I was looking around for a library near our serviced apartment in Southbank, Melbourne, and a friend of mine told me that her friend visits the Southbank library at Boyd very frequently. I looked it up online, and was pleased to see that it was within walking distance, and better still, had weekly children’s programmes.
Noah is still trying to get used to the time difference here in Melbourne, and to make matters worse, Daylight Saving Time occurred on Saturday, which means we are now three hours ahead of SG time. Doesn’t sound like much, but try getting a baby to sleep at 6pm, when he’s been used to sleeping at 9pm, and you’ll know what I mean.
Sunday night was challenging, and the baby finally deigned to sleep at midnight, which, to be fair, is 9pm in SG, and considered early for him. Unfortunately, C had to wake up at 730am, and Noah was woken up by his alarm too. After that, he wanted to go out with Papa, and even cried for a while at the door when C left. All this meant that my plan for him to wake up at 9am, have breakfast, then take a leisurely stroll to the library for the Monday 1030am Songbirds programme, was a mere fantasy. I should have known better by now, to be honest, but I like to plan, despite knowing that the baby does NOT care about my plans. Anyway, he became so whiny and clingy by 9am, sitting on the floor behind me crying as I prepared the ingredients for his lunch, that I was able to get him to take a short nap before we rushed off for the Songbirds programme. (These babies. Refuse to sleep, then cry because they want to sleep. Sigh.)
The Songbirds programme was hosted by a lady called Catherine, who came with a bag full of puppets, and a bear that sat on her lap, in place of a baby. The room quickly filled up with more than 15 babies and their parents, and we spent the next half an hour singing children’s songs, all accompanied by actions. The library website also provided a link for parents to download a PDF document with 55 children’s songs, so that we can sing them at home too, although quite a few of the songs sung during the session were not in the document. Such a pity, because they were really fun and I think Noah really enjoyed the songs, because he was giggling away through some of them. I didn’t take any photos during the session, but here’s one of him playing with the big bear and rhinoceros after the session ended.
He loves big soft toys like these
There were also on-going playgroups, and it’s really quite a pity that we are leaving Melbourne this weekend already. I managed to get library cards for both of us, but because we don’t have any photo ID with our Melbourne address, we could only borrow two books each. They have a pretty good collection of children’s books, and it took me some time to decide which ones to get. There were quite a few touch-and-feel books available, from the Usborne “That’s not my… ” range, and I managed to find one lift-the-flaps book for Noah too.
The four books we borrowed
The library also has a Maternal and Child Health Services department, located on the second floor, with a lovely play area filled with toys for young children. Noah was quite intrigued by the kitchen set, and spent quite a bit of time there.
So many things to keep him occupied!
Pretend play
I really hope that we’ll be able to find such a wonderful library near our serviced apartment in Adelaide too! I was surprised that the weekly children’s programmes were all free in Melbourne, as we usually have to pay for classes of any sort in Singapore. It would be really nice if we had such facilities and programmes in our Singapore libraries too, don’t you think?
Southbank Library Opening Hours Mon – Thu 10am – 7pm Fri 1pm – 6pm Sat 10am – 4pm Sun 2pm – 5pm Closed on Public Holidays
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