Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Somewhere Over the Rainbow



Disclaimer: the above video will make no sense unless you read on and also click on the links (well, the second link anyway).

Disclaimer II: the above video will probably still make little sense after you've watched both links and read the story. Welcome to our world.

When Harriet grabs hold of an interest, well this child really holds on with all fours and some darn sharp teeth. Case in point: today. For the past couple of months I've been singing her 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' as a lullaby when it's my turn to put her to sleep. She's been increasing her requests for it over the past few weeks and this morning I thought I'd show her the clip from the movie of Judy Garland singing it. This is what she watched here.

Then while we were watching that for the second time I remembered that I had watched a clip of a little girl singing it on a show in Britain. I found that too, here. I thought Harry would enjoy seeing a little girl performing and I was right; Harriet was entranced with both of them and we watched them over and over again. In the second clip I'm not sure if it was the pregnancy hormones or not but I was sitting behind her surreptitiously wiping away the tears. Something about that little girl's voice made me just lose it!

So anyway, for the rest of the afternoon, Harry would alternate between being the 'big girl' (Dorothy/Judy Garland) who "lives on a farm and loves her animals, especially Toto" and had her little plush dog in her arms (funnily enough, today he acquired the name Toto as well, in an amazing turn of serendipity) and being the 'little girl' Connie. Now Connie sings quietly and Dorothy sings loudly. And Harriet was more than eager to explain this difference by example all afternoon.

We were walking up to the vet's and Harriet started telling me all about how if you went in one direction it made the new country (the land of Oz, I told her a very abridged version of the story) come up and if you went in the other direction it made the farm come back. And Dorothy was very gentle with Connie and she went to school but Connie didn't, so when Harriet was being Dorothy she knew all sorts of things that Connie didn't (like how you can peel the bark off the paper tree we were walking past "You see that Mama? Connie doesn't know about things like that cos she is only a little girl. I think maybe that she even doesn't know about things like how horses eat hay and stuff" was one of the rambling sentence groups that kind of made up her very animated conversation this afternoon).

When we got home at about 4pm it was like she was completely drunk (and for all I know, probably she'd been swigging some of my Maison, the scamp) . This video was taken after she'd been awake for about 12hrs straight and if you remember that episode of The Simpsons...well, if she knew what a hummingbird was she would have been doing the same thing.

Essentially she gets the bare bones of whatever she is interested in lately and then "I make up my own version of the story now". So in the video she is talking about how Dorothy is watching Connie from the audience (but up the back which is why you don't see her in the video clip) and claps her and gets her down from the stage. Harry is often quite interested/concerned about how people get in and out of places, especially those shopfronts in food courts where they have a little counter that lifts up to get out.

Anyway, this video offers you a very long six minute window into our world of late. Harry gets very overtired by bedtime when she wakes up early in the morning and we often get these slightly hysterical rantings in a show-like form. Personally I love how she is quite expressive with her hands. Dunno where she gets that little trait from.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh she is so expressive, I love it! And oh my gosh, I'm exhausted watching it. I thought Greta's mind worked in overtime, I don't know how you all don't need to sleep for 18 hours a night, the things she needs to compute in her head. Funnily enough I have been singing that same song to Greta at bedtime for a few weeks, as she has the tune in a clock. We watched the Connie clip too, several times, and the first time Greta was visibly moved by it. I loved Harriet's thoughts on what Connie doesn't know about farms and animals etc, lordy she is a delight.

JennieMo said...

I am exhausted! LOL!! Oh...and I don't think it is your hormones on getting tears in your eyes when COnnie sings. It did it to me too! And I was already for that sleeze bag Simon to bag her out. And I thought....I am gonna fly to the UK and hunt him down if he says one mean word!! :P

Anonymous said...

Got to tell you this "performance" is only enhanced 1. MILLION % in real life !!!! The video doesn't do it justice. This child is extraordinary....she totally cracks me up and please let her know I am practicing my tennis hand grip (as I am now under instruction from Harriet to play left handed so I "look right") & I look forward to our next backyard tornament. xx Lis

casso said...

Thanks for the support about it being exhausting! :o) I thought it might just be that the pregnancy was making more tired than last time, but I think it's just that my daytime job is more exhausting this time around. ;o)

Lisa, Harry (or Dorothy as she prefers to go by these days) will no doubt be more than happy to hear about your dedication to her teachings. She does like a devoted audience!

Anonymous said...

It's the next best thing (along with web cam) to seeing our sweetheart in real life. Have just watched the video again, for the umpteenth time, and can't wait to be with you three (and a half) at Christmas!!
xxxxxx NanaGrandpa

Jimbo said...

We might have to get some video of her when she's not so tired and post it up here... Although she's not always as funny as this ;)