Roll up, Roll up - See the Elephant!

Cute baby alert! Finally, here is the photo of her doing the elephant sign and finding her bellybutton at the pool on Sunday. I put in here the first shot of her finding her bellybutton (complete with raspberry) and then when she included the elephant sign. The 'elephant' involves throwing one arm up in the air and making a trumpeting noise at the same time.

Today when we were out with friends they were delighted at her doing signs, I guess it is a novelty when you haven't seen it before.


On Saturday afternoon Harriet was in attendance at Ian's Halloween party (which apparently hit sentience at 10pm and engulfed many individuals in its path, including poor Scott boy). She arrived as a Stunt Princess but her "I do all my own stunts" tshirt had to be covered up because it was unseasonably freezing. She's looking a little bewildered because she fell asleep in the car and we drove around for 20mins (sorry carbon footprint) to give her a bit of a sleep before arriving at the party.

You can see that she soon got into the swing of things, lounging back on chairs and not being able to keep herself in full attire (something that happened quite a bit later on in the night apparently).

And yesterday in the afternoon I thought I'd feed Harriet some yoghurt, berries and WeetBix. She *loved* it. And as with all thing sin Harriet's life, anything experienced by her had to be experienced by Doll. And as Doll would have it, Harriet's hand feeding method leaves a lot to be desired. Let's just say that Doll, the hot water tap and various machinations of bubbles all met shortly after this photo was taken. Those WeetBix can dry like concrete!

Also, please don't forget to ask us any questions about Unconditional Parenting in the previous post.

UP

Firstly, the photo I promised you from before still won't load. Grrr....will keep on trying.

After Friday night where a few of us were discussing Unconditional Parenting, I received a few questions and thought I might use the blog to further inform you, my blog reader, about what exactly UP is. I can tell you what it is not: it's not using time-outs, it's not about please and thank-yous, it's not about making children say sorry, it's not about praise, it's not about punishment. No praise? Whuh?! Hmmm, yep, no praise. A really good, short article about why praise can damage a child's interest in any given activity can be found here. If you do a Google search on 'Alfie Kohn' you'll come up with a whole pile of links which will give you more information if that whets your appetite.

But essentially it is about being reasonable with your child. And by reasonable, we mean not just cutting off what they're doing or interested in purely to serve your own need of being somewhere immediately, or because you're getting bored watching Harriet play with a flower for five minutes in the middle of the street when you were striding confidently towards the car and are mere metres away from it (and they say children are the ones with short attention spans?!). An example was seen by us just on Saturday - we were in a cafe where a little boy had just walked over to the 'children's play area' and had sat down to colour in a picture. His Nana cameover and said "Come on, we're leaving now". The boy was obviously upset and said, "But I just want to finish this" and her reply was "No, be a good boy and come on". Well, why couldn't the adults have just sat around for another few minutes? They then proceeded to stand outside saying goodbye to each other for more than long enough for the boy to finish his drawing. It just seemed to teach the boy that being "good" was about being quiet and doing what adults wanted him to do.

Now Papa Jimbo and myself are much more interested in Harriet being the type of child who questions, challenges, does, thinks, rather than one that complies and silently sits in the background whilst we sit and chat to friends (as nice for us as that would be!). It is a lot of work and to be honest sometimes all we'd like to do is bundle her up in the car without another word, drive to the cafe and have her sit quietly colouring in whilst we have dinner with friends. But what sort of child does that encourage? And what sort of adult does that produce? We have to be prepared to make the sacrifices that, from the moment we decided to bring her into the world, we should make to allow her to be all that she can be emotionally.

We're very happy to discuss this further here, so any questions, criticisms, befuddled looks, please feel free to comment!

A Busy Week

Sorry about the late update - I will have to try and get this in before Scott does his Monday blog check though. ;o) Hi Scott!

