Orientation day at Nursery #1

Well, today was Mia's orientation day at the nursery that she will be going to on a Tuesday and a Wednesday.  She seemed to be absolutely fine, playing with the other kids in the play area for a bit, whilst I was talked through the things I have to sign when I drop her off and where to put her drink cup, nappies, fruit etc.  I've had to label her clothes, her cot sheet and I even have to write her name on the front of the nappies that I will leave at the nursery for her!

The carers there thought she was a lovely, happy little girl and seemed to take to her.  Mia took to them as well and let them pick her up.  She played with the toys and even shared one of them with another little girl who was about the same age as Mia but who can't walk yet.  The carers seemed impressed with her sharing toys.  

I tried to stay in the background as much as I could, but ended up playing with the other kids as well.  The children there all seemed quite nice, one little boy tried to hug her but Mia wasn't interested.  In fact another little boy actually pushed her over, but Mia was fine.  She didn't cry, just looked at me for a second then got herself up and carried on.  So that makes me feel better about how she'll cope on her own.  In fact when it was time to go inside, the other kids piled up the stairs and Mia just followed, well slowly climbed up the stairs.  She didn't seem fazed by anything.  Just confidently got stuck in!  She seemed quite vocal as well, compared to the other children her age.  

The carers thought Mia was very good around other children, and seemed to think we had spent a lot of time at playgroups but I haven't really been part of any playgroups.  I did do a baby sing and sign class with her and I've tried to let her play with as many kids as I can.  Which is one of the reasons why I wanted her to go to nursery, so that she would learn the social skills that she'll get from playing with other kids.

We spent about an hour and a half there and she fell asleep in the pushchair on the walk home.  She didn't have her usual morning nap as we had had to get there at 10am, so she was tired out.  I met my mum for a coffee and some lunch and we went to the kids playground, around the corner from our flat, when Mia woke up.  

Catch the pigeon

We went for a little drive yesterday through Woolloomooloo, Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Rushcutter's Bay, past Darling Point, Double Bay and finally we stopped off at Rose Bay for a look around.  The seaplanes are based at Rose Bay, so we saw a few land and take off in the harbour whilst we were there.  

It was a glorious day and there was a kids playground right near the water's edge, so we let Mia have a little play around.  She chased the seagulls and pigeons and started pointing at the older children, especially the older boys!!  She's quite confident in playgrounds now, and only looks for us every now and again to make sure we are still there but she has no qualms about going over to things she wants to play with.

Today we decided to have a picnic on the beach at Balmoral.  It was more like 'do you want cheese with your sand and crackers?' but still an enjoyable afternoon, relaxing on the beach by the sea.  Balmoral Beach is our local beach and doesn't usually get too busy.   

Believe it or not but this was the first time me and Damien had actually gone sunbathing on a beach since we arrived here in December!!  We just have not had the time as we've been exploring around the Sydney area as much as we can.  

We took Mia into the sea, she was a bit hesitant at first but she soon got round to splashing us.  The sea was a bit cold so she held on tightly and didn't want to be floating too much.  

She is getting used to the sand as well, especially since I taught her how to brush her hands clean, so she wipes the sand off of them all on her own now.  

In fact, she has learned quite a few little tricks now.  She can do a monkey impression when you say the word 'monkey'.  She does the baby sign for 'lights' when the lights are switched on, I think she has also just learnt the sign for 'finished, all gone'.  She knows who Granny is, she does loads of things on command, i.e. give the book to daddy, or drink your milk/water.  

She still loves to help me with the washing and constantly puts all the clothes on her head.  The other day she was wondering around the lounge with her pink knickers on her head which looked like she was wearing a pink beret.  It was hilarious.

Tooth number 9 has arrived

Just spotted another tooth in Mia's increasingly sharp mouth. She was in a particularly giddy mood in the car on the way back from Manly and our walk around to Shelly Beach today. So when she was laughing I could see a little tooth iceberg popping through on her bottom jaw.

My brother has now left Sydney and is in Melbourne with his friends. We've had a busy week so far, showing both him and my mum around the sights of Sydney and the Blue Mountains. We walked around Circular Quay on Saturday and took loads of pictures in front of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Had a coffee at the Opera Bar, walked around The Rocks, had a great lunch in a bar called The Argyle where Mia wanted to get down and explore everywhere. 

On the Sunday we walked around just as much and went over to Woolloomooloo and had pie, mash, peas and gravy at Harry's Cafe de Wheels. We took them to Darling Harbour because it was Easter weekend, and there is always stuff going on over there. They had some sort of Hoopla festival with circus acts dotted around. Mia was more interested in the playground, and a five-year-old girl called Dorothy. Little Dorothy thought Mia was cute!!

