Harriet - Socialite

Apologies for the dealy in writing the blog. We've been doing a few things, amongst them buying a house, so our time has been limited. Harry, as always however, has been taking it completely in her stride.

We went to the pool as always on Monday and met up with Matilda and her Mama. It's very exciting because it's Matilda's first birthday this weekend - yay! For some reason the toddler pool wasn't heated on this particular Monday though and Harry had to be prised from the side of the pool, despite the discrepancy between her blue lips and protestations.

This photo really doesn't look like Miss Harriet Dora. Her eyes look a little freaky or something. But it was taken in her favourite park, which we've just found out is the starting point for the new Google aeroplane on Australia Day, so we're planning a trip down there to ensure we get photographed. That's because we're sad and have no life.


In the interest of being sad and having no life, Harry here is laughing her head off at some people doing their exercises with their personal trainer in the park. Honestly she was just transfixed - we had to describe the situation for her - "Yes, they're doing exercises. Do you want to do exercises? Up and down with your arms". We'd start moving her arms like the people were doing with weights and she'd find that hilarious.

Harry is also enjoying a few other things this week, including, well....it has to be said. Yes, she is finally enjoying her vagina. In fact she likes to have a good ole look there every now and then, as well as ask where Mama's vagina is and then where Papa's vagina is. The latter can cause a longer pause than may be considered normal for a toddler, but hey, it's a difficult question to field on the hop. I have a few photos but, let's face it, they're probably not entirely appropriate on a public website such as this.

The other thing Harriet is really enjoying at the moment is signing. One of her favourite games is to get us to list all of the signs she knows in a row. "What's the sign for...x?" is met with a huge grin and the appropriate sign. We're going to buy her a big signing wall chart so we can communicate with her more, because she so obviously understands absolutely everything we're saying but can't make the words herself (gee but that must be annoying). So she's become the signing queen.

With the weather being really warm lately the afternoons have found us frolicking down by the beach. Unfortunately Harry's sleep pattern hasn't always coincided with what we'd like to be doing in our pm timeframe, but one day we managed to make it down to Coogee with time for dinner, a lot of bubble blowing, some playing in the sand and even a paddle in the (freezing) water. Harry didn't even seem to notice that the water was cold enough to melt even John Howard's heart, she was being lifted up out of the incoming waves one-armed by her Papa, much against her will. Meanwhile I was shivering like a baby on the sand where I could at least feel my toes. Crazy child.

Also her favourite foods at the moment are: Lebanese cucmber, red capsicum, natural yoghurt and green beans. The other thing she will ask 'More! More!" for is straight frozen peas, direct from the freezer. Thank you D-C household for the tip, she can't get enough of them! Favourite games include an absolutely incessant need to sing "Nana is here today (x3) / Let's all splash!". She then will change the name of who is being sung about, with the usual order going somethng like this: Nana (at least three times), Grandpa, Ruby, Rory, then she does the sign for sleep which means Xavier (Rory's baby who was asleep last time Harriet saw him), then Georgia. I can tell you now, I will be VERY relieved when this particular phase is over. Car trips have been reduced to me singing the same inane song over and over again.

Oh and did I mention we bought a house? This is it! We're getting the interior painted and some floating floorboards installed before we move in, so it's a few weeks away yet, but we actually settled today. We also chose the paint colours this afternoon - and, well, yes, I may just have chosen one or two colours based purely on their potential for photos. Don't judge me people!

Water Baby

So Harry has been totally into the water (literally) the past few days. On Saturday we went to visit Lisa who, by the time I write this, is free from work - yay! She gave Haz her Christmas presents (of which she broke one before we left that afternoon and was too scared of the other to play with it!) but you'll be happy to tell Sam that now she has Callie in the shopping trolley, which means she's practically family now Lis.

It was a cool, blustery day but with true determination Harriet made it up to the rooftop pool with a little help from us - she can't press the top buttons on the lift yet you know. It was so cold in there that herlips went blue but she still didn't want to get out! The offer of her octopus towel always eases the blow of dry land though.


The next day was far from ideal though. She was very, very squealy. Everything was difficult (including but not limited to - eating, walking, reading, driving, playing, talking). So we decided to bite the bullet and meet up with Michelle and Peter and the lovely Master Erik at the big Aquatic Centre in Ryde where we had been told of wondrous toddler delights. By the time we pulled in to the carpark however, I was less than thrilled at the prospect of being about 30mins away from home. Harry was screaming and wouldn't do anything but hang on to me for dear life. I felt like my head was going to explode.


