spy the harriet

Photography

2012-02-10T18:09:00.002+08:00

Ok so I agree that there are a LOT of precious photographers out there. But I tell you what, this video is SO FREAKING TRUE! Oh my goodness. Especially at the start. All they left out was: "Oh quick, that would make such a gorgeous photo! Go on, where's your camera?" (whilst pointing to something that is a lovely, sweet moment but in no way photogenic - bad lighting, no faces, cluttered background, bad angle, out of range, and on and on and on).

Then there's this graph, which is very accurate.

Hello Again

2012-02-08T18:24:00.002+08:00

Well aren't you all lovely people? Thanks for contacting me about my crap day. I woke up determined to work through the negativity and it sort of worked. In fact it has taken me until this afternoon to feel light hearted, but now I'm back in my normal place emotionally, I feel good.

Harriet has been attending the Montessori school for the last two days. Goddamn if she doesn't love it. She really does. Argh! The frustration! It's frustrating because really, this school is just too far away for us. I'm driving about 45mins each way which makes it a ridiculous amount of time in the car for me and for Ted. She really is so much more animated and excited when she gets in the car though. The first day she came home and was so wrapped up in recreating her day with two dolls that she didn't get to sleep until about 9pm. She came straight in and started looking up information for the project on animals she started at school that day. Then this afternoon when she came home she was all fired up about science projects (thank goodness we had bicarb and vinegar in the house).

The lovely little side project of being so far away from home was that Ted and I had a little explore around the suburban streets of the shire. It was so quiet and peaceful - lovely to enjoy for an afternoon. We ambled around the national park, discussed ways for the dead to have cheated their fate (when one of our stop offs was next to the cemetery), and discussed how some trees looked like a giant's hand reaching up from under the earth. When asked how the giant arrived under the ground I spun a tale about a fairy who received wrong directions from a giant and then put a spell on him, but I fear fairies aren't the type to cast curses, so I'm hoping this mixed myth doesn't come back to bite me.

But yes, the school issue. No matter what we choose we are doomed to be choosing something suboptimal for one reason or another. It's difficult. We'll go in and chat to the teachers on Friday afternoon but our choice is made and we'll have to see how we can supplement the education she receives to be more like the Montessori experience.

Crap Day

2012-02-06T20:27:00.002+08:00

Today was a really crap day. There have been some lovely days since I ended the PAD Challenge, but today was not one of them.

It also happened to be the day we went to the Montessori school in the afternoon for Harriet to meet her guides and for us to take a tour of the school. I spent the last half of that tour with Ted screaming in my ear for Ah-Moe. Suffice to say this did not improve my mood and I had a sad moment of near tears over dinner. You may realise, if you know me, that this is very rare. Very rare indeed.

Often when I have a crap day I'll have some other reminder that I actually have life pretty cruisy. And I had that perspective all day today; from my beautiful friend Melinda to little ones with hospital visits - I kept receiving reminders that I have it so easy.

But today was not the day. I could not be moved from my slump. I am so glad I finished off my session last night, because being in this frame of mind is no way to do work. I chose to do bugger all tonight, not even any sewing (of which there is plenty to choose from) or creating (for which there is a party coming up soon that begs creations).

Instead I watched a documentary on my computer (on my own, James had a migraine and had to go to bed), avoided websites, bought ribbon and looked up where the closest op shop is to Harriet's school. I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day. It has to be, right?

31st of January

2012-01-31T18:35:00.003+08:00

So today, the last day of my PAD project was the first 'normal' day this year. Rather fitting, I think. Harriet went off to school on the bus with James while Ted and I hung around at home all day. We did little except play, really. Ted was intense in play, requiring me to just sort of sit there on the sidelines not doing much, but still being present. I guess it's that period of balancing on the cusp of dependence and independence (but gosh it's boring!). Here he's grabbing some snacks as we went into the supermarket.

HA! AS IF! Fooled you! No, Ted's latest game is to run up to anything brightly coloured at Ted-height, grab it and then come running back to me asking "Is this good for your body Mama?". To which I inevitably reply "No darling, it isn't" to which he giggles hysterically and throws said item, with impressive overarm, into the trolley. You can, I'm sure, imagine just how I was holding my sides with the hilarity of it all after the..oohh...fifteenth time in as many minutes.

The Saltwaters mentioned in yesterday's post are making their appearance here. Harriet asked me to make sure they were in the car when I came to pick her up, so she could change quick smart into them after leaving school. I can relate to that kind of enthusiasm. Seeing as my Birkenstocks were without any tread at all and I was in mortal danger if there was even mild rain or a spill anywhere (although I have perfected the thudding vertical plod and lift of my shoe so that I could avoid falling butt-up), the Saltwaters seemed a fantastic next shoe option. So fantastic in fact, that three quarters of the family bought up big. Unfortunately they don't make men's shoes which James is most despondent about. He'd probably only buy stinking tan anyway, when I can just picture him with patent yellow.

A day of play in the playroom doesn't really lend itself to photographs and aside from the supermarket photo above, I had taken all of three photos by 5pm today. Refusing to admit defeat I finally did it - I asked the children if I could take their portrait. The light was fading fast (what with this grey cool cloud cover that moved across about midday today) and they did consent to taking off their shirts which was admirable. However Ted snuggled in to Harriet for about one minute (I may be exaggerating) when he suddenly jumped up, exclaiming "OH! Blue Baby wants to go to the park!" and off he sped, to get Blue Baby on the rocker. So this was it in terms of a photo of the two of them. *sigh* Not even a hardcore month of photo-taking coudl achieve the impossible.

On the other hand Harriet said that she was quite happy to let me take her photo. Previous experience served me well here. When she says this, it mans I have a window of..hmmm...about ninety seconds where she will sit there and make odd staring/glowering/manic faces at the camera, then jump up in a similar fashion to Ted and declare it OVER.

The PAD has been fun this year. I was so upset last year to have been too sick to finish it. I love having the pressure to think in photos during the day, every day. The blogging and commenting at night has been a bit much sometimes (hence my double posts when I had a lazy night) but it has also been sad that so many members from my PAD group last year decided to eschew the Flickr group and post on Facebook instead. Facebook is just so huge and impersonal and anathema to me.

I realise how ridiculous that sounds coming from someone who blogs, but I blog purely out of self interest; to create the memories for my children of our lives today. And our lives today are...fun. They're crazy and LOUD and out of control but mostly they're starting to move from an out of control chaos into a more orderly and predictable chaos (which I'm sure you'll understand if you have more than one child).

I may even consider doing another month of PAD this year, but I'll keep an eye on my enthusiasm level and let you know. It's been fun. See you soon...but not tomorrow. Tomorrow night I work. Finally - I have been very slack.

30th of January

2012-01-30T19:29:00.002+08:00

First day of Year One! Harriet was most excited to get back to school this morning. We're hoping this year is going to be a much MUCH better year than 2011, which was fraught with educational disaster and emotional despair. Onwards and upwards! We've spoken to pretty much every level of authority at the school, have an IEP in place, she has established friends and her new classroom is only a couple of doors down from the Year Two class where she will be spending a lot of her time. Fingers crossed. Next week she begins her trial at Montessori too, so she will have the opportunity to directly compare the two educational environments.

Ted was in a downward spiral while we were dropping Harriet off. Crying, writhing, desperately demanding Ah-Moe and hitting me all over the face whilst doing so. *sigh* Then it hit me (like a small, sweaty nearly three year old's hand) - he hadn't had any food at all. I threw out his untouched toast as we were walking out the door; the poor child was starving. And so it was that after some watermelon and rice snacks courtesy of the canteen, he was restored to cute, smoochy Tedalicious. I'd like to point out here that there is sun in this shot. SUN! If I wasn't doing dates for title posts I was going to name this post Sun, Sweat, School and Saltwaters. But I am. So I didn't.

Because Ted has been waking early, it means his sleep is early too. He crashed halfway through listening to the latest PJ O'Brien cd (which has some fantastic photography on the cover *cough*) and I took that as a cosmic sign that I should drive to one of my favourite op shops.

Check out the seersucker! The green, mustard and blue flower materials are all seersucker and I especially love the blue floral tablecloth. The pink floral sheet is looking funky for a skirt I think. Oh the possibiities! Wow to me being much more confident about my sewing after completing my skirt! We also found a book about cricket that Ted fell in love with and was very excited about showing to Papa. In fact at the shop he held the book aloft at the counter and said "I'm going to read this with my Papa cos he likes to watch cricket". The old woman behind the counter said "Oh you like Pepper?" to which Ted, happy with segues of any kind, even ones as random as that, replied with "Oh yes I do like Pepper". I guess when you're two you believe everyone shares your personal universe.

Picking Harriet up was a relief - she was happy. Very happy! Of course she's been happy at the end of every first school day of the year, so that wasn't really anything to go by. But the way she described her discussion with the Yr2 teacher sounds promising in terms of challenging her mentally, and she made a new friend from a new student as well as being able to introduce her old friend who is a new student to the school, Matilda. All in all, a good day.

We also stopped off on the way home to buy some saltwater sandals. Ted chose red (most disappointed at there being no purple and that the pink was glossy), Harriet chose navy and I then went next door and bought some adult red ones. Where I saw a woman pick up a layby. And being a nosy parker I looked at the name on the side of the bag and it said Aziza. And I had to ask her if she is the Aziza that had just moved in to my street. And of course she was. And it was all very serendipitous. Her daughter Beatrix was there too, so Harriet launched into her description of her Baby Entertaining Club. Have I written about that here yet? I must, if not. Perhaps sometime after PAD is over.

Of course, she is still Harriet. When Ted balked at having Blue Baby involved in her bunk bed camping game (pictured here, the top of the table was the top bunk and Your Doll is in the sleeping bag on the bottom), Harriet had a minor meltdown. But given that it was finally a hot day today, and the first day of school, and all sorts of shenanigans, we worked it out. And finished the day with a cold, cold bath. Lucky children, I think I need one of those myself.

Last PAD entry tomorrow!

29th of January

2012-01-29T18:29:00.004+08:00

Not long to go with my PAD now!

Today was our second party in a row. And at least three, four or twenty seven times times I found myself thinking NO MORE! On the way home we had a little discussion with Harriet. Actually scrap that - James told her (gently) that in the future we will be dropping her off at parties for her friends.

Why? Well one because she is old enough and has asked for it. And for two, it's too much for Ted. In the last 48hrs he has eaten so much refined white sugar that he was basically a mess. And I hate exposing him to that and getting him all out of whack.

Plus children's parties are just not that much fun for the adults. We have to supervise them not jumping queues, running off into traffic, interacting with new/younger/aggressive/taller/smaller children. We have to console when there aren't enough lollipops in the pinata, then (internally) lament when one is actually found in the take home bag. we have to stand around with parents we don't know making small talk, as we wistfully watch other adults kicking back in nearby parks under trees with books.

And the kicker is that this year Ted may start to receive his own invitations to parties. Now if you consider that we've already attended three birthday parties and we're not even out of January yet, you can imagine the state of cold horror my psyche is enduring at the thought of doubling that experience.

So yep, Operation Party Drop Off has begun.

At the end of it all, a relaxing bath would have been wonderful. School starts tomorrow and washed hair, clean bodies and a calm state of mind would have been perfect. Instead they splashed like loons, Ted was naked during dinner and dropped most of his curry and rice over his washed body and Harriet was still worked up about her king and queen game (based on these funky crowns they received as the take home present from today's party).

Happy Birthday Everyone! I'm yelling it from the rooftops here, from my safe spot at home. That's got to last everyone all year. Soak it up. Now we enter sugar de-tox.

27th and 28th of January

2012-01-28T20:51:00.000+08:00

27th of January

So guess what? Ted went to his preschool orientation today! Why? Because he's nearly three. Seriously. THREE! How on earth did that happen, I ask you? Of course we can talk planets revolving around suns and how many sleeps until the cows come home but truly, it seems as if one minute you're saying to your partner "err...there's this thing we need to talk about..." and then the next moment you're at preschool orientation meeting the new parents you're about to know for the next 14yrs.

Because let's be frank - preschool orientation is only minimally about the children. Mostly it's about parents checking out other parents, trying to find potential friends and working out (with your first child for the most part) how the whole school thing works.

Ted was asleep in the car just before we arrived at the carpark. So he was still feeling sleepy and coquettish when we barged in on the madness that is preschool orientation. Luckily he already knows Akemi, the Japanese teacher in his class. Each classroom has 25 children in the class, with two language teachers who are also full-time classroom teaching assistants, the main teacher, as well as music teachers who come in to the class. Teddy went up and hugged Akemi for a long time. A LONG time, snuggling back in again and again for more hugs. Akemi is adorable but she is a little enthusiastic with her love for the more shy children.

Ted played with playdough for a lot of his time there, making me feel guilty for not complying with his constant requests for me to make it at home. He then proceeded to use all the purple he could see - paper for craft, paint for painting creation, markers for writing and drawing. You name it, if it's purple he will love it. A LOT! I should also mention that he has his blue baby in his shirt because he was 'pregmint' with her. He loves blue baby recently (she was a present from Harriet two Christmases ago) and we discussed how blue baby could go to preschool with him and stick her head out of the bag to watch the goings on, in a similar fashion to how Bear did when Harriet went to preschool.

After the orientation we had a meeting with someone about Harriet and then it was goodbye Papa and hello crazy child Ted who zipped up and down the street. I think he was pretty excited about being there for him rather than Harriet (who was being looked after at Priya's house, where she had walked down to on her own that morning which she was very proud about).

So what do you do with a crazy child? Well give him a babycino, obviously, because of course a little more sugar is what he needs. He was thrilled at the idea of having his little stop at the cafe just "like Harriet and Papa dooz" (he pronounces does as 'dooz' which is just so adorable I don't want to correct him).

And then...then we arrive home and find the fabric fairies have floated past our house and dropped off the most delicious parcel of purple that a purple party child could ever have hoped for. Oh thank you Jay, they are perfect and wonderful! You are too kind!

After picking up Harriet from Priya's (where she ate four of the eight muffins I made for her to take with her!) and having a quick chat with Zoe, it was time to have some lunch and then head up to Regan's for the meet. I then didn't see Harriet for about three hours as she played with her friends outside. Oh miracle of miracles! Ted was fascinated with a baby doll that Sol has- it is all curled up and wrinkled, similar to a real newborn, and Ted was fascinated. He cradled it gently from one spot tp another, made a bed for it, cuddled up with it on the lounge and generally loved it. He is so maternal!

28th of January

Party time. This is the weekend of parties for us. We had meant to drive by and purchase the present for Matilda the other day but never got around to it, so we dropped in and bought it on the way to the party. Such bad form! It was a Mary Poppins party and Ted enjoyed the experience as much as Harriet did . It was held in a community centre with air hockey and foosball tables. If we had a games room (you know, as one does) then I just know we'd have air hockey, foosball and a pinball machine without blinking an eye.

It was held in The Rocks, which gave us the opportunity afterwards to consider having a pint at the Lord Nelson. As you do. Because my goodness if they don't make a fantastic beer and after a children's party where Harriet has had a lot of refined sugar, hey, if you don't need a cleansing ale to handle the emotional rollercoaster then you're more of a saint than I.

When we came home after the party and Lord Nelson experiences, it's safe to say we were all exhausted, So exhausted in fact that I laid on the bed reading Ted some books. Next thing I know, Harriet comes walking in to the bedroom asking where Papa is. Turns out Ted and I had crashed, falling deep into sleep together on the bed. Can anyone spell hyperglycaemic?

Of course I was immediately filled with the dread that the late sleep invokes in a parent, but I needn't have worried. Ted worked up a little game about a birthday party for Blue Baby. Turns out that was a good idea and Harriet decided to join in (read: completely take over and monopolise). Since they were having a great time and not at all interested in stopping the game, I suggested to James that the dinner he was making should be served out to them like party food.

I knocked on the door of the playroom with a plate full of homemade pizza pieces and a little jug of soda water. It was *devoured*. I think it wold have been an uphill fight to ask them to sit at the table to eat it and for what purpose? They loved it as part of their game and they even asked for more, so I made a quick fruit platter for them.

On the platter I placed a pomegranate cut in half. Oh my - did Harriet like it? Well I asked her that at the start of her pomegranate journey and the emphatic affirmative was then followed by a two hour epic immersion within the pomegranate. There was a moment there where I think she was a little Stanislavsky and was at one with the pomegranate. The effect of looking as though she had been involved in performance art involving a dead animal, or had just finished recreating the Carrie denouement, was barely captured with my camera due to Harriet's refusal to engage with the lens. Apologies for the lack of visual on that one but you can trust me, it was pretty cute.

Just before bed the older Greek woman from a couple of doors up walked past and played with Ted. She loves him! He loves her too (mind you he does tend to be a very chilled out, loving sort of person) and they had running games up and down our footpath, whilst she also berated us for having our front bush grow too high. Apparently her son had mentioned he would come and cut it down because it is too high. Ha! Hilarious.

Harriet, after a day like that and with another big party day tomorrow, stayed up until 10pm the lounge room listening to Harry Potter. *sigh* Tomorrow may be a difficult day. Stay tuned.

25th and 26th of January

2012-01-26T20:04:00.002+08:00

25th of January

Yesterday I got the chance to it down and talk. All day. It was awesome! Amelia and I embraced the outdoor setting with glee, set our butts down and barely moved from there for hours and hours. Eventually we did succumb to moving inside - the pouring rain outside and the constant demands for more and more food made it feasible to move inside for supervisory purposes, but that was about all we did.

Amelia and I have freakily similar lives. It kind of creeps me out if I think about it too much, so luckily there's no time to reflect as we zip through conversation topics at breakneck speed in order to complete a sentence before my next round of "Mama! Mama!"s starts. The older girls spent their time engaged in very serious fairy work, which Wolfie and Ted tried to muscle in on (unsuccessfully). So Ted turned his focus to making sure I watched every little move he made, every little moment of acrobatic prowess he displayed and replied to every single Mama he uttered. Oh yeah, he's one of mine.

The pouring rain timed perfectly with Amelia et. al's walk outside to catch the bus - it poured and poured and POURED. I then had to go out and drive in it to pick up our organic fruit and vegetable box and the traffic was beyond hideous. I do believe every learner driver in the inner west was out on the road too.

But when I got back the light of Ted's life had popped in for a visit. Lisa! Ted had been looking forward to her visit all day - prompted as it was by his insistence that I text her in the morning to see if she was coming over any time soon.

Twas a late night in to bed for these little ones. And even later for Jimbo and I as we watched (on recommendation from Alina) the BBC show Sherlock. It was awesome! I didn't know it was written by the superstar Steven Moffat. I have a little crush on Moffat, he's totally fantastic and I had no idea that Sherlock was written by him (and I also enjoy Mark Gatiss who is co-creator, and it's hard not to look at him in this and remember his characters from League of Gentlemen). It's like Dr Who for grown-ups.

26th of January

Happy Day Off to you and yours! I started the day with Ted crawling over me in a sodden nappy to grab the recently acquired Hairy Maclary omnibus. I should always remember that the omnibus is a trap for young players and refuse to buy them. There's no turning back from that first page - you are suddenly indebted to reading all the books and stories within. Beware!

So I resolved to wake up and wash the bedclothes, however I was distracted by the water play that suddenly happened in the playroom. I can't even remember quite what it was - it was before 9am on a public holiday, and we'd been up until 1am the night before, so the concept of memory was laughable anyway. Next thing I know there's a cupcake stall being held outside (if you click on the photo you'll see James tasting the wares in one hand and clutching his coffee for dear life in the other), I've made a smoothie and Ted is naked. This photo really does typify our days; Ted naked, Harriet in inappropriately over-warm pyjamas, James drinking a coffee and me taking a photo.

Honestly I have no idea how I got suckered into it, but Ted was drinking the strawberry smoothie he requested mere minutes after I had protested that I wasn't awake enough to operate heavy machinery (or dairy products).

There is just so much that is Ted about this photo. Just the way he half leans over to perform little acts like this, the way he's pursing his lips to take a sip, just something. Definitely a photo for the parental unit and for everyone else to just shake their heads at.

Over breakfast James suggested we drive out to a dam. Sure, why the hell not? So off we trotted to Warragamba Dam. It has a very spunky Visitors Centre and, most importantly, big valves. Big green valves. Big green valves you can climb in

The dam itself was impressive. It was hard to gain a sense of perspective on size because there just wasn't anything familiar to line it up against. It's difficult to explain but although I intellectually know it was big, I still didn't feel that it was as big as I know it must have been. Err...I sound like I stayed asleep for most of the day, huh?

