Spontaneous combustion ...

Pot plant, pot plant Sitting on a wall One goes away And it must fall. I think, perhaps, she made this up herself. It certainly appeared that way. We often put the pots along the ledge. But we have never had a musical accompaniment before. Each cycle involved seven pot plants. And there were at least four cycles. That is a long process for a two-year-old. The flowers I bought from the Hot Dollar shop in the BJ Mall, and cut them from the spray into individual flowers. The pots are small yoghurt containers from Thomas Dux. The chalk is that really large variety that we bought from the driveway sale in Lane Cove back in about May.

Pretend, right ... ?

She has no sooner trotted in the gate, than I hear 'Play 'Guess Who', Ma?' This has been twice a week, every week since I dragged it out from the drawer labelled '1984' in the middle of September. And at two and a half, she is a smidge young for the real rules, so it has been 'make-it-up-on-the-run' ever since. All variation upon a theme. Actually, I find it remarkable what a fine introduction GW is to set theory. No joke - find me all the people who have hats; find me all the people who have glasses; who is in both groups? This week the GW-mob, and the Playschool-dominoes, and the Duplo-mob, and 'the three robbers + 1' all became the audience for our concert. I went first, came out from behind the curtain, and sang 'Hey Diddle Diddle' to the enthralled throng. Alannah then chose to sing (with actions from Buddy) 'Baa Baa' and 'Humpy'. She really got into the swing of it when I showered her with applause AND wild cheering on behalf of our assembled friends. Pretending is heavily encouraged in this relationship; modelling and setting an example.

Huh? yes ... of course ...

We were playing aeroplanes today. In the living room, with a small plastic chair set on each corner of the oblong mat, representing London, Paris, New York, and Sydney. Once the passenger was aboard, two planes would take off one behind the other, to the refrain of "I can fly' from Peter Pan, out the living room door, into the kitchen, through the dining room, the sun-room and land under the whatever city chair back in the living room. Our passengers were Playschool dominoes which Alannah received as a 'secret santa' yesterday. Double Humpty. Double Big Ted. Double Little Ted. Double Jemima. The microphone called Double Jemima to load her plane and click her seat-belt on. Our conversation went thus: I don't have a Double Jemima. Why? She ran away. Did she join the circus? No, she went to get watermelons. As one does ...

Colouring her world

First she drew a circle, anti-clockwise. Then, she said she was adding an eye, and then another eye. I asked if she thought she might add a mouth. A smile twitched at the corners of her own mouth, and her little index finger came up toward me. I asked if her person had any hair, and she chanted 'zig-zag, zig-zag' as the tresses of golden hair fell around the face. I knew I would have to be quick-pronto with the camera, as very soon lines were all over and through it.