Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

Matilda Poppins

2012-01-27T21:57:00.003+11:00

Recently I was reflecting on how lovely it is that several of Tiger's best friends are friends from her earliest days with our parents' group. It is particularly lovely as it means that I get to spend lots of time with their mothers who have become some of my best friends too. This last week was full of those friends: Tuesday we had Tara to visit, Wednesday we visited Harriet, and Saturday was Matilda's birthday party.
As we required house-sitters for the weeks we were away on the cruise, we had to get the house into better condition than it has been since, well, if I'm honest, it's probably not looked this neat since Wolf was born. This meant that we suddenly had the ability to have people in our house (apparently necessity is the cure for CHAOS - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). Kristie had a doctor's appointment around the corner and she asked if Tara could stay with us for the morning. The girls ended up spending all day dressed in Snow White costumes and sneaking up on me to tickle me 'round the midriff:

Yep, it was a totally calm and peaceful

day.

Wednesday was wet. Very wet. We went with waterproofing to Cass' wonderfully welcoming whereabouts where the wee wonders wandered where we were without wetness.

Any playdate where someone gets

to stay naked all day is clearly an

awesome playdate.

Sadly I did not take any photos myself so I have no record of our marathon hazelnut-jam-drop-biscuit-eating-session, or of the tea party, nor do I have photos of Tigerlily snorgling Pepper (Harriet's new tabby kitten). I realised, after hearing about Pepper for the rest of the week, that it is really quite a shame that we already had Oscar and Saja before Tiger was born because she may never get to have the experience of having a kitten or puppy in the house. Unfortunately, Zhu-zhu pets do not quite cover it (plus they make really, really irritating noises).

Matilda's party was held in a "Mary Poppins" theme and we were asked to come with something from the show or to come in costume. I was surprised and delighted when Tigerlily decided that she wanted to go as the bird-woman ("tuppence a bag!"). I had thought that I would make her a little black hat out of cardboard but, by sheer luck, we found the perfect little black straw hat for the bargain price of $3. I decided that it would be easy enough for me to make a long black skirt despite my complete inability to sew. Once I mentioned this plan to Tigerlily, she kept hassling me to make her a dress instead of just a skirt.

I told her in no uncertain terms: "Look darling, a dress, anything with sleeves, is infinitely harder than a good old circle skirt. I just can't ok??"

Tiger put her hands on the table and said "You are saying that because you think you aren't a good sewer Mama that's all."

I couldn't help but be proud that Tiger's automatic assumption was that my inability to sew was merely a lack of confidence. When she overheard me telling Nicky the story later, Tiger said in an irritated tone "Well you are always telling me that Mama." Tigerlily has clearly never heard the story of how I had to sew and unpick a zipper seven times during textiles and design at school.
My ignorance with regard to sewing stretches to a complete incompetence in the field of fabric identification. This meant that when I went to Lincraft to purchase a cheap, five-dollar-a-metre black cotton, I accidentally had them cut me a metre of fine black linen. Fine black linen is not five dollars a metre. It does, however, make for a much nicer skirt (which Tiger will have to wear every day to justify the cost). With my mother's help, I made the skirt the day before the party, bought some glitzy pidgeons, printed off a sign and we were away:

Tiger reminds me so much of Nicky in this shot.

What better location for shots of

a homeless woman than the steps

in Newtown Square?

It might be partly the outfit, but I

think Tigerlily looks rather like

Bobbie here...

I love how wistful she looks here

- and that I managed to catch an

actual pidgeon in the shot!

The bags in the basket had a handful

of M&Ms in them - a bargain at 2d

a bag.

"Do you think the birds would mind if I ate some Mama?"

Tiger and Tara (who made a very

cute Mary Poppins even though she

had no idea who that was).

Clearly the Bird Woman is a little

bit demented.

At the party, the children were able

to decorate their own cupcakes complete

with Mary Poppins umbrellas.

They also had a 'spoonful of sugar' race.

Tigerlily kept dropping her sugar

cubes...

...and quickly fell behind...

...while Matilda raced for the finish

line...

...even though she came last, Tiger

valiantly kept going until the end.
I then annoyed everyone by pointing

out that she alone had 3 cubes of

sugar balanced on her spoon - Jason

declared her the handicap winner (to

shut me up).

During the pass-the-parcel, Tigerlily enjoyed a

refreshing cup of apple juice.

I thought it made her look like the cutest lush

imaginable (and I love how Matilda looks like she's

been seated next to the crazy drunk lady).

This is Tiger looking at me disapprovingly as I made

something like the comment above - Matilda looks

like she's asking "What's gin mummy?"

The cake was fabulous (Kelli and Matilda

made the figurines out of clay).

We had to leave Matilda's party straight after the cake as we were due at Elliot's 4th birthday party. But that's another story...

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-23T22:43:00.000+11:00

Every year for the past five or six years, our Christmas celebrations have followed the same pattern: Christmas-Eve dinner with Bobbie in Glenbrook, an early drive back to our house to open all our presents, and then a quick trip to the Lindley’s house in Rose Bay for Christmas lunch (which, as such things should, lasts well into the evening).

This year we had the luxury of a Christmas Eve that fell on a Saturday which meant that we had plenty of time to get to Bobbie's before it got dark (usually we are battling the West-bound traffic all the way into the early evening). When we arrived at Bobbie’s house, we were taken immediately into the backyard to see a special surprise that Bobbie had arranged just for Tiger:

We were a bit distracted by the King Parrots which

seemed to be watching us from every tree...

...but soon we discovered that Bobbie had

created a special ‘Tiger Den’ just for

Tigerlily (with a sign to make sure that

would-be visitors understood the rightful

owner).

Tiger loved the tent so much I had concerns that

we might not get her back inside for dinner. Happily,

the mosquitoes discovered her and she came inside

without argument.

Bobbie decided to give us each a silly hat to wear

in place of the usual paper crowns that are traditionally

worn at Christmas. Tiger's was a little purple tiara.

But she looked even better in my

hat, a fedora - it's only a matter of time

before she looks better in my shoes,

my dresses...

As a special surprise Bobbie had

purchased a bottle of Dom which

we shared before dinner and pressies

(Bobbie's 'hat' was a big red flower

on a headband).

I wish I could say that Tiger waited

patiently for us to open the presents.

Later in the afternoon, Tiger and

Bobbie sat and talked together on

the garden swing (as is their habit

when we visit). I was so happy that

I managed to sneak this shot of them,

I love that it captures Moo mid-story.

In great Gledhill tradition, we ate more curried sausages than could possibly be adviseable, sang songs and played the guitar, drank lots of wine, and argued well into the night. It was a very happy Christmas indeed...

