Weary

So the school holidays are upon us.  Harriet is going to intensive swimming classes every morning and unfortunately we missed the 9am slot so we're stuck in that awkward 10.30am vibe at the moment.  Yuck.  It effectively cuts out the morning to do anything, but the no-rush mornings are quite soothing to my disrupted/insomniac/dishevelled approach to 'sleep' of late (with thanks to Ted and my own inability to turn off my mind).

 On Tuesday  we were invited along to a little play down at Strickland House.  Now this is one of my all time places to photograph at, but of course late afternoon light wasn't going to be all that possible given the nature of children.  However I packed my camera anyway and found that when I got home I'd only taken a mere handful of shots anyway. 

This was the main scene for most of the afternoon, so let's just use this as my 'story' shot shall we?  The children became all engrossed by Harriet's interest in creating dams and pools.  It was so lovely to see children from 2.5 to 6 all playing with intent and purpose (it wasn't really play anyway, it was quite serious work, with everyone fulfilling specific roles required to complete the task at hand).

As you can see there were a few streams and Harriet was very focused on producing a series of three 'filling pools' where the water would then concentrate and move into a new single, larger pool and then out to the harbour.  There was much movement of large rocks, digging of sand, mounding of sand and discussion about the best organisational route to take to meet the outcome.

 

 It's fair to say that Ted was at less than his best - he crashed at 2.30 after a pretty constant refrain of "Waahhhh" and "MUHMAH" and "grizzle grumble".  However I refuse to budge - as long as you wake up at night I am limiting day sleeps to thirty minutes pal - thirty minutes!  So this is how he spent thirty minutes.  After that it was on to more grizzling, grumbling, ah-moeing and clinginess.  All cool, all fine and all to be expected.  The Ted I know and love does make regular appearances, but it seems as though they are reserved specifically for the times we're in the car, at home or not doing much at all.

Harriet wasn't having a bar of me taking her photo and I snapped this quickly after she'd eaten some strawberries (*ahem* a whole punnet in fact - and not even organic, so I may as well as just hosed her down in RoundUp at home I guess).  Remarkably I did manage to catch up on the quaint Victorian notion of conversation with my friends.

Ted is not Harriet.  Repeat - Ted is not Harriet.  Note here the back of a small boy disappearing from sight into a nest of rocks.  It's fair to say that this photo could never have been taken of Harriet.

This is Ted living life on the edge - literally.  The edge of that rock he's standing on was right underneath his foot.  This was evidenced by the fact that when Sol came up behind him and Ted pushed him back a little with his elbow, Sol went down, grabbing at Ted as he went and Regan and I were paralysed with fear as we watched them both suspend above the sharp, mollusc-covered rocks below.  I was trying to remember if triple-0 was programmed into my phone or not.

On our way out there is an awesome cave-like rock.  It has a huge cavity into which, it turns out one can fit several children, both small and on the larger side.  In an uncharacteristic turn of events (for this day at least), Ted smiled.  He almost looks like a happy child here.  Do not be fooled.

Well it has been a terrible few weeks for me sleep-wise.  I started this post on Tuesday and it's now Friday.  Ted's (non)sleeping is getting me down in a big, big way.  I've started being crabby during the days, and I'm sure the daily excursion to Harriet's intensive swimming class hasn't helped matters.  All has not been in vain though, because she has moved up to the next swim class and, more importantly, she loves it.  LOVES it!  James went to watch her during her class this morning, whilst Ted and I rode the lift for half an hour (he was terrified and I mean terrified, gripping to my shirt for dear life and hysterically doing that heart-breaking silent scream thing, when he saw the employee dressed up as the giant frog.  Oh my poor baby).  James said that each time she came up for air she was smiling.  Let me tell you something for nothing - there was no real smiling going on during last year's cricket or this season's football.  The teacher was showing Harriet how to do backstroke and she was really enjoying the challenge.  Harriet!  Enjoying a challenge!  We're thinking we may find her private lessons if she loves it so much.  There's other plans afoot with Harriet and school and lessons but more of that when it's at a stage to be talked about.

As for now, it's 12.30am.  I'm about to go to sleep for what I imagine to be about 2hrs.  *sigh*  I'm allowed to feel resentful about that, aren't I?