We browsed around inside the little museum they have there about the construction of the dam, lake dynamics (did you know the study of lakes is called limnology? You do now!), treatment of the water, and it even had a huge rock sample they had removed in the 1940s at the start of construction. I didn't take any photos in there because they had a very polite little sign at the entrance requesting me to not do so. So I didn't. I'm not too sure what government water secrets they're trying to keep quiet and limnology enthusiasts they're trying to draw there, but I get quite a kick out of little museums, they tickle my fancy. This was new, having been constructed in 2009, well written and pretty.

Even the children's section was cute - there were a few different jigsaws around the place and activities laid out on some tables for the children to engage with. There was even a little reading corner filled with books about water. I read Ted a most gorgeous book about the different forms water takes and now have no idea on what the book was called. Argh! I might have to call them, he loved that book.

Harriet filled out the little sheet that says "My Favourite Thing at Warragamba Dam" with no illustration but a sentence "waas lorning haw the dam was made". In return for handing it in at the desk she received some postcards which were very well received - she looked through those four images time and time again.

Ted was in a crazy mood and kept running around like a loon. Here he's checking out the information board about the valve. Important stuff.

We stopped in at a friend's get together on the way home, but our two were so hungry they just hovered near the food table like self conscious teenagers at a party, so we bundled them home for food.

I recommend the dam, it was really cute, felt totally random and on the way home I bought two litres of fresh goats milk for $10. Got to love the small scale farmer.

24th of January

2012-01-24T19:08:00.001+08:00

Lookie at me - I made this! Yep, here's the skirt I made yesterday. It has pockets, topstitching, a waistband, a side zipper and looks like a real skirt. Yikes! I'm pretty happy with it, all things considering. I was planning on a contrasting yellow floral hem but left it too late. Oh well, I have this fantastic tablecloth I found at the Salvos on the weekend that I'm planning on converting into a skirt now I have this one under my belt.

I had the camera on a tripod and used the self timer to take a couple of test photos for focus. Ted came out (the sound of a mechanical whir and button click is enough to send him running at breakneck speed to intercept the electrical activity) and was thrilled to see the tripod in use. He took the top one of me and then insisted on a couple of run-ins together. He totally set them up and told me where and how to stand. He is delicious! Just after this photo I ate him up whole. *burp*

James is always the one lamenting what's happening about bedtime when it comes around to 7.30-ish. So riddle me this - why did James bring out the electronic circuit kit we bought Harriet for Christmas at 7.30 tonight? Never fear, the end result was excitement (James was on par with Harriet). Harriet kept running excitedly in to me to show me each new circuit. She then insisted on me filming her instructional video on how to construct a circuit (let me save you the five minutes she spend on camera - apparently you read the back of the box. That's some fascinating viewing).

23rd of January

2012-01-23T19:37:00.002+08:00

What a day. What a weird, strange day. We had a great morning running off to pick up a wooden garage from a house in Dulwich Hill (have I mentioned before how much I love freecycle?!). These Plan Toys garages are pretty expensive new, but free is a price I can handle. We were all in great spirits, singing along, chatting away. Drove to Newtown to pick up a little present, stopped for a drink, saw a friend, all good.

Then we drive to our local 'big park' to catch up with Regan and Sol and it was here that the wheels fell off. Ted, for the first time in his life, had a poo accident. First time EVER! And I just don't carry wipes or anything like that with me. Hell, I never have with Ted actually. I even just took out a spare pair of undies the other week that had been knocking about in my bag for ages unused. It wasn't as if he was sick, I don't quite know what on earth it was. I guess I should have listened to that little whisper that said I should put him on the toilet at the cafe, despite his protestations.

So of course he was hysterical, pants free and stinky. Luckily there was a nearby tap! Then Harriet had a meltdown about the flying fox not working and since I'd been interrupted at every second sentence in my attempts to have a conversation, I thought bugger it. We're going home!

So off we traipsed and Harriet went into the front room to read and listen to her relaxing cd (very kindly given to her by Alina and Oscar the other day and which has been heavily used since). Ted went down for a nap. And I attempted to read. This is what I currently have sitting next to my computer but to be honest with you all, not much reading goes on during January. And I realise that everyone who's everyone read Arundhati Roy about ten years ago, but I had a feeling it was magic realism (a genre I particularly dislike - right up there with poetry about animals. I'd rather chew my tongue out thank you very much). So there it sat, on the mental bookshelf, not to be touched. But I was determined to continue my foray into India after finishing Sarah Macdonald's highly entertaining account of her time living in India. So I found it on the bookshelf and lo and behold, it's not magic realism at all. Phew!

I thought I might also have a look at crafting. More specifically - sewing. I had cut up some parts for a skirt ages ago. Agggggeeessss ago. In fact it was so long ago that I looked for the pieces all weekend and couldn't find them and then stumbled across them (literally) in the front room today. So I took it as a sign to get my butt into gear and so out the pieces were pulled and I pretended that I wasn't scared witless at the thought of making something for myself. With fabric I really like. That needs to fit properly. With a zipper. And pockets. Oh yeah me, always tackling things a little above my weight. No wonder it's been sitting in a basket!

An hour after Ted woke up, Ted woke up. It takes him an hour some days and it drives me crazy! Poor Zoe dropped in just after he first woke up and saw the demon that lieth within Ted. He does not take kindly to being woken prematurely at all. But as you can see, he fell into his own element shortly after. Can you guess what he's doing in this photo? No? Go on, take a guess. I didn't take a photo of the puddle but yes, he's doing a wee, you can take my word for it.

The children played a few of their own little games. Since Arrietty Harriet has turned her little Sylvanian Families dogs into a Borrowers family. They keep taking little bits and bobs (here they are munching down on some delicious, highly fragrant basil leaves - their 'stew'). I also receive little presents from the borrowing family's smallest member too.

I could see this photo about to happen and took the snap. Harriet was convinced there was a cricket up her skirt. Of course there wasn't and she was just being crazy, but Ted wanted to check and make sure. Oh this one is coming out at their twenty firsts for sure.

And when you ask Harriet to lie on the grass to get a photo for your daily photo project, this is what you get. Some photographers get incredibly soulful, beautiful portraits of their children during this month. This is what I get. Crap photographer or psychotic child? You be the judge and I'll tell you - IT'S THE CHILD!

And for the rest for the afternoon, Harriet and Ted played together beautifully. I have no idea what it was they were playing, but they did so in the front room with the babies and the tea set for an hour or so - it was amazing! I may actually complete this skirt, miracle of miracles.

I had to laugh - at one point Ted asked me to be the doctor in his game, because, direct quote following, "I just don't have enough doctors in my life". Harriet lost it. She laughed so hard she literally nearly fell off her chair.

Yep, it was a weird day.

ps - I finished my skirt and the zipper worked. Woot! It's not pretty for sure, but I now have a skirt that looks like a real skirt. I'll post photos tomorrow. *little dance of joy*

22nd of January

2012-01-22T17:47:00.001+08:00

Party time! I love it when we go to parties just before we have to host one ourselves - you always walk away with a few more new ideas on what you can do.

Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to recreate quite the musical extravaganza that Priya managed at her party today. For the musical party there was a performance tent, as well as a couple of musicians who came in and, behind closed curtains, transformed the higgeldy piggeldy morass of children into a harmonic, subdued-through-awe chorus who backed up Chanelle's singing of a most gorgeous little song.

I'm currently uploading it to YouTube but if you're particularly zealous and came here super early, the link below won't work because it still hasn't uploaded. Give it a minute, people.

The cute thing about today was that Ted fell in love. Again. Yes, the child is fickle. He professed his undying love to Chanelle. And showed off dancing in front of her, played spell casting with her, play acted different animals, sang, performed acrobatics and actually said "I love you Chanelle" a number of times. Lisa, come back quickly, you might slip from top spot!

After a terrible night's sleep from Ted (of course just after I wrote about putting him to bed in stony immoveable silence) he awoke and was unable to resettle so that was it for me for the night. Bummer.

But tonight, after no day sleep, raspberry and cream icecream as can be seen here, dips, crackers, running around, music lessons, showing off, falling in love, nachos for dinner, historically long bath and a final encore of Puddles and Mud in the playroom before bed, I doubt he'll be rousing any time soon. I'm so confident I'm prepared to put it out in the public sphere.

*gulp*

21st of January

2012-01-21T20:28:00.003+08:00

Keeping a toddler afloat between the transition of one sleep to no sleep during the day is, as I may have mentioned once or thrice on here, a delicate balancing act. Ted managed to grab about five minutes in the car in the morning, just prior to this photo being taken. Would that be enough? Could we work through the rest of the day with just that amount of down time under his belt?

Harriet is thoroughly enjoying the Usborne Puzzle Omnibus I bought for her the other day (damn you Book Depository! Your temptation is all-encompassing!). I noticed she was reading it and just immediately turning to the answers when they were a little difficult. So I started to help her out a little (*ahem* I do love a little puzzle myself). Harriet and I got quite caught up working out a few of the codes, and she really got the bug of trying to decode them too. Once Papa and Ted AND myself were all involved this morning, she realised that the working through the puzzles themselves was great fun and has been enjoying them all day. She has been carrying around the weighty tome in the backseat of the car and working on the puzzles with great enthusiasm.

I'm hoping this moves on to helping me with the Target puzzle in SMH, because she already quite enjoys assisting us with the crossword when she can and I love having a sounding board for puzzles, they're so much fun to do with someone else (do I sound enough of a puzzle nerd yet?).

Today we finally went to see Arrietty, the Studio Ghibli film based on The Borrowers. James decided bravely to take Ted to see the Happy Feet movie, because it would have loads of singing and drumming in it.

Well Harriet and I went off and had an awesome time! Poor Ted and James however...In the previews, the very first preview was for Ice Age 4. Holy crap. It was edited like a freaking video clip, cuts all over the place and very high paced. Harriet nearly had a heart attack watching it. EVen I found it quite disconcerting to watch, especially at that size and that volume.

But poor Ted - James looked over at him and he was just Losing. His. Shit. So they didn't even get past the first preview. I think three is way too young for the cinema anyway, but it was a shame they had to leave *quite* that early. He enjoyed eating a pile of food and playing in the playcentre while he waited for Harriet and I to emerge however. He didn't even want Ah-Moe when I saw him! He just asked me immediately for a soda water, hilarious.

He fell so deeply asleep in the car on the way home that I was able to run in and do a quick shop at Metro. He transferred into the bed without stirring, I pulled off his shorts and rubbed pawpaw into his nappy rash, placed him in a new nappy and he still didn't stir. I think he might have been a little tired.

20th of January

2012-01-20T19:48:00.005+08:00

Today we finally ventured out of the house. We met up with my friend from the other day who has the young boy the same age as Ted, and we went to the Recorders exhibition at MCA.

It was loads of fun. Too much fun, really. Harriet was whirling around like a dervish and screaming like a banshee, then had a total meltdown when we had to leave. *sigh* I don't think the reasonable sleep she had last night (not great, just reasonable) is enough to have made up for the terrible week's sleep before it.

Tonight she was scared about something she kept thinking of in her (cartoon, totally innocent) puzzle book. She was so scared she came down to the lower bunk where I was feeding Ted to sleep and snuggled up to my back. After a while I gently removed Ted who was still awake and laid up in her top bunk with her, snuggled up, arms around each other.

"I love you so much" I whispered.
"I love you so much as well" she whispered back.

Deep breath. Get up again tomorrow. Smile. Love. Nurture.

And no doubt an internal scream or three as well.

19th of January

2012-01-19T16:48:00.002+08:00

For Sale

One Six Year Old Child

Immediate Pick-Up Required

Caveat Empor

18th of January

2012-01-18T19:30:00.001+08:00

I love my friends. I especially love it when I have new friends and I realise that they're awesome. Alina and Oscar started out as "the music class teacher and her son". But now? Now Oscar is one of the three or four children Ted is insistent on asking to come to his party (in fact he is the first child on the list, but not the first person - Lisa will always take out that particular honour I believe) and Alina is someone who I actively missed talking to after missing her conversation and presence for almost three months (is it really that long? no, it must only be about two months).

Oscar and Teddy had a wonderful time all day today, playing beautifully together and narrowly avoiding mortal injury by a hair's breadth as most threenagers do. Wondering what they're doing in these two photos? Well the wind knocked around the football goal that Teddy received at Christmas, but did you know the plastic pipes make fantastic vocal instruments? We do. We ALL do now.

And honestly for pretty much all of the day, Alina and I chatted, the children played, Harriet had a nuclear meltdown from not eating and insisting on wearing her flannelette pyjamas in heavily humid weather, and the whole day was just fantastic.

Members of our family who often get short shrift on this blog are Gretel (on the left) and Liesl (on the right). Today it was finally time to clean their bowl, which I hadn't managed to get to before Christmas and I decided spontaneously to do the job just before we headed out for dinner tonight.

Notice that we've gone out for dinner quite a lot this last week? Well I am pretty much to blame for that, for the cupboards aren't bare as such, but they're incomplete. Enough to make sort of half a meal perhaps, but always missing an essential ingredient for one or other of our dinners. Plus what with the attempt to keep Ted awake all day lately, his tiredness requires a lot more attention to ensure he doesn't seriously hurt himself or spark off a war with Harriet. This makes it tricky to fit in dinner creation as well. I'll get on top of it soon, I promise.

When we go out for dinner however, there is one snag. Our children needing to go to the toilet. Because if it's a poo...*sigh*...if it's a poo, well we're talking a loooong wait. And standing inside a stinky public toilet while my children try to engage me in conversation, swinging their feet and happy as anything, is just not my idea of fun. They just take so. long. SO LONG! So yes, in response I am going to post a photo of Ted on the toilet. Sue me.

And then guess what I did afterwards? I tried on a dress, I did! I tried on this one and it looked pretty swanky if I do say so myself. I don't want to buy the first dress I've found, but given I have to find one by the 11th of February, I need to act soon. So who knows? That might be my dress!

On the way home in the car, Ted decided to spit the contents of his water bottle all over his top. You know how it is. And apparently, according to the older Greek woman two doors down from us, this is going to mean he has asthma. You should have seen her look of horror when Ted was wandering around naked in winter. She probably assumed he had pneumonia.

17th of January

2012-01-17T19:25:00.001+08:00

Quiet ole day today. A lot of lying around on the lounge. A lot of regrets regarding the creation of yesterday's Monster School game in the evening. It spilled over into today and it lasted all day. All. Day. We pretended to be humans when we went to buy coffee, and discussed whether we were in the Human World yet. When we visited my friend at her house it was the 'Monster Human School' where humans and monsters educated each other about the other species. Harriet came home and drew pictures of the "strange things humans do". She quite enjoyed the anthropological nature of the game I think.

We considered going to get some shopping on the way home but Ted had a late sleep and was in no emotional position to deal with the high powered experience of the local supermarket. So we went home where I quickly realised they had had no food for a long time. Anyone who has met my children will know they eat. A lot. Regularly. So I whipped up some popcorn to tide them over and then a mango lassi. Oh my - the mango lassi was INCREDIBLE! Everyone devoured it. Well Harriet performed her version of devouring it, which was coming out to tell me that it was the most delicious thing she'd ever had in her life and that she was going to drink it slower than any other drink she's ever had. Considering this was coming from Harriet, who honestly takes about forty minutes or so of continuous drinking to finish a hot chocolate, I thought I'd better step in and tell her it was fine to finish it.

On the other hand we had Ted. Ted who found a fascination with dunking his popcorn kernels into the lassi. Mmmmm...?

Here he is dancing on his way back inside. Bare butt and all.

It was a late one home for Papa and we all sat outside to eat dinner (half a winner [pie/quiche hybrid filling], half a loser [crust]).

James and I attempted to have a halfway intellectual conversation regarding dystopian worlds, whilst simultaneously being involved with putting out fires (with Ted and his plastic tubing) and hearing gun shots (somewhere down the street - for real!).

Short and sweet tonight. Pretty chilled out day and tomorrow we're at home again. But then on Thursday - I'm venturing out! For the first time in weeks! Hold on to your hats, people.

15th and 16th of January

2012-01-16T20:13:00.002+08:00

15th of January

Tricky day, this 15th of January. There was a fine timeline we had to work to, because I was baking a cake to take to the blessingway I was attending in the afternoon. Our plans to catch up with Jay et al seemed to be in jeopardy when we realised we had a cartoon level flat tyre on our car, and the cake was yet to be baked. But we pulled it all together by leaving the cake to bake at home, James changed the tyre in double quick time, and we all raced the Bellingen arrivals in their car down the road (who also held Miss Jenna inside who hadn't driven from quite as far as Bellingen).

We were all gagging to try the new local cafe Cornersmith, which just happened to be started by friends of Jay and Scott's. It was incredible - you know you're at a place of similar mindset when the sugar is rapadura, the flours in the background are in the same bags you have at home, and the cafe has a 'bottling day' where they close the cafe to make their own produce. They even have their own beehives to make their own honey! I'm really interested in bees, and am on a mission to try and incorporate an urban beehive into my life in the near future.

However great the cafe was though, the experience was a tricky one. Jay and I were trying to have a meaningful conversation whilst around us children were on the slightly crazy side. Ted was very, very tired and had fallen down and given himself quite a scrape on his knee which rendered him sore and sad. I'd dressed in a long sleeved top and jeans but it was horrifically humid when we finally made it outside, so I was really uncomfortable and I felt quite overwhelmed generally.

So when we all moved to sit on the street it was a lot more manageable. But of course still crazy. As these photos can attest.

I got a chance to take a couple of photos with Jay's 50mm f1.4 lens and really enjoyed it's clarity. Unfortunately it's not that practical a lens for work so I won't be purchasing it any time soon. Bummer! When Ted is tired you can really notice his wonky eye a lot more too.

The walk back up to the cars was crazy too. There was some fence walking, shoulder flying, photo taking and, of course, laughter. Then there were tears at the goodbye and on to the blessingway. Ted and Harriet were taken by James to one of those indoor playcentres and I had a few hours of hanging out with lovely women and amazing food.

But oh my, when I was picked up, it was obvious Ted was not long for this world. He was BUGGERED! We decided to acquire dinner ASAP and stepped into one of the Vietnamese restaurants we'd been eyeing off on Marrickville Rd for quite a while. But what a disappointment - the food was terrible, just really bland, and Harriet was sulky and sad when we asked her to be gentle with her words to Ted (as he ran back and forth grabbing 'grapes' for us from the fake, plastic grape vine wrapped around the rear pillar of the dining area - to remind us of the vast Vietnamese grape growing community I guess).

Bring on the 16th!

16th of January

Awoken earlier than I would have liked by Ted, and feeling a little grumbly, he led me outside to push him on the swing. As I stepped outdoors my bad mood was swept aside as I looked up and saw a gorgeous, refreshing rainbow spread right across the sky. We stood there, both of us, taking in the sight. I then saw the rain-soaked cobwebs shining in the bright sun, and this massive dragonfly just sitting there motionless, as they are wont to do. I knew it was going to be a different kind of day today.

We still had to deal with the tyre thing though. While I worked at getting us all ready to leave the house, Harriet found the recorder. Oh recorder, bane of the primary school parent's existence. Your shrill, piercing whistle can strike fear into the hearts of those who have been there and played, and those who have been there and been forced to listen. Neither side of this musical fence is pretty.

She was actually interested in playing it though, not just producing that singular screech popular with those of little fingers. I explained how the air enters and exits, the importance of completely covering the holes, and how to breathe. After about three hours of little more than the odd hit at a correct note...well, I don't think focus was her thing. Perhaps tomorrow, after a better night's sleep. The age of recorder has, however, begun.

So off we traipsed, ready to wait out the interminable period between booking in and picking up. Just long enough to be too long, just short enough to be not long enough to do anything special, and just far away enough from everything, including public transport.

But wait we did. And it wasn't *that* bad.

Of course these faces tell another story. Please note the omnipresent recorder. And Ted's expression. The face paint is courtesy of Ted's rainbow party held at home this morning - he decided to draw a rainbow on his face in honour of the occasion. And when Harriet saw that magnificent art option, she had to join in as well. Hence the two rainbowed children who were with me all day today.

We had a lovely little sojourn into Newtown afterwards, safely driving on four full tyres. Bumped into Regan, Amelia and Will all within about 100m of each other. It was almost like the Newtown of old (except I was wearing shoes and didn't have holes in my clothes).