Un Gateau de Christmas

2011-12-28T23:37:00.000+11:00

There was a moment during this year's decorating of the Christmas cake when I turned to Maud's mother and said "Tu sais que ce n'est pas un tradition Australien?" ("You know that this is not an Australian tradition?"). Somehow this crazy, exhausting, messy ritual has become an unmissable part of our Christmas celebrations and our adherence to it might have suggested that we have been doing so for our entire lives. In truth, we've only been decorating the cake for the past three years, with varying degrees of success. I've written before about the history of my grandmother's Christmas cake, and last year I documented the newly emerging freestyle approach to decoration, and this year we introduced a new tradition: my mother asked Josette to look around Nancy to find something suitably French to adorn the cake.

As he was last year, Tim was enlisted

to roll out the kilogram chunks of

marzipan and fondant.

As you can see, it is rather hard

work.

Nicky was enlisted to brush the cake

with egg white (which helps the icing

stick to the cake)...

...but it is not terribly tasty as Elliot

soon discovered.

He much preferred eating the off-cuts

of marzipan.

Word to the wise: if one lets one's

children eat marzipan, they apparently

go completely crazy.

And suffer a strange facial rictus...

...that endures for a disturbingly long time.

Tim, meanwhile, was busy assuring

a perfectly smooth surface to the cake.

We all decided that he might find a

future in baking if he ever gives up

banking. It would, after all, only

require the removal of an 'n' from

his business card.

The children were rather irritatingly keen to get

started on the cake.

Tiger had the honour of sticking on the special

decorative leaves that had been purchased specially

for this year's cake...

...but Elliot helped.

Then they all went to town with the icing 'stamps'.

Max supervised.

Tiger observed.

And then the great painting adventure began!

Last year, the rather expensive edible powders went

absolutely everywhere. This year, Granny went out

and purchased a new set which included greens, golds,

and three different shades of red. I decided that we

should place them on plates in measured quantities

to prevent the Great Powder Explosion of 2010 having

a repeat performance.

Elliot worked very hard on his Christmas tree.

As this photo testifies, they were all at work at once

on the cake. Though there were occasional spats, it

always amazes me how well these cousins get on even

when fighting for space.

Three generations working on the cake.

"Er, maman, je pense que j'ai oublié mes

croquis préparatoires..."

"Um, mummy, I'm not entirely sure what to do with

this bit..."

As this photo indicates, I did very

little indeed but watched on with

great interest (and very messy hair).

I love the look of concentration on Tiger's face in

this photo.

And this I included simply because it shows Granny

and Francis entertaining Hugo in the background.

(Though Max is clearly upset about something)

Again, though this is not a very good photo, I have

included it because it is one of the only shots that

features Maud and little Hugo.

Tiger was delighted to add the snowman ornament

which was a new addition to the cake collection this year.

This was Max's side. Obviously it features a tree,

a star, and, um, a yellow triangle. In fairness, the

fact that we had done the hard-slog of the Christmas

windows etc before arriving to do the cake meant

that the children were absolutely drained by this point

so they were not able to finish the cake as they might

have wished.

This is Elliot's side: I think he shows a remarkably

admirable restraint in his use of the green powder

for the tree.

This is Tiger's side: she started to highlight parts

of the snowflakes with one of the edible-ink pens

but never got to finish. She also spent some time

adding the silver cachous in a ring but I have no

idea what her final 'vision' was...

This is the ornament which Josette brought all the

way from France for us...

...and here is the semi-finished cake. Though it was

not completely decorated, it was, according to Josette,

the most delicious Christmas cake that she has eaten so

far.

Deck the Halls...

2011-12-19T23:31:00.004+11:00

In preparation for Wolf's arrival, we moved Tigerlily into the room which was previously our study. This meant that we had to move no less than eight book cases into our main living area, along with two computers and all their attendant paraphenalia. This year, because our house is even smaller than it used to be as a result of all that redecorating (which is an extremely generous word for any activity in our house), we had a bit of difficulty working out where we could put the tree, especially as Wolfgang was likely to try to de-ornament our creation when it was finished - thus placing him at serious risk of arborial squashing.

Last year, we bought our tree from the Veggie Patch in Blackheath for the bargain price of $20 (Sydney trees are usually at least $50) while we were shifting things from our house in Bell. I had thought that we might invent a new Christmas tradition that would include a drive to Blackheath for lunch, at which time we would pick up a tree. By a happy coincidence it just so happens that I have friends who live in Blackheath and I asked them to investigate this year's crop so that we did not waste the trip. Jade and Paul sent me pictures of their reconnaissance mission:

Only 4% of people can spot the child in

the display of bananas.

The price hike meant that it probably would not be worth the trip once petrol and time were factored in but, incredibly, in the face of my decision not to make the effort, Paul offered to deliver a tree to us. So, not only did we get a bargain tree, we got a bargain tree home delivered. We have such good friends.

I should mention that last year our tree was probably about 6 foot tall. The tree which Paul left in our back yard stands tall enough to touch the ceilings in our house - in other words, it's about 12 foot tall. My brother, a life-long fan of towering Christmas trees, would be proud of this monster. It did, however, mean that we had an even bigger challenge to find a spot for it in our over-crowded abode. In the end, Tigerlily had the inspired idea that it could be safely placed in the corner of her bedroom where the 'space chair' usually hangs.

It's hard to describe my pleasure at finding

Tiger ensconced in a book while waiting for

us to start decorating tree.

Tiger was so excited to be finally dressing

the tree - the poor thing had to wait five

full days before trotting out the tinsel.

Each year we buy her an ornament of her

choice for the tree. This year Tigerlily chose

a hideous plastic Santa Clause sitting astride

a glitter filled 'snow globe' which is internally

lit and which changes colour every 3 seconds.

She loves it.

This was the first ornament that Tiger ever chose

for herself, it was, rather unusually for our household,

a nativity scene. Even more unusually, the animals are

suspended from the manger with fishing wire (just as in

Jerusalem lo those many years ago).

I was surprised to find this ornament from my father's

tree in a bag of Christmas stuff that predates our children. It

has a lovely Victorian feel about it and, as it features Santa,

Tiger was delighted to include it on the tree.

Tiger thought it was hilarious that the

star could not stand vertically on the

tree (though everything is funnier on

her father's shoulders). Please note

that Tiger had at least one costume

change during the decorating of the

tree.

Here is the finished tree, I love how

unimpressed Tiger looks in this photo.

We left the lights on for three full days

before she decided that she might sleep

better if we turned it off at night.

This rather random inclusion is a photo of Tigerlily with the

wreath from my mother's front door on her head (as you do),

I think she looks like a Saturnalia maiden...

With Nails and I...

