Sentences?

Well we may both be crazy, but yesterday I was sure that Harriet said "I need booby" (or "Uh Nee Brrrooo"); something about the way she phrased it and the manner in which she spoke just made it sound like a true sentence. No, I thought, I'm just imagining it. But then today she did it again! She was walking around with us trying to find her bubble mix pot and both Jimbo and I were scurrying around on the floor trying to see where it landed, when she piped up with, clear as day, "Uh Nee Booo" ("I need bubbles" in Hazspeak). There was the correct amount of quiet between the words, she was speaking about a topic we were currently engaged in and seemed to understand completely what she was saying. So we're waiting to see when it happens again (although of course by writing about it in here I have guaranteed that it won't happen for a while).

Today was definitely a speech day anyway (and not the boring kind you have to endure when you're in high school). Harry was repeating nearly every word we were saying ("Would you like some roll Harry?" "Rrrrroooohhh?" "Yes, roll. Would you like a bite?" "Buh?" "Yes, bite." *chomp*). As is evident by the photo, she is also going through a big mango phase. Let's hope it doesn't continue into winter, as it's already a slightly expensive culinary preference in summer. But she does enjoy them so much! In the above photo she is sucking on the mango pip, a favourite experience.

And in more exciting news, yesterday Harry's new bed arrived! She is now the very proud owner of a double mattress that is on the floor of her room. Montessori theory believes that a child having a floor bed has fewer issues with going to bed than children placed in other types of beds - you can read more about it here: http://www.montessori.org.uk/pdfs/MI79_p14-15.pdf as well as just being a generally nice idea to be able to get out of your own bed! And it's a double mattress because, of course, I'm still co-sleeping with her. And she loves it! When it arrived she started rolling all over it and putting all of her toys to sleep on there (and not in the vet sense of the word). Then Papa and Mama had a roll around on it too which was lots of fun, having all three of us being silly sausages on the mattress all at once!

This morning we investigated local pool options. Now that our usual pool is a little bit further to travel than we'd like for the odd dip, it was time to go out and do the rounds of our local swimming holes. We gave Col Jones a wide berth after reading on a website that its facilities were 'disgusting', and made our first stop at Enmore Pool. Well it was pretty good but the pool was quite cool (mind you it was freezing today). We stayed there for nearly an hour and as we were leaving we noticed a cafe opening its doors across the road on the other side of the park. We went over to warm our toes but little did we realise that disaster lay ahead! Within about ten minutes Harriet had smashed her babycino glass into smithereens on the floor below the table (no surprise when you look at her no-hands action in this photo), covered the spotless white cushion on her chair in babycino milk/choc sprinkles and mashed through my banana bread with a spoon. It was definitely an unfortunate series of events (as the books say) but Harry was still happy and that was what mattered. The women in the cafe were fine about it as well which was good for us.

Well that's a quick wrap up from the weekend. Just a short one for today to satisfy those of you who read the blog at the start of the working week.

Our Place ROCKS!

Ok, so yesterday we went out for a bit of an explore on the trike. We are just a two minute stroll down to the foreshore, so Harry and I went out to see what lay on the other side of the river. We went under the train bridge and found a gorgeous park filled with large trees and picnic tables where we could sit down and have some boobie (Harry) and take some photos (Mama). However Haz decided to scout around inside my bag and found my phone. She then just started taking photos of herself with my phone camera! It was hilarious, because she was grinning like this when she was taking the shot, then turning the phone over to check herself out with a very serious face. She never grins on demand like that or me! Mind you, I've never thought to ask her...

The problem with this though, was that she not only wanted to look at herself, she also wanted to kiss herself. Which involves a lot of slobber. Baby slobber + expensive phone equipment = disaster! So I no longer have a phone, hahaha!!!!

Then in the evening when Papa Jimbo came home, we decided to go for an explore along the other side of the road along the river. And over there we found the most AWESOME park ever! It has a flying fox people, can you believe it?! It is also seriously big, there were a few groups of children there and none of them were playing in the same spot. Harry was absolutely thrilled to play in this place and in the post-storm air it was deliciously cool after being warm and humid all day.

Her favourite toy was this whizzy-dizzy. It is like a large egg cup for children, slightly askew so that once you're in, your body weight turns it around and around. Well do you think Harry was getting out of this thing? She would go spinning like mad (it was spinning pretty fast!), then we'd slow her down because she started to look serious (naively thinking she may be feeling slightly ill from an overloaded vestibular system) but when we'd go to help her out of the cup, she'd get quite cross with us and say/sign "More! More!". The best thing about it was when she finally did get out of there, she couldn't stand up! She was SO dizzy that James had to hold her upright for quite a while afterwards. This did not detract from the experience at all, and she kept going back for more. What a dizzy rascal.

