Yesterday in Brisbane

Yesterday morning Zadie and I made crepes for breakfast to celebrate Aurora having done her first swim lesson, even though she had an asthma attack on the very first lap and stopped there. Zadie sat on the counter being my "special tasting helper." After much maple syrup and Nutella were consumed, we all did an hour of home-schooling (euphemistically named 'smarts') - a mix of French, Math and Geography workbooks, origami, typing practice, and story-writing. There's a fair bit less grumbling than a week ago, as the girls get into the groove of smarts.

We took a break mid-morning to go for a hike on Mt. Coot-tha, which is only a 10-minute drive from downtown yet feels nicely remote. Sophia and Tova were deeply immersed in SD, a D&D-type game they've invented called 'Secret Dragons'; they've been playing it for hours and hours, so now none of it makes any sense at all to the outside listener. Aurora, Tamar and I talked about Chapter 3 of Freakonomics, 'Why Do Drug Dealers Live With Their Mothers?' Zadie trudged along in the sweltering heat, getting increasingly irritable. She's accumulating an energy deficit, between keeping up as the smallest, starting swim lessons, and adjusting to the heat and humidity. 

It really was blazingly hot and our trail was a steep climb, so we cut short the ridge walk we had planned and were back down within an hour or so. We hit upon an unexpected bento shop at lunchtime, where Aurora literally licked the last glistening traces of teriyaki sauce from the plate, and then back home for round two of smarts.

Around three o'clock we headed over to Musgrove Pool for the millionth time, where Zadie triumphantly did her swim lesson without drama (she melted down last time at poolside, I coaxed her into it, and when she finally caved, she quavered, "can I just get the tears out of my goggles first?" It was heartbreaking.) Aurora's second swim class was also much smoother, Sophia was diligent as ever, and Tova was so positive she earned free lollipops all round.

After a cool dinner of salad and hard-boiled eggs (it's too hot to cook) I wrenched my back slightly trying to teach Sophia inversions on the piano. Felt well enough to do my scheduled session on "The Music of the 2000's": we watched music videos of the White Stripes, Outkast, Amy Winehouse, the Strokes, Gnarls Barkley, Fatboy Slim. It went well until the very end, where Tova had a nuclear meltdown because I wouldn't let them re-watch the nightmare-inducing Ghostbusters music video immediately before Zadie went to bed. She cried and moaned until 10:30pm, and finally our day ended not long after.

A rare glimpse of the Wild Tova foraging in a stand of bamboo

Tamar suggested we make edible mandalas, extremely popular

Zadie floating blissfully on her back