2011-12-08T23:37:00.000+11:00

Only yesterday I was reeling from the speed at which my daughter is growing up and today I had to face her first foray into feminine fripperies. As you may recall, when we recently attended Tara's birthday party, we absolutely neglected to bring her present with us so I arranged to have a play-date this afternoon to deliver the long-awaited dragonfly wings. During our excursion together, as a surprise, Kristie took the girls to a nail-salon to have their fingernails painted. Tara and Tiger chose the most sparkly purple polish imaginable:

Tiger waited somewhat patiently while

Tara had her nails painted.

Tigerlily looks like the cat that got

the cream here, I fear that nail polish

may be something of a fixation from

here on...

"See you here next Thursday?"

The lovely ladies that painted their nails added

pretty details in white over the dark purple (Tara

got little white hearts, Tiger little white flowers).

As long as I have known her, Kristie has always associated Tara with dragonflies and it has been rather infectious: it has gotten to the point where the colour 'green', dragonflies, and bunny rabbits are inextricably linked to Tara for me. It was for this reason, as I have mentioned before, that I decided to make a pair of dragonfly wings (instead of butterfly wings) for Tara's birthday. It turned out that it was something of a blessing that we forgot to bring Tara's wings with us for the party proper - when I looked at them a week later, I thought they were decidedly not pretty enough:

I used black fur for the join as I had with the butterfly

wings but for some reason it just didn't work as well

on the dragonfly style (I suspect it is because they are

a bit plainer overall - it's hard to see here but the wings

are actually sparkly as opposed to plain turquoise).

Clearly the only solution was lots of fake flowers so I stripped

off the fake fur (and some of the skin from my hands) and

added:

...lavender sprigs for the sides...

...hydrangeas (??) for the centre...

...and little hitch-hiker butterflies for a bit of fun.

They looked much better on the

birthday girl (though we've got to

work out a better system for tying

them on).

Isn't she divine??

I'd say that these wings were made for her except

that it would be a little redundant.

Ch...ch...ch...changes...

2011-12-07T22:57:00.043+11:00

Today my girl finished Kindergarten. I can hardly believe how quickly this year has flown by and how very much Tiger has changed in a handful of months. I am challenged by her on a daily basis: by the fact that her love is neither easily won nor to be taken for granted; by her inexhaustible hunger for silliness; and by the fact that she holds me to my own stated parenting ideals. I told Tigerlily when she was very small that I never wanted to say "Because I said so" (or any of its variants) because I always wanted to have a reason for the things I asked of her and that she had a right to know what those reasons were. Once, recently, on a day when I was absolutely exhausted and at the end of my tether I said to Tiger something along the lines of "just do it because I said so!" and she turned to me and said pointedly: "You said you never wanted to say that Mama." Quite.
On another day, I was fighting with her over eating a banana that was ever so slightly too ripe and I had managed to get her to eat half of it when she encountered a tiny bruise on its side. Suddenly she refused to eat any more and I found myself telling her that she absolutely had to eat the rest of it in a most dogmatic fashion. All of a sudden she started to cry and said, plainly, through her tears, "but you never make me eat something I don't like Mama." And it's true! When I am not at a point where I would trade my left fingernail for five minutes of sleep I do not believe in making her eat something she hates - frankly, what's the point?? But the point is that, even when I am not in a mood to appreciate it, Tiger makes me a better parent (according to my own rules of course).

Tigerlily does not pretend to like or love anyone. I struggle with this part of her personality because I know that the ability to make people think that you like them is a powerful and useful weapon in this world. I struggle with it even more because, sometimes, she doesn't pretend to like or love me. That is not to say that she does not leap into my arms with a hundred kisses; that she doesn't want to be with me as often as possible; or that she doesn't write me card after card telling me that she loves me. She does all these things and more but she also tells me quite plainly that when I am cross with her, or when she is angry with me, that she doesn't like me as much. In all honesty, I celebrate the fact that she can tell me this and that she feels so sure of herself that she will not bend for anyone (not even her mother) but I was deluded enought to think that I would have a good ten more years or so before I had to confront my child's shining autonomy.

Today, I wanted to take a photo of Tiger with her beloved teacher, Miss Shute. Tiger point-blank refused to do any such thing. I found myself on the brink of forcing her to pose for the picture when I paused and thought "Why do I want this picture?" I realised that I had some notion that she would like the memory recorded but I also realised that it really didn't matter - I have no such photo of me with my Kindergarten teacher and somehow I have survived just fine. So, in the spirit of Does It Really Matter, I let it go. Not surprisingly, we had a much easier afternoon because of that decision.

On the less positive front, last week I collected Tiger from school after the junior school Christmas concert. I said something to Moo about my shock that she was already finishing Kindergarten and she said "Don't be sad Mama, it's a good thing that I'm getting bigger." I replied "Of course it is honey and the amazing thing about you, Tiger, is that I can never be sad about you getting bigger because the bigger you get, the more awesome to get." Quick as a flash she replied "No, not awesome Mama, pretty." You know the old saying about 'cold chills' and 'spines'? Well, let's just say that my skeletal structure reached sub-Arctic temperatures and suddenly I was spouting off about the relative unimportance of and fleeting nature of 'prettiness'. It was not a good parenting moment by anyone's standards. I honestly do not know how to deal with this issue, how do I teach her that being pretty is not the be-all and end-all when everywhere she goes it is the very first thing that people notice about her??
Happily I can report that yesterday, when it was Mufty Day at school, Tiger was happy to go as something other than a 'princess', 'fairy', or 'ballerina'. She decided to go as a "super zebra" which basically consisted of her wearing a stripey dress with a black cape. As it turned out, when she dressed for school with Nicky, she decided that she was not, in fact, a super-zebra but a "winged monkey" from my show on the weekend:

This is a drawing that Tiger did after the

show on Saturday (I love that she included

a smiling poppy and that Dorothy has ruby

slippers but no arms...)

"She has no arms because I, the viscious

winged-monkey, ate them Mama."

I, for one, was surprised to discover that

even winged simians need to take public

transport from time to time.

I am not sure whether she is about to take

flight or break into a tap routine...

Party Season

2011-11-29T23:37:00.000+11:00

In the second semester of school, Tigerlily made a new friend, a boy in first grade named Ellis. I was delighted at the new friendship partly because next year Tiger will be in a composite class with Ellis and his classmates and partly because he seems like a really lovely little boy (and he's a talented ballet dancer to boot). A few weeks ago Tigerlily came home from school with an invitation to a Christmas Treasure Hunt at Ellis' house. I was unable to go to the party as I had rehearsals for our belly dance show so I only have these few photos of Tiger on her way out the door:

This Christmas dress has really done

quite well to survive four Christmases.

I wish I knew where Tiger learned

this pose, as sweet as she looks I

much prefer her looking like herself

(you know, screaming maniacally and

running around with her dress tucked

into her knickers).

"Don't worry Mama, I may be smiling

but the mania is always bubbling just

below the surface..."

