Trooping the boards

Dolly, Sheep-sheep, and Punchinello were unwitting participants in this tableau. I always ask if I can bring my camera out and take photographs. She is okay with it perhaps 50% of the time. Alannah is just becoming comfortable with singing songs. It takes a lot of effort to develop a 'singing voice'. But then, she also has to remember the aounds to make, more than the words to sing. She does enjoy it.


I sing songs at the drop of a hat. When the local bus comes around the corner, I burst into song with its call sign and its destination and whether it is going up the hill or down the hill. I can never remember the latest 'tune' I used, but the musical phrases are all found in English folk songs of the 19th century. Often handed down to us as nursery rhymes.


This little song and dance was to 'Baa Baa Black Sheep', which I have now found as a video ... a dreaded video. Why they insist on having adverts in a nursery rhyme, confounds me. So just ignore, or remove the advert near the beginning. Instead of one of the bags being for the little boy down the lane, I always allocate it to 'Alannah Jane' who lives down the lane.


There are so many maturing signs going on at the moment, not just evidenced in the singing. We are also getting a more regular timetable. The mornings are a bit cold (and often wet) to be in the courtyard, so the day kicks off with sorting and colouring-in at the dining room table. We have morning tea about 10am which is followed by a 30 minute reading session. then we are outside until lunch just before midday, with a sleep starting about 12:30pm. I have a firm pattern with getting her to sleep which involves singing about 15 nursery rhymes. I am trying to find time to put these into a book for her upcoming 2nd birthday. Can you believe that Alannah will be 2 years old in under a month!


There is another reading session during the afternoon period, and I ensure there is a madcap chase-each-other session with dress-ups and singing (again!). This week just gone, street-watching came back into vogue, with Alannah even waving to people when prompted. It is astounding how many people wave and smile at her - young people as well as old. We are often out there now with a cat plonked on each of the gate posts, so I guess it is a cute sight.