Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Nineteenth month part 1, 9 November - 9 December, 2010

I made a trip into the CBD for the first time in a long time, to order or purchase James' birthday and Christmas presents. Sparrow was ready for some time mobile, and we happened to be passing the churchyard of St Francis. So we stopped for a little run around on their lawn. Sparrow happily ran back and forth from the fence to the church corner about sixteen dozen times (there's video of her doing that on YouTube), then found this rock to climb on in the yard corner. She thought sitting up here was pretty cool. She really does love rocks.

Mothers group catchup at the Happy River Cafe in Footscray. It's a good place for kids. This is our table, with Rochelle and Ahlia, Ruth, Rachel behind Mali and Bev and Shay to the right. Willow is in front of the table and Sparrow is checking out the path to the carpark to see if anyone's in the way of her running down it.

These boxes function as toy holders and things to climb on depending on which way up they are (and it changes with each kid that plays with them :-) Sparrow was very pleased with herself for getting up on this one all by herself. She seems to like having a platform to be on.

Of course, once one does it, they all have to do it, and that requires a certain amount of sharing (as well as a sense of space as to how you can all get on at once). Neither of which none of them are any good at yet. So there was some silent staring going on

Beach trip. The council had just put out the sand for renourishing the beach and raised the level up quite high, but it wasn't evened out yet or even completely finished being spread. So there were these giant puddles here and there. Sparrow was a little unsure about this puddle thing, and interested in the wet and dry sand.

On our way (in semi-official procession, even) to the site of the Beltane ceremony at a druid farmer's place up near Kyneton. It was a fun day, though Sparrow got a bit impatient during the rite itself and I ended up taking her out of circle to play in the grass beside for the Eisteddfod. The poetry was nice enough but I can't blame her for thinking it wasn't very interesting :-) Especially not when there was a real actual sheep watching the rite with us. The poor sheep got a bit terrified of Sparrow and ended up running up to the circle bleating for her Mamma to save her from this dangerous small human. We came back in for the main part of the rite. Because we were at a farm for a change (and not a national park!) we were able to have actual fires for Beltane. So they had twin fires burning that you walk between for luck, fertility and blessings on your marriage and family. James and I got to walk through together holding hands, with Sparrow on his shoulders. So that was very sweet. I think traditionally you can jump the fires, and James was up for it but three-months-pregnant-me just looked at him and said "No way, you're jumping on your own".

Sparrow and I have come to Werribee Zoo for a bit of a walk and morning adventure. First stop, the meerkats.

We are following the Australian Bush Walk, which has free range emus and kangaroos and various birds in the wetlands, if we ever get that far. The entry way is surrounded by lots of interesting rocks.

The bird hide. Sparrow loved the chickenwire on the ramp, and just loved running up into the hide and back again. We did this quite a few times, she was quite cross with me when I insisted we walk a little further.

In the basalt-plains-plants garden. I quite liked looking around this. Sparrow seemed to have fun with all the grasses and daisies etc being about her size. Keeping to the path was not the most interesting way to look at things as far as she was concerned. But being in here where it's fenced off meant I didn't have to worry about her trying to get up close with the one emu we kept encountering (no, it's NOT a duck and you can't pat it).

I took Sparrow out for a walk and realised that the Eid Festival was on down at the oval at the end of the street. So of course we had to explore. Sparrow loved watching this ride with the planes going around.

It had been a bit wet so the ground was very soggy and muddy in places. But it was still good to walk around. Except up at the end of this row of tents, where they had entertainment - some small child singing into a microphone in a fashion that her parents probably were more proud of than actually enjoying. Sparrow found it noisy. I found it mildly atrocious. So we drifted back down into the rides area again where it was horrendously noisy from the engines and we couldn't hear the singing.

We came back with Daddy later for another walk around. We thought Sparrow would enjoy watching the ponies at the pony ride stall. But she saw this bouncy thing in action and kept making a beeline for it. I was very tired, didn't want to keep walking back and forth and didn't want to get any closer to the entertainment tent's microphone. So James ended up wrangling her and being the one having to try to convince her that she wasn't allowed on it yet. Still too small, too young, and not yet able to jump. Didn't stop her wanting it with a passion though.

Daddy's birthday present has arrived at the store, so we made another trip into town to collect it. We detoured via Myers, and Sparrow had to be physically restrained from pulling the balls off their Christmas trees. I distracted her by letting her climb under these tables with the suitcases for a few minutes, but we still had to get back out of the store. I was not very patient with her about it. Christmas is going to be a difficult season now that she knows the word "ball" and can get herself to all the shiny ones...

Mothers group gathering at Nosh, a local cafe that's fairly kid-friendly. Sparrow is busily exploring the last possible contents of her babycino.

A family walk to Newport Lakes. The sun was actually out for a change!

Having a closer look at the water, with Daddy.

We finished off the walk by having dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant. I really love the food here. Sparrow was not quite convinced. She's not into spices yet.