What You Make of It

There's not much about today that really stands out as a conversation piece. We continued with our 9am swimming at the new AKAC. Ted loved going into the 'goggle pool' as he calls the big lap pool. His favourite game is to yell out "Mama, Under!" and then push me under the water. Nice, huh? I emerge to be greeted by an hysterically giggling little boy, so there is an upside.

We went for a play in the rocket park afterwards and then on to the Alfalfa House/op shop run because yesterday I forgot to buy some rice for my breakfast (see, this is all fascinating stuff, hey?). But we made a book score at the op shop, including a hardcover Marcia Williams book on Shakespeare for Harry and these wooden puzzles you see in the first shot where the shape makes a sound as it is placed in the board. At only $2 each I was stoked! Plus one of those soft books which have a zipper, snaps, tying lace, etc. inside.

But one of the books (Bamboozled) was a favourite with everyone. It has these fantastic, detailed absurdist illustrations inside and Harriet LOVED poring over each one picking out the silly stuff going on. Unfortunately Ted also liked it but just this one page where there was a fish inside a fish bowl that also doubled as a vase. He loved that. one. bit. of the book. Harriet got really frustrated and ran off to slam her door and pull the chain lock across (must remove that!).

In order to get her mood back on track, I organised a little game with Ted. I gave him an item and he would knock on the door, then hand the item solemnly to Harriet when she answered. Then straight away I'd hand him another item and repeat. We started getting smiles on the second item, enjoyment on the third and by the fourth we were all laughing and by about the seventh Harriet had opened her door and was yelling at Ted to come back and play the 'knock and give' game. Mission accomplished!

At the moment she is just reading everything and anything she can get her hands on. Her favourite books are short chapter books - Aussie Nibbles and Aussie Bites, as well as The Magic Treehouse are among her favourites at the moment. Today we found The Wizard of Oz and Snow White in the Ladybird Read Yourself Series in the last level. We'd been hoping to find them in an op shop for months but when we found them today it was a bit of an anticlimax because Harriet just read them straight through a couple of times each because they are way too easy for her which was a shame.




And I hope everyone in Qld is safe and well. The flood disaster is just horrific and I haven't even seen any footage, just heard about it on the radio. It sounds so tragic.