Sunday, December 03, 2006

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.

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