Vale Rhonda

last thursday evening one of percy's carers/teachers from her child care centre was tragically struck by two cars while walking home, and died. rhonda was a loud and lovely woman muched appreciated by her charges and their parents. sure, she had grumpy moments, don't we all, but she cared so much and was always the first to comfort upset kids, read stories and encourage all activities.
rhonda had no children of her own, tho with a number of nephews and nieces and all the children she looked after and taught at sdn i'm sure she's cared for more than most people ever will.

i wonder whether percy will miss her? i explained to her that rhonda would not be at day care today. i did say that she had died. i don't think percy has the foggiest idea that life ends and sometimes you'll never see a person again because they have died. i also don't think it necessary to sugar coat death to young people. she'll work it out eventually and we'll be nearby if she needs us for anything. she does still ask about a little girl that moved away back in august. perhaps she does remember people well and is curious why she doesn't seem them any more. is she also sad? i explained, as best as able, that abby had moved to perth, which is a place far too far away to visit from.

the rest of the centre staff certainly miss rhonda and grieve for her. i got a call from the centre manager asking if we could pick percy up again on friday morning as services would not be up to par that day. it was a very sombre feeling in the treetops room this morning too when percy and i arrived. i hope the day is going well.

vale rhonda, i know there is a dykes on bikes ride starring you going on somewhere right now.

what's that?

for over a week now percy had been asking the question "what's that?", about everything. even things she's knows. i try to give her simple answers; it's a box, it's a spatula, it's a book, but when she holds up her baby sign language book open to the page for "pain" it's a little tricky. since she was very little we've described bumps and bashes and general scrapes as a "bonky", as in; "did you get a bonky on your knee?" if she falls over and appears to have hurt her knee. so i tried to explain what was on the page as "it's the sign for pain, you know when you get a bonky and it hurts, well you can describe that as pain." while i also do the sign for pain. i hope she understood me!

i think we should be gratefully she's only asking "what" so far, not "how" or "why"- those ones i'm not looking forward to.

some recent piccies

do you see a theme here?

a nite's sleep

sorry there hasn't been anything posted in the past week. it's been a bit 'same old, same old' at the percy house. she is talking even more, getting quite good at saying "please"; or rather "peese" with the 'l' left out. she tips her head to the side and nods at the same time. it's super cute. i think she's thinking if she asks for something, says please, nods and looks cute all at the same time how can we possibly deny her!

anyways, on to the important message of the morning... percy slept thru the nite last nite!! hurrah! from 7:30pm to 6am. very welcome. 'course it won't continue but we'll just have a little celebration just now.
what prompted this long sleep? not sure, unless it was the slightly mixed up day she had yesterday. we went out in the morning, percy in the backpack. by 10:30am she'd nodded off to sleep in it! what's with the morning droopies? she did the same thing on saturday which was a bit of a disappointment as we were at our parents group christmas breakfast. percy was tired and fussy and crying most of the morning. we ended up taking her home at 11am, she promptly fell asleep in her cot at 11:30am- an hour before normal nap time.

so yesterday she had this little doze in the backpack, which i must say didn't look that comfy, but then woke up when i needed a morning tea stop at a cafe. percy had a babyccino. she loves them! she even asks for 'coffee' now, accompanied by the nod, smile, tip of head cuteness mentioned above.
we continued our walk about until she cracked the poopies just on 12:30pm, which granted is her nap time. we rushed home to lay her in her cot, only to have her not sleep. despite all sorts of ruses she didn't fall asleep until 2:15pm. we got her up at 4pm thinking we'd never get her back to sleep come bed time otherwise.
she did got to sleep quite easily at bed time, and no peep until 6am. wowee! maybe we need to have mucked up days more often?

busy weekend

with oma visiting for friday and saturday nite we made the last minute decision to skip swimming class (which we're not sure we're getting value for money for anyways) and go to the beach instead. we went to quiet la perouse, i think the actual beach name is something starting with 'c' but i can't remember. it was really nice. the water was cool to start but very yummy once in. we even got percy to practice a few 'tiger arms' and kicking anyways. oma and paul got little nibbles on their feet from what we figure were tiny crabs, percy and i missed out- yay! percy also liked building sand castles and heaping sand on our shoulders and feet.

clambering around the rock pools looking for crabs and other interesting sea life was also well received. percy was quite happy to plunge her hand in and touch the seaweed, shells, crabs, dead crabs and assorted other aquatic worldliens. perhaps i should learn to identify what might harm her before i let her do this... oh well!

she crashed big time in the car on the way home. what an exhausted little munchkin.

then on sunday we drove to wollongong for percy's grandma's birthday. we had a very nice (and very expensive, which we were generously shouted) lunch. there was a jazz/swing band at the restaurant. i thought percy would be interested in seeing the instruments and maybe dancing. was she!??! throughout the meal and afterwards one of us was taking her over to get a closer look and to dance- which comprises nodding and swaying her head, stomping, swaying from foot to foot and sometimes doing a twirl. she was also lucky enough to be invited to play the piano during a set break. she got a bit shy and only touched the keys a couple of times tho. it is much bigger piano than her little five key toy at home after all!

it was a weekend of old people! ha ha

feet fairly flying

one day last week and again yesterday, paul wasn't able to collect percy from day care. it was ok for me to leave a little early so i picked her up instead.

it is an odd and powerful feeling to be on your way home to collect your little girl after not seeing her for eight hours. i barely notice the train stopping until we get to newtown. then because macdonaldtown, where i get off, is the next stop, i'm down in the vestibule, ready to go before the train has even pulled out of newtown. i know the backyards and the houses we pass quite well, as i stare out the window willing the train to get to macdonaldtown just that fraction of a second earlier.
the doors open and i leap out and bounce down the stairs. up burren street, burst out at erko shops, past the train station, down erko road and suddenly there i am at the front door! how did i get here? i really don't remember walking this familiar route at all. my feet were fairly flying, my heart is beating, not just from the brisk walk and then i see her gorgeous form, her wispy hair, her bright eyes and when she sees me the most enormous smile and strong, reaching arms.
ahhhhh... our cuddle sets the earth back on its right track.

