Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

22nd month, 9 February - 9 March, 2011

Dressed up and going for a walk, with the sun giving that sweet face a halo.

We like to smell and touch flowers when we go for walks. Sometimes the gardeners even pick some and give them to her. (Other times she picks and eats them herself :-)

Scienceworks. I thought I'd try a visit here, and just go upstairs to NittyGrittySuperCity. It's mostly still a little too big for her, she'll find it easier to deal with as she gets to three years old or so, and it was a bit too noisy the day we went, but she did enjoy our visit. These cases with animals were wonderful - she walked around telling me what the animals were, and asking me for the names of the ones she didn't know. There are also buttons that make the sound of the animal when you press them, which I thought would be right up her alley (being very much into pressing buttons and making animal noises) but she didn't seem to quite make the connection yet.

Over in the construction zone there was much fun to be had. The actual construction bits were a bit tricky, but running up and down the wheelbarrow ramp and climbing the stairs was still plenty of fun.

The cafe and kitchen area were a winner too. She quite happily played at using fork and bowl while sitting at one of the "cafe" tables, then went into the kitchen and proceeded to remove every dish from the shelves and arrange them on the floor. Just like she does at home, only worse at putting them back afterwards.

Sparrow requested "beach". I'd paid attention to the weather and knew that this was one of the last really lovely evenings we'd get as summer faded, so I jumped to say yes. It was so still, hardly any wind, so the temperature was reasonably pleasant even if only mild.

She is getting better at waves, even if these aren't really waves.

It really is nice having such a shallow and safe beach so close.

But the sun's going down, which means the wind is starting to very softly rise, which means it's time for us to hop on out of the water. There was some resistance to this idea...

...until someone discovered what I meant when I said "We'll walk up to the Thai place and buy some prawn crackers". She was a bit gobsmacked (can you be only "a bit" gobsmacked?) by the texture, that popping, drying kind of feeling. And then she requested more, and more, and more...

We bought the prawn crackers in the twilight, then sat on the grass nearby as the night drew in around us, opposite the ocean and the jetty, and ate crackers while talking, hugging and watching people. Special moments with my girl are about to become a lot rarer, so I figured I'd not rush this one. Especially as it's such a "me" thing, a spontaneous adventure on the edge between day and night, somewhere new, somewhere sensational. This is what I'd like her to remember of me, one day many many years from now. And we had a wonderful time.

Car hair. We're on our way to the beach again, and this is what we saw. Odd to realise she has enough hair now for this to happen.

It's only the next day, and it was just as nice an evening, so we made a family beach trip - I think it was our last for the summer.

There was much splashing in that still, still water.

The sunlight golden on the sand.