Play Time!

It's a big day today for the little monkey.

At 11 o'clock Tash and Iola are off to Gymboree (www.gymboree.com) for a big old play session! Gymboree is kind of like the place where we went to Rose's birthday party on Sunday, but it's a bit closer to home. For older kids they run quite structured programmes (Chinese, English, art, music etc), but for the little 'uns you can book in for what's basically just play time.

If she likes it today, Iola and Tash will be going twice a week: 'play' session on Mondays and a 'music' session on Wednesdays, both in groups of 8-12 month olds who have to be able to crawl easily. I hope she has fun—it'll be good for her to have some contact with other kids (or, as Tash puts it, 'she needs to get her hair pulled by bigger kids every now and then'!).

Tash is hoping to meet a few other mums, but she suspects (and she's probably right) that she'll mostly meet the other kids' pembantus (nannies). Everyone here seems to have a nanny. I've even had nannies turn up for parent-teacher interviews! We could actually have a nanny of our own for not much more than we pay the cleaner (a nanny/maid would cost us about $60 a month plus board—we even have the maid's room out the back), but neither of us are into the idea—particularly since our house ain't all that big, and the idea of sharing it with a maid 24/7 doesn't really appeal.