the day changes, the month changes, the season changes...
my job changes, my habits change too (hopefully!)
just a quick note more relevant to me than percy. started my new job at housing nsw today. instead of catching the train from erko to the city, i walked up to macdonaldtown and caught a train to ashfield. it's something of a luxury to travel against the main flow of commuter traffic- i not only got a seat, i got a row of three to myself with only about 20 people in the whole carriage. the trip from the child care centre to the office takes approximately 1/2 an hour- same as going to the city.
i'm also determined to get back to the yoga and pilates classes that stopped during the months percy and i were so sick. touch wood- percy is pretty snotty at the moment, hopefully this doesn't lead to another cold.
as the world turns north again the plan is for my satisfaction, happiness and life in general to look up too...
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
arrogance and aspiration
got to tell you this as it is hilarious! it goes straight to the heart of the arrogance and/ or the aspirations of parents.
anyways...
i was eating breakfast this morning with percy, reading a cycling magazine. i know i shouldn't be reading but i can't help myself. percy was sitting on my lap as she sometimes does. she leaned over the magazine, distinctly pointed to a big number "2" on the page and equally distinctly said "two".
did i laugh?!! of course percy can't read or recognise numerals. or can she......? cue twilight zone music....
anyways...
i was eating breakfast this morning with percy, reading a cycling magazine. i know i shouldn't be reading but i can't help myself. percy was sitting on my lap as she sometimes does. she leaned over the magazine, distinctly pointed to a big number "2" on the page and equally distinctly said "two".
did i laugh?!! of course percy can't read or recognise numerals. or can she......? cue twilight zone music....
Monday, August 25, 2008
P is for...
during our long weekend trip to the blue mountains, we stopped for lunch with our lovely friends amanda and tim. amanda presented percy with a great present that i have finally found a nice frame for and hung on the wall. it is in good company with her birth certificate and pictures that are extracted from 'the wind in the willows' and 'arabian nights'
thank you so much amanda. and sorry it has taken me so long to get it up.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
little baby to little girl
every so often percy will let me hold her in a tight little cradle hold that is completely reminiscent of holding her when she was a newborn. it's heart-wrenching sweet and i love the chances i get; most likely just before i put her to bed in the evening when she is tired and compliant, i can scrunch her up and kiss her little face. her warm, warm weight in my arms is love made solid.
i don't get to do it much because our little baby is very much a little girl now. i miss the tiny baby hugs, the absolute dependancy of her pressed against my heart. there are so many other things to love, of course!
her ready smiles, her attempts at jumping, doing the actions from favourite stories and songs- 'pop!', 'swim', 'kick', 'choo-choo train', her decisions on what to do when! (is that love or frustration?!), her speaking and her big girl hugs all make me smile and ache.
some of percy becoming a little girl has been led by her child care centre. in the past weeks they have advised us that we don't need to bring a sippy cup in anymore as she is drinking from ordinary cups. this was followed by the direction that a milk bottle is not necessary (she has/had a bottle of milk after waking from her day time nap), she takes her milk from a cup too. we have followed along not using sippy cups at home either. i'm starting to pack ordinary water bottles for our trips out too. i'm still giving her a bottle of milk after her nap. perhaps this is a baby thing i can't let go of yet.
also she has moved out a cot, instead sleeping in a low bed at day care. we still have the cot at home. i'm not sure i want to take the side off (it's one of those convertible cots) yet. at day care she also does not always sleep inside her sleeping bag. i'm not convinced we should follow this at home yet either as it is colder during the nites and i often find her in the mornings or thru the nite having kicked off her blanket, meaning it'll just be her 'jamies between her and the cold air. (yes, she remains a poor sleeper, we are often in to see her thru the nite, either to try to soothe her back to sleep in her own bed, or to admit defeat and carry her into our bed.)
her abilities and vocabulary continue to expand. she's great at climbing stairs, can run a few steps without getting ahead of herself and is learning to climb the ladders at the playground so she can get up to the slides. she's very into keys, able to identify the different sets we have at home- "car keys" in particular. feeding herself poses no difficulty anymore. it only becomes an issue if she's tired, grumpy or wants something that is not on offer. then the spoon or sometimes the bowl gets chucked about the room, contents following suit. oh dear.
