She'll Never Walk

Considering how Harriet insists on walking everywhere whilst holding on to our hands at all times now, we thought something that can assist her with the walking might be a godsend for our lower backs, so we purchased her this little pushing toy thing that also converts into a ride-on when she finally gets the hang of this walking gig. Well as you can see Papa showed her how it all works and she was very interested...until she noticed the little toy steering wheel located just below the walking bar.
As soon as she saw this she immediately plonked her little bum on the floor and started playing away with the wheel to her heart's content. Umm, not quite the way we thought she'd play with it!

I was taking a photo of her pressing the buttons when a certain look came over her face...and her eyebrows went pink...and a strange forced smile played across her lips. Hmmm, it's POO TIME! Yep, a charming shot of my little daughter squeezing one out. It's such a sweet life having a baby, all smiles and giggles and POO!

Now that we live (again) just a short walk to Fox Studios through Centennial Park we thought we'd check it out. Harriet actually stayed in her stroller for about twenty minutes before wanting to get out this time, so maybe it's growing on her. Then again, there was a pretty good array of distractions (especially dogs) so I don't think we can take it too seriously.

Once we got to Fox we went inside the coffee shop for a nice warming hot chocolate and a biscuit. Harry thought this place rocked! A coffee table the right height for her to hang on to, pictures on the wall from other children (even another Harriet who had drawn a snake!) and some crumbs from the biscuit to play with. But the whole experience took its toll and she crashed pretty quickly after we finished our drinks. On the way home she actually fell dead asleep in Papa Jimbo's arms which she hasn't done for months and months so that was very cute.

The other method we have up our sleeves for getting Harriet tired when she won't go to sleep is to go for a swim in the local pool. The latest game is to sit her on the side of the pool and say 'Jump!'. She then screws up her little face (you can kind of see her doing it here), clutching one hand to her ample belly and falling into the water. Sometimes she just can't bring herself to make the plunge though, so we hold on to her hands and she kind of pulls herself down, where she does a little baby version of dog paddle to keep herself afloat. She's also very good at holding on to the side of the pool and can almost crawl out. I've just noticed that in this photo half of her butt cheek is sticking out of the lil swimmer nappy - how stylish!