Tag Archives: parents

Christmas road trip : Katoomba – Oberon – Jenolan Caves

As mentioned before in my post, we went for a road trip during Christmas with my parents and my brother’s family. It has been a hot summer this year, so it was a perfect escape from the heat to the mountains where the temperature is cooler than Sydney.

Katoomba

Our first stop was Blue Mountains in Katoomba. I have written about our previous trip here.

As it was a public holiday, there were lots of people there and families enjoying the long weekend. We were there for a while, took a few photos and decided to have lunch.

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Being Christmas Day most of the restaurants were closed. We had researched and found out that there would be an Indian restaurant open nearby so we stopped there before heading on ahead.

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Lunch was quick and OK. Then we headed back to road for another 100 km toward our next stop.

Oberon

Oberon is a small town around 180km from Sydney. The drive was pleasant with a lot of greenery and open spaces. The drive remained us our New Zealand trip as the landscape was so similar with small hillocks and lots of farms.

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It was our first time in Oberon and we liked the tiny town.

Our hotel was clean and quiet and had a big garden at the front where the kids could run around.

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After we reached the hotel, we rested for a while and went for a drive around the town. We went to a nearby park and to the Oberon damn. As it was summer, there were lots of flies at the damn but the park was fun with lots of flowers, a pond with ducks in it and a kid’s play area.

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After a while we headed back to the hotel so we could have some rest for our trip the next day.

Jenolan Caves

Our destination for this trip was Jenolan Caves, “the most spectacular and most famous cave in Australia”.

Jenolan Caves is considered the world’s oldest known open cave system (aprox. 340 million years) the cave system counts more than 40 km of passages, and is still being explored. For now, 11 caves are open to visitors to enjoy the magnificent limestone formations of astonishing beauty.

The road from Oberon is very challenging with many unsighted tight, steep chicanes.

We booked the Imperial Cave tour (the easiest one as we had kids and elderly) for 11 am.

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We wandered around until it was time for the tour. Our guide met us at the entrance of the cave and gave us some rules to follow while inside the cave. We were all excited including the kids.

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The group contained many kids and very elderly people as well so we knew we would be alright.

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The cave was cool but was perfect for summer. The entire path inside the caved was properly done so, we felt safe walking inside the cave. There were many stairs but they had a railing on the side for support.

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It was a fun experience as the knowledgeable guide gave us the history and geography about the cave. It was so much interesting to see the entire natural formed limestone and their very interesting patterns.

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The cave features include ‘The Sinkhole’, ‘Ridleys Shortcut’ (with a story on how it got its name), ‘Lot’s Wife’, the ‘Alabaster Column’ and the dramatic’ Crystal Cities’ which looks like an ancient fortress. And as its name suggests, the ‘Shawl Cave’ is filled with delightful cave shawls.

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Halfway through the trip, Chhhori fell asleep. Not her fault as it was her nap time but I had to carry her for rest of the tour.

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When the floor of the Imperial Cave was excavated in 1975, bones were discovered. The bones of a Tasmanian Devil (long extinct on the mainland) and a Wallaby are on display. As you walk through the cave, you can also see marine fossils embedded in the limestone roof and walls.

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We felt that an hour was not so long when you were enjoying every minute and it was the end of our tour.

We had lunch at the cave café after the tour and we headed back home.

Take care everyone.

from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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Chhori started childcare

I am sure you all remember when I announced the arrival of Chhori into our lives. I am sorry to tell you all that 22 months has already passed since then and you have all grown older. Yap Chhori is 22 months old now and has stared childcare from last Friday. And it was a big milestone for us as well.

We had planned the day in advance and both AS and I had taken the day off. As I mentioned in my previous post, when we went for a visit to the childcare, she refused to come home but we were not sure how she would handle being there for a whole day.

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I have to admit, I was more nervous than anything. I was worried if the teachers will understand her needs and how they will feed her. I think being a mother; it was harder to leave her with complete strangers for a whole day. I know every parent has to go through this and we were lucky to have my parents to help out until now.

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The big day finally arrived. That morning, I just told her she is going to go to school today. I don’t know how much she understood but she seemed excited (it could just have been because we were going out).

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She ate her breakfast and happily allowed me to change her clothes and was more than happy to carry her bag. As we were leaving, she wanted to take her toys with her including the baby shopping cart. We explained to her that the toys can’t go with her but there will be lots of new toys at the childcare and she was OK to leave them at home.

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It was raining that day and that didn’t help my mood at all. We parked and went inside the centre. Once we were inside the child care, she went and played with other kids without hesitation. I was surprised that she didn’t even care if we were there or not, just went inside the room and started playing with toys and mingling with other kids

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It was very emotional for me to see our daughter become a toddler and so independent but at the same time I was very proud of her. We told the teacher to call us if anything came up and we can come back to pick her up anytime.

At noon as there had been no calls from the childcare I called to check if everything was ok. The reply was she is doing really well, had her snacks and meals and a nap. Not a tear for the whole day.

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So we decided to go and pick her up at the end of the day only so that she would get used to the whole day care.

