Sleep

Sofia

Somebody complained to me the other day about taking your photo while you slept. No harm done if I don't wake you...that's my philosophy.

Your sleeping self is one worth capturing every now and then.

Joy

Sofia

You can't tell from this photo that we were cheering your cousin Joshua on at his school swimming carnival on a cool, drizzly Melbourne Tuesday morning.

I look at this photo and just think one word. Joy.

Scissor Hand

Sofia

 

I realised yesterday that we have a problem. I can't work out how to teach you how to use a pair of scissors. Like me you are left handed. You instinctively pick up the scissors in your left hand.

 

Like you, I grew up in what is predominantly a right handed world. So, I learnt to use a pair of scissors with my right hand. Just like I learnt to throw a ball with my right arm. I can't cut or throw with my left hand, although I have no doubt that my skill level in both areas would be stronger if I had been taught differently.

 

I can't get my head around how to get your little left handed fingers into the right (as in correct) place in a pair of scissors. I'm been wondering whether we should get you a pair of left handed scissors (yes, they exist) and maybe find an instructional video on You tube or whether I should just model the way I use them right handed and see what you decide to do.

 

There is no doubt that you will grow up learning to do some things with your left hand and other things with your right hand. I suspect that if I think about it the list of things I do right handed will be longer than I realise - and longer than it would be if the world was less discriminating. There, I've written it down. The world discriminates against left handed people. We are a minority group, but unlike race and sexual preferences we are a group with a physical difference that doesn't get any media attention or government funding!

 

Shot put! That's another thing I've just realised I was only ever taught to do right handed.

 

I wonder how you will be affected by your left handedness.

 

Crafty

Sofia

While in Melbourne you asked if we could do some pasting. The boys quickly joined in, the three of you working together on the floor.

Joshua worked on a very structured collage. Lachlan was creating mini origami pieces before gluing them down. Your collage was a sea of red, pink and purple squares. Much like the weekly washing I hang out for you on Fridays.

Daddy's Girl

Sofia

 

Last Sunday we met Jane for breakfast in a Melbourne cafe. She last met you when I was 4 months pregnant but for some reason I had the feeling that you two have actually met in another time and space.

 

After breakfast we strolled down a laneway awash with Melbourne street art. Your little legs ran out of steam so Daddy gallantly carried you. Your head on his shoulder and your new cat shoes are all that we can see in this photo but I know that he is enjoying the weight of you, the free excuse to hold you with Bluey caught up between your bodies.

 

 

 

Cousins

Sofia

This picture of you with Joshua and Lachlan in the morning before they head out to school captures the mutual affection beautifully. You are lucky to have such generous, engaged cousins.

Bath time

Sofia

I'm listening to you happily playing in the bath, chatting away, busying yourself with pouring, filling, emptying and arranging containers of water. You've already used the face washer to clean around the edge of the bath, earnestly scrubbing away, your little tongue poking out as you concentrate on the job at hand.

Last weekend we spent four days in Melbourne visiting your Aunt and Uncle and two cousins. I took this photo of the three of you enjoying Aunty Kim's glamorous new bath tub.

You love bath time. I just wish I had remembered to find time to enjoy Aunty Kim's new bath as well because I love it too.

Rain walker

Sofia

When it started to rain this afternoon you scampered down the hall singing "It's raining, it's pouring". Struck by inspiration you turned and said "Brellas mummy. Come on. Let's go".

After a quick change into the strawberry togs Nana gave you, we collected the brollies and headed out to walk barefoot in the rain.

You are enamoured with your pink umbrella, holding the handle with both hands. Occasionally you would lose sight of me even though I was walking beside you. Circling around calling "Mummy where are you?" before realising the brolly was blocking your view. Your face went from registering confusion and worry to relief and a sense of the ridiculous.

Eventually the rolling thunder and stirring mosquitoes sent us back across the bridge home to a warm shower.

Art

Sofia

On Friday we painted. You love it, applying yourself earnestly. I love the results.

Your Nana's Love

Sofia

 

We had a surprise visit from Nana, Grandad and Margaret and Derek this morning. As the adults drank coffee and chatted you ran up and down the hall, full of energy, occassionally dropping into someone's open arms for a cuddle and a snuggle.

After they left you busied yourself in your room. You now have a lot more free space to play in your bedroom after we reconfigured the furniture yesterday. We sold your baby change table yesterday so the last of the baby furniture is gone.

I found you enjoying the new space, with Nana's hand made ABC cot quilt spread out on the floor. You were using another of Nana's quilts as a sheet, throwing it up to billow it out like mummy does when we make the bed together. Mummy's old Jemima doll was propped up in the breastfeeding pillow. Nana made both of these as well. The Jemima doll was lovingly made in the mid 1970's her orange woollen hair pulled back in a plait, her face created with Hobbytex fabric paint. Nana made the breastfeeding pillow in 2010 following your arrival. It was much used, and always appreciated.  Under your head was a little pillow that Nana gave you one year for Christmas. It was made using two washers crocheted together.

 

After you had everything positioned just right you picked up a Christmas story and started reading to Jemima. After I took this photo I realised that you had surrounded yourself with a collection of objects hand made by your Nana. Your grandmother has always sewed, knitted and crochetted. She is always busy with a number of different projects. More often than not these days one of those projects is focused on making something for you or one of your cousins.

 

While I don't have the skills that your Nana does after a life time of practice I hope to one day have the time, patience and creativity to be making beautiful, loving things for my extended family.

