So this is a slightly retroactive post in that these occur before Lily turned two.
The last time I talked about taking Lily somewhere special, it was to Taronga Park Zoo when she was about 18 months old. And, it was fun, but it was very hard to tell if she got anything out of it and it was very hard work for not much reward, at the end of the day.
So, it was with some apprehension, Bob and I embarked on our first big outing since then.
I have been insisting for some time that we take the kids to the Easter Show. On Saturday 14 April, we finally did it. I was freaking out a bit, because Bob insisted we drive to Hornsby station and catch the train from there. I'm not going to lie, this part was difficult. Physically and mentally, but the actual show was tons of fun.
Lily was beyond over excited about the farm animals, cheerily naming them all, surprising us when she correctly identified a donkey and astounding us when she spotted the turkeys in the poultry shed and excitedly ran over saying "Turkey! Gobble gobble." I still have no idea where she learned this. Her Fisher Price Little People Farm has a turkey, but it doesn't make the sound and I've never shown her. Once I saw turkeys on Playschool, but Lily rarely sits and watches TV and this was at least a month prior, probably more. Kid is a sponge.
She liked the idea of her showbag (a Dora one with hat, jewellery box, umbrella, lunch box and water bottle) and enjoyed tasting the show favourite, a dagwood dog. Archer wasn't quite as fond of the whole experience, overwhelmed by the people, sights, sounds and smells, but he had an alright day and was very pleased with the Cookie Monster rattle from his Sesame street Beginnings showbag, which matches the Elmo one from Lily's first Ekka in 2010.
Bob and I agreed it was lots of fun and we've decided we'll making it annual event.
On Monday, 30 April, we took Lily to the Hi 5 concert at Hornsby RSL. I was very nervous, I had no idea what it was going to be like and when telling Lily what we were doing, she seemed more bewildered than anything.
I'm pleased to say, it wasn't a failure. Lily was extremely overwhelmed, but was able to muster a few "Wow, Hi 5!"s, and towards the end, she did begin to dance and clap along with the songs. However, when they said bye bye (before an encore), she enthusiastically waved bye bye and announced, "Bye, Hi 5."
And she was done.
The encore was two much for her and while I danced along with Archie who loved every minute of it, Bob took Lily to buy this obnoxious torch that has spinning LED lights and plays the full Hi 5 theme. It only served to cement my belief that whole thing was little more than a toddler rave, as if the bright neon lights and toddlers going spastic over the bubble machine like first year uni students at 2 for 1 drinks didn't already tell me that.
But, ever since then she has spoken of her experience positively, has definitely become more enthusiastic for Hi 5 and just today was telling me the names of the actors. Last week I asked her if she'd like to go to a Dora concert like the Hi 5 one we just saw and she was very excited and has been excited to see the ad for this travesty ever since.
And I caved, undid my self imposed Nick Jnr. ban and bought some tickets. I accidentally bought tickets where you also get to meet Dora, trying to avoid the 145th row back from the stage, and I think this will be a disaster, but we'll see.
The following Saturday, having planned poorly because one was in May and the other April, never mind the dates and days, we took Lily on her planned birthday trip to Taronga Park Zoo. First of all there were a lot of adults there to help us, Mum, Grandma, Aunty Jayne, Uncle Jared and Vicki having made the trek with us. Second of all, 6 months makes a lot more difference than I ever anticipated.
Lily was flat out excited. She told us more names and animal sounds than we thought she knew, astounding us by very clearly pronouncing giraffe, which I would have thought was quite difficult for a child just getting her head around language. Her favourite animals this time, pipping the elephants from last time at the post, were the Chimpanzees or "Mun-kees". She even thought to tell us about them on the trip home with no prompting. As the males were putting on quite the display, I'm not surprised they made an impression.
What did surprise me was, when let loose in the gift shop, allowed to chose something from Mummy and Daddy AND Grandma and Bucky, she settled on a llama. An ugly, stiff legged thing which to me doesn't seem appealing or huggable. We must have shown her every other thing in the store, but she barely even spared them a second glance, gripping this silly thing fiercely. So that's what she got. And now it resides in her bed with her six other bed friends. (Oh, I know you're wondering. There's a bed time Dora, who's been loved until she is Satan's creepiest friend, with matted electric shock hair and scratched out eyes, a Fisher Price my first dolly called Baby who was her little friend in the NICU, Lucky the puppy who was bought by Bucky when I was very first put in hospital, a bear intended as a sensory toy for infants that she recently discovered in Archer's toy box (it WAS hers) called Bear, Jessie from Toy Story and a tiger who used to "live" under my bed as a child and was under hers, but she insists he sleeps at the foot of her bed.)
So, taking Lily out has become a delight. She is interested, learns things and behaves well. I hope this continues because I'd love to make such outings a regular thing.
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