woo ha ha ha

last nite after percy's bath she and paul were telling each other stories and talking while percy got dried off and dressed in her 'jamies. some part of the story paul was telling involved the classic, evil 'take-over-the-world' laugh- "woo ha ha ha!" percy then had a go at this laugh. it was just too funny! in her little, gorgeous girl voice she imitated him quite well. it just didn't sound terribly evil. i doubt anyone would be quaking in their boots with fear after hearing it. never mind, she thought it was funny, we all did actually.
the other funny thing percy did a few nites back was try to pass off a fart to her pappa! we've taught her the word 'fluff', thinking this might be more socially acceptable. plus watching her bottom lip curl in and her eyes twinkle as she says 'fluff' is really adorable. anyways, percy fluffed while having her milk and i grinned at her saying "you fluffed!", she grinned back and said "pappa fluff!" had us both in stiches for a good number of minutes. does she understand the humour of blaming fluffing on other people? i can only suppose so.

nice sleep

percy slept from 7pm to 5:50am last nite, not needing a settle or a whisper from us at all. yippee!
the nite before i only went in once for five minutes at 10pm.

'course i'm not holding on that this will continue- once bitten (read tens of times!), twice shy.

weekend with/without percy

percy spent last saturday nite (29th nov) with her her grandparents again. it's a long drive to drop her off and return again the next day to pick her up but it is nice to have some toddler free time.
percy had a good time; she even baked us some little cakes on sunday morning...

(sorry i can't figure out how to get the picture up. will ask paul when he gets home tonite)

sy park playground piccies 2

sydney park adventure playground

about a fortnite ago the new playground in sydney park opened. (the official opening is next weekend.) we've had some super fun times on the swings, the roundy-round (for lack of a better name), the musical bridge- wooden bridge with silver knobs to stomp on that then chime different notes, the mirrors that change your appearance as you move in front of them from tall and thin to fat and short, the lovely wooden wombats, the range of slides, and most particularly the sand pits that have water sprinklers built into them! percy has soaked herself and giggled and covered herself in sand quite a few times now.

quite cutely she's also dubbed the set of three wombats as "pappa", "mamma" and "percy."

i finally remembered to take the camera on thursday...

shelling peas

to make a delicious paella last week percy and paul had to shell the peas. percy really got into this old fashioned task...

tonsilitis

so that explains why she's been very miserable the last three days! after two days of not sleeping, eating barely anything and feeling warm to the touch i took percy to her doctor yesterday afternoon. we left with a diagnosis of tonsilitis; the infectious kind and a script for a run of antibiotics. i didn't even know there was more than one kind of tonsilitis, or that it could be infectious. live and learn.

it's a good thing chooken takes her medicine happily. the antibiotics are three times a day, three 1ml droppers each time, plus we've given her panadol three times now to help ease the headache that she is likely to have from the blocked ears and nose. on top of that we've given her twice now a dose of 'incremin' which is a product that is supposed to supply extra nutrients and vitamins to non-eaters. well, it actually says on the packet, poor or fussy eaters, but i figure that's what they mean.
she evens says "medicine" and tips her head back with an open mouth for the dropper. i remember trying to give her panadol months and months ago when she'd thrash and scream and wail. thank god those days seem past.

we've had a interesting development with pi too. he's actually coming to percy for a pat. perhaps he knows she's ill and wants to comfort her. it's sweet. the last three nites he has come into her bedroom while we've been reading her good nite story. she hops off my lap and as we repeat "gentle", "quiet", " softly", "sshhhh", "slowly", "gentle", "sshhh", "pi doesn't like loud noises", she will kneel next to where he has lain down and stroke him and lay her head on his side. all that stuff about animals knowing that children are different and lovely, that animals are more patient, tolerant and forgiving is true! pi won't let us touch his feet, percy gets to poke at them nearly all she likes!
oopy still moves like greased lightening when percy is in his vicinity.

the antibiotics seem to be working well. percy was very chippier today with me staying home from work to look after her.

eating adventures

i thnk percy is probably eating a sufficient quantity of food now. the variety is what gives me headaches. i think she's aiming to survive on custard and cookies. not the most nutritious of choices.
however we do convince her to try other things occasionally- roast chicken last week and garlic prawns for lunch today...

how much do you need?

really, how much is actually necessary? my conclusion is a lot less than i previously thought.
i'm talking about sleep of course. (what else, hey?)

despite all our efforts, ideas and changes percy is persisting in waking two to three times a nite. seemingly most often between 11:30pm and 3am. she doesn't need a lot of help to go back to sleep; a drink of water from her sippy cup, the blankets pulled up and some minutes of quiet 'shooshing' gets her back to sleep in around fifteen minutes. despite the shortness of these actions they fact that they occur in the middle of our sleeping time is really disruptive. our regime is largely unchanged, meaning we go to sleep no later than 10pm, often and hour or two earlier and get up when percy does- anywhere from 5:30am onwards.

i think i can function on four hours of unbroken sleep with two to four hours of crap sleep thrown in the same nite. thankfully the last few nites i've been getting the unbroken four hours from around 2am to 6am so feel relatively rested when percy decides she's keen to get on with the day.

so, 4 hours! i used to think it was 9!

conjugating and counting

percy conjugated her first verb today! she has known the word 'pat', as in 'pat the dog' for months. she likes to pat toys to sleep while playing "sleepy" on the lounge in the evening or if in the morning she comes into our bed for a fifteen minute cuddle before we can bear to crack our eyelids open she'll often give us a pat too. this morning she was seated between us, patting us both simultaneously and said 'patting.' wow!

percy also seems to be counting in binary. she'll repeat to herself while picking items up or pulling her magnets off the fridge - "two, four, six, eight." what's with that? sometimes she'll forget "four", but what happened to one, two, three, four, five, etc...?

observations in ashfield

1.
while walking about ashfield i'm given to making assumptions about the demographics of the area. i have noticed there are two very large discount chemists, at least three other chemists, a discount vitamin store and a priceline (something of a discount chemist) and about six doctors/general practitioners offices/surgeries within two blocks. me thinks the population is rather ill, or at least concerned about fending off illness.
on the other hand there are five small to large fresh fruit and vegetable stores in the same proximity. surely with all that fresh produce illness is not so prevalent?

