Babies

Babies have super-senses.

They know when you are about to sit down to dinner.
Or when you think about making a hot drink.
And even if they seem deeply asleep
They know when you lie them down in their cots.

Babies have super-senses.

They save their explosions for when you are late
For an important engagement.
Or when they are dressed in their best outfits.

Babies have super-senses.

They keep their milk spills for suits,
Black velvet, "dry clean only".

Babies have super-senses.

It is as if they know
That they can light up your world
With one
Big
Beautiful
Gummy
Smile

TV!

I think it is Aidan who is missing the tv the most. Several times last week I heard him singing plaintively "Maisy, Maisy, Maisy, Maisy's farm" (theme tune from a favourite dvd). One day he sat in one of our lounge chairs and pointed the radio remote at the couch ("Look Mummy! I'm watching tv!"). And when I said we were going around to a friend's house, he asked:"Can we watch M's tv?". When I said that probably not, we would do other things, he stopped, thought and then asked "What kind of tv does M. have?"

But....yesterday (day 13), Brendon hooked up the speakers to our computer and ran some of the children's dvds on it! Talk about entranced! The children were extremely excited and very pleased. Isabelle in particular enjoyed using the mouse to select different options. Both enjoyed playing the games on the Maisy dvd, and printing off a picture.

The exercise was repeated this morning.

I get the feeling that requests for the computer to be turned on are going to be coming fairly frequently!

Hair

The other day I was sweeping the floor and found some little blonde hairs under the piano. Goodness, I thought, they must have been hanging around from when Aunty Frances cut the children's hair! I swept them up.

A few days later I found some little blonde hairs down the other end of the room. Sweep, sweep. (You would have thought I would have become suspicious by now...).

Then I was looking at Isabelle and thought how nicely her hair was cut in layers around her face. I didn't remember Frances doing that. (Come on, you would have thought I would have figured it out by then!).

Yes, Isabelle has been giving herself hair cuts. She has done a remarkably good job really, especially considering that she did it with the baby nail scissors.

We have talked about how it is unwise to cut your own hair, and definitely not the thing to do with anyone else (even if they give you permission! - I have visions of her friends emerging from her room with new styles....).

I will be on the lookout for more evidence, if or when it appears.

Back again

Today was my first duty day back at Playcentre after a term off on maternity leave.

It all seemed to go fine. Every child on our roll was in attendance, and it was raining when I left the house, so it could have been a challenging session. But everything seemed to go smoothly. We even managed an impromptu fire drill without any fuss! Some non-duty adults did lots of work with the children on session, and helped with set up and/or clean up, which was fantastic.

Due to having a baby in the front pack and a very tired boy who needs to be back at home and in bed by lunchtime, I'm not really doing as much on session as I would like. I do realise that these things come in cycles - you give what you can as you can etc etc. I don't like missing the evaluation at the end - this is the time when the duty team comes together to discuss the programme and the children.

Aidan was very disappointed at having to come home - he was having a fine time out in the sandpit wearing no trousers, in a little bit of drizzly rain, operating one of hoses.

General updates

1. We still have no tv. It must be....12 days now.
2. I'm still "no poo-ing". I think it has taken about 7-8 weeks for my scalp and hair to adjust. I think I will keep it up - it is certainly cheaper than commercial products!
3. I've slowly started to eliminate some of our commercial cleaning products from our house. Our shower spray just ran out - I replaced it with my own concoction (key ingredient - white vinegar) which I think cost about 80 cents. There is now a strange vinegar smell in the bathroom in the mornings..... Although really, that's no worse or better than a strange "cleaner" smell. And it's gone by mid morning! The key thing will be whether or not it does the job.
4. Isabelle is continuing to write, and write, and write. She is improving her understanding of letters. Lovely to watch.

New term

Today was the first day of the new school term. So it was off to Playcentre for Isabelle and Aidan's first drop-off session. Friday will be my first duty day back after a term of maternity leave.

