwalk while Eric and he cohorts played beach volleyball. It was fairly difficult to keep the blanket from flying away but eventually I had a stroke of genius: use one of the towels we brought instead! Wow. Why didn't I think of this sooner? After the 2 hours or so was up, Amelia finally came to and seemed very excited to see her daddy playing in the sand. We sat above the beach, at the boardwalk, cheering both sides. Amelia wanted to walk around but when I went to grab her shoes out from the basket at the bottom of the stroller... one was gone!

I couldn't believe it! Brand new shoes! How could this be? I was really upset. Had it fallen out on my walk? Did it come out near the pool? Had we lost it in the sand? I asked Eric to look in our other bag but it wasn't there. After he finished playing volleyball, I told him I wanted to look for the shoe. He, of course, thought I was crazy. Crazy Amelia wanted to go back in the pool, which by this time, must be even colder! The wind had picked up and the sun was going down. But one last dip might be fine. We all walked to the pool and I left them to freeze. My entire walk I kept going over the scenarios where I find the shoe, or I don't find it. How am I going to feel. Why am I so upset over a stupid shoe?

Eric and his co-workers all played beach volleyball.

Playing in the water... the cold, cold water!

The missing shoe.

I see families and want to ask them about a Lost & Found, but I keep walking. I get to the table where we sat after being on the sand and ask them about a shoe. They just look at me funny. I went inside the cafe and asked them about the shoe. Again, funny looks. No shoe. I venture to the sand and take off my own shoes, looking for our little spot. I see new faces, more kids, lots of shells (I get distracted by the shells), look out across the water and turn back to path. Feeling rather dejected, I look down, trying to rationalize all of this. I look up just a few inches and LO AND BEHOLD I FOUND THE SHOE! That's right! I found it! Seriously, not making this up, I dropped to my knees and shouted with glee! So stupid that finding that shoe would bring me such joy. I felt like a heavy weight had been lifted. My crummy beach day had a purpose after all. 

I went back to the people at the table and showed them the shoe." See? I said, I found it! It exists!" The lady in the cafe seemed rather surprised as if she was thinking, "Wow. No one ever finds lost beach crap." Walking back (on cloud 9) to Eric and Amelia I wondered how I was going to tell them I found it. My decision? Hide it behind my back and spring it on them. They were both excited and surprised as hell. The perfect reaction.

Practicing ballet moves in the water.

After this, we realized it was time to call it a day. Nothing, except ice cream could to that. And besides, Amelia's lips were turning blue--a sure sign she had had enough fun for the day.

View of Manly from the pool.

Still wanted to go in at the end of the day!.

We'll have a lot to give away

In addition to all of our stuff at home we need to go through, now we'll have plenty of things here to give away too! Yesterday we got Amelia a bed. The bedframe we bought off of Gumtree (the Craigslist of Australia) for $20. Not bad. It did cost us $5.50 in tolls to get there, so we'll just say the bed was $25. Not bad considering a new one costs $80.

Yep. We're at Ikea!

Oddly enough, it feels rather comforting to be here.

Most toddler beds will take the mattress from a crib, However... the fact is it's Ikea, and though I love them dearly, they never seem to make things a standard size. We had to buy a mattress and sheets to fit. The mattress we chose was the cheapest one they make. We figured, it's only for a few months and we can't take it with us. There is only one fitted sheet which fits that size bed, so we bought that. And we got a flat sheet in... you guessed it... GREEN! Amelia's favorite color. And instead of buying the adorable duvets they make (which would have cost us almost $40) we chose a light fleece blanket in... GREEN! for $4.99. Perfect.

It was kind of a crazy trip. Being in Ikea in Sydney, felt a little bit like home. They have all the same things we have, maybe a few more, a few less, but essentially, a little bit of home. We ended up spending just shy of $160 dollars on everything. In addition to the bedding, we bought 1 collapsable basket for the stuffed animals and 1 for the laundry, mini utensil set (somehow we lost the first $15 set I bought. I can't believe I have now spent $25 on kid cutlery) a set of art supplies which includes paint, crayons, colored pencils and a much needed sharpener, a big pack of colored and white paper, a kitty cat hand puppet, placemats, cutting boards, straws, and a scrub brush for the dishes (I intensely dislike the one they have at our hotel/apartment. It doesn't fit into anything!)

In Ikea's Kid Zone.

The giant ball pit!

 It was kind of a big day. After the shopping, Amelia saw the kids drop-off area and showed some interest. They have a giant ball-pit area, a movie viewing area and other fun stuff for kids. We dropped her off and Eric took the booty back to the car while I watched through the window. There were many, many kids in there, most of whom were bigger and faster. The youngest they accept is 3, and I fudged it a little so she could get in. Seemed like most of the kids were 6 or 7.

Genius.

Amelia stayed in the kid zone for about 20 min and then we had an Ikea ice cream cone. It's only 50 cents here and they give you a token to get the vanilla deliciousness on your own. There is a cool machine which automatically does it once you put the cone and a token in it.

Messy face.

Pure love!

All this joy for only 50 cents!

Perfect kid sized cone.

It's all gone.

The tunnel on the way home.

Reading Olivia in her new bed.

In bed with softie and Munti.

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the bed together and playing with everything we just bought. After the big adventure to Ikea, we went on another adventure and walked to Paddington for dinner at The Wine Library. It was expensive, but quite delicious. They made a grilled cheese sandwich which tasted like french onion soup. It was amazing! I think Amelia and I will try going for lunch--maybe they have cheaper afternoon selections.