Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Harriet Keeps On Talking

This photo shows a particularly happy Harriet. Well you may wonder why. See that in her hands? That is the camera we bought her for her birthday. And see that background? It's a hospital - we were visiting Naomi and her new baby son William. So there was Harriet, seeing a baby and holding a camera. It was her idea of heaven! In fact when we had to leave she collapsed on the floor sobbing "I don't want to leave, I love baby William". Tessa, watch out! You have a new rival!

This photo represents a wonderful moment for me. Silence. Here Harriet is immersed in her favourite book of the moment - The Wizard of Oz. This is a beautiful book that she received for her birthday from the lovely Jo and her hilarious daughter Daisy. In it there is a long but still abridged version of TWOO, Pinnochio and Alice in Wonderland. It has stunning illustrations and Harriet enjoys nothing better than to sit and immerse herself in the land of Oz for an hour or so with this tome. Jo we can't thank you enough! Harry is also sporting her first set of plaits in this shot. Earlier in the day we had gone to have Snippy's scan and whilst bored, lying there for over an hour waiting for the recalcitrant child to get into position (yes, it took that long!) I absentmindedly plaited a section of my hair. Harry was entranced and when we got home, requested her own plaits. To my astonishment she even acquiesced to the need for stillness and hair brushing to achieve the end result. Much self adoration in the mirror afterwards and then it was on to reading.

Speaking of reading, her recent move into the world of reading seems to coincide with a huge explosion in her talking. Not just what she says (but yes, that has become much more complex and detailed), but how much she says and how often! She does not stop all day! One of her latest topics of conversation is the story of William's birth, which she loves to tell in detail. Tonight (after a particularly trying day today - everything she touched spilt/broke/cracked, everywhere we tried to go took forever due to dawdling) she ran up to the door when James came home. "Where's Mama?" he asked her. "She's in the play lounge room. She's tired." "Oh, did she tell you that?" "No, I just know she's tired cos she's got a baby in her belly." It may also have something to do with the exuberant three year old I'm hanging around with all day too you know.

Last week we went in to Circular Quay to see the children's activity 'We Built This City'. Any Starship reference has got me at hello, but Harry wasn't so convinced. I had to show her a little clip online of what the whole thing was about. Essentially this group fence off a section of the forecourt and then make heaps and heaps of cardboard boxes of all different sizes and children (and their parents - in some cases exclusively the parents!) build houses, towers, freeform sculptures, or just sit and watch. It wa heaps of fun, but at first Harry only wanted to watch from the steps and eat her lunch. Once she saw a baby in there crawling around she felt like joining in, but by this stage it was their lunch break so we had to kill 90mins at the very boring CQ. But eventually we got in for the next session and Harry had a blast! It had started out being a really cool and overcast day but quickly and unexpectedly turned into a hot and humid day, so as you can see, poor little Harry was a bit on the hot and bothered side. But that failed to stop her love of all things cardboard!

Here she is inside a big house some older boys and their mum made, supervising by the looks of it. The mum took a shine to Harry and kept asking her to help with some boxes. Harry of course kept on studiously ignoring her as she built her own little tower. It was so much fun, my only suggestion though is that they should have had a sun sail over the area - there were quite a few beet-faced children around.

Also if Harry could see you all, she'd be yelling out "POKE!", poking you gently in the belly and then running away giggling. Don't ask us, the child is crazy.

1 comment:

JennieMo said...

Casso....Harry looks very much like Jimbo there on the steps! It is adorable the looks she has on her face. HAHA!! Come see me soon! Hugs,
Jennie