it's also sweet that she'll have a go at something- opening a box for instance, but if unsuccesful will ask for "hulp." she seems to have an accent on 'help'- bit new zealand, bit south african, i can't place it. for instance she was given a box in the shape of a long bus, inside of which are little books for each letter of the alphabet. the back of the bus box opens so you can pull out the books. she can't quite open the box so carries the heavy thing to you saying "hulp", "hulp". once the back is pried open and a little bit of inside shelf thing that the books rest on is pulled out, you can say to her "pull" and she'll pull the rest out herself. she also understands "push", which is great when you are trying to close the fridge/ dish washer/ clothes washer/ cupboard door, etc. instead of her chucking a fit at being denied entry it can be made into a game or "hulp" for mamma or pappa, asking her to "push" the door closed. she's keen on that!
what a big, little girl she is!
i don't get to do it much because our little baby is very much a little girl now. i miss the tiny baby hugs, the absolute dependancy of her pressed against my heart. there are so many other things to love, of course!
her ready smiles, her attempts at jumping, doing the actions from favourite stories and songs- 'pop!', 'swim', 'kick', 'choo-choo train', her decisions on what to do when! (is that love or frustration?!), her speaking and her big girl hugs all make me smile and ache.
some of percy becoming a little girl has been led by her child care centre. in the past weeks they have advised us that we don't need to bring a sippy cup in anymore as she is drinking from ordinary cups. this was followed by the direction that a milk bottle is not necessary (she has/had a bottle of milk after waking from her day time nap), she takes her milk from a cup too. we have followed along not using sippy cups at home either. i'm starting to pack ordinary water bottles for our trips out too. i'm still giving her a bottle of milk after her nap. perhaps this is a baby thing i can't let go of yet.
also she has moved out a cot, instead sleeping in a low bed at day care. we still have the cot at home. i'm not sure i want to take the side off (it's one of those convertible cots) yet. at day care she also does not always sleep inside her sleeping bag. i'm not convinced we should follow this at home yet either as it is colder during the nites and i often find her in the mornings or thru the nite having kicked off her blanket, meaning it'll just be her 'jamies between her and the cold air. (yes, she remains a poor sleeper, we are often in to see her thru the nite, either to try to soothe her back to sleep in her own bed, or to admit defeat and carry her into our bed.)
her abilities and vocabulary continue to expand. she's great at climbing stairs, can run a few steps without getting ahead of herself and is learning to climb the ladders at the playground so she can get up to the slides. she's very into keys, able to identify the different sets we have at home- "car keys" in particular. feeding herself poses no difficulty anymore. it only becomes an issue if she's tired, grumpy or wants something that is not on offer. then the spoon or sometimes the bowl gets chucked about the room, contents following suit. oh dear.
it's also sweet that she'll have a go at something- opening a box for instance, but if unsuccesful will ask for "hulp." she seems to have an accent on 'help'- bit new zealand, bit south african, i can't place it. for instance she was given a box in the shape of a long bus, inside of which are little books for each letter of the alphabet. the back of the bus box opens so you can pull out the books. she can't quite open the box so carries the heavy thing to you saying "hulp", "hulp". once the back is pried open and a little bit of inside shelf thing that the books rest on is pulled out, you can say to her "pull" and she'll pull the rest out herself. she also understands "push", which is great when you are trying to close the fridge/ dish washer/ clothes washer/ cupboard door, etc. instead of her chucking a fit at being denied entry it can be made into a game or "hulp" for mamma or pappa, asking her to "push" the door closed. she's keen on that!
what a big, little girl she is!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
on the way to toilet training?
percy did an odd thing yesterday (tues 19th). we went to the park for an hour or so in the afternoon. at one point percy returned to her stroller, pulled her change bag onto the ground and kept saying 'poo' to me. really? i checked down her pants- no poo. however she was tugging on the clips of the bag, so i opened them. she then pulled apart the velcro section and lay down in the right spot to get her nappy changed. what was i to do except continue? duly changing her nappy, there was a little wet in it, i wondered whether she would do this more often? or more importantly, before she pees or poos so we can get her over a potty or toilet on time.
i think her little voice saying 'poo' and her eyes earnestly looking at me to do something about it, is just so sweet. is that a little weird, or just what all mothers feel?
i think her little voice saying 'poo' and her eyes earnestly looking at me to do something about it, is just so sweet. is that a little weird, or just what all mothers feel?
travelling along
one expects 'ups' and 'downs' while travelling along life's path. here's ours for the past week.
last wednesday i'd just sat percy down in music class when my mobile rings. 'just ignore it' i think, knowing how much percy loves her music class. it rings again, immediately. hmmm, perhaps i ought answer it. paul is calling to let me know that percy's day care so far has five known cases of hand foot and mouth disease. i dash back to the mat, swoop percy up and as i bolt for the door, explain over my shoulder that this is likely what percy is suffering from. i trust that since she has only been at class for three minutes, she hasn't infected anyone else. (i learn later that hfm really needs bodily fluid swapping to transfer.)
