Hooptastic!

I have always been reticent to post video of Tiger on this blog for the simple reason that I have always planned to print the blog into a proper book for Tigerlily to have when she is older. Recently I have begun to wonder whether this is a very twentieth-century way to think but I nevertheless find it hard to let go of the printed book as a keepsake (or, perhaps I have found it harder to think of the internet as a souvenir!). At the same time, I grieve for all the un-shot footage of Moo and for the ability to look back and see her as she once was - even though I equally find it difficult to understand what one does with all those hundreds of hours of precious memories (especially as someone who has had to sort through one person's lifetime of possessions) so I have, in a way, chosen to protect myself from the agony of deciding what to do with it by not having it at all. As I have mentioned before, the arrival of Wolfie into our lives, and the fact that cameras and video cameras have become ubiquitous, has meant that we already have far more photographs and far more video of him than we ever had of Tigerlily. As a result, I have started to film her more and more and it is hard not to post the resulting mini-movies here. 

Today we had one of those glorious Sydney spring days, just on the border of being hot but still cool enough to make it perfect for park activities. One of my friends from belly dance, Rebecca, asked me during our rehearsal whether Tiger would like to have a play with her daughter in a local park. Tigerlily decided that she wanted to hoop so we grabbed my entire collection and the whole family set off for the playground. Incredibly, after our recent hicups, Tigerlily could suddenly hoop! Please excuse the soundtrack of me offering hoops to strangers and giving them beginner's tips...

Ah my girl, so easily distracted...

 I love her hooping stance, it's like an 

Egyptian jingling coins in their underwear. 

Somehow her hips, her legs and her arms are all acting
independently: it's a gift I tell you.

Bec said to me as we watched that I should capture her unique style on video before she truly 'gets' it. She was absolutely right, not twenty minutes after Nicky filmed this, and after hooping in her special way for half an hour, she suddenly started hooping in a thoroughly normal way. Ah the wisdom of an experienced mother!