Meanwhile, Orla and I had coffee at The Organic Grocer with a group of women (and their children) that I know from the internet.

It's unusual meeting people in person who you usually only "meet" on-line. On one hand you are basically strangers, but on the other hand you know all these things about them and what they think.

"Oh, yes, but that wouldn't work for you because you don't have the tv on during the day".
"I recognised your daughter from your avatar!"
"So how is your brother-in-law's cat?"

And then there's the introductory conversations:

"Hi, I'm Mary".
"Hi."
"My username is xxxx."
"Oh! Right! HIIII! How are you!"

A very pleasant outing and another treat to be able to drink coffee and have a bit of adult conversation.

I left a bit early so I could do some shopping in the grocery part of the store (the cafe's upstairs) before doing the Playcentre pick up.

In the afternoon it was fairy ballet time again. Aidan, Orla and I went to the post office while Isabelle danced. Today they did fairy gardens and Jacks-in-the-box.

It is always a bit odd for me to be out and about with 1 or 2 children, rather than all three. I feel like saying "They have an older sister, you know!" or "I have two more!" to no-one in particular.

Some kind of wonderful

On Friday the older two children went to a Hi-5 concert. Very exciting stuff, and a much anticipated event.

We were going to the 12.30 session with friends of ours. All morning it was "when are we going to Hi-5?", or "I want to go to Hi-5 now!". One slight concern was ameliorated when Aidan announced that it was poo time about half an hour before we were due to depart. With that task completed, it was time to do our final preparations and start our journey.

We picked up Brendon close to his work (he was going to the concert instead of me - too loud for Orla). We parked the car and made our way to our meeting point, then Brendon, Isabelle and Aidan went on to the Opera House.

So there we were, Orla and I - in town by ourselves for 90 minutes!!

First, I bought some books from the Whitcoulls bargain bin (including a title for Playcentre titled Why do I vomit? - an educational look at the digestive system). Next, I trundled down the road to a cafe for some lunch. Orla slept peacefully while I relaxed and ate a sandwich and had a long black. The only thing missing to make this just perfect was suitable reading material - I had to make do with the vomit book, which was not ideal for lunchtime, but which was interesting nevertheless.

Then I wandered over to the Opera House. It was half-time at Hi-5, but none of our crew was out front taking a break, so I kept on wandering towards Manners Mall.

What a treat to be out in town with just Orla!

I walked around for a while, looking at the shops and taking in the atmosphere. Orla's eyes were big as she looked at all the new things, and listened to the new sounds. Then I thought I should probably do something relatively useful, so I went to Willis Street and bought my new slippers (see yesterday's post).

I got back to the Opera House in plenty of time. I could hear the Hi-5 music pumping through the doors - and I knew every word!

You are some kind of wonderful
You're won-der-ful
You are
You're everything to me....

Orla and I danced together out in the foyer.

The last song started playing and a well-oiled machine started up. Staff opened the outside doors. Merchandisers took their places outside the internal exits (to catch parents who had resisted before the show, resisted during the interval but OK, fine, since you've been sooo good and the show was so much fun, of course you can have the flashing head band/superhero cape/pompoms etc). I would have weakened, but our "deprived" children had to make do with the show itself!

The children were happy and tired when they found me waiting for them out front. We dropped Daddy back to work. Aidan slept in the car on the way home.

Isabelle says "I liked all of the show".

Slipper renewal

Yesterday I bought some winter slippers.
Here they are in a tasteful shade of beige. I prefer bright colours, but the other options were black or navy, and I felt like being a little "lighter" over the winter months.




Readers may recall the purchase of my summer slippers (here). (You'll need to scroll down a little to read the slippers post). Sadly they have not lasted, but they were in a summer style so I needed some more for the colder months anyway.

Worm

Yesterday we went for a walk in the town belt. Isabelle spotted a very large worm. I knew that some of our native worms were very long, but I had never actually seen one of the big ones.

