We had tickets with Vio’s sister and kids to go to the Arts Centre to watch 3 Little Pigs. We would ordinarily take the train, but the line has lots of work which means lots of delays. So we drove. There were soi many road works in the city, so fortunately we had left early. I hate to be late, and finding parking is not my favourite thing to do so I can often become a little short and intolerant. Something I’m going to work a little harder on this year! The show was great fun, Alex enjoyed it as did Daniel, with the exception of the Big Bad Wolf – he hid behind my hands! We had the wolf’s song “I’ll huff and I’ll puff” stuck in our heads afterwards.
A trip to the city is not complete without a visit to Birrarung Marr. So we played – Alex had a boy come ask him to play that had a stutter. It’s only really significant because Alex stuttered for almost a year between 2 and 3 years old and I remember how he was treated by adults. Alex however was very patient in waiting for the boy to speak to him and didn’t say anything about it after – I didn’t highlight it either.
I decided to take the kids to the Immigration Museum as we had never been and i thought there would be some school holiday activities on. The kids walked straight through the first few exhibits but stopped at a giant boat. We were reading and looking at some information about stowaway flora and fauna. Daniel was very excited, perhaps due to a new place. All of a sudden I heard a lady addressing me – “He hit me!” Daniel had slapped her legs in his excitement. I apologised and said that he was only 2. I was going to say more but she interrupted with “I have kids and they NEVER hit”. Oh how I wished I had said more than “you are being ridiculous!” I promptly left. This kind of things happens way too often. The childism here is hard to bear.
In the evening, the kids were playing outside with Vio. We love summer nights!
We had a friend over to play. The kids played outside making snakes and dressing up. I had made Daniel some play dough so that was used in the ‘kitchen’ too. Alex played Connect 4 with his friend, who got very upset when he lost and so Alex changed the rules to appease him and let him win! I was quite surprised as Alex can often get upset by losing himself. i wonder if this will affect him when losing in future – to see the other side.
When Daniel was napping we played real Monopoly, though we didn’t finish it. Daniel has been asking for the potty lately, he’s also have some hard days with lots of tantrums. It must be hard to not be able to do and say as Alex does, but be subject to Alex’s desires and schedules so often.
The following day was a Junior Rangers activity, so we returned to Serendip eagerly. The kids got to feed different animals, Alex hand fed a tawny frogmouth! Alex was very interested in identifying different birds, and at home after we looked through photos and used our field guides to do so. There were some upsets though as the ranger didn’t really listen to kids, she was just concerned with the schedule. She misunderstood Alex a few times and reprimanded him, which was very disappointing. We were a little put off by the ‘don’t remove feathers, don’t do this, that etc’. I have since spoken to someone else about this and how it deters kids from nature instead of encouraging it.
We decided to head to Werribee zoo after and not remain for another Junior Rangers. We saw the lion cubs up close which was amazing! The kids had a ball in the hippo water park, in their undies as I brought no bathers! We did the bus tour of course, and Alex would grab Daniel every time the driver mentioned the road would be bumpy, it was so cute to see him care for his brother!