2.
an over-heard conversation in the office today centred on the age and ability of women to bear and raise children. i'm feeling very gen x now. i believe the women whose conversation i could hear are between 7 and 12 years younger than me, childless and very gen y.
i could not help but smile when they flatly said they would not give up their lifestyle to accommodate a child. they despaired over friends or acquaintances that were no longer '48 hour party people' and that had children that were monsters. oh dear... i did hold my tongue. i considered asking them what they would do if in the situation of having no family within two hours reach, no money for bought care and a child that screamed to the point of vomiting if separated from their mother? hmmmm...

3.
contining my eavesdropping (hardly my responsibility in an open plan office) i wondered at the selfishness or maybe it's the self control of these gen y'ers. one was explaining that her and her partner have been together four years, during which they were friends first and trialled living together for six months before they committed to their relationship. perhaps it's just me but i found this odd. when i fell in love with paul it was instantaneous, it brooked no argument or dissent, it was uncontrollable, there was not any necessary logic to it and it is endless. thinking of a trial living together or wondering whether this is the match for me, for life, is causing me to giggle now- it's just untenable and unreal. maybe this is a mark against me, and that i should be more dispassionate about love. what a ridiculous statement! that's the whole point of love; it is passionate and consuming and fearless.

nothing really about percy in these observations... oh well.

times two

this morning i was lucky to look after rose for a couple of hours. she came to music class with percy and i and then down to the playground for parents group. at music it was a bit new for rose so she was content to sit on my lap and listen for most of the time. she was happy to join in with the big circle of parents and kids towards the end for singing, stomping, waddling, wing flapping and waving. percy has now settled in enough that she was fine to get along with my complete attention. we had a little issue when rose got a stamp on her hand at the beginning of class (because she was a special visitor) while percy had to wait 'til the end of class for hers. percy was not impressed as she covets those little stamps and wanted hers up front too. she came around eventually.
two activities that both girls enjoyed together was first pretending soft scarves were wings and flapping them up and down, particularly when the scarves ran over their faces. rose giggled and percy smiled, both with shining eyes during this, and second rolling and passing blow up balls back and forth.

walking down to our usual playground for parents group was slow going. i put percy in the stroller because rose is the better walker. meaing rose will stay by your side and hold your hand while percy thinks it is hilarious to dash off in the opposite direction. rose probably walked three quarters of the way, carried the rest.
it was just us at the park because everyone else was sick or otherwise unable to make it. but that was ok. there were plenty of other children, mostly girls (must be girly day out, today) at the playground. we had a fab time on all the equipment. percy even "learnt" how to push rose on the swing. i held her across my hips so that she could reach rose's back and give her a little shove. i'm not sure who liked it more- percy laughed the whole time.

heading home was slow going too. rose walked some of the way, then i swapped her into the stroller, trying to convince percy to either stay with us or help push. helping push the stroller was the best trick. she did do a few dashes back the way we had come. and then chris and sarah were waiting when we arrived. not bad timing.

i think i could do this times two gig. there's absolutely no time to stop but so long as they're both on the same sleep/ nap regime... let's not get too cocky!!

melbourne cup

percy watched the melbourne cup horse race on the teev last week. she loves horsies now. she even had her own "horse" to ride... no bets made or lost.

tessa

i know i am seriously stealing their thunder... but i had to say that our friends sarah and chris now have baby tessa, making rose a big sister! wowee.
tessa was born 3 and 1/2 weeks early, last nite at 7pm.
which means our mothers group is on to it's second round! three other mums are pregnant too.

we've elected to stay home instead of going on the blue mountains trip, and help out sarah and chris. we're only a few blocks from their home and their family is in new zealand. other friends- emma and david, are going to use the cottage we'd rented. better that someone gets to enjoy it than it sits empty.

new in november

percy keeps growing and amazing us. her comprehension and word use is continuing to gallop along. i'm convinced she understands 90% of what we say to her. she's also able to repeat every single word she hears, whether she knows what it means or the context, or not. for instance a part of one of her books that moves the tail of an animal has been repaired so many times it's just not going to work again. i told her this morning it was 'busted-arse', it's cute to hear her babbling on her way to day care saying "bus-sed-ass" over and over. or should i be appalled? (at me.)

we've also had success with a mini 'time out' behaviour modification experiment. percy still occasionally likes to put her feet on the table at meal times. paul told her firmly at dinner a few nites ago that if she did not keep her feet down then she would be put away from the table and not be able to eat. (perhaps not much of a threat for a kid that doesn't eat much in the first place.) up go the feet again, accompanied by a sly grin. paul pulled her chair away from the table while explaining why. she yelled and cried but upon returning to the table 60 seconds later kept her feet nicely under it for the remainder of a pleasant dinner. we've yet to repeat this experiment for other undesirable behaviours, maybe it was a fluke?

i think the separation anxiety is lessening. after that one horrible week of leech clamping onto my leg at day care in the mornings percy has happily waved me away with kisses this week. sleeping has been a mixed bag. she's put herself to sleep with no action from us the last two nites, but she needed some rubbing and company previous nites. thru the nite we think she is largely waking up do to feeling cold. which is saying something for sticking with sleeping bags. whenever we go in to see her she has kicked off/ squirmed out of her blankets. hard to get out of a sleeping bag. but since we took her out of the sleeping bags she's also out grown them. buying new ones the next size up is about $70 a pop. the idea of getting her out of sleeping bags was also to help with toilet training in the future. once she transfers to a bed the plan is she'll learn to take herself to the toilet thru the nite. anyways, all the pros and cons added up mean we'll stick with blankets.

sometimes percy shares beautifully, other times the world is made entirely for her benefit thank-you-very-much-i'll-have-that-now! (rising crescendo) she will offer toys to us or other kids but not very often yet. she also doesn't get waiting for a turn on the swing. tho waiting for a turn on the slide doesn't seem to be so agitating. go figure, hey? she's possessive about balls and her bike. well, the bike is kinda special, i'd probably be possessive about it too. who am i kidding, i am possessive about my bike!
she shares her meals with us too. or psyches us. meaning she holds some food out in her hand to us and says ''mamma eat" or "pappa food", then as we reach for it or lean in to have her put it in our mouths she snatches her hand back and gobbles it up herself, with a laugh! i'm sure we shouldn't encourage this but it is hilarious.

