Tea Room 17 - The Tropical Beach Hut

[amberlight]

Welcome to the 17th version of the Tea Room. We find ourselves on a tropical beach, with the tea room now in a beach hut on stilts, the waves lapping on the golden sands beneath. Palm trees surround us. Our virtual gardener/beach surfing dude/handyman, Mellors, is here to tend to your every need. He looks like the person of your dreams (male, female or otherwise ). There are of course holidaying Bishops and other leaders of faith, the Camels, the Bison, various guinea pigs, the tea room horses, a life-size cut out of George Clooney, the NMBs (please don't ask me to explain how Mohawk Babies joined us, and a wide variety of other virtual followers. We chat, we relax, we share how life is. All in need of friendship are most welcome. The kettle is on...and the distressed chintz sofa has of course made the journey over. Enjoy.

Sorry- waffle follows, feel free to skip

Well, boy and I went through the baby scout stage with a selection of toddler groups, stay n play, baby massage. did sing n sign for 2 no consecutive terms justto brush up my signing. Tryed baby yoga but it wasn't for us. Treasure baskets was lovely and so was Heuristic play group ( like treasure baskets but for mobile pre verbal toddlers). Swimming happened some terms and not others. He statred Ballet at 2.6 with a friend and that was fine for 1 term till friend left, then boy stopped enjoying it, tryed a differnt non ballet dance class which was not for him, then started ballet again at 3.6 and has enjoyed it for a full year now.

Now- boy is 4.6 preschool 15 hours a week, swimming once a week unless we decide to do something else ( like a bike ride) and Ballet once a week. LOTS of trips to the play ground. I think we have stopped going to toddler group. Sunday school once a month.

Boys ballet class is a pre grades class ( 3-5 yr olds), lots of skipping about pretending. Think music and movement as much as ballet, tho they do do some ballet exercises and he does know his 1st position from 2nd.

oo, I keep thinking I must get miniThumb into some kind of dance class; and also toddler football (but the nearest one is 40 minutes away and starts too early in the morning for comfort).

We did babyswimming from 4m until 16m, when I gave up because he reached the point of starting to cry the second we entered the water and I couldn't get him to do anything - he'd been fine for the first 2 terms, it was the underwater photography that upset him and he just got worse and worse. He is fine in the water now, helped by us having our own pool, thank goodness.
I started him at baby gym when he was 10mo, which progressed to tumbletots - and he did that until we left the UK.
We didn't do too many groups in the UK because we knew we were leaving - and here, so far, I have only taken him to the two different playgroups, one of which is structured (with craft, story time, singing, break and freeplay) and the other of which is in a toy library and is all free play.

When he's big enough, not sure of the age here, I will take him horse riding; and I know that mrThumb wants to get him into tennis asap as well.

So - all being well, he will be doing dance, football, tennis, horseriding and swimming at home, as well as playgroup(s) which take them up to 5. That should be enough for now. He has a piano and a guitar to play around with here, should he want to - he likes the piano - but I'm not starting him on formal lessons for that just yet.

morning all. Fry up awaits, also fruit and yoghurt for those who are still feeling summery.

Yum. Thanks.

You have your own pool, Thumb? I know that that is no big deal in Oz, but .

DS does riding, and ballet one lunchtime at school. He'd like to do gymnastics too

I'm feeling a bit at what I've signed mistlechick up for at school...

Flex dance (we agreed that it was probably less girly than the ballet that he initially said he'd be interested in!!!)(I pointed out that you had to be graceful for ballet and that he was really more like an elephant - he thought that was REALLY funny [grin)), Yogabugs (they apparently tell a story and do quite quick yoga poses (like folding yourself in half ))(that's goign to be an early morning!), Football, Karate and Tennis - most of these are after school and I actually think a bit of activity then will be quite good for him and I get to pick him up a little later (selfish emoticon)... Oh and he's going to continue with French one day a week too. Before he started school we did aquababies, a music class and a coffee morning each week. We'll have to find someone with a bombproof pony and I'll teach him myself - and also need to find somewhere we can leave his violin out so that its easier to pick up and do the odd 5 mins...

Being the crap mummy I am, right now, JB does nothing except go to daycare one day a week so I can work, and hang out with us. We keep talking about putting him in soccer (football) for two-year-olds but it runs on days when DH is home with him and so far he hasn't gotten off the dime. My parents are here visiting and so we won't start anything until they go home again, but after that I'll get on DH about the soccer, and we'll start taking him to Tot Romp again. It's a program at our local community centre, where they put out gymnastics equipment and the hockey net and balls etc and toddlers can run around like maniacs.

Found out date for knee surgery - Monday, Oct 18. Fab. That Thursday I have to do a recertification course for work - three days of hands-on work, in downtown Vancouver. Timing couldn't be worse. Oh well. I can just let everyone practise on me and sit and be a lazy girl, I guess.

Went to the (local) zoo with BabyScout today. Was only going to stay about an hour or two, but was there about six. Zoo isn't big by any stretch of the imagination, but we watched the fur/scales/feathers display (BabyScout LOVES watching the birds being flown -- we've done this before and he's fascinated), played on the playground, crawled around on the grass and in the sand, and played with some bigger kids. Was a very nice day.

Am suddenly very cold... might need to dig out my (fingertipless)gloves. Brr!

So far today I have:
*Spent the day looking after two miserable four-year olds with colds
*Made a loaf of bread and burnt it
*Attempted to dye our king-size bedspread in our obviously not king-sized washing machine and covered it in blue blotches
*Watched WRiggle and DH demolish the neat piles of spare bedding etc which took me a whole day to stack in the spare room as they play puppies
*Not finished planning my lessons for tomorrow
Is there a quiet and tidy place in the priest hole for me?
Does anyone know if I could dye my bedspread with hand dye in the bath - a)would it be colour fast and b)would my plastic bath turn blue?
Any other way I could dye it? It is basically ruined now.

Mistle - once ds is in yr1, he'll be doing lots more as they have lots of afterschool clubs then, and can go onto late club after.

JM - I'd def go for being the model . Or doing anything that can be done sitting down or balancing on one leg..

Cold here too - have got the fleecy blanket out, but dh won't let me put the fire on

Am searching for a handbag to go with my 50's dress - have it eaxactly in my mind what I want, but can I find it ?

Anyone for some nice rum punch ? Warms the cockles it does..

Oh yes, I happen to have some cockles that need warming. A rum punch would be splendid.

Boy is already keen to join schol choir when he gets to teh correct year and wants to lean Morris Dancing. I think he will probadly do beavers when old enough but as it clashes with Ballet he will have to chose.

Hello all. I'm glad to hear that the strapping lad is fine after his op, Amber..It also cheers me to hear that he did no extracurricula stuff. I may have whinged here before, but will again. Most of the stuff you mention for toddlers is supremely nonexistent here. Kittenito can start swimming lessons at 4: not before because there is only an adult pool. When he's 3 he might be able to sign up for football; but I think it's also from 4. Dance classes might be an idea, but Mexico has very machoist culture and I'm not sure how welcome he'd be.

Clubs done by Wriggle .... erm ... at the moment ... none. We don't seem to have time. Once a week she has friend over for the day, once a week she goes to nursery all day, two days I am at work, one day we like to have for outings and adventures, two days are weekends and any spare time she wants to spend with friend on the farm, making dens. We go pony riding with friend with ponies, do arty stuff at playgroup on Tuesdays and music just doesn't happen. Which is a shame.

Catita, don't they have traditional Mexican dancing, akin to Flamenco type stuff? That must be acceptable, surely?

UniS - I love the sound of Boy - he sounds so keen on everything! Hope it persists as he gets older

Amber - very inspirational to know that the Fine Lad didn't do too much in the early days and still turned out so well

CMOTD - how's the wrist going? And why is DH being a meanie? If you're cold, you're cold - I have the electric heaters back on now I'm back here because it's still damn cold in the mornings (and despite the sizeable electricity bill)

Serpent - sounds like a day of disappointments :(. Never mind, tomorrow will be a better day :)
I think you can dye in the bath and although you might get a temporary blue coating on your blue bath, it should come off with application of Mr Muscle/Flash or whatever you use. Depends on the type of dye you use, I believe - check the packets - some are cold water and suitable for bathtub dyeing.

Scout - love zoos! we're thinking of going to this place soon - they keep advertising it at the moment and it looks good!

JBM - you're not a crap mama, at any time! and I'm sure Jackbaby would agree with me.:)
Bummer about the timing of knee op/training course - hope it works out ok for you.

MT - sounds like mistlechick has a great variety of things to do - you are certainly giving him lots of opportunities! May I suggest you get a wall rack for his viledin violin? then it's safe, out of the way, but visible and easily accessible at all times.

Rum punch, hmmm, perhaps a touch early for me - I'll take a shot of rum in my morning hot chocolate though, ta muchly! My cockles need warming too, it's still jolly cold here in the mornings.

What are cockles and how does one warm them?

JB, I think it's like your extremities, but I'm sure one of the Brits will correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not sure, but they're bits of your heart - maybe (getting too geeky here)bits of your heart are cockle-shaped = here is a discourse on the subject if you're that bored interested.

But I thought in this context it was more about warming your body?

BTW, heart stuff is always fascinating to the cardiac baby.

yes, but if you warm the cockles of your heart then it will cause a warm glow to spread out through the rest of your bod. So it works :)

(Don't get the ref to the cardiac baby - is that you or scoutbaby?)

Hi guys.

Before we moved a few weeks back LittleO took a swimming class once a week and nothing more. See, he was at preschool four mornings a week, then at his childminders three afternoons a week. So not much unscheduled time, which meant he just chilled when at home.

In India he will be in preschool five mornings a week www.vrindhaven-kindergarten.de. When we get back to Ireland and settle in the new house I will send him back to swimming anyway. I also want him to join sea scouts when he turns 6. Other than that the activities he takes up will be up to him. Not sure ballet is acceptable for boys over here, which is really stupid.

BTW don't worry about the outing me thing. All is good

legoland tomorow..... Boy doesnt know yet.

oh Legoland sounds great have fun
we don't do much by way of classes, I am closer to the Wriggle than Mistle camp

only class is swimming which we started because Oxboy was getting put off the idea of school entirely due to the prospect of swimming so we did lessons and now he's a water baby and loves it

at home we loaf, we used to so weekly nursery rhymes. There was a flirtation with football but just before I signed up and shelled out Oxboy confessed her really just wanted the shirt

kitten is playing with computer so this may all end soon.... still trying to catch up

I shall check on the Great Meet Up cherry tree and report back