thru the remainder of wednesday, thursday and friday (i stayed home from work thur and fri) little miss is miserable with lower half of body rash, blisters on her feet, ulcers on the roof of her mouth and her tongue, still a snotty nose and the general, icky "why me?!" feeling. it's good that the rash doesn't cover her entire body and the blisters aren't on her hands too. small consolation. she slept like crap, ending up in our bed every nite. poor paulie usually ending up on the lounge. i swear she also ate her body weight in yoghurt from wed to sunday. paul went to the supermarket on friday nite to get more. it's the only thing she would eat, i suppose it is soft, cool and doesn't require chewing. when we tried to offer her something else she would point over her shoulder (her highchair faces away from the kitchen) and plaintively ask for "yo yo." it was heart rendingly cute and sad at once. so rather than have her have nothing, we obliged. on the up side she can hold a spoon in one hand a tub or bowl of yoghurt in the other and feed herself! in fact she nearly invariably insists she does it by herself.
i don't mind having percy sleeping in our bed. she has been waking either around 10pm or 3am and wanting in. i still sleep quite well. paul doesn't do so well. we resolved that she must stay in her own bed. then we relented and did it again.
last nite after much pysche-ing up we said, 'she's well now, she doesn't need to come into our bed.' so when she woke at 10:06pm i comforted her and held her until she settled to rhythmic breathing, then i laid her in her cot and kept my hand on her back until i was confident she was sleeping. surprisingly, that only took 20 minutes. then again at 3ish we repeated the process, taking approximately 30 minutes. the positive being paul and i slept soundly in our bed, together! percy woke up happy at 7am. when she is in our bed she has been waking from 5:30am. maybe there's no connection. i'm conjecturing from limited examples.
the hfm was clearing by saturday, all evidence gone by sunday. we did skip swimming on saturday tho. it's still bloody freezing anyways! supposedly the indoor pool is heated to 30 degrees but we can't feel it. percy's blue and chattering after ten minutes of a 30 minute class.
sunday was a nice day. we went to the live green show at victoria park in the morning. there was a few interesting things there that i might follow up on. percy enjoyed her trip in the back pack like always. she did end up falling asleep in it around 11am. paul was happy to walk home carrying her, rather than catch the bus like we did on the way up, so she could get a decent doze in. she slept one sleep cylce of 40 minutes, waking just as we arrived home. i figured she would want/need another nap later in the day. not to be. unexpectedly she didn't have a major meltdown later. perhaps because she had both her parents to dote on her all day! so how come, if we were both there, i still got to change the poo nappies!?
back to work/day care on monday. being home with her yesterday and today has been easy. particularly today. even tho i was up twice in the nite i felt great this morning, getting up at 6:30am and fitting in a shower before percy woke. it's nice to shower without missy tearing the cabinet under the sink to pieces or dragging all her toys and books from her room into the ensuite. means less clearing away later.
i've also managed to pretty much catch up on all the household drudgery. blllrrgghhh, but it must be done. the floor is still ankle deep in cat hair tumbleweeds but i can ignore them until the cleaners come tomorrow.
i will empty the dishwasher while percy is sleeping tho.... ta ta
last wednesday i'd just sat percy down in music class when my mobile rings. 'just ignore it' i think, knowing how much percy loves her music class. it rings again, immediately. hmmm, perhaps i ought answer it. paul is calling to let me know that percy's day care so far has five known cases of hand foot and mouth disease. i dash back to the mat, swoop percy up and as i bolt for the door, explain over my shoulder that this is likely what percy is suffering from. i trust that since she has only been at class for three minutes, she hasn't infected anyone else. (i learn later that hfm really needs bodily fluid swapping to transfer.)
thru the remainder of wednesday, thursday and friday (i stayed home from work thur and fri) little miss is miserable with lower half of body rash, blisters on her feet, ulcers on the roof of her mouth and her tongue, still a snotty nose and the general, icky "why me?!" feeling. it's good that the rash doesn't cover her entire body and the blisters aren't on her hands too. small consolation. she slept like crap, ending up in our bed every nite. poor paulie usually ending up on the lounge. i swear she also ate her body weight in yoghurt from wed to sunday. paul went to the supermarket on friday nite to get more. it's the only thing she would eat, i suppose it is soft, cool and doesn't require chewing. when we tried to offer her something else she would point over her shoulder (her highchair faces away from the kitchen) and plaintively ask for "yo yo." it was heart rendingly cute and sad at once. so rather than have her have nothing, we obliged. on the up side she can hold a spoon in one hand a tub or bowl of yoghurt in the other and feed herself! in fact she nearly invariably insists she does it by herself.