Since it had been over 24hrs since I'd last seen Jay, it was time to rectify that particular issue. Jay and Ilo came around for some water play, secret squirrel discussions, blueberry eating, and much admiration for our outdoor setting.

The afternoon also saw the evolution of a new game that's sweeping the nation (err....playroom). It's called...well embarassingly neither James nor I can remember what it's called at 11pm. However it's a great game. Basically you throw the ball down. Then you kick the ball. Then you yell out loudly "NAME OF GAME!" (it was something like Juhspoy or something - anyway I'll ask Ted tomorrow). And then "GOAL!". And then you grin happily and do it all again.

Harriet's game of choice in the evening though was Monster School. I'm not even sure how it started but suddenly there I was, a teacher at monster school, teaching two small monsters on their first day. We drew pictures of monsters, discussed different types of monsters and even had swim school (read: bath) where you had to slather your body in 'swim slime' (read: soap) in order to swim properly (read: wash yourself). Then it was reading Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to both of them before Ted fell asleep in about three minutes and Harriet tearfully insisted that she WASN'T tired and DIDN'T need to go to bed and...and....zzzzzzzzzzz......

14th of January

2012-01-14T20:13:00.001+08:00

Today was a day of quiet productivity. I was awoken by Ted before the alarm went off. I only had the alarm on because I had a shoot at 8am, but Ted likes to thwart the effectiveness of machinery. So I went out for the shoot, then headed straight to the Stash and Treasure Market in Marrickville. So much fun! I saw my gorgeous friends Jen and Jay there and then ambled around chatting to loads of similarly pottering vintage fabric nerds. I think I had a little conversation with most of the stallholders and they were all so lovely. I walked away with some gorgeous doilies and fabric as you can see here. I'm on a mission to acquire loads of purple fabrics to make a specific purple bunting for Ted's purple birthday party in February, but I didn't actually *think* of this mission until after I'd left the market. Hmmm... methinks the brain should kick in sooner on weekends.

Arrived home to find that the car alarm down the street was still going strong, more than 12hrs after it started. And also found out that the old Greek woman down the road had her husband hospitalised the other day for pneumonia, so we were happily chatting outside when I arrived home for a little bit. Poor Cheryl, our long suffering neighbour, can hear all of Ted's musical interests and Harriet's vocal exercises as they occur, yet is remarkably patient about it all. She is the dream neighbour. Unfortunately she is also a very light sleeper, so I had been worried about her sleeping the night before with the blasted car alarm.

I went inside and made many cups of tea, as did James. I only had to throw out three due to bad timing with Ted's sleep. I have a specific brand of tea I like (it's organic, Fairtrade, and strong) and I have a specific cup I like to drink it in (big. read: very big). And yes, my fingernails are that dirty. I'd been out lying in the wet dirt at the park at 8am, remember.

I managed to sew together a couple of pairs of shorts for Ted. He has suddenly run out of clothes. Seriously, it was just a sudden thing. I think he's had a growth spurt and then whammo - wardrobe free. I made the blue paisley ones a couple of weeks ago and they've featured pretty heavily in this month's photo feature because they're about the only pair he really fits into. So I made sure that the next two pairs I made were purple (of course).

Ted loves his pillowcase. Oh man, he loves that thing. And then one day I was in an op shop and found the same material in a sheet! Oh happy day! So I made him a pair of shorts from that material finally. Here Ted and James are photobombing the above photo, but it luckily allowed me to photograph the pillowcase shorts. I may have issues trying to get them off him in the future.

I also finally attacked the tray of organic mangoes that have been slowly rotting away on our kitchen bench for the last week, but what with all the hospital visits, I haven't really had the energy to work on in the evenings. But today was the day! I cut all the good flesh off them and popped them in the freezer, adn froze loads of full cheeks too. Harriet loves to sit there sucking on one of those frozen cheeks whilst absorbed in a book. I seem to remember a certain girl of a certain age who liked to sit, absorbed in books and eating a jar of pickled onions. I know which one I'd rather be locked in a room with afterwards...

The strawberries were also ready to be harvested again. I say again, because I pull about half to a full punnet of strawberries from our little patch every few days. Seriously, it is incredibly prolific. Weirdly though the children don't like to eat them, so I just cut off the green and freeze them to use in smoothies and juices. Yum.

I have been meaning to get around to these little hair clips as well. Having the button making kit here from LAST CHRISTMAS (*sigh*) I managed to move my butt into gear and feel sufficiently motivated to actually make the clips I've been wanting of late. I likey likey.

And as if I couldn't get enough of this creation roll, I also made some cashew butter. This stuff is a major hit with the children spread thick on a rice cake. Ingredients are soaked raw cashews, coconut cream, some Himalayan salt, a little coconut butter if you have it (we didn't have any left which is a bummer cos it makes it so yummy and creamy) and maple syrup. There are worse ways to spread your rice cake, I can tell you now.

And at the end of our day we kept looking with trepidation to the increasingly greyscale cloud cover. We were planning on going to see Mondo Cane at the Domain and we were all pretty excited to go. Unfortunately the weather just didn't hold out and we tried to think of a suitably exciting (and free) event we could organise ourselves at short notice.

Well we had all of the ingredients for a picnic. And we had a clean playroom. The answer was obvious - a playroom outdoor cinema experience! So we dragged the television into the playroom, pulled out the food we were planning on taking to the Domain, and watched Matilda. It was awesome. Ted was exhausted by 8pm so I'm glad we didn't end up at the Domain for that reason alone (as well as the rain that fell).

Harriet was thoroughly enthralled by the movie. She has this tendency to watch movies and want to constantly work out how they're made. She never falls into the illusion of the film and its narrative but instead constantly asks how the makers of the film did a certain thing or other. In Matilda she was particularly interested in how they managed to: kick a cat / glue a hat to someone's head / have someone be dead / have small objects move around seemingly on their own - among others.

Yep, we have her pegged as a scripwriter/director when she's older. It involves storytelling AND telling people what to do. How perfect is that? And I guarantee it will be the safest worksite in the Western world.

12th and 13th of January

2012-01-13T19:24:00.001+08:00

12th of January

Apologies for not posting yesterday. I was just so flipping tired I really needed to do nothing. But we are now back to your regular PAD programming...until tomorrow because we'll be out until late so I won't be posting again until Sunday.

In the morning we woke and before I even got out of bed we had spent an hour in the bedroom playing discoes. So much fun! Watching Ted's disco dancing was priceless and I pretty much laughed myself stupid before 9am. Great way to start the day. However when I finally dragged my butt out of the bedroom I saw my friend had called and needed me to take her to the hospital as soon as possible.

So off I trotted after ensuring I was showered (because no-one likes to sit next to a smelly mama) and Ted ate nearly all of my pancake, so I was pretty hungry too. But thanks to my good friend Regan, she came to my home with her son and apparently all three children played *without any incidents at all*. Wow. She sat outside and read her book in the sun! Awesome!

In order to move my little brood out of the house and to find some fun and happiness, we decided upon the pool again - mainly because Harriet is obsessed with her dive toys. She can (and does) spend HOURS with these things. So we all drove home tired but happy.

Here Ted is enjoying the age old fun effect of placing his swimming vest over some bubble jets at the pool. It was mega fun. In fact when I did it to my top Ted's eyes lit up and he started hysterically laughing and saying "Mega Ah-Moe Mama! MEGA Ah-Moe!".

Ted was so tired he fell dead asleep before we got to Newtown for dinner, where he sat on me completely and utterly dead to the world whilst Harriet, James and I scoffed yummy yummy food from Sabbaba. My god I love the food in that place (we get the halloumi plates...mmm....).

What is he doing in the bath fully clothed you might ask? I have no idea. I just found him in there as I was running around getting ready before I left for the hospital. Cute, huh? He was having a blast and I wasn't going to stop him.

13th of January

Ahhh...nothing to do today. Nothing. So we spent the morning at home, where I managed to move a few little things around (things that no-one but those who live here would even notice), clean up a few little things as well, and watch Harriet read her books and Ted play his funny little story games.

I managed to move the little blue shelf cupboard thingy from the playroom into the children's room, which I've been wanting to do for a while. Harriet insists on purchasing these little bitsy figurine style items with nowhere to display them and the top of her drawers (which is 'her' area) is usually covered in dust and pieces of paper and general crap. Having that spot cleaned up definitely makes me feel calmer, especially since it's the first thing you see when you enter the bedroom.

On Ted's drawers I placed the basket Harriet had and put a few select items inside. I'm planning on changing these items every few weeks. Today I placed his necklace, a purple car, a magnifying glass and a string of beads he had pulled apart to be a snake. Here he made them into some bunting (the snake), Christmas lights (the beads), a purple car (the purple car) and a big window (the magnifying glass). I love the way his mind works.

So after he'd had a sleep we headed out to our parenting meet-up, where the children all played together so beautifully today is was incredibly relaxing. Some of the mothers had also arranged for a mobile hairdresser to visit, and I got my hair cut by a hairdresser for the first time in about 8yrs for $40. Bonus.

The children all played on the trampoline together so happily - you'd never believe it but this photo was taken with no subsequent injuries - in fact Ted and Darcy had much giggling and rolling around together which was gorgeous to watch.

Here Harriet and Carmella are making lemonade and orange juice for everyone. Harriet was in charge of squeezing the oj and Carmella was in charge of making the lemonade. Ted is waiting patiently for his orange juice, which he'd never tasted before.

That was it. Quiet, loving and happy and even a little productive to boot, what with rearranging and haircuts. We'll need it because tomorrow is going to be a long, late one and I won't be posting until Sunday. See you all then!

11th of January

2012-01-11T20:20:00.001+08:00

I thought the start of today was going to be spent sitting in waiting rooms for a long time. It really does seem as though every doctor in the world is always running late. However the person I was accompanying was seen ASAP, we then zipped up for the referral and were both back in about 90 minutes. Who on earth would have thought it?!

Then it was back to help with the washing and cleaning, and to watch (*ahem* supervise) as the children all had a completely awesome time together today. Ted fell in love with the rockets out for play and I realised that with his birthday coming up, he needs his own rocket toy. I saw one when I was out the other day and will have to make a beeline back there methinks.

Today Harriet found this bright orange safety vest in the dress-up pile at her friend's house. It went on immediately. She came bounding out from the room and proudly announced that "This is a police vest and now I'm the police officer in charge of everything". Beware giving Harriet power! She is not of the Marxist ilk I would have hoped.

When we got home we were all a bit spent. In order to change the mood, we decided to drive out to Clovelly to get the best food in the entire world. EVER. It is so good that we drove out there to pick it up and then drove straight back home to eat it. However the chips? Well...the chips never last the whole way home, do they?

10th of January

2012-01-10T20:18:00.000+08:00

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

9th of January

2012-01-09T20:01:00.001+08:00

Today was spent hanging at home. Oh, not MY home though. My friend who lives down the street has a lawnmower. We have an edger. It's a beautiful thing.

So my mob invaded her mob and we overstayed our welcome by about four hours or so I'd say. It's all a bit Ramsay St around here, everyone pretty much knows everyone else on the street and no-one looks twice at a woman pushing a lawnmower up the footpath to her home.

And that's it. Oh tonight James went to see Deerhoof at the Festival so Harriet and I had an extended book reading on the lounge together and managed to finally polish off The Borrowers in time to go and see Arrietty at the cinema for some special Mama/Daughter time.

Note to others - The Borrowers is really tedious. Great idea, poorly executed. I have no doubt that Studio Ghibli will provide a much more entertaining version of events.

To add a little more sparkle to the post (as f that petulant photo of Ted isn't enough), I thought I'd leave you with this video of the children singing Advance Australia Fair while we were camping just before Christmas. They get to it eventually and they sing both verses. Hang on to your seats.

8th of January

2012-01-08T18:47:00.004+08:00

Today I was so blessed and honoured. Today my friend asked for help. Practical, everyday little help that I could give easily and desperately wanted to give. If I could I would give it ten times over again and again.

As women we are set up in isolation. Birthing, raising children, running households and lives - often we have our partners (often we may not) - and occasionally one or two friends we can call on in hard times. Often the support we desperately need is so easy - a cleaned oven, an afternoon free from the children to collect our thoughts, to have someone else do our afternoon shopping for dinner. But all too often (in fact, all the time) we don't ask for that help. No-one else does, right? So that must mean we're failing if we need it. So we don't ask. And we get tired, run-down, isolated even more from those we see as 'managing' and further away from our goals of getting on top of things ourselves.

Supporting each other requires a chain of support to us as well. Today I was able to help my friend because James wanted to help her as well (and wanted to help me to help her) - and to do that he knew he had to parent solo for the afternoon. And to parent solo he needed the children to understand that I wouldn't be there.

Ted was upset and started to cry that he didn't want me to go. And Harriet quickly leaned over and said to him "Hey Teddy, would you like to play the baby game with mashed banana and milk again?". It is a game they've played the last two mornings, where Harriet feeds her baby mashed banana and a little cup of milk, and then does the same to Ted (with the baby and Ted both wearing bibs).

He enthusiastically agreed and the cycle of support was begun. This was the only real photo I took today, snapped as I walked out the door. Probably not in focus. Exposure all over the place.

But it's important for all of us to remember.

To offer and offer help.
And then to ask and ask for it.

Because it is such a gift to be asked.

7th of January

2012-01-07T19:11:00.002+08:00

Well it all had to go downhill at some point. Although I did get to sleep in until 10am again (what the hell?!), we had to be at a dogs and cats birthday party at 1pm. I had no costumes, present or food organised.

Fast forward to 12.45 and there we were - two cat costumes, a salad, presents, showered and fed in three hours! Yes thank you, I'll take my bow now. Of course before I had children, if someone had ever told me it would take me three hours to do that I would have scoffed. I could get that done in half the time! But as we all know, the added ingredient of children means the added ingredient of chaos.

But today it fell apart at the seams. Actually it was all ok for the first half of the party, (note play cat fighting with these two hamming it up for me) but by the end the bike park was too much for the overtired and emotional Harriet, who found it impossible to contain her anger.

"I don't WANT to go to my FUCKING home!" she yelled. Over. And over again. I gently explained to her that while she was at the party it was worthwhile getting on with the business she wanted to attend to, because it was hardly fun sitting there crying, overheated (she insisted on wearing leggings and a long sleeved top in 30 degree heat, at a cycle park) and overtired.

But it was all to no avail. We dragged her home, where she spent an hour or so just chilling out on her own. We've encouraged her to find this alone time when she's feeling overwhelmed, and it has really assisted with her ability to recuperate and find her emotional centre.

Actually after she ate dinner she was a lot happier and even put on a show for us in the playroom. But she still needs sleep...

...Oh did I mention she's *still* awake at 9.30pm? *sigh*

One bonus of the day was that Ted was finally no longer scared of his balance bike and actually gave it a go. We moved the seat up for him and he actually rode it around for a while and even scooted off on it once. That smudged up facepaint was just too cute for words.

Let's hope tomorrow delivers a Harriet that has been filled with sleep and a little more happiness.

6th of January

2012-01-06T18:40:00.001+08:00

Today was very relaxed. As all days should be when they don't start until 9.47am. Yes, last night I FINALLY got the sleep I've been coveting for so long. In fact I didn't even get called out of my bed by Ted until 6.05am. A whole night's sleep in my own bed, woot!

So we all lounged around in the bedroom together, reading books for a good hour, all three of us a tangle of arms and bodies and talking and laughing and quilts too (thank you cool change). The children played happily at being babies while Harriet fed Ted mashed banana with a spoon and I snatched five minutes to read the paper.

Then the great car trek of lostness. We were heading off to my mother's group and I'd been to this house before but thought I'd try to be a bit clever and go a new way. NO! Isn't it funny how in this day and age the concept of being lost is so alien? I couldn't believe how well Harriet dealt with it actually - we were all laughing and being silly with another wrong turn. Just a few months ago the Harriet of old would have been screaming and hysterical with cries of "WHAT?! You don't know where we ARE?!".

I love six.

We hung out all afternoon with friends, the pumpkin pie was a hit, we drove home (in one straight ride, no lost turns) and I pulled back the sunroof just around the corner from our house. The children were so excited and asked to stand through it when I parked. Of course! How fun is that?

James came home to Ted standing in the car with his head poking through the roof. He then had the same lolling around on the bed experience I'd had with them at 10 in the morning. So sweet to hear them all giggling and rolling around in there.

An evening's spell of backyard cricket was graciously played with Ed Cowan (aka Teddy) and Zaheer Kahn (aka Harriet). Ted loves Ed Cowan because his name is Edward of course, and Harriet loves Zaheer Kahn because he's the only Muslim on the team. Go figure.

Now it's an early night tonight, so you're spred long-winded discussion and over-description. And yes, this is Harriet lying on the lawn watching the cricket. It's a pink blanket that Nanna Lee gave her when she was not even one and it is still her favourite blanket to snuggle up into.

5th of January

2012-01-05T21:45:00.000+08:00

After our four hour marathon in the pool yesterday, the theory was today that we'd have a quiet day at home. Well that was the idea. Dropped James off for his annual Day in the Life of an SCG Member at a Test. I went to see a friend on the way back, and afterwards we stopped in at a cafe.

We finally left after waiting around for Ted to finish playing (sometimes those cafe playroom areas are a nuisance rather than a benefit!.

The cafe was slightly farcical - I went up to the register to ask if we could get the gingerbread men I asked for. Then again to ask for water. Then again to pay. I may sound weird, but I dislike cafes where they insist on doing everything for you. Just put the damn water in a fridge so I can grab it when my hysterically tired two year old is screaming for water RIGHT NOW and that way we all win. Instead I have to wait for the waitstaff to finish whichever order they were otherwise busy with, wipe a table, get called over by another diner and finally arrive at our table to a slightly dessicated Ted. I can get it myself. Argh.

It took an eon for Ted to even get into the car. And then into the carseat. Just one of those little things that was slightly frustrating when I was also very tired, but it didn't deter from our overall happy (yet subdued) spirits.

When we made it home, after me being 'ATQ' all the way home (our car 'speaks' to Harriet and Ted about what it's like to be a car - tell me again why I start these things?), it was finally down time.

Ted slept. Harriet read. As you can see.

Ted takes almost forever to wake after a day sleep. I delay waking him because I can't handle the interminable process of moving from sleep to awake.

This time was no different, but we did have to move it and pick up James from the cricket ("Where Ed Cowan is, Mama?" asked Ted).

Here they're hesitating over picking the four big, yummy cucumbers we had growing in our little vegie patch.. I didn't realise just how prickly cucumbers are!

On the way home we picked up our organic fruit and veg box from Bella and Ted and Harriet ate about four plums each on the way home. Then we arrived home and they could access the box itself and they each engaged with the fruit in their own particular way - Ted studiously sitting down to rip out the pip before popping it in his mouth.

Harriet prefers the in-mouth method for plum pip removal.

Again - as you can see.

Then the delicious part of the evening. Normally I'm in here lamenting about our evenings I admit, but tonight was just lovely. We all sat outside as the storm finally broke over Sydney, eating dinner in our seating area under cover as the thunder sounded and lightning cracked. The children, although initially concerned about being outside, ended up joyfully embracing it as I do. I love Sydney storms!

I have a funny little anecdote about storms. When we moved to Perth, they said one night there was going to be a storm. I was so excited, I went out and bought some beers to have at home. I dragged out some chairs to our verandah and James and I settled down to enjoy it all.

Well, Perth storms are a little different, it turns out. In the far, far (far) distance there was a small flash of light once or twice. And the sky turned a lovely pink. *ahem* That was it.

We sheepishly brought our beers inside.

Anyway, back to tonight. We all sat outside for quite a while, laughing and chatting - Ted climbed all over the place, Harriet talked about something or other, and we all eventually ambled inside.

And in there, the children found their second wind. For children that never spontaneously show an interest in craft or drawing, it was quite remarkable. They both laid down on the playroom floor and proceeded to draw quite detailed drawings. Ted here is drawing the 'rescue rocket' which has a handle you use to get in and out, and a midwife inside who is going to assist with the rocket they're rescuing (on the piece of paper to the right). That's the midwife waiting next to the rocket in case you were curious.

And Harriet, who normally eschews all drawings that require time and patience to complete, sat down with Ted and drew this 'rainbow spiral'. She also drew a gorgeous boat on the water complete with clown fish, sharks, binoculars, seaweed and was 'real art' because "look, I've written my name at the bottom in the corner, you know how real artists do?".

