Boxing Day

So, I finally get a chance to come back on here and do our Boxing Day update. Have been busy playing with photos and almost forgot to come on and do the blog!

Well Nana and Grandpa answered the early call that Harry was going to be up for visitors with remarkable ease. They jumped in the car and came driving down . And do you think Harry was a little excited about it? Do you? Um, I think the yelling, excited running and grabbing of Nana may have killed the mysterious aloof persona Harriet's been aiming for.

And they came loaded with bounty for all! Harriet received the spunkiest little pink chairs plus outdoor table (replete with 'harriet' stickers on the side, tres cool). Not only that, she also got her own multicoloured outdoor umbrella! Now if there's one thing Harry loves, it's an umbrella. In fact Papa bought her her own one so that we could get her used to playing with one her own size rather than the monster golf umbrella she used to play with. So imagine her delight when she realised there was her own umbrella in its own spunky durable bag (made with impressive skill by Nana)! What was even more incredible than all of this was that she was able to go for a two hour sleep whilst they were both here - will wonders ever cease?

We all enjoyed a bbq out the back and Harriet enjoyed some time sitting with Nana and then Grandpa came down to sit with her at the new table. Here she's giving Grandpa a high five across the table. She was loving all the attention and life just got even better when we all decided to go to the pool! Harriet's favoutire place in the world!

Just had to post this photo of Mike enjoying the yummiest pumpkin pie ever. It went down a treat Jennie, thank you so much!


So we all drove to the pool and Harry was almost beside herself with all frou of us in the pool to play with. Grandpa had her doing standing jumps into the pool by the end of it although there was a period where all she wanted to do was play with someone else's ball. There were a few tears over that (read: major cracking moment) but Papa distracted her with some throwing in the air which always gets a good baby going.

All in all a wonderful, wonderful day. We were all sorry to see Grandpa and Nana drive home, but we hope to see them again soon.

Festivus Number 2

Ok, so we're not the most Christmas-spirited people in the world, so shoot us. We just kind of figure we're not Christians so why celebrate Christmas? And since we had no family to spend Christmas day with, it wasn't going to be a special day by any means. But with the kiddiwinks around, seemed like we could at least do a little present shopping. So we did! Not much, but a couple of things.

We had this wooden kitchen on layby for a few months and when we unwrapped it....well, all she wanted to do was sit on it (kinda like The Fonz).

Papa also bought some pots and utensils, which Haz enjoyed playing with. Not necessarily in the manner for which they were intended, but play is play! We also bought her a campervan that is apparently great fun to open and close and place the little driver in and out of the main drivers seat.

Jennie headed over to our place in the afternoon and brought along some special surprises for all of us. Home-made pumpkin pie! By a real American and all! Harriet also received a cool lift-the-flaps Dr Seuss ABC book (for which the 'F' flap is nearly on its last legs already, great choice Jennie!) and some cool glow-in-the-dark stars for sticking on to the walls of her room in the new house. Yay! And Hazza lurved Jen! In fact when Jennie was leaving at the end of the day, Harriet was doing the movement I make to call the cats over to Jennie! It's a kind of rubbing the thumb against the fingers motion and Harry wanted Jennie to come back from her car, so she 'called' her over like this! Was SO cute!


We all drove over to Linda's where we gorged ourselves on food and Harry decided to engage in the important activity of picking up rocks from one pot and dropping them into another one further down. She went about this task with much sombre industry, as can be witnessed in the photo.







And at the end of the day we all loped over to say hi to Don, Tania, Max and Nell (or aka the D-C clan). Harriet was entranced by Max's new bike and kept wanting to ride it. Hmmm....not just yet! She then fell in love with this half inflated ball which was just spongy enough to sit flat on her head. She just picked it up and started popping it on her head and letting it fall down and then giggling! Here it's just about to topple down her face. Crazy kid.