The worm was lying across the path, slowly making its way downhill, apparently trying (unsuccessfully) to burrow into the gravelly track. It didn't look 100% to me - the back half looked a bit grey and sluggish, as if someone had stood on it earlier.

Both older children were very impressed.

When we got home, we tried to find out more about them on the internet. This site was about the best we did in the time available (most sites just said things like "the worms are really long", without interesting pictures). Isabelle asked lots of questions about worms, such as what they would eat and where they liked to live.

Aidan carried a very large stick back from the bushes. I managed to convince him to leave it up near the car rather than having him bring it down to the house. Small boys and large sticks can be a dangerous combination....

Big boy

Warning: readers of delicate disposition with respect to bodily functions may wish to exercise discretion in reading this post!

Well, we are just about to complete day 4 of no day nappies for Aidan.

We realised on Sunday that he had started peeing in the toilet and had worn big boy pants all day long. I reckon that the breakthrough for using the toilet was the colder weather (makes it much less fun peeing outside on the lawn!).

So, we decided that we would try no day nappies and see how he went. I was especially pleased by a successful poo on the toilet too - I mean, changing wet nappies is not really a big deal, but those stinky ones.....

Aidan has been very excited with this development, saying many times that he is a big boy now. He likes to stand, and prefers to do as much as possible himself (raising toilet seat, fetching something to stand on, etc). Today he used the little toilets at Playcentre twice, and was especially pleased at this feat.

We have had accidents. Out of four naps, we have had one wet bed (I forgot to take him to the toilet before he went down to sleep). We have also had one general accident on each day. But really, he is doing well in remembering to go. It must be hard to do this, after 2.5 years of being conditioned to just do it where he is standing. It must also seem really inconvenient (after the novelty factor has worn off).

Although he seems ready, he is also quite happy with nappies though. If we don't get his night nappy off fast enough, he just uses it rather than removing it himself (which he can do) and using the toilet. I think he's dry most nights - hard to tell, and as he comes into our bed some time in the night, I'm not really prepared to take any chances!

He is finding that life is different without nappies on. When he was on the rocktopus on Monday, after straddling the metal seat, he exclaimed "Oh, my p@n*s! It hurts!" No more padding means a different technique on some play equipment is obviously required.

(By the way, fear not - the @ and * are not a result of unexpected prudery. I'm just ensuring that anyone who might arrive at The Floyd Files by googling on such words (when properly spelt) is not dreadfully disappointed....).

So my little baby boy is getting bigger and bigger. Here's hoping more successes for him and less washing for me!

Finding Floyd

Through my statcounter, I can see what people search on through search engines such as Google to get to this blog.

There's been some interesting ones! With most entries, I can see exactly where they would have landed in my blogspace - with others I'm not so sure.

A week or so ago, I had people arriving on here who had searched on social competence, and for pictures of shewees. I also had someone who searched on "ichythosis + ballet". Were they going for a Google whack?

Today's bunch gave me "Aidan Floyd", "Ladies handbook of treatments" and "Playcentre non-negotiables". But my favourite was my visitor from New York who found me by typing in "Flight Attendants getting a Mysterious Rash".

I have no idea what they were looking for, but somehow I doubt they found it here!

Lovely morning

Yesterday we had a lovely morning. We got out reasonably early and went to the duck pond at the Botanic Gardens. Sadly we had no bread, but happily a nice family who were there gave us some of theirs. The ducks were hungry and the children were happy.

Then we walked up the hill to the playground, which was still relatively empty and quiet. The morning was sunny and there was no wind. The children played happily, mainly on the rocktopus (a large rocking, swinging and rotating piece of equipment).

We wandered back down the hill after 45 minutes or so, taking the time to say hello to a couple of little dogs. We took the path that leads down over a little stream. We stopped near the duck pond for the children to look at a small waterfall. Then Aidan found an Easter egg! It was lying hidden in a hedge - perhaps the last unclaimed egg in an egg hunt.

