10th of January

I'm sure many parents out there are familiar with this scenario - running after your child with a hairbrush, trying to snatch a quick run through the locks.

Ted is unbelievably sensitive to having his hair brushed.  Unfortunately I do believe this is a completely learned behaviour, since he *used* to be fine about it - until the day after day wranglings with Harriet seemed to catch on and suddenly one day he was gesticulating and writhing and demonstrating in a manner eerily similar to his sister.  Hmmm...

So now I literally brush his hair on the run.  He runs to the front door and depending on his mood, is either mock crying or genuinely yelling out to stop. I pull the brush through the dreadlocked matts at the back of his head (on the right side only, since that's the side he sleeps on to get a feed in bed) and then retreat.

This morning I managed to do quite a job.  He was distracted whilst looking through a handheld microscope and I was even able to tease out some of the little dreads and produce the powder-fine baby fluff he has hidden in there.

Luckily he has that wonky eye because otherwise he'd be almost too perfect.


We then had to drop off a case of children's books to the op shop (and I managed to score a couple of gorgeous embroidered doilies in there for half of what they normally are too) before we headed to Lou's house for a little while.

My children were very excited about seeing her children (i think it's been a whole week or so since they've had a play together!).  There was a lot of squealing and laughing when Will came home too - apparently he was getting in under the blankets according to Ted.

Have I mentioned just how much Ted loves to tell little (read: long) stories?  I uploaded what is essentially an audio file to YouTube the other day of Ted telling his rambling story.  Prior to me turning on the camera it had been going for another five minutes or so.  He just pulls in any recent experiences and weaves them into the narrative.  That video was taken yesterday, when he had just played Reading Eggs with Papa (he was crying for me and apparently calmed right down at the thrilling thought of using the computer...*sigh*). So that features in there and a monster from a book we had just read and all sorts of things.  It's a 6 minute video so only hardcore fans will sit through anything other than the first twenty seconds (read: grandparents). 

But after a little while at Lou's my two went into simultaneous hypoglycaemic meltdown, so we drove off home.  Pepper, who has grown up heaps in the past few weeks as you can see, loved to sit calmly as we all went to work on the floor puzzle we picked up from the op shop (woot, it had all the pieces).








I also noticed during the day that Harriet's t-shirt was short on her.  Short? I bought the thing in November!  So I popped her up against the measuring wall and saw that yes, she's grown another couple of centimetres in the last month.  As she did the month before that too.









Outside was so delicious tonight that we had to sit out there after dinner (it was quesadillas for dinner, which really did necessitate sitting at a table).  The sky was incredible, and Harriet enjoyed her outdoor time by playing with her fairy books.  She engages them as if they are real little figures, and regularly takes the roll, barks orders at them and exerts a rigorous discipline.






Ted had fun on the swing, then we went inside for a game of football which you do apparently when the lawn has just been mowed because it's 'spiky' now and no fun to play on. 






And then just as the sun was gone for the night, Harriet found a moth that seemed poorly.  It sat on her fingers for a minute or two and then suddenly came to and took flight.

It's funny how that can happen.









eta:  Any inspirational suggestions for a calender to grace our wall for the coming year would be most appreciated