"Geez Mama, how many photos of

this outfit do you really need??"

Oh yes, good, there she is.

The other big party of recent days was Tara's 6th birthday party which had a 'Princess and Unicorns' theme. I had completely forgotten about the party when I put our car in for it's annual service and this would not have been such a problem had the party not been in Lane Cove (on a day when the trains were all off-line). Tigerlily, of course, was thrilled at the prospect of taking not one, but two buses to the party. By some miracle, the torrential rain that had plagued the city throughout the week and right into Saturday morning disappeared just after lunchtime so at least we were making our way in fine, if hot, weather.

I am madly in love with the dress that I bought

Tiger to wear to the party: it is a 'Princess Tiana"

dress from the movie "The Frog Princess". It

looks like a waterlily, it is so beautiful. Bless

eBay and it's bargain finds!

Tiger's initial excitement over the bus trip was

short lived and soon she was growing bored.

Wolfie was not exactly loving the experience

either.

Tiger was enchanted by the giant

Christmas tree in the QVB and it

made a very princess'ey backdrop.

Nicky and Tiger had to have a quiet word before

the second leg of our journey (the contents of their

conversation may have included such phrases

as "Mummy is in a bad mood" and "Don't poke the bear...")

Reinvigorated by the sparkly tree and the excitement

of an entirely new, if identical, bus; Tiger proceeded

to go bezerk.

Which, naturally, Wolfie thought was hilarious.

"Well I don't see why I have to be quiet on the bus

Daddy, they are really terribly noisy."

"And Wolfie was really enjoying it!"

"Fine."
"Sigh."

...soon she was downright depressed by the

interminable journey.

(I secretly really love this very un-princess-like

photo)

"How many stops is it now Daddy?"

It was shortly after this photo was taken that we

realised that we had, in fact, missed our stop.

It was a rather long, rather hot walk but Tiger approached

the task quite cheerfully.

She particularly enjoyed having to hold her skirts

up as she skipped across rain puddles...

...and leaky footpaths.

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered

I have fought my way here...

This photo says it all really.

Tara's beautiful birthday cake.

Eventually we made it to the party where we restored our spirits with cake, pashmak unicorn tails and (my favourite) fairy bread. Incredibly, Kristie had made a hobby-unicorn for each of the guests. She asked each girl to choose a horse and then had them name their new friend. Kristie tied a bell onto each unicorn as they were assigned which lead Tiger to tell me later: "Did you know Mama that when a pony gets an owner, they also get a bell??" I don't remember learning that in Biology.

P.E.T.A may have something to say about keeping

fourteen ponies in a barrel but they seemed happy

enough.

Meanwhile, Kristie told the girls that the unicorns

were missing horns because they were baby unicorns.

One could not help noticing, however, that there were

a pile of 'unicorn horns' on offer on the treats table.

Coincidence??

This is 'Rosie', Tiger's new baby unicorn

(have I mentioned that Tiger names everything

'Rosie'??) .

Kristie also had a table of princess

crafts for the guests to play with and

Tiger made herself a wand.

Mid-ride.

Tiger and Tara compare mounts.

After Tiger's party, I promised Kristie that I would make Tara a pair of wings for her birthday present. I decided to make a green pair as it is Tara's favourite colour and I based the design on a butterfly that Eliza had photographed. I was halfway through when it suddenly occured to me that Tara has always been associated with dragonflies, "Aha," I thought, "I shall make a pair of dragonfly wings! Simple yet elegant." Thus began a three week ordeal of blurred vision and cramped hands as I hand-painted the veining on four separate wings (front and back). I finished them on the morning of Tara's party and then, naturally, we completely forgot to take them with us in our rush to make the bus. This meant that Tiger had no present to give when they sat in a little circle on the floor for the great unwrapping. As soon as Tiger was on the floor, Wolfie wanted to sit on her lap:

"And how exactly did you manage

to forget our present Mama??" his

little face seems to say...

"I wuv you Tiger, let me give you

a kiss!"

Kissing is a skill that Wolfie is yet

to master.

I love this photo!

We then had to do the whole journey in reverse

which was much aided by the fuel of a goodie-bag.

Nevertheless, I think Tiger looks wonderfully zonked

here.

Thunderstorm

2011-11-08T23:14:00.000+11:00

When I was growing-up, or, at least, according to my memory of that time, Sydney summer days often followed the rather liveable pattern of a hot, humid day followed by a dramatic and refreshing thunderstorm in the afternoon. Recent summers have not been so forgiving and the nights have been just as hard to live through as the days. Today, however, was of the old-fashioned sort and not long after Tigerlily, Wolfie and I arrived home from post-school shopping, we were treated to a rainstorm complete with thunder and lightning ("I wonder if we'll see 'sheep lightning' Daddy?" said Tiger).

The four of us stood on the front porch and watched the sheets of water fall on the road and the people running umbrella'less down the street.

"I feel like dancing in the rain." I said to Tigerlily who regarded me nervously, clearly not sure what I was suggesting.

She paddled a little in the puddle that was forming near our front gate and I said,

"Take your shoes off honey, we don't want them to be all soggy when we run around in the rain." She giggled.

I kicked off my own shoes and ran out onto the footpath with Tiger close behind. We jumped around like idiots, laughing and doing a rather silly jig for no particular reason. As it turned out, it was really cold in the rain so we only danced about for a short while before heading back inside but first I convinced her to let me take some photos:

"Oh my goodness Mama, my uniform is very, very

wet..."

"I'm trying to smile but my teeth are

actually chattering Mama."

"Honestly, this isn't very much fun

anymore..."

"Enough with the photos, let me go inside Mama!!"

All this torture in the name of DIRM!

Recently I realised that we had all somehow overlooked Tigerlily's homework for many, many weeks. As she is in Kindergarten, there was not much expected of her but each week she is meant to do a page in her 'Letter Book' thingy which involves drawing pictures beginning with the letter for the week and sticking in pictures from magazines and the like. We have been so busy that somehow we had neglected to do Q, X, and Y and so almost all of Sunday was spent in our sweltering kitchen playing catch-up. I realised that we have been equally neglectful of the 'News' topics that she is assigned each week so, in an attempt to be more responsible on this front too, I told Tiger that we would definitely be spending our afternoon preparing her news. I had not noticed that the topic this week was "Make a puppet from found materials." Oh good, so glad I did not read this until this afternoon.