i don't mind having percy sleeping in our bed. she has been waking either around 10pm or 3am and wanting in. i still sleep quite well. paul doesn't do so well. we resolved that she must stay in her own bed. then we relented and did it again.
last nite after much pysche-ing up we said, 'she's well now, she doesn't need to come into our bed.' so when she woke at 10:06pm i comforted her and held her until she settled to rhythmic breathing, then i laid her in her cot and kept my hand on her back until i was confident she was sleeping. surprisingly, that only took 20 minutes. then again at 3ish we repeated the process, taking approximately 30 minutes. the positive being paul and i slept soundly in our bed, together! percy woke up happy at 7am. when she is in our bed she has been waking from 5:30am. maybe there's no connection. i'm conjecturing from limited examples.
the hfm was clearing by saturday, all evidence gone by sunday. we did skip swimming on saturday tho. it's still bloody freezing anyways! supposedly the indoor pool is heated to 30 degrees but we can't feel it. percy's blue and chattering after ten minutes of a 30 minute class.
sunday was a nice day. we went to the live green show at victoria park in the morning. there was a few interesting things there that i might follow up on. percy enjoyed her trip in the back pack like always. she did end up falling asleep in it around 11am. paul was happy to walk home carrying her, rather than catch the bus like we did on the way up, so she could get a decent doze in. she slept one sleep cylce of 40 minutes, waking just as we arrived home. i figured she would want/need another nap later in the day. not to be. unexpectedly she didn't have a major meltdown later. perhaps because she had both her parents to dote on her all day! so how come, if we were both there, i still got to change the poo nappies!?
back to work/day care on monday. being home with her yesterday and today has been easy. particularly today. even tho i was up twice in the nite i felt great this morning, getting up at 6:30am and fitting in a shower before percy woke. it's nice to shower without missy tearing the cabinet under the sink to pieces or dragging all her toys and books from her room into the ensuite. means less clearing away later.
i've also managed to pretty much catch up on all the household drudgery. blllrrgghhh, but it must be done. the floor is still ankle deep in cat hair tumbleweeds but i can ignore them until the cleaners come tomorrow.
i will empty the dishwasher while percy is sleeping tho.... ta ta
Monday, August 18, 2008
play mate
rose visited us for an hour this evening. she and percy played very happily on the living room floor together. the reason for rose's visit wasn't so great; sarah is sick, but we are confident she'll be fine soon and home from hospital as early as tomorrow.
they played piano together and praticed drinking from big girl cups...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
lego and pretty dresses
prior to falling so ill, percy was being gorgeous in a pretty dress and tights. she's such a trousers and t-shirt girl i thought this was worth catching. i only built the bottom three rows of this edifice; the rest is all original persephone...
triple whammy
poor percy has come back from a doctors appointment this afternoon with a diagnosis of hand, foot and mouth disease! poor baby, this adds to the horrendous nappy rash that appeared out of nowhere yesterday morning and the cold/ snot nose she is already dealing with. needless to say we are operating on very limited sleep. it's hideous but what can you do?
percy's day care sent an email this afternoon advising that there are at least 5 other cases of hfm, plus colds and conjunctivitis going around. sometimes i wonder if we wouldn't be better off with a nanny!
percy's day care sent an email this afternoon advising that there are at least 5 other cases of hfm, plus colds and conjunctivitis going around. sometimes i wonder if we wouldn't be better off with a nanny!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
botanic gardens
we all caught the train into the city yesterday for an explore of the botanic gardens. percy walked a good way along mrs mcquarie's bushland walk. then we sat down for some morning tea before moving on to the ponds and geographical gardens. we only spotted one, granted enormous, goldfish in the ponds but we did see countless fruit bats! percy was fascinated, tho she didn't heed our warnings of keeping her mouth closed while looking up.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
the double take
percy does some amazing things. a couple of nites ago during her bath she was proudly showing us her toes by holding her foot above the water level and pointing to them while saying "toes." she then swapped feet and said "more toes." paul and i literally stopped and looked at each in that comic 'did you you just hear what i heard?' double-take fashion. it seems a big step to us to understand that she has some toes on one foot and 'more toes' on the other, not just toes on both feet.
her vocabulary is exploding. she knows and says: 'cado for avocado, 'nana for banana, num-num for food, tea, juice, more, tissue, toes, dumble, help, park, train, keys, cat, raffles, bath, nose, walk and a few more that i don't recall just at present.
i think she also understands just about everything that is addressed to her too. she knows when we are asking her a question, and nearly invariably says "no", in answer. i suspect because we generally ask questions when she'd rather keep doing what she is doing now; eg. 'percy, do you want to come downstairs with mamma?' 'no', i'd rather continue pulling all your scarves out onto the floor. the yes answer, accompanied by a beautiful slow nodding of her head is most often the answer to questions about going to the park, having a bath or occasionally eating.
she understands instructions like 'gentle', 'walk', 'big step' and 'jump.' tho she still doesn't know how to jump just bending her knees or going up on tip toe. her feet don't actually leave the ground.
just to explain two of the words she uses... raffles is her favourite teddy that she sleeps with every nite and nap, and dumble is the word we've chosen to describe female genitalia. i'm opposed to vag... because there's so much more to female genitalia than a vag... i don't think one word does it justice and we can't really explain to percy that she pees out her vag... can we, that's a lie. and urethra is probably a little difficult to explain to a sixteen and a half month old.
should we end up one day having a boy we'll have to decide on something for males too. why don't we use 'genitalia'? dumble is a lot easier!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
was that nearly 12 hours?
yes, it certainly was! percy slept from 7pm to 6:30am, in her own bed, last nite (wed 6th.) she stirred twice that i heard, putting herself back to sleep each time. considering one stir was a pretty serious coughing bout i'm impressed.
we are both coughing and snotty. not too badly yet; hope it doesn't get any worse.
woohoo! lots of nice nights of sleep now please!
we are both coughing and snotty. not too badly yet; hope it doesn't get any worse.
woohoo! lots of nice nights of sleep now please!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
art gallery
i took percy this morning (wed 6.8.08) to the art gallery of nsw as i wanted to see the book binding exhibition. very good trip! percy was curious, polite and well behaved the whole time. we arrived at the gallery 1/2 an hour before opening time, after me carrying her in her stroller up and down the steps at the train stations. i did have an offer of help everytime, which is lovely and something i don't think happens in other cities. however i'm pretty adept at carrying the stroller and managed on my own. i did consider taking the back pack instead, which percy loves going out in but the weather today looked like rain. the stroller has a rain cover, the back pack does not.
we played on the grass, walked down to look over the finger wharf and had some morning tea while waiting for opening time. we really must have made the fastest visit the art gallery has ever seen. while i love it all, percy is harder to impress. so we made our way to the book binding exhibition, in the library (-down some more really glorious marble steps) and spent about 1/2 an hour oggling the craftmanship. well, i did, percy played with the camera much of the time. which may explain why the few photos i took didn't come out. so no photographic proof of our attendance; oh well.
then back on the train to erko for 11:30 music class. percy had a 20 minute doze on the way back. this was probably a good thing as she was alert and happy for class- which she is loving!
as i think i've previously mentioned music class is in a church hall. today a funeral and wake were held at the same time. it was a little awkward leaving the hall passing thru the antechamber where the wake was taking place. oops. there's only one entrance/exit to the hall- what could we do?
we played on the grass, walked down to look over the finger wharf and had some morning tea while waiting for opening time. we really must have made the fastest visit the art gallery has ever seen. while i love it all, percy is harder to impress. so we made our way to the book binding exhibition, in the library (-down some more really glorious marble steps) and spent about 1/2 an hour oggling the craftmanship. well, i did, percy played with the camera much of the time. which may explain why the few photos i took didn't come out. so no photographic proof of our attendance; oh well.
then back on the train to erko for 11:30 music class. percy had a 20 minute doze on the way back. this was probably a good thing as she was alert and happy for class- which she is loving!
as i think i've previously mentioned music class is in a church hall. today a funeral and wake were held at the same time. it was a little awkward leaving the hall passing thru the antechamber where the wake was taking place. oops. there's only one entrance/exit to the hall- what could we do?
Monday, August 4, 2008
yummy yoghurt
percy has decided she likes to eat her yoghurt with her fingers. ummm... yeah, not the most effective choice little girl. very funny tho...
Sunday, August 3, 2008
canopy walk
over the weekend we took percy for a visit to her gran and grandad in wollongong. the highlight of the visit was a trip to the latest illawarra tourist attraction- a bush walk on metal tracks up in and above the tree canopy! it's got some flashy name but i can't remember that now.
percy seemed no more interested than when we go other places with her. i guess she doesn't understand the principles of low impact tourism (tho i think the construction of said tourist attraction would not have been low impact) and the excitement of walking out, twenty metres above the ground on a cantilevered metal flimsy! no, it wasn't really flimsy but it certainly moved about! then we climbed up to 45 metres above ground, well above the canopy. 45 metres mighten sound like that much but i was getting butterflies in my stomach...
hope the pictures explain it better...
percy fell asleep on the walk back.
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