Ok. Cut to twenty minutes later. Haz is giggling in the pool, there's a cool wave machine, I'm reclining in the spa and the viking clan are wonderful company. Have more faith Cass! Even after we got out and were sitting outside Harry was happy as anything. You can see here she was investigating everything in her environment, including...err...big safety cones. In fact she was trying to lift said cones off the ground but since they were around large metal poles stuck in the ground the whole event was a little more difficult than expected. But what a score - we found an old tennis ball. Yes! A tennis ball people. Don't think that's exciting? Well I'm here with a toddler named Harriet to tell you who how wrong, wrong, wrong you are.

Yesterday I came up with the ultimate tennis ball game. It involves Mama running after the tennis ball like a crazy woman with arms flailing, legs akimbo (yes yes, "put yourself in a child", i know) and clapping like a toddler as the ball gets flung out of Harriet's hands and down the hallway. Now I'll do almost anything to hear the sweet giggles from my gorgeous child, but this game is more than a tad tiring. And after a week of less than optimal sleep, well, I tire pretty easily. So I suggested the camera instead for a few minutes, when we managed to snap this little happy double up self portrait. Cute, huh? Well, I think so anyway. Cos even when I'm so exhausted I put the washing in the kitchen and (almost) put the coffee in the toaster, she still makes me smile.

In fact I laughed out loud when I saw this photo - I titled it 'You're looking at THIS face?!' on my Flickr. Harry's getting quite talented at feeding herself without making a mess. In fact she's had yoghurt quite a number of times without getting even a drop on her shirt! This is mainly because she has quite thick yoghurt. The food downfall is because she insists on turning her spoon upside down before it gets to her mouth. Cute. But not too practical. But perhaps she's like the Daffodil Grandpa and things taste better upside down? And I am definitely showing my age by mentioning that ad, but I'm showing it already by posting that photo, so who cares hey?

Visiting

Yesterday we had an exciting visit from Nana! She came all the way down in the train and Harriet was more than just a little excited to see her. Infact all morning I had been asked to sing all the songs we sing that have names in them and insert Nana or Grandpa as directed. Often the directions would change mid-song so I often only managed to sing a few lines of each one.


Now the downside of having Harry so darn excited is that...well, she just peters out. Adrenalin can only last for so long and then boom crash, the flipside is revealed - zombie baby! On the way home from the train station I noticed that Harriet was being unusually quiet in the back of the car. Turning around I saw that she had a familiar, glassy look to her eye. Hmmm...

So I turned around from our original destination of the beach and made tracks for home and, more importantly, the bedroom. Turns out she *was* more than a little tired and proceeded to sleep for two hours (about half the time Nana had to spend with her!). Lesson for the future - don't tell Harriet Nana is coming until about an hour beforehand.


She finally woke up and we all scarfed down some lunch before racing to try and get the return train on time. Nana got out of the car to go and Harriet just threw the BIGGEST sad face! The bottom lip was quivering, her eyes were welling up with tears, and she was blubbering out a little "bye bye nana' that sounded very small indeed.

But luckily for us and unluckily for Nana, she missed her train! So all three of us got to spend some time together at the station drinking babycinos, playing games and waving goodbye to lots of trains going past. This time the goodbye was a little happier and Nan could leave without thinking Harriet's world had just collapsed. Thanks for a great afternoon Nana!

After we saw off Nana we went for a swim at Victoria Park Pool and decided to meet there with Papa after work. By the time we got home Harriet was exhausted but refused to stay asleep. She was very grumbly all night and I only got an hour or so sleep.

When we woke up this morning we soon realised why - she was (well, still is) sick. She had a fever, her nose was running and she was not a happy camper. In fact if I was at work it would have run something like this:
S: Irritable, mucopurulent nasal discharge
O: T:38.0, RR:unable to discern over squeals, HR:breaking them everywhere
A: URT viral infection
P: Stay home today, administer paracetamol as required for pyrexia

And, well, that's what I did. It was just a quiet day indoors for us. Papa came home and took this very cute shot of Harry telling us all what for.

Then I took this shot of Papa playing "Round and Round the Garden, like a Teddy Bear" with Harry. She loved it so much she kept asking for more over and over again and then asked Papa Jimbo to do it to himself over and over again (which elicited a few giggles as well).

She's down for sleep tonight but I'm not holding my breath for a long night's sleep. In fact it's a miracle I got through this post without being summoned in (shouldn't count my chickens just yet, should I?!).