When we finally moved them in to bed at 10pm it was without crying or worries. Ted wanted to fall asleep by the light of this Santa light (courtesy of Lisa for Christmas) so instead of reading the chicken to egg story I had promised, instead I felt like a Theatresports contestant and made up a story that had to have "purple" and "Santa" and "a fairy" in it.

Mission accomplished. And tomorrow I think I'll tell the story of the fairies and a lens cap. It will knock your socks off.

4th of January

2012-01-04T19:44:00.000+08:00

Sydney finally began to feel a bit of heat today - could it actually be summer sniffing at our heels?

Ted and Harriet received some dive toys at Christmas, the ones you throw into the pool with a long waving arm and you dive down to retrieve them like a red setter. Well Ted was adamant that we use them ASAP. ASAP means NOW and often YESTERDAY in Tedspeak, so waiting for a week or so to use them was as agonising as it gets.

Today was the big day however, and after taking only four or so hours to get everything ready - all meals packed, all toys collected, all swimming costumes changed into (because the ignominy of not being able to jump straight in to the water is too much to ask anyone under 12 I think) - we were off to the local pool.

And did I mention I packed my new underwater camera? Because I did. I PACKED MY NEW UNDERWATER CAMERA! (hope you heard that) It's orange and funky and I nearly had five heart attacks as the steel body hit the water. Every fibre of my being was screaming STOP! NO! But I pushed it under with grim resolution and ... it worked. It was fun. No - it was a blast.

I didn't even take this photo. Harriet did! SP underwater and looking fine. I'm so impressed.

And again today with the fantastic, peaceful, lovely together play. Even though Harriet was screaming MAMA LOOK AT THIS MAMA HOW MANY SECONDS DOES IT TAKE TO DIVE DOWN MAMA TIME HOW LONG I CAN DO THIS FOR in an ongoing mantra, all three of us were able to tune in and out of each other in an harmonious manner that meant no-one was sad or felt unheard.

Ted was most excited at the idea of being able to do torpedoes like Harriet and with me supporting his belly, he also managed to do a very passable dog paddle. However despite staying at the pool for four hours ($18 in parking thank you very much), with nearly all of that actually in the pool swimming, neither child felt like going to bed any earlier than normal this evening. In fact Harriet had to be cajoled into bed at 10pm. *yawn* Let's see how the sibling communication works tomorrow after that, shall we? Hmmm...

All photos were taken with the new point and shoot - cool huh? Luckily I bought the underwater camera because there was very little of our day that could have been recorded otherwise.

3rd of January

2012-01-03T18:49:00.001+08:00

Well I didn't get the much needed sleep last night, damn it! Loooong story, but let's just say that the comedy of errors that started at 9pm continued until 4am. Oh yes, you read correctly.

Anyway, luckily I had one of those days today where the children played together so well it made the whole day easy. It all started in the morning when Ted was desperate to play a moon game. So the bunk bed became the rocket, we all blasted off to the moon and there was much excitement when we touched down on the lunar surface and we all walked around with our space boots on (read: purple clogs). This game went on for ages and Harriet and Ted had a blast (*ahem* pun intended).

Harriet requested a haircut to make her cool for summer - her requirements were that it had to be above her shoulders, and render the need for hair accoutrement obsolete. Well while I had to ask her to stay still, Ted decided to 'help' by putting on a show. Singing, dancing, clapping, discussions - this show had it all. Unfortunately the show was a little too interactive and Harriet's hair is less than even as a result. However she loves it. LOVES it! And told every single person we came into contact with about it (random man walking his dogs, Caltex shopkeeper, waitress at the cafe, you get the picture).

We only had one out-of-house experience to fulfill today, which was meeting a friend at a cafe. Ted was ridiculously tired by the end of this and I was certain he'd have a little kip in the car on the way home. But no! Which of course meant he was tired and crazy all afternoon, yeah?

Hell no! In fact when we got home the children played together beautifully AGAIN. *All* afternoon, in fact for nearly two hours while I worked out what to make for dinner, pottered around aimlessly working out the ingredients (I realise this makes me sound like a moron but I had to soak some cashews and then lightly roast them and prepare mangoes etc. which was slightly fiddly), anyway, for those two hours the children played together without the need for a UN intervention system.

Grateful doesn't cover it.

It turns out they were playing 'Space Babies' which was brilliant because it covers their two foci - space (which Ted loves and Harriet is interested in) and babies (which Harriet loves and Ted is interested in). Ted's only needs from me were to help him put on a shirt so he could have a doll stuffed up there to birth in space, and then to help him find another doll to use a bit later on when he decided twins were a good idea. They were crawling all over the house cracking up laughing, Ted being the sun baby and Harriet being the moon baby.

And after the space game there was a dip in the Expedit tubs from IKEA. Every summer we drag them out on to the lawn, fill them up and the children have a blast. I don't quite know what I'll do when Harry can't fit in them any more (in fact she was pretty contorted in there but she is also incredibly stubborn).

A bit rambling today, apologies. But boy I'm tired. And I have to admit, I did not think I'd be posting a sibling love photo like the rest of you already have. Harriet's Mao-like fascist control over every detail of Ted's behaviour may be easing somewhat. Oh glorious day!

Photo A Day January is Here!

2012-01-02T21:02:00.004+08:00

Well it's been a crazy December. I'll try to catch it up in here, but I also don't want to leave you without our annual January daily experience. I invite you all to join in too. The challenge is simple, really. Take a photo each day in January. Now of course I like to add my own verbose touch, but you can leave it at a photo if you like.

1st of January:

So yay, PAD is here again!

The last few weeks here have been rather fraught. Ted had an incredibly severe urticaria reaction to some essential oils and about 90% of his body was covered twice or three times over in deep welts. Horrid.

Then it was Christmas, and all that it entails and then Ted contracted hand foot and mouth. He hasn't slept for the past four nights, hasn't eaten for the past four days and has literally grizzled and cried All. Day. Long. As much as you care, and as much as you worry, seriously by yesterday I had carer's fatigue and was OVER it. Jan and Mike, over here from Perth for the break, looked after the children while James and I partyed it on until after 12 last night, so I woke up tired but a little rejuvenated today.

It also looks as though Ted is finally on the mend. This evening he finally ate his first meal and only screamed with pain every fifth bite or so, but he valiantly wolfed down his bean nachos from the local pub from pure hunger I think if nothing else.

I'm hoping this means tomorrow he will be a-ok. Fingers crossed! It also means he his currently sitting on my lap playing and writhing while I type this but he'll eventually go to sleep and so will I and tomorrow will be a new day.

The worst thing about today was it was Jan and Mike's last night with us. We went out for yummy pub food and the children got the chance to run riot in the beer garden. Harriet has a peculiar ability to savour the piece of lime from a drink for...well, I think this specific wedge lasted her close to forty minutes. She can also nurse a square of chocolate for about an hour. No, this is not an exaggeration.

2nd of January:
Well last night I didn't get the sleep reprieve I was hoping for. Bummer. Just before he got sick I had night weaned Ted (quite effortlessly too), but went back to feeding at night what with the sickness and all. However last night I re-instated the 'Zero Ah-Moe' rule (he calls bfing 'ah-moe').

Oh man - the screaming and flailing of limbs! The fury and the sadness! Harriet sleeps above him in her single bunk and, to truly indicate just how tired she is, she did. not. wake. up. Seriously, Ted woke up James in the front room with his wailing and he sleeps like a log. Harriet woke up feeling quite refreshed, thank you very much. :)

So with the stunning weather Sydney finally decided to display, we went for a walk to our local water play park. Harriet rode her bike. It was awesome - she still needs a little push to get going and was over-correcting with her steering when we started out today but by the time we were heading home, she was on top of it all

There was a small stack on the way home, requiring a bandaid as we walked in the door. And we all decided, as you do when you're inner-city nerds like us, that all can be fixed with a quick stop off at a cafe. So off we drove to our favourite cafe.

And again my children found a way to turn a 100m walk into a forty minute singing, dancing extravaganza. Ted put on a full show of interpretative dance. Harriet threw her body around in appreciation. Ted then moved on to belting out both verses of our national anthem, complete with an immediate need for all of us (oh yes, ALL of us) to dance along. My foot shuffling was reprimanded and he showed me how to pick my feet up off the ground to do 'real dancing'. Luckily there were only...hmmm...forty odd passers by at this point.

Parenthood. Definitely not a sport for the weak.

Machines

2011-12-13T19:53:00.001+08:00

We've been having all sorts of adventures around these parts lately. Unfortunately I've been buried under client work of a night and unable to keep up with the blogging. However I'm able to briefly pop in here to let you all know that at the end of January you are to be exposed to something pretty awesome. Pretty incredible. Involving much planning, much discussion, one long list and no doubt a few more to come. Mistakes, problems, questions and excitement are flowing.

This has nothing to do with Christmas, and much more to do with Ok Go. Thank you Ok Go!

Surprises

2011-12-05T20:45:00.001+08:00

At Harriet's school they have a charity each term that they're involved with. This term they chose a charity that puts together hampers for specific refugee families. It sounded like such a great idea that I contacted the charity myself in order to put together my own hamper with my local women's group. We ended up with two big tubs packed with items like a rice cooker, paper, coloured pens, ABC books and posters (they had two babies), a whole range of delicious organic foodstuffs, dishcloths, Pyrex container package, towels...LOTS of stuff. James and I were pushing the lids down and trying to pack it all in. Unfortunately my camera was away being calibrated when I finished the hamper so I only have one bad photo on my iPhone which I will have to work out how to upload here.

Then one of the other ways you could get involved was to volunteer to deliver the hampers directly to the refugee family it was for. You weren't able to deliver the exact one you had put together, you were just assigned a random couple of families to drive to. Unfortunately one of our families wasn't home (they still get the hamper, never fear, we just don't deliver it personally), however the other family had a little girl the same age as Harriet, so they ran off into the back room together, chatting excitedly and we had a few (*ahem* stilted) words with the mother and her 15mth old.

I'm so pleased we did it, mainly because it gave the children a chance to see the full circle of giving - when we give to charity or the wishing tree at Christmas or something similar, the recipient is merely an ephemeral concept to the children. This, however, allowed them to really understand the cycle involved. Even Ted, in full manic bolting mode (he has just started this particular stage of bolting like a loon whenever we go ANYWHERE), was having a great time. When we were on our way to the first family we stopped for petrol and I explained to him where we were going and explained that they didn't have much in their house. He replied matter of factly "I know, the man said they might not even have a fridge, Mama!". Honestly, it's reassuring to know he's still listening when he's running like crazy, because he doesn't seem to hear me yelling "Stop Teddy!". Hmmm...

And here's Pepper. Oh man, isn't he adorable? He loved it when we put up the Christmas Tree, and loves it when we're sitting down somewhere (at the computer, on the lounge, at the dining table) so he can climb up our legs and nestle into our lap, all the while purring so loudly his body shakes. Nawww, there's just nothing quite like a little kitten.

Fifteen Years

2011-12-01T21:26:00.001+08:00

Fifteen Years. Can you believe that we've been married for fifteen years?

I can. I love ya Jimbo. It's been a great ride!

And here's to this week ending sometime soon. Because
a.) I'm tired
b.) the children won't go to sleep before 10pm
c.) I have a lot of work to do
d.) we have a new foundling kitten and he's cute and I want to play with him when the children are asleep

Isn't it mean to leave you without a photo of Pepper, our new (unexpected surprise) family member? But I am really tired, behind in life and blogging and, as a result of working hard to catch up tonight, must instead leave you to imagine a sweet, very small grey tabby cat stuffed into the undercarriage of a car.

We Call Her Cletus

2011-11-22T19:46:00.001+08:00

It came out! Woot! It fell out whilst she was hanging from Jimbo's arm in the playground at school on Monday morning. Which meant she got to go to reception and receive the much feted "Look, I lost a tooth today" piece of paper that is the jewel in the crown of her acquisitions from school.

Apparently there was blood, which freaked her out a bit. But thankfully, as she announced - "Now I can brush my teeth properly and eat normal food".

Cletus? Cos of this:

Three Letter Words with T-E-D

2011-11-16T20:08:00.001+08:00

So Ted has decided to read. He can read any phonetic three letter words confidently because he just sounds them out, but so far doesn't do it unless he's asked. It seems a bit earlier than Harriet, but I'll have to go back and check. He sounds out words too, when he's speaking, for example in the car the other day he said "Let's go home now, huh-oh-mmm", which I guess really helps him sound out the letters on the page. Since Harriet didn't really use phonics and just stepped into whole-word reading, it's a new approach for us and a lot of fun (it's handy because I can say a word and ask Harriet what type of word it is - verb/noun - and ask Ted what letter it starts with. Dual-level education with one word, bonus!).

As if to make sure we were aware of his latest jump (which, I may add, has coincided with an insatiable desire to stay up much later than he's physically capable of and much later than I'm happy with; don't these children realise I have a lot of *stuff* to do at night?!), the other night James said to me "That's why I bought the see-oh-arr-en" and Ted, without missing a bit, pipes up with "Oh, can I have some corn?!". I mean - huh? REALLY? You think I'm joking but we were both there, two witnesses!

Anyhow, he's a pretty hilarious, happy, crazy, kamikaze little guy. Gawd, we love him. I love him a lot more at 7pm than I do at 10pm when he's still up though. It's not that he's up in and of itself, but more that he is totally crazy and incapable of still being his own cool little dude self and, instead, acts like an out of control loon. Here's hoping that in the future this will settle down - meanwhile, I'm on a mission to exhaust him during the day.

In Harriet news, she's insisting on us all having soup for dinner for the forseeable future. You see, her front tooth is barely hanging on and she's terrified about when it's going to fall out. Each night, as she goes to sleep, she asks with concern if it's going to fall out while she sleeps. Here's hoping it doesn't. I think the tooth fairy is going to have to reward well for this one, it's been a long labour!

$7 = Happiness

2011-11-13T17:40:00.001+08:00

Sure, money can't buy happiness. But when you force your husband to pull over to the side of the road with zero notice, run up to a garage sale and walk away with this little duo for $7 - well, sometimes you have to wonder. That cat jug has left me with a smile on my face all day. And I know you're jealous.

Tonight as I put Ted to sleep he said, "My body is very tired form all the exercise it did today". Then when I asked him if he wanted the quilt over him he said yes, and then, "My body's really into that". Oh my goodness. Cuteness overload.

Short and sweet post before I revel in the chance to have some adult time while the children are asleep. Movie, here I come!

Here Comes the Sun

2011-11-10T10:10:00.000+08:00

So a couple of hot days in a row and it's time to crack open the sprinkler. Woot! To be honest, I think I cracked it out more for me than the children. I know my dad reads this blog and I don't think he'll mind me saying that neither him nor my mother have ever been particularly into gardening. And that, my friends, is the understatement of the year. I can't remember us having a sprinkler to run under and to this day I LOVE it.

As soon as I suggested bringing it out I had that sinking sensation when I realised I had no idea where it was. And as anyone knows, you never offer something to a child until you either know without a doubt where it is, that you definitely have some available or you have it hidden behind your back. But after a minute's scurrying in our (teeny tiny) shed I found it. Huzzah!

On it went and off went Harriet, zipping in and out of the water. She had an awesome time and after a little while asked me why I wasn't coming in too. Well - down went the camera and out I ran! Within two run throughs I was soaked to the skin and laughing fit to burst. There's just something about water, isn't there?

Ted was a little more hesitant about the water. Considering this was the child who launched himself straight into crashing waves on the weekend at the beach, who kamikazes off the lounge and generally engages in death-defying tricks at any given moment, it was quite surprising. Instead, he enjoyed running to and from from the tap and making the sprinkler get very high and very low (much to Harriet's consternation). But eventually we held hands, and ran through together (admittedly it was me in the middle and him on the periphery). But here he is - wet! Yay!

Tunnels and Light

2011-11-07T08:34:00.001+08:00

Yesterday was hot. HOT! Truly. So we headed off for an adventure, driving to Bundeena and the local beach there to check it out. We had a lovely day, full of crashing waves and kamikaze boys, sand construction and excited girls. We explored rockpools, smashed into waves, ate sandy dips (mmm...extra crunch), became intimate with lorikeets, lost a clog and listened to Bowie.

But do you know what we loved about yesterday? It was the light at the end of the tunnel. I take raising adults for this world as quite a serious responsibility. I'm not serious with them but I am serious about them. I read. I watch. I listen. They teach me. I guide them. I scream. They cry. I cry. We all stay up late. We all wake up in the middle of the night. We get angry. We laugh. We hug. We storm off.

It. Is. Hard.

Parenting seems really easy the way some people do it. But I'll tell you something for nothing - the way we parent is not easy. It's involved and wonderful and beautiful and exhausting all at once. But this weekend just gone...this weekend we saw it. The light at the end of the tunnel. The children (mostly) played beautifully together. Harriet was (mostly) patient. Teddy (mostly) listened. We (briefly) got the chance to talk about the world, about life, about films, about *stuff*. It's happening. We're slowly coming together as a group of people who live together, are a family together, but as people where we can all take on rolling roles and not require the watchful parenting eye.

It was so much fun. I love us.

Chocolate, Hoses, Skirts and Harry

2011-11-05T18:32:00.001+08:00

Would you trust this face? Well no-one in this house does. Note the glass door between me and the boy child? Note the evil impish grin plastered all over his crazy evil little face? Why? Wellll...check out the next photo.

Yes, just moments before he'd decided to take his 'watering the garden' activity to the next level. Harriet was alternately bemused, impressed by his gall, loving being wet and horrified at being wet. Actually perhaps those emotional states weren't alternating; in fact I believe they may have been simultaneous (kinda like simultaneous interpretation which I am personally a big fan of and think is completely incredible, especially given the different sentence structures of different languages but that's another story I think).

Today was such a lovely day. We did nothing. Nothing at all. But in doing nothing we managed to procure a near-new juicer from freecycle (love getting things for free!), made our own chocolate from scratch (yes you read correctly! Those are cacao nibs in the mortar and pestle), mowed the lawn, had awesome vegie juice, played Harry Potter, rode bikes, went for a teeny tiny run, watched a car wash, sat outside in the sun on our new outdoor setting for about 90seconds in blissful uninterrupted relaxation, made train tracks of impressive stature, watched Harriet start to read two fine books (Harry Potter and Harriet the Spy), ate pineapple fried rice (with Teddy keeping a watchful eye on my rice and making sure I gave him any pieces of pineapple I found - we're a good team since I don't like it and he is totally in love with it), made iced tea, drank some red wine and cider, cleaned the house, and even more stuff than that (in no particular order).

Yesterday was the Gaia sale and I managed to buy some gorgeous stuff. Two cute shirts for Ted, this shirt and dress for Harriet, some underwear for Ted and a little present for Harriet's teacher too.

I also made Harriet a skirt the other day. I've been determined to make her a skirt that has twirl factor, has a waistband instead of just a bunchy elastic band at the top and looks a bit more tailored than some of the other offerings I've managed in the past. Well I was pretty happy with this skirt. I made the whole thing up, but I made semi-pleats. I'm sure there's a proper name for when you just sew down a little bit of the pleat at the top, but I don't know it. Anyway, I did two panels, it was quite full, I made a waistband that has elastic but I need to flatten it into a straight section for the front. Harriet was so taken with it however that I wasn't able to finish it off (waistband and pocket to come). She put it on straight away but declared I wasn't allowed to take a photo of her, so this is all I managed - just before she took off on a big big twirl. Hooray! The lace styled stuff that it is hemmed with was a total score from the op shop ages ago - metres of it for $1. Woot! She loved that part particularly. Me? I was happy I tried something on a whim and it worked!

In not-so-great news Ted was awake on Thursday night from 1.30am until...10am. Yep. No, just go back over that time frame and re-read it in case you don't quite understand the magnitude. he was up. All. Night. Yes. Then had a sleep at 10 and was up and at 'em until a reasonable hour that night too. *yawn* I'll be more than happy with that particular fetish is done and dusted - or at least until he can get himself up quietly and go into the playroom to have a game or put the train tracks together without needing me. Preferably without needing me for hours and hours until the sun rises.

Also it looks as though Harriet is all set to skip Yr 1 and go straight into Yr2 next year. She can't wait and to be honest, neither can we.