And poor chick has the dreaded hand, foot & mouth disease again. Christmas Eve was the day from hell for all of us. Harry was awake for 14hrs without a sleep, clingy, whingy and bordering on hysterical for most of it. We couldn't work out why...then on Christmas Eve night I saw inside her throat during one of her wailing cries and saw three HUGE bright red and white angry ulcers almost completely covering her pharynx. Which would explain why she would only chew some food, then cry, then have it come dribbling back out ofher mouth and want to be breastfed. When we were at Don and Tania's we received the kind gift of a big buket of ice which Harriet started suck, suck, sucking away at. The relief was almost immediately evident for her. Poor Max was desperate to have a go of her harmonica too but I was too worried about him contracting it (even though I know the contagious period had past) that I had to whisk it out of sight when he wasn't looking. Hope you forgive me Max!

But the good news is that she has been perking up considerably almost daily. Will post some Boxing Day pics soon too.

Quick Post

Look at this gorgeous child! Taken with my new Christmas lens - still trying to get the hang of it. This is one of very few photos I have of Harriet smiling at the beach. Not because she doesn't love it (because believe me, WOH! she does) but because she only smiles when she's facing the other way towards the ocean (and it's a little difficult to capture from that angle...just think about it...think harder...THERE! you got it!). This afternoon Doll2 had a little oceanic adventure herself, will post some more photos and an update soon.

Just wanted to say we hope everyone had a Happy Festivus and aired their grievances with gusto.

Baby Doll

Here is this life size doll version of Harriet we found today. Just wind her up and watch her go!

So I Don't Forget...

Here are some things Harriet is doing lately that are very, very cute:

* Walking around with both hands neatly clasped behind her back as if she's a sea captain surveying her crew

* When she feeds Doll2, she smacks her lips together as if the Doll is actually eating it

*When I come out of the shower, she has to put deodorant on as well. I keep the lid on and she rubs it 'under her arms' which apparently means all over her torso

* She also has to have some of my moisturiser. I say "Hand out" and she presents her palm to me. I then place the tiniest scrape of moisturiser on there and she rubs it over her face/arms/legs /whatever it is I'm currently moisturising

* She will not draw with textas. She will, however, eat a texta. She has eaten the tops off about three textas now, and I just have to admit defeat for the time being. Pens apparently don't taste so good, so she'll draw with them, no problem

* The best thing to do with the trike is not to ride on it, but to practise getting on and off the seat on her own. Then to put Doll on the seat and practise doing the buckle up again and again


* She is no longer content just watching me blow bubbles (although that still is great fun). She is desperate to have a go herself and the only thing actually stopping her is that she puts her fingers through the mixture-sodden hole in order to get a better grip on it before blowing. So I think she'll be blowing bubbles in no time

* The Play School cd from the library has a song on it called 'Wiggly Woo'. This song is now permanently imprinted on my mind. Harriet loves it and after only hearing it once or twice, starting to do the actions herself at the right point in the song. Some are a bit complicated like "tapping your toes on the ground" (Harry kind of lifts her foot out at an angle and back) and "kicking high like dancers do" (she will hold on to the coffee table and throw a leg right out), but her approximations get the job done well enough

* Grabbing my hand and placing it on the item that she wants me to interact with. Unfortunately when we're out this often means that she wants me to touch (ie: give her) an item that isn't actually ours to play with (eg: balloons that belong to other children and which I don't want to touch anyway)

* Actually signing 'more' rather than just 'more singing' for things like food she loves

* Chewing on cucumbers whilst we're out in the supermarket, whilst we watch other children snacking on chocolate

* Giggling hysterically (actually it was more like big, hoarse belly laughs) when Papa puts the red cup on her head in the bathrom and then whips it off again. For some reason, this is hilarious

* Staring as Papa walks further and further away from us in the city after meeting up for lunch. She started saying "Papa! Papa!" , then more quietly "Papa?", then "Bye bye Papa", before sinking her head sadly on my shoulder as he walked out of view

* Placing food in very carefully organised piles that make no sense to anyone else, but are deliberately executed creations. However once hunger kicks in, well, the creations get forgotten and hunger pangs become fulfilled. This was cutest the other day at Wagamamas in the city where she piled noodles on the window sill whilst scoffing down soya beans like there was no tomorrow

And why am I writing this list? Because it just took over an hour to get her to sleep because she's so overtired from having Papa here all day. When this girl gets excited, man, she can gather up energy reserves like no other and stay awake against all sane expectations. Man, she rocks. And goddamn but I love her. I feel so sorry for people who want to have little people and can't, cos if Harry is anything to go by, they really and truly make your days shine. That is all.

