Firstly – Lara lost her third tooth! Garr, mi hearties - she looks like Pirate Joe now. We were shopping in Coles and I had a usual simply given up on keeping track of her and she was mosying around doing her own thing, when she suddenly appeared at my elbow, rather pale, saying My wobbly tooth's going to come out RIGHT NOW. I think she'd wobbled it quite a bit... there was a fair bit of blood. Squeezed her into the shopping trolley seat for the rest of the trip because she seemed a bit unsteady. Seems very happy to have it out, and eating's a great deal easier now. Only 17 more to go.

Last night we had Neve over for the “creatures of the Night” excursion, and a sleepover. We went out at 4:30, tracked slowly down to the bottom of Yuelerelba and flashlighted the way back up. We saw quite a few ring-tailed possums and one tawny frogmouth (I'm sure it's the one that lives by the bridge, the same that we saw the other day), and the moon was IMMENSE and very impressive, so it was a nice walk – and a bit of an unusual activity for the kids. Unfortunately, the other kids in our group were NOISY AS HELL – so not only would they have scared everything away but one couldn't listen out for rustles in the bushes, which is always the best way of locating stuff. Couldn't hear a thing apart from those noisy little buggers. The parents just seemed to leave them to it. Don't know who they belonged to, there seemed altogether too many children for the number of adults, anyway. Neve and Lara were (quite literally) quieter than the possums, mostly.

 

 

 

They were pretty funny when they came back. They'd been doing craft stuff at the table before they left, and when they came back they just sat plonk down, didn't even take their coats and hats off, and picked up exactly where they left off while the pasta cooked. Quite mesmerised. Mind you, it's so damn cold here at the moment I don't blame them for not taking off their outer stuff. Bloody freezing.

Playdate's still ongoing, actually. They've had breakfasts, they've got dressed, they've done some more colouring and glueing, they've done some reading, and are jut planning out a course of attack for the afternoon... on the blackboard. Have to take Lara to her last swimming lesson for the intensive session, and Neve's going to come along. The night-time was FANTASTIC, by the way. The whole usual jumping about and being tucked in 200 times? Nope. None of that. Nice quick bath, tucked up once, Harry Potter for a few minutes and slept all the way through with not a peep. A good walk through the bush before bed is just the thing, it seems!