Dust Storm

There was a massive dust storm in, and around, Sydney today.



I heard Tiger get up with Mummy this morning - and they were talking about the "Red Sky" outside... well, Tiger insisted it was Orange, not Red - but still.



I heard Tiger say that it "maybe... could be the camels in the desert kicking up the dust, the sand". Apparently, she was saying it could be "the naughty baby ones".

When I saw her later that morning - after Mummy had gone to work - I was eager to talk to her about it... so I asked her if she thought there might be hundreds of those Camels kicking up dust in the desert.

Tiger told me that: "yeah! there might be at least 35! that would be heaps wouldn't it?" and then she followed up with "or even 60... 60... 68! That would be SO many wouldn't it?" I'm sure she doesn't know what the numbers mean yet - but I thought it was lovely - and by chance she even got them in the right ascending order... even if it wasn't hundreds :-)

God Bless the Child...

Well Daddy arrived home from Scotland yesterday after SEVEN WEEKS away and it is amazing to see the change that his return has brought about in our wee bairn.
This morning being Sunday they let me sleep in and the two of them made buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. I was woken by Tiger presenting me with a freshly made long-black and the most delightful delusion I am likely to come across for the year. While they were off buying supplies for this morning's breakfast, Tiger spotted a magazine in the supermarket which had a woman on the cover who looked "just like mummy except that she didn't have pink or brown hair". Nicky felt compelled to purchase said magazine to show me. The resemblance is breathtaking as I'm sure you'll agree, one simply has to divide me by three, change my hair, eye and skin colour, and hey presto it's my own personal doppelganger! Feel free to agree...

Easter Egg Carnage

One of the great surprises in my life is how delighted I find myself at having nephews, well, in truth, it's a delight simply to know the children of my brother who just happen to both be boys. One of the best aspects is that my daughter has defacto-brothers whom (?) she adores. We are lucky to spend quite a bit of time with them all and I recently found these shots on my hard-drive that I had completely forgotten about...

We hid the eggs in a their natural habitat...

With some locations an inevitable product of our urban
environment...

Max hunted high...

Tiger hunted low...

Elliot thought the whole thing rather silly...

Hmmm....egg?

"Here Max, let me hold your eggs for you..."

With supplies running low and dangerous
hose-snakes spotted on the grass,

Tiger took the high-ground hoping
that eggs would be easily spotted from above...

"No I didn't Mummy, I just like the soft yellow roof..."

"Though now that you mention it I think I can
see a sparkly wrapper..."

"Hmmm...I think this might be cheating..."

"I have a cunning plan..."

Meanwhile, down on the ground Max realises that
Elliot may be the secret to egg-supremacy...

"I bet I can fetch a good half dozen
eggs for Elliot down at the market..."

"What?? Max is going to sell Elliot?? Get him to
come here right now Mummy!"

"That's right, come here Max...and when you least expect it..."

"I will gently lay by hands on your shoulders..."

"And then you're mine!! Hand over your eggs
or you're never going free..."

"Sure sure Tiger, I'll just go get them...hee hee hee"

(Rubs hands together)
"Little do they realise that I have stolen away
their precious precious eggs. No one ever
suspects the little blonde..."

That time of year again...

Regular readers will know that every year Tiger's daycare organises a photographer to take photos of the kids. The first year they came, the photos were fab but they have been in decline ever since. I'm particularly disappointed by this year's batch, despite their subject matter!

For example: who is this demented toddler fisher-person??

And this? I don't even recognise this as my child!

I like this one because of the 'infinite regress' possibilities.
This is Tigerlily painting Tigerlily.
Please note: the persistent mis-spelling of her name...





In either version, one thing is clear: Tiger has inherited
her mummy's gummy smile...



Tiger tells me that this photograph documents her friend
Gabrielle burying her in the sand...I know that would
be my first choice as a photographer in terms of subject...

It's like looking in a mirror...

I love the bizarre way in which children develop skills seemingly overnight. For the longest time Tiger has drawn mostly, um, expressionistically. Bold strokes of colour and exciting suggestions of movement have dominated her art. All of a sudden she seems to have discovered figurative representation, I'm so excited to see her version of the world writ large!
These drawings below have to be my favourite so far; they are her attempt to draw pictures of the teddy bear and "baby brother" from the Dora House that Bobbie bought her for Christmas...

Gruffalo

Back in May we took Tiger and her cousin Max to see the play of The Gruffalo (which was fantastic by the way) and on our way out, I took this very cute shot of the two of them. I think it is clear from their faces how much they loved it...

Mistaken Identity

As part of this week's series of images discovered on my mobile, I came across these cute shots of Tiger pushing what I thought was one of her dolls on a swing. Now that I look closer I realise that they are actually shots of her at the playground pushing her bicycle helmet on a swing. Right.
The maternal instinct is strong with this one, if a little misdirected...