we're off to the blue mountains tomorrow with all the other parents and toddlers from parents group for two nites. staying at a family holiday place called 'federation gardens.' every one seems very keen. i'm being a bit grouchy and just seeing the long drive, the expense and the inconvenience of being away from the ready accessibility of home. i think i'll come 'round...
let you know next week.

the case of the disappearing/ reappearing nappies

some weeks ago i counted up percy's cloth nappies. we bought 20 when she was born. due to some slackness on our part one became too badly stained after sitting with unwashed poo on it for a few days, to be used again. that one got thrown out, leaving us obviously with 19. however my count revealed we only had 12. hmmmm...? where had these $20 a piece nappies disappeared to? we were also down two $35 each cloth covers.
i concluded after much deliberation that they'd vanished while at day care. which is a real connundrum as i don't want to march in there accusing them of either losing or throwing out over $200 worth of nappies. i can only think they went missing while at day care because at home and at day care are the only places we use them. if, for example, we are going to paul's parents or out for most of the day we generally use disposable nappies for the convenience. hence, unless someone pinched them off the clothes line (!) day care is the only place left.

i'm further confirmed in this opinion because yesterday in percy's bag when she came home from day care was one cloth nappy and one cover. for the past two weeks we been sending disposable nappies to day care so these two must have been there for at least this amount of time. (we've decided we can't afford to risk losing more cloth nappies- meaning the weekly shopping bill has just gone up by $22 for disposables.)
i'm very pleased to have a cover back. the $35 not withstanding it's easier to keep the system going with three or more (we were rotating 4) covers.

perhaps if i'm patient more disappeared nappies will reappear!


p.s. we've had some good nites of sleep with percy lately. we've even convinced her when she wakes at 4:45am or 5:30am or somewhere around there to go back to sleep for another hour or so. this morning paul pulled her blankets up and she went back to sleep 'til 7am! wowee!

new ball game

literally. on the weekend we took percy to harry noble playground on her tricycle. she still very much likes riding and is very good about putting on her helmet. she says "helmet" repeatedly while preparing to go out and says and does "chin up" so we can buckle it on.
anyways, her little soccer ball pretty much lives in the parcel bucket on the trike; percy and her pappa discovered a new ball game...

the redeeming

i'm pleased to report that percy slept very well last nite. i pulled her blanket up with a five minute "shoosh" at 12:30am and no more peeps until 5:30am. when i told her it wasn't time to get up yet. she nodded off for another 45 minutes. ah, rest...

the ugly

well, yesterday i didn't have an "ugly" to go with the good and the bad. now i do.
oh dear, we'll never understand what a good nights sleep is ever again. being this tired makes me despair. why all the moaning...

percy allowed us about four hours sleep last nite.

because of the inconsiderate neighbours the nite before we thought we would go to bed nice and early and get some much needed z's. we were all tucked up by 9pm.
i first pulled her blanket up and 'shooshed' her at 11:30pm, then again at 12:30am, when she was awake again only ten minutes later i knew we were in for a bad one. we tried all the usual tricks but didn't close our eyes again until 3:45am. then little miss had the hide to wake up at 5:45am.

oh christ! breakfast at the wahltuch/ blumkaitis house this morning was not cheerful. i'm ready to resort to witch doctors to get some sleep tonite!

the bad

while percy slept quite well last nite we hardly slept at all. our arsehole neighbours got married today. which was excuse enough for them to play loud music, scream and smoke cigarettes under our window until 1am last nite. despite us asking them twice to shut up and the cops asking them once, they were undeterred. i really don't give a flying f**! if they were getting married, my life and everyone elses' goes on. including for us a baby that never, ever, ever sleeps past 6am. which suits us fine if we've been asleep ourselves from around 10pm the nite before.

we've resolved we can't stand it any more. we've had a litany of neighbours from hell for five years. we need a free standing house in a quiet locale. which sad to say we don't believe exists in erskineville. or at least not in our price range. we're selling up and moving on. i'll really miss it as, despite the opinion of a great many people (including our respective parents) erskineville is not a rubbishy hole. it's really sweet and friendly. it's welcoming and different. it's convenient and contemporary. i really like that the guys in the video shop, the fruit and veg shop, the chinese take away, the pizza take away, the deli and the newsagency know our names. that the doctors and the chemist know percy so well. that everything we want in our lives is a short walk or bike ride (or if absolutely necessary a short drive) away. i like the narrow streets and the trees and the mix of houses. i particularly like the weirdos and freaks. they're our kind of weirdos and freaks. i like that adam spencer rode past us on his bicycle when percy was just a few weeks old and congratulated us. i like all the cafe people being so friendly and chatty. i like the well mannered dogs that percy loves to pat (and the well mannered owners who clean up after their dogs.) i like the little pocket parks and the expanses of sydney park.

oh well..... (sigh)

who's to say we won't find these things elsewhere? or something even better? at present- me!

the good

percy slept well last nite. she needed a little shush at 10pm and then her blankets pulled back up with an even littler shush at 3:30am, then she woke at 5:45am for a cuddle in our bed for half an hour.

we had planned to meet some friends this morning at tamarama to enjoy 'scuplture by the sea' together. unfortunately poor baby rose was very ill. so she wasn't up to it plus her parents needed to stay home and catch up on sleep. and paul's cousins simply could not get a parking spot. they drove around for half an hour looking unsuccessfully. i think the only reason we got a spot is because we have a small hatch back car and are used to "kirribilli parking." we call it kirribilli parking because this is the first place that we lived together where parking is extremely rare and tight. if you can park in kirribilli- with 48 tiny reverses and pulling forward to get into a spot; we say you can park anywhere!

