Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

22nd month, 9 February - 9 March, 2011

Climbing in and out of the cot. We're still not convincing her to sleep in it consistently for a whole night. She can get in and out of it easily, which is generally good but which does imply it really is time for her own bed. So that was a project for this month. Note the presence of the pink rabbit (der Rosenstoffhase). It got carried around with her for the whole month, and had to go to bed with her every night - there was no sleeping without it! There was at least one frantic trip back to daycare when we discovered that she'd carried it in with her and left it there.

James took Sparrow to the indoor playhouse down the street one Wednesday afternoon so that I could finish some work I was trying to do. Sparrow took her rabbit with her, and did not let go of it on anything. It rode every bounce on the bouncy platform right with her.

A walk downstairs, a croissant shared between three (because of course the pink rabbit had to come too).

I managed to find a Sniglar bed on eBay and picked it up. It's a nice size inexpensive junior bed, fits perfectly in the space along the wall between the cot and the window (or as perfectly as any rectangular thing can given our non-right-angled house). James is assembling it by logic rather than manual (seeing as secondhand beds often don't come with the manual!), and Sparrow is helping. Right now he has a couple of pieces that don't add up. But they're not supposed to, so it worked out OK.

The bed installed, in position. Sparrow immediately took to it. It was so obviously a piece of furniture meant for her and she fully owned it. I was quite glad of that response. Even now as I'm putting the page together several months later, Sparrow's looking over my shoulder at the picture and saying "Bouncy bouncy". She also liked the bed because it suddenly gave her an easy way to climb onto our bed, which was still a fairly significant struggle at this point.

"Sleep. Go to sleep". I thought this was another very positive thing for her to be saying and playing.

It was however immediately followed by "Wake up!" Which I guess is an important part of the game too, but I'd like her to focus on the first part please.

Sleeping in the bed. Her midday nap seemed to be quite acceptable to her here, so that was good. We've got a sheet on it from the cot and just a little blanket, as I couldn't find anywhere that would sell me manchester in the junior-bed-size. Not even IKEA, who sell these beds. I spent ages on the online chat with a helpguy who very nicely told me I should measure my quilt to make sure it fit their covers, and seemed quite startled when I reiterated that I didn't *have* a quilt yet, that's what I was trying to find out if they sold. I was quite disappointed in their covers, too - I thought they'd have some nice unusual stuff but anything labelled "kids" was very unimpressive. Apparently kids have no interest in anything colourful. The bed currently doesn't have a guard-rail on it. It comes with one, but I thought I'd see if she would be OK without one. She has never fallen off our bed, barely moves when she sleeps. This bed is only a few inches off the floor and we've piled up blankets there in case she does roll off, but I Was hoping to avoid it. It just makes one extra thing that she has to climb over to get in and out of the bed, and the point of this bed is accessibility. I want her to own getting into bed herself and getting out of it when she's done sleeping. She's quite capable of that now.

Next bed adventures: after seeing a tri-fold futon sofa-bed that was just what we wanted when we went camping at Ocean Grove, I did some quick research. A week or so later we had a new sofa, that's also a queen-sized bed. We wanted to make sure there was plenty of extra sleeping space given the adventures (and progression of guests) coming up in six weeks or so. And my old folding-sofa mattresses have served many guests well but are now showing their age in mattress-years: just count the lumps. We bought it from a small-business factory up in Coburg, they delivered it the next day. Sparrow is investigating the pieces. She's not sure why we bought her a climbing frame, but she's not complaining.

Walking on the slats was delightfully "tricky". She knows the word tricky and uses it (with some pride) for things that are a little physically challenging but still fun. I think she got that off me, I tend to use that word when she has little stumbles caused by being just a little over-adventurous. "Oh, that was a bit tricky!" and suchlike.

Testing out the new sofa, which James has now assembled (and I've thrown a sheet over as a temporary cover). It was very nice to be able to sit down on something that wasn't quite so low, and even nicer to be able to get off it again without help or lots of levering myself up. Pregnancy gives me very strong arms -grin-. You might wonder why we put it here, in the middle of our loungeroom.

Well, it *was* James who assembled it, and there was a football game on TV that night, so the couch started in the optimal position for watching the game. (This is one of the reasons I've not been keen on couches in this flat - if you put it in the TV spot you can't use most of the rest of the room or walk through easily.) It was a nice trial, and a bit of a treat for James too. Sparrow was at first delighted that there was going to be TV to watch, but it didn't take her long to realise that football was all she was going to get, and not much longer to start getting a little bored and restless.

With some discussion about logistics and projected functionality, the next day I managed to convince James to move the couch to this spot where it's more or less stayed since.

I was enjoying trying to catch the way the early morning light came through the louvres and into the sun room. Sparrow was enjoying dancing on the couch with her sunglasses on. It's nice to see the sunroom kindof cleaned up. The blankets are there because I need to wash them thoroughly. We're still making sure that there are no fleas inside after the cats brought them in at Christmas. The cats are both treated with the stuff that kills fleas on contact, so we should be clear soon but I figure if there *are* any eggs in the bedding and spare blankets then washing will hasten the removal process.

Sparrow's climbing on the ledge in the laundromat. We're here to get that bedding washed, the quilts that are too big for our machine. There's something else going on though.

One little girl has been forcibly separated at the very last second from the no-longer-quite-so-pink rabbit she's been clutching all month. And there it is, having the ride of its life with all the blankets.

I did distract her - and me - from the wait by buying a mystery cake at the bakery next door. I'd never seen that kind of cake before. The shop assistant didn't know what it was either, or even how much it was - she had to look it up in their book. Apparently they're normally sold out by the time she starts her shift. We ate it, and I still wasn't completely sure what it was, and in the end Sparrow wasn't convinced she wanted to eat much of it either. But we had fun looking at it, squishing it and talking about it.

The contents of the washing machine have spilled into the basket, and one somewhat wet rabbit was immediately retrieved and clutched. Ah, the reproach she's giving. The irony of this is that I don't think the rabbit was even fully dry before it got dropped in some dirt and rubbed in a puddle. So cleanliness was incredibly transient. But it did occur.