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)