so we walked around the headland just the three of us. percy was very well behaved and interested in a number of the sculptures. she particularly liked a wire 'igloo' type installation that she crawled inside of. however once inside she decided it was poo time. not really a big deal, except that i've noticed percy kinda stalls after a poo until her nappy is changed. meaning i had to crawl in after her and carry her out ape/commando style. it was fun actually- and i wasn't the only grown-up to be crawling thru!

we had a little swim at tamarama after too. percy's only been in pools or little wave seas (black sea and wakiki) so far in her life. she wasn't too sure about the slightly bigger waves at tamarama. it was pretty cold too; i didn't push the issue of staying in! she loved covering me in sand once back on our towel anyways.

piccies...

separation anxiety

poor monkey seems to be going thru an age-appropriate developmental thingo at present. all three days this week when i have dropped her at day care she has cried and wailed not to be left without me. she hasn't done this in months and months. it's really awful.

we arrive happily enough; go thru the ritual of putting the stroller away, putting raffles on her bed, putting her bag in her locker and then sitting down for some second breakfast.
on monday as i was walking out the door after saying good bye and getting kisses from her, she started to cry. the staff stepped in and comforted her quickly. when i rang a half hour later they said she had calmed down quickly and eaten her breakfast.
yesterday was the same except the tears started as i was saying goodbye next to her little chair at the breakfast table.
today she didn't even sit long enough to get any food in front of her. as soon as she sat down she slid off and wrapped herself around my legs, crying plaintively.
of course when i insist on leaving the crying becomes screaming and twisting her body about to be let down so she can chase after me. luckily her teachers are adept at helping her cope at these times and distract her with stories or activities with the other children.

still i feel awful. i want to insist to paul that one of us doesn't work at least every one of the week days so that she can stay with us. that's a pipe dream...

separation anxiety, i have read, often kicks in around this age because toddlers are getting more capable of exploring their world on their own, braver and bigger, but still require a secure base they can come back to, and lots of reassurance that it's all okay.
this could also explain why this week and a little last week, while her bedtime routine is the same and she happily goes to bed, as soon as we get up and walk out the door she starts to cry for us. some nights she'll drop off to sleep on her own anyways, other nites, like last nite, i rubbed her back and "shooshed" her for about ten minutes.

i feel so sorry for her that she doesn't feel brave and strong all the time. it's overwhelming to be little and not in control. poor chooken, as i've started calling her.

p.s

percy slept thru last nite (moday 20 oct)! she took a little while to go to sleep initially- paul and i took turns rubbing her back and 'shooshing' 'til she fell asleep (about 40 minutes in total- but that included turning all the lights on and chasing out a big blow fly that was just irritating the shit out of all of us.)
she woke up and came into our bed for a 1/2 hour cuddle at 6am.
keep up the good effort bubby!

horsies!

as part of the on-going 'art and about' horse thingo (you might recall we had a lump of clay to fashion into a small horse some weeks ago) there was a procession of horses thru the streets of erskineville on saturday afternoon. rose and her daddy chris came over to watch them go past our front door with us. the girls both seemed to enjoy the novel afternoon with much pointing, hair pulling (poor chris) and squeals.

cold toes

percy insists on taking off her shoes and socks regularly. she sometimes then also insists that we do too. when i complained to her the other day of having cold toes; this was her solution...

i'm not convinced of the efficiency.

previously she has insisted on us taking our clothes off too (i think her pappa put her up to it- to get me naked!)

music class resumed

after a two week school holiday break, music classes resumed on wednesday. percy is now in an older age group- 18 months to 3 years. part of our take home materials inlcuded two harmonicas. which she just found enthralling. we went up king street in the afternoon, percy on her trike, puffing thru the harmonica the whole way! because she was holding on to the handle bars with her hands and the harmonica with her mouth she could only make the one same note, over and over. oh well, she loved it.

sydney children's festival

on the 8th of oct for our usual wednesday parents group get together we went to carriageworks in eveleigh where some of the children's festival was being held. i forgot to charge the camera batteries so didn't get that many pictures but some...

there was lots of great things to do- climbing, drawing, a swamp forest to explore, bottles filled with coloured water to tap out tunes on, shadows to make and what seemed to be percy's favourite- cards! she may have been making up the rules to hold-'em poker tho, i'm not sure.

nice to nazgool in point 9 of a second

for those that need a little reminder prompt the nazgool are the nine undead kings enslaved by sauron in the lord of the rings trilogy. (i spelt it phonetically, don't know if it is correct.)

we think this is an apt description of percy on monday nite. she wailed and screamed from 1:30am just like the nazgool are depicted as doing in the LOTR movies. for a bloody hour and a half!! how can a kid sustain that sort of energy and focus?!
she is very wilful (see her gene pool for reasons why!) and had in her head that she would sleep in the big bed with mamma and pappa monday nite. she had been sleeping with us, or at least me as paul again decamped to the lounge, during her stomach bug illness and again when her fever was running its course. she obviously got a taste for it.
by 3am both paul and i were sitting on her bedroom floor, shaking our heads and despairing of ever sleeping again, while little miss, most tragically, clutching her teddy bear in one hand, head down, crawled slowly down the corridor towards our bedroom. if it hadn't been so frustrating and enraging it would have been sad.

what happened in the end? we gave up and gave in.

yesterday we were determined to get back on routine. we thought we'd have more success because her and i would be home together. it's working a bit. she had her nap in her cot with less than ten minutes of protesting. went to sleep in her cot last nite with no protest, put herself back to sleep without intervention from us when she woke mid nite. at 4:30am she woke and came into our bed. oh well, better than 10:30pm
she started her nap today in her cot without a bother. so progress in the right direction...

it's lucky she's so adorably adorable the rest of the time! because when nice little bubba goes nazgool on us it's really hard.

yet again

percy cam home early from day care on friday as she had a high temperature. needless to say we've had a pretty rotten weekend. tho she seems quite good this evening. hopefully she'll sleep well tonite and we can get back to normal tomorrow.

tricycle!

on monday afternoon we bought percy a tricycle! she seems to love it already.
piccies of assembly, riding about yesterday and then today when she fell asleep at the wheel! (handlebars.)

words, words, words

people tell me that percy has advanced language skills for her age. without having a head too big to fit thru average door-ways, i'm somewhat inclined to agree.

