Author: Isolde

A whole week at the snow, and being taken out of school to go! I have only had a week at the snow once, in the trip to Europe and the US before the girls were born, and it was so nice to have a break so soon after our last week off in July. The girls were also delighted at the prospect. This year has been very bad for rain but another good year for snow, so there was heaps of it. It was very cold and raining a bit in Cooma when we stopped off to hire…

We had a week’s winter holiday, making the most of what the city and country have to offer. In the city, the girls had fun at a play centre called ‘Clip N Climb’ in which they were hoisted up a giant slide and in a harness jumped the 20m high Leap of Faith. We saw the exhibition of modern art from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the girls and their second cousins staying interested throughout due to my cousin Jessie’s energy and enthusiasm asking them what their favourite painting was in each of the rooms. The next…

The girls’ birthday fell on a Saturday this year; the coldest day of the year so far at only seven degrees centigrade. It was overcast too, reminding me of the days after their birth when I was cocooned inside one hospital and then, after the girls and I were transferred by ambulance to the baby care nursery after they were stabilised, to another. I remember feeling like I had been reborn into another world in which the only environments that concerned me were the warm inside of my house, mum and dad’s house (where I stayed for a few days…

Looking back on ‘A few whiles ago’ from May 2014, I thought it was time for an update on how our mornings are going. Here is a sample taken over a few days. Tuesday 7.35am Rhea is crying in our bed. Lara is eating her breakfast at the table. 8.00am Steve: ‘Lara, can you get into your clothes please?’ Lara: ‘OK.’ She continues playing with her stuffed toy. 8.05am Steve: ‘Come on Lara! Can you get into your clothes please? Rhea, clothes darling.’ After a bit more coaxing, Rhea gets dressed slowly while playing catch with Lara and the stuffed…

Last week we had a family ‘back to Ballarat’ where Dad grew up. Maggie, the girls, Oli and I took a road trip to get there. We stopped at a couple of small towns along the way for a hot chocolate/coffee and lunch run around. Oli played ’20 questions’ and we listened to CDs and sang songs. While using her phone for navigating I noticed that Maggie only has the same two podcasts on her phone that I listen to. My poor forethought meant that we passed through my great-uncle’s town without arranging to see him, and we drove through…

The new treehouse isn’t getting much use yet but the bottom of the garden is, with a lot of traffic over the back fence to visit the five and two-year old neighbours, Sienna and Coco. Now that the age gap is less significant than when Sienna was a baby and toddler, the three older girls often call out to each other after school or on weekends asking about a visit over there (never over here: we don’t have any grass or toys out the back apart from the abandoned sandpit and trampoline). By coincidence a boy in Rhea and Lara’s…

How was the wedding? If I had to identify one of the happiest weekends of my life, the wedding would be on it. ‘I’m eagerly awaiting the explosion of pleasure’, said my uncle Roger, when asked how he was looking forward to the festivities. To me it was more like a soft burning lantern on a cold night, or eating a dripping plate of watermelon on a hot day. It was something to be savoured. One of the reasons was having the time and opportunity to catch up with old friends. We stayed with our former next door neighbours, Mike…

We’re having a week in WA before Duncan and Becky’s wedding near Margaret River. It’s the end of a long summer with the girls – long slow days at Anglesea at the beach, canoeing in the river, lunch at my favourite Greek restaurant, social interludes with family and old acquaintances . A week of circus workshop learning how to balance on a board over a cylinder and climb up a trapeze, as well as holding each others’ weight. My uncle Roger and Steve built the girls a treehouse 3m in the air in our back garden so the girls have…

As is the case for significant international events, I remember where I was the day I first heard about Peppa Pig. It was at the girls’ playgroup. And then, when the girls were approaching five years old and I mentioned to a colleague with a two year old that my girls were still obsessed by it, she said ‘it looks like we’re in for the long haul then.’ Two years later, Santa granted Rhea’s only request of him for Peppa’s School. Turning to other milestones, both girls can do an airborn summersault with no hands – a skill they didn’t…

I’ve been conscious recently that the girls have had very little exposure to art, and particularly painting, this year, because the curriculum is crammed with academic activity and learning French, and their teacher isn’t particularly interested in or comfortable with art (though to her credit she does do singing with the kids). I have become concerned about it: I have a feeling that creativity is as essential as play in early childhood development. So I offered to help out in the classroom doing painting on my day off. I’ve asked Heidi to do painting with the girls every fortnight at…