Share and Share Alike

Sorry about not doing a Monday update as normal - Harriet decided yesterday that sleeping is a chump's game and not for her! She was awake from 6am to 6pm with only a 40min sleep in the morning to show for it.

Anyway, her latest game is 'sharing'. As in this photo, she'll be holding something (doll, block, thrice-chewed piece of bread) and then offer it out to you with a real insistence that you take it. But she'll only actually give it up about 70% of the time! Unfortauntely the giving it up times do tend to be with the 'gifts' of soggy, warm food straight from her mouth. Mmmm...tasty. I tend to want to give most things right back to her which is a relief since I think that's just what Harriet wants as well.

And apparently there aren't enough photos of me on the blog - well people, it's a little hard when you're the photographer! Plus this is a blog about Harriet not me (yes, hard to believe but there are actually other things going on in my life as well that don't make it on to the blog!). But to keep the complainers happy, I took this one of Harry and I looking at photos of her on the computer - a favourite pasttime. I love the big stain of avocado on her rugby jersey in this shot. And you can tell just how much she loves looking at herself because the phone is sitting just in front of her hand and she isn't staring fixedly at it, pressing the buttons with fascination and determination to make something happen.

As for adventures, Jennie finally got a chance to pull her arm out of a cow's bum (literally) and make it into Sydney to see Harry. Harriet was very impressed with Jennie's purple hair! Mmhmm, yep, purple hair. It actually looks kind of tame in this photo and doesn't do justice to the true vivacity of the colour. Harriet is giving it a good going over though, so you'll just have to trust her for interpretation. Harriet was fascinated by Jennie and kept trying to crawl onto the lounge and on to her - maybe she knew about her regular blog comments?

And now on to one of our favoutire games - Pull Down! Harriet plays DVD Pull Down, Book Pull Down and CD Pull Down very well. In fact her proficiency at this sport is unrivalled and if it were an Olympic sport she'd be in full training without a problem. We've conceded to at least not bother about putting any of the Pull Down items from her favourite shelves back up in their normal alphabetical and chronological order - which, as those who know me well can imagine - is a little difficult for me to handle but I'm in therapy now and doing quite well. I only have a slight twitch when walking past the shelves now.

And sure, you may look at this photo and wonder what crazy woman gives her baby some very chunky minestrone soup to eat/play with. But I look at this photo and see a baby who is finally clapping spontaneously! She has known how to clap for ages and ages but like a few skills it was one she demonstarted once or twice and then never did again. But this week she has taken to clapping like a Harriet to water and just loves giving most things a round of applause. Things like throwing all of the bath toys into the bath - round of applause. Sitting on the side of the pool - round of applause. Out and about in her car at the shopping centre - round of applause. We've been wondering if she's going to be a critic who loves everything. Or maybe a percussionist considering her drum history as well. Whatever it is, we'll be sure to be there, giving her a round of applause ourselves.