These Boots are Made for Walking

So what with the walking everywhere, it was time to get Harriet into a proper pair of fitted shoes. When we were at the 12mth check up the other day the nurse mentioned a specific place to get her feet fitted correctly for her first pair of shoes. So off we went.

Here she is having her foot measured; width, height and length. She turned up at a size 5 and the woman was very helpful and informative, telling me all about what she needed in a first shoes. Things like a stiff back support to the heel, a soft but firm sole around the toe, 3mths growth accommodation. Jeepers, who would have thought it was such a science?!


So there was an anxious wait whilst she went out the back to find the correct shoe for Harriet. Here she's sitting on the special shoe fitting bench they have at the store not looking too sure of herself!
The woman came back out and they were a perfect fit! The shoe that was right for her only came in one style so I chose the least offensive version of it, which was a dark pink. We wanted to see her walk in them whilst in the store but she was so enthralled by the sparkly middle of the flower that she just sat right down and started playing with it! Took a few goes at getting her to walk before she realised what we were after and she did her big-grin-waddle towards me.

And then it was time for lunch. Mmmmm..pumpkin is the big hit of the week. Here she is posing like an expert (gee, I wonder why?).

While we're here, the nurse said that she is the average height of a 21mth old! The vital stats are:
Height - 84cms
Weight - just under 12kgs (skinny after the diarrhoea still)

Grinners are Winners!

Her latest word/s is a running babble of 'Gorgely gorgely' - both with hard 'g' sounds. VERY cute. Unbiased of course.

Weekend Rambling

So we made it out into the big, wide world this weekend. On Saturday it was gorgeous weather so we decided to go for a walk around Balmain. You can see I am being quite literal when I say we went for a walk! When Harriet decides she wants to walk somewhere the trip can take considerably longer than you would otherwise anticipate. Every little thing is a magnet for baby eyes - big signs in windows, other babies in strollers, crazy street people, tree trunks, you name it. We made it down to the markets where we bought some adorable singlets to wear over summer. The woman had a little chihuahua (16wks) with a cast on her RF. Apparently she jumped off her daughter and broke four metacarpals, poor little thing. Harriet was captivated and she managed to stop screaming for the doll that was on display long enough to be coaxed away to other exciting interests.

One of the funny things to happen occurred when we were in the cafe having lunch. Harriet ordered some turkish bread with jam. There was a pigeon that kept flying into the cafe and when Harriet dropped a piece of bread, the bird came swooping over and pecked at this bread with such force that it went flying above its head each time he pecked it. And Harry just found this hilarious! It was so funny, we couldn't stop laughing because she would calm down and then this pigeon would peck the bread again and she'd go off into peals of delicious giggles. Never has a pigeon been such fun!

On Sunday we trekked over to the Bronte Primary School Fete and this was amazing! It was without a doubt better than any street festival we went to in the two years we were in Perth. They had their band playing (who were pretty good. Harriet loved the band and was clapping along with the drummer [who was horrifically out of time but that's another story]), rock climbing wall, pony rides, huge slippery dips, stalls galore, their whole assembly hall was filled with tables and tables of clothes, and whole classrooms were devoted to book selling and toy selling. We didn't get any good books for Harriet, but we had a bonanza in the toy sale - big Duplo-style blocks, cars, a wire thing on wood that you race the beads around and this alphabet wooden flip puzzle that she is entranced by.


But sometimes the classics are classics for a reason. Despite having some gorgeous bears herself, Harriet has decided that she will devote herself to just two. The one wshe recently got from Nana Lee with the jumper on and poor Big Ted, Jimbo's own bear from before he was born. Big Ted has weathered many a baby-induced trauma and has a set of eyes sewed in from Jan when James was little but it looks as though Harriet may be forcing Big Ted into more plastic surgery sooner rather than later. She really really loves this bear as you can see from this shot. It is so cute when she gives him a massive cuddle with a huge grin.

My Mama Won't Feed Me...

...so I'm forced to eat dirt.
You'll be pleased to know that soon after finding Miss Harriet in the mud she had a lovely bath. But not before I could take some photos of course!

As for other news, one of the cute things she has been doing lately is 'singing' along with the Twinkle Twinkle book that Lisa bought her for her birthday. You press a button on the cover and these little stars light up and a quite melodic version of the song starts up. Harriet opens her mouth and barely whispers out a little "ah aha ahhh ah" in (sorta) time with the music! SO cute! That's her version of singing and she's sticking to it.

Her speech is coming along in leaps and bounds. She is making sounds for everything "Ba", "Deh", "Ma", etc. and lots of pointing. She's always been a bit of a pointing fiend but it's gone crazy this last week. She is in love with Big Ted, Jimbo's bear from when he was a baby and calls him "Berh" (translation: Bear).

Uhmmm, I can't really think of what else has been happening. The big news of the week with the walking has already been written about so I guess I'll see what the weekend holds.