Smell-a-licious

Harriet has just started to work out what her nose is for. Although there is still a bit of mouth confusion (see flower shots). But yesterday when I bought some mint for dinner she was so excited about smelling it that she kept asking for more, more mint!


She literally shoved her face right into the mint once she worked it out, but I managed to catch her eyes just peeking out above the bushel in this shot. Yesterday she was being cute with the other children at the Inner West AP meet at the pool. There was a nearly 12mth old baby there and she wanted to play the 'shake hands' game she learnt from Grandpa with her! So they played that a few times which Harry thought was great, and then Harriet wanted me to tickle her with the finger puppets that were on a book another child had there. So it was double the entertainment value - I was playing with the baby while Harriet was laughing at me playing with the baby. Cool!

Black and White Bonanza

The b&w is actually to hide the fact that my white balance was all off, I was using a high ISO and the grain is shocking. But oh well. I just had to post this pic of Haz *going off*. James is playing her harmonica and she decided to go totally metal. Can't you just feel the passion from Papa Jimbo in this shot? Never fear, musical integrity was kept up as Harriet then was jumping around to the Beastie Boys too. She still goes to sleep by dancing around to Love Will Tear Us Apart, The Killing Moon (which Lisa will be pleased about) and Fool's Gold. But we have had some success to dancing around to the first three songs from To The Five Boroughs as well, so she does have diversity. She doesn't enjoy the sweet, acoustic tracks as much as any hip hop that's going around. She loves hip hop! Unfortunately The Herd is a bit too mellow in the bpm department, but we're hoping that changes in the near future.

Now the big development in play for Harry lately is her obssession with the dolls! Now she isn't just happy with Doll2, but Gumby, Tubbs and Teddy (the one Nana Lee and Grandad gave er for her birthday) as well. Last night she decided they were best off being all lined up on the arm of the lounge. She then went through touching the head of each one and saying their name aloud (from L-R in the photo we have "Guh", "Doh", "Buh" and "Geh" (*ahem* urr..also known as Tubbs).

After the ceremonial nomenclature annointing is completed, Harriet likes to kiss them, hug them or just adjust their seating position whilst ensuring they are all comfortable. But woe betide the doll that wants to move because *blammo*, they are sent hurtling to the floor with one hand without even a backwards glance. She is so careful with them on the lounge and has very gentle movement, but once it's decided they're to be sent to the floor, DOWN THEY GO!

Her other favourite game is to send the dolls to sleep. I don't have a photo of this yet, but we go up to the second bed, pop the doll in question on the pillow, pull up the quilt and stroke their face whilst saying "Ssshhhh.....sssshhhh...". This is *hysterical*! Harriet just starts grinning like crazy and now has started wanting to go to 'sleep' herself. She puts her head down on the pillow and we have to stroke her head and make the appropriate noise. It is so cute when she approximates the "Ssshh" sound because it comes out something more akin to "Chhhh...Chhhh...".

And while we're on the topic of sleep games, Papa and Mama have to keep on their toes because at any minute we could be snapped into sleep ourselves! Harriet loves to do the sleep sign to us and we have to 'fall asleep' then and there, stopping whatever it is we're doing and closing our eyes. She then stops making the sign and we're allowed to 'wake up'. It's so much fun!

A Busy Few Days!

Harriet's been a bit of a social butterfly these past few days. I've also gone a bit storyboard crazy as you can see by this one on the left. It's of Harry enjoying her Christmas present from Nana and Grandpa - her very own Hazza-sized chairs and table! She loves snuggling up on it and curling her feet up onto the seat.

Lately Harriet has been loving her Doll2 and Gumby (remember the ugly interim doll? Yep, that's her). She loves to have them act out clapping hands in time to the 'If You're Happy and You Know It' song, she also lines them up along with a couple of other soft toys and makes them hug and kiss each other.


We went down to the beach the other evening and went exploring in the rock pools. Harriet loved moving the little shell creatures from one pool to another, and splashing her feet in the water (but only after both Papa and I had taken off our shoes to show her we would do it as well).

We also went out to visit Ruby and her mum Nadia. Before we left, I showed Harry a photo of Ruby on the computer and explained that we were going to go to Ruby's house (and yes, I was singing 'Susan's House' by The Eels to myself as we went there). Harry *loved* this photo of Ruby and whenever the screensaver came on, would start crying and saying "Roo! Roo!".