 

 

Lip Action

Sofia

Kissing is a big deal: affection, love, connection. We have always shared kisses on the lips with you, even with daddy's scratchy beard. I guess you've never known any different.

 

As a preteen I remember deciding that I no longer wanted to kiss relatives on the lips, instead turning my head to receive pecks on the cheek. I wonder if you'll do the same.

 

For now you seem confused whenever someone tries to kiss you on the cheek, always offering up your little puckered lips, carefully placing them delicately for that moment of shared affection.

 

We are greedy for your kisses. You give them willingly.

Sunday stroll

Sofia

You and daddy watched the water as we enjoyed a stroll along Shorncliffe esplanade.

Bit by Bit

Sofia

A long time ago, in the days when I could never imagine myself as a mother I used to meet up with friends and family members with children and comment about how much they'd grown and changed. Standard phrases but I was always genuinely surprised at the difference the weeks/months/years had made. Intellectually I recognised that babies and children were constantly developing but still it was often a surprise to meet the new current version of this little person.

Sometimes the parents didn't really seem to appreciate the changes, apart from the need to buy bigger shoes and clothes. Looking back at photos was the only way that some parents seemed able to grasp the dramatic differences between the 'then' and 'now' versions of their child. It's not just height and shoe size that change. Faces change shape, toddler curves melt away, eyes change colour, hair gets thicker, freckles start appearing on the bridge of noses, teeth fall out to be replaced by adult ones.

Once you get over the physical changes that have taken place you start to notice the language, attitude, manners, skills, interest and personality differences. These changes are even more fascinating.

Your daddy and I have taken a lot of photos of you over the last three years. Capturing you as you were born and then every step along the way. We look back at those photos and marvel at how different you are now.

More importantly though I try to catch and memorise the little changes that happen as our daily routine unfolds. This week I've noticed you are conjugating different verbs. You no longer need to be lifted up onto the 'big' toilet in our ensuite, instead backing yourself up and gently stretching up onto your tip toes you plonk your bottom down on the toilet seat unassisted. Last night you tried to explain to me that your throat was sore, pointing down inside your mouth, saying 'Sore inside mummy', not yet understanding the concept of your 'throat'.

You make more and more imaginary phone calls on the pink toy mobile that Nonna gave you on our last visit to Italy. You used to just push all the buttons, enjoying the noises. Now you pretend to call Nana, Grandad, Aunty Kim, Josh and Lachy. The conversations are getting more sophisticated as you ask how they are, and answer imaginary questions with 'yes, okay, yes, okay' before hanging up with a firm 'bye'.

You have been making us imaginary cups of tea with your tea set for some time but last weekend you were playing in the dirt, making muddy water and brought a 'cuppa coffee' to me, insisting that I take one out to daddy who was mowing the lawn. Before we know it you'll be making real cups of coffee for us just as I happily did for my parents.

We spent last weekend gardening, mowing and tidying up the yard following the heavy rainfall and growth from the recent flooding rains. For the first time I was confident that I could work out on the front garden while daddy tended the vegetable patch in the back as you moved between both spaces playing without the need for me to constantly remind you to stay away from the road.

It's all of these little changes that bit by bit add up to the big changes that other people now comment on when they see you again after a period of time as passed.

I never realised how fascinating it would be to watch a child grow up, thinking that it would be much more mundane. It's the subtle things that make it so interesting.

Every morning now you wake up and come looking for me with a 'good morning mummy, good sleep?. You weren't doing that this time last year. I wonder what will be different this time next year?

Regardless, bit by bit I'm trying to savour it all.

Love,
Mummy

 

Photographer II

Sofia
Everytime I pull out my camera you ask to take a photo. This was your best effort today.

Trucks and butterflies

Sofia

Before you were born your daddy and I spoke about trying to ensure that you were exposed to a range of toys and experiences that weren't gender stereotyping. One day driving home from a day trip we bought a collection of second hand toy trucks including an army jeep and a bulldozer. As I bought them I remember thinking I would have loved having such bash about toys.

 

As we were cleaning out the patio area this afternoon daddy and I discussed how you haven't shown any interest at all in these toys. Daddy commented that you did love to play in your little house, usually pretending to make cups of tea for us to enjoy. Your pram has had a lot more attention that the little lawn mower.

 

Fairies, princesses and butterflies seem to capture your attention over dinosaurs, fire engines and cowboys. I was a bit of a tom boy growing up. I hope you inherit a bit of that. It's a valuable thing to learn how to climb trees, play cops and robbers and get dirty in the creek.

 

I watch with interest as you play and learn, wondering if your early displays of femininity are traits you were born with or learnt behaviours from socialising. Either way we hope to help you grow up balanced, confident and comfortable as the human that you are working on each and every day.

 

PS: As I write I wonder why the word tom boy used for girls who embrace typically boyish activities has much more positive connotation than any of the words used for boys who display a preference for typically girls' activities. And why is it that it's okay for girls to be tom boys but as soon as they hit puberty it is not longer considered appropriate?  I wonder if it will still be like this if you decide to have children.

  

Gardener

Sofia

After the heavy rainfall last week we decided to spend the day gardening. While daddy was busy working in the vegie patch I focused on the front. You are always a happy helper, carting water back and forth in your little pink watering can, picking up leaves and trying to plant them. The fact that you think poking their yellowing stalks in the ground will give them a second chance at growing gives me hope.

 

You don't shy away from new challenges either. The wheelbarrow presented you with all sorts of development opportunities. Reversing was clearly the skill in which you excelled.