We've been pretty busy with various things, so I'll start from this weekend and work backwards in the next post. Today we went out for vegan yum cha. We nearly didn't make it because Harry really needed to sleep just as we were getting to leave, but she didn't want to go down to sleep so we went out. And surprisingly she didn't break too badly, despite how overtired she was.

Here she's playing with Rachel's practise Poi balls. Apparently she's going to graduate up to fire balls, which will be COOL! I had a go at it the other night and *ahem* let's say that my coordination is best left at picking up one thing in one hand and holding baby in the other - that's pretty much the extent of it. Harriet was enthralled with them and loved touching the orange fluffy goodness.

After we went back home for a sleep, it was time to go out for a swim at the local pool. We forgot it was a big charity day and it was very busy, but Harriet didn't seem to mind, she was blowing bubbles, jumping in the water, kicking those little motor legs and having a lot of aqua fun. Afterwards we got out to get dry and she engaged in her latest favourite activity - finding her bellybutton. It's pretty cute - you say "Harriet, where's your bellybutton?" and *bang* up comes the shirt, and she starts grabbing at her belly to try and see over the top to glimpse the aforementioned bellybutton anatomical oddity. In this photo though James had just asked her - "What sound does an elephant make?" and here she's doing the baby sign for elephant (one of her faves) whilst still groping around for that bellybutton.

edit: this photo for some reason isn't loading so I'll have to post it in the next entry, apologies for that.


Yesterday was *sigh* househunting day. There are actually a few houses around that we like (and if we were prepared to buy another wooden house there would be even more but we are NOT doing that again!). This shot was captured by Jimbo when Harriet was getting entertained by me whilst awaiting the next open house. We thought that one was too small, but the next house we saw...well, let's just say that I fell totally in LOVE with it. But it's just out of our price range (by a whisper) and going to auction. So we'll see..... But do you think Harry was enjoying the upside down treatment or what?! She was also playing a very cute game of peekaboo using my hat. Amazing what children can find to have fun with. Looking for houses is a shocker though with poor Hazzamaphone, just a lot of car jumping, standing around; the walking is ok but everything else sucks. We're not going next week so she (and we) get a week off. Cool!

This is Harriet munching down on her Ikea squishy light thing. It is a little rechargeable light that glows blue and is covered in a big rubber face. Harry loves it! Have been trying to get a half decent photo of her eating it but so far to no avail. This will have to do in the meantime.

Will post more tomorrow. Goodnight!

Blogjack for Movember!

Sorry for hijacking the blog for selfish purposes, but...

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’ll be growin a moustache. That’s right I’m bringing the Mo back because I’m passionate about changing the state of men’s health.

Please go to http://www.movember.com.au/au/sponsor, enter my Rego number (which is 6177) and your credit card details.

The money raised by Movember will be used to change the face of men's health by creating awareness and funding research into prostate cancer and male depression.

I promise to grow a nice big bushy moustache and to post photos for all to enjoy!

At the Foot of the Mountains

Today we drove to the base of the Blue Mountains to see my lovely friends Ian and Sherry. I hadn't seen Ian for about 15yrs!! Their daughter Polly was there too - I remember babysitting Polly when she was about two years of age, *gulp*. Old age alert, hold the grey hairs.


Harry did her usual trick of not sleeping in the car until we were ten minutes away from the house. But she has become the best baby ever and isn't a grumpy soul when she's overtired, she just get s a little precious about things like falling on her (nappy-padded) butt (which she did) and smacking herself in the face with Doll's hard plastic head (which she did) and almost falling down stairs (which she did).
But as happened on the plane, you can see how much she is loving a bit of the old face squeeze lately. Not too sure on the whys and wherefores of this fascination, but the sooner this stage passes probably the better. However absolutely everything else about her at the moment is just so delightful. She's waddling around and getting into all sorts of games, loves to do everything with Doll, is finally eating a decent amount of food (she's always eaten all kinds of foods but not nearly enough - what can I say? My boobs are just THAT great). She loves to play with her shape sorter too, especially the one that Nana Lee bought her because it has shapes with a little lip where her clumsy fingers can grasp it and shuck it around on top of the shape hole.