Hmmm....

Ok, you tell me. Do you think Harriet enjoys her new ball pool?

News!

Just about half an hour ago, Harriet starting walking solo! We were in the fruit and veg store, she was standing against the bins holding fruit and I was about a metre away from her. I turned around to her and she saw me, walked towards me and then leant on my leg. I (for some reason) didn't think anything of it, picked her up and then went...HANG ON!! I turned to the fruit packer guy next to me and said "She just took her first steps!" He was all excited and we got her to do it again and again and she was giggling so hard she could barely stand up. It was priceless!

Very exciting news.

Birthday Bash!

So it's all over, Harriet has had her naming ceremony, the champagne has been toasted and the cake has been eaten.

Poor Harriet was really and truly sick leading up to the party. She has lost quite a bit of weight from having a bad case of diarrhoea for a few days (which she's not entirely over), but the weight loss did help her fit into her party dress! It was a tight squeeze a week ago but was fine to fit into on the day even with her little spencer underneath it.

The ceremony went really well. (Dubious) moral guardians were appointed (hee hee), grandparents had photos taken, friends had food and the weather was glorious. Harriet was a little overwhelmed by everything though and despite keeping her cool for the ceremony, proceeded to scream and wail for the rest of the afternoon. I'd try to whisk her away to a quiet spot for a while in order to calm her down...she'd get relaxed and start playing and smiling...only to be inundated with people trying to find her! Then she'd start up again, poor bub. Well, that's the way life is when you're the belle of the ball young lady!

The cake was delicious, a banana cake from Zweefers in Wollongong which Aunty Lisa kindly picked up for us and brought up to the party (not without a little angst at having an accident with it in the car though!). Thanks for the recommendation Lisa!

Here we are then with the newly appointed moral guardians (aka godparents for you religious types). L-R: Jim, Georgia, the lovely Miss H, Me, Papa Jimbo and Lisa.

Their speeches were absolutely gorgeous and just what I expected from each one of them. They made us so proud that they were who we had chosen. A very sincere thank you to the three of you.
Luckily the only time for the whole day that she wasn't screaming or stressing about how many people were around was during the ceremony - either because they were all standing back keeping their distance, or because, as Lisa put it: "She liked hearing everyone talk about her". I'm putting my money on Lisa's suggestion!

You may notice that she is chomping on the side of a champagne flute during the photos - she wouldn't let go of it! Ahh, she's her mother's daughter.


And of course the obligatory family shot. L-R:

Lee/Nana Lee (my dad's wife), John/Grandad (my dad), Hazzamaphone, Mama Cass, Papa Jimbo, Jan/Nana (Jimbo's mum) and Mike/Grandpa (Jimbo's dad).

The next day Harriet slept for FIVE HOURS! I think she may have been a little exhausted. And she wasn't the only one!

Will write another post this week, but just wanted to get some photos up from the day asap. Thank you to everyone who came, it meant a lot to us and we hope you enjoyed the ceremony too.

A SPECIAL BIG THANK-YOU:
* to Craig for stepping into role of photographer at a moment's notice and doing an absolutely superb job
* to Georgia and Nathan for doing everything without even being asked. What godsends you were - filling up the coffee machine, washing dishes, organising EVERYTHING.

We owe you guys big time! I think a super dooper dinner is in order.

Happy Birthday Harriet!

It's Harriet's first birthday today, which is very exciting... So far she has received some clothes from Jodie, Tom & Xavier, an awesome set of Dora the Explorer PJs from Lottie and heaps of presents from Grandad, Nana Lee, Brooke, Rebecca, Andrea and Alexius (happy birthday too my man, if you're reading this). Now she's looking forward to her party this Sunday. See you all there!



She's pretty sick today poor baby. At the cafe this morning a woman thought it was hersecond birthday! Hee hee, not quite! Here are some photos of her from the last 24hrs. Happy birthday Harriet!

Flickr

Hey guys

Just thought I'd let you all know that I'll be uploading images on to Flickr as well as on the blog. Mainly because this is a storytelling device and with my new toy I want to do some photos for creativity as well as stories. For example there's not much story to this photo except that Harriet loves an apple!

House Hunting and Birthdays

Well , as promised, here is a photo of Harriet walking on the weekend in Newtown. As you can see, it's a lot easier to deal with and it's like having a little toddler instead of a baby. The funny thing about her walking is that she absolutely insists on you holding her left hand. The reason it's so funny is that she doesn't seem to know what to do with the other hand! Usually she will hold something aloft and shake it all about in the air as she walks (eg: a water bottle or book or something) but when she has nothing like here, she clutches her hand to her chest as though that's the only place for it.

And yes, she is seen here walking barefoot through the streets of Newtown. She has a pair of shoes but they're still a little too big for her and she can take them off too easily. On this particular day we were in and out of the car heaps and consequently she threw her socks off once and we couldn't be bothered to keep putting them back on her. She survived however.

