Beach Fun

The other day we went for a little potter down to the beach. On the way, Harriet decided to investigate Papa's shoelaces. So, ummm...we waited while that happened. Not much you can do with one long shoelace!


Then when we got to the foreshore we asked Harriet where she wanted to go first - playground or water? Surprisingly she chose the playground! And she was having a gradn old time wandering around but there was a younger child there as well who was getting alittle freaked out by Harry's squeals of excitement and running right up to him, so we gently suggested that perhaps the beach might be more fun?


She really didn't want to go down there for some reason, but as she saw the sand she started to understand what was going on and began fully sprinting down to the water's edge! She started in full clothes...then stripped off the shorts...then stripped off the nappy. I wasn't letting her take the tshirt off without more sunscreen so she had to contend with that maternal bugbear. But it didn't seem to quash her absolute thrill for the water! Papa was doing some awesome whizzy-dizzies that sent her feet splashing into the water, and she insisted on drawing him further and further in to the sea. Man, she loves that stuff. She was also enamoured with the boogie boards that some older children had with them (I sense a future Christmas present coming on).


Then I was left with these two photos - which do you prefer? I like the b&w one, but Jimbo prefers the colour one. So I am at a loss! Suggestions anyone?

Oh and I expect to see some wonderfully creative and beautiful shots from Claire now that they have recently purchased the 400D. Yay!

PANTS!

Ok, I don't know if anyone else's children have this issue, but Harriet is obssessed ...with my underwear! And not just any old underwear - this pair of stripey Bonds undies specifically. She giggles with joyous glee if she spies them in the laundry basket and then proceeds to wear them around her neck for the rest of the day. If we're venturing outside I have to find something to replace them with. The current favourite alternative is my swimming top - which has the effect of making Harriet look like she has boobs that drage around her ankles.


And it's not just underwear that proves a hit - she has a pair of blue shorts that she also *loves* to wear on her head.
Hmmm ... won't wear a hat, but WILL wear pants on her head. Don't ask me, she just came out of me, I don't know any more than that.

On Thursday night we went to an auction and in the freebie bags they had there, there was a little rubbery soccer ball. Harry loved it and sent it rolling all over the shop, laughing and running over to it - the auctioneer loved it because he thought someone was actually laughing at his poor jokes. Nope - an inanimate ball was funnier than him.

Festival Not-So-Fun

The night before the Festival we went out to have dinner at a Turkish place in Surry Hills. Haz *loved* it! There was a bellydancer who was completely upstaged by Miss H - Harry started bopping up and down in her chair, so we moved her to the floor where she could see the dancer and she started going off! Clapping and bopping away, she even walked halfway up the aisle to try and be with the main dancer but she was called back to entertain her devoted fans at our end of the restaurant.

Well we made our pilgrimage to the Newtown Festival and what a disappointment. It was really hot and overcast (so nice and humid, urgh), so packed with people that you couldn't wlak freely anywhere, full of stalls all (seemingly) selling the same rubbish (and no funky children's clothing either), and poor Haz was just overcome by it all. If we go next year it will definitely be earlier in the day.

As it was she had a go at the big painting canvas on the floor but wasn't all that keen. The best part of the day for her was eating the shaved ice that 'Crazy Uncle Ian' (now his official name) bought for her.

We popped by the Camdenville PS stall to try and catch up with Harry, Barb, Indi and Cooper but to noo avail. Harry did, however, try her hand at the colouring-in competition (which she failed to win. I can't understand it - surely her three green pencil strokes right across the page were a sign of postmodernist rejection of boundary?).

And, well, here is the Harriet of this week. Flat, depressed, miraculously in this shot not in my arms. All-in-all not a happy chappy. Don't you just love the legs? How ladylike.

Food, Butts and Beaches

Here's the hat/butt photo! I got a little confused, it's not the one with the stethescope (obviously) but I've included that one too cos you get a good idea of the hat in that one.

Well we've had a *very* rocky road this week. Harry has been teething and this was the worst yet - so much drool that she had completely soaked through a top within 30mins of being awake the other day. No day sleeps at all, taking over an hour to put to sleep at night and a total velcro baby during the day - not even buttering toast was allowed to be done with two hands. Mama Cass had a bit of a breakdown on Wednesday night and as if on cue the next morning, Harry had turned her corner and started to smile again! It's as if she knows *just* how much she can dish out to me and then pulls back from the edge. Thanks Harry! Now just sleep well at night and all will be good.

Jam sandwich? What jam sandwich? Couldn't get her to look at the camera because she was way too intent on reading her books. Apparently ther eis a direct relationship between how interesting books are and how much jam you have on your face. Hmmm, I should have been eating a jam sandwich during LotR then.


And speaking of food experiments, here is Harriet enjoying her first encounter with fairy bread at Nadia and Ruby's Melbourne Cup party. Frocking up was essential, so Harry wore a gorgeous dress that you only catch a glimpse of in this shot. Call me biased but gee she looked so beautiful in it. Ruby played a great hostess, making sure all the babies knew where her toys were, offered some food around and then casually sat back, elbow on knee, to survey her social skills at work. Very cute!

Then on a cool day last week (yes, I am STILL behind and will never catch up at this rate. If Harry is well over the weekend I'll try to post more) we went for a potter down at Clovelly Beach again. Harriet just loves it down there - there's the water, a playground, sand (of which she ate about five handfuls) and of course other babies. But when we first got there it felt so isolated - you can see there was not another soul to be seen. Harry enjoyed standing in the ocean just a little too much - I ended up having to do a mad dash into the 'surf' with my tights and shoes getting completely soaked through in order to scoop her up. The tide was coming in and she was so entranced by it she didn't realise quite how deep she suddenyl was (and neither did I!). Here she's examing a stone which she then proceeded to try and eat. I just liked this photo because it looks so deserted and I just generally love photos of people with winter clothes down at the beach.