she repeats everything we say immediately. she only has to hear it once to recognisably repeat it. not just paul and i recognising it either, other people too. (this was manifestly brought home to us this morning when i said "fuck" at pi our cat and she promptly repeated "pi fuck, pi fuck". oh dear.)

she knows the meanings of most of what she says too. (thankfully not the word in the previous brackets.) good ones this week are "come", while holding out her hand to led you somewhere, "hot" when she sees steam, "milk" and "bottle", "open" and "close", "empty" and "more" what paul swears was "pretty mamma" this afternoon, and potentially the ability to count!? surely not. this is what makes us think this... percy asked for a water bottle "lid" that was on the draining board, paul handed it to her, she then asked for another one, once she had both in her hands she clearly said "two lids", i kid you not! yes, yes, we'll be signing her up for mensa soon.

the other upside of this language explosion (aside from feeling like we spawned a genius) is that we are all able to communicate with each other far better than previously. unless of course she's latched onto a word that is right for her but makes no sense to us- then she gets really frustrated at how thick her parents are.

her favourite song at present is baa baa black sheep. this is as much as she can sing...
"baa baa back sheep
....
yes sir, yes sir
.... full
one ....
and one ....
and one for the ...."

at the end we substitute "...for the little girl who lives on smiths lane" she claps enthusiastically for more.

October 2008

what a big month it has been already, and it's not yet a full seven days old.
percy has recovered from her stomach bug. seemingly quite quickly as on saturday at our parents get together tara told me that joe was vomiting for eight days when he had a run-in with a stomach bug a while ago. poor little fellow! he also lost a kilo in weight over the time it took him to beat it.
she was still under the weather and quick to tire on saturday. she had two naps instead of her usual one.

on sunday we all drove to paul's parents in wollongong in the morning but only two of us drove home an hour or so later. drum roll.... after carrying in all the necessary paraphenalia to keep a toddler healthy and happy for a day and night, staying to play for a short while and be sure she was comfortable with where she was, paul and i left percy with her grandparents for the night! was it harder for her or me? me, i think.
percy had a parting sook and cry but was happy reading a book five minutes later. she also had her great aunt thelma and great uncle steve to entertain her. they are back from their months and months explore of australia in skippy the campervan. (if anyone is wanting to buy a campervan they've got a good one to off load.) we have been advised to go easy on the "great" label but it's such fun to tease!

so, paul and i came home by ourselves. i think i did remarkably well for my first over night separation from my baby. no tears, no wailing, no wringing of the hands, no waking up in cold sweats! i understand percy did equally well. she loves her grandparents dogs so was well distracted and entertained by them. particularly when she woke at 3am and needed some help going back to sleep. apparently one jumped up on the bed she was sharing with her gran and laid his head over her legs- how sweet!
when we returned on monday morning to collect her she was happily, and very concentratingly (word?) mixing up some pancakes in the kitchen. we were in the door and watching her for five minutes or more before she noticed us.

what does one do on a baby free afternoon and night? well, first you take a nap.


huh? what? there's something after that? oh yeah, right... what next...

second, you see a movie without worrying about turning the volume down because you're in a cinema and the baby ain't going to get woken up. third, you come home and doll up for a night out with your perfect husband. fourth, you have a great cocktail called a bonsai kitten at madam fling flongs. (you could have more but one was enough to make me stagger so that'll do.) fifth, you sample as much of the tapas at madam ff's that you can stuff in. sixth, you walk home holding hands under a starry sky (disregard the fact that it was cloudy and the city lights pretty much drown out the stars.) seventh, your devoted husband gives you the best body massage you've ever had. eigth, you... that'll do! this is a blog about percy afterall. she's well under-age!

that's the biggest news. we not only survived but enjoyed a night apart from each other.

absolutely awful

percy is still awfully sick. i had a dose last nite too. thankfully i've mostly thrown it off today, feeling low but not outright miserable like she is. the whole family has stayed home to look after each other and be quiet together.
no vomiting from percy for more than 24 hours now so perhaps she's on the mend in that regard. she has eaten tiny amounts and drunk a reasonable amount of water. just hanging in there now...

bike helmet

oh oh oh!! gotta tell you this before i forget! on tuesday, when percy was still feeling well we had a super day. i rode us down to have lunch with pappa, on the push bike. percy of course had to wear her bike helmet. after her nap i needed to go up king street for a few things. percy went in her stroller- wearing her bike helmet the whole time!! she demanded to put it on and wouldn't take it off! can't get her to wear a hat for longer than 5 minutes but a bike helmet for over an hour- go figure.
needless to say we got a few weird looks from passers-by, particularly other parents or parents-to-be. i could just see in their heads "gee, do we need to get a helmet for the baby?" or "she's an over-protective mum!" it was very funny, i think i giggled quietly the whole trip.
she even refused to take it off at home. preparing dinner- sitting on the bench eating some cheese.

general update

prioir to being laid low with gastroenteritis percy has made some changes on the developmental milestone chart. or she's just growing up and we're responding to that...

1. she now brushes her teeth standing at the sink on a little step, previously she did it in the bath tub. (of course "brushes" is a bit of a generous description- she sucks the toothpaste off the brush, luckily it's a no-flouride hippy organic paste, and chucks a hissy fit if we try to "assist")
2. she dropped using a sleeping bag at night some weeks ago. can't remember when now. which is good because it's too hot for them now anyways.
3. is expanding her vocabulary and understanding- and making us understand her! she sometimes uses three word sentences tho mostly it's one word and signs.
4. is sleeping much better. when she's not sick of course. so we've had about a total of 4 weeks in the past 18 months of sleeping thru the nite without either of us making any visits to her bedroom or cot-side. hopefully as she gets healthier the good sleeping will become the norm!
5. is quite affectionate, asking for cuddles a lot. yippeee! i love this part.
(6. ain't eating much; even when well. oh well, persist, persist, persist. bllrrghhhh.)
7. back to the good stuff... she can climb lots of the equipment at day care and playgrounds. both her fine and gross motor skills seem to be pretty good.

