Sunday, September 20, 2009

Lolly at 18 months [!!!!]

On Lolly at 18 months.

Lolly has many words, now. She has short sentences, the most impressive of which is "Pippi, where's the ball?" She has a serious regard for the dog waiting for an answer, "come on Pippi, where's that ball?"

Here are some more of her words:
Didda [Dadda]
Mumma
Smash
Snail
Booba
Pippi
"Mr B" [Bajak]
"meow" [cat]
puss puss
nom nom [food]
ball
where?
goog goog [drink]
"there you are"
mo mo [motorbike]
room room [car]
away [outside/over there]
fish
bird
guck guck [duck]
yay!
oh no!
no
up
down
"cracker" [biscuit]
bath
more
boo!
shoe
eyes
nose
mouth
ears
pants
star
Hi
bye
one, two!
'nana [banana]

She is starting sentences, two or three words together, like "where's Didda?" "where's Snail?" or "Pippi, ball?" Her favourite word to use now is "where". "Where ball?" She says this in her sleep!! So cute. The other night she was fast asleep, and stuck both her feet in the air, saying "shoes, one two!"

She is sleeping by herself for naps and early at night now (!!!). I take her into our room and booba her to sleep, then get up. Wow, it is so different to my in-arms sleeper! I'm still getting used to it, to be honest. I wander around not knowing what to do with myself. But I do like having some time to my own thoughts. About two weeks ago I asked her one night, "you let me know when you're tired and want to go to bed," and she walked straight into the bedroom, climbed on the matress, and said "booba!" And off to sleep she went! Couldn't believe it, it was so sweet. We normally just booba to sleep in the lounge room while I read or computer it up. So it was pretty amazing. She has done that every night since. She seems to like the peace and quiet. It is so lovely to see her awareness of her tiredness, and that she has control over what to do about it. We have always done child-led sleep, there is no point trying to get a baby to sleep who isn't interested! So this is the natural consequence. So nice.

She is a delightful bundle, her favourite things are drawing with crayons, her chalkboard, stickers (I peel 'em off and she sticks them on things), bath time, going outside for walks, and playing with the ball, her Magnadoodle, and a new interest in blocks. She loves cuddles, and hurls herself at me from across the room for cuddles and kisses. She also loves dancing, which usually requires me to hold both her hands as she leans back and boogies.

She is very keen on her brother and sister, and she and Snail play together around the house. She loves to follow Snail and steal whatever Snail is doing! Poor Snail ;) She finds Smash to be hilarious and is always happy to see him after school.

She's been walking for a couple of months now, and is very confident, not quite running yet, but she gets up a good pace! She doesn't do stairs, she holds up her arms for me to pick her up. Whenever there is mysterious terrain (rocks, grass, new footpath, etc) she stops and holds up her hand for me to hold so she can keep going. She walks all the way down the ramp now, she holds the bottom rail if she needs help with the slope.

She loves shoes, and often plays with them and carries one around with her. She likes to take them on and off, and says "shoes, one, two".

Her favourite TV is In the Night Garden, Play School, and she likes Blues Clues as it is Snail's favourite. We don't watch much else with her, she asks sometimes for TV by pointing, or pointing at her palm like the start of In the Night Garden. She'll sit and watch for a while sometimes, but does other things as well, like drawing or her felt board, or just general baby wandering and business around the house, coming back to sit and watch, leaning against the couch.

She's an interested eater, she tries lots of things, and eats more at each sitting now in the past couple of weeks. She loves corn thins, wholegrain rice crackers, grapes, strawberries, meat of all kinds (she's real carnivore, and will eat meat in preference to her other choices!), pickles (!) and olives. She likes chips too :)

So that's a portrait of Lolly at 18 months, and here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago, a lot dark, but just too cute (playing basketball with the family).

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Carnival of Feminist Parenting

The Fourth Carnival is up at Mother's for Women's Lib. Thanks heaps to Anji for all the work that goes into these. It's some great reading.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A belated Happy 17th Birthday to Bajak

This fabulous ode to one of our lovely dogs was written by his Aunty Liz.

Bajak was 17 at the start of June this year, I know, amazing hey. Here is a pic of the old boy from a few days ago, still goin' but goin' pretty slowly.


And here is an Ode to Bajak,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAJI!!!

Ode on a Dog

What a creature is a dog
A beast disgusting as he is wise
A dog is a paradox (or a 'paradogs')
His breath, when a puppy, is as sweet as his tiny paws
Give him seventeen years, and it's hard to tell from which end
the fumes emanate!
He loves unconditionally
and, alas, uncritically!
A much anticipated deposit in the kitty litter,
or a freshly loaded nappy,
is as sweet
to him
as a roast stolen from the kitchen bench.
Likewise, the pong-and-chew of a sneaker
is as covetous
to him
as the Nike label was to his master.
Ignorant
Conveniently deaf
Disobedient
Ingratiating
he is threatened with a one way ticket to the pound
for yet another filthy misdemeanour.
He tries your patience for this squillionth time
and then regards you
eye to eye -
Mano a Doggo -
as only a dog can...
reads your heart with all the insight of a Lama
the precision of a lexographer.
He is a genius comedian
a furry confessor.
Protecting his charge
saw him charged!
Dangerous Dog!
He's a wolf in dog's clothing.
A family dog.
Everyone's dog,
and every one's own dog -
A furry brother
and a best friend.
A Good Dog
A Bad Dog
An Old Dog...
The Dog.

Happy birthday, Bajak.

love
Lizzie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and Gabi. xxxxxxxxx

Here he is, Electric Dog - Powered Down


We love you, old boy!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

A video about Snail, by Smash

Smash made a slideshow for a school project about a special person, and he chose Snail as his person. This is a really lovely 'video' about Snail and why she is special to her brother.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Memory Lane with Pictures

We've been busy with everyday things lately, playgroup, meetings, out and about with friends and grandparents. Last weekend we went to my primary school's 75th anniversary! It was a big fete with lots of memorabilia. Was lovely to see the old place.




Lolly was a little overwhelmed with the noise and people. We saw my old classrooms, (here is my 6/7 classroom!) and met my grade 6/7 teacher!


Julz and I had fun. Here is a photo they had there of me doing the maypole!! I think this was 1984?



Here's a belated shot of Lolly at the Centerpoint tower in Sydney, admiring the view.



Here she is playing basketball after DinnerDad wrote "Lolly Grub" on our driveway with out new water sprayer :)


And finally (drum roll, please) here is the new addition to our family, DinnerDad's new "mo mo" - a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. DinnerDad instructs me to tell you that it is 170 Horsepower at the rear wheel. Which is more power than our family SUV has (apparently). Anyhoo, here is a picture of it in all it's glory: