Parking

Sofia

It's a joy to watch you at the park. We stopped at a new park today. You headed straight to the swings as usual. Today was different though. I gave you big pushes, higher and higher, as you requested. In the past you have enjoyed the thrill for a little while and then seem to get scared, suddenly asking to get off. Today, I kept pushing and you smiled, giggled and loved every moment, not a trace of the fear as you flew into the sky, legs pumping, toes inviting tickles, my phone camera unable to keep up with your pace and movement.

You made your way around to every piece of equipment, investigating, exploring and testing. Occasionally, you discovered you were too small to climb up or use the equipment according to its designers intention. To my delight you found alternative ways to play on or around it.

We often watch you on the slide, intimidated whenever a boy (or pack of boys for they do seem to travel in packs) appears. Today, you were still a little wary but you seemed less interested in worrying about them and more engaged in climbing, sliding and trudging through the sand to do it all over again. I see these as small steps in building your confidence as important building blocks for the greater things you will do some day.

Special Dinner

Sofia

 

I collected you from child care.

 

On the way home you asked 'Can I have some-fing to eat please mummy?'

 

'But I've cooked you a special dinner.'

Your face lights up. I watch in the rear view mirror. 'A special dinner? A pink dinner?'

 

A pink dinner. If only I'd thought of that.

 

'No, darling, not a pink dinner', I lamented. For the lentil and vegetable curry with yoghurt I'd prepared certainly wasn't pink - but it was still special.

 

'Mmmm, tasty mummy' you said rubbing your tummy. 'Thanks for cooking mummy'.

 

I still don't know who taught you to say that but you often thank the chef at meal times. It warms my heart. 'You're welcome' I say.

 

'You're welcome mummy' you respond. I smile, you still don't understand the etiquette of giving thanks and receiving a 'You're welcome' in return. But it's so endearing that I don't bother correcting you and we return to the business of spooning yoghurt onto the curry and enjoying our dinner.

Sugar Rush

Sofia

We went to Georgia's 2nd birthday party - a relaxed afternoon tea in their backyard. We had a lovely afternoon, and you enjoyed the home made sweet treats including fairy bread, vanilla cupcakes and a wonderful chocolate birthday cake in the shape of a hot air balloon and a basket.

 

You played in the mini car and on the swings. I watched you retreat from your game at one stage, a little intimidated by some of the older boys at the party. I've been thinking that you need to start to learn to stand your ground to other kids that you find a bit overwhelming. Gentle encouragement and support will be the path, teaching you strong, assertive phrases that you can use to express yourself. I know you're still only three, but if you can already tell me to 'stop it' when you think I've stepped over your boundary, I think you can apply the same assertiveness with other kids.

 

You spent most of the ride home babbling away to yourself in the back seat. But it was as the afternoon turned into evening that the full impact of those sweet treats came to fruition. As Carmen and Daddy made mozzarella for our dinner you bounced around the dining room, chatting, playing, and engaging in an unusual range of silliness. At one stage you came out with your lunch cooler on your head, then you were climbing on furniture that you normally ignore. The glint of cheekiness in your eyes was at full throttle as you searched around for mischief and attention.

 

Don't get me wrong - we love to do silly. In fact I still surprise myself at how easy I slip into the kind of silly that has you rolling around on the floor in giggles. But tonight, with the sugar surging through your system, you were on turbo-charged silly. You have literally been bouncing around the house, during dinner, in the shower, while Skyping Nonna and during your wind down time with warm milk and brushing your hair. Even now I hear you negotiating hard with Daddy for four bed time story books when he has promised one. Normally at this time of the day you are tired, a little lethargic and often telling us it's time for bed.

 

It's been fun watching this Sofia being hyped and super energetic at the wrong end of the day, but I'm glad she doesn't live here all of the time.

 

 

December 2010

Sofia

 

I'm working on editing and filing some photos. I came across these photos taken in December 2010 when you were just one year old. They were taken at Boreen Point. You were already growing out of the roly poly baby stage. Your eyes were still changing colour.