This is in between bounces when Harriet was basking in the hijinks that Sherry offered with her 'bouncy' game. Poor Sherry soon learned that once Harriet likes a game, Miss Harriet is also loathe to have said game finish. Sherry now has some awesome biceps from lifting the 12kg weight that Harriet provides. No wonder my right arm is so much larger than my left.

Sherry and Ian also have the most impressive garden I've seen in many a time. We left there with arms groaning with bags of fresh sorrel, cabbage and lettuce. Tomorrow night's salad is already half made! Harriet also loved the garden, especially since it was a garden where actually pulling leaves from plants was a normal part of the gardening regime. And a tasty one too.

We're now back in the city, our lungs rejoicing in the smog. All that clean air was going to our heads.

Here's Harriet doing what she does best - leading adults around. She loves to grab your hand and take you off on an adventure in the nearby environment. Poor Grandma was pretty tired and overwhelmed by the time this photo was taken but Harry wasn't taking no for an answer - they just HAD to see what was outside that minute. And what was outside was, in fact, balloons. So Mama let Papa deal with that little side issue.


Here's a tip: don't ever think "Oh, a flight's only one hour. We can entertain the baby with the normal stuff in my bag". Because your baby WON'T be entertained; actually the most entertaining thing for a baby to play with in the tight confines of a plane is your face. Here's the evidence of Harriet's attack on Papa's face en route back to Sydney. This was apparently hilarious fun and playing with the straw from my Boost wasn't. Who would have thought?

On Tuesday Harriet had her first music lesson. There were about five children in it and there was a range of different songs played and different activities for each song. Harry loved it. She was the solitary child standing in the middle of the circle bopping away to the cd; she shook her maraca with wild abandon and enjoyed chasing bubbles here with Jackson. We have the cd to bring home and when I put it on her little face becomes quite intense and she starts bouncing up and down, and then the grinning starts. Man, I think that music class may persist.

Then on Wednesday it was a trip into the city to meet up with Aunty Judy who was over from Perth. We went to the cafe in Myer because it's nice and quiet during lunchtime and she can go off for a wander without being knocked over by hurried workers. This photo demonstrates the unifying power of dribbling. Once one person gets started in a group everyone eventaully joins in.


And finally here's Harriet with banana on her face grinning like a crazy woman. Yesterday she took a wipe and started cleaning down her high chair, then she wanted to take the broom from me so she swept for a few seconds. And then when we went out she, for the first time, let go of my hand and ran around the play area in the shopping centre to play with other children. It was so cute! But also quite sad for Mama. What a softie.

The Photos Worked!

Well blow me down, the photos actually worked. Well I put up these ones of the recent yoghurt experience just to test out the uploading and now they're here. So you get to see just how much Miss Harry lurves her natural yoghurt. She had been eating off a spoon just prior, but that didn't last too long.
I think the photo is just a little more effective if you know that the yoghurt container was still about a third full in this shot.
And just in case you think she may be a little upset here, she's actually laughing her head off but for some reason looks a little out of sorts instead in this photo.

So here she is enjoying the view momentarily with Papa Jimbo in our apartment in Brisbane. It was the same place that Jimbo lived when he was working in Brisbane for six months a few years ago now. Needless to say he didn't think at the time he'd ever be returning with his daughter!

Here's Harriet playing in the park having a gradn ole time, mere second before she started reaching down to throw, eat and play with the dirt from the play area. It was covered in woodchips but under that very thin layer lies some good dirt. Harriet will find it anywhere - you go girl! She is wearing a very pretty dress made by the talented Clair, who sews her own clothes from vintage fabrics for little girls.

Running Behind

Sorry about the long time between posts, but things have been a little busy our way. This weekend just gone Princess Herbivore and the parentals flew up to Brisbane to surprise Great-Grandma for her 80th birthday. Will write more about that later, but just wanted to let everyone know we are still here and posting. Never fear, the blog shall be updated!