Still Here - Waving, Not Drowning

2011-11-01T20:23:00.002+08:00

So I'm still here, have lots of exciting little adventures to blog about but I've been busy with work stuff (photos, products, etc.) and haven't had a lot of time in the evenings to spare on fun things like browsing blogs, writing my own entries and faffing about as can be a person's wont.

Harriet is having a few issues with school at the moment which we're going in to talk about tomorrow. IKEA had a special 'locals only' opening day on the weekend just gone which we were obviously invited to and the children had a great time playing with everything. I realised just how much I loathe shopping however - as soon as we moved away from the large windows in the food area I started getting crabby and my heart rate went through the roof. I think neon lighting just sends my body into panic mode.

Tomorrow Harriet has her Kindy performance at assembly singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, so I'll let you know how the cute factor skyrockets with that one. Friday is looking totally crazy and involves about three or four different commitments before 12. I think Ted will be sleeping on the way to school pick-up that day.

In news from me, I'm at total breastfeeding apathy right now. I really could give or take it and while Ted still feeds like a demon in the mornings upon waking and just before he goes to sleep in the evenings, I am not particularly feeling anything during the day. Luckily he isn't asking to feed much at all during the day because I think my apathy could turn into an active 'over it' attitude quite quickly. I remember thinking that when Harriet was about 2.5yrs that I was ready for her to wean, and she did go through a feeding frenzy just prior to self weaning. I'm wondering if Ted might be heading that way. Today during music class he asked for a feed (he does most/all weeks) but I was able to distract him with food and water instead, which seems to be of increasing efficacy.

And check me out - tomorrow night I won tickets to go and see Anonymous so off I go! With a friend even!

In other completely related and totally scary news, I will have to put my camera and lens in for calibration soon. I may be camera-free for weeks. WEEKS! I start to hyperventilate just thinking about it. Can anyone spell addiction?

Beetroot Dip

2011-10-26T09:22:00.003+08:00

Ok, so since the lovely Jay requested more information about the beetroot dip, I thought I'd post it. I made it up, so it will seem somewhat haphazard.

Peel three medium sized beetroots and cut it up into pretty small bits (about 1cm cubed). Peel some garlic cloves, how many depends entirely on how garlicky you want it, I used 5 cloves. Half fill a reasonable sized pot with water, chuck the beetroot and garlic in the pot. Bring to the boil, let it boil for 5 or 10 minutes. Then simmer it for ages, until the beetroot is totally cooked and soft - the garlic will disintegrate completely. If the water runs low, put some more in. Once the beetroot is soft, keep it on the heat until the water runs quite low and there's not much of it left. Take it off the heat and cool. Puree the mix with a stick blender until it's pretty smooth (some lumps are ok, if you want it like that). Get some good quality yoghurt and mix it in - the dip will turn pinkish. Basically, put as much or as little as you like. Salt and pepper to taste. Yummo.

I also made flat breads to go with this, these are very easy. If I get around to it I'll post the recipe for that too.

Solo Wheelin'

2011-10-24T20:10:00.003+08:00

Check it out people! Oh yes, she rides!

Harriet, much to our shame, has been bugging us to get out and get cycling for ages now. I've blogged previously about her trials, but most noticeably her issues were to do with balance alone. For some reason her physical confidence is in no way related to what others around her are doing. She's never been upset at other (younger) children zipping around her at the cycle park, never expressed disappointment or exasperation at her skill level; in fact she is like this for everything and I find it incredibly inspiring - she just has no interest in comparing herself to others. Go Harriet!

Anyway, back to the bike. Well on Thursday last week she was adamant that we were to go down to Little Park and work on her cycling prowess. It wasn't that easy to be honest, what with Ted being upset at Harriet receiving so much attention from me when he had pressing swing issues to be attended to. But...she seemed to get it. I let go of her a few times and she glided along for a few pedal revolutions before she realised I wasn't holding her and she slammed her feet down.

Then on Saturday we had an evening picnic with Jen and her family, at a little park with a cycleway down the road from us. And Harriet jumped on her bike and - well, she rode! As you can see above! She still needs someone to start her off, but once she gets going she's happy as anything. She even went down the hill very fast (as she's subsequently told me about three times, each delivery of the story delivered with wide eyes, rushed breath and excitement plus) and had a fantastic time. I was so happy for her (and only ten months after receiving that bike...*ahem*...slack parent alert).

Ted wasn't at his best however. Poor little guy has been a bit screamy-yelly lately. What is it about the yelling cry? Why does it grate on me so badly? Because it does, it really does. Crying - no problem. Yelling - well, problem I guess but manageable. The two combined? Makes me want to throw knives. Ted has had a less than auspicious start with his balance bike but even with his poor state of mind and clinginess on Saturday night, even then, he still managed to coast along with his legs off the ground a few times. Cute!

Jen saw Ted in giggle mode when she accidentally called him Harriet and he collapsed in giggles - again. And again. And again. Jen, very good naturedly, fulfilled his need for repetition until it was sated.

And then at home, Ted remembered that the other day he had found sparklers at the supermarket and discussed with great length how he was going to buy them, bring them home, and James was going to light them for him and he wouldn't be scared. So we lit them and poor little mite was a little scared, but was happy to be standing just arms length away whilst Harriet enjoyed a sparkly end to the evening.

And I didn't mention the homemade organic beetroot dip James made. Oh it was good.

SO Much!

2011-10-23T20:47:00.003+08:00

It's been a total cracker of a week around here. The other day I was driving home from school pick-up with both children in the car, when suddenly...the battery light came on. Oh. Shit. I was quietly philosophical though, reasoning to myself that at least I was on my way home, I live right next to a service station, all is right with the world. Well that line of reasoning got me as far as the street parallel to ours. As you may know, our street is a little one way thing coming off our nation's major highway. So I have to turn on to the highway to get home. Of course I managed to get every pedestrian at a crossing, every red light and every slow driver on the way home, so that by the time I got ready to drive down to the highway, I was thinking I was home and hose.

That was, until I noticed the radio aerial suddenly lower on its own.

I went cold.

I lowered my foot down on the accelerator. No revs. I coasted down the (small) hill to the highway, turned the corner and put my foot down to the floor. I managed to rustle up a few dying, death rattle sounding last revs to sputter us across the three lanes of highway to reach the mouth of our street.

And there we stopped. In the start of our street. A one way street from the highway, remember? So if anyone wants to drive down they now can't. And did I mention I had both children in the car?

Seriously, I was so happy. Happy that we had made it to the street. Happy that we weren't stuck dead on the highway. Happy that I was able to run down to the service station and ask the lovely guy that works there for a helping hand - he loves the children and was more than happy to help. Happy that we live on a really friendly street - someone who lives a few houses down from us pulled up behind me and pulled his car over and helped us. He pushed the car, he supported the car, he even drove the car in reverse back on to the highway.

And, talk about lucky, there is a battery centre two doors down from our street on the highway. With LOVELY staff who see no problem with directing traffic, jumpstarting, inspecting and generally solving our problem for us. Because it turns out that the alternator was completely stuffed. The battery guy said it would either be cheap (replace the brushes) or horrifically expensive (replace the whole alternator). Guess which one it was? Oh yes. $2k later thank you very much. I think James and I both wept a little when we heard the cost, because seriously, something that costs THAT much but is THAT necessary yet gives nothing new to your lives...well that really is a sucky combination. But here we are, 2k down on our (meagre) savings and exactly where we started off. With a car that runs. Woot.

So that was just one of our exciting adventures. We've had lovely visitors (Hi Tracey and Jenna!), lovely dinner picnics (Hi Jen and family!), day trips down the coast, caterpillar transformations, photo orders (ohmygoodnessexciting), illness, solo cycling and lots of other stuff. Truly! See why I haven't been blogging? I've been slack on photo taking too (I find that happens when I'm busy with work photos) but I will work on a blog post this week to update on our lives. We've got pretty cool lives.

iPad Discussions

2011-10-15T19:01:00.000+08:00

Ted, as I have mentioned before, is obsessed with screens. In a house where we try to actively minimise screen usage, his intense focus on screens is rather disconcerting. The other day I took a video of him confirming with me that he wasn't going to touch or play with my iPad. Hmmm...see for yourself.

Ted Says

2011-10-12T19:38:00.001+08:00

While hanging upside down on Jimbo's chair I had to lean over and smother Ted's belly in kisses (as you do). His response?
"Don't ruin me!"

Harriet was particularly fragile after school this afternoon (a result of a few late nights). Ted and her had a little argument about something as we pulled up outside the house. Harriet stormed out, while Ted leant over from his car seat, and said to me seriously:
"I need to get out. I need to have a conversation with Harriet about this."

Out of the Mouths

2011-10-11T06:51:00.000+08:00

While we were all sitting around having dinner on Sunday Harriet suddenly came out with "Are colours the same all over the world?". Wow, talk about left field! I love how her mind works.

Ted also said to James the other day "Mama is the fire chief. And we're all the firefighters.". *ahem* Ok, so the dynamics are on the table there I guess!

A Weekend of Little Things

2011-10-09T19:34:00.002+08:00

Last weekend of the school holidays. Boo! I love the school holidays. I also love the school term since I get a chance to just hang with Ted, get to know him more and have a chance to share in adult conversation in a way I just can't do with Harriet around. BUT - I love school holidays. For example we got to make these snail gardens together. Ted enjoyed 'watering' the top more than actually doing anything with the snails I suspect. Harriet, however, gave each of them a family role, discussed their responsibilities, looked up what they eat and layered her little micro-environment with much thought and detail. Those lucky snails were delivered nasturtiums!

Yesterday James wanted to take the children out to the Australian Museum; we have an annual pass but haven't used it half as much as I thought we would this year which is a shame. It was hard work getting the two children to leave the house (given an opportunity these two would stay at home, swing and put on shows all day without leaving their pyjamas or the front door), but by late morning James managed to pull it off. And what did I do?

Hee hee, I just did my own thing! I made a birthday present, finished off Harriet's skirt, and appliqued a t-shirt for Ted which had been sitting there for eons. Then after a busy couple of hours I made myself lunch and a cup of tea and started to read a book. Let me just say that if you'd like to read a book that's a bit pick-up-put-down DO NOT start reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

When the children returned home, James brought in Ted crashed in his arms. Turns out he had been completely exhausted for most of the excursion and just fell dead asleep in the stroller on the way back to the car. (Quick aside - stroller?! Yes, after eschewing the stroller existence we have had to acquire one [from freecycle of course] because Ted is just. too. heavy. to pick up and carry on my back. On anyone's back really. He's huge.) But yes, back to Ted - he was asleep and exhausted, but we had to wake him to ensure he didn't get too much sleep and fail to go down at a decent hour later that night. You can see here just how thrilled he was with the concept of being awake. You may also spy (if you look closely) the evidence of babycino consumption at the Museum cafe.

There was a lot of pottering - checking on our bountiful strawberry patch that has already given up some deliciously sweet berries and just check out what there is to come! That's just one plant too, and we have about eight or so that are similarly endowed. Woot!

And as happens every year around this time, we place our ladder in the far back corner of our yard and attempt to contort our bodies into strange positions in anticipation of reaching the mulberries that grow next door on an incredibly huge, laden mulberry tree.

This year we can reach quite a few fruit, and they are ripening in a couple of decent batches - last year they seemed to ripen over a really protracted time, meaning there was no bumper crop. I'm thinking about making jam with them but not sure how to get rid of the stalks that extend down inside the body of the fruit - will have to Google, unless someone on here has some good advice?

And still on making stuff - James is taking an interest in cheesemaking after a chance carparking adventure in the mountains the other week. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. Anyway, it all coincided nicely with my trip to Spotlight, the purchase of muslin and an extra litre of organic milk. The addition of organic paneer pakoras to any dinner is surely a bonus? Yum!

When Harriet went to the museum there was some time when Ted and James were eating in the cafe and she went around the corner and down into a different area to play with the stuffed animals there. She was so excited about doing something 'on her own' and 'out of sight' that you'd think she was kept in a Gulag camp. In fact we're constantly encouraging her to engage in activities where she is on her own, out of sight but of course she will only do them when she's ready.

In the evening when she brought it up again, I brought up our first discussion of 'stranger danger'. It's such a fine line to walk, trying to tell your child that if a stranger approaches them and asks you to "look for my lost puppy" or "have you seen my little daughter? Hold my hand and you can come with me over here" or tries in any way to lure her away from the main group then she is to yell/scream. Loudly. That it is much better to be embarassed about yelling inappropriately than it is to not see her again. I think we must have approached it in the right manner though, because she didn't get scared, or worry, or say "That sounds scary" which has been her latest thing to say in response to anything that sounds slightly upsetting. She took it all very seriously and we went over the finer details so that, we can feel as though we've dealt with that level of awareness as much as you can.

But having said, can I just take this moment to say how much I freaking LOVE Sydney? I love leading up to summer in Sydney - the warmth, the harbour, so many little nooks and crannies filled with things to see and do. I love that when we go to a party on Sunday morning we have the view you can see in the photo above of Harriet. How beautiful is that? Love it! Oh and that's the skirt I made for her. She chose the fabric and I hemmed it with some old sheet material that I love. Actually about 80% of my fabric stash is composed of vintage sheets that I love, so that hardly narrows it down.

This is the elephant t-shirt I made for Ted during my little sewing morning. You may recognise it as the same elephant I had on a shirt of his from when he was about one - I traced it from a Miffy book and Ted really does have a little love for the great pachyderm. And yes, you may notice he's wearing his 'Jay pants' yet again - seriously, if they are clean, he wears them. He just loves them and if given a choice (which he is usually given) he will always choose these pants from Jay. ANd why not? They're uber funky!

So I jumped Saturday night there, which wasn't wise - because on Saturday night, the children didn't go to bed until 11pm. ELEVEN! In the post meridian! Argh! I had even put Ted in the car and driven around for twenty minutes around 8 because he was so tired (remember how he couldn't stay awake at the museum? Huh? Remember that? And now I'm talking nine hours later!) So when they finally went into bed (still insisting they weren't at all tired) James went to sleep and I...*sheepishly admitting*...I stayed awake voluntarily to read the rest of The Road. Come on! I didn't know when I would have a chance to read it in one big go again and I loved being absorbed in that bleak, bleak world.

Mmmmm....this is the start of the yummiest of yummy pear and rhubarb crumbles that there ever have been. It was delicious when eaten after dinner in what some may call 'dessert'. I distinctly remember when Harriet came home from Transition one afternoon and asked "Mama do we ever have a dessert?" and I said no and asked her why and she said they were talking about it at school and she had no idea at all what was going on because it was all in the context of Masterchef too, which even further compounded her befuddlement.

So Ted had to sleep. Truly. After running around like a look at the party in the morning, and consuming refined sugar, there was no real option. So it was with crossed fingers I laid him down for around thirty minutes.

Harriet, James and I have been playing some Uno while he sleeps - that is, if Harriet hasn't already cajoled James into playing another game of chess with her. He taught her the basics about two weekends ago, has played a few games now and loves it. I overheard her saying during her second game - so the pawns, I get what they're actually for. They're to protect the more important pieces - I thought it was pretty cool that she was working out the nuances of strategy already. And she has already proved to be a worthy opponent for Jimbo too.

And in the afternoon we just hung around. So lovely to do too. I deliberately didn't do any washing (not too sure if it was quite as deliberate as James) and spent the afternoon playing, chilling out, watching my children's faces get covered in various food items (here Harriet is modelling pasta sauce as face paint), and pushing Ted on the swing.

This is the other member of our family. Squeezmo loves lying on the concrete blocks we have set out for our bbq purchase. He's going to be sorely disappointed the day it's covered over with bbq (but we won't be!).

Tomorrow it's back to school. This evening the children went to bed. James had a media blackout on so he could watch the rugby after they went to sleep. I've finished my book and am now going to tackle a skirt pattern (yes, an actual pattern!) for Harriet. But I really should just go to bed. Maybe I will...

And I leave you with a view I have many, many times a day. Ted. Naked. And on the swing. Don't you just want to squeeze that little butt?

Tongues and Dresses

2011-10-06T20:46:00.000+08:00

No photos today. We went to the Children's Festival at Carriageworks and I didn't take my camera to cut down on bulk. We had a fun time, but nothing mindblowing.

On the way there Harriet mentioned something about her teeth. Ted pipes up with "I have a wobbly teeth"...{pause}..."Oh. So, I also have a wobbly tongue". {cue laughter}

In other completely consumerist news, I happened across this just now. I have never looked at designer clothes for children before, but oh my goodness, this is one gobsmackingly gorgeous dress. If I actually could ever afford one hundred pounds for a dress for Harriet - this would be the one I choose. Seriously.

Oscar, Pianos and Food

2011-10-05T21:06:00.002+08:00

Hmm... I'm not quite sure why these photos look quite as terrible as they do on here, will have to investigate. Needless to say this is not what they look like on my computer, so will investigate further.

But without further ado, here is Ted soaking up the company of Oscar. On Tuesday Harriet went to a sewing class (and made a bag! photos to come) and we took the older-child-freedom to enjoy a playdate with a friend of Ted's. Oscar is from the infamous music class - in fact his mum runs the class - in fact Ted pretends to be his mum a LOT in his play around our house. Oscar and Ted played together so well all day, it was delicious to watch them interacting. I love this age, where children are just starting to discuss, converse and attempt to negotiate with others.

Here Ted and Oscar made a boat. Out of cushions, of course. There was also a lot of love for the cardboard violins (how cool an idea is that?!), the little red table that held much food (I think we have introduced yet another stunned outsider to the amount of food our children eat on an hourly basis - both of them together and James just hands over his paycheque to the grocery gods each month), and the piano.

I loved how the two of them managed to turn a little click-clack ball run into a crayon dispensary. And a lounge into a percussion section. And a cardboard box into a rocket.

I may have mentioned the piano, but let me just remind you - Ted loved the piano. In fact at the end of our stay when we had to pick up Harriet (*ahem* yes we were there all day and it was hard work to keep Ted awake for the five minutes it took to drive to the sewing class afterwards, he was exhausted) Ted was distraught at having to leave without one more piano play. So he went downstairs and waved goodbye to it.

We've bought up big on lay-by for him at the percussion shop for Christmas already, but for his birthday we're going to buy him a keyboard. He just loves it. LOOOoooooves it.

Let's Go!

2011-10-02T18:35:00.001+08:00

Friday 9am - James had the day off work. All week Ted had asked me where the frog was from the pool was and was finally thrilled to hear it was Friday and the frog would appear today, yay! Harriet was excited about learning backstroke on her final day in swimming lessons. I was going along for the ride and looking forward to a day of shared parenting.

Friday 10pm - James had been called in to work at 1pm and was still there (he ended up staying at the office until 1am). Harriet had finally succumbed to sleep. Ted's absolute white-line-fever-styled hysteria over seeing the frog had finally subsided. Ted also, after having done a wee on the front bed quilt, the padded dining room chair and the lounge, was finally coerced by a very frazzled and exhausted me into bed (and now with three surprise loads of washing to do. Have I mentioned before how I loathe washing?). There had been hysterics, tears, meltdowns and disasters. The children were no doubt picking up on my stress and internal mayhem but I was really incapable of stopping it - chronic sleep deprivation had rendered me little more than a whimpering mess. I settled down to watch Saw (because James doesn't like horror movies I have to save them for when I watch movies by myself - as you can see, this has taken me about ten years to do).

So come Saturday morning I wasn't expecting much from our family as a whole. However I woke up with an odd feeling - I think I felt refreshed! I had only ventured out of bed once (to go in to Ted) and then only fed him the once (I think) that night. Miracle! And then here I was rubbing my eyes at 9am! Woot!

And surprisingly, James was already up and at them and telling me that if we still wanted to go to the ZigZag Railway then he was up for the drive. Woot! So in the space of one hour we were all showered, dressed, packed with food, car entertainment, eaten breakfast and on our way! Now as anyone with child/ren can attest, such a feat is almost unheard of, so I state it here with much pride. We left Sydney, me in my jeans and Birkenstocks, Harriet in some jeans and a t-shirt (made by Grandpa no less) and off we drove.

We hit some heavy traffic midway up the mountain (with Ted constantly asking "I want to be in the Blue Mountains" - I think he was expecting an Emerald City type colour transformation) and decided that we'd miss the 1pm train and instead go past the railway on to Lithgow, have lunch and then head back for the 3pm departure (the last one for the day). We drove down to a cafe and drove past a little town hall that had an electronic temperature reading displayed. I don't know if I really wanted to know it was only 8 degrees, but hey, I could run around a little to warm up.

