inner pickle

a park with a beach

There's an Inner Pickle reader who I've never met who keeps sending me to THE BEST parks. Hi Renee. We visited another of your suggestions on the weekend. Thank you so much!

Parsley Bay Reserve, which even in slightly inclement conditions looks like this:

With views like this:

 

 

Perhaps she's about to get teeth. There's a LOT of gnawing going on. 

And yes, am aware there is a hole in my favourite cardi. 

I walked past a mailbox with a sharp edge. Lucky I didn't lose an eye, frankly.

Am THAT spatially coordinated. 

Hope you had a good one. 

xxx

weekendiness

Sydney in October is a little bit gorgeous. 

We explored a new park today - Ballast Point Park at Birchgrove. It has wind turbines!

And lots of excellent rocks. 

And apart from a massive number of sheer walls leading directly into the harbour, the views (above) were spectacular (photographed while hanging onto the back of Tilly's t-shirt as she dangled fearlessly over the edge. Gah. I blame her father.)

 

There was some rule that if you walked past  a wall you had to pretend to stick to it. 

 

Or do some yoga.

 

Tilly did her own hair today. Can you tell?

 

(I love clips too.)

 

It was nice to play in a park that wasn't all swings and roundabouts. So to speak. 

 

Hope you had a gorgeous weekend too. 

Last chance to enter the Beauty and the Beast giveaway! Gotta be in it to win it!

xxx

free range kids

So what do you think? Heard of this lady? 

I totally get what she's saying, and part of what really hits home with me is the need to teach kids self-reliance. But I'd struggle to let a small person find their own way home. 

I love the idea of providing 'safe' freedom for kids to explore and learn, and I don't want to be guilty of infantalising children when they're not infants, or being a 'helipcopter parent'. However, I also don't want my kids to grow up too soon, and if I'm aware of risks, how can I possibly put my children in the way of them, however minor? 

Your thoughts?

Adventure is in the genetic makeup of my three, thanks to Adam. Mister can I climb it, paddle down it, jump off it, ride through it? He searches out city parks that have at least a tiny bit of adventure - tall things the kids can climb, wobbly things they might fall off. Big slippery dips. 

He despairs the removal of those enormous metal rockets from council playgrounds circa 1985. 

Saturday morning was HOT in Sydney. So we found some water to play in. 

I hadn't thought to pack swimmers (or spare clothes) of course. 

 Oh well, they don't look very wet at all. 

Right?

They slipped over. There were scratches and there are bruises. They had a ton of fun. 

In a way I wish I could let my kids be more free-range. I think independence is exhilarating and great for self esteem. Just not sure I could ever leave an eight year old in a shopping mall to make his own way home by train. You?

xxx

 

all about the girls

These two, actually.

This is quite an old photo of two of my favourite people in the world. Ten years old, in fact. On the left, my sister Naomi, on the right, my sister in law, Rachel.

Yes it looks like they're in some kind of incarceration facility but it is, rather, the front door to a basement apartment Adam and I lived in when we first came back from London. 

I also have lots of photos of these two in London, and other fun places, but they are not conveniently scanned and on a memory stick from my father in law (thanks, Jim.)

Once upon a time the four of us shared a one bedroom apartment in Bethnal Green in true Aussies-in-London fashion. It rocked. 

And we shared a LOT of meals at a place just like this:

Which brings me to my post. 

Ad and I took the smallies for an early dinner at above-mentioned noodle place and had a fab time (yep, a bit unexpectedly, smallies, public, all that.) And it took us back to those days (when we felt like adults) hanging with the sisters in Covent Garden. Eating number 42 Yaki Udon. Good times. 

(I hasten to add there's no free lunch/sponsorship/kickback thingo going on here... this is authentic nostalgia!)

What's new? Instead of being here with Nomie and Rach we're here with the kidlets. Who were great company. 

 

Instead of a hangover we have colouring in pencils!

The food is still really good. In fact, better than I remember. Maybe that's because we're in Sydney? And it was a glorious late afternoon and we had a view across Darling Harbour? I know, life really sucks. Poor me. 

If Nomie and Rach had been there it would have been perfect.

xxx

 

 

roll up, roll up

Oh Sydney. 

DAMN you can throw a festival.

Check out the The Sydney Children's Festival (great clip here).

We had SO MUCH FUN there on Monday. These plants, below, have electric currents running through the water inside the plant, so when you pressed a leaf it played music. Unbelievable. So cool. A slightly sciencey girl explained how it all worked to us and I still didn't get it. But you pressed the leaves and it played music! For real!

(Blurry photo because I was obviously just too excited about the singing plant.)