We flew in to Brisbane on Friday evening but didn't get a chance to take any photos until Saturday morning. She enjoyed the view from our 15th floor apartment in Brisbane for all of one minute and then went back inside to rip off her nappy and start kissing her reflection with gusto. Apparently no view can rival that of her own lovely self.

Grandma was late to her own birthday lunch - but being a surprise had no idea that we were all waiting over an hour for her! Harriet was very out of sorts and only lasted the entree round, then we had to hightail it out of there back to Bernadette's house. The most difficult part of the day was entertaining Harriet - especially when we wanted her to stay clean (which we never normally do). She had made a beeline for these big abacus-style balls when I noticed she was also grabbing handfuls of dirt and throwing them in the air. Poor poppet didn't understand why on this day at this time we had to take her away from the dirt. And I was a complete fool and was dressed in white. *sheesh* Won't be making that mistake again.

Have tried to upload photos with this post but have been resoundly unsuccessful. Will try again tomorrow, by which time we'll have more to write about since we're seeing Judy from Perth tomorrow.

Princess Herbivore and the Great Colander Experiment

Sometimes it can be difficult to think up titles for these posts. "Hmmm...another five photos of Hazza grinning, nothing really exciting happened, what to call THIS then?". But today's title really wrote itself with this set of photos. This morning Harriet wanted to play inside the toybox. Only problem with this is that the toybox lid has a nasty habit of slamming down unexpectedly, so a responsible parental type is required to sit and hold the lid up. Kind of dampens the interactivity and therefore enjoyment of the parent but hey, Harriet's happy and it's her play time!

In this case Harriet found a tiara that Mellissa' s daughter Maddy left behind one wet and rainy morning a few months back. It was apparently a big hit with Max as well and now Harriet emerges to continue the line of appreciation. Yep, it says 'Princess' in pink sparkly letters across the top. She thinks it's pretty funny when Mama and Papa wear it too.

What's inside this then? Harry is fascinated by the colander. Due to the limited space we have in our kitchen, the colander hangs on a hook above the kitchen window. Every now and then Harry will become fixated on it and want us to get it down for her to explore. Well this morning exploration of the colander began from the inside out.




Tofu, Icecream and Liz Hurley. What do these three things have in common? Harriet!



It was a truly gorgeous day today, but in the afternoon the wind picked up a little. We had planned on getting some tofu burgers and eating them down at Clovelly Beach, but decided to abort that once we got out and realised it was Sydney to Hobart wind weather. Whilst waiting for the burgers however, Harry became fixated (read: fell in love with) this tall, free standing sign of Liz Hurley seductively licking an icecream. Harriet couldn't get enough of her! She kept walking from one side, grinning wildly, then running to the other side and grinning wildly. Never really thought Liz Hurley had that much to offer, but hey, maybe it was just the Magnums Harry was interested in.

Finally, here's Harriet enjoying the pool with Papa. We went there to splash about in the newly opened-for-summer toddler wading pool that has a shade sail over it and things, but it was still a bit brisk with the wind. So we went back inside, where we met a boy two week solder than Harriet called James who was expecting a sibling in just TWO WEEKS!!!! *shock* Yes, in two weeks. I'm still shuddering in horror.

Play Abouts

This has been the week for playing! Harriet has been in fine form during the day and it's been great fun watching her start to do some new types of play. Her latest favourite is anything to do with Doll.

When Harriet goes for a bath, Doll has to come in too. When Harriet has some food, Doll has to have some too. When it's time to have her nappy changed, Harriet will make sure she rubs the new nappy over Doll first so that she 'has one on' too.

Harry also is really conveying just how much she understands. She's responding to nearly every instruction and even performs self regulation! Not that we want her to particularly, but because she was starting to seriously damage some of the cds in 'CD Pull-Down - Game of the Century', we told her once when she went to reach for them "No, Harriet". She immediately looked up, shocked! (We don't say no very often - see our UP link in the right hand side). Now when she walks towards the cd cabinet she reaches out for them, then draws her hand back, saying to herself, "No" and shaking her head!! I also have ben telling her the cat food is "not for babies, but ok for cats". This is because I had been telling her "No cat food, Harriet" - then I realised she had started to pull Squeezmo away from the cat food when he was eating it, saying "No" and shaking her head solemnly at him!

