How to Colour

"What colour should we make this playdough?"
"Here you go!" says Gwen presenting me with a suitably coloured texta with which to colour it.

Rain and Whiskers

Gwen has been obsessed with whiskers ever since Halloween this year with our neighbor stopped by on her way to a fancy dress party dressed as Puss in Boots. I helped her apply her whiskers and almost everyday since then Gwen has insisted on them. If they are not forthcoming she comes up with her own whiskers solution.This might mean some chalk, texta or paint.

It's been raining a lot lately too, which means we're a bit more experimental with the paint.She's been getting into body painting a lot and particularly favors black paint with accents of yellow and pink pastels.

She has also discovered my goggles and loves to recite the "Rain is Falling down" song as she jumps in puddles.

Delightful Purple King Beans

Purple king beans are easy to grown, you just put them in the ground, water them occasionally and up they pop, producing amazingly prolific purple beans. I love the flowers, the taste and the colour!

A Visitor to our Garden

Mixing Colours

A neighbor was throwing away this amazing piece of packaging styrofoam. They seemed a bit mystified as to what we might want to do wth it but where happy to part with it before the garbage truck arrived. We got it home and I filled it with food coloring and water then provided Gwen with a big bowl of water and a cup then left her two it, watching from a distance.

A lot of these sorts of activities are hit and miss, I'm still not sure what she'll enjoy and what can be dropped in a moment in favor of something wildly more facinating. This one was a hit, she spent a good hour mixing colours, adding water and swirling things around. And she kept coming back to it all day. By the next day the play was more about breaking it up, standing in it and watching little specs of styrofoam float around, by the third day she was over it, but it was fabulous while it lasted.

Markets

We had a wonderful visit to the West End markets this morning and met up with some friends. It was wonderful to see them after such a long time. We sat under a beautifully huge fig listening to amazing music, feasting on market food. Gwen danced, was social with several other children and dogs, even being allowed to take a small one for a "walk" 2 meters away then back, which she adored.

She happily devoured two whole frankfurter sausages (actual proper long deli ones being sold at a German sausage stall), two large juicy nectarines, a large cup of sugar cane juice half a frakferter bun, a bar of something nutty from a vegan stall and still had room for crackers.

She's hollow legged today, which I guess means we're in for another growth spurt soon. She really does grow like weed in the sun, we're into size 3 pants already and her size 2 tops are almost too short for her now, I only moved up to size 2 a few weeks ago.

Ah well, back to the sewing...

The Dreaded Greens

A post on Post-Industrial Parenthood's blog inspired me to reply with this.

My little one is constantly offered greens, without the dreaded "one more spoonful" tactic.Veges are a constant part of our diet and I can't cook without them. Sometimes they are hidden ingredients such as in "green" beef & mushroom soup, (the trick is to add a can of 4 bean mix, a little cream, lots of green things and some beef, then blend) or sweet potato chips with chickpea (and parsley and garlic) dip instead of plain potato chips.

Spanish Omelet, yum!

Sometimes it's more overt such as a huge plate of nibbly things, cut up uncooked veg, fruit and cold meats, that are eaten on the front lawn. The original post also made me wonder how many people don't have veg regularly in their diet simply because they are swamped with unpleasant memories of overcooked congealing boiled vegetables on their plate that they where forced to eat as a kid? I feel so very lucky that my main memories of veg come from the delicious culinary delights of the Darwin food market culture.

Image Courtesy of the australiantraveller.com

I admit that her being only two means there is  still a lot of aversion therapy yet to be required, but thats in the future. For now, on the occasion that she simply won't try something we choose an animal that she likes and say that the animal loves that sort of food. She is adoring being a pussy cat eating her lettuce or a doggy eating a cucumber. Peer pressure from people other than us, even if she's only taking our word for it, seems to work wonders.

Adoreable Dressups

      

The Not So Boring Walls

The problem with renting is that you can't have interesting walls. Unless you look at it a little differently. Sure you can't nail things into the wall, or paint it without having to factor in repainting them once you move out, but with a few adhesive sticker hooks and some blu-tak you can make the white space so much more interesting.

I've been collecting feathers, seedpods, bark, paper wasp nests, and some of my texture photos to hang from the string lines for awhile now. I change them around when the mood suits. The bird images below are from an old calendar I snaffled at the Lifeline Bookfest. Similar pictures of Australian wildlife fill Gwen's walls and our bedroom as well.

 

 There is also a string line for Gwen's artwork and pretty pictures we find along the way...

 

...but not all artwork is quite so portable.

An Average Morning

What do you do on an average morning? Gwen gets up at about 5am. Hubby and I often take it in shifts so we are allowed a little more sleep, but some times we can't due to an early shift at work or early start at uni.

This morning, after dropping daddy off to work at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am we

• Had the second part of our breakfast.
• Drew spiders and webs.
• Played with coloured water, tipping and mixing and splashing it all over the lawn.
• Painted some sheets with heavily diluted acrylic paint, a paint brush, gum nuts and hands.
• Had a long bubbly bath in which all humanoid toys plus horse, cat and rabbit all had their hair washed. Gwen aquessed to the indignity of a hair soaking.
• Reading a book in bed.
  
• Watching Dirt Girl World while consuming untold quantities of fresh pineapple, cheese and pasta.
• Put on some washing together.
• Chose some seedlings (corn, cucumber and butter beans) and directed where to put them.
• Drew more things while mummy dug.
• Watching a little bit of Playschool while mummy was on the phone.
  
• Became a pussy cat with the help of drawn on whiskers and a beautiful long tail.
  
• Had a visitor picking something up from ebay and proudly displaying chickens.
• Milk & Bed.

Wow, just looking at that list it's no wonder I feel worn out.