The KID

This child is no longer a baby, nor a toddler. Today, I reckon, she was officially a kid!

We built a cubby along the side wall, out of flat-pak removal boxes, only the front being open. Alannah dragged one of the mats out to soften the floor, while I fetched a pillow to lean against. We searched through the Osbourne '1001 Things on a Farm' dictionary finding feathers, foxes, moles, and tractors. We listened for 'big, blue, buses' (said rapidly and as all one word!), helicopters, currawongs, and sirens. We built with Duplo, and excelled at finding just the piece we needed. "Alannah do it!'

We played musical chairs, including the closed sand pit, a child's chair, two garden chairs, and a milk crate. Throwing 'Buddy' to each other, even though he should have returned to her bakpak after sleep, a sleep barely 90 minutes in length. We listened to a 'Play School' CD while engrossed in a colouring-in book with STICKERS!!

We dug in the sand, filled up buckets with sand, and did not argue - or pretend cry - when Ma asserted it to be way cold for playing with water. We listened to Robin (from the upstairs flat) from the security of Ma's hip ('Up, Ma. Up!!) as he and Ma discussed how many pots had been knocked over by the wind. We fed the cats, and roused on them when they batted each other in their excitement.

Now Ma needs to find a sheet (or part thereof) of corrugated perspex to race our Matchbox vehicles down.