Is this thing on?

A while ago, I dropped my Palm Tunsten T3... actually, it was about a week or two before Thumper was born.

So, anyways, I finally got around to replacing it. I am now the proud owner of an HTC Desire smartphone. So far, I'm loving it!

I have just downloaded Google's Blogger app, and the whole point of this post is to try it out!

Postscript: I had to delete the post that was sent from my phone and re-post it using the web browser, because for some reason the Blogger app on the phone requires my GPS position and then automatically adds this to the bottom of the post. I don't particularly want my address published on the internet... even though Google got the address wrong. Screw you Google. 

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Thumper's report card - 17 months

Despite my best intentions to ensure that Thumper gets an equal billing on this blog, the fact is she doesn't. At present, she has a mere 74 posts compared to BallFiend's 152. While this can in part be explained by the fact that BallFiend was born first and therefore has the advantage of having had more time to accumulate posts about his antics, it is also simply that she has the mis-fortune of being the second child. Sorry Thumper, that's your lot and you will have to live with it! And I will do my best to ensure you are not forgotten in this important historical record. 

So Thumper on this, the occasion of your 17-month-a-versary, here is your report card. 

According to the Raising Children web site, by the end of this month, your toddler:

… should be able to:

• use two words - certainly can, a whole lot more than two in fact, and there are a whole lot of sign language words as well;
• drink from a cup - yes, both with a lid and without (though the latter is only done under close supervision);

… will probably be able to:

• build a tower of two cubes - indeed, you did so yesterday using small cubes of watermelon as blocks and built a tower 3 cubes high (that was all the watermelon you had left so I don't know if you could have gone higher); 

… may possibly be able to:

• walk up steps - you do this when holding an adult's hand, but we don't have a lot of steps around, so I haven't noticed you do this on your own as yet; [Update, 8 February 2011: you can definitely walk up steps - you did so today when we took BallFiend to his first day at kinder.] 
• remove an article of clothing - oh, yes! You remove your bib, getting food in your hair in the process, you take off your top if you don't like it and every now and then you slide out of your pants with such ease that I wonder if they have satin lining. Your most recent skill in undressing is undoing the velco tabs on your nappy covers. This is bad news! I do not want you taking your nappies of yet! 
• ‘feed’ a doll - another yes. On Saturday (5 February) you placed two dolls (your 'baay-bees') in your high chair and feed them using a bowl and spoon. I was amazed! Having never seen BallFiend exhibit this behaviour we can be assured that this is something you have come up with on your own. Unfortunately you have just reinforced the idea that there are innate behaviours relating to one's sex and that gender is not entirely learned behaviour. 

… may even be able to:

• build a tower of four cubes - maybe, see 'build a tower of two cubes' above. 
• identify two items in a picture by pointing - yes, at least two
• combine words - yes, for example you have signed 'more food' and you have used the phrase 'I want...'
• throw a ball overhand - sure can, in fact just this morning, you were throwing BallFiend's blue football into the tub of ball over and over again. I love the way toddlers are entertained by such simple things.
• speak and be understood half the time - well, you certainly speak a lot and are really good at making yourself understood using a mix of words spoken and signed, combined with lots of pointing. You frequently launch into long monologues that sound like you are speaking in a foregin language with your own consistent vocabulary and grammar. Unfortunately DeepSpice and I do not understand a lot of it... but it's very entertaining and cute! Overall, I'd say 'yes' to this point, but I doubt anyone apart DeepSpice and I can really understand you. 

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Melon BallFiend

BallFiend made morning tea for Thumper and himself today. He had seen a Play School presenter using a melon-baller on a watermelon and decided to have a go.

The end result was impressive: a bowl with about 3 ball-shaped pieces of watermelon and a whole lot of little, decidedly-not-ball-shaped slivers of watermelon. Plus watermelon juice everywhere! But he had a great time and also enjoyed serving the fruit into a little bowl and taking it over to Thumper in her high chair. Thumper, being the little piggy that she is, ended up eating about 90% of the watermelon - she had the unfair advantage of being able to sit and eat whilst BallFiend did the preparation.
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Happy New Year to me

Tuesday was my new year, the anniversary of my emergence into the world, thirty-something years ago.
It is also not long after the ten-year anniversary of my mother's death from breast cancer (on 14 January 2001).

I find that being motherless has a whole new dimension now that I am a mother myself. There are so many times when I ache for my mum and wish she was here to help me, to understand what it means to be a mother and to ask about her about her experiences of raising me. But this cannot be. All I can do is accept the way things are and do my best to remember my mum.

So I decided to mark the occasion of my birth and of the day that my mother became a mother with a small gathering at my place, with family (DeepSpice, CutLuce and DesignerMonkey, DesignerSis and Wigward) and a few friends (VolubleK and AussieG with PetitAmi, The Bibliophile with MasterW and LittleMissIs, The Librarian and The SchoolMaster with MasterF and LittleMissF).

In addition, I haven't had a birthday party since my 30th, and given that my 40th is only a few years away, I thought it would be a good idea to sneak in at least one more party before the big 4-0. (Which is going to involve a trip to France where VoluableK and I will celebrate out birthdays together in style... but that's another story for another post).

The evening was good fun, somewhat over-catered(!) and a just little chaotic, with 7 kids running amok. I am grateful for everyone's help with cleaning up (AussieG did the dishes - what a star! And a magic fairy tidied the toys up in the kids bedroom. Thank you!). I am yet to wash the watermelon juice off the deck and clean up the watermelon pieces slowly dessicating on the garden path. Though the snails seem to be helping with that! And we still haven't found the icy-pole that LittleMissIz lost somewhere - hopefully outside the house! But this is all just proof that a good time was had by all... especially me.

Thank you everyone for an enjoyable evening!
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