Tigerlily decided that she wanted to make a fairy puppet. She also decided that she wanted it to be a hand-puppet (as opposed to one on a stick). We've been keeping a box of old paper, stickers and other craft materials for years; we put in particularly nice wrapping-paper from presents, particularly pretty cards, and bits of ribbon and whatnot that Tiger finds about the place. She went and grabbed this box and immediately began making a dress for her fairy. I suggested that she might like to make a body for the dress to go on and we struck upon the idea of using my coffee cup from this morning's (rather delicious) coffee. Some pipe-cleaners, a ping-pong ball, some cardboard, ribbon and glue and "Chloe the Garden Fairy" was born:

Tigerlily decided that, as she is a 'garden fairy', she

needed to have green hair. The little butterfly on her

shoulder is named 'Rosie' (like everything else in Tiger's

universe). Her rather long neck is a rolled-up piece of

cardboard from a nurofen box. She even has purple

cellophane wings but they aren't clear in these pics.

After she was finished, and because (quite by accident)

it turns out that she sits rather nicely on the edge

of things, Tigerlily decided that she needed a couch

to sit on. Daddy helped her wrap an old biscuit box

in pretty paper and Tiger stuck gold and lavender

squares all over it as the 'cushions'.

I think she looks rather nervous at

the proximity of those scissors...

Party Like it's 1982

2011-11-05T22:01:00.004+11:00

The first party that Tigerlily ever went to was Mel's birthday party which we somehow attended two weeks after she was born. Somewhere or other I have a polaroid of her at that party in a fetching pink and white striped onesie (if I manage to find it I will put it up on the blog). This year, Mel was having a fancy-dress party and we were requested to come in 80s gear. Mel suggested that I dress Wolf in a little power suit with a mobile phone twice the size of his head and that Tiger and I could come in fabulous frou-frou prom dresses.

Naturally, as is so often the case, we did not have time to organise anything in the way of costumes so I went with the obligatory side pony tail and lurid make-up. Tiger asked me if she could have the same hairstyle and we dressed her in her flouro-pink ra-ra skirt. She was absolutely fascinated by the hot-pink and blue eyeshadow that I had applied, so, in a fit of cruisey'ness that I would not usually indulge in when it comes to make-up, I asked if she would like to wear some eyeshadow too and she went crazy for the idea. Once done, I was determined to get a shot of us together, but this proved more difficult than I imagined:

Part of the problem was that she could

see herself in the camera...

... and this lead to a series of photos of her tongue.

I told her that we were trying for a shot

of her eyelids which meant that she pointed

them at the lens, or attempted to...

I told her to instead lift her chin a little,

so that we could get a photo of her lids, and

this was the result.

In the end, I decided to go with Tiger's

approach.

We finally got a decent shot that showed

her blue lids - I liked it so much that this is my

current profile picture.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T22:42:00.000+11:00

Last year, Nicky and I had promised Tiger that she could go trick-or-treating. We did not put much thought into it and simply set off in search of compliant neighbours and whatever sugar-products they might provide. As it turned out, Nicky and Tiger encountered a rather large group of children who seemed to have an esoteric understanding of local lolly-providers and they joined their group. I have since discovered that this group included Tiger's new and most beloved friend Queenie so, last week while at Lennox House, I chatted with Queenie's mother about their plans for this year. As it turns out, the Australia Street children were all meeting in a local park to travel in packs through local streets so I decided that we would once again simply tack ourselves onto their adventure. I did not think to organise a specific Halloween-oriented costume so we were left with Tiger's rather hodge-podge assortment of costumes to choose from - I quickly vetoed the dirty 'ballerina princess dress', the 'navel-baring mermaid costume' (which came in a bulk-lot off eBay) and, in the end, Tiger chose a flower-fairy dress that is several sizes too small for her and set it off with a purple tiara and magic wand:

The little orange-velvet pumpkin treat bag was gifted to us

by one of the lovely people at our local supermarket.

She excitedly handed me 9 of them to give to the local

children (and, incredibly, listed them by name).

As a last-minute impulse, I asked Tigerlily if she would

like me to do some face paint for her. It was meant

to be a sort of rose fairy crown thingy but Tiger didn't

seem to mind the dodgy line-work - especially after I

stuck little pink jewels all over her face. I wonder if

I could get her to eat broccoli if I studded it with sparkly

pink things?

She seemed to have a wonderful time and particularly enjoyed it when her group came to our house and I was frightened by all the vampires, witches, and zombies there assembled. I refused to come out from behind our front-grill until they promised not to eat me which Tiger thought was hilarious. Queenie dressed as a particularly warty witch and, not surprisingly, Tiger has since informed me that next year she wants to dress as a witch. I feel a sudden desire to decorate the house and to dress in something a little horrifying myself; what a shame we have a whole year to wait!

Livingstone the Adventure Rhino

2011-10-29T21:34:00.003+11:00

Today, rather randomly, my mother dropped off a little denim rhinoscerous toy that Tristan and Jeremy had been given when purchasing a pair of jeans and which they thought would be a nice toy for Wolfie. When I returned home from rehearsal, I fell instantly in love with him. I noted his bitten ear and missing left eye and asked Tiger if he should be called "Bruiser" or some similarly fight-oriented moniker. "No Mama" she said, "He's not a fighter, he's an 'adventure rhino'." Well, obviously.

I rather loved that she baulked at the idea of him being a violent creature, it speaks to something about her character I think...

Tigerlily Turns 6!

2011-10-23T21:59:00.000+11:00

As I mentioned recently, the past year has seen a dramatic change in my little girl: she has morphed into a confident, wonderfully forthright child who suddenly doesn't need me quite as much but who also remains as cuddly as ever. I love her more the better I get to know her - I am so proud of her easy kindness and ever-playful nature. As Nicky said of her some time ago now "Even if she wasn't my daughter, I would want to hang out with Tiger."

Brace yourself for the most photo-heavy blog post in TTBB history!

I wish that I had begun preparations for Tigerlily's birthday when she first mentioned that she wanted a fairy-themed event around six months ago. I would have thereby saved myself some three weeks of stress and manic behaviour (that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!). At first, my plan was to have the party at a fairy store with a party room. After last year's beautifully easy party at the bowling alley, with the party coordinator and fully-catered wondrousness, I was determined that I could outsource everything except the cake.
A few years ago, one could not walk down the street without encountering at least one fairy store; they had their glittered feet in every suburb. These days, however, as far as I could tell, there remain only two such shops within reasonable distance from where we live: one in Mosman and one in Moore Park. Frankly, the only reason I am going to Mosman these days is when I drive through there on my way to the zoo and even that brief encounter makes me shudder. At first, the shop in Moore Park was vetoed due to their exorbitant cost ($25/head with a minimum of 15 children) but, as it turned out, they were closing down in September in any case. This left me with no choice but to face the fact that I would have to organise and run the party myself.

I toyed with the idea of dressing-up as a fairy and doing face painting for the kids (after discovering how expensive fairy entertainers are) but I realised that it was probably impractical for me to organise the whole party and be part of it at the same time. At least all that research into entertainers did give me the idea which was to become our theme: a Fairy High Tea!

