January 2nd

 

 Wow, a lot of green in this post.  Today didn't feel particularly green - it was decidedly hot and overcast, creating the impression of the world lying under a thick grey blanket.  So espying the day through these photos is a surprise - it was green outside!

The children were still under the weather (read: Harriet was as cranky as all get-out and Teddy was a writhing mess of complaint and whinge) from their late night on NYE, so we decided a quiet day at home was in order.  We did venture out for one little trip, that divided us up into two to divide and conquer.  On our return James drilled into the wall our swimming bag hooks, which makes for a much more pleasant laundry (and an added bonus on top of the installation of a brand new laundry tub by Mike & James over the Festivus period).  And mid-afternoon the heat and cranky pants made for a rather unpleasant combination, so while James and the children engaged in some blinds-drawn, fan-on audiovisual entertainment, I browsed around on the internet checking out the excitement of my new units of study. 

 There was a blessed cool change, which activated the 'power-up' activity for Ted's metabolism and he was off and out, charging around the backyard with his 'lightsaber' (aka a green marker).  This then morphed into a Harry Potter experience, where I was Dudley and Ted (who else but HP, of course) instructed me on the finer points of Quidditch.

 

 Harriet asked me to take a photo of her and her newborn baby (muffled within the folds of a flannelette wrap that held her very own self, thanks to Emma). Turns out that the newborn baby was, along with her mother, a refugee who had arrived by boat.

Ted's little lounge was the boat, and from L-R under the Nana Lee blanket are: Boomer, Dunno, Blackie, Daisy and Chloe.  The little doll in the yellow dress was called Harriet on purchase, but I'm not so sure if that's what our Harriet calls her any more.  And of course the newborn (aka Your Doll) is lying in the swaddling. 


The sign says: 6 children and 1 newborn are on this.  Do not disturb or hurt.  Serious consequences apply to anyone who does not follow these rules.

I'm thinking that Ted did not display quite the level of respect that Harriet was looking for when she wrote that sign.  After the portrait Ted decided to tackle Harriet and babe - which Harriet took with surprising good humour.

 

Then, while we ate dinner, Ted regaled us with an impassioned performance (with ukulele) of Elbows, by Darren Hanlon. Needless to say there is a high level of emoting going on.  

Not only was there one performance, but this was followed by a long, dedicated dance performance.

I hope you can excuse the poor quality of the filming, but he was adamant that there be no recording (I just had to be disobedient, he was being cute beyond words).

We received Ted's report from Fiona the other day and it confirmed a lot of suspicions we (ok, well, James!) had regarding Ted and his outlook on life.  Tonight, as he was going to sleep, something came up in discussion about how each day is different to the last.  I said "That's what makes being alive so amazing", to which Ted replied "Yes.  Each day is wonderful". 

 And let's finish with some photos of the delicious foods in the process of being provided by our garden.  We ate our first cucumber today - we only planted them a few weeks ago!  They are going gangbusters!  Also the orange and lime trees are heaving with boughs laden with fruit - unfortunately our lemon tree still falters.  I refuse to give up on it though.