When we emerged from the cafe, sated and warmed, I was hit by the freezing ice winds of Lithgow with full force. There was thick rain lashing the deserted main street and, all in all, it didn't look like the afternoon was going to pan out that well for the train ride. Oh and did I mention I was FREEZING?! I don't have a great tolerance for cold at the best of times, but this was a little beyond the pale. When James starts pulling at his hoodie and talking about the cold wind well you can bet your boots I'm huddled behind using him as a windbreak and turning blue. And I had my toes exposed!! So I made a dash to the local Go-Lo because everything else was shut (long weekend commerce is obviously not an appeal for Lithgow tradespeople) and grabbed three pairs of socks. They were thin and horrid and I had to use them doubled up but it did make for a lingering illusion of warmth.

As we drove out of Lithgow we passed the temperature again. *ahem* It was now THREE DEGREES. Oh yes. 3. Single digits. Low single digits. I tried not to think about it.

the tickets were way cool - thick cardboard and the genuine article

Now if I had known that the train was going to cost nearly $80 for all of us I may very well have never suggested it in the first place; I just didn't know how interested Harriet was going to be in some old train ride.

wow

Harriet loved it. Like totally and utterly and completely loved it. She sat enthralled throughout the whole ride, entranced by the passing view and captivated by the details of everything going on around her.

Unfortunately meanwhile I was trapped underneath a sad, crying, unhappy Ted. Not sure what this phase is about (I suspect teething those big molars because he has been sucking on his fingers a lot) but I shall be very pleased when it's over and Ted-Ted smiling monkey is back to play.

The train stops at Bottom Points and you can get out and walk up a little bridge to see a lovely view. Apparently. Harriet didn't want to leave the train and I couldn't get through the flooded ground to the bridge (remember the Birki/sock situation) so we hung around at the station. They take off the engine and reattach it at the other end for the return trip. SO while Harriet and James went to watch that, Ted and I hung back (because it was loud and scary).

I'm not too sure why, but when we stopped at the station Ted suddenly changed into SuperTed and was hilarious and crazy and running around like a loon. Go figure.

So we got back into the train amidst the drizzle and headed back to Clarence (where our journey had started). However we were told we had to disembark at another station on the way back because the drivers had to take a different train back to Clarence for the evening's ride. It was a bit of a bummer, but we got out again and hung around watching the diesel train pull the old carriages away in a flash and then the new train pull up to the station.

And oh my goodness. What a train it was! We were lucky enough to get a ride on the Wizards Express! (Also known as the Hogwarts Express of course, but Rowling would not approve of trademarks being used in such a haphazard fashion).

There were carriages that were just like the ones we had been on in the first train, but with more plush seats. But as they pulled past we decided instead to head inside the empty white carriage in the middle of the train. Hooley Dooley! These were old style compartment carriages, just like the ones seen/written about in Harry Potter. Honestly, they were magnificent. Loads of snug little dark wood compartments for all of your luggage, a pull down sink, pull out table, bed above and pull out bed from the seat. Totally amazing. Ted and Harriet went into overdrive with excitement (as did James and I - seriously, this thing was amazing).

Harriet kept asking if there was going to be a trolley. Ted kept running up and down the corridor. I kept sniffing the smoke wafting through the windows. James kept marveling at the storage and woodwork. We were a family in heaven and unable to understand why everyone else was all crowded into the other, much more mundane carriages when there was this carnival of train experience to be had in our carriage.

Notice how I haven't mentioned the cold? It just seems a shame to bring it in to the conversation. But oh my god it was bitterly cold. As we got out from the Wizards Express we found that they had hung these little tin 9 3/4 signs all up and down the platform and also hung a big curtain that they'd painted bricks on to and you had to walk through it to get into the ticket office. Like ducks to water and like children to a novelty, Harriet and Ted ran through again and again and again. Ted was shrieking with laughter, Harriet was breathless with excitement and James and I were laughing at their madness.

But all good things must come to an end and so it was that the cold had rendered me incapable of moving. In fact the mere touch of my clothes against my skin was sending shockwaves of cold through my body. And when Ted wanted to start a running game in the opposite direction to the car I just couldn't entertain it, no matter how excited I was to see him happy. I had to get warm.

And so we drove to Katoomba, had dinner, bundled everyone into pyjamas and into the car and back home. And so endeth the day of much fun. I have a feeling I know what Harriet will be talking about on her News day back at school. (In fact she wrote it out in her project book today, she couldn't wait.)

Weary

2011-09-30T22:27:00.002+08:00

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?

A Day in Photos

2011-09-21T20:13:00.026+08:00

On Monday I was just kicking it back with Ted, doing our thing, when I realised by about 12 that I had taken a photo of a couple of little activities we'd been up to. So I thought, why not go with it, continue on and do a blog post of our day in photos? So here you have it - Monday the 19th of September 2011 as lived by Ted, Harriet, Cass and James. I would like to point out that I took these photos without having any need to make them look good. They are little more than snapshots; mostly out of focus, poorly composed and not of anything particularly interesting, colour range all over the place. But that's not the point of them, they're there just to record what we did.

And now - on to our day!

Well the reason I started taking photos was because I was in making the beds in the children's room. Harriet's bed isn't ever really 'made'. She sleeps in her sleeping bag every night, so not much to do there! But Ted has a quilt, cover and blanket so I was faffing about in there. As I was pulling the blanket up I realised Ted had been quiet for he entire time I'd been making the bed. I yelled out "Ted, are you allowed to be doing whatever it is you're doing right now?". The reply rang back "Yes Mama". I walked out in to the lounge room to see my brand new moisturising tub less than half full. The remaining amount was mostly heaped on top of his left foot, and he was busy swirling large circles in the white mass on our floorboards.

What made me smile about that was that I *had* actually told him he could use some moisturiser, which is why he had no problem with thinking what he was doing was going to be a-ok with me. Lesson learnt - don't make the beds.

I actually had a big laugh whilst cleaning it all up because secretly I've always wanted to have some sort of crazy story like that from a toddler. Harriet just never did anything crazy like that. EVER!

Then Ted and I chatted about life, the universe and everything as he sees it. Talk came around to Harriet's school going to the zoo on Tuesday, and Ted talked about how he loves elephants. He particularly loves the elephant t-shirt that Grandpa made for him, which is unfortunately on its way out in terms of size. So to compensate I made an impromptu elephant trunk (also doubling as generic animal tail too). I was quite pleased with my effort! Just stuffed a stocking leg with newspaper, tied it off about half way down the leg with a knot, then cut down the rest of the leg so that it was two long strips and used those to tie around his neck (for trunk) or waist (as a tail). Too easy! Ted was quite taken with it for all of about ten minutes. Remarkable.

Then he had a pretty big sleep whilst I went hardcore with the washing. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of it, but I ploughed through about three or four loads of washing, as well as put away the three loads of washing that were sitting around from a few days ago. *ahem* Keeping up with the washing is not my forte. Then he woke up and mucked around on my lap for a while. It takes Ted AGGGGEEESSSS to wake up.

But once he decided to join me in the land of the living he proclaimed the next round of fun to be...running around in circles. Literally! So we did. Run around and around the backyard. If you've been here you'll know that I'm not exaggerating when I say our yard is small enough to make me dizzy when running in circles.

So we stopped running. And then it was on to more discussion. Here it looks as though Ted was anticipating some sort of divine intervention. I was probably wondering if I would ever drink a cup of hot tea again in my life.

On the weekend we moved the lavender from one garden bed to another, so we snipped off the large number of beautiful flowers that had erupted in the past couple of weeks. Turns out you do this so the plant concentrates on producing a new root system rather than producing flowers - really, shouldn't that be obvious? Is lavender really that incapable of ensuring its own survival? But here we are. So these are all the lavender heads we cut off, and that I'm drying out in anticipation of making some lavender pillows for some children I know who find it difficult to fall asleep. Three guesses on who they may be.

Then of course it was on to the interminable game of 'music class'. Here Ted is turning on the cd and finding his song of choice (usually we start off with 'Knees, Knees', then move on to Michael Finigan or 'Duke York').

This time it was Michael Finigan - here Ted is demonstrating the verse where he dies. I'm not sure Mr Finigan looked quite that adorable when he passed away but the legacy of his song lives on to monopolise my playroom on a daily basis nonetheless.

And music class always involves the ongoing, enthusiastic, and all-consuming use of instruments. Here Ted is demonstrating 1.) glockenspiel mallets can be useful for those who choose to paint their toenails and 2.) baths are for other children.

The problem with music class is that it takes a while to bring Ted around to playing anything else, but after much discussion we make it to the car, drive to the school, circle a few times to find a place to park, and then walk down to retrieve the first born. This is an uncharacteristically co-operative photo of Ted. Normally his involvement with picking up Harriet involves running in the opposite direction to the school whilst laughing maniacally. No I am not joking. Or even exaggerating actually.

There she is! As you can see I really meant it when I said these photos are not for glamour. Of course, taking a glamour shot of Harriet would be an exercise in extreme photography that I would not be happy to partake in. The 'extreme' part would involve the emotional lengths to which I would have to travel to ensure any sort of agreement to my requests. Shooting unseen, as I have now perfected, seems to be my best option to continue Harriet's photographic history.

Ted does love his sister. The posters around the house declaring that "Ted is SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO annoying" might spell otherwise for Harriet but when push comes to shove she does display him a lot of love and affection. Usually this is when he's doing precisely what she wants him to do in a game of her choosing. Here she is demonstrating that her ability to lift Ted off the ground is a miracle. The fact her skinny body can lift the little lard boy off the ground is, in fact, a miracle.

We walked up to the car with Lucy and her family. Lucy is Harriet's best friend at the moment and they were talking excitedly about going to the zoo the next day. Once we left them Harriet was upset at not being able to follow them into the shopping centre. Or it may have been because the wind was blowing in another direction, I can't remember why. Anyhow the reaction was the same - pouty face and whiny wailing. Here, eat a banana and stop being so hypoglycaemic, child!

Since I didn't actually have a banana on me, I distracted the children by having them play with the public phones. Harriet momentarily forgot that she eschews physical activity with ongoing distaste by climbing a pole. She remembered halfway up and came back down again.

Ted, on the other hand, did his usual run-in-the-opposite-direction thing and then insisted on trying to climb this pole (spurred on no doubt by the uncharacteristic elevation of Harriet moments before). At this stage Harriet is standing by the car with the back door open screaming loud enough to wake the dead "TEDDY! GET IN THE CAR RIGHT NOW!". I just know she's going to be fine with vocal projection in school plays (just as I was coincidentally).

So the plan was to get in the car and drive to the cycle park where all the street signs and traffic lights are. We're on our way there when Ted looks out of his window and asks "What that is?" I say it's the park we go to with Lou. He replies "I want to go there now". Harriet says "Me too!". I reply "Really?" because by this stage I am level with the turn off I need to take to go there. The backseat chorus responds with "Yes!", so I screech around the corner, park and get out the bikes because there is a little cemented path running through the centre of the oval.

Remember that statement about Harriet's rejection of physical activity? Well of course she didn't actually ride her bike much, although she is getting the hang of it lately. Poor parents that we are we really haven't given her much of an opportunity to get out and have a try, so that was why I was attempting to get thee to a bike park. That and the fact that Harriet has been bugging us for weeks now to go cycling might have something to do with it. Well she loved the spinning thing anyway, as you can see (gawd I hate those spinning things).

Of course I had to text Lou, seeing as we were a full 5 minute walk from her house and, in total awesomeness, she was home and out of the house and in the park with both boys within ten minutes! Jaw droppingly impressive work! The children refused to stand in the incredibly gorgeous afternoon light that was streaming out over the oval, but hey, that's life. AT one point Ted stumbled into some good light by accident and this is the only shot I could get of him. *sigh* Oh yeah, photographing children, that sounds so much fun I might do it as a career.

As always, refueling was required. I had managed to pack some dried figs and rice crackers whilst attempting to wrestle Ted away from that music class game, and there was feasting to be had. Please notice in this photo: 1.) Ted squatting with his butt about an inch above the ground. I love that this is his default sitting position, while it drives Harriet crazy. 2.) Harriet is in the background looking petulant. I do believe it was because I hadn't had the foresight to pack the smorgasbord organic fruit salad she requested. Six year olds have it tough you know. 3.) Lou is having a little conversation with Ted. Ted loves Lou - in fact I think this may have been taken just after their first hug which Ted initiated, complete with coy smile and hiding behind my leg afterwards. Oh the cute, it hurts! 4.) Dexter has a new helmet on. Well of course you don't know Dexter's old helmet, but you can trust me, it really is new.

It's getting windy and colder and the children are getting a little on edge. As adults we decide that we should move the troops over to safer territory - the cafe across the road. As we cross the road they both start crying because they want to be there immediately (what's up with that, seriously? How on earth would these children survive in Africa?). Then they both start grappling my legs in an attempt to get me to carry both of them. In all fairness I have carried them both at the same time in the past, but today I have my camera and in order to continue with the day-blogged-in-photos I must continue with the camera. Yes, I choose my camera over one of my children. Sue me.

Ted wins the picking up tug-of-war by mere virtue of the fact that I can scoop him up with one arm. Harriet runs off, not looking nearly as defeated as she should be, given she's lost out on the incredible embrace of her wonderful mother. Hmmm... So down the street we go, Hugo on bike, Harriet (unwillingly) on her own two legs, Dexter on bike out of sight and Ted in my arms.

But when we get to the cafe there's a slight problem. This delicious late afternoon light has deceived us. It's already nearly 5pm! Oh noes! Closing time! This is Ted's face while he waits for Lou to go in and talk to the barista and see if we can, indeed, prevail upon them for just one last drink before they turn off the machine.

Hooray! They can! They (impressively) oblige quite happily and Ted sips on his babycino, Harriet receives a hot chocolate and suddenly all is right with the world again.

But not only is all right with the world - I, as super mother (also known as mother-who-knows-her-blog-post-is-in-the-making) also purchases two gingerbread people on the sly. In the hope of taking a cute photo I pass them out to the children, only to find out that Ted can decapitate a gingerbread man faster than you can..well faster than you can lug a 5DII with 24-70 lens from around your shoulder and up to your eye.

Surprisingly Harriet didn't save her person to eat later. She actually ate some of her person then and there, and did end up eating it all before we got home in the car. Miracle! She has been reveling in saving things until 'last'. This may or may not have something to do with a certain two year old's inability to save things until last.

So we parted ways with Lou, Dex and Hugo, popped into the car and headed home. When we got there Ted did what all literate children would do in the same situation - head straight for the library book of The Gingerbread Man we had taken out from the library just the day before, settle down into the playroom cushions, and demand to be read the story covering the little piece of baked good he just consumed. To which I willingly obliged.

There is no mention of Harriet for the next twenty minutes or so. She was in the toilet. Twenty minutes is about her minimum. If I'm looking for library books I search in there first.

Then there was a ding-dong of the bell, a rattle of the keys and, there was Papa! Huzzah! So Ted immediately pulled him into his 'show'. This is very standard for Papa's entry at home. You can see here James hasn't yet had a chance to change from his work clothes.

And so it was on to dinner time! While Ted slept I managed to set up the stuff for dinner, one of our staples - tacos. I had been slowly cooking the beans all day because I forgot to soak them the night before, but the rest if just chopping up stuff. Easy peasy! Ted ate in typical Ted fashion - standing on his chair, pushing a mouthful in either via hand or fork, then clapping his hands (not in applause, more as if to some internal tune) and doing a little hop-dance on the chair. It may seem impossible to believe, but he has only fallen off once and broken one glass doing this. Meanwhile James and I have had to learn to calm down, stop ourselves from screaming FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SIT DOWN AND STOP! and just let him be. In fact I see it was a big move that we were able to work on the climbing on the table issue we had. We actually managed to stop him from doing it over time, many many removals and quiet discussion. Wow!

Not normally a part of our routine during the week but Nana and Grandpa chatted on the computer with the children and James while I tidied up the nuclear radius that is Ted eating nachos. Yes that is Ted's naked butt. I would gently offer that you get quite accustomed to it - summer is on the way and quite frankly the boy doesn't like pants. I'm sure you're all just jealous at his pants free lifestyle anyway.

Then Ted, quite out of the blue, requested to call Grandad on my phone. Now I know he's obsessed with my phone and all, but he was quite specific about it and he wanted to call him right then and there. So we did. I'm not sure much of great interest was shared with Grandad during the phone call itself, but I'm not entirely sure that was the point. Ted was very taken with it and as you can see here, fell into the relaxed pose of the phone converser quite easily. But then it was time for bed, so I went in and put Ted to sleep in the bottom bunk bed (after reading a couple of Alfie stories, I will need to do that book post soon methinks).

I emerged to find myself a contestant in a love heart drawing competition. I didn't even know I'd entered to be a competitor! And then it turns out I won! Almost as good as a Nigerian bank scam but with much more love.

And with Ted down to sleep so (deceptively) easily, I was actually able to go for a run. Of course as a mother of two children no deed of my own is completed without multi-tasking and so it even is with my exercise. I ran up to the local supermarket to buy some supplies for Harriet's zoo trip the next day. Came home, played Celebrity Head with James and Harriet and then, after Harriet announced her move to the bedroom, I started to dance the familiar dance of the blogger/photographer/mother. Insert CF card. Upload. Open Bridge.

And there you have it, although Ted did wake up at 10pm and refused to go back to sleep until 2am. Oh yes, you read correctly. So that is why you're not receiving this post until Thursday. And let's face facts - the only people who have read through that epic are the grandparents. Maybe Lisa? It's a mammoth task! But it's here because this really was a very typical day for us. And it's so rare that you can remember the rhythm of your days after that time of life has passed. I'm sure I'll be pleased in ten years to look back on this and think "Wow, I'm glad I went to bed late three nights in a row in order to write out that ridiculously long and drawn out description of my day". So to future you, this was for you.

PS - Please excuse tense changes in this post. It was written over two nights and to be honest the thought of having to go back and proofread it is making even my grammatically astute brain start to melt.

NB: No children were harmed in the making of this day.

Argh!

2011-09-15T19:17:00.002+08:00

Is there no fate as close to death in this modern age as turning on your computer, only to be met with...nothing. No familiar whir of fans starting, no *blink* of the screen firing, no anything.

eep

So off I send James, huge computer tower under arm, to see if we're looking at panic stations, purse string sweat or a mild furrowing of the brow. Turns out - mild furrowing of the brow it was! Huzzah! Nothing more than a problem with the power supply, and $45 later I have my computer back. Working, and quieter than before!

So once I'm back on track (ie: have worked somewhat towards clearing out the hundreds of emails in my inbox, starting editing some photos and sent out some work things) I will do another post. Meanwhile, enjoy another silhouette if you like. Toddler versus the mountain.

Today

2011-09-10T22:15:00.000+08:00

Today was good.
Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.

Friends

2011-09-07T20:42:00.005+08:00

It's just so easy to get caught up in 'life', or the stuff we consider to be life, anyway. When all it really takes is an email sent out with enough warning, a warm spring afternoon and some space.

On the Saturday before Father's Day we met up with a couple of other families to just...well...hang out. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm so in love with our newly discovered slice of the inner west. It allows us to offer Ted & Harriet some memories similar to those I carry from my own childhood - running around with friends while the adults stood around calmly sipping beer in the warm sun, having the freedom to explore large areas out of earshot and (almost) out of eyesight, creating increasingly complex games involving other children and meeting random children to include in your games as well.

As happened last time, we ended up arriving just after the kitchen closed and staying until it re-opened and having dinner there. Have to love the children up on the dancefloor at the end of the night dancing with wild abandon to completely unknown, random traditional German music.

However it stood to reason that our children still didn't go to bed until after 9pm that night. Because, of course, that's precisely what I would have done too.

Self Portraits

2011-09-07T08:45:00.005+08:00

The other day I took a couple of photos with the timer on my camera and Teddy. He LOVED it so much, he has been asking to do 'run-in' photos a lot since then. Well the other day I let him loose with the camera, a small bench and the timer. He did his own series of self portraits. See below for the cuteness that entailed.

Check out the blow-ins in the last photo!

Beds and Sleeping...Again

2011-08-31T21:18:00.006+08:00

In typical Harriet fashion the arrival of the bunk beds was little more than another avenue for the creation of (yet) another sign. I love it when the signs appear without any warning. I also love the little scraps of paper I find around the house with items listed including: Rat tails, lizards (heading: Spell Makin) and No hiting, go to sleep at night time, to not touch the stove (heading: rools).

