This is Not Harriet

Sure, it looks like Harriet and by hell I can tell you it sure SOUNDED like Harriet. But ask her and you'll soon find out that it is actually Liesl. And believe it or not, she's 16 going on 17. She has a boyfriend named Rolfe and he's 17 going on 18. Sometime (at any given time during the day) it will start to rain and she will feel compelled to start sprinting to the 'gazebo' (read: any designated space about ten metres away from where she's standing). Once there, the gazebo will require much spinning, twirling and jumping. Some call it dancing - actually Harry/Liesl may be the only one to call her robotic contortions 'dancing' but it's done with gusto that's for sure.

If you have no idea what I'm writing about then you either a.) are male or b.) do not know Harriet.

ps - I am starting to find it hard to block out 16 going on 17 from my mind as I'm going to sleep....HELP!

Edelweiss

The funny thing about Harriet is that even when you expect the unexpected, you're still surprised. This morning she called out for me and I went into her room, laid down in bed with her and got all snuggled up together. In that drowsy, hazy, half-asleep frame of mind, Harriet turns to me with her face all smooched into mine and asks me : "Mama, why do people believe in god?".

*sigh*

I mean, give a woman a chance to have a cup of coffee in the morning, before dealing with major existential, socially inquiring topics. Oh damn, that's right, I'm not having coffee any more. Bummer.

The weather has been crazy here in Sydney lately, just so freezing cold that we're breaking out the winter hats and coats and heaters. My main concern has been the tomato plants in the vegie patch - they are taller than me and some of their boughs are heavy with fruit so they get bowed down very easily in the wind. Anyone know where I can grab some 2metre-odd high stakes? Are tomato plants even supposed to grow this high?!

We had Jan over here yesterday from Perth and Harriet nearly had a heart attack when she woke up and saw Nana lying on her lounge! After about five minutes of shyness she was back in with gusto and by the time we went to the cafe for lunch she was already serenading the waiter there with some Sound of Music classics.

Not much to write about at the moment. Snippy is growing and I'm at that awkward stage of being between normal and maternity clothes. We have a girl's name all picked out but that amounts to little when we're both pretty sure that Snippy is a boy, so we need boy name suggestions! We're going to be buying a new (well, second hand) car soon to accommodate Snippy's arrival and Jimbo's height. Poor boy has a saggy patch on the ceiling where his head scrapes it inside the car and he has Harry's legs swinging into his left arm as he changes gears. Time to upgrade!

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.

Crazy Child

We're still dealing with her 'being Dorothy' (which sounds so suited to the Inner West lifestyle it's a little scary) on an hour-by-hour basis. Today she asked me to share the painting with her so I rolled up my sleeves and joined in. I painted a sort of blobby tree (anyone who knows me will be perfectly aware of just how substandard my artistic ability is) and showed Harry. She then grabbed her big paintbrush and painted all over it whilst saying "No, this is to go in an art gallery and you can't have pictures like that in art galleries". Not quite sure what that was all about!

We also went to a little play/musical aimed at 3-5yr olds today. Note to Self: Harriet is a pragmatist. All she knew of it was the title: Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat. So when we went inside and sat down, there was a musician doing some really cool stuff on stage. "Where's the cat, Mama?". Repeat x5. The play started and there was the woman playing Milli, she had a little intro part, then went off stage. When the actors playing the cat and Jack came on, Harry asked again "Where's the cat, Mama?". I explained how the man with the big tail coming out of his bottom was pretending to be a cat. Oh no! The tears began "That's NOT a cat Mama, that's a MAN! And where's the GIRL?". "What girl, Harry?" "The girl, Milli." "That was the girl who was on before." "NOOOOOOoooo, that wasn't a girl that was an ADULT and there is supposed to be a GIRL and a CAT".

You can probably guess that within about ten minutes she was asking me to go home. And after another five minutes she turned to me mournfully and asked "Why haven't we gone home yet?". So I don't know that Harry is a particularly astute theatre critic at this stage.

We were at a friend's house yesterday where we read a book about a princess who holds a tea party. We read the book at about 11am. We left after about 2pm, with no further mention of it until we were about five minutes from home when Harry pipes up with from the back seat "I want to have a tea party like that princess. And have smoothies. And have cupcakes like she had." So we did a quick detour on the way home and bought the couple of ingredients that we needed. Then came home and proceeded to have a tea party, where the party aspect was so much fun that she forgot until about 4.30pm that we had made the cupcakes at all. Since then we've had a tea party set up in the playroom most of the time. She obviously loves to entertain. When you ask her the names of her friends who are coming to the tea party, she says "I don't know, they haven't arrived yet."


Oh and I keep meaning to blog about her reading. The other week she was sitting in the playroom adn I heard her reading her phonics book out loud to herself. There are two large consonants on either side of a window which has a wheel showing each of the vowels. She was sitting there sounding out the letters and then putting them all together as a word. "Buh...uh..guh...bug!" Then she'd turn the wheel and sound it out again, "Buh...i...guh....big". And she can recognise by sight quite a few words as well, so I really should have blogged this by now! She is quite stubborn though and if she doesn't want to read something then she'll yell out "NO! YOU read it!" if you ask her what a particular word is. Funny chicken.