Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Easter in Echuca part 2, 2-5 April, 2010

Saturday morning. Action Baby is charged and ready and motoring up on all obstacles to get to the interesting stuff. Daddy is not so sure about this morning business.

In the courtyard at breakfast, sitting on a glass-topped table. Look, I have a tongue. Blblblblb. Blblblbblblah. Blah.

And exploring. High chairs are for *other* babies. I have all this floor to play with, and chairs to climb under.

Then there's the tables, too. Sparrow very clearly thinks that most grownups are part of the furniture. She has no hesitation climbing under or around them as if they're of no more concern than the tables and chairs. She paid more attention to the pattern on the carpet, trying to pick up those little gold squares and see if they came off.

Small children however are People, and she stopped and played with some of the other children most mornings. This is Flynn, who lives at the Steampacket with his mum. They are exploring gravel and birdbath water together, in the company of resident pooch and champion sleeper Sophie. Flynn and Sparrow have quite a bit in common - they were both teething, and both up every hour or two during the night. His mum didn't look any better than I did the next morning. I was sympathetic, and secretly glad it was her doing the housekeeping and not me.

The Farmers Market on Saturday morning. We bought yoghurt to have for Sparrow's morning tea. It was sweetened, and I've been trying not to give her sweetened yoghurt because she really quite likes the plain kind and she doesn't need the sugar. But after a first very hesitant and reluctant mouthful she decided she liked the sweet yoghurt too. We also bought some of the Pink Lady apple juice at this stall, and two different kinds of mead at another. The Echuca farmers market draws in stallholders from the Goulburn Valley in Victoria and also up into the Riverina in NSW, so it's an interesting mix of stuff.

Riding in the horse-drawn carriage around the Historic Port. Sparrow loved it. I don't know if it was the sound of the horseshoes, the only-just-faster-than-walking pace or that she could see out the windows so easily, but she got quite excited.

Waiting for the carriage to start, and contemplating life and the moment.

See, Sparrow, horses! She seemed reasonably interested in them, and they were quite happy to take a closer look at a little baby. James and I were both amused by their bum bags - they have plastic bags affixed under their tails that get emptied of any (ahem) contents between trips around the block. I guess it's one way to avoid having the precinct be *too* realistic.

A quick lunch upstairs at the Beechworth Bakery, overlooking the Campaspe River.

Their verandah has such a fascinating floor. Ooh, look at this bit. And this bit. Wait, what's that over there? It's a *step*. With carpet on one side and metal plate on the other. Sparrow made a beeline straight for this step to go up and down and up and down, pausing only to investigate the curious metal stuff underneath her.

Paddle steamer time! The quintessential tourist experience in Echuca is going for a ride on a paddle steamer. Unfortunately we were just far enough back in the line to not get to ride on top, and sat down at the stern. I say "unfortunately" because as you can see in this photo the top is closed in at crawling-infant-level, and the bow and stern are fully open. So Sparrow had to be held for the hour, and it was an hour where she really wanted to be active and playing and looking at stuff. Not our most lucky timing.

So we spent some time standing...

...some time sitting and chewing...

...some time attempting to escape from cuddles and go look at all the other stuff...

...and a lot of time squirming. Don't adjust your monitor, she really is sideways.

She was quite willing to be distracted for short bursts by the engine and the steering wheel. So was her mother. I told her several times during the trip that if she wanted to grow up to be a steamboat engineer that was all right with me. This is a quadruple-piston steam engine, running on chunks of river-redgum wood because they burn slower and hotter than many other kinds of wood. Isn't it shiny?

Things like the marker trees weren't of such interest to her. For reference, I think that tree sign means we are 1712 kilometres upstream of the Murray River mouth, but it could be miles, I'm not sure. She did get a little interested in the jet skis as they accelerated past us, but not too much. I could almost hear her thinking "plonkers!". The ducklings that we saw were much better, though still a little hard for her to notice. It was awesome (or is that awe-ful? :-) looking at the river and seeing how low it was, and the marks on the banks and strips where trees and reeds are growing that show that it's been this low for several years, and then to realise that this is actually high for recent times because of the floods we had a couple of weeks back.

Evening walk by the river, amongst the river red gums. There are flocks of corellas and galahs competing for good branches and nest spots, and an amazing amount of noise. Sparrow loved watching the birds and spent quite a lot of time looking at them. This trip was the first time I've seen her look somewhere that I was pointing. Up til now she would just be puzzled and maybe grab my finger. But several times as we walked I'd say "Look!" and point at a bird and she'd turn and watch the bird.

Speaking of birds, somebody sees some ducks just behind us...

Sparrow loved the bathroom, and loved banging on the toilet, and just exploring that room in general. I had to include this photo though because it is her poo face. She is concentrating quite hard and making some amazing serious growly groans while she pushes one out. Because that's what you do at the toilet, right?