I included the snail-riding fairies on the invite as

a nod to Tiger's love for snails (and I thought the

blonde fairy at the top rather looked like Tiger).

It seemed like such a simple idea: some 'tea', some sandwiches, some cakes. I had not considered the hideous difficulty in organising tables and seating, not to mention the fact that, as it turns out, one cannot control the weather. All this, despite the fact that I had sworn never to have another party in a park after the nightmare of Tigerlily's first birthday.
When I started prepping for the party, I was carried away with the idea that it would be in woodland fairy style: I envisioned toadstools, spotted deer, and lots and lots of moss. There were beautiful deep greens, browns and flashes of red. After I got underway, I suddenly realised that Tigerlily would, if given the chance, choose pink as the main colour for the party. She would want lots of sparkles and lots of pink. I had to accept that this party was for her and not for me so I had to start my preparations over again.
Suddenly I was making pink tissue pom-poms; I was sewing a spotty pink runner for the table; I had little pink flower arrangements (which I forgot); and all the teapots and tea cups to organise. I also started making fairy wings which has since become something of an obsession:

I made these green ones for Moo, well, actually,

I made them for me but Tigerlily decided that she

wanted them for herself and I was happy to oblige.

I originally made these for my nephew Elliot; then I

thought I would wear them as a 'sunflower fairy' at the

party; but, in the end, they found a much better use...

Tara had accidentally

left her wings in her car

so I lent her the pair I was

going to wear...

I think we can all agree they look
look like they were made for her!

After a rather stressful 18 hours of rain, the weather broke and we were finally able to set up the party under a particularly beautiful fig tree in the park in absolutely perfect weather. I had planned to also have lovely Chinese lanterns covered in butterflies hanging from the branches, but they were left under a root until after the party was over.

Maud tried to get a photograph of the whole tree

and party set-up which Emma could not resist 'photo

bombing'. :)

As is usually the case, Granny helped set everything up

(while Max and I apparently were busy doing an

interpretive dance).

I was a bit bored of making 'fruit wands'

each and every year so this year I went

with a fruit 'bouquet'. I was a little short

on parsley foliage and it was rather unbalanced

but every single piece was eaten.

The spotty runner...

The tea cups and plates with the black

rim are from a tea service my grandmother

was given as a wedding present. By some

miracle, only one was broken. The little
brown and blue teapot seen here is over 100 years
old and belonged to my great-grandmother.

The little blue teapot was a gift from my Thai-sister

Peung many years ago...

The rest of the tea sets were from

which she generously let us use for the

party.

The little corked bottles of water

were meant to be 'dew drops' and we

had apothecary jars full of pink and

white marshmallows and musk sticks.

We had sugar cookies in the shape

of stars and butterflies (pink and green)
but, sadly, we didn't get a photo of the
butterflies.

And, of course, the birthday cake. Tiger requested

a 'Fairy Town Cake'. I massacred untold numbers

of the little blighters when I was trying to make them:

it's hard to see in this picture but they are tiny with

little rice paper wings and curly blonde hair and it

was awfully easy to squash them when trying to shape

them.

My gorgeous sister-in-law made

sandwiches (smoked salmon and cream cheese

and ham and cheese) for the table.

My mother made the obligatory

fairy bread (which most of you

know is my secret vice).

I even got to use my glass cake stand

which is an annoying size for actual

cakes but perfect for cookies.

When planning the party, I had decided that I would have the kids sit down for the tea party as soon as they all arrived so that we could eat our fill of the goodies before running about like idiots. This proved to be harder than expected when some of our guests were not able to arrive until quite late. In the end, the treats were on display but off-limits for almost 45 minutes, something which six year-olds are not entirely understanding about.

Bella and Queenie were keen to get started...

...but Tigerlily was playing the enforcer as per usual.

"No, Mama said no one can touch the table until

everyone is here..."

"Seriously, when are we going to get to eat??"

My first distraction idea was to pull out some bottles of bubbles I had in my handbag, this did, of course, simply result in fights over whose turn it was to help me make them. Seeing my frustration, Nicky took over:

It's possible that the whole reason I married Nicky is

because he is the kind of man who not only wears

wings for his daughter's birthday party, but also enjoys doing so

(he didn't take them off all day)...

Then there was a lot of the afore-

mentioned 'running around like

idiots' which was particularly beautiful

to watch when the participants were

mostly be-winged...

Through it all, Wolfie waited patiently on
his very own picnic blanket.

Elliot was not at all convinced by the fairy party

concept but little Hugo was entranced!

After a short while, Elliot noticed that his big brother

Max had disappeared (fairy parties turn out to be not

really his cup of tea - pardon the pun).

He looked everywhere but finally thought to check

in the giant toadstool (the obvious refuge of any right-thinking

young boy)...

...Max was reluctant to come out...

...but he obliged for the sake of a photo.

Finally all of our guests arrived and we were able to commence the high tea. I have to say that I grossly underestimated the joy that pouring their own drinks from little tea pots would give the wee folk (we had organic pink lady apple juice which I had tinted pink and called 'apple tea'). I am starting to think that we might serve all of Tigerlily's drinks this way in the future:

Let the great gorging begin!

Tiger and Mama cutting the cake.

Rainbows within!

My very handsome nephew Max.

Matilda, who was a strikingly pretty

fairy all in white.

The now legendary Queenie.

Mistress Tara.

The birthday girl (attempting to eat

a toadstool made of solid fondant).

Bella (in distinct danger of being

squashed by me).

Ms. Margot.

Emma pouring herself some tea

(from my other 'Peung teapot'.

Oliver, a favoured guest since 2008.

Tiger and Tara.

Not long after the tea party began, Megan and Dave arrived with Lulu and Matilda:

This meant that Wolfie finally had some company.

"So you see Matilda, the larger wooden ring is joined
with these smaller coloured rings...if one could just work
out how to free them then many things in this universe
would be understandable..."

Lulu came dressed as the sweetest ladybird
fairy imaginable.

As always, Nicky has been a great support over the past few weeks and has yet to complain (even when forced to deal with papier-mache goo). The one thing I asked of him on the day was that he run the pass-the-parcel as I find it terribly stressful:

I love that the game became a kind of 'Congress of

Dads" moment in the party (one running the stereo

and three supervising). Tigerlily asked for 'Swan Lake'

as the music.

After the pass-the-parcel, the dads took the children over to the playground and then it was time to open the presents.

This photo makes me laugh every time I look at it -

mainly because of the manic look on Tigerlily's face

as she prepares to open her presents and the rather

suspicious look on Sophie's...

I think it is clear from this picture how very much
Tiger loved her presents.

All in all, especially given the close-call with the weather, the party went as well as we could have hoped. Nicky did ask me what on Earth I was going to do for her 7th birthday after this whole production but I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed all the sculpting, painting, goodie-bag compilation, and general fairy madness. I have, however, reconfirmed my old position that I will never, ever, have another party in a park or similar outdoor venue. That's my story and I am sticking to it!