anyways, while she's on her third nap of the day i ought to do some useful things too. nearly all the four sets of sheets she spewed all over are washed and put away again... nearly done.

stomach bug

percy's caught some nasty gastro bug at present. on tuesday nite after vomiting 4 times between 10pm and midnite we called our gp's after hours emergency service number. we've not used this before so didn't know what to expect. paul spoke to an 'operator', describing our situation and they advised that a doctor would be with us in about an hour, hour and a half. sure enough a doctor was at our front door at 1:30am. unfortunately but good, if you follow my meaning, percy had dozed off in the mean time. when the doctor entered the room she woke up, looked straight at him and said "hello." what a good little hostess!
the doctor pronounced that she does have a stomach bug but no temperature and nothing else wrong. there is no medication safe for a child under 12 years for vomiting and the like- you've just got to tough it out. lots of fluids. he advised if she's still sick in the morning to take her to our usual gp. this was the case. she was ok in the morning but after waking up from a sleep at 1pm she threw up the little she'd eaten in the morning.
thankfully no more vomiting for the remainder of the day and last nite. only once so far today. she managed to eat a little, tiny bowl of mash potatoe and half a slice of vegemite bread this afternoon. being all she has eaten in nearly three days. i've been coaxing water into her as much as possible.

she's listless, grumpy, doesn't want to be touched but does want cuddles and to be carried around (can't win) will read her books a fair bit but generally wants to do things for herself- which she can't at present. poor thing.

home from day care today with me, tomorrow it will be paul's turn.

her first nap of the day on mamma and pappa's bed. the t-shirt says "i'm definately up to something," quite funny but not the case today.

last needle

percy took her 18 month chicken pox vaccination needle very well on tuesday. this is the last needle until she is four years old. we'll all have forgotten about needles by then. i'm sure... i'm hoping...

we also conducted the usual statistical analysis- weight 11.7kgs, head circumference 40 something centimetres (see i forget this one all the time) and height 84cms. by some rule of thumb apparently a girls' height at 18 months is exactly half of what her full grown height will be. meaning percy will top the tape measure at 168cms. i find this very hard to believe. i'm 170cm, paul is taller than me while consistently generations have been getting taller. the generational change is attributed to improving health care and nutrition over the years. while these factors possibly can't increase forever i think they will continue to contribute. plus i just feel percy will be taller than me! that's all the scientific credibility i need!
she's a little over average for height and head circumference (75th percentile or so) and about in the middle for weight. all the questions asked by the doctor were answered in the affirmative except whether she is jumping. she knows the word, can say it and tries to jump- bends her knees and 'bops' up but her feet don't actually leave the ground. the conclusion was she is progressing well.

a particularly cute body part name percy has learned is "eyebrow." she points to either her own or ours and says in her adorable voice 'eye-bow', occasionally she'll add the "r." bellies and belly-buttons are still the favourite.

percy also really enjoyed a visit from her opa over monday and tuesday nites. they had lots of tickles and fun pulling a little toy dog on a string up and down the living room. sadly on wednesday morning opa went home and i had to repeat to her all day long that opa had gone back to his own home as she continued to ask "opa?"

temporary hiccup

from last week thursday, thru friday and saturday nights percy was in our bed. oh god that's hard. she woke each nite, after happily falling asleep at her usual bed time, between 8pm and 10pm. each nite she came into our bed, twice deposing paul to the lounge. the thing with her now coming into our bed, even tho she is not wailing and thrashing she isn't sleeping calmly. she wiggles, wriggles, turns, sits up, kneels up, bumps her head into the head board, elbows me in the eye (ouch!) talks, kicks, rolls..... uuuurrghhh. saturday nite was the worst. i gave up on the evening and went to bed with her at 8pm. paul followed suit not longer after. she slept to 10pm but then kicked paul so vigourously he left. unfortunately she didn't settle into immoving sleep until 5am!! then she woke for the day at 6:45am. f*#@!!

as i was moping about trying to get her dressed and breakfasted paul asked if i wanted the day off. normally i'd hesitate... not this time! 'yes, i want the bloody day off!' okay, he replied, i'll take her to wollongong to visit my parents. they were out the door at 8:30am and i was back in bed at 8:35am.

i'm sure this is a temporary sleep hiccup as she slept last nite in her own bed, all the way thru 12 hours, without a peep from 6:45pm to 6:45am. we had noticed over the weekend that she had a rash all over her much like the one she had when she had hand foot and mouth disease. it was milder this time and i didn't think she had any blisters on her hands and feet, perhaps one on her lip. perhaps it was just heat rash. i don't think heat rashes last three days tho. added to which she wasn't over dressed or over-blanketed at nite.
i think she has recovered today as i saw no rash. which is good because i took her to day care anyways. yay for the miracle of immunisation. if it was hfm, she threw it off a lot faster and with less fuss this time 'round than her first dose.

the day with gran and grandad went very well too apparently. percy loved playing her grandparents dogs dee and ti, throwing balls for them, having hot chips for lunch (oh dear) and walking on the beach. perhaps such a tuckering out day contributed to her sleeping well too.
whatever it was i don't care- i got to sleep without elbows in my eyes, feet in my stomach, hair in my mouth and hands tangled in my hair. aaaahhhh...

Spring

on tuesday night as i was brushing my hair before bed a leaf fell from it's captured spot to the floor. this lovely twirling fall made me smile so much.
earlier that day i'd taken percy to haberfield, ostensibly to visit a shoe shop that has opened there recently but also so i could spend some time in a suburb that i've travelled thru so many times but never dawdled about in.
we did buy two pairs of shoes (see previous post on the expense of childrens' shoes- gasp, gasp, hand me a paper bag!), and a pair of trousers for percy.

our season had definately turned that day. the sun was warm and strong. our afternoon tea stop in a little local park turned into a chase and tickle game across the springy grass. it's been many months since we've been able to enjoy the out-of-doors in this fashion. i've missed it badly. i so look forward now to being outside with percy as she can run, jump, tumble and turn for herself. her high giggle and huge smile as she tears away or into my arms catches my breath in my throat while i find my ribs too constrictnig for my heart.