Harry also had a go at playing with this equipment that she dubbed the 'stezza' (what we call the stereo at home but who knows why she called this large rocket-type contraption stezza), The long black thin hanging behind her head became the otoscope for her to examine my ears with, just as the doctor had examined her ears earlier that day. It was so funny, she was saying 'doctor' then 'ear' and looking in my ear with this large rubber thing - such a textbook case of play! There was a seat to relax on after the tiring play, a hole to look through for peek-a-boo fun, and a big pole to lean on and even do some impromptu pole dancing on.

One of the pieces of equipment has quite a steep staircase but the stair railings are close together enough for Harry to hold on to both sides for support. So she was determined to use them to come downstairs on her own. You can see it was a matter of grim determination for her in this shot. But she came down with narry a scratch so she was quite pleased with that result.

Finally there was the pesky issue of walking home. We have absolutely no trouble heading out the door to get to places, but getting back requires all sorts of negotiation. Not for any reason other than Harry just wants to push her trike rather than sit on it. Sure, no problem in theory. But in practice it becomes a nightmare of taking one step forward, four steps back (literally). And with a sunset like this to distract you, it's perfectly understandable. We walked past a rowing club that has an awesome balcony over the river, and the sound of people clinking their schooners across the water was enough for us to remember our long-term commitment to rowing. Rowing, our dear, beloved sport. Rowing, the sport of kings. Rowing, the sport that offers us cheap riverside beer. Mmmmmm....rowing. So yes, with all this a short walk from home, we love our new house!

Wees and Poos

So Harriet loves her potty. She also loves it when either Mama or Papa go to the toilet (in fact watching Papa go elicits laughter...as it should). So it comes as no real surprise to us that in the last t wo days Harry has decided that she would like to give toilet training a go.

The main issue she has with it is timing. for example I came out from hanging up some clothes today to find a puddle of wee in the lounge room...I walked out to the playroom and found her potty with a square of toilet paper in it...and then in the toilet was the lid of the toilet down and a streamer of paper hanging out from under the lid. With my Holmesian hat on, I think it's fair to say that she did her wee then went back to the potty and then 'flushed' her toilet paper. But she has consistently gone to the potty after doing a wee and/or a poo both days now. We're not interested in trying to formalise it by getting her to always go on the potty or anything, we're sure she'll go when she's good and ready. But it's encouraging to see that she's interested and getting the hang of it.

Her latest look is this massive grin. It is SO cute! She grins like this at most things, especially since we've moved. Seems like she loves the new house almost as much as we do. When I even mention the cats she gives the grin, then holds her hands up to her mouth and shakes her head as if she is trying to give them the love there and then. I think it's safe to say she is her mother's daughter when it comes to all things feline.



She also loves her boobies. She keeps pointing to them and I'll say "Yes, your boobies Harriet" and she goes mental with excitement, then slaps a hand on mine and I'll say "Yes, my boobies" and that is just great apparently. Her latest activity of note is drawing. We've got quite a few washable textas that she loves to draw with - on her palm, on her leg, on the table...oh yes, and also on the paper occasionally. I forgot again to take a photo of her drawing, but will hopefully remember tomorrow.

Oh! I keep forgetting to mention this but it must be written for posterity - I won the 'mite wars! Harriet is now doomed to forever be a social pariah based on her love of Promite rather than Vegemite. Go the underdog!

Moved!

Well we have moved! Not without some minor dramas as all things become when moving, but we have done it. Harriet was really out of sorts and started screaming, hitting her head and hitting the walls when Jan, Mike and I did some car loads on Friday. So anticipating it would be much worse if she saw the truck being loaded, we made the decision to keep her well out of the way on Saturday and just return once things had been arranged at the new house. This seemed to work well and on Saturday she was quite happy to muck around in the new place and read her books at bedtime like normal. But during the night she kept waking and crying out that the door was in the wrong place and the stereo was playing music from the wrong end of the room (she has some soft music we play at night while she sleeps - it used to be to drown out the pedestrain noise at the old house so we're planning to phase it out here). So that first night was very low on sleep and high on reassuring cuddles and feeds. But the second night was tops! Since then Harry has loved being in the house. In fact this morning she did some artwork which I'll post when I get a chance to take a photo of it.

On Sunday we went out with Nana whilst Grandpa had a little resting nap and poor Haz was pretty exhausted - exhausted enough to fall asleep at the breast whilst out, which she has only done once before and that was last week. So she's obviously exhausted poor mite. But it didn't stop her from giving Nana a massive smooch. Her lastest thing is kissing; she's worked out that not everyone needs (nor wants!) a frenchie, and that just puckering up will suffice. She's also taken to being extremely cute and spontaneously affectionate by wrapping both arms tightly around our legs and giving a huge squeeze as well as the aforementioned kisses.

