January Challenge

It's been SO quiet on here because I am frantically writing and photographing Harry for my Flickr challenge. We have to take one photo a day, upload it and write about it. Of course given that I only have about 2-3hrs per evening where I can do things sans Harriet, that leaves little time for blogging as well. As a result I will try to remember to re-post the Flickr photos in here as well for those of you who don't have Flickr accounts (since my stuff is friends and family on there).

This is my photo from the 10th of January:

Harriet loves to sew. Today I was sewing up one of her dolls and she decided it was time to adorn the doll's clothing with some beautiful buttons. Lucky Andi got two buttons on her pants and one on her top today.

She is so careful and precise, I've never had to worry about her poking out her eye or stepping on a needle or anything. I was thinking about getting some basic embroidery things for her to do but am not too sure if they'd be too advanced a project just now, they normally say over the age of 6 or 8yrs.

The Sydney Festival was all about getting everyone, at 5pm, to do this particular dance they called 'The Sydney'. They had some young guys demonstrating how to do it for an excited group of children and their parents. There were all of these children watching and copying the moves intently, or at least getting into the vibe of dancing generally.

Harriet of course had to thwart the general consensus. She laid all over me on the grass for most of the demonstration and then when I asked her gently if she'd like to join in she got up and watched standing up instead. Actually, as you can see, she watched for a little bit and then turned around to watch what everyone in the audience was doing instead. James thinks it is because she doesn't watch tv and so doesn't have the Hi-5 programming. :o)

And then this is what I posted today:

We regularly go to the cafe you can see in the background of the first photo. Much to my horror someone (a tv show called Guerilla Gardeners - don't know if it is on tv yet or not) had built a gazebo over the little hexagonal podium that had been there for ages. What's wrong with a gazebo you say? Well nothing. If you have a *normal* child.

My child, however, is obsessed (OBSESSED!!) with The Sound of Music. She has only watched the songs in the movie about six times now, but we have the cd in the car and she listens to the same songs over and over and over and over... We also recreate all aspects of the movie - the cuckoo song with all of her dolls, the line-up when they're introduced to Maria, the thunderstorm in My Favourite Things. I mean everything is recreated. This girl is no slouch when it comes to details.

So a gazebo to her is not just a building,. it is the epitome of excitement in recreating her favourite song from the movie. So today I was twirling (*ahem* yes, truly) with her in it, dancing and kicking out legs, and singing 16 Going On 17 at the top of our lungs inside this thing. We had some very big smiles from passers-by as well as some very interested audience members from the cafe where we'd just been sitting.

In that second photo she is just mid-song. You can see just how much love, effort and gusto is invested in each syllable. So, so funny. But I can tell you now I'm pretty tired. :o)

Ok, that's all from me. I'll try to update the blog when I update the Flickr site too. Sorry for ignoring you all!