PEE-PULL!

Well Harriet officially does about twenty thousand things a day now that are completely and utterly adorable. Everywhere we go lately people stop us and want to chat to Harry (she of course always chats back), comment on Doll or comment on her activity or just comment that she is a delightful child. Which, of course, she is.

In this first photo you can see just the top of the most gorgeous jumper hand knitted by Nana. It is fantastic! Harriet keeps requesting it, even though about ten minutes after this photo was taken there was a lovel shade of babycino down the front and it now resides in the laundry until the next gentle wash.

Today she seemed to sprain a ligament in her knee and was non-weightbearing on it which was a bit scary. But after James cancelled work for himself and rang Nana to cancel her trip down and we were all packed and ready to wait at the hospital, she seemed to be a little happier to use it...and then a little bit happier and then it seemed fine. Which was obviously a huge relief! We all ended up having an unexpectedly lovely day together, including a serendiptiously timed lunch at Sushi Train with Sara, Pete and the gorgeous Miss Maddie. Harriet is the queen of edamame (well, she learnt from the best) and will happily sit down and tuck into a big bowl with absolutely no help from either of us.



We went for a test drive of the Prius, but unfortunately the driver's seat doesn't move far enough back for James' legs and consequently we're going to have to investigate biodiesel options rather than hybrid technology for our new car. Harry had her hair back today in ponies (I know they're called piggytails but I like to call them ponies instead). I didn't really get a good shot of her with them in, we were too busy having fun today to take photos (*shock*!). She looks so grown up though.


She loves to blow her nose and at any chance of a slight sniff I'll be asked for a tissue. The other day she came runnig up to me with the tissue extended saying "Mama, booger in tissue now", dropped it on my lap and went running back off. Ah, this parenthood business really does leave you with the pretty end of the stick, huh?



Her latest issue with the world is "pee-pull". This is usually said with an indignant index finger thrust forward emphatically to point out an offending piece of rubbish by the side of the road. She looks at me and says with much disgust "PEE-pull Mama! Yucky!". Yes, people are the evil of the world polluting our environment. Can Tim Flannery say it any more succinctly than that? However her newfound interest does mean that I am starting to scan the footpath ahead of me to prevent too many stops and too many requests for me to pick up something particularly unsavoury with my bare hands and place it in a rubbish bin another kilometre down the road.



It has been really, really icy cold lately. The other day we walked over to the 'Big Park' and instead of going on the trike Harry insisted on pushing her stroller instead. The stroller has now become a huge issue - it must accompany her everywhere! Anyway, we went to the park and there was such an icy wind blowing through the area that I had to insist on truncating the visit. It was seriously VERY cold. Anyway, Harriet just didn't seem to feel it! We were wandering down the pathway with absolutely no care in the world. She was quite happy to stop and investigate each rock, every seed pod, all the leaves, individual flowers and chase after all birds, regardless of whether they were in the right direction to get home before the icecaps came rolling in or not. I asked her once "Harry, aren't you cold?" to which I received a blank look and an extended palm; inside the palm lay a smooth, oval, light grey pebble. She caressed it gently, turned it over a couple of times and said to me "Mama, rock palm. Cute.". She then snapped out of that immediately, dropepd the pebble and ran off yelling back to me "Mama, runninnnnnnggggggg...." in the jagged tones of a toddler whose feet pound the ground with every fibre of their being. Although I may have pneumonia I definitely won't forget how deliciously simple that rock looked. Nor how gently she touched it.

New Blog

So in order to allow my naturally verbose self a little space to breathe, I'm starting a new blog just about all my own stuff instead of Harry's. If you are interested in reading, please send me an email and I'll let you know. I have sent emails out to quite a few of you already but if you read and don't think I have your details please email me to get an invite as it will be friends-only.

Never fear though, this blog is still hanging around.

Cheers!

Am I a Lactivist?

I know that FF is necessary in some instances. That there are many women who are devastated that they can't BF, who have issues with attachment, who have medical problems, who generally were planning on fully BF but then find that they can't. Those women have my absolute deepest sympathies.

However it is truly sad to read that in Australia, in 2001:
* only 54% of infants less than 3mths of age were fully breastfed
* only 32% of babies less than 6mths were fully breastfed and
* 21% of babies at 12mths are being breastfed in Australia (this is not exclusive)

Apparently the major two reasons given for not continuing with BF were 'not producing enough milk' and 'felt it was time to stop'. I wonder how many of those in the former group sought out help? Or information on how to increase their supply (eg: feeding more frequently)? Or how much support they had from their partner and/or family?

So when should you stop BF? There is a 'danger period' around the age of 9-10mths where babies may seem to 'wean' but in fact have other issues going on. The average age of weaning across the globe is, what might be surprising to some, 4.2yrs. During natural, child-led weaning, most children will wean between the ages of two and a half and three years. The World Health Organisation recommends a minimum of two years breastfeeding your child for optimum health. When I tell people this (usually just after they have asked when I am planning on weaning Harriet) they all seem genuinely surprised. Now that's not that big an issue at all, except for when these people are also parents. I mean, didn't they look these things up? Research their child's basic nutritional source?