Bathrooms, Boobs, Buddies

Well we officially have the ugliest bathroom in Sydney. That green does no-one any favours! But I wanted to get a shot of it before we moved so I took this photo of Miss Harry eating her fish in the bath. She loves to grab these fish, get me to fill them up with water and then suck the water out as it jets towards the back of her throat.

The other day we went to a meet for the Inner West AP group and it was great to meet other lovely mums and Harry met some other babies too which of course she loves. One of those was Jack, who is nearly two and who Harriet kept following around like a love sick puppy. At one stage she was standing on the other side of an A-frame board and was screaming at me "Buh! Buh!". I kind of let it slide for a while, just thinking she was saying Baby, but then realised how insistent she was becoming. I walked over to where she was standing and there were all these little Harriet-sized fingerprints over the 'B' in 'Big Breakfast' and she was telling me she could see a 'B'. She loves Bs and rs and now also es.

Harry has been sucking up the Bonjela like crazy lately. This week has been pretty hard going on Mama, lots of long nights of constant feeding, difficult to put down at night and grumbly during the day. But we think we're coming out the other side now. Poor Harry was only ever really happy when she had the Bonjela tube to bite down on.

On Sunday morning we walked up for breakfast and afterwards went to the cycle shop to buy an early Christmas present in the shape of a tricycle! Harry loves it, but keeps dragging her feet on the ground, causing her shoes to scuff and the trike to drag. We keep telling her to put her feet on the pedals or on the little footrest but she's just not interested. I think the footrest is actually too high for her so it's not very comfortable and the pedals still go around (even though she's not pedalling or steering) so it's a bit disconcerting. Still, it's a bugger to push when she's letting the feet get in the way. We got what is apparently the 'boy' trike. Man you should have seen the girl trike. It was like someone had eaten a fairy and then brought it back up over some old bicycle pieces. Yuck! And not very Harriet. I don't think, for example, that the black skull pork pie hat would have looked in line with the pink bike style.


After our tricycle purchase it was time to make a belated dash to Erik the Viking's first birthday party. We were only 24hrs late. Yep! I got the day wrong and consequently we didn't make the party at all. But we did get out to see him on Sunday and the little man had a crazy amount of fun stuff for Harry to enjoy. A sandpit! And a ball pool! Here Harriet is feeling like Mama just after she gave birth - "What on earth are these things sticking out of my chest?!". I think she's about a DD cup here.

But of course no toy can rival another child's water bottle in Harriet's eyes. She's actually trying to give it to Erik to drink from here. She was holding it up for him to suck on but Erik was a little unsure of himself with only one hand free so quite a bit of water went on the floor. But gee she loves other children's water bottles.

Also we have our gallery from the Jinky shoot! If you want to have a peek, look here . But be quick, it's only up for another week or so!

Jinky!

So as has been evident, we had a photo session with Barb from Jinky Art last weekend. Poor Harriet was very grumbly, not at all sure of what was going on and I don't think she smiled once the whole shoot. I was SO upset, I had really been looking forward to getting some memorable shots of her big grin in Barb's gorgeous style but it was not to be. We'll be getting some more shots done next year or so anyway I suspect.


As you can see, we got a little desperate for props and the backyard was strewn with her toys. The other unfortunate situation with our house is that the inside is too dark for natural light photography and the backyard is way too bright and harsh. So we were squashed in to about three very small shaded sections of an otherwise huge backyard for the shoot.


Afterwards we were STARVING! We didn't have any food until about 12.30pm. Poor Harriet was no doubt grumpy because she was falling into a hypoglycaemic coma. After we grabbed a delicious breakfast near Centennial Park, we organised our wares to meet up with Christy and Jemima down at the park for a CHristmas picnic. However after much searching and scouring we couldn't find them and ended up just having our own little picnic. Twas much fun anyway and we even met a boy named Guthrie (*love* that name) who Harry hugged and gave a kiss to. She's not shy is this one. I love this dress we got for her to wear in the shoot, it has cowgirls all over it and suits her to the ground.