Unusually, the 'top Bunk rools' are often broken by Harriet herself, as she invites Teddy on to the top bunk all the time. Of course she then spends the next fifteen minutes screaming orders at him while he blissfully ignores her and jumps around. I have a cute little video from the other day, of Teddy on the top bunk while Harriet was at school. I think it's quite fair and reasonable to say that if Harriet saw what Teddy touched, played with, partially destroyed and dallied with while she wasn't there, that her head would literally explode and brains would splatter the ceiling.

In an attempt to moderately curb this endeavour and focus of Ted's (and to stop him from mauling her little Sylvanian Families puppies half to death with love), I suggested playing with Gromit. *ahem* Also Harriet's (in theory alone). He set up this little bed out in the playroom and demonstrated precisely why it's so difficult to stop him from playing with anything. I mean, how on earth do you say no to that face?

This morning we were returning to the car after dropping Harriet off at school. He drenched himself at the bubblers (a common occurrence) and screamed at me to take his top off. Which meant he was running around with just his jeans and clogs on in the brisk morning air. If you're reading this and you have a toddler right now, you're probably not thinking anything of it. It appears, however, that the further removed you are from having a toddler-aged child yourself, the more you forget about how impervious they are to cold and how you have to pick your battles. He started running in a series of wild races up and down a steep grassy bank (yelling out "Ready, Steady...GO!" and then counting up to about 16 or so as he was running for some reason).

Anyway, I was stopped by no less than three older women who insisted on telling me that I needed to dress him, that he must be cold (uhh...if he was cold wouldn't he be wanting to put on the t-shirt I'm holding? And have you seen the chub on this boy? AND he's running like a total loon), and that he was totally gorgeous. And talking a lot. And all three of these women had grandsons who were three and weren't talking yet, and how worried they were about them. I felt as though I had to explain - in our house, if you can't talk underwater...well, you're pretty much left out in the cold. Even James has had to work that gem out for himself.

As he raced down the hill at one point, legs akimbo, broad-faced smile lighting up his entire face and then into my arms to hug me and say "I'm hugging you to make you feel happy Mama", the second woman said to me with more than a hint of jealousy "Oh my goodness, he looks just like a cherub". Oh yeah, he does.

NOW GO THE HELL TO SLEEP!

Harriet and Gaol

2011-08-28T21:37:00.003+08:00

And while I remember...

The other day Harriet was asking about gaol. We were talking about what the cells were like, how it was about taking away the privilege of choice, etc. Then it was either James or I who said something along the lines of "And the point of gaol is to stop the person from doing the bad thing they did in the first place again".

Well, Harriet suddenly let out this very loud and emotional "NOOO!". I actually startled, it was as if she had been acutely hurt somehow; I thought perhaps she stood on something sharp. Her face crumpled and I asked her hurriedly "What's wrong Harriet?".

She yelled out, practically with tears in her eyes, "That won't stop people from doing bad things. If you do a bad thing to that person then they just get mad and do a bad thing back again. IT WON'T WORK!".

Well.

I gave her a hug and James and I exchanged a look. I couldn't help but let a tiny laugh escape my lips (despite trying hard to suppress it) and I said "You need to talk to Tony Abbott, Harriet".

To which Harriet immediately started sobbing and said "I don't want to talk to HIM. NOT Tony Abbott!".

Ah, sometimes I love my household. From the mouths of babes, huh?

18 Eggs, 4 People, 24 Hours

2011-08-27T20:25:00.003+08:00

We have a ridiculous over-supply of lemons, oranges and mandarins at the moment, so we did what any normal people would do - prepared to make marmalade and lemon curd. To this end, on Friday afternoon, I bought 18 eggs.

As I plopped the shopping bag on the floor outside the kitchen, I returned to the front door to lock it. As I turned the key in the lock, I heard an odd sound, then a very loud "OH! Teddy!" from an indignant Harriet. Cue me running back to find Teddy standing over the shopping bag with an upturned, empty 18 egg carton in his hand.

After soothing his startled little body, I surveyed the damage - 8 eggs smashed on the floor beyond repair, and surprisingly 10 eggs found snuggled away in various pockets of the bag completely intact. Woot! So I packed them gently away in expectation of Saturday's lemon curd making extravaganza.

Saturday morning - bunk bed making day! To which Ted spent the first three hours screaming and howling hysterically abut Papa "breaking my bed", Harriet screamed and yelled at Ted, and I tried in vain to get something done other than cooking various breakfasts, calming hysterical toddlers and discussing logistics and the need for calm with Harriet. James then mentioned how tired Harriet had been for the last few days...and grumpy...and how she seemed to be more bony rather than just her usual lean.

*lightbulb* She needed more protein! So I offered her one of the precious few eggs remaining. She ate one soft boiled egg with toast soldiers...then another...then an egg and lettuce sandwich in quick succession. So that's three eggs and two pieces of toast, as well as a bowl of porridge and an apple from earlier that morning. We seriously need a second mortgage to cover food costs.

The egg stash has dropped from 18 to 10. Now it rapidly dropped again from 10 to 7. Then I started making the lemon curd for a present...which used 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks... bringing me down to 3 eggs remaining. So I made the lemon curd but whilst I was stirring it (it needs you to stand there constnatly whisking the mixture over a low heat for about 40mins) I briefly left it to take James' bread for the sandwiches out of the freezer. When I returned to the curd (such a short time it had been left!) there were now tiny little bits of cooked albumin in there. Argh!

So yet again me and egg had a special relationship as I strained out the tiny pieces of cooked egg and returned it to the pan. I continued to make the curd (yum!) and embroidered a little love heart for the lid.

James then had two egg and lettuce sandwiches for lunch himself, which left me with one egg. And that's what we have left right now - one hard boiled egg sitting in the fridge.

And that's the story. The bunk bed is a similar saga, but I need to get back to reading Jennie's thesis on salmonella. Mmmmm....

The Trials of Two and the Swinging Sixes

2011-08-25T19:11:00.006+08:00

Well the last month, as I've let you all know, has been pretty busy. It's not so much the organising parties, making presents and cooking, but also the keeping up with our online lives, that makes for jam-packed evenings. Plus, with the children going to bed later and later, I find I'm having to fit in all of this studious activity into fewer and fewer hours. Luckily we're working hard at keeping Ted awake during the day and allowing him maybe a half hour sleep at most. This transition from one day sleep to none at all is certainly arduous and I remember feeling exhausted from it with Harry as well. The worst thing of course, is that the last half of the day you're left with little more than a limp, whinging, crying, mass of flesh that once used to be your child. Of course you haven't usually seen them since about 3pm, so by the time 7pm rolls around the idea of bed is just so appealing that you usually try to push it before they're ready...and of course that leads to more tears of exhaustion...

But Ted never disappoints in making me laugh, smile and see the joy in life for the first six hours or so that he's awake. We've been constantly blown away here by how mature his emotional awareness and language is. My latest story of Ted (anyone I have seen in person in the last week can skip the next paragraph, I think I've told everyone alive this little tale) is how he took the Gromit doll that was Harriet's from when she was a baby, and started playing with it out in the playroom. Harriet never takes an interest in this doll until Ted wants to play with it, so cue cries and anguish over it "not being fair" etc. James kneels down and has a little discussion with Harry about it all and then turns to Ted and says "So Ted was there anything you wanted to say to Harriet?", not actually thinking that he *would* say anything but wanting to invovle him in the discussion.

To our amazement Ted goes up to Harriet, touches her gently on the arm and says with real meaning, "Harriet I know it's your Gromit, but I'm playing with it now and he was down the side of the bed". I mean - c'mon! How empathetic is that?! I audibly gasped, ran into the study and wrote it down word for word so I could relate it all here on the blog. He also loves to say things like tonight, when Harriet threw some cushions around and got very angry "Harriet threw those around because she is angry". In fact his favourite type of sentences are 'because' statements.

One of the things he does which is hilarious, is whisper. He whispers when he KNOWS that what he is saying is a lie. It's seriously funny. He whispers things usually whilst also nodding in an affirming manner - "I am allowed to get your phone Mama. I'm going to find it and give it to you because it's yours". Uh huh. And when I say to him "Ted do you want to find my phone just because you want to play with it?" he says, with a sheepish aside, "Yes". Oh dear. He is completely obsessed with my phone. Seriously. OBSESSED. I can't answer it when he's around and have to surreptitiously send SMS to prevent the clinging and asking. I find it surprising, because I don't actually have any apps on my phone. So...why the love? He is so happy to sit there and change my ringtone (he says to me, with the same little eager nod, "Mama I can change your ringtone if you like?") and if he has it for even a minute or two to play with it's screaming all 'round when I take it back. I honestly do not know how people who let their children self regulate with computers/screen time/iPads/iPhones can handle it, it's like a drug. And my god, if anyone says to me again "Oh but they need to be exposed to the technology to keep up with it", I mean, seriously, get a grip. If an 18mth old baby can successfully navigate their way around an iPad, I don't think there's too much to worry about in terms of what there is to learn, sheesh. How about learning how to speak to someone in a conversation, or how to pour water, or cut with scissors, or make shadows?

Anyway, my ranting about children and technology aside, two is a rather trying age just generally. I recently read this fantastic blog post about parenting a two year old here, thanks to Lou who introduced me to the blog. So instead of me trying to paraphrase what she's written, I highly recommend a read of the yoghurt experience she outlines, expand that to about thirty different experiences during the day, and then imagine your head exploding by about 7pm. You might be just about where I am.

Enter, stage left, my surprise helping hand - Harriet! Harriet has been so sweet lately. I mean sure, she's still driven crazy by the stuff Ted (inadvertently) does to annoy her, but I have had her come up to me often and softly touch my elbow and ask "Are you ok, Mama" when I've let out a sigh or clipped out a request a bit brusquely. I've been the recipient of many lovingly offered hugs, and seen a burgeoning independence in her that I must admit to often despairing of ever seeing. Little things that no doubt others would be amazed are still an issue, but Harriet has never helped herself to food, never poured herself a drink - I think she has been worried about doing something incorrectly or making a mess. But just of late she has been seen to munch on an apple she got for herself from the fridge. Honestly, this is worthy of blogging, so fundamental has her aversion to independence been. I even seem to remember a few times where she has dressed herself. I know, I know, I can hear what you're thinking - SHE'S SIX! For the love of god, she SHOULD be doing those things! But she just...hasn't. Ted, well, he's already determined to do everything "by myself" and eschews the helping hand as if it were coated in poison. But Harry, bless her quirky little self, is only starting to realise how liberating these actions are.

I've even been able to procure the odd smiling portrait here and there. I try not to push my luck too much, so reserve it for moments like preserving her love of the fairy outfit she received from Nana and Grandpa for her birthday. The birthday was very fairycentric this year, which Harriet just loved! James and I are trying to slowly move her reading into something a little more challenging (she's now reading the fairy books in about 20mins each, and considering they follow a tight formula each time means they're hardly taxing material). So we bought her The Spiderwick Chronicles in the hope of moving her reading along, whilst still engaging hr love of fairies. I'm also reading The Borrowers to her some evenings, and she loves sitting there, curled up on the lounge, discussing how high Arrietty must be, and how scary it is to be 'seen'. I can't wait for her to be ready for the next stage of books I know is right around the corner - Narnia, Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil Frankweiler, Harriet the Spy (of course!!!), A Wrinkle in Time and just so many others it hurts to hang on to it all and not want to push her into the literary fray and throw my arms above my head all the while screaming "Look! Look! This stuff is AWESOME! Read THIS! And THIS! And THIS!". *deep calm breath*

So, while we're still in the fairy fray, we had the fairy party on the weekend. The fairy came, and she only offended twice which was quite impressive given the number of topics upon which I (and my friends) can be offended by. What was offensive, I hear you ask? Well apparently the boys in the pass the parcel game couldn't be happy with their little toys, and would have preferred guns, which she was searching for and couldn't find any more for them. GUNS? Huh? I mean, is what you're telling me that because someone has a penis they can't like a flower, or a hair clip? My goodness, Ted wants to dress up with the necklaces and bracelets more than Harriet ever does. And who wants their child to be encouraged to shoot others rather than smell a flower anyway, regardless of their sex? Anyway, unnecessarily gendered items aside, the fairy was actually really great. She captured all of the children's attention, played a wide range of games with them, and most importantly, Harriet loved it. From my point of view though I have to say I thought she was a little less enraptured than I would have otherwise thought, so I wonder if the fairy focus may be on its way out of its own (very slow) accord. Maybe it was seeing the fairy arrive and realising that she really was just a person in an outfit? I'm not sure but either way, I think we'll discard any fairy Christmas present ideas.

She really enjoyed being the centre of attention which was lovely to see, since she is going through this new 'shy' phase. I was also really touched by how all the families who attended took the present request to heart and either made something (she received some truly gorgeous presents) or kept the plastic away. My personal fave was this totally left of centre cat ceramic jar. Oh man is it *funky*, I seriously love it! Of course it is Harriet's, but I'm not averse to having it on general display too.

And as happens every year, I am always taken aback by how quickly Father's Day looms up after Harriet's birthday. And, as always, I feel bad that James is not going to receive something handmade from me. But my plan for cider out at our local club over the long, languid course of the afternoon should surely soothe any frayed nerves at being 'forgotten'. And after a week or so of relaxation, I turn again to the thought of what to make for Christmas.

Got to go, Ted is waking but have to leave you with this delicious shot of him emerging from the beach last week. James had the day off, Harriet was ill and all four of us were down at the completely deserted beach enjoying our favourite food - tofu burgers!

Jumping In

2011-08-22T22:11:00.002+08:00

Birthday season is slowing down. Fairy parties have been held, enjoyed, and reflected on. Friends have visited (all too briefly). 24hr fevers, assessments, sewing, cleaning, singing, dancing, shopping, more parties - and that's just this week. So you'll forgive me if a short video is all I can manage just now. I'm trying to plough through my much neglected inbox, respond to people who may think I'm no longer talking to them and remind everyone that August is just a really crazy month for us every year.

And before I forget - a big wave and hi to the gorgeous Tracey and Jenna. I know you're reading....*mwah*.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-08-15T22:00:00.005+08:00

We've been crazy busy, and in the last few days countdown to Harriet's birthday and party, it's not getting anything but totally insane around here! In other news we had yet another packed weekend, including a very special party for a two year old, who needed to take a little bit of Harriet and Ted back home with him, so I made these little stuffed dolls to remind him (they are only my second ever embroidery attempt so please don't look at them too hard!).

There was much excitement when it was realised the fairy outfits for this weekend could be tried out a week earlier than previously thought.

And before I go to bed, I have to share this with you all - Harriet is totally wonderful. She is a delight. It's as if someone flicked a 'grow up now' switch and suddenly she is empathetic, concerned, independent, thoughtful and helpful in ways I had never seen her be before now. It is a joy to be around her at the moment.

Ok, it's off to bed. After the party I'll have more time, I promise!

Snapshots from a Big Weekend and a Big Week Too

2011-08-02T17:34:00.004+08:00

We had a great weekend just gone - one full of exciting discoveries in our little neck of the woods, rekindling our love for the area. Who knew we could jump on a trampoline, drink beer on a lawn bowls green and listen to an alphorn all within ten minutes walk from our house?

Will blog soon, promise! In the meantime, can you believe that I made this for Harriet in about half an hour? Oh yes, fairy parties require a bit of preparation and this mama is on to it. I even finally washed the yellow woollen blanket that made the yellow brick road from last year's party just today. *ahem* All good here.

Ted's latest love affair (apart from pants-free 'shows') is Steel Park. I love it because I get a chance to actually walk somewhere, and he loves it because he is right into listening to these tubular listening/talking toys which they have there. Plus there's a flying fox! But he prefers the listening toy. My children really are a bit different to the pack, aren't they?

Here Comes the Sun...

2011-07-27T22:11:00.004+08:00

Today was cold but sunny. SUNNY! So what did we do with it? Well, nothing really. We hung around at home, failed to complete the fairy wings, Teddy had a big sleep so I did some cleaning, mundane stuff like that. Oh I did manage to stop in at the op shop in the morning of course. *ahem*

After we picked up Harriet we came back home, I opened the back door for the first time in a long time for the afternoon play session and Harriet went running out yelling "Swing! Swing!" to which (of course) Ted starts crying, running after her and yelling "No! I want to go on the swing first!". Negotiations were put in place, swing turns were enforced and the children were (mostly) placated.

But who could blame them? It was cold, colder than I would have liked, but it was outside. And the lavender received an intimate visit from some bees which was great to see, and the mulberry tree next door, in all its behemoth glory, has started to sprout leaves and, is that the start of berry buds I spy? How exciting!

There's not much happening in our world of late that I can blog about. Quite a bit is going on in actuality, but it's not quite public-worthy yet. When your child can read your blog (and does) things start getting a little tricky...

Oh and see that little red book in Teddy's hand there? He is in LOVE with that book. I'm going to write up a book post soon, because he is having a book passion that knows no bounds (remember the four hour marathon reading session I had with Harriet in the library in Melbourne at the same age? You don't? I'll tell you now - I DO). But this little chunky cardboard book for some reason caught his eye. He also read his first word! He was holding a little yellow bus but it wasn't immediately identifiable as a bus. He said "Those words say bus right there" and pointed to the word bus (he calls letters words). I was so surprised I asked him to read out what each letter said and he read out "Bee, Uh, Ssss - bus Mama" and continued to push it around on the table. So cute!

My Two Favourite Phrases

2011-07-24T21:32:00.002+08:00

Sundays. I LOVE 'EM! I fell asleep last night for a couple of minutes somewhere there between 3am and 4.30am and just as I dozed off, I thought to myself, tomorrow I am going to aim to make lemon curd and fairy wings.

When I finally woke, I remembered those fateful words and actually got around to putting them into action because...wait for it...we had nothing planned for today. Oh yes sirree bob - nothing. Well we had something planned for the evening, but not a scrap of a thing planned for daylight hours. Woot!

Why lemon curd I hear you ask? Well for one, it is delicious. For two, it's scrumptious and for three I love it. Plus there's the little issue of having this huge bag of lemons in our fridge that we need to move and also having over bought on eggs at the markets last week (and we eat quite a few eggs, so for us to overbuy means there is no way we could cram another albumin into our lives; we needed inspiration, a new direction).

So off I typed to taste. I quite like that website, it's not going to startle you with anything new, exciting and inspiring, but it's great for reminding you of classics, ways to use up random amounts of co-op vegies that you didn't choose in the first place and has very reliable steps in how to get through it. So I went there for lemon curd. I read the comments and decided to skip the straining (because I love a strong lemon flavour, I mean, I'm making lemon curd for goodness sake; plus I didn't use zest so no bits to worry about). I even sterilised some jars for the exercise which surprised James no end since I never follow recipes, especially not instructions like sterilising jars which sounds like unnecessary busywork.

I had two very willing helpers for the whole process. Ted cracked a few eggs and loved pouring the yolks in from the shell. Separating eggs is a truly auspicious task when seen through the eyes of a two year old! Harriet loved juicing the lemons and then it was on to the tiresome task of whisking for about 40mins. But the result? Ohmygoodnesssodamngoodit'sbad. YUM! In fact one small jar was eaten before it even made it off the heat.

While we were busy in the kitchen James set to work making the wire frames for the fairy wings. I kind of missed the whole event due to whisking 101 but I'm planning on getting those babies finished in the next couple of days, to which you shall be subjected to fairy photo fury I'm sure.

But what are the two favourite phrases of the title? Well let me tell you now folks. Bernie Hayes and Child Friendly. Oh yes. This afternoon we jumped in the car and braved the cold to watch the children run around like lunatics on Petersham Bowling Club's greens (which didn't seem very respectful to the game of bowls to me, I kept waiting for someone in a white coat to come and rap all of our knuckles). How is it that in the face of single degree temperatures, children can manage to keep seeking out the outdoors, and shedding layer upon layer of clothing in the process?

Ted and Arki played so well together, running around playing with a ball and Ted just seemed to enjoy staging fall downs of varying severity, then cracking up laughing. James and I got to stand around drinking cider, talking to Zoe, Marty, Linda and Daniel, whilst our children had a ball doing something or other. I'm not too sure what it was because they were doing it at great speed far away from us and having a ball doing it. From our vantage point it seemed to involve a complicated process of running...stopping to gain breath...then more running...then having the older children tell the younger ones what to do...them ignoring said instructions...then more running. You know, the usual.

