Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Seventeenth month part 2, 9 September - 9 October, 2010

One of our regular walks down to and around the shops - it's a good way for me to fill forty five minutes or an hour, and it gives her some physically active and social time. And I almost always have something I need to pick up or sort out. We're also trying out a new outfit - one which by listed size should be fitting her about now, but it's still awfully big. She had a bit of trouble walking in it, so the outfit got repacked away for when she is slightly bigger. But it was still incessantly cute.

Off on serious business.

We finally had a day where it wasn't cloudy and grey! So I said "we're off to the park on the Williamstown foreshore". She and I could both use some sunlight - early spring in Melbourne is so grey! I turned out to be Vitamin-D deficient when they did my thirteen-week blood tests, and I've *never* been deficient in that before. She might have been a little low too, hard to tell exactly. Either way, our efforts to get outside in the previous month had been partly snafued by the typically very rainy and grey August weather, and partly by my constant exhaustion from the pregnancy. So this was an opportunity not to be missed. And it was delightful.

Sparrow made a beeline for the playground as soon as she saw it, and this is one of the nice ones with steps rather than just ladders. She's just learning to walk up stairs by holding a hand or rail, rather than climbing up them, so it's a play structure she can both get onto and wants to get onto. The stairs themselves are a source of immense entertainment.

After a while I tore her away from the playground, thinking we'd have a run on the grass and then a walk on the pier. We never got to the pier, which I decided was probably a good thing given how tired I was - trying to keep her managed-and-still-inquisitive-and-interested next to lots of water would have been more challenge than I was up for. Conveniently, every time I tried to point her in the direction of the waterfront, she'd start running... and then slowly curve in the direction of a seagull, which would start running in a direction slightly tangential to hers, and she'd curve more, and it'd curve more, and she'd end up running straight back the way she came. It was like there was an invisible wall about ten metres from the water that she just never got around to crossing. Like I said, really not a problem -grin-.

The waterfront is a pretty place to walk though. And I did make a mental note that they have a mussel boat there now, to tell James of. Much closer than driving to the one in Geelong.

No trip to the waterfront would ever be complete without icecream. Gelato, in this case, a very nice white chocolate gelato which actually did taste like chocolate and not just vanilla. Sparrow was quite happy to share as much of it as was going.

All in red, just after daycare. That's the dress I made, with red tights and Maggie's knitted hat and jumper. She gets a lot of admiration for her clothes. When I pick her up we often end up doing a little walk, just a few houses up and back, while she tells me stuff. It gives us a little interaction before hopping in the car for the drive, especially if she's only just woken up from her afternoon nap when I arrive. This month she was most often awake, but she had started sleeping up to three hours there. Joanne her carer was quite happy with that as she'd been sleeping less than an hour for some months even though she was sleeping a full two hours nap at home. Now she sleeps more at daycare than she does at home!

Sometimes we also stop at a playground on the way home. Our little outside girl likes being outside, and the daycare playroom is not very large. I often feel like she should get a little bit of extra distant-horizon-time after her daycare days, just a chance to let her eyes and brain remember that there's so much more space out there. Especially when they haven't been able to play outside at daycare because of the weather - I figure I don't mind being out with her in less great conditions and I don't have to worry about the paperwork if something is less than ideal :-). That was a particularly strong feeling in August and through September. So here we are at Apex Park, a park that's by the beach and on our route home, where the circus sets up when it comes through. Sparrow has been running up this path with great focus, but has finally looked aside and seen the playground.

This playground.

One day when I picked her up from daycare she was frantically playing with stuff, and dragged me around to gabble at me and tell me all about the things she'd been playing with (mostly but not entirely in babble). This bag was described as a "hat", and happily put on.

Contemplation on the beach. Hmm, I think I'll eat just a little more sand.

Oh look, here's some right here. She likes our stops at the beach on the way home from daycare - there's a nice easy place to pull in on the Altona Esplanade and we can have a little walk and play before continuing. There's always some digging, some wading, some exploring of strange and mysterious things in the sand and seaweed, and just generally lots of stuff to do with sand.