Speaking of funky clothing, my EB Secret Santa arrived the very next day and it was from the ever-gorgeous Andi over in the US. And look at how great it is! Some spunky burnt orange cord pants (with an uber cute ruffle at the top you can't see here) and this stripy top that just screams Harriet all over plus a farmyard puzzle. The puzzle unfortunately has a rooster on it...so now I am singing out "Cock-a-doodle-do" ten times an hour as Harriet points to it over and over again and laughs each time I sing it out (which makes it all worth it of course).

Another shot of her doing the 'more singing' sign, just in case you thought I was lying previously when I said she does it all the time. Her other favourite game lately is to play with the magnetic alphabet on the fridge. Seriously, she knows the lower case 'r' and picks it up, shows me and says "rrrrr", then puts it back. She can even recognise it (and the letter 'B') in books and in the newspaper. Oh and tonight whilst Papa was out getting drunk at his work Christmas party, we went out for dinner at Newtown where Harriet said "cake". Didn't know quite what they were, but when she had her nose pressed against the fridge window I said "They're called cakes" and she turned to me and said "Cuk?". So cute!

At the moment we're desperately hoping that her teething settles down soon, because her sleeping (which had been SO awesome, she had finally been sleeping through the night) is all disrupted. She refuses to allow herself to go to sleep! She'll try to rouse herself awake and we can onlyget her down if she is so exhausted there is no chance of her mind fighting back the body. I think she just wants to sign for some more singing.

Harry and Big Ted

IMG_2263
Originally uploaded by Jinky.

Here's another photo from the Jinky Art session. I like the colours in this one.

That's my bear that my mum & dad bought for me before I was born. It's at least 35 years old, mum has had to make some repairs to him but he now has plenty of character.

Photo Session

...
Originally uploaded by Jinky.

On Sunday morning we had a photo session with Barb Uil of Jinky Art. This is the first photo we've seen so far, we shall let you know when more are available.

What a Peach...Literally!

It started out with a tub of yoghurt...and progressed to the peach as well. Harriet had an absolute ball as you can see!

I just realised that a lot of her photos lately are with food, but unfortunately it's getting harder and harder for me to take photos of her when she's just playing, because she stops whatever it is she's doing, runs towards me and grabs the camera with cries of "Baby! Baby!" to see the photos of her on the little screen. *sigh* I should never have shown her that screen!

But butter (or yoghurt wouldn't melt in this mouth, yeah?

I can tell you that the work required to get all that yoghurt off her hands and face was made a lot easier by doing it to Doll2 first. Harry was then like "Ok, if Doll2 gets it, I want it as well".

Her latest game is to get the old shampoo bottle and 'wash' Doll2's hair. Then her own hair. Then, if I ask nicely, my hair. I can't believe I didn't think to give her the old bottles before this, what a silly Mama! Well, live and learn I guess.
The first time she ate a peach I, unfortunately, didn't have my camera on me. But she has learnt to love peaches with such a passion that I have to be quick to snap her eating them, for they are gone in a flash!

And it must be a 'thing' for this age, because Harriet needs to make sure that if she opens something, it is closed behind her. Just as if something is opened, it must have its lid replaced. This signified the end of the yoghurt experience for the day.

Gimme Some Kind of Sign

So here's Harriet doing her sign for 'more singing'. She'll sign this to us at least, oohh... about thirty times a day. I am NOT joking. Believe me, I wish I was. If you start to sing the wrong song, she will sto you with a serious shake of thehead and a "No, no". Woe betide the singer who fails to hear her call to stop, for you will be shouted down!

The other afternoon she had an apple and we went outside. No problem there, right? Have you even been READING this blog? Harriet, of course, found a patch of dirt. She made sure she had her apple securely in hand and then rubbed one cut face of the apple in the dirt for a nice, long period. You can see she was pretty happy with herself for doing it too. What a peach! Then she proceeded to carefully turn the apple until the dirt side was facing her and take a huge bite. Mmmm... she didn't seem to flinch even as I could hear her gritting away on the dirt.