Anyway, at the base of all of this I guess I am here to say proudly that YES, Harriet is still receiving some BF throughout the day. Do they constitute her main nutrition? Not at all, she eats anything and everything (except meat of course!). Do I plan to continue BF? Of course! She's not even two yet, but being a very tall child we definitely get more looks than your average nearly two year old being BF. I'm just waiting for someone to approach me about it...mwahaha.

See where I got the info from here.

Sleep is for the Weak

Well it is official - Harry no longer has a day sleep. It is still a bit up and down and if she doesn't have a downtime in the afternoon she's very grouchy until bedtime. But today was perfect - we went in to the city and came back around 1pm on the bus where Harry had a deep ten minute sleep whilst lying on me and then was absolutely in great form until she went to sleep for the night. Yesterday, however, was a little more difficult because she didn't want to have any 'quiet' time so she was mega-grumpy. Anyway, I'm not one for blathering on about sleep but wanted to record it here for the memory of my lovely afternoon coffee and reading of the paper. Goodbye!



So what have we been up to this week? Monday was our AP day and we played happily in the park with everyone. Harry was particularly excited because Isabelle was there due to school holidays. But as Isabelle calmly told her, "Harry, you can't do some of this climbing because you're not a big girl and you haven't been to circus class". I mean, how precious is that? Harry took the advice in hand and only tried to copy about half of Isabelle's climbing antics. She did however enjoy pushing Doll in the swing but it's hard to argue that the little girl pleading with her dad for a turn on the swings doesn't have more right than Doll, even though Harry did sit there patiently "waiting you turn Mama" until the previous girl had finished swinging. Forget reading Domain, those swings are the true hot property of the Sydney real estate scramble.

Tuesday we stayed around the house and did a lot of washing. Exciting huh? Well I'll tell you something, when you used to have to pack a lunch and compass to do your washing (ie: when we were in Randwick), being able to do it all so easily is just fantastic. Harriet loves to help out and here she chose her favourite top from the washing basket and pegged it on the line for me. You can see that wild wind was not going to get the best of this piece of clothing.

Harry also engaged in some painting fun. I found a little mini roller, only about ten centimetres long. A perfect toddler toy! She loved painting over the SMH with the roller and then, even more importantly, painting over her hands with the paint.

Nana came down against the odds on Wednesday (if you choose to catch a rail bus from Maitland on any day I'd consider you either mad or a saint but there you have it, the pull of Harry). I thought a relaxing afternoon with the beautiful Blackwattle Bay as our backdrop, replete with picnic food and a thermos of coffee to guard against the cold would be a lovely way to all spend the day together. And sure, it may have been a nice day. If it wasn't for the 100 knot freezing winds ripping through the park and whipping various small children up into the air and off to Oz (no, not the prison..) then maybe it could have been a great way to spend time. As it was we were definitely too cold to stay, although Harry's newly named 'New Park' had a fantastic old school steel roundabout which children were alternating spinning around in a mad fashion or sitting in the middle banging away on the centre (I'm not too sure Nana was that pleased about the drumming). Definitely one to return to - when the weather doesn't require an SES escort.

So we hightailed it out of there in order to bunker down in the warmth of a cafe. Harry had a fantastic babycino and also made friends with about half the cafe staff (and found a fellow face puller!) as well as various women who happened to walk past her. She is just so animated and quite happy to chat to anyone, it makes it very easy to meet new people!

Took this photo just up from the cafe where Harriet found some seed pods that took her fancy. They were really cool and Nana piled them up in her pockets and we came home to play with them in our own backyard.


Thursday was a great day for Harriet. We received the Kmart toy sale catalogue and I saw in there an easel for only $30. Have been looking at a few but they were always at least >$50 so let them slide. But at this price I thought it warranted a look. So here it is in the backyard - Harry had the choice of going to the park or opening her easel. She chose the easel (she didn't really udnerstand what it was in the flat rectangular box so I was surprised at her choice to tell the truth). And wow, what a hit! She LOVES it! She immediately picked up two pieces of chalk and started drawing with them as you can see in this photo - her first creation was John Woo style with the double chalk action so Papa was very proud. She prefers the blackboard much more than the whiteboard, and loves to draw little collections of straight lines, stand back and pronounce them to be "Papa work" or "Alligators" or "Grandpa" or "Doll". Obviously portraiture is her strong point.


Then today we went into the city to meet up with Jo, Grace and Isabelle at the Museum (yes we are members in case you think we spend a lot of money on museum entrance!). Harry loved the wombat as per usual, although there was a particularly stressed out volunteer in there fussing over children touching the specimens...which were in the children's section and more specifically in the touching animals section. *sigh*

Anyway Grace needed a sleep so we headed over to Hyde Park for a quick run around and refuel. Getting Grace, Isabelle and Harriet together is a recipe for food sharing. Harry enjoyed running around after the various ibises that were visiting us. And then it was time for a bus ride home and more blackboard action. So, that was our week! Nothing really much to report but as always it has been a lot of fun hanging around with Miss Harriet.

Congratulations!

I can't believe that I forgot to post in here a HUGE congratulations to Kate and her family on the birth of 'Muski', her as yet un-named gorgeous baby boy! Not only is he a little sweetheart but Kate got her VBAC even when she was overdue. Yay!!!