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.