Spring

... is almost here (mind you, my itchy eyes are telling me spring is here already). And that means this little lady is almost two (turning two on Friday).




It feels like she's been here forever.

She may be the spitting image of her older brother (that's him at a similar age in the pic to the right) but she's a very different individual to him. Now that she's starting to speak so well, the personality bubbles out of her every day.

It's a delight to behold!

Booook Week

It's our first Book Week.

Now, I remember Book Week from when I was at school and I remember dressing up ... as Bo Peep or some character from a nursery rhyme.

These days it seems there is a theme. We ignored this.

There is a unspoken rule that you oughta be sewing something. We ignored this.




May I present the The Pirate from, er, Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs or Captain Yellowbelly. Etc. I figured there were plenty of pirates in kids' books.

So to achieve this stylish look I:

* pinched a shirt from Shaun's wardrobe (shhhh!) and cut it into ragged edges at the bottom. Then I used safety pins to tighten the cuffs and create a piratey 'puff'.

* rummaged round the shed and found a daggy too-big hand-me-down fleecy jumper which I cut the arms out of and made into a pirate vest (OK, imagination required)

* picked up some $2/m skull and crossbone fabric from Marrickville for a sash/belt and bandanna (whatever)

* I hand-stitched a patch onto an old pair of jeans. Right after I burnt the **** out of my iron by trying to put on a synthetic patch with hemming tape (stupid, I know)

Voila, pirate. Kind of!

Tick - job done.

I can't take any credit for the idea though - it came from my sister, who is amazing at all the craft and sewing things that I've never mastered. Lucky I have her around for advice, that's all I can say!

Workday evening...

You know, some days turn out in ways you just don't expect...

Take today.

Ordinary enough work-day Wednesday. I was busy editing a story that I'd asked for revisions on, but still had to pretty much begin from scratch. Them's the breaks when you deal with new writers.

Then I headed off to pick up the kids. I got a call while I was on the train from after-school care. This is not usually good news. Last time I got a call from them they informed me they couldn't find my son - !!! Today they rang to tell me he had a fever. Again.

So I pick up my sickie and my bubba and get home - to find this on the front door (in an Esky, I ought to add!)



In with this caramelised leek, fennel, spinach and haloumi tart was a bottle of sauvignon blanc and some vegie patties for the kids.

A friend had left this for me.

Just because she'd made two of these beautiful tarts and thought I might like one on a work-day evening.

I have to confess I shed a little tear because, wow, how lovely is that?

People, they are good.

And this from a friend who has two kids littler than mine, who also works, and who I haven't seen for yonks.

Amazing.




And I also got to take home a handful of cheery flowers from the buckets full we had in the office from one of our December issue shoots.

Life, and work, they are good.

Workday morning...

On days we both work it's rush, rush, rush to get out the house.

Except for some people (pictured) who were snapped this morning looking distinctly unrushed despite being hurried along several times...!

Six.

Today is E's birthday - six. This age really feels like the beginning of a new stage. I guess the 0-5 years are 'little' so that makes 6 the start of the 'bit bigger kid' years. Or something like that.

We celebrated his birthday with a small gathering in the park. A handful of his mates from school came along and played, ate and played some more. The sun shone for the whole day (as tends to happen on this boy's birthday, remarkably for mid-winter) and it really was pleasant for everyone.




I had my first crack at a 'kiddie' cake. It turned out OK, I suppose, so long as no-one looked too closely at the bodgy icing. Somehow I don't think I'll be giving up the day job for cake decorating any time soon...!

Logic?

Doesn't the logic of little kids just floor you sometimes?

Take today, for example. At 22 months T only has limited reserves of logic. Clearly this is the case because this morning, having brushed her teeth, she decided to pop her toothbrush into the toilet.

This was after me warning her to not do precisely that.

She has deposited THREE toothbrushes in the loo in the space of a week. That's about $12 down the toilet... (sorry!)

The boy, at nearly 6, then displayed his rather more advanced powers of logic. While his sister did a stint in time-out for her willful disobedience he was busily making something...



It's a bag. Made from paper and staples.

His thinking was that instead of T putting her toothbrush into the toilet we could retrain her to place it into said bag.

I like that he did diagrams explaining the steps of the process for her.

Here's hoping his approach is more successful than mine has been...!

A break - away!

So being school holidays and all, time was ripe for a road trip. Not far, mind you - there's nothing I hate more than being stuck in a car - just to Canberra and surrounds. Oh it was refreshing. Chilly, granted, but then you do expect that in the middle of winter.

On the first day we stopped at the village where Shaun's dad is buried. My view of the (gorgeous) surrounds looked a bit like this...




The boy? Well, it's so quiet there we could let him scoot to his heart's content.




We stopped to throw rocks in the water. Apparently this is totally ace when you're 22 months old. Boy did she not want to move on...






Ooh, look - more rocks!




The next day we meandered into Canberra. So it seems did everyone else - there wasn't a room to be had. Not to worry, we headed back out to the 'hinterland' (if you can call it that, it's all kind of hinterland, isn't it?) after we'd visited Questacon.

Questacon! Whoa. So good! I don't think E learnt anything at all but he sure liked touching all the stuff (gastric alert - ick). He had soooo much fun.





Emboldened, we headed back into The Nation's Capital the next day and checked out the zoo. After almost fainting at the entry cost we did indeed have a marvellous time and declared it worth the (exorbitant amount of) money.

This is the lad in front of a giraffe (apparently).



I liked the otters!



And with an aquarium onsite what more could you want?!



It may have only been a couple of days but, wow, it was amazingly good to get away. Already I am casting my mind forward to next school holidays. And yes, next time we will book...