Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Out and about in the sixteenth month, 9 August - 9 September, 2010

We went to the Enchanted Bookshop in Williamstown to check it out. I'd been meaning to get there for ages but had always been confused by the description as "being near the train station" - there are three train stations, none of which are really very close to the Williamstown shops. Turned out it was across the road from the guesthouse where Maggie and Gordon stayed when they were here in May. We had an excuse to visit, too - we were looking for copies of some of Sparrow's favourite books to buy for Mimi as a birthday present. They had a pretty good range of kids books, but none of the ones we wanted. I did spend a while looking at their selection of German kids books but (as seems to often happen) they have plenty of things like visual dictionaries for kids learning German, but very few storybooks. Sparrow and James are studying the tree display - Sparrow was quite intrigued by their suspended leaves. We ended up buying one book for Sparrow from their display table - called "That's Not My Dinosaur". It lives in the change bag now, as Sparrow always enjoys feeling the illustrations and it's generally good for two to three minutes of distraction.

Visiting Ruth and Willow on a mothers' group afternoon.

Sitting in one of the lounging chairs at Highpoint shopping centre. Highpoint's lower floor is laid out as very much a social parade type place, it's where the late-night entertainment spots and restaurants are, and there's a few of these "sit here and rest" spots along the way. Sparrow and I are waiting for James to get something from JB-Hifi, and after Sparrow had wandered off (under supervision) a few times I decided I was tired of chasing her and tried putting her in this chair to see what she thought. Apparently it was fun, if not as fun as following people around to see how many smiles she could collect.

Having fun in the play spot at Altona Gate. I think this was the last day she wore this little dress, it was really getting a touch too small.

It's election day! Queuing to go in and vote - in a day or two we'll have a new government! Ah, such optimism. Sparrow is not entirely impressed with the proceedings, though they weren't distressing either. James discovered that it's very difficult to fill out a Senate voting form below the line when there is a toddler strapped to your belly who keeps trying to grab either the paper or the pencil. My biggest struggle with the form was that there were 30 of the 60 candidates I wanted to put last. And it does make a difference here in Victoria, apparently - each of the last two elections we've ended up with a loony Senate candidate making their way in based on those bottom preferences. And, eventually, we got another one this election too. But that's OK, Spud, they'll be out before you're able to vote. You'll have new loonies all your own to deal with.

In the swing at our closest playground. Sparrow was more interested in the chain than actually swinging.

The hardenbergia is flowering, spilling over the fence of the Maltese community centre's bowling rink and sending tendrils down to one little girl's height. It must finally be Spring. Sparrow was surprisingly good about sniffing this one and not eating it, I'm not sure why. Unless it was because it doesn't actually have any smell so there wasn't any temptation to put it in her mouth.

Masks! We had a busy Saturday evening one week, with a not-a-baby-shower at one friend's, and then (conveniently) a housewarming just around the corner. When we got to Marcus' house it was being thoroughly warmed by some laughing and comically silly kids. Sparrow thought this was totally brilliant, it even beat the giant chocolate cupcakes we'd been struggling to keep her out of at the NABS. The kids were running around with silly masks, hats with horns, giant sunglasses, rainbow wigs and other strange items. We tried putting this mask on Sparrow but none of my photos of it came out - she wouldn't tolerate it on her face for very long.

Another quiet excursion to a nearby playground, this time the one behind the council estate and leisure centre. I tend to only head to this one if I'm sure it's not going to rain, and it turned out to be quite a nice day. Warm enough even for both of us to shed our shoes and socks and jumpers, and that suited us both fine. I'm starting to try to head to playgrounds regularly because Sparrow really does need the outdoor time and space for unconfined play. It doesn't hurt me either.

Maybe I can walk up this slide to the top and then slide down it myself instead of waiting for Mummy to pick me up and put me up there again.

Fruit and veg shopping. Sparrow loves this store, everything we buy here is a special treat (except potatoes). She likes to hold things, though I choose carefully what I let her hold as it WILL go in the mouth and start getting chewed on. Things bought by the bunch that's OK, but apples and pears and beans need to be weighed first. Sparrow's not convinced about this waiting til it's paid for business, but she'll learn. If a bit of bok choy gets chewed in the meantime I think I'm still winning.

I caught up with Margaret, and we went to CERES. It was a nice walk, Margaret's an enviro-engineer so enjoyed hearing some of my tales of the greywater and stormwater projects we put in while I worked here. She very nicely bought us lunch, too, and we're pausing at the CERES cafe to have a drink and food before continuing to walk. Sparrow turns out to not like the froth from dandelion lattes very much. But that's OK with me, it means I got it all.

One feature of CERES is the chickens. I think every small child who visits finds their way to a chicken enclosure and spends some time staring at the strange fuzzy creatures. The chickens stare right back, too. There was one walking around outside the pen too, but every time I tried to get it in the photo with Sparrow it'd just slip out of the frame a fraction of a second too quickly.

"You are using the silver phone camera thing. That has photos of a baby on it. Show me." Well, sweetie, it was photos of chickens. But give me a second to take this shot... there you go, it's a baby.

Walking downstairs to the shops. I decided in this month that Sparrow was good enough at walking - and at obeying when I said "Stop!" - that I could start getting her to walk independently with me instead of always carrying her. Especially important given that I'm not going to be able to carry her for much longer. So we had a lot of trips downstairs where Sparrow got to explore every little detail of every interesting thing. This is the tap outside the supermarket. It gets studied every time we walk past.

Why yes, I will have some more sausage roll. One of my occasional morning teas is a sausage roll that we share - especially nice for me if I've not managed to get enough breakfast yet that morning. We're sitting outside the bakery.

Welcome to the wonderful world of sharing! This is Ruby, and Ruby's ball. Ruby isn't that interested in her ball... until Sparrow picks it up. Sparrow likes balls a lot, so if there's a ball rolling around with noone playing with it then it's obviously For Her. Ruby then sees someone picking up her ball, thinks "Hey, I have a ball", and goes and takes it from Sparrow. Then she walks off with it, loses interest and drops it... so Sparrow can pick it up again. You can almost see the concern and pleading in Sparrow's face to please, Mummy, sort this out.

Ahlia, Sparrow and Ruby. It's a mothers' group excursion to a playground in Williamstown on Point Gellibrand, one that I hadn't been to since well before Sparrow was born. It was just as windy and cold there today as it was the last time!

But it's a nice playground, lots of stuff to climb and slide and very accessible to children of this age, and it's all surfaced with that recycled-tyre bouncy mat stuff that has pretty good shock absorption. So, just after I took this photo, Sparrow got distracted and started walking down the steps without looking, fell tail over head and bounced her head down the hard wooden steps. -sigh- Three hundred square metres of bouncy surface, and she hits her head on the hard thing. Poor muffet. Though I didn't feel as sympathetic when, after finally finishing crying, she headed straight up these steps again for a fourth go at the slide.