We have been making use of this gorgeous weather and headed out to Centennial Park for a play the other day. Harry decided that the slide was heaps of fun, but walking up it was just as much, if not more fun, than the sliding down part of it. It was quite an effort to convince her to move out of the way to watch the older children sliding down from the sidelines rather than directly underneath, but she gave it a go eventually. We also ran into Yorro, a baby that we met at Isabella's party a couple of months ago, which was a lovely surprise.

Hmmm..what else has been going on? We have been playing a LOT of Peek-a-boo. Harriet loves to play it with her blanket as soon as she wakes up. She also loves it if you pretend you can't see her if she's 'hiding' (ie: crouching behind a chair). She then slowly stands up and you have to jump a little, act surprised and she just collapses in giggles and starts it all over again.


Today we went for a playdate to visit Max and Nell. It was total sensory overload for Harry who had fallen asleep in the car on the way there so took a while to warm up to the vivacity of Max! I took some photos of them, we had some food, we played in Max's cubby where we hid from the monster (and had to be very quiet), Harriet played with the stroller, it was all good stuff.

Oh and yesterday we went through an ordeal trying to get her handprint for the teatowel fundraiser at Playgroup. We finally got it (kinda, sorta) after about four attempts of placing her half-curled hand onto the paper. After having been coaxing her for ages to extend her fingers, the classic moment was when we took the paper away - as soon as the paper was gone she slammed her fully painted hand down onto the chair and made a perfect handprint! It was pretty funny. But we'll have to make do with the three-fingered print we got for the teatowel.

Long Weekend Fun

Harriet had her Nana and Grandpa down this weekend and she couldn't get enough of her Nana yet again. Here they are exchanging grins while we were out at a cafe in Clovelly. There was another little boy there, Charlie, who was just about as opposite to Harriet as you could get! He sat quietly in his highchair for the whole meal, had food fed to him on a spoon, barely said a peep the whole breakfast. Meanwhile Harriet was running around everywhere on the footpath, was being swooped up and down by her Papa, babbling constantly, strautting around with various toys, walking up to Charlie's highchair and trying to take his food. Priceless! As James said, Charlie's parents were probably thinking "Oh my god, that child is so much work!" and we were thinking "My god, that child is so boring!" (in the nicest possible way of course). Definitely takes all types to make a world.


On Sunday we went out for some clothes shopping. On the way though we realised that Miss Harriet had fallen asleep in the back seat - she hasn't done that for AGES! So we went for a drive around the area of a potential house we saw to buy on Saturday. We are just so used to her keeping herself up that we didn't even think she'd fall asleep like that anymore. Having Nana and Grandpa stay really was just so exciting that day sleeps were for chumps. Made car sleeps a lot more appealing I guess.

Harriet decided to help Mama out with shopping for her clothes in Newtown. Although things started out well, with her holding my skirt for me (and yes, I did get that one she has in the photo, as well as the awesome green one behind her), by the time I was ready to try things on she was getting pretty tired and upset, so she came into the changeroom with me and did some dress ups of her own. Not even mirror baby could distract her - she was definitely tired, since we had to wake her after about 40mins in the car when she could have done with much more.

Yesterday we did the drive out to Ikea. It's so annoying they closed down the one in Moore Park! But Harry just loves an outing and as soon as we got into the shopping centre she was grinning like a maniac and running everywhere! It was hilarious. We took her down to the children's play area where she was starting to show interest in climbing up the big foam adventure playground part, but she still ended up doing her favourite activity - banging the little seat like a crazy drummer girl. Go Crazy Harry!


This is her usual style when out shopping - running and smiling.