The Blue Mountains trip was great. We stayed in a cottage in Katoomba, very close to Echo Point, which is where you get a great view of the Three Sisters. Obviously we took the obligatory thousand pictures of us all there.  

The cottage had a fire, which Damien kept going for us throughout the three days.  There's not much to do in Katoomba or Leura (the next village along) so we just had takeaways and stayed in drinking wine!

The views at Govetts Leap Falls near Blackheath were particularly amazing, well worth a look.  Mia had a great time in the cottage, she even learned how to climb up the stairs!  

Here's a little video of her being silly at the cottage.  

Mia and the vacuum cleaner

Mia's first enrolment

We went to enrol Mia at the child care centre today, the one where she will be going on a Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had a quick tour round, as Damien had not been there before and then we left Mia to play with the other kids in the play area whilst we went off to do the paperwork.  For some stupid reason this is where I decided to get upset!!  Even though we weren't actually going to leave her there today.  Mia was fine, just looking at the other kids and starting to play with the toys they had out on the floor.  To be honest, the toys at this place aren't that great, they were all a bit damaged and old and not very inspiring to me.  

Anyway, whilst we were in the office, apparently all the other kids came over to Mia and a few of them tried to kiss her!!  The woman looking after her said that Mia just stared at them and didn't seem bothered.  

When we came back, Mia looked visibly happy to see us and started to show us the toys she had been playing with and then she clambered over to us.  We carried on playing with her and the others kids to help ease her into her new environment and a little girl came over and gave Mia a little plastic boat.  So all in all I think it went well, Mia just seemed to take it all in her stride, didn't seem that bothered but not totally at ease with it all either.  I suppose we'll just wait and see what happens at her orientation day.  Mia won't be starting there until 1st April now, so that's a bit of relief for us both as we now have time to get used to the whole idea of Mia not being looked after by us during the day.  We didn't realise how hard it would be for us to put Mia into nursery.  I'm sure it'll all be fine after she's been there for a couple of weeks.

I took Mia to the playground round the corner in the afternoon and she enjoyed herself playing with the different apparatus, slides and swings.  She loves the slide, it's a bit steep for her to go down it on her own, so I hold onto her and slide her down.  She laughs all the way down.

Whilst she was playing with some giant abacus thing, some little girl came over to her and hugged her twice!  Mia just stood there, not moving, with her arms by her side and then she pulled a little face as if to say "what are you doing?" and then attempted to push the girl away.  It was hilarious.  It made me think that Mia will probably stand up for herself with the older kids whilst she is at nursery.  Which in turn makes me feel a bit happier about her going to a nursery.

Trainer danger

The good news for me is that my knees are no longer painful, so I don't need to take painkillers everyday just to walk to the shops or sit on the floor with Mia.  So I have bought myself a new pair of running trainers, well the old ones were ten years old!!  

So this time instead of running full pelt to go as far as I can, I will take it steady and just do some fast walking to build up my knee muscles then gradually I can start running again and getting fit.  These new trainers give me great support as well as stopping me overpronating as much when I run, so that I do not injure my knee ligaments again.

I've ordered some name labels and tags for Mia, so that we can label her clothes and cups when she starts at day care.  So I'll take a picture of them for you when they are delivered.  She only had one nap again today, so I think we are going to be gradually losing the morning nap, which means I'm going to have to get up at 6.30am just to have a shower and get ready before she wakes up.

Three jabs for Mia

Mia had her immunisations today.  Three needles at once, poor thing.  She did cry a bit after but soon calmed down when she saw the raisins I had for her!!  She loves raisins.  I had to hold her two little arms and then three women came at her with their needles, one in each arm and one in her thigh.  Damien came with us and he saw her face just scrunch up with pain.  She had the MMR injection and also another Meningitec C and a Hib one as well.  No more injections now until she is 18 months old.

The place was packed with kids and parents.  There was a little play area in the middle and Mia just got stuck in, playing with the toys and interacting with the other kids, she seemed in her element, touching other children and actually sharing toys with them.  What a good girl!!  We could hardly drag her away when it came to actually having her jabs.

Damien also had injections today - his were at the doctors though and were for his trip to Beijing.  He's been complaining of an extremely sore arm, maybe I should give him some raisins too!

Need a shave??

One year check-up

Mia had her 12 month developmental check up today and everything was fine.  She is 73cm tall and now weighs 9.5 kg, so about average.  They were quite amazed with her walking abilities, they said she seemed very strong and stable on her legs.  Everything else with her development is fine, plenty of babbling and attempts to say words. 

I then went over to the childcare centre to get the enrolment forms and the atmosphere there was great.  There seemed to be lots of kids in there and they all seemed very happy.  They were having their lunch, so most of them were sat in highchairs.  So I put Mia down on the floor whilst I continued chatting to the director and she just stood and stared at all the children.  She kept pointing at them and looking up at me as if she was showing them to me.  She seemed quite excited by it all.  Everyone thought she was cute and couldn't believe she was walking, saying something like "She looks too small to be walking".  Then something must've spooked her as she tried to climb up my leg.  So I came out of there a bit happier at putting her in there for two days a week.  There were pictures hanging from the ceiling, so they must've just done some painting (well, scribbling or making a mess).  I love that, can't wait for Mia to start scribbling, playing in the sandpit and generally making a big mess whilst having fun with other kids.  It's just what she needs. I'm sure she'll love it, and I don't think it will take her that long to settle in.  

Day care for Mia

We've managed to get two days for Mia at the child care centre that I really liked and two days at the other child care centre.  So that means I now have to get onto the task of finding myself a job. 

It's going to be really hard leaving Mia in the care of someone else for 4 days a week, but I suppose it has to be done.  She'll love it, when she settles in.  There'll be other children to play with and other toys to 'sort' into piles!!  I hope she eats the food that they give her and that they help her use her spoon.  She will start on her first day on 18th March and then she'll just go for one or two days whilst her granny and uncle dan are visiting then she'll start at the other place.

The Stansfields are back online

Well as the title of this post suggests, we have finally got the internet in our home, so at last we can catch up with the world!  

I have added new photos to the links on the right, so have a look if you've got nothing better to do.  

We have managed to get Mia a place in nursery for one day a week.  Hopefully we will get more days but for the moment, we have just taken what we could get.  So we are going in next Thursday to enrol and for Mia to meet her carers and the other children and then she starts properly on the following Tuesday.  No doubt there will be tears when we leave her there for the day - mine not hers.  It's going to be so strange for me, having had her with me for 24 hours a day for a year to suddenly being on my own with all the time in the world.  I've actually got loads to do around the house, so unluckily for me, I won't be swanning off to look around the shops.  

I didn't think the nursery was that great too be honest, the room she will be playing in was quite small compared to another nursery that I went to look at but they don't have any vacancies.  I'll keep trying though.

Happy 1st Birthday Mia Rose

Mia seemed to have a wonderful 1st birthday.  She woke up a bit late and was a bit overwhelmed by seeing all her birthday presents all wrapped up in the lounge.  She didn't really know what to make of it all but once a few presents were ripped open she seemed to be enjoying herself.  Especially when the drum and drumsticks were opened.  She has had the drumsticks in her little clenched fists at every opportunity today and banging anything she can find.  She loved her little tricycle that her granny bought her as it has it has a flag that she can swish around and a bell to ring and the shop that her other gran bought for her she loves as well, as it makes lots of different noises and there are plenty of things on it that she can push and hit.  She is carrying around her little cuddly kangaroo that her great gran bought for her in the basket of her tricycle along with her new mobile phone and her new shoes.  What more could a little one-year-old girl ask for??

We got to Taronga Zoo about midday and the first animals we saw were the huge giraffes.  They have amazing views overlooking the harbour onto the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.  Mia was really taken with the giraffes - probably because they were so huge.  We felt like we were really close to them as well.  Then we saw the elephants, she liked them as well and kept pointing at them and trying to talk to us about what she was seeing.  She just seemed fascinated by all the animals, it was lovely to see.  We bought a year pass for the zoo, so over the next year as Mia grows and changes, she'll have different reactions to the animals and I'm sure a few will stand out as her favourites.  We watched the feeding of the gorillas. The alpha male was huge, he was a big Silverback Western Lowland gorilla. 

Nearly a toddler

Well, we have got everything ready for Mia's first birthday.  All the presents are bought and wrapped and are ready for two little hands to try and rip the wrapping paper off.

Neither of us can believe how fast this last year has gone.  She has changed so much, she hardly ever crawls now and is toddling around everywhere.  She is a proper little toddler now and is into everything.  We just put up the bookcase yesterday and all ready today, most of the books on the bottom shelves have ended up on the floor and then 'sorted' into piles and some of them piled back onto the bookcase.  So consequently we've ended up with a few tantrums today when I wouldn't let her eat some of the books or 'sort' some of them.  

She is now sound asleep in her cot, hopefully dreaming about the animals she will be meeting at Taronga Zoo tomorrow.