Last week we all got rotavirus. And to quote one of Harry's latest words - "Yucky!". In fact Georgia had to be hospitalised with it after coming into contact with Haz for just an hour or so. No-one could keep down water, neither James nor myself could physically stand up and I was open mouthed breathing. It was seriously dire. Harry fared the best out of all of us because she had already had it when she was 12mths and was able to mount some form of immune response whilst us adults lay prostrate to the virus. Into this packing/illness maelstrom arrived Greta and Colette from Perth! Harriet had a ball hanging out with them. Us four girls all went for a shop in the city, had some coffee by the water on another day and Harriet basked in the attention of two doting admirers. It was great to see you two but such a shame about the timing and the lack of free time. You'll just have to move over here I think.

That's just a quick update for now to keep you all in the loop. I didn't take any photos for about two or three days (I can hear the cumulative intake of shocked breath from here), so not too many photos at the moment. Don't worry, I'm looking to remedy that situation asap. You'll all be the first to know. But hurray for our new house!

And....

I forgot to mention in the last post that Harriet is obssessed with putting on her own shorts. She just will not allow anyone else to do it. Which isn't too much of a problem because she can get one leg through, it's just that pesky other leg still hanging out there. And when she goes to catch that recalcitrant foot, the other one pops back out again! Honestly, whoever invented the two leg system will have Harry to answer to. The only way I can get her fully dressed is to distract her with something else that requires her to stand.

And that activity is definitely getting her to unlock the car. She loves putting the key in the lock and opening and closing the car. As well as demanding her favourite song be played (Love Will Tear Us Apart - she's going through her teen angst phase early). So most mornings I've just taken to giving her the car keys whilst she's naked, following with clothes and nappy in hand and just dressing her as she stands at the car in the street. It makes life a lot easier. Plus some great looks from strangers and a story to tell at her 13th birthday party to make her cringe.

PS - photo courtesy of Jan and Mike (an oldie but a classic)

Late Again!

So with the organisation of the new house taking up all spare time, once again Harriet's blog has taken a backseat, which is most unfortunate. I also owe major, long, gossipy phone calls to Miss Jennie and the wonderful Claire - I promise to call soon guys! We've been doing our bit for the greenhouse effect the last two weeks, driving between our house and the new house constantly and using more petrol than our poor car has ever had to use before. Harry, who loathes being in the car, has become more patient and will now not start screaming for...oohh...at least 15 minutes now which is a bit of a relief. Here Harriet is meeting Papa at the front door of the new house and sharing with him a beautiful bouganvillea flower that grows along the side of our front fence. Doesn't it look lovely? We're pretty hapy with the place, especially with the new paint and once the floors are done this week I'll post a couple of photos. Harriet and I also made a neigbourly visit a few doors up and met Rohan who is 14mths, has lovely parents and may be a new playmate. Cool.



We've felt guilty at how much car time she has had to endure, so it's been a special effort to ensure we fit in some fun activities for Haz during the day. The trike is such a hit that many afternoons she wakes up from her nap by sitting upright and saying 'car'. I can fake ignorance every now and then by taking her to the real car, but I do take her out and pop on the trike for a big excursion too.

Harry's latest obssession is with buses. For once it has become a bonus that we live right near a bus depot. When we're heading out and coming back on the trike, the entry to the bus depot becomes a real focus and each bus is met with a loud exclamation of "BUH!" (she still hasn't managed an 's' sound yet) and then a "Bye, bye" as it rounds the corner to 'have a bath and go to sleep' inside the depot.


In this photo (not a particularly attractive one of her admittedly) she is making the sign for 'car' whilst waiting at he bus stop. We decided to go to Maya Masala in Surry Hills (an Indian vegetarian restaurant) and I suggested we go ther ein the bus for Harry's sake. What a great idea it was! We got to watch the driver turn a huge steering wheel, and watch people get on and off. When the bus slowed down, Harry would start saying "more" and signing more, because she thought it was all over. Leaving the bus caused a few upset tears but luckily another one pulled in behind us and provided immediate distraction. *phew*



On the Sunday of the Australia Day weekend we went out for an afternoon picnic with some Perth friends. It turned into an evening picnic replete with some good Sulo bin cricket, bbq and critical assessment of a new champagne (thanks Nicky!). Harriet was absolutely fascinated by the cricket play and watched her Papa smack the ball into long grass and bowl a few overs. Then it was on to getting Rachel and Paul to do some parenting for us, since she wasn't interested in either of us at all! Rachel gave Harry some bowling tips and Paul lined them up for some batting practise. In fact Rachel and Paul were such a hit that when they came back to our house, Harriet forced Rachel to read her about three books in a row and the next day I was forced to sing 'Rachel' ("Ra-Ra") and 'Paul' ("Borl") in all of our normal songs. Plus I even printed out a photo of Rachel for Harriet to look at in the car which worked a treat.


