Ten Favourite Picture Books for Toddlers

Here is a list of picture books that I always use when working with little children of Bree’s age (29 months). I usually read them aloud to children from around 18 months to around 3 years of age. Older non-readers enjoy listening to them from time to time as well. Occassionally, beginning readers also enjoy practising their new found skills with these books. This is especially true if they have younger siblings and would like to read to them for fun.

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
2. Peepo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
3. Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill
4. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
5. The Baby’s Catalogue by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
6. How Do I Put It On? by Shigeo Watanabe
7. Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins
8. Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox
9. Mr Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr Seuss
10. Toddlerobics by Zita Newcome

This has been fun. I think I will make another list of books on another day.

Appointment with the Photographer

Believe it or not, Stella is nearly 5! Her birthday is at the end of this month. The family has an appointment with the photographer today. They have arranged to have photos of Stella taken professionally for each of her birthdays. In some years, they also arrange for an appointment with the same photographer for Christmas shots but they didn’t do it for last year. They have arranged for a studio sitting this time. In addition to photos of the Supergirl in a nice outfit, her parents wanted the photographer to take photos of Stella in her school uniforms because they weren’t happy with the outcome of the individual shots of her school photos. I didn’t look after Stella on Friday. The mother and daughter must have gone out to buy a new outfit for the photography session. I can’t wait to see them. One wall in the family room is slowly being covered up by beautiful photographs of the whole family.

I Love Slides

I have loved slides for as long as I can remember. There used to be a metal one (without sides) in our backyard when I was little. A well used metal slide (without sides) is still my favourite type but due to safety concerns, there are not many of them around anymore. The downside of these types of slides is that one can possibly burn his/her bottom on hot days. LOL. I also loved our blue pool slide but just like the metal slide, this has long disappeared.

During one of our walks to nowhere, I rediscovered this park that I sometimes used to take the English boys from the first family that I ever worked for all those years ago. I instantly noticed that the whole place looks wonderfully new; quite unlike what it used to be. It used to be pretty run down and not very well looked after by the council. They have done a pretty good job refitting the entire playground and it was given a new name as well.

Looking after only Bree today, I decided to take her on a little adventure in search of this little park. It is situated quite far away from her home but we went anyway. When I first saw the two wave slides side by side, I told Cameron how the girls would definitely enjoy racing down them together. Secretly, I was hoping to try it out for myself. LOL. (I have always declared that I am very young at heart.) Today turned out to be a fine day for such an outing. There was no one around when we got there. Bree was happy to run around and try the swings even though they are the same as the ones at the other parks we frequent and similar to the one at home. She has a habit of going on each swing seat at a park unless she is distracted by Stella and her playmate Lachlan. Only after a round on the two swings did we go over to explore the big fort. We did climb all the way up and race down the slides together. I think she was very amused that there was a slide for @#^*-@#^*. Bree is at a stage where she is constantly declaring to everyone around her what belongs to whom. Right after our first ride down the slides, she declared that the left one was hers and the right one was @#^*-@#^*’s. After a few rides, there was a change of ‘ownerships’. LOL. Before we left for home, a woman and her baby arrived. The mother was friendly. She introduced her new baby to Bree. She told me that she was glad to see people in this park because she had hardly seen anyone using it.

(I am recording a documentary on TV for Cameron. Even though I know the content of this historical event very well, I am somehow quite disturbed by what I am hearing. It is timely though to refresh my memories on this horrible period of 20th century history. Even though it takes time to forgive, such events should never be forgotten. It is saddening to see how the whole incident has been removed from a certain country’s text books.)

Week Long Cooking Stint

Note: I wrote this yesterday and was meant to post it. I obviously pressed the wrong button again and ended up saving it as a draft. LOL.

This last week was the second week of Stella’s first school holidays. I looked after the girls at Stella’s home for the five days. As planned, we spent the whole week doing a bit of cooking on each day. It was very nice of Stella’s parents to pre-purchase the ingredients we required. We did have to go to the local grocery shop to pick up a bottle of milk on Tuesday, but that was easy and both girls behaved beautifully at the shop. We actually went there without strapping Bree into her buggy. I needn’t have worried. She was no trouble at all.

Monday: Mini Hawaiian Pizzas

This was made on Monday because it is something that Stella really likes. Stella is a champ and required very little help from me. The only things I did were opening the fiddly pack of shredded ham, opening & draining the can of pineapple pieces, popping the made up mini pizzas into the oven and then removing them again 15 minutes later. Stella showed Bree how to spread tomato paste on the English muffin slices and how to top up each slice with the ingredients available. Bree enjoyed spreading the paste but she also enjoyed pinching pieces of pineapple every now and then. LOL. To show how considerate Stella’s mum can be, she even pre-sliced a small block of cheese and placed it in the grater container for the girls to use. I really love this grater that they bought from IKEA. Each grater comes with its own container. This makes it easy for everyone because the grated food goes straight into the storage container.

Tuesday: Fruit Salad Smoothie

We set off to make yummy drinks right after coming home from the grocery store. Bree and I had a banana & honey smoothie while Stella had a strawberry smoothie. The girls enjoyed chopping up the fruits. Bree has only just started to slice bananas at home. She needed supervision even though she was slicing using a standard dinner knife. Because I was also having the same drink as her, she had to chop an extra banana as well. Of course she didn’t mind the extra work. I don’t think she even realised that she was chopping my share of bananas. LOL.

Wednesday: Apricot Muffins (Teddy Bear’s Picnic Cancelled!)

We originally planned to have a small picnic outdoors for Wednesday but it turned out to be a wild day. The weather was just horrible. It was super windy and when it did rain, it was like a big downpour that I have not seen happen very often in Melbourne these days. Bree arrived at Stella’s wearing her new quilted jacket to keep her warm. Her mum must be particularly pleased with the sudden chill. Despite the wild weather outside, the cooking continued indoors. We made apricot muffins. We started off making just 12 but the girls enjoyed the process so much that we unanimously decided to make another batch. Of Course we didn’t eat all of them at once. We are not that crazy! The leftovers were evenly divided to be shared between the two households. The muffins were a hit among the adults. The children and I got plenty of compliments.

Thursday: Salad

The cooking clinic continued on Thursday without Bree. We made salad for the day’s dinner while Bree was napping soundly upstairs. Stella loves to chop things with a knife and I felt that salad making involves far too much chopping to be suitable for a little tot like Bree that I decided not to include her. The Supergirl got to slice mushrooms (after I cleaned and peeled them), zucchinis, a green capsicum, tomatoes and parsley to her heart’s content. Later, she reluctantly let me boil and drain the zucchinis. While I am quite happy to let her use the electric frypan (with strict supervision) at her little table, I am still not quite sure about letting her cook anything at the stove. We also ventured bravely into the backyard to look for some mint leaves and parsley for the salad. Despite what the weather people said, the weather was still quite wild on Thursday. It was great spending a bit of Stella + @#%*-@#%* time making this lovely salad. Stella said that she missed spending time with me. It is true though. Since school started for the Supergirl, she has hardly any opportunity of having me all to herself.

Note: I do think that knives can be dangerous. I only allow such tools to be used by children under strict supervision. The children’s parents are aware that the children sometimes use such tools while with me and support the idea of letting them practice. While Bree had only just started to chop her own banana using a dinner knife and buttering bread with a small spreader, Stella has had plenty of experience doing that over the years. She now yearns to chop different things using a small paring knife. While I can easily and quickly make the salad for the family’s dinner, Stella truly enjoys chopping and cooking. She couldn’t wait for her parents to arrive on Thursday. She just wanted to tell them that the salad had already been made up.

Friday: Chocolate Banana Bites

To celebrate the end of a wonderful week of cooking, we made chocolate banana bites. These were made by dipping chopped bananas into melted chocolate before covering them with chocolate sprinkles by rolling each one on a tray filled with a generous layer of sprinkles. The girls and I had fun making them. There were funny moments when the banana pieces slipped off the skewer and sunk deep into the bowl of melted chocolate. I tried to rescue one of Bree’s but once I got it back on her skewer, the tot stuck it back into the bowl and the same piece of banana slipped off and sunk again. It was just hilarious! There was also a minor hiccough at the end of the activity when Bree absolutely refused to wait for the banana bites to set. She just wanted to eat them right away. We had to leave the tray of banana bites to set on the kitchen bench to keep it away from Bree. She ended up crying of course. We ended up leaving the kitchen – out of sight, out of mind. Later, the girls and I enjoyed every bite together. They were heavenly delicious. We didn’t keep any for the others because I didn’t think that they would keep that long. The bananas might turn all black by the time the adults arrived.

Note: Since spending a few weeks with Grandma Ettie in Sydney at the end of last year, Bree has acquired a permanent sweet tooth. She loves chocolate but her mum is trying really hard to keep it to a bare minimum.

That was the week. It went so quickly! I am just so greatful that we didn't experience any power outage like some other Melbournians.

A Week of Bree Only

After the Easter weekend, I returned to work on Tuesday and looked after Bree only for the rest of the week. I think she enjoyed having me all to herself. Bree can now pedal her trike really well and is now allowed to venture outside on the footpath provided that I hold on to the stick from behind. Her father warned that she is like a girl version of Speedy Gonzalez on a tricycle. LOL. She remembers to put on her helmet without needing me to remind her each time. We rode around the block each morning last week. I think we can ditch her buggy soon and she can ride all the way to Stella’s house each afternoon during the school term. LOL.

Since painting the egg shapes the other week, Bree has also become very interested in painting. We did that everyday. She also ‘helped’ in setting up and cleaned up afterwards. Most children love water-play and Bree is the same. She loved washing the brushes. She would leave them outside to dry and then return to them minutes later to bring them back into the laundry for another wash. LOL.

On Wednesday last week, the postie came when we were still at home. He delivered a big parcel from France. Luckily we were home when he dropped by or else I or someone else would have had to collect the parcel from the post office. When Bree’s mum got home, she requested that I stay to see what was in the box. She knew that I would like the contents in the box and warned me to not hyperventilate. LOL. I recognised the brand but I wasn’t sure if she was buying for herself or for Bree. Once she got the box open, the little tot was encouraged to dig in and out came clothing and tissue papers. I was so excited that all I could see were the colours of red (rich red that reminds me of Radio Flyer), sky blue, brown and white (the colour of the tissue papers). Bree didn’t look as excited as we were. She laughed along with us but I am pretty sure she didn’t see what the big fuss was all about. So, in the parcel was a red quilted jacket with a hood, a sky blue duffle coat and a pair of brown corduroy knickerbockers. The jacket and the coat are for Bree while the knickerbockers belong to an older boy. His mother ordered only one item and chose to put it in the same order as Bree’s mum to save on postage costs apparently. On my way out, Bree’s mum crossed her fingers and said to me, “I hope it will be a cold winter or these clothes will go to waste!” “I really hope so too.” I said.

What are they growing at the Children’s Garden?

Here are a couple of photos of one section of the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden. It is located just inside the gate that we normally enter the Botanic Gardens, behind the Old Melbourne Observatory. It was closed on Good Friday and quite a few groups of disappointed young families congregated at its little front gate when we walked past. I will return on another day to take more photos and possibly blog about this little natural gem created for children to enjoy.

Note: I think I can see dead Sunflowers in one of my photos. LOL. I love the scarecrows.

Abandoned Blog?

I have managed to stay away from this blog for more than a week! No, it has not been deliberately abandoned. Not yet anyway. I have been very busy completing an assignment on top of my usual work commitments. I didn’t think that anyone would miss me because no one reads this blog anyway.

On Good Friday, Cameron and I went down to the gardens (Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne) to do a bit of reading outdoors. It was a nice change, even though I do prefer doing my work at my desk. I love my big desk.

The following is a photo of the Old Melbourne Observatory. Here is where we normally enter the gardens, which is located at the back.