Fairy Show Bags!

2011-10-20T23:47:00.001+11:00

It is amazing that one could probably have a birthday party for one's child that featured no games whatsoever; one might even get away with a party that did not have a cake (though I suppose that is not very likely); but one should never ever consider having a birthday party that does not end with the handing out of goodie bags. Most years, Tiger's goodie bags have been simple affairs with an emphasis on edible elements but always with 'favours' of some kind. One year, for the Thomas the Tank Engine party, I put together colouring-in books that were very basic: a pile of printed colouring-in pages stapled together, but that was about as much effort as I have hitherto put into goodie-bag production.

This year, for some reason, I simply could not face handing out another pile of brown-paper packages filled with lollies and plastic bits. While researching ideas, I came across some gorgeous draw-string bags appliqued with the first initial of the guest's name - I had to try to make some. Then I came across the most adorable notebooks with pictures of animals on the front cover: they weren't anything to do with our 'fairy theme' but I became obsessed with making them regardless. Of all the items in the goodie bags, the books were the most labour intensive but also the most rewarding. They were also the one thing that I forgot to photograph (if one doesn't count the bags themselves).

I will admit that I got a little carried away (as I said to a friend, I think I confused goodie bags with show bags). I will also admit that I did not manage to include all the things that I originally planned but, in the end, the guests all received lolly pops; little beaded bracelets; a gold chocolate coin and:

I re-wrapped mini boxes of Smarties with labels that

read: "Fairy Poo. Do Not Eat*"

On the reverse side it says: "*Just Kidding!"

These were Cadbury Furry Friends which I re-wrapped

in silver and green foil and covered in printed labels that

were based on the party invite.

Tigerlily had an idea some months ago that bubbles

might be 'fairy eggs'. I considered writing that on the

labels for the bubble mix but I thought it would seem

strange without the back story. In the end, we couldn't think of

anything particularly interesting so we went with a bastardised

Shakespearean reference.

I filled these little bottles with corn flour which I

tinted pink and scented with rose essential oil and

then I mixed in a lot of green glitter. I made two

versions of the label because I couldn't decide which

I liked better...

The saga of the mushroom pencils is long and torturous

and still threatens to make me weep. In the end, each

child got one of these in their bag instead of the full set.

I also have 132 mini lead pencils and 48 mushroom-shaped

knobs left over...

I bought six metres of beautiful lavender cord on which

to hang each of these fairy charms. I cut said cord into

perfectly measured lengths and gathered the small beads

which were going to hang either side of the charm. On

the morning of the party, I sat down to string these simple

little necklaces only to discover that the cord was too thick.

Much swearing ensued and the children got the charms alone

in their bags. I now have a whole pile of very unuseful lengths

of cord with which I know not what to do (flog unwanted mice

to death with it??).

These are the little notebooks. This is the original

photo from which I got the images to make the books.

You will just have to trust me that they looked exactly

the same! They had 16 pages of colour, lined and

white paper on which to draw whatever inspiration

requires. I am not sure why they cast such a spell on me but

I love them. I hope the kids did too!

I am capable of many things but sewing is not one of them. When we were at school, we had compulsory Textiles & Designs classes in year 10 (I think). One project I tried to complete during these classes was a simple black pencil skirt: I sewed, unpicked, and resewed a zipper eleven times without once managing to sew it on straight. With this in mind, it might seem strange that I decided to attempt to sew the bags for Tiger's party but, as with the notebooks, I simply fell in love with the idea and decided to give it a go. It probably helps that the pattern specifically stated that it was not necessary to get the hems straight! I actually decided to make a feature of my wonky sewing and I sewed all the hems in bright red stitching, some of them were decidedly, um, creative in appearance. After weeks of sewing, cutting, glueing and whatnot, when all was said and done, I forgot to photograph the assembled bags. I did, however, remember to ask a couple of the guests to hold their bags up for me so I would have a few to remember:

Miss Sophie with her 'S' bag.

Oliver's was a bit weird, because I

experimented with a satin stitch on

the applique but I did like the tattoo

fabric I used for his letter.

The divine Miss T (we chose purple

fabric especially for her letter).

I used one of my favourite fabrics

for Matilda's 'M'.

Margot got an 'M' in deep purple

with stars of many colours.

I loved making the bags this year but I fear that there is nowhere to go in the years to come. Hand-carved boxes for next year perhaps? I had better get cracking...

Just in Case You Ever Wanted to Know How to Make a Giant Toadstool

2011-10-20T21:39:00.000+11:00

For the past month or so, our house has resembled a post-apocalyptic landscape of a particularly slimy sort. No fewer than three rooms of our house have been taken over by papier-mâché and the dog has eaten more gooey newspaper than I care to think about. I have done a lot of papier-mâché recently; so much, that my clothes are permanently spattered with goo and I have developed an almost fetishistic interest in piles of newspaper.

It all began innocently enough with my decision to make a few little toadstools for the table at Tiger's party. I made two or three using empty Jalna yoghurt bottles for the stems and employing various kitchen bowls as molds for the caps. Tigerlily was initially interested in the idea of papier-mache but she baulked at the process itself; it must be admitted that there are few individuals who enjoy the experience of soaking one's hands in a cold substance that most closely resembles phlegm. She happily helped me paint them once they were completed however, and it was while she was doing so that she was overcome with a sudden inspiration:

"What if we made a giant toadstool Mama? One that we could climb inside?"

Her excitement was infectious and suddenly I was inspired too; before I knew it we were making sketches and plotting. I explained that we probably couldn't make one big enough for several children but that we might be able to make one for a single child. I remembered that Reverse Garbage had large cardboard storage tubes and wondered if they would work as a stem for our giant mushroom. Tiger asked me gently if we might drive there immediately and suddenly we were all in the car, chattering excitedly about how our project might come together. From the very beginning I had to be careful not to set her expectations too high, I had no idea whether I could actually make such a thing, let alone one that could be used as decoration for her party.

As it turned out, we found the perfect tube at the very back of RG and Tiger insisted that I lift her into it to make sure that she could indeed fit comfortably inside. We carried it to the cash register along with an armful of artificial flowers (for the ever-pumping fairy-wing factory), a tiny decorative bottle and a hair ornament (such is the eclectic shopping experience of Reverse Garbage). We had not, unfortunately, considered how we might fit the tube into our tiny car but, after some ten minutes of seat-adjustment and swearing, we drove it home reclining elegantly on the passenger seat.

I was trying to make most of the props for Tiger's party out of materials we already had at home or which we could find on the street. I did, however, have to ask Nicky to buy chicken wire for the frame of the toadstool cap. To make up for this out-sourcing, we used up our extraordinarily large supply of old coffee trays to support the structure:

I cut and strapped two trays together to

be the centre support.

We then took the length of chicken wire and folded

it over this centre point.

We then used more coffee trays to support the edges...

...and taped them all in place as well as one can when

dealing with chicken wire.

By this time, Tigerlily was all tuckered-out and she

had a wee nap in the tube.
Please note that it was, apparently, originally a storage

vessel for bulk paracetamol (obviously a child-friendly

bed if ever there was one).

Over the next few days, I papier-mached four layers of paper over the form (making sure the last layer was white paper only) and waited rather impatiently for the whole thing to dry.

Tigerlily helped me paint the top.

I was not exactly happy with the way in which I painted the underside of the cap but six year-olds are a remarkably forgiving audience.

Nicky was given the task of cutting the 'door' into the toadstool. He is far, far more fastidious than I am, a quality which makes him the perfect candidate for activities which require precision. I would probably have carved something roughly door-shaped but Nicky set to it with a piece of string and a ruler which resulted in a perfect and functioning door. He hung it from two big hinges and would have added a latch but for the fact that Tigerlily misplaced it amid the chaos. Despite an aching hand from all the carving, he even added two windows after Tiger complained about the darkness inside the toadstool.
When I came to paint his beautifully crafted door, I intended to use the tried and true technique of putting down a layer of wet paint and dragging a comb through it to make the wood grain. I applied a thick layer of burnt umber, turned around to grab my flea comb, and turned back to discover that all the paint had disappeared! It had completely soaked into the cardboard. Honestly, half a centimetre of paint disappeared in seconds. I have never experienced anything like it. In the end, I had to paint the door with a kind of simulated woodgrain that I have never attempted before. In my enthusiasm, I spattered paint all over the cardboard tube which meant that I had to paint something to cover my mess. I chose to paint a shrubbery which was rather unfortunate looking so I painted lots of ivy in an attempt to distract from its obious un-plantness.

The small toadstools ended up as the

border to the 'party zone' and the giant

toady was set in a little, closer to the

tea party table.

Please note dodgy shrubbery.

Tigerlily and Bella posing with the

toadstool (which gives a good idea

of the door).

I just love Tiger's expression in this one.

The very adorable Matilda demonstrating

its proper use.

I would have loved to have made a flair at the base of the toadstool stem (along with little flower boxes under the windows) and the cap is not quite the right size for the base but, in the end, I was just delighted that we managed to make it at all. There are currently seven little toadstools on our television and the giant toadstool stands in the corner of our lounge room (which is Wolfie's favourite place to hide at the moment). Now that the party is over, I cannot help but wonder what, exactly, we are going to do with them??

Les Escargots

2011-10-18T22:37:00.000+11:00

When I sat down to write this post, I intended to make reference to one of my favourite Tiger stories - the one wherein she tricked me into coming down to the toilet in the backyard to see something which "is not a slug mama, I promise" only to begin to laugh maniacally once I arrived and to burst into a chorus of "It is a slug mama! It is! Bwahahahaha...." For the life of me I cannot find the blog post in which I originally told that story, surely I did one??

Anyhoo, the reason I was thinking of said story was because Tiger has developed something of a fixation with the slug's less-objectionable cousin, the snail. It began, I believe, with the snail project at daycare some two years ago which had the children looking after a group of snails in a fishtank. Just recently, Tigerlily found an old anti-mosquito lamp doohicky in the backyard and appropriated it for her snail-keeping purposes. Ever since, she has had 'pet snails' which she will gladly tell you about at length should you be inspired to ask her.

La Casa Del Snalio

She makes them meals of shredded baby spinach, grass/mud soup, and the occasional vegetable which she leaves inside the little metal house. She locks the door during the day to keep the snails safe while they are sleeping (though I have occasionally had to remind her not to leave it in a sunny spot after a near fatal oversight or two). As soon as dusk arrives, she goes outside to see if the snails are awake, often taking a torch to make doubly sure. Very often, if she finds them awake in the morning, she brings them to me on the tips of her fingers with exclamations of delight and wonder at the patterns on their shells and their silvery trails.

She particularly likes the little ones and has mastered

plucking them out of their house without crushing their

delicate shells.

"He's tickling me Mama!"

Relations between Tigerlily and Wolf have been somewhat strained since he started eating the snails that he finds in the backyard. God help us if he gets a taste for teddy bears...

Do You Here What I Here?

2011-10-05T22:05:00.008+11:00

Tigerlily was reading her big book of animals to me while I had my shower. She read:
"Though he is commonly called the Forest King, the lion actually prefers living on the plains."
She started to shout "What? What? Oh my goodness! Did you hear that mama??"
Ah the fun to be had with homonyms in the newly literate child.

Park Life

2011-10-03T22:47:00.006+11:00

After breakfast out, this morning, Tiger expressed an interest in going down to the park - and so, while Wolfie and Mummy went back for Wolfie's nap - we headed down to the park.

The play area was suitably packed, for a sunny Holiday Monday afternoon. Tiger and I played on the swings - had a couple of goes on the (all too sun-baked, and screamingly hot) slides - a quick play on the musical bridge - a dash across the cable bridge - and then over to the sand-pit, as a detour to leaving.

Tiger insisted that we "build a sandcastle". I was dubious as to my sandcastle building abilities - but I gave it a go, and I was quickly caught up in Tiger's passion for the idea. Our idea quickly turned into something a little between a castle and a walled city - which I quite liked.

Tiger soon got excited by the idea that everyone "lived on the outside in the walls". She helped me put windows all around the outside and was quite taken by the addition of a "door" in one wall... and the turrets in the corners.

While I was distracted - concentrating on improvements to the central courtyard of our original building - I hadn't noticed that Tiger had started work on:

* a school
* a shop

* a road conecting them all to the original castle

but most important of all, it turned out - the great mine. "Imagine" she told me, "if there was a big hill, a mountain, where people went to get chocolate"... "for the shop," she added.

"Maybe they have to dig into the mountain to get the chocolate" she said.

I said it was a "chocolate mine". Tiger needed some convincing that I knew what she meant - and that this was, indeed, a good description of her concept. But she came around in the end.

Tiger packed some leaves into the hole she had made to represent the mine - and was quite taken by in the idea that someone might find it later and think "what's all this chocolate doing here in this hill."

Continuing on the theme of "mines" - Tiger asked me, on the way home, "what do you think is in there, daddy?":

"Gold? Daddy. Do you think you might go down there and find gold?"

"Like a gold mine?" I asked.

"Yes" she said - satisfied that I knew what she was talking about this time.

"But why are you taking a picture of it, daddy? Daddy - what are you doing?"

"Because I might want to put it on your blog, later."

"Oh" *puzzled look*... Why would he want me to put THAT on my blog! Daddies