Video Test

This is just a test to see if this link works to see video of Hazzamaphone enjoying the Centennial Park fountain.

Most Awesomest Baby Peach

When we went out for lunch with Lisa last weekend, Harriet took us all into a children's clothes store in Clovelly. After walking around holding one of the store signs aloft (come on people, it had a photo of a baby on it), she finally agreed to put it down long enough to pick out this hat. Now I don't know if it has been written of in here yet, but this girl will NOT wear a hat! Those of you who know me irl will know just how stressed I am about sun safety, and you can imagine it freaks me out no end that this girl will not cover up. Grrr... But we have found the solution. Turns out I was buying the wrong type of hat - silly Mama! I bought her this very pretty, floral hat with a wide brim when in actual fact what she wanted was in this Clovelly store; a fedora cross pork pie hat with a band around it that has black skulls on a black background. Everyone saw "awww...". But she loves this hat! It is so cute. Will have to post anothe rshot I have of her in it, naked, with only the hat on and a stethescope around her neck.

Along with the park around the corner, Harry loves to play at the playground down at Clovelly Beach (as well as at the beach itself). The other night it was quite warm so the three of us went down there to eat dinner on the grass. Jimbo played with the Wiggles ball with Harry and she just loved it - ignores their music but loves their merchandise. Go figure. You can see that she also enjoyed having a taste of the beetroot in our burgers as well. Her gaze is being directed with adoring focus on Papa Jimbo in this photo - I think he was spinning the 'binoculars' around that are affixed to the play equipment.

Some developmental news on Harry - hmmm, what's she up to? Well she has been talking an awful lot the past few days. She said 'giraffe' this morning and even Grandpa agreed that she said it (and he doesn't believe that she's doing anything until it's happened three times in front of him!) so that gives it the stamp of certainty. She's also saying 'brella' for umbrella, and has an incredible love of 'Incy Wincy Spider' - she actually does a really good baby approximation of the actions for this song as well, I was quite impressed! The only issue is that...well....she doesn't stop wanting to hear it! She has a sign for it that she has made up, where she touches her index finger to her opposite thumb, just like the first action of the song. Once you've sung it once, prepare to then be met with a demand for 'meh, meh' ("More, More!"), accompanied by her sign for more.

When Nana came over on Friday, we went to the little park nearby again and Harriet managed her own solo slide! Twas pretty cool, she needs to be reminded to sit down at the top, because otherwise she starts to launch herself from the precipice, but when she is sitting, she then pushed herself off from the side and sat upright all the way down. She was pretty darn pleased with herself you can bet.

Harriet also had a grandparents day on Saturday whilst Mama and Papa endured a day of house hunting (*groan*). Apparently she had a grand ole time - check out this toothy grin would you?! You can see she's getting a bit of chub on her (finally) after just expending all of her energy on growing up, she now is getting quite a little belly on her which is very nice to see. Her size 2 shorts, which always fell down because she was too skinny, finally fit properly around her waist today so I think that means she may be in proportion rather than being pure beanpole.

That video from Centennial Park is courtesy of Nana and Grandpa's camera. It has inspired me to start taking more video - she's too cute not to!

Just for KJ

So sorry that this one was too late for you Kristy!
I'm hoping it brings a smile to your face but that you don't need it because work is going along smoothly.

These photos were taken last weekend (eep, yes, I know I'm very, very behind in my blog, I haven't even kept up with replying and reading my friends' blogs either - hopeless). Lisa came over to say hi and ended up spending a lovely lazy, unplanned, hanging around kind of Sunday with the three of us, much to Harriet's delight.

Harriet is going through a phase of giving some of whatever she's eating to you before (sometimes during....*eew*) she has a crack at it herself. But after a few attempts, she has wised up to these grown-ups who just pretend to nibble. Now she insists on opening your mouth while you're eating her offering. Woe betide those who don't have somethng in there to show for all that 'chewing'!
Here she's demonstrating to Lisa - "Just go like this - AAHHH!" and then she is happy and will go on with eating her own food again. Crazy baby.

Her hair at the moment is so cute, she has this mass of fine curls all along the back of her head and some big ones flinging out from the side. They're just curls from having fine hair grow out I suspect, not actually curls here to stay, so I have snaped a few photos of them from the back to remember them by.

As always, most things end in a giggle. The last couple of days though she has had her final baby molar coming through which has been a bit of a nightmare. Restless sleep again and a not happy chappy in the days. It should break through the gum in the next week and then yippee - no more molars until her 2yr ones come through. I can't wait for al of that tooth free time!

One of the big bonuses from the last week has been the discovery of the small park around the corner from our house. It has a slide and a swing - both of which are Harry's FAVOURITE things to do. It can get a little difficult to pursuade her to share the slide, when all she wants to do is go striding up it. The other night when she was having a brain explosion (that's what we call it when, about every 8wks or so she has two really late nights in a row which coincides with her learning some new skill - this one was speech), we went to a park up in Randwick, where she was able to gorge herself on solo slide time because it was 9pm. Not too many other children around to hog it - sure, we had to elbow the odd hobo out of the way but they giggled and laughed as Harriet came flying down and striding back up that slide. Over and over and over and over...

And I don't think I've mentioned just how much I LOVE this jacket that Brooke and Rebecca got her for her birthday. It's something crazy like a size 3 but these girls know about Harry and her height, which was a good call. She fits into it now but it will still be good for next autumn as well. It really brings out the blue of her eyes, it's a gorgeous jacket. Apparently they have a grown-ups version of the exact same jacket!