 

You could take a photo of your head and stick it on a wall and make funny bodies. Inexplicably hilarious. 

But the highlight for us was the circus drop zone. 

A fab space full of excellent circus-y things to play with. People leaping around doing cool circus-y things. 

Henry's favourite bit was the somersaulting. 

 

Tilly loved the crazy pedal things. 

 

Wonderful. 

Lock it in for next year.

xxx

picnicking

There's nothing like it. Alfresco peanut butter sandwiches...

...some very serious games of hide and seek...

..i.e. small excited people hiding from their terrifying father...

...and how much do I love my boy's smile?

 

I'm joining in with Elsie Marley's Kid's Clothes Week challenge this week - spending one hour a day sewing clothes for kids. My sewing machine is threaded and I have a skirt cut out for Tilly which has been sitting waiting to be sewn for ages! 

Nothing like a gang of girls all round the world all sewing for a week to get you going!

xxx

weekendiness

Wintertime in Sydney.

SO dreadful. A horrible place to live. The poor children.

 

They're having a miserable day (with some favourite friends, also miserable?)

Hope you're having an equally miserable weekend, gorgeous people.

xxx

pictures of weekendiness

Saturday was a day filled with excited six year olds, birthday cake and bursting balloons. Very, very good fun but Sunday needed to be a bit peaceful. A play and picnic in the park. Our favourite park.

With a new birthday scooter. Its first outing.

 

My view.

Henry: "Don't step in the glass, Mum."

Me: "How did you get to be so grown up? Or so casually inner-city?"

Henry: "Huh?"

 

Come on scooter boy. I'll take you.

 

(How did you get so grown up?)

 

His father does his best concentrating with tongue out too. Ah, genetics.

 

She has totally forgotten she's wearing her helmet.

 

There's talk of a storm. Henry is tuned into Adam's excitement about some extreme weather conditions. Tilly, not so much.

 

As I took this photo the first drops came down. This is Sydney rain. You get very wet, very quickly.

Forget the baby who is being rained on for the first time, I try to get my beloved camera under my t-shirt. Can't. No room with all those boobs. Right. Hightailing it back to the car, wearing baby, protecting camera, trailing small people and carrying scooter and bikes.

Ad carried the coffee and didn't spill a drop, wonderful man.

Car picnic.

Perfect.

xxx

 

 

 

perspective

So where do you hang out if you're really quite afraid of heights? Oh I know, how about the tallest tower in the country?

Nice view though.

 

Anyway it's not all about me.

 

Nice to feel on top of things.

Which, incidentally, I felt today. Took the washing out of the machine and didn't throw it straight into the dryer, but hung it on the line. Phew, that was a long five weeks of dryer-action!

Took Tilly to a Kinderdance class, moved some furniture, wrote some thank you notes. Feeling pretty on top of it.

Arrived early to get Henry from school. Ivy was hungry so I popped into the back seat to give her a quick feed. Tilly stayed in her booster seat, I sat in Henry's and breastfed, waving to a few other mums walking past. I'd shut the door for a modicum of privacy, which wasn't a problem until I tried to open it to get out. Child lock. Oh crap.

Tilly's door too, of course. Three kid's seats across the back, no room to move or climb over to the front seats. Double crap. And suddenly no mums walking past to wave at and flag down.

Couldn't even reach my phone. SO on top of this gig.

I put Ivy back into her seat and tried to figure out how I was going to climb over her in jeans too tight to bend properly, but finally managed to reach the lever to lean the front passenger seat forward a bit and somehow shimmied over it and opened the front door.

I am, however, a quick learner. I won't do that again.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend and thanks to the commenters for making me laugh out loud at your food identities. You crack me up.

xxx

ode to three

Three years old, that is. 

My Mum, who now has eight grandchildren, has a lovely rule that she must have a three year old photo of each of them.

Before three, they're toddlers, after that, they are really turning into  little people (and can go through a cheesy photo stage.) So three it is. And it's a lovely, lovely age, right?

We have never had professional photos taken of our family, something I'd love to change but we've never found a photographer at the right time or in the right state (would love love love this amazing person to take a set of family shots for us - sadly I discovered her after we'd left Brisbane!)

Anyway, I was thinking of Mum's 'three' photo when flicking through these ones of Tilly at Pyrmont Park this week (thanks to reader Renee for the park tip! What a great park!)

Tilly is right at delightful three-and-a-half... still little but not big.

You know what I mean.

Soloist.

Girl in nature.

Treasure. (The stick.)   

Treasure. (The Tilly.)

Here's to treasuring precious days with smallies or whatever it is you're doing today.

xxx