 

I love stumbling across these photos. I remember the pink seersucker hat you were wearing and the feel of your swimming nappies. I remember the smell of you at that age. Most of all, as I look back at the younger you I can see some of what you are about to morph into - the bubbly, sometimes giggly and cheeky, often sweet and always sincere 3 year old girl who now wears a different hat, no longer needs the nappies and has eyes of luscious brown (despite what it says on your recently renewed Italian passport - but that's another story).

Buttons

Sofia

I'm not sure if it's an official milestone recognised by with the United Nations but tonight you successfully buttoned up your strawberry pyjama top. After I demonstrated with the first button you suddenly seemed to understand the process of holding the button in one hand and pushing it through the button hole. It was lovely to see the look of accomplishment on your face after weeks of unsuccessful attempts that ended in frustration.

 

It may seem small to some, but it's another big step in the skill set of a 3 year old.

Photos at 3yo

Sofia

 

For some time you've been asking to use my camera. Slowly and with lots of supervision I've been giving you my digital camera to take photos for the last few months. You wrap the strap around your left wrist and carefully lift the camera up, mindful of your fingers in front of the lens, positioning your fingers over the shutter button, holding the camera still...all the tips we've been teaching you.

 

It amazes me to see the quality of the photos you are already taking. Of course, like any photographer there are many that are out of focus, badly composed or obscured by fingers. There are also a many that are of the floor, the table top, people's feet and the grass. But for your age it's fascinating to watch how confident and inquisitive you are about snapping away at the world around you.

 

Mirroring the fact that daddy and I have undoubtedly taken thousands of photos of you since you were born you easily aim the camera at us, instructing us to say 'cheese' before snapping away. I still find it a bit weird to be the subject of your photos; more often than not I'm the one behind the camera. But I'm happy to be captured by you. It gives me some idea of what you see, and how you perceive the world around you.

 

Yesterday you took some photos of me at the shopping centre. In the spirit of writing about all the things you do that bring joy into my life I'm sharing those photos on the blog today as they are infinitely more personal and interesting than any of the photos I took of you sitting in the big red car or sliding face first down the slide.

 

Selfie

Sofia

The best thing about our trip to the gallery today was looking at the photos that you took on my camera once we got home. It wasn't until I uploaded them onto my computer that I realised you'd taken two 'selfies' - a self portrait of yourself, as though it was to be uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or some other social networking site. As I write I wonder if any of these platforms will still be around in years to come when you revisit these words and photos. I also wonder how different the media and our current concept of social networking will look by the time you reach my age.

 

Regardless, the selfie will be something that sticks around as mobile phones with cameras, video and internet become more and more entrenched in our lives.

 

So I thought I'd keep these two selfies, so you can later reflect on what has or hasn't changed about your attitude to capturing yourself (on film as we used to say) and what eventually happens with those images. For now they are part of this little blog about the joy of you.

 

Gallery Visit

Sofia

This morning we spent some time exploring the kids activities at the APT7 - 7th Asia Pacific Triennial exhibition - held at the Gallery of Modern Art and the Qld Art Gallery. You and I visited with my cousin Stephanie another day and saw some of the bigger exhibition pieces including sculptures from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Today we went into the Yellow or Blue exhibition, a series of rooms made from cardboard, painted either in solid yellow or blue. It got me thinking that it would be a cheap funky solution to create screening within a room from cardboard boxes glued and taped together and painted to create a cohesive look. The kids activity centred around yellow and blue cardboard boxes that were flattened. We made a car, while daddy worked on a blue aeroplane for you.

 

To my surprise you insisted on taking your afternoon nap with the car. You even took a photo of it.

 

 

We went on to making a mask, watching a short video about lights and lamps coming to life, and showing daddy the beat up Vespa that had toured Indonesia with a musician and the rainbow coloured plastic plant exhibit. The colours in it are particularly appealing and again you captured it on my camera.