Wandering along we saw some piwakawaka (fantails). Then we came to the fountain. The children took delight in sticking their fingers over the outlets and squirting the water in all directions. Aidan took much interest in the activities of the gardeners as they pulled out old flowers and turned the soil. Then it was over the pedestrian crossing and up the road to collect our car. On the way back we saw a car we knew - another Playcentre family was in the area! We peeked in and wondered where they were and what they were up to. The duckpond? The playground? A walk into town? (They had a coupon on the car, so must have been planning to be away for more than two hours).

On the way home we saw some road works. Very exciting for small children - lots of big machines and stop/go signs.

It was straight to bed for Aidan on our return. Happy and tired, he fell asleep quite easily.

No fighting....bliss!!!

Personality

Your Personality is Very Rare (ENTJ)

Your personality type is energetic, romantic, optimistic, and brave. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 5% of all men You are Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

This is Myers-Briggs - a personality test along the criteria of Extrovert/Introvert (Jungian), Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceptive and Intuitive/Sensing. So that gives 16 different personality types (with each variable assigned a value on a sliding scale in the full test - which this internet version is not!).

Updates

On my Reading and writing post - I saw Isabelle using commas to separate out "words". I showed her the space bar and how to use it. The result was this sentence in an email of hers:

to isabelle mum dad aidan orla kdkidvkgdfnsjfwmjasdkfkjefjjfsfjsvbvbgjnrtjjsvjsddskdm

On How to play the piano - I was listening to National Radio yesterday (sorry, "Radio New Zealand National") and heard a percussionist say something like "music has to flow directly to the hands. Once your mind gets involved, you're lost". That's a little bit of what I was trying to say.

I have been filling up the gaps in our calendar for next week (week 2 of 2 weeks of school, and therefore Playcentre, holidays). The children are going to see Hi-5 on Friday, so that should be a real highlight. (Brendon will take them - too loud for Orla!). But the biggest drama for the children probably happened last night. Earlier in the week, when Aidan switched off the tv there was a small flash, a ping and a disturbing burnt plastic smell. The only casualty appeared to be the on/off switch - everything else appeared to be fine. However, last night we were all tired and sitting in front of the telly when kaboom! - the set died in a dramatic flash of light. (This was during an ad break featuring the new series of Dancing with the Stars. Was this enough for the set to cry "enough!" and engage self-destruct mode?).

Anyway, we are toying with the idea of having no television at all. On one hand, I like this prospect. On the other - well, I enjoy watching some television. It is nice to watch something that is either of quality, or that is enjoyable nonsense. It is easier on the brain than reading at the end of a tiring day. Another option is to upgrade our computer hardware and just use this screen. This has the disadvantages of requiring more $$$, and also it means the computer can't be used while anyone watches anything else.

I currently watch two programmes - House on Tuesdays, and America's Next Top Model on Fridays. There are some other things that I don't mind if I miss, but that I'll watch if they're on and if it's convenient (3 News, Campbell Live, Wasted, rugby, cricket).

Maybe a second hand set will do the trick. In the meantime, can someone video House for me this Tuesday?!

Easter rabbits

We have an Easter box which comes out at Easter time every year. It contains some rabbits, chicks and some Easter books, including a version of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit. This story has really caught the imagination of both Isabelle and Aidan. Consequently, there's been lots and lots of role playing lately involving Peter Rabbits, Benjamin Bunnies and Mr McGregors. I have been called on a number of occasions to say: "Now run along, and don't get into mischief. I am going out" (thus playing the part of old Mrs Rabbit). The children take it in turns to play Peter, with the Mr McGregor of the moment yelling "Stop, thief!" while chasing a giggling bunny.

We also got out a dvd of Beatrix Potter stories, which combined live action and animations of about five of her stories. Aidan thought the Peter Rabbit one was a bit scary, but he still liked it.

We also re-discovered a shirt of Aidan's which has Peter Rabbit insignia on it. It is now his favourite shirt. It is a teensy bit small, but that does not worry him.