Harriet has also started to use her open hand when patting Squeezmo, as you can see in this photo. We were very excited by this advance and so was Squeezmo we can tell you! She has also been saying 'duck' and 'Mama' and 'wow' a lot this week. Those ducks must have made quite the impression.



This photo's here because she looks like a little urban orphan. She loves to hang on to shiny poles and kiss her reflection. The self love knows no bounds with this one. Reflections on car bodies, poles, shop windows, she'll just drop anywhere and start to kiss her reflection!

On Sunday Harriet attended her first birthday party! It was for Isabella and Harriet went toally gangbusters with the walking, playing and interacting with the other children. She's wearing a dress I bought from the Baby & Kids' Market in Perth - I bought it thinking she could wear it when she's older, but I didn't realise that 'older' was now! I thought she wouldn't fit into it but when I popped it on her it only just fit around the chest! So I thought I better let her wear it while she can. The dress she has to wear on Sunday for her birthday only just fit her last week so I'm hoping for no growth spurts between now and Sunday.

To those of you who can make it to her party on Sunday - we can't wait to see you there!

What The?!

*SNORT* HA! This photo is a classic. You guessed it - mmmhmm, this one is mid-poo. That looks like a clown mask made out of Harriet's face!

I Can Get It!

Where did that lens cap go? I'll help Mama look for it.


I think I saw it go under here some where ...

(She's pointing but you can't see it) "Look, here it is!".



I'm sure I can fit under here to grab it for you Mama.

Alright! Now we can get back to having some fun. Oh, you mean it's just more photos? *sigh* Ok then.

Climb Every Mountain/step

Harriet's latest blockbusting moves involve climbing stairs with ease. Ok, maybe not with ease, more like with grunts and groans, but hey, it gets done! She also loves to walk everywhere now holding just one of our hands which is *so* much easier on the back. She is very cute when she does it too! Photos of that to come when there are two of us around - it's not an easy thing to take photos of when there is only one of you doing the walking.

Guantanamo Baby

Here's Harriet passing the tin cup along her fenced in confines.


And even when we let her out of the house it's fraught with danger! This swan was actually quite a distance from her but you can't tell that in this photo!

As big as a Fire Truck!

Last week the fire engine came to Playgroup! I didn't know and couldn't work out why there were about double th normal number of mums & bubs there. Harriet was totally entranced by a small flower for nearly the whole time that the truck was there, but she started to be a little interested towards the end of the visit. She enjoyed playing around inside the really big tyres and trying to catch the flashing lights on the front.

That may well be the response because of all the flashing lights going off around this place now that I have my beautiful new camera. The fire engine was on the old camera (boo hoo) . But I have been having lots of fun snapping poor unsuspecting Harriet Dora, although she does seem to be quite the little camera poser lately. The other afternoon I pulled out my camera to move into a more baby proof spot and upon seeing it, Harriet started cracking out the big grins! So I couldn't help myself and took a couple of shots of her grinning away.

Her latest words are 'wow' and 'cat'. Wow sounds exactly like wow, but cat is a little more on the 'get' side of things. Nevertheless she has started trying to speak when she's upset about something rather than just crying which is, for some reason I just can't quite poinpoint, rather unsettling.She has had a few thrilling experiences of watching horses, dogs and ducks go by down at Centennial Park. There were definitely a few 'wow's that day!

On the weekend we caught up with Lisa and Craig - we met up in the absolute pouring rain on King St which was bizarrely packed. Lisa had convinced Sam to relinquish some of his baby things so we are now the very excited owners ofa pair of Doc boots (too big now but so exciting for her to have when she's a little older!), lots of books (including 'Little Miss STubborn' - what are you suggesting there Lisa?) and a cool wooden skittles game. We played the skittles down our long hallway and after a few goes of throwing the ball kamikaze style at the carefully set up pins, Harriet kind of looked at me like I was nuts and just crawled down there and smacked them all down with her hand. To finish it off she sat back and started sucking contentedly on a pin. Game set and match to the baby.

She's on the go a lot more, crawling is now no problem and although she much prefers walking she will happily go scooting around after such enticing objects as Squeezmo, an empty drink container, some half eaten jam sandwich and books. Oh the books! If we get caught near the book area either one of us may not reappear for a while as we get book after book thrust upon us and an insistent 'uh, uh' as she's settling herself into a comfy position in our laps for a long spell of book reading. Her favourite book Baby Peekaboo has now officially died and will have to be re-bought we fear.

Another weekend of Sunday breakfast at our favourite cafe, discovered whilst living in the serviced apartment. The guy who owns it had a baby girl when we first started going there so he was all interested in Harriet's goings-on.

This whole cafe thing is old-hat now and Harriet brings with her some reading material to pass the time whilst waiting for her serve of mushrooms.