Out and About: A view of things from afar

Mt Gravatt lookout is reasonably close to us and it's recently been revamped with a native garden, playground and cafe, all surrounded by protected bushland and chorusing kookaburras. It's a great place to visit and explore. When Olma recently came for a short stay we all took a trip up the hill.
Gwen particularly loved the native garden and it's murals as well as the two butcher birds who delighted in eating some discarded biscuit crumbs.
It had been raining and she also indulged in another favorite pastime: stomping. We'll have to visit again soon.

Things to do: Visit the Ducks

We love going down to this reclaimed wetland in Camp Hill. The wetland is full of ducks, swamp hen and ibis that have successfully trained every visiting human to feed them.

The first couple of times we went they got a small amount of bread, but I knew it wasn't very good for them, so now when we go they get chicken laying pellets which, apparently, are full of all sorts of goodness, but not quite as instantly delectable as the bread.

Gwen tears along the boardwalk, ducks following on the water below vying to be the first to get a feed. she loves it and happily chats about it for days afterwards. You can tell by all of the "quack quack" sounds she casually drops into her babble conversations.
This sort of outing often becomes a social opportunity for both you and your toddler. You might stumble across someone else who's out to feed the ducks and offer to share your "bick" (biscuit)

Things to do: Read Something

You don't need to follow the words, you can make up your own or just point things out each other. Gwen loves to read. Her current favorite books are
"Click Clack Crocodiles back" by Katheryn White"
"You and Me, Murawee"by Kerri Hashmi
"All the World"by Liz Garton Scanlon
"Time for bed" by Mem Fox
"5 Little Sleepyheads" by Andreas Nemet

We have tiny card books in the car, on the change table and scattered randomly throughout the house. Today she even tried to give one to the chickens.

Out and About: Our Dog & On The Farm

This beautiful dog sits patiently near daddys work. Gwen loves to pat him, hug him and point out his nose, ears, eyes and paws.On the way home from dropping Daddy off Gwen suggested a trip to Capalaba Produce where they have a collection of farm animals for people to see. All I heard from the back seat for about 10 minutes was "baaa, baaaa!" and "ca-cow!"(her sound for a peacock).

Things to do: Washable Textas

Paper plates and washable textas are great for when drawing with crayons on big bits of paper gets too boring. Other objects to draw on include big cardboard tubes, junk mail, the inside of cereal boxes and, if you're not paying close enough attention, the cat.

Out and About: Gwens First Hot Chocolate Ever

We met up with Nandi and Buppa today at the convention center. On the way there we stopped for a soy hot chocolate to keep away the cold. Gwen loved staking pillows in the window seat and rearranging some of the cutlery while awaiting the arrival of her (daddys) drink.

She mulled over her first spoonful, unsure if she liked it. After contemplating it for a few seconds she politely asked for more with some very expressive body language.

Daddy helped to finish it off.Nandi and Buppa awaited us in the foyer, providing hugs on request. Gwen now says "Hug?" when she wants to be picked up. It's adorable.

She sampled food from just about every stall, played with balloons during the cooking demo and even scored a rainbow slinky, our new favorite toy.


Gwen fell asleep in the car. When we got home she slept for almost 3 hours. She played in our bedroom for awhile, we had lunch, pottered in the garden, played with a stickytape board and colourful scraps then went on a shopping expedition with the push-trike. Dinner, bath then bed.

She is currently co-sleeping with daddy.