When we moved indoors to watch BHQ, Ted was absolutely enthralled. He sat silently watching two songs of the first band, then went back for more when Bernie came on. He didn't move, just watched intently, then pulled me back to where our things were for some food.

Harriet, on the other hand, was incensed at moving inside. It was way too loud for her (notice the jumper tied around her ears) and she couldn't concentrate on reading her book that she'd brought. (By the way, see those rainbow thermals she's wearing? Oh yes, $2 from yesterday's op shop haul).

So although we would have liked to stay and watch Dog Trumpet, we left. And when we got home James was annoyed, frustrated and hungry. I think the children were too. But me? I was deliciously happy. I made lemon curd! And saw Bernie play! And drank cider! I told you I love Sundays.

Signs of the Times

2011-07-23T19:52:00.006+08:00

The nights have been busy - and not just from intentional crafty-type activities. The children have slowly become more nocturnal over the past couple of weeks and James and I have been left with less and less child-free time in the evenings with which to perform our perfunctory adult styled tasks (as a consequence such activities as scrubbing the bath have gone by the wayside ho-hum).

But I have managed to gather together the materials for Harriet's sixth birthday party invitations. I tell you, the invention of the hot glue gun is a mini miracle in itself. Why have I never owned one before?! The gun is only about $10 and the little glue sticks are about $8 for a pack of 50, so it's hardly an exercise of extravagance. I made these fairy wands in about two minutes. Literally. It was great!

When I was younger I distinctly remember reading to my little brother when he was going to sleep. I used to read from one specific book a lot because it was his favourite ("The Beedy Book"). I loved it. I loved feeling like I was the elder one who could read and loved the process of feeling like an adult and finishing up with the book, pulling up his covers, kissing him and turning off the light just as it happened in Golden Books. I caught a glimpse of myself in Harriet the other night when Ted snuggled up next to her on the lounge when he didn't want to go to sleep. Harry stopped reading her own book and I dutifully brought out pile after pile of toddler books for Harriet to read to Ted who got more and more relaxed.

I'd love to say this all ended with me cradling a near-slumbering Ted quietly into the bedroom and barely lying with him before he fell asleep. Unfortunately what actually happened was far from that. Harriet started to read Ted an alphabet book that had questions in it. Ted has this funny little quirk of just answering "Yesh" to any question you ask him if it's from a book, even when it's perfectly obvious that he knows the answer. Harriet started getting agitated, then angry, then near furious at his insistence on answering in such an apparently uninformed manner, so Ted was whisked into the bedroom for sleep and Harriet was calmed down with yet another discussion of Ted being only two and not capable of all that she demands of him.

In other fairy party preparations I've bought some material to make Harriet a fairy skirt and some pantyhose (I really hate that word) for some wings (tutorial can be found here). But the chiffon will need to be edge with ribbon which I know will be a particularly tedious task, so in order to lead myself up to it I decided to finally make Ted's blanket. I found that vintage farm material at the op shop aagggees ago and have been keeping a (sluggish) eye out for the appropriate flannelette backing for it. When I found this purple star flannel at Spotlight I just knew it was perfect (Ted is always telling me "My favourite colour is purple Mama" with solemn sincerity). He really loves it. I want to find someone to show me how to do bias right angles in real life, because video tutes on YouTube just don't cut it for me.

This morning we went to post an important letter from Harriet, and on the way back we popped in to see our friends who lives on our street (and to drop in one of the wand invitations). We had a lovely chat and the children ran amok in the first rain-free afternoon for a week. She told me of an op shop she went to a few weeks ago. When we got back home and were eating our normal weekend lunch (what we call 'a board' which is a big wooden cutting board covered in dips, cheeses, crackers, gherkins, pickled onions, nuts, etc.) I mentioned it to James and he said "Well let's go there after lunch then!" Woot!

So off we traipsed and what a bounty we found! I grabbed quite a few cute pieces of material, another red suitcase, some cute little figurines for my wooden display, a funky big glass jug perfect for pouring out soda water at a certain party in a few weeks, and loads of other miscellaneous items. It was one of those poky little op shops, all camphor smelling and stuffed high with piles of old stuff that you just know have come from deceased estates nearby. I'm sure it makes the old souls happy to know their treasures are being passed on to grateful recipients.

Don't you think this sheet of little girls is just begging to be turned into pillowcases? For some reason that was the first thing I thought of when I saw it.

And I'm not sure if you can quite make it out in this photo but I love my little bambi at the front there, but I also equally love the deliciously shaped elephant eggcup behind her. And there's a perfectly kitsch white poodle ceramic mini photo frame behind it too but he's a little hidden in the photo unfortunately.

I have been thinking for a while now that I need to blog about Harriet's insatiable need to write signs. Some of them are hilarious, some are cute and others are just downright perplexing.

This sign is from a time when Ted was literally just hanging out in the playroom doing jigsaw puzzles. I don't believe Harry was interested in doing one, trying to help him or indeed had any kind of interaction with him prior to writing this.

This was written whilst very angry - Ted was refusing to answer her questions about what he had done during the day and kept on 'reading' his book, which incensed Harriet because, of course, Ted can't "actually read you know Mama, he's just looking at the pictures" (imagine that said with as much indignation and disgust as one human could summon).

One of the peculiar specialities of Harriet's sign writing is that she has absolutely no interest in aesthetics. It seems completely sensible to her to rip off tiny pieces of paper, try to cram all of her text into that and then just do the same for the rest of her sign writing. This gem is the result of her deciding to mix some yoghurt and water together, place a plastic 'jewel' (bead) in the mixture, leave it for a day or two and see whether it changed the colour of the jewel. Her interest in experiments seems to extend primarily to the writing up of the hypothesis.

I was in the kitchen with the radio on, the dishwasher going and I was scrubbing potatoes. So when Ted was yelling something out to me I told him I couldn't hear and for him to come in to the kitchen and tell me. He didn't but I heard him repeat whatever it was he was saying. I walked out a minute later and Harriet, who was sitting next to him, showed me this piece of paper and said "This is what Ted was telling you Mama". Hmmm...perhaps stopping him from mucking around with said phone might have been another helpful action?!

This is from a while ago. Harriet was reading Libby Gleeson's Hannah books and in one of them the protagonist writes up a list of essentials she's taking camping. Well Harriet decided to write up her essentials list too. Then when we realised we were going to go to the snow she amended the destination. I like how Bear, Little Robinson and Alice (the pony) come before the non-stuffed members of her family. And a toothbrush comes before Teddy!

About three days before the end of the school holidays I found this piece of paper on the buffet in the playroom. Being sick for ten days of your holiday does mean that an activity such as watching Toy Story 3 becomes a major event I guess ("story 3" is what is tacked on to the end on that little piece of notepaper. She cracks me up).

After this week of rain I'm hoping that the little flash of sunshine we're seeing is inspiration and motivation to get me moving on some ideas for the photoshoots I have booked in over August. Please don't let it rain, I need the sun!

Ted

2011-07-19T21:10:00.002+08:00

Oh man, this child will be the death of me. He's totally crazy at the moment. Crazy as in he is running around like a loon everywhere, bolting off at all times, and his favourite activity of late? Well, that just happens to be the act of squealing a song at the top of his lungs whilst doing this very cute skip/hop/dance at the same time. Gorgeous. But did I mention the squealing?

Other favourite activities from Ted at the moment include - not wanting to get changed/wear clothes. He has been going to bed of a night naked bar a nappy and I'm telling you IT'S COLD. Tonight we were all in pyjamas and jumpers and next to heaters while Ted jumped down from the dinner table naked, and ran around the house. He is currently in bed naked (except for the nappy). When I do try to get him dressed to get out of the house there is much kicking...oh the kicking...the latest phase. He thinks it's some sort of hilarious game but it's really not. And he is obsessed with screens. MAD for them I tell you. I honestly can't even bring my phone out without causing a major diplomatic intervention.

But he is, luckily, incredibly cute. And I remind myself of that when he's sitting there playing around, refusing to go to sleep at ten thirty at night.

I did actually have something I wanted to post about but I can't remember. All I know is that we better win Lotto or find some secret painting behind a hole in a wall somewhere so that we can raise a quick grand and buy this bunk bed. The novelty of having both children in one bedroom is just too delicious to ignore. (I'll still go in of course to put Ted down and lie and feed him when he wakes during the night BUT I will be able to start out the night in bed with James and not the ever-waking Tedalicious)

Finally - Snow!

2011-07-17T20:40:00.007+08:00

Ok, so we've been sick and housebound for ten days. I'd like to point out here that James has been on holidays. For fourteen days. THAT LEFT US FOUR DAYS! Yep, four days, people, to soak up being happy, healthy and in each other's company. For better or worse those four days happened at the start of his break, so we were all well for the snow but we didn't have that wonderful hey-we're-healthy-let's-get-out-and-go-crazy kind of appeal after we all got better, you know? As it is we're here on the last day of the holidays, exhausted after what feels like an epic battle to try and get the children in to bed before 10pm. Because they've been just lying around the house (Harriet's preferred state of existence) they haven't burnt any energy at all, which has meant come 10pm they're still bouncing off the walls while James and I wearily catch eyes across the top of their heads wondering when we'll ever get a chance to just sit the hell down and watch a movie. Parenting while sick sucks. And parenting sick children whilst being sick yourself double-sucks. I'm sure that's written down in an important tome somewhere.

But I promised a snow post and it shall come! In fact - it is here! Bugger it that it's 11pm on a Sunday night before the first day back at work/school/routine. I'm here to provide! So we all bundled out to the snow. Sounds simple, huh? Well first we had to pack our car. The game of logistics there had been played out manys a time on Tetris screens the world over before it came to our little excursion. We hired skis for Harriet, snow outfits for all of us (except Ted, whose fantabulous snowsuit is courtesy of the ever-obliging Tempe op shop for all of $7) and two toboggans. I'd just like to point out that I needed to use the spellchecker for that. I have never had to write toboggans in my life before this very moment. Double b? Who the hell knows. Thank you Northern Hemisphere spell-checking equipment. But anyway, come our pull-out from downtown Rockdale we were packed to within an inch of our lives. We had food for four days for four people, snow equipment, snow clothing, entertainment, two pairs of shoes and boots each and all sorts of stuff. Oh man, the stuff!

But having never been to the snow before, I had no real idea on what to pack. How much woudl we wear each day? What would we wear each day? Is a full body snowsuit in bright aqua appropriate attire for someone over the age of 10? Luckily I never bought that off JB, so I didn't have to push that particular social boundary. We arrived in Canberra to the sanctuary that is Georgia, Nathan and Andy's house. We do love them, our Canberra friends. Even better - they have an excellent Aldi around the corner from their house. Staying in Canberra it was suddenly a whole lot easier to visualise the snow experience. It was going to be cold. Like actually, really cold. So I was suddenly spurred on to purchase thermal underwear. Is there anything Aldi doesn't sell?

We drove to the snow from Georgia's house and watched as slowly, slowly, the trees changed. They seemed to be bowing down lower, lower, until we noticed patches of white...then large clumps of snow on the ground by the side of the road and...hang on a sec...was that a SNOWMAN by the side of the road?! Hang on Dorothy, this is definitely some whole other Technicolour experience.

We stopped in Cooma to get some snow chains for the car (more about those babies later). It really was very freaking cold in Cooma. I even overheard a local on the phone saying it was cold, so that gave me courage that it wasn't just my cold-naive city-fied bones being all weak and warm. On the drive up to the mountain I remember looking out and seeing both sheep and gum trees with a thick layer of snow on top of them and feeling as if I'd landed in some alien landscape.

We arrived at the lodge where we were staying and I supervised the children while they played in the sludges of snow near the entrance (listen to me sounding like a snow snob. At this stage I had never seen settled snow before and it was at least an inch thick all over the *cleared* ground where we were standing). Ted found it absolutely essential to play with the only two mud puddles visible and also insisted on running over highly icy looking snow. Turns out it was icy. *ouch* Lesson learnt? Who do you think I'm writing about here? Look carefully in that first photo. See the grazes on his chin, lips and under his nose? Oh yep, they happened soon after we arrived.

The singularly most frustrating experience in the snow was getting the children ready. Each time it was an absolute battle. Seriously, Sun Tzu was writing about getting children ready for the snow, I'm sure of it. Harriet would cry and moan about getting ready. I would patiently explain the need to get ready for the snow and how we couldn't just run outside. Cue Teddy jumping around our room like a maniac. Cue me trying to tackle him and get him dressed as much as possible. Cue Harriet getting bored halfway through this process and sitting down to read a book. Cue me starting all over again with the dressing explanation. I learnt by about day two that if I got myself ready, no matter how hot I was getting ready, it was infinitely more acceptable than having Ted trying to run off into the snow without me able to follow. And Harriet still sitting there moaning and crying (about what half the time I honestly had no idea, she was just miserable...*sigh*).

So the first day was a blur of getting everyone ready, getting the room ready (it only slept three not four as we had all been lead to believe due to recent renovations so it was...interesting), unpacking all the food and trying to explain to the children about what all the processes were in the lodge and just about snow in general.

There's definitely a knack to taking photos in the snow. I don't have it. But the first knack would definitely be don't have a toddler who demands being picked up and carried everywhere. It's impossible to carry a toboggan, toddler and $5k worth of DSLR equipment with any confidence and believe me, I wasn't going to push my luck. A few times when we walked down to the (non)tobogganing hill I was whipped across the body with the toboggan and Ted was adamant that he wanted to go back inside. That is, until he experienced his first downhill run on a toboggan. Woot!

Harriet entered the fray with her first skiing lesson on the second day. It went for two and a half hours, was held in freezing strong winds that were literally knocking children down like tenpins and she still powered through it all. Go Harry! We also had experienced skier Georgia able to put her through some paces the next day. But apparently these aren't the things you talk about when you go to the snow. It's not about what you did. It's not about where you stayed. It is all about the TYPE of snow.

"What was the snow like?"
"Was there fresh powder?"
"Were the runs clear?"

These were the questions we've been peppered with upon our return by these snow experienced types and to be honest, I had no idea. But what I do know is that on the second(?) day it really was clear and bright and I so wished I could take my camera out with me. Then overnight it snowed and the next day was cold and darker and full of soft, fresh snow everywhere. Ted refused to leave the lodge after Georgia and I took the boys (Andy and Ted) on the bus to Perisher during a particularly cold afternoon. So when it was beautiful and perfect for building snowmen, Ted just cried and cried and held my hand saying "no Mama, I'm not going out in the snow". So we watched Harriet, Andy and James enjoy the awesome snow through the window. They were having a blast. And when they came back in I thought stuff it, I'm going out too! So I went out to have a little wander around the village and in the delicious snow. I threw myself into fresh snow drifts, made snow angels, threw snowballs at random children and rolled down snow hills. All without my own children. I turned to one woman (as I threw my body into the fresh, untouched snow bank I was walking past) and yelled out "This is my first time in the snow. It's awesome!" to which she laughed and said "It looks like you're really enjoying it!". Hee hee. I was.

But definitely the highlight of the trip for me was on the last night. We were sitting inside the lodge. I was drinking Frangelico - I opened a window, pushed a spoon out through the gale winds and into the snow at the window, and shovelled the snowflakes into my glass. Honestly, that was the best Frangelico I have ever drunk in my life. We looked outside and there was a serious blizzard starting up. It was CRAZY! It was INSANE! And all the preteens went running out into it straight away!

After watching them for all of about ten minutes, Harriet, James and I thought stuff this, pulled on our boots, hats and jackets and ran out there too. We threw snowballs at each other, ran around in the snow covered deck, ate snow, ran in the blizzard winds, Harriet helped build a snow fort and James and I acted like crazy children.

There's a beautiful children's book we own and at the end the children find a sparrow and watch as it makes her nest. And after seeing all of these amazing but captured and organised animals, the text reads "And that's what we loved best. Seeing the sparrow and her nest". I think of that quote often. Because it's often like this that the most memorable parts of our lives expose themselves. Unplanned, chaotic, spontaneous. For all of our planned trips out to the snow from the past three days, for our hiring of snow gear, skiing lessons, organisation...for all of that, this was what we loved best. Running out in the dark in the middle of the night, in a blizzard, half-dressed, throwing snowballs at each other, laughing, running, just being. 'That's what we loved best. Seeing the sparrow and her nest'

(Yes, Harriet is in just her thermals which she was wearing as pyjamas).

The day we left the blizzard hadn't abated - if anything it had grown stronger. We found ourselves with a car that was completely snowed in. Ted fell asleep within about ten minutes of getting into the car because he was so exhausted, but Harriet was freaking out and I had to stay in the car with her to make sure she didn't get hysterical. I just had to calmly talk her through what was happening and explain that if we couldn't make it out, well, it just meant we'd go back inside the lodge. But make it out we did, thanks to the inexhaustible efforts of James and Nathan and at least three other strangers who came to our aid. It really is quite confronting videoing people in distress, so this was the only little video that I took. Now we're home and warm and dry James admits I had taken more, but I'm not sure he was enjoying being part of the sideshow at the time.

At least three different people attempted to put on the snow chains for our car and no-one could accomplish it. Of course when we went to complain at the service station where we got them the teenage boy popped them on with nary a second glance. *grumble grumble* It was a total white out driving down the mountain. We saw a BMW that had slid off the road and was up to its windows in snow off to the side (and only metres from plunging down an almost ravine but that's another heart stopping story).

And then, almost as soon as we drove out from the National Park, we turned a corner and there it was. This most beautiful rainbow, from one end to another, complete, stark, and we even got to see where it ended. James pulled over so I could take a photo (what a guy) and then we were on the road, driving to Canberra.

Wow. What an experience. We managed to pack it all in. And by the last day the children all seemed to understand the need for dressing properly, there weren't too many tears shed each time we headed to the drying room to get ready, and the rhythm of the day was more established. I think next time we'll need to go for a couple more days to get our worth from it.

And what would I recommend to others attempting the venture? Pack less. We didn't wear half the clothes I thought we would, because you just get about in snow pants when you're inside as well. Ensure your older child has an MP3 player packed with audio books ready to go. Ensure your younger child knows they are only to play with said MP3 player and headphones when the older child is in bed. Keep all children in thermal underwear all the time to keep your changing times as quick as possible. Take board games. Harriet played Scotland Yard and even played as Mr X which we thought was quite impressive for only a nearly 6yr old! Take marshmallows, even if they're full of refined sugar - sometimes you just gotta live a little (we forgot).

And hope for midnight blizzards. And if you see one, run out there, even if you can't find your gloves. Throw a snowball at a stranger. Get thee to a toboggan. Have fun. Then get the hell inside, warm up and drink a Frangelico.

Captain Cheeky from the planet Monkey

2011-07-12T19:48:00.002+08:00

I know, I've been abused from all ends about not updating since we came back from the snow. BUT we have *all* been sick. And Harriet still is. In fact she went into the bedroom and didn't emerge for two days, just spent her time in there, lying in her sleeping bag listening to Harry Potter for two days feeling as hot as Hades.

Ted? He was sick yesterday and just spent the day grizzling, crying, feeding and being un-Ted-like (which is to say he wasn't being as cheeky as hell). Tonight James came up with the title of this post, except he was using it as the name for Ted. Appropriate nonetheless.

So to keep you going until I get a chance to get my head above water again, I managed to write down two little interactions I had with Ted tonight. Finally! This is the sort of conversation we have with him all the time. He is crazy.

Ted: Guess what?
Me: What?
Ted: Ummm...(looks around wildly for something to talk about and realises he is holding a fork) Harry used this on her pesto pasta

[Uh yeah, great Ted. And untrue. He is hilarious this child!]

In the bath tonight
Me: What do you want Ted? (as he is straining to reach across Harriet)
Ted: Conditioner because my hair is so crazy

Blizzard!

2011-07-06T22:30:00.002+08:00

Oh my. All of us had lived a snow free life until a few days ago. Now we have lived through ski lessons, tobogganing, a blizzard, being stuck in snow drift and needing to be towed...twice (in the same half an hour), driving through white out and the ultimate -

finding out that your younger child is secretly a Sontaran.

Watch this space and get rugged up!

Goodbye

2011-06-29T22:18:00.002+08:00

In the middle of the maelstrom that was our day, we said goodbye to this delicious, wonderful, amazing family.

You can say hello to them if you like, over at their new blog.