With all of these trips over to the new house, we decided to try and finally eat at this fantastic Vietnamese/Thai/Chinese restaurant (yes, it has all three foods there, it's a novel of a menu). We've actually tried to eat there a number of times before but always met with calamity - one time we had no cash and it doesn't take cards; another time we sat down and Harriet just began to scream and scream so we hightailed it out of there. But this time we managed to sit down and order. But even then the dining experience became a logistics nightmare, because Harry decided she wanted to walk all around the restaurant. Now this place has about 20 square centimetres of free space, so walking around isn't really an option. It ended with me walking around with Harriet on the pavement with another mother also walking her toddler around out there whilst inside everyone was finishing off their food. The food is fantastic but probably not that great as a dine-in experience with a toddler, I think luck is not on our side and take away is our new best friend.

However one of the cool things about this place is it's just around the corner from a cool big park. While we were playing in there, Harry had her first glimpse of BIG planes. Not just a plane that is physically big but a plane that is BIG in the sky. You can see in the above photo just how far back she was bending to check them out as they zoomed low in the sky over our heads. Well, Marrickville is the place to be if you're a plane spotter.

This photo is just here because I love it. She was wearing her Superbaby singlet, had no nappy on, and one shoe. Papa Jimbo came home and just laughed his butt off at what a sight she was.


One afternoon we made an impromptu stop off at the beach. Not really anything too exciting about that. Went to our favourite fish&chip place, got some tofu burgers, had dinner on the grass...well, we started to have dinner on the grass. Then Harriet spied the play equipment way at the other end of the beach and just turned around very matter-of-factly, grabbed my hand and power walked her way down there! She took off at such a pace that I barely had a chance to say anything to James, we were just heading towards that play stuff! So after we all had a play on that (yes, ALL of us), Harry decided she wanted to go and play in the sand. Except this child doesn't know the meaning of the word moderation. When she loves something boy does she love it. Not being too interested in the water (probably because it was actually pretty warm and lovely to paddle in, not at all what Harriet was looking for in an aquatic experience) she turned back to the shore and proceeded to give herself a full body exfoliation, courtesy of Clovelly sand. She would reach down and rub the sand all over her belly, down her arms and, this was the best bit, into her scalp. And again. And again. She had so much sand all through her hair that even three baths later it's still not all out.

Well as amuch as she likes sand she loves playing with water, especially fresh water. Whilst we're in a drought. And for no reason whatsoever except to be a crazy kid in it. And me being a water nazi, well, it's a very hard road to travel down. But every now and then she finds a water bubbler that she can spray out to her heart's content and man, look at the joy in her face when she gets to do it! A few days ago we were at the park while another group of children was playing there. They were about 3yrs and knew all about spraying the water with their thumb and finger. Seems Harriet learnt a thing or two from them that day because she went straight over and started spraying the water like this, it was a total crack up.

And just to end on another house note - Nana and Grandpa came down last weekend and we all went across the road to our local pub for dinner and a beer. Gotta love moving across from somewhere that has a great beer garden and food and a banner proclaiming 'Kids Welcome'. Yay! The four of us and Miss Harry had some delicious meals and considering how late a night it was for her Harriet was just awesome. She's being so much fun lately, playing games like making Play Doh noodles (which she puts up to her mouth, looks at me with a big grin on her face and says "No, no" - monkey child), shopping games (she gives me some money and I give her a receipt - she can play that for ages and ages) and just silly games of stuff like me chewing up her arm or she points out my eyes and nose and Gromit's eyes and nose. Her favourite word at the moment is 'docket' and she says it really quickly like it's a rapid fire machine gun word - "dokitdokitdokit". Now Jimbo and I are in the habit we find ourselves saying it even without Harriet there. Apparently when James was out with his parents at Bunnings they all started to do it, receiving quite a few funny looks at the time!

We should be moving out in two weeks time, so apologies if we don't find time to update in the near future. I'm taking enough photos to sink a battleship but I haven't really been too happy with many of them of late. A bit of a photography funk really, so I'm hoping the move snaps me out of it. Right now though it's past 12.30am, we've been down to the hospital with Harriet (she's fine, just an horrific case of thrush which is all over her nappy region and even beyond, scared us stupid because it flared up like that in the space of a few hours [Kristy I was thinking necrotising fasciitis after that video Jacqui Norris made us watch, ha!]) and I'm not making much sense so I think I better just go to bed. Goodnight!