When we went to pick her up, she seemed happy. She had biscuits in each hand.  She came to us said “Mama” and “Papa” and kissed me. I was really happy to hear good reviews form her teacher. She was well behaved the whole day and enjoyed her first day of childcare.

Please share your own experience of childcare and any suggestions you have for this anxious mother to make her stay there better.

Take care everyone.

from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S.Please vote for  Nepaliaustralian Blog Award

https://nepaliaustralian.com/2017/01/10/nepaliaustralians-blog-award-2016-nominations-announced/

Hello Summer!

I know most of you on the northern hemisphere are counting the last few days of autumn and it will be a cold winter but for us here down under, it is a different story, its summer time.

As you may know reading my posts here that I hate winter so this is a great time of the year for me. I am loving the beautiful spring weather which is slowing turning into summer. To enjoy this beautiful weather we have been going to parks often.

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There is a park near our place which has rows of Jacaranda trees and the purple colour looks just amazing this time of the year. Chhori loves running around and it is a great place for me to spend some time with my parents.

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Also on the weekend, we took Chhori to a beach with our friends and family. She had an absolutely amazing time. We took a beach bucket and spade set so we could dig in the sand. We made sand castles and dug holes.

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We had Chhori and my nephews covered with sand at one point and they loved it.

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Overall it was an absolutely great day and I can’t wait to spend more days like this by the beach.

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Summer always makes me happy, coming home from work when the sun is still up in the sky, enjoying the beach, BBQ and lots of outdoor times. As Chhori is getting older, we are going out and about more and life is getting back to normal.

If you are on my side of the world, enjoy the great weather and if you are on the other side, stay warm.

On a side note, I am not sure for you all but for me this year has gone by so quickly. I feel as if it was only a few weeks ago that I wrote a post about coming back to work after maternity leave and now it is almost the end of the year.

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Looking forward to Christmas and New Year break.

Take care everyone and have a wonderful day.

from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S.

https://nepaliaustralian.com/2016/11/22/nominations-open-for-nepaliaustralians-blog-award-2016/

Make sure your blog and the blogs you read are nominated so they can win the title.

Child care visit

From the day Chhori was born, every parent around us has suggested putting Chhori on the waiting list for childcare. From their experience it can take more than a year to get a place. As I had to come back to work from my maternity leave, we put down Chhori’s name in two different childcare centres when she was around a few months old thinking she will have to go to child care when she is one, which is when I came back to work.

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But lucky for us, my parents decided that they would come and look after Chhori and we were lucky to have them around. But unfortunately like every good thing in life, their stay in Australia will come to an end in a few months’ time which means we need to put Chhori in childcare 5 days a week while we are at work.

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So it was time for us to do childcare visits to determine which childcare we want to send her to. We got offers from two different childcares so we decided to visit them on the same day and we took Chhori with us.

We met with the teachers in both the child care centres where they showed us around the rooms she would be in and also the play area and the toys they have. They also showed us their process for doing things and updating us about her as well as what kind of food is given to her while she will be there.

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At the first childcare Chhori saw a drawing table with crayons and paper so she insisted that she wanted to draw. The teacher was kind enough so she was allowed her to draw while we had a chat with the teacher. Once we finish our tour, it was time for us to leave but Chhori refused to go wanting to draw some more.

We distracted her and finally we were out.

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At the second childcare, as we were doing the tour, she spotted a few kids and a teacher playing with blocks. She straight away went and started playing with them. We did the rest of the tour without her but I was so surprised that she didn’t seem to care at all that we were not around her. I am sure she didn’t even look for us until we finished everything and went to get her to go home.

No matter what we said she didn’t want to go home so we had to pick her up against her will and leave. She was crying when we left.

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That got both us wondering if we made a mistake by not sending her to the childcare sooner. As I have previously mentioned, she is very social and loves people but seeing her enjoying childcare so much, now we hope she will have an easy transition to go to childcare part time in January and full time from March.

I will definitely share our experience next year. Please do share your own childcare experience with your kids. Is it normal for kids to not want to go home?

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

Gender of the child should not limit the choice of toys

As a society, especially in the western world, we are so driven by the unwritten rule of the society that we don’t even stop to think before following it.

I was surprised and annoyed when one of my friends commented that Chhori has boy’s toys like cars, trucks and buses.

But this is not the first time I have heard such comments. When Chhori was a baby, I had her dress in onesies which was had blue stripes and someone commented on Facebook, “How cute is the baby boy”. I don’t know this person (friend of my friend) but just by the colour of the clothes Chhori was wearing, she judged the gender of the child.

I have to admit, Chhori’s wardrobe is full of pink outfits but she also has blue dresses.

In the same way she has dolls but she also has cars and trucks. She actually plays with cars and trucks more than dolls at this stage.

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She may turn out to be a girly girl in the future but I still want her to make her own decision on what toys she wants to play with, not just dolls and dress ups. It is my job to try to expose her to a wide range of toys, games and activities so she doesn’t get ideas that certain interests are only suitable for males or females.

I think it is not appropriate to tell children what their interests should be. If they are never offered the chance, a child may never find out if they enjoy a certain toy or style of play.

Do you agree with me? Please share your opinion about gender division of colour, toys and games for children.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO