Sparrow Lorelei and Robin Artemis photo gallery
Family adventures part 2, July-August, 2011
Return to Robin's index - Return to Sparrow's index
Scienceworks
We went to Scienceworks and saw their special dinosaur exhibition. (When Sparrow was Robin's current age we also went to a special exhibition but that one was on Star Wars. So each child's been to the Museum at this age, and had much the same non-sequitur kind of response :-). It was quite cool, with several animatronic dinosaurs that Sparrow quite liked at first. Her favourite bit though was the archaeological dig, which was essentially a giant sandpit with brooms in it. You just don't get better than that for a playspace, by her current standards, unless it had had a few more rocks. Interestingly she got tired of the dinosaur exhibition quite quickly and started asking to leave, getting quite vocal about it when her parents didn't move as fast as she'd like. She was asking to go back to the car and everything. I'm not sure what set her off but she'd well and truly had enough. She let me have a few minutes in the shop (during which I bought her some silly dinosaur books, a dinosaur cup and a dinosaur wooden jigsaw) but then we really had to leave. So we went out to the playground, had something to eat and drink, and went down into the Pumping Station. I thought she might like it because it's lots of ramps, and the ramps were OK but she must not quite be up to engines yet. So back inside it was, and to her favourite spot - the "cafe" in NittyGritty, where she can play kitchen on her own or with other kids to her heart's content.
The new double stroller
One Friday morning I met some of the other mothers at a cafe. Two had walked down and had invited me to join them on the walk, but I'd driven as it was just too far to carry/drag/encourage both kids. I met them outside and we chatted about double strollers - I've been thinking about it, but have a lot of logistical restrictions and specific preferences. Then when we went into the cafe there was another mother there we know, and she commented on the prams and said that she was getting rid of her double stroller, did we know anyone who wanted one? Turns out she had done much the same research I was going to for the same reasons, and her stroller was pretty much exactly what I would have chosen. So James and I and the kids went around to their place on the weekend, tested it out, played with their two girls for a short time (Sparrow loved their front lawn, ran in circles for ages) and bought it. Getting it in the Yaris was tricky though, it takes a bit of juggling to fit it in. It'd be fine in my car.
Starting to use it though was tricky. It's side-by-side so both kids can see equally and get in and out of their own accord (Sparrow now, Robin when the time comes). It's narrow enough to go through a standard door. It doesn't quite fold one-handed like the other though, and it's a bit stiff. Getting it set up to use the first time ended up taking more time than I had to walk to the library. So we got the kids into it, realised it was too late to leave, got them out and in the car instead. Robin didn't mind - he liked not being in the little baby-bag, he seemed a bit bothered by it. (And I hadn't worked out how to attach it either.) But later that day I got them into the stroller again and we went to the playground for our real first test run. It worked pretty well. Sparrow got in and out herself and loved being able to ride or walk as she chose. Which is usual, but this time she had the novelty of Robin riding too. Robin liked being able to see out and forward, and watching his sister horsing around. Though he got this look of extreme concentration at one point and when I worked out what he was looking at I took a photo of his point of view. Apparently flags are cool. So we were all good with the stroller, and I was all set to walk with the other mums to the cafe the following Friday - and they changed venues to one we can't walk to! We've used it for other walks though.
The Aquarium
We went to the Aquarium for our second visit. This time Robin was awake, and happily spent ages parked in the (single) stroller, watching the penguins swim almost overhead. The first photo is his point of view. Sparrow ran around excitedly looking at penguins for ages and then happily wandered through the rest of the Aquarium. As on our first trip we couldn't really take a photo that had both kids and fish visible most of the time. But Sparrow looked at fish, and I took a couple of pictures of fish looking at her. Both kids spent a bit of time looking at the Port Jackson sharks and other large-pool inhabitants in the rivers and bays section.