We go to Ruby's place and there were a few ownership issues because Ruby had a new doll that Haz thought was the bee's knees. But I pulled out Harry's car with Little Dude in it and they began happily playing with eac other's toys on their own. Strange creatures these babies.

Then it's decided to venture on to Camperdown Park. Harry found out that there is another child who enjoys the bubbler just as much as she does - Ruby! They did pretty well at 'sharing' it for a while which was quite impressive. Harry's main focus though was making sure she could follow Ruby everywhere and anywhere she went. Unfortunately for me, Ruby runs and Harry doesn't! So she was grabbing my hand constantly and dragging me in Ruby's wake. Ruby loved it and seemed to delight in exploring places Harry couldn't get to easily, as if to test the love. But it all became a bit much - the sun, the short sleep earlier in the day, the excitement of seeing Ruby. And the walk home consisted of much screaming from an hysterical Harriet. Then, when I put her in the carseat, I jammed a fold of her belly in the clip for the seat and she just started wailing. As you would! So it took us quite a while to end up on our way, she was just so overtired and overwhelmed. But in good news she did fall asleep relatively early for her. Yay!

All in a Day's Work

This is a small version of a storyboard I just did of Harriet's trip to the park the other day. Got some lovely shots because the light was so beautiful. I'm really going to miss this little park around the corner from us when we move, it's so pretty, Haz just squeals with excitement when we turn the corner and she realises where we're going, and it's manicured and got great toys. Have to resize some pics to post so will be back later to put those up. She is being just the most incredibly adorable child at the moment - I love her so much it HURTS! She was walking away from Coles today swinging Doll2 around by the arm when she got into the speaker range of some doof music coming from Boost. She just stopped right there and started bopping away, then got Doll2 up by the arms and had her 'dancing' as well! Oh man, she rocks.

Welcome to 2007

We've been a bit slack this week with posts, so apologies for that. Having Papa Jimbo home should, in theory, make for more time but in practice makes for much less! We've been out socialising and flitting around generally over the past few days having a grand old time. Harriet has been enjoying quite a few babycinos as Mama and Papa get back into the swing of going out for good coffee in cafes. In this shot Harriet was enjoying being out for lunch with Georgia and Nathan. I think she enjoyed speeding up and down the pavement more than sitting down drinking the babycino though (they're just frothed milk for those who don't know).


2007 started off in a very peaceful manner. We headed out to Rach and Paul's dad's house in Wahroonga but it felt like it was in the middle of the bush. In fact we even saw a wild bush turkey waddle past (and not the woman James saw). Mama had been out having an awesome night the night before so was quite happy for the quiet natural surroundings. Harry had quite a few things to capture her attention.
One of those was definitely Rachel! She loves her, to the point where I have to make sure that Rach is ok with being pulled by the hand everywhere since she doesn't get much chance to say no! Here Harry's playing the 'cup on the head' game which was awesome fun. Naomi got some video of her playing with Rach and giggling away. There wasn't even any respite when she went to the toilet, Harriet started leading me by the hand all around the house in search of her!


When the fruit platter came out, well, lord help you if you wanted any rockmelon. Miss H devoured two big slices in absolutely record time and along with some bbqed mushroom, mango, bread and tomato, made sure all foods were remembered by leaving some behind on her top. Who knows, maybe she sucks the flavour out when we're not looking. It wouldn't surprise me.

One of her foci was Toby the Shorn Wonderdog. Here he's modelling Harriet's pork pie hat with aplomb. Harriet was desperate to pat him, and was standing over him a number of times doing her squeezing love face (which I also do) but not actually touching him. Finally, after a couple of hours, she leant down and patted his paw. She didn't seem scared of him per se, just a bit overwhelmed at there being another furbrother but one that was about three times the size of Squeezmo!

All in all a relaxing start to the new year. But we have news of three engagements! So big congratulations are in order to: Chris and Lisa, Kristy Jane and Nick, and belated congrats to Rebecca and Michael. There are also less whispers, more like bellowing shouts, of wedding plans for Naomi and Paul, but until it's all been official, well, they're just going to be 'friends'. HAHAHAHA!!! Which of course no-one believes!

Hope that your own new year started as beautifully as ours did.

Happy New Year!

Well it's 2007 - Harriet's third calendar year and she's not even two years old yet. Cool, huh?

Hope you all have a great time in 2007. We'll be moving into our new house and enjoying exploring all the new places Harry has to visit, like Playgroup and the Gymbaroo place. Should be fun!

Pity your enemies, embrace your friends, and relish life. Happy New Year!