of course chase and tickle naturally involves lots of rolling about on the ground too. hence how i captured a leaf in my hair, to later brush out and cherish the day it came from and the promise it delivers for future days. one little leaf of spring.

the mastery of parents or "can we fix it!?"

when i was little i could always go to either my mum or dad to get them to fix, repair, untangle, make good or otherwise return subject item to said purpose and use. it's the unshakeable belief of kids that their parents are able to do anything. untangle a ribbon or a shoelace- done, bike chain come off- back on, button fell off- sewn on, tree house needs a roof- built, walk on water- easy!

not only that the repairs could be made (space shuttle got a clonking noise? send it over!) but that they could be done immediately. or at least immediately enough that my memory says it was done that way. there was always time to address my and my brother's demands.

these magical feats of ability are a part of raising percy that i'm not looking forward to. i'm not terribly handy with a needle and thread or a hammer and nail, nor paint, nor hair elastics, nor any crafty, creative thing really. will my near god-like position be in tatters when percy comes to me with a some busted toy or heaven forfend- animal, and expect me to fix it, only to experience failure?
i'm not familiar, beyond the catch phrase, with the child entertainment juggernaut of "bob the builder." however i did work as a town planner while bob carr was nsw premier. the title was affixed to him too. so i know this idea of building and fixing. i'm also a wanna-be inner west dwelling environmentalist so the message of re-use, re-cycle is firmly in my firmament.
will i struggle gamely with busted arsed whatever it is? patching and plastering, to hand back to my sceptical off-spring with a smiling "ta-da!" only to find my handiwork stuffed down the back of the lounge months later because she knew it was busted arse and no amount of "ta-da!" was going to change that, yet she was too sweet and polite to tell me to my face. so she hid it, hoping we'd both forget that miserable attempt. (unfortunately i do get around to cleaning behind the lounge at least once every six months.)

but not yet! not yet to face the humilation of defeat and the tumble from mount olympus! percy presented me this morning with a book that has pieces one can pull and push to make animals move. she'd deftly amputated some tails and legs. even in my compromised state of being only dressed in a towel with a toothbrush in my mouth i re-attached those tails and legs, perhaps a little sideways, such that animals could once again hop and bounce and wag and run for her pleasure.
i am parent, hear me roar!

too good to be true?

with brilliant timing, tho in many ways months and months too late, percy clicked on to the "sleeping thru the nite" gig a fortnite ago- just in time for when i started my new job. so finally at 17 months and 4 days of age for percy, everyone slept all thru the dark hours in their own beds. and continued to do so! i haven't written anything about it because i was sure that would jinx the whole deal, sending cock-sure me back to the abyss of hell.

ok, that's a little exaggeration. the large-ish pit of exhaustion and frustration would be fair.

until last nite. percy woke at 10pm, not returning to sleep, in our bed while paul decamped to the lounge, until 12:45am. oh dear. i'm going to put it down to the extremely stimulating day she had yesterday, including a mucked up bedtime routine. the day went like this- 2nd breakfast out at a cafe, into the city for a burl thru the australian museum (thanx for the tip on that sarah g, it was very good), home for a nap, drive to glenwood (past castle hill) for cousin austen's 7th birthday, eat lots of sugary food, play and go crazy with the big kids then change nappy and clothes and into sleeping bag and car for the hour drive home at 7pm.
we figured she'd zonk it within seconds of being in the car but not to be. possibly she had so much to process she stayed awake until the last 15 minutes talking and singing and doing the actions with her arms. the actions to what i can't really say! paul finally got her to sleep with some 'shushing' and rubbing her arm. she transferred to her cot easily. unfortunately waking with a cough at 10pm kept her up.
i'm hoping getting back to the usual routine today will get us back on track to our eleven hours thru the nite. (please!)

two pairs of hands make light work

percy is an adorable little helper much of the time. trying to do usual household tasks while a little girl is sooking or wrapped around your legs is nigh on impossible. getting her involved is the trick.
yes, putting clothes in the washing machine one by one, or cutlery out of the dishwasher and into the drawer one by one, or picking up spilled cotton tips one by one is slow labour. however, compared to not getting it done at all taking twice the time is better.

last nite percy helped me unload the dishwasher, take some clothes off the drying rack, put her nappies in the dryer, take her nappies out the dryer (i often put them thru for five minutes to soften and fluff them up; they come off the line a bit like cardboard!) wipe the table and floor after dinner spills and most interestingly feed the cats! she hasn't fed the cats before. she eagerly forked out some tinned food and then reached into the dry food bag for handful after handful. very cute. unfortunately she hasn't got the idea that the dry food could be dropped from a few centimetres above the cats' food bowls. instead she mashed her handfuls right into the tinned food. oh well, a thorough washing of hands fixed that mess.

i think we can attribute much of her helpfulness to music class. huh? yes, music class. you see, at the end of every activity or song that requires instruments or other artefacts our delightful teacher tina sings "now it's time to pack away, pack away, now it's time to pack away, pack away." percy immediately leaps up and takes the instrument, ball, scarf whatever, over to the box or bag tina has ready. she'll also take the items from the other kids in class to pack them away too. this is both a good thing and bad thing. she's the biggest in class at the moment, next term (october) she'll move to the next age group class. so she's easily capable of snatching things from little babies that can't do anything about it. most of the time she's gentle or the babies mums are already handing things to her to pack away. i have had to slow her down a few times when she's been too fast/ eager/ rough/ dedicated to packing away.

we've taken up the "pack away" refrain at home. it's working great. generally in the evenings before bath and bed routine we are all on the lounge room floor together. paul and i will start singing and packing and percy enthusiastically joins in. it's a good prompt to let her know the bedtime routine is beginning, while making a game of putting her toys and books away. we haven't had any protests or tantrums to stay playing- yet! (cross fingers)

let's hope we get years and years of cooperation and fun out of household chores. ha ha ha ha ha....

clay horse update

since percys' interest waned in the clay horse making endeavour, paul took over and had the brain wave of making a horse shoe instead!
we left it out for collection last friday. let's hope it fires ok.

(p.s the t-shirt was a gift from one of the kiev programers. it says in cyrillic text russian for "thank god i'm not a muscovite", or something like that.)