Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

For a while now I've been contemplating what this blog is for. Sure, it's for documenting the brilliance that is Miss Harri-ret, but I have never used my other blog for the kind of contemplation and discussion that I thought I would. I have been thinking about expanding this a little into being more about just how I feel about things and the world around me, combining a personal blog with a Harriet blog. Now that her major milestones such as walking and talking have been met (and of course jumping, please people, let's not forget jumping!), I find that my relationship with Harry is more intertwined with how I aproach the world. Issues like us all being vegetarian, our parenting styles, etc. have repercussions that would seem to have a place on the blog. Am I recording for others to read, or am I writing for Harriet's memory or purely for expression of my own interests?

I think I'm moving towards writing posts both purely about Harry and other purely about the world around me and how I'm responding to it. Never fear, I will still be waxing lyrical about my daughter and what an amazing person she is.

Here in Melbourne I've realised that I couldn't live here, despite all the people that tell me how great Melbourne is. For one, it seems to have a really high proportion of smokers. Everyone seems to smoke and I'm constantly trying to zip past huge clouds of the stuff just walking down the street. Also it is apparently football crazy. Hmmmm......football and smoking, proably two of my least favourite activities. There are also a lot of shared cultural aspects of Perth (eg: the parochialism), and we've already left there. Having said that though, Melbourne is a really beautiful city. The streets are so clean, the footpaths are wide, the buildings themselves are gorgeous and it's a really easy city to get around (the number of cyclists here is fantastic). We're here until the end of the month and despite the heat for the last week, it's been really lovely. I'll post some photos once I get back to Sydney. I've heard some horror stories about PPing photos on a laptop and can't be bothered doing them twice!

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Well lookie here - the blog is alive! Yes, the January Photo-A-Day Challenge is over, I have my nights free again and I can update the blog. Woohoo! Harry has been doing some hilarious stuff lately. There are so few times in a day when she has a meltdown/gets overtired/becomes frustrated/talks constantly that it feels so much more relaxed to do stuff like pop out for dinner or go to a cafe or just browse around in a bookstore.



What has she been up to? Well aye, there's the rub. I can't remember much! She has been loving her letters and reading. We were doing the alphabet jigsaw puzzle today and she picked up the 'j' and said "Kipper's Birthday". I sort of looked at her blankly - well not entirely blankly, these sort of non-sequiters aren't unheard of and I do know the book. But obviously noting the lack of follow-on conversation from me, Harry lead me further into her mental wonderland "Jake in Kipper's Birthday. Jake. Juh." and held out the lower case letter 'j' piece to me as if I had somehow been lobotomised specifically from the reading section of my brain. Ahhhhh, of course. I should have had that letter j all sewn up with its reference to Kipper's Birthday from that now, shouldn't I? She also held out the 'q' and told me "Like queen in the book" and we had to find her illustrated alphabet book, but hey, every alphabet book in the English speaking world using queen as its 'q' word, right?

You really don't want your child to take up smoking. Unless you're a cigarette company magnate or something and then it's just more lining for the family pockets I guess, but most would prefer it not to happen. I know exactly how those parents feel because in the past week or two Harry has developed the loathsome habit of both her parents - nail biting. *sigh* I think it has developed from a.) watching us with fingers in mouth all the time (der!) and b.) not liking her nails being clipped. She does do it to legitimate bits of nail hanging off but it's still sad to see happen. We're not commenting on it but I have been clipping her nails more religiously and hope to see the opportunities to bite said nails diminish as a result.

Harriet's obssession with swimming also continues unabated. She is now desperate to swim without her noodle, and keeps throwing it to the side of the pool and tries to swim on her 'own' (read: me holding her out on my arm as noodle substitute). She has worked out that diving means going in with those tucked in hands and stretched out arms hitting the water before her feet, but is still a little shy about taking the ultimate plunge. She will happily jump like a loon from quite high platforms into the relatively deep water where either of us is standing. I showed her how to tread water but explaining that it's like riding a bike underwater seemed a little cruel when the poor child can't even push a pedal down on her trike. I got her to sort of 'run' underwater instead which worked and she doesn't mind the frequent dunkings that happen when she lets go of me to try it on her own.

But besides these sort of write-down-able things, Harriet is still a complete delight. Even more so, if that is humanly possible. We are constantly told by little old ladies when we're out adn about during the day about how lovely she is and what a 'doll' she looks like. I didn't know most people were aware of the cheeky monkey dolls but there you have it. She keeps coming out with some gems. What can I think of off the top of my head right now? Ummmm.....:

* James said "Casso" to me and Harry shot right back "People call her Cass, Papa".

* We were talking about Georgia coming up to Sydney and how Georgia knows us. James started off with something along the lines of "Georgia is Mama's friend because.." when he heard Harry mumble something under her breath. When asked what she said, she said a little louder (but still quietly) "Georgia not Mama's friend, Georgia is my friend".

* A lot of times when she is eatign something or reading something, she'll ask us "You like[insert object here] too Mama?" The other day when she was eating strawberries she went on a bit of a roll: "Do you like strawberries Mama?" "Do you like strawberries Papa?" "Does Nana like strawberries" "Does Grandpa like strawberries?" "Does Nana Lee like strawberries?" "Does Grandad like strawberries?". *phew* Once we got the strawberry interest worked out on a sliding scale we were fine to continue watching Harriet eat an entire punnet of strawberries (despite us actually having registered a love of them previously).

* Having said that though, Harry is incredibly generous and thoughtful for a toddler. She is always offering us things that she has to play with or pat or touch or eat. Her latest obssession is brand new babies after a friend just had a brand new baby (Congratulations Mal and Mark!). Harry has to be the one to hold the baby because when it's brand new only the Mama can hold it apparently.

* One of her favourite things to play is some of the games from this *awesome* set of games that Jodie, Tom and Xavier sent her. Harry's personal favourite is a tie between the dominoes and Go Fish. She can play quite a few (open) hands of Go Fish before becoming distracted too.

*How could I forget the big one...Harriet can JUMP! I know, I know, most other children have been able to jump since birth, she's physically behind other children her age, yadda yadda yadda. But we we were hoping it was because she's just so darn tall (about 107cms we think) she hasn't had a chance to develop a highly skilled proprioception. Turns out we may be on teh right track. She can actually jump with both feet off the ground as evidenced here on a friend's trampoline. She is also right into running "VERY fast Mama" as she goes zooming off down the street. So looks as though her physical abilities are playing catch-up which is handy for her since people constantly think she's about 4yrs old lately.

* Tonight Harriet was singing her latest favourite song "Two Cheeky Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" in the car. She was getting right into it, singing with gusto when Papa made the mistake of trying to join in. He was promptly, and in no uncertain terms told "No, Papa! This song only for ladies to sing!".

And so endeth another catch up post. We'll be posting from Melbourne soon because James is down there for about five weeks and we'll be going down too for some/all of that depending. The house we have arranged for us to live in is in Carlton (is this good or bad Melbourne readers?) and also means we will be desperate to hang out during the day with some Melbourne people. SO please email me!