Look at that smile! She was busy enjoying the apple and I started to sing for her and she got the grins. See the dirt around her lips? Yep, from the apple. But the weird thing is that it didn't seem to deter her one bit. She would have eaten the whole thing if I'd left her to it. Luckily she also finds washing her hands (and therefore apples) another fascinating activity. Today I started getting the 'wash hands' sign which she has made up. She just loves to do anything related to water at the moment.


Oh and just because I love the noodle photos, here are a couple more. I love her big eyes in this shot.


This one looks like it's been airbrushed or something! Wasn't meant to look like that, but ther eyou go.

Using Your Noodle

I don't know WHAT you are talking about! As if I would still be up at 12am playing around with photos of Harriet when I still have lots of important emails to write (sorry Jennie!). But there you have it. I am. And as if you wouldn't be either, if you had these cute shots to play with. Harry was about to receive some pasta for lunch (wholemeal of course) when she spied these noodles sitting in the fridge. She'd had them last week in a stirfry and she was pretty excited about seeing them again. Waiting 40 seconds for them to warm up in the microwave was just forty seconds too long as well.

I'm just SO upset that my camera was still set at 1600ISO. In fact when I realised it I felt sick to the pit of my stomach (serves me right for being lazy in AV mode I guess). However I'm sure I'll get over it (someday).

As with all great experiences, you need to share it to truly experience it. Here Doll2 is on the receiving end of some noodle fun.

And yes, those are grazes on her knuckles. She fell down on the pavement on the weekend and got quite a deep one on her ring finger poor poppet.

Phone Phun

Well I just bothered to work out how to hook my phone up to the computer Turns out it wasn't too easy at all because there were no correct drivers and the Setup Wizard went psycho. So James stepped in to save the day. By doing so he allowed you all to see this video taken mere minutes after Harriet said her first 'yes' by nodding. We were on our way to the shops after being at the pool and I asked her about going to the playground. I just happened to turn around and there she was nodding! As soon as we got to the carpark I whipped out the phone to take video of her doing it before she stopped. Sure enough she then didn't nod for a few days, and James only believed me because I had this video to show for it. Sorry for it being on its side, I only just found out you can't turn them around. Bummer.

This is the first photo I took with my new phone. It's better than the photos we took with our old Olympus!




Then this video demonstrates her latest love of the stereo. In prime position, up there on the chair, Harry loves to take control and go volume crazy.

Last weekend we went up to Randwick PS for their Book Fair. I cannot emphasise enough just what a bonanza PS events are for the ffamily with a first-time toddler. They're full of things primary school children have outgrown and usually that's just what your toddler is in to. On this occasion we scored about 30 books for $28, including some adult texts as well. Here is Harriet sitting amongst her bounty at the school. We thought it quite amusing that the librarian was walking aroun to people trying to do the hard sell on the books - ummm, hello, we're standing here with three green bags *groaning* under the weight of them all. I think we're buying all that we can! So Harriet's library has now tripled in size overnight.



We went to the parent and child toilet in a major shopping centre a couple of weeks ago and Harriet was transfixed by the toilet paper. But what was amusing from ym point of view was that she knew just what to do with it! She would roll out some, scrunch it up and throw it into the little kiddie toilet.




Speaking of shopping centres, here's Harriet just after having experienced multiculturalism in practice - she was hanging around semingly entranced by a young Indian girl eating a sushi roll. We thought she was in love with the girl, but no - she wanted the sushi!





And finally another video. In the past three days I've noticed that she loves to pick up and 'read' books that have no pictures/photos/images. She picks up the book, gets comfortable in her seat of choice and then proceeds to read the book. You can see her doing it in this video but it's a bit long, sorry. Will have to work out the video editing stuff in my phone now. *sigh* When will technology end?

Quiet/Loud, Deaths/Births, Climbing/Sitting

Ok, so now to some updates. Last week I left Harriet in the lounge room while I popped in to her room to get some clothes or books or something (I forget exactly). I was gone for only about a minute. When I left her, she had been on the ground about to play with Doll. When I got back, I found her like this - reclined on the lounge, casually flipping through her caterpillar book! She was pretty stoked (to say the least) about making it up on to the grown-ups lounge and now just likes to climb up in order to read a book. She has also discovered the merits of sitting down. If she finds a book she likes she'll now find a place to sit in order to read it, rather than just stand there flipping through the pages. She likes to sit on the step between the lounge and dining rooms, on the grown-ups lounge as already shown, or on her little Sesame St lounge. It's very cute to see her clutching a piece of fruit, heading to the seat and then making herself comofrtable before finally taking a bite or turning a page.



We've also been learning about quiet and loud the past fortnight. Harry's worked out that all the cool stuff actually happens above her head. So now we have a chair up against the kitchen bench and the stereo so that she can interact with things that we interact with all the time. These include the sink (full of lovely bubbles and dirty dishes) and the stereo (with it's awesome volume control knob). Harriet has worked out how to turn on her favourite cd and then turn it up....ALL the way up to 50! Although when it gets particularly loud she starts to stress and can't remember how to turn it down again to wuiet, so I have to be close at hand.


And we are sad to report that there has been death through misadventure. Doll was lost. Last Sunday we went out to the beach and to the shopping centre. Doll didn't actually leave the car we thought, but on return home she was nowhere to be seen. Even an emergency dash to our last known places didn't reveal a body. So she was lost at sea. RIP Doll.

We went out searching for a replacement Doll (also known as a Fisher and Price 'Little Mommy' Doll *shudder* but she chose it) but there were none to be seen. In desperation I let her choose another one (it was getting quite tragic watching her push around an empty stroller and then grabbing my hand to search the house over and over again for Doll). The interim New Doll is quite possibly the most malformed, ugly approximation of a human child that has ever been created. I dare not even post a photo of it for fear of damaging my camera. However she did the job for a few days - I made a game of having Gumby Doll 'pick up' the Wiggles ball and throw it around the hallway and clap her hands. This delighted Harriet so much (I guess seeing your inanimate creature suddenly develop animate characteristics is fantastic and not terrifying at that age) that she would squeal with hysterical rapture and go running after the ball - give it back to Gumby - who would then 'clap' and 'throw' the ball herself. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

But as luck would have it - we found a new Doll! Doll2 (yes we are as imaginative as all that - she is the equivalent of Snowball2 after all) is a Little Mommy doll and you should have seen Harry when we found her on the shelf. She picked up that box and started trying to rip Doll2 out of there right in the middle of the aisle. I had to race up to the checkout in order to stop store security from marching Harriet out of there. We were merely metres from exiting the store when I ripped Doll2 from her box, untwisted the million twist ties around her limbs and finally she was free! And in Harriet's arms. Also within about another ten minutes Doll2 was completely naked. Harry really doesn't like the clothes she comes in or something, but Doll and Doll2 are children of nature.


Can you believe that it is now three months since Harriet had her first shoe fitting?! Well she is just shy about two weeks but we went out the other day with two shoes...and arrived home with one. So we moved the shoe shopping forward a little. She's gone up a whole shoe size. And when I picked out some shoes for her with some very cute little butterflies flying across them, I was thrilled to hear the words "Those will be too wide for her. Your daughter has a narrow foot". A NARROW foot? A what?! I have never heard those words uttered within earshot in my life. In fact I distinctly remember having to get a special type of shoe when I was little because I have my weirdo second toe (for those that haven't seen it, it is so much longer than my big toe that I have to use it as my guise for shoe size and not my big toe). But the thought of having lovely narrow feet, oh, well I don't want to jinx her but I would love her to have an easy shoe shopping life. What a lucky girl! So in lieu of the butterfly shoes we bought some rather boring (by comparison) pale pink sandals. Did I mention that they're *narrow* shoes?


Yesterday we went in to Newtown for a friends' housewarming. Harriet had her first babycino - you can see the result of it on her shirt here. She also wolfed down a significant proportion of my risotto and Papa's falafel burger. It was a hungry day it appeared (she seems to go through hungry/not-so fluctuations). We saw a woman playing a bright red retro cool piano accordion, dressed in a stark black and white outfit. Harriet was so transfixed that we threw in a few dollars and let her stand there staring and clapping for a while. Given her enchantment with live music and singing we have decided to go to the local Carols by the Sea next week. *sigh* We'll see how James and I go. It might just be too much festivity.