How to play the piano

I read recently that mental decay begins before 40. Apparently we can stop the rate of decline and ward off dementia by learning new things and continuing to challenge our brains through things like hobbies, mental arithmetic, puzzles, or learning new languages or musical instruments. I believe the theory is that we form more connections and pathways in our brains by doing this. So, if one of the pathways we have breaks down due to age and infirmity (say at, oh, I don't know, maybe when we're really really old at 42 or 43 (!!!! ;-) ), we have other pathways available for those important messages and memories to travel along.

Anyway, I was thinking about this while I was playing the piano the other day. I find it far easier to play stuff that I learnt 20 years ago than learn new music. Partly this is because I think I learn best when I hear a piece played. I can then "copy" it without having to read the music from scratch. If I don't have the sounds in my head, it's harder for me to make sense of the notes on the page. When I was a teenager, my music teacher would always play the song first, and then it would be my turn.

Usually I play from memory, even when I am reading the music in front of me. Sounds strange I know, but I regularly have to stop because I have no idea where on the page I'm supposed to be looking. When I do find it, I am embarrassed to admit that I have to think carefully about what notes I should be playing ("Er.....All Cows Eat - oh, a "G"! No, a G sharp). I seem to play most fluidly when I don't think about anything at all. If I try and read the music and focus, I seem to lose the plot entirely. Having said that, I can't play from memory without the notational prompts. It's like I need the first word of each paragraph, so that I can recite the rest of it.

Which seems to indicate that I have these old pieces hard-wired into my brain somehow. With a gentle prompt, I can sometimes unlock where they have been lodged, even when I thought they were long forgotten. I guess that's what repetition does. It sets something solidly into the brain (if you only repeat the thing often enough). It's a real drag while you are doing this repetition, but it is very pleasant when something flows out in a (relatively) uninterrupted fashion.

It's a bit of a worry though if I find it harder to create new music memories - decay already! Or maybe it's just that I don't have the time to do those repetitions anymore, or that I don't have the patience. I choose to believe the latter two!

Now what was I saying again? Oh, yes, that's right.....

Deductions

Isabelle said to me during the week:

"You got our Easter eggs at the supermarket when you went out with Orla last weekend. The Easter bunny didn't come." She was not at all upset by this - this was merely stating a fact.

Aha! The deductive power of the four year old! She must have seen all those strangely familiar eggs and bunnies on display when we did the shopping on Easter Monday, and put two and two together.

Bouncer

Last week we got our bouncer and baby gym out for Orla. This has been a great success so far. Orla seems to enjoy sitting up watching the world, or looking at the toys on the baby gym. And, she has even started to touch them! It is an amazing thing when your baby first reaches out with a sense of purpose. Obviously her aim is still not 100%, but you can see the concentration and interest in her face as she eyes up a toy. Her arm starts to twitch, then flail, then she manages to make contact! She bats at the toy until she gets tired. Next step will be learning how to control the finer movement of the hands and fingers so that she can grasp the toy at will.

Orla sits in the bouncer a few times each day - not heaps as I believe that babies her age should, when awake, be primarily in arms or on the floor so that they can explore their environment and how their whole bodies work. I think that while baby containers can be useful (or in the case of a car seat, essential), they can be overused.

The older two have enjoyed selecting toys to hang off the gym. They have also enjoyed playing babies, lying under the gym batting at the toys, kicking their legs and baby babbling. Orla also enjoys viewing the baby gym from underneath (when lying on the floor), but she can't reach the toys from there.

Today was 3 month immunisation day - never anyone's favourite activity, but she got through the three injections fine and is now having a wee sleep. Hopefully there will be no reactions.

Writing

Isabelle has started to write in a way that is recognisable to adults (and thus likely to be noticed and praised!).

The one on the left was done after a Playcentre session where she sent letters to us (and posted them into a post box).

The ones on the right were produced this morning. They say Dad, Mum, Orla, Aidan.

