Discovering that the plane ride itself is dull from a toddler’s perspective - but that the airport travellator rocks like there is no tomorrow!

A safari at the open range zoo is pretty cool. Not because of the exotic animals or seeing them up close, these are too be ignored, but because you get to ride on a bus and go up a big hill (oh and you get a yummy ice cream as well). The meerkats are funny though so a threenager will sit and watch them, of course this may only be because she gets to eat an ice cream while watching them.

Pa is fun to play with, because you can make him do anything you want with the exception of dance. He didn’t dance at his wedding, so he won’t dance with a toddler. He did waiver though so I am expecting that when Usurper is a little older that between the 2 of you you will convince him to dance - at least in private.

Little Miss is perhaps the shyest person in existance. She met a great aunt, great uncle, cousin, Uncle and his ‘life partner’ - they aren’t married or even engaged so I guess that technically she isn’t an Aunt just yet - and she managed to not utter a single word to any of them. In the end we came up with the compromise of she would tell me the answer to any questions and I would pass it on. Even singing happy birthday to her nanny didn’t entice her to make a sound. And when the question of ‘Do you want cake?’ is only met by nodding after some prompting, you know the child has a small shyness problem.

While she doesn’t speak per se Little Miss has made some breakthroughs when it comes to communicating with strangers, she will now shake her head ‘no’ or nod her entire body (she nods from the waist and not at the neck) ‘yes’. We can accomplish this feat with only minor prodding from the parental unit. Not sure if this is funny or sad, I guess time will tell.

Usurper on the other hand is completely different, she loves and audience and she really doesn’t care who that audience is as long as she is the centre of attention. To this end the 10 month old has developed some little party tricks to ensure she is noticed. She removes her own shoes and socks and chews on them, even in 0 degree temperature she will be without her shoes and socks if she gets a chance.

Her other favorite new trick apart from removing her shoes and socks is to pick up any remote control that she can find laying around and hold it to her ear and answer it like it is a phone, complete with mimicry of talking on it to what one can only assume are the voices in her head.

Ok, as usual I got distracted between the start and the end of this post and went from trip highlights to stuff about the kidlets. I guess that just proves that I am getting old and am a true ‘parent’ now whose life revolves around the little people in the house.

So before I go I will mention one other highlight from the trip - Wife and I actually went out not once, but twice without the kids in tow. And I would estimate only about 50% of the conversation revolved around the kids, not bad for a couple on their first date in almost a year