Isabelle has been interested in writing our names. She's been doing this by a mixture of asking us how to spell them (and writing the letter we dictate), or by asking us to write a letter for her to copy. We try and get her to guess which letter might come next by exploring the sounds that words make. I'm aware of the whole "teach them lower case" thing - it's interesting how, nevertheless, she seems to gravitate towards upper case.

Last night, Brendon said that he had written our names on the blackboard. Aidan had swiftly rubbed them out, but this morning Isabelle wrote us all "invitations" by herself in her room. She said to me "look, I've done a proper "b" " when she showed me Aidan's invitation. It seemed as if she was aware that her d wasn't quite right, but was still quite happy that a recognisable letter had been formed.

I've just read this to Isabelle - she says: "A boka boka boo!". OK.....I think that means she is quite pleased I've written this!

Reading and writing

I know little about teaching and learning how to read and write. I think about the process as sort of a holistic mash of finding meaning in (apparent) squiggles, learning rules, using memory, exploration and fine motor skills.

A couple of Isabelle's emails got me thinking as to how she views the process.

Isabelle loves to write emails to various people. Here's what she wrote to Brendon one day. There are two separate emails. I wasn't present for the writing of either (I was buzzing around the lounge and kitchen, doing various house chores), but I saw what she had written when it was time to send them. I typed "To Daddy from Isabelle"in the subject line before she started. I've deleted some of the blank lines between her sentences to save space.

Email 1 (first half only):

to,dad,isabelle,uriurbgfgufgcdsjdfjddetrrrtbfgg

Sd..fllrrrle

B,mcvvfmghbnfnftrrsncfcdsmcbbnmbnddjxcjxxxddkbvkgcfffmas,sw,f,df,bfmfmvmd,v,,f

Bnmffdnmmfmfmfngfdvvmgfjttr,dadkjfjkgbfmgfvjgfjxcxhdhhfvhfg

bbvfkvfmddfmdfmdfmd

bcggffxmfgtsdeasdfdozioxzjk

nbnfmngffngdmgmf

jfdkjkgtrj

fmgjbn

Email 2:

To,dad,isabelle,troiriitbbcdjsjfdkckfvb

Aascx.,,f

Isabelle seems to have copied part of my subject line into her first lines of text. Is she consciously typing "To Daddy from Isabelle"? Or is she just copying letters? She probably has some kind of recognition of the letters - especially given that all of the letters on a keyboard are upper case, whereas my model line has upper and lower case letters. And she definitely recognises her name when it is written.

The rest of the text doesn't appear to show us much (except, perhaps, slightly more letters from the left hand side of the keyboard - not surprising as she is left handed). I wonder about the commas between the words to, Dad and Isabelle. Perhaps she hasn't discovered the space bar yet, but wants to separate out the words. In the fourth line of her first email, the word "dad" appears. Accidental? Maybe, but there's a comma before it - could this indicate that there is some intent to write "Dad(dy)"?

Hmmmmm.....

Easter

Today is Easter Sunday. Isabelle is out with Nana Pam at her church. Both children have an enormous number of Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies and other special treats! The chocolate has been secured in their lunch boxes (or its original packaging) to be distributed at random intervals over the coming days.

Isabelle was very excited at the coming of the Easter bunny. She seemed to think it would be just like Christmas. She left leaves for the bunny to eat outside, a note for it and was busting to run into the lounge in the morning, expecting to see - well, I'm not entirely sure. However, the previous night, I had taken out Easter packages and popped them either under our bed or on our chest of drawers, so we were able to quickly redirect her to the exciting boxes and bags immediately to hand.

We had hot cross buns on Friday - no homemade ones this year, for various reasons, but we enjoyed the ones we had.

Sold!

Yesterday we sold my GSF 400 Suzuki Bandit. It was a good idea to sell it - I'm not riding it and it last got a WOF in 2004. And the money will come in handy. But it was still a bit of a wrench to see it go.

My GSF was my first "big" bike after the GN250 that I learnt to ride on (still have the GN). It is a great bike. Goes like the clappers and, with a good rider on it, is even a match for Brendon's Ducati at road legal speeds. (When we would ride together, he would get ahead, but he's a more experienced and better rider than me). It is as big a bike as I need - being reasonably short, bigger bikes don't really fit me anyway. I like to be able to touch the ground at stop lights without leaning the bike over at a precarious angle!

We had some great adventures on our bikes - but this was before pregnancy and children! For me, pregnancy and motorbike riding do not match. And I've decided that what free time I have now I would rather spend with my children than on a solo bike mission. Motorbikes are also expensive to keep - registration costs just keep rising, then there's insurance, warrants, general upkeep, etc etc.

So, it was bye-bye GSF. There will still be motorbikes around to buy when I ride again.

Car

Mum and Dad just visited - a quick drop in as they drive past us on the way to Gisbourne. The visit was, of course, way too short! So much to see and be shown and to read and to examine in such a short time!

On their way north, we had arranged for a short visit to Playcentre to show the children the car (which is a 1926 Morris Oxford). Isabelle and Aidan rode from our place with Grandma and Grandad. Aidan decided to wear a baby's bonnet, which looked very cute. (Hmmm, could this be telling me something about how he feels about Orla?!).

The Playcentre children looked initially a bit unsure of what to do. But one of our lovely Playcentre ex-parents, who is now working on session, brought them over with interesting questions about how the car looked, and whether or not it was different from their cars. He pointed out the running boards, the lack of a roof, and noted the luggage carrier on the back. The children started to mill around. One examined the spoked wheels, while another touched the headlights and the rotational starter at the front. Isabelle and Aidan sat up in the car. A child asked to sit inside, and a queue to do this quickly formed. (Isabelle did not want to move - she had ownership over that seat, and since she only sees her grandparents every so often, I decided that that would be OK). One girl said that she thought the car was new, not old "because it looked so smart". We took some photos.

All too soon it was time to go. The children watched as Dad started the car using the rotational starter, rather than the starter inside the car. A quick reversing manoeuvre, a couple of toots on both horns and they were off.

I think I'll make a poster out of the photos for the Playcentre wall. Having said that, I haven't seen how they have come out yet - hopefully there's a couple of goodies in there.

Shadow

"Look" says Aidan, calling me over to the window. "It's long!"

I look down to where he's pointing. His shadow stretches across the lounge room floor in the late afternoon. We look at my shadow too.

That night, Brendon turns out the lights and the full moon casts its light into the lounge. Aidan watches, wide-eyed and grinning as Brendon makes shadow pictures on the wall with his hands.

At 1.45 am, Orla wakes for a feed. Aidan turns in his sleep and murmurs "a shadow, a shadow".

It's sunny today - I think I'll make chalk drawings of our shadows once Aidan wakes up. We can mark out and compare their changes in direction and length as the afternoon goes on.

Parents' day

Today was parents' day at Fairy Ballet. Brendon went to work early, then we picked him up at 3.00 so he could watch too. Eight little girls were in the class. Eight mothers, three fathers, one big sister, one little sister and two little brothers were in the audience.

We watched as our little girls stretched, pranced like ponies, walked on their toes, waved magic wands, were mermaids by the sea with strings of pearls, and sang and danced a ballet version of "The Wheels on the Bus". Once again, a great time had by all.

We took some photos and short videos on our camera. We got a video of Isabelle's final curtsey - always my favourite part!

Numbers

Isabelle asked:
"Why is everyone's favourite number 10?"
"I'm not sure it is everyone's favourite number".
"Then why does everyone always count to 10?"

Interesting. How do you explain our base 10 counting system to a four year old in an interesting and relevant way? I talked about how we had ten fingers and ten toes, and that we thought about numbers and wrote them in groups of ten. She seemed satisfied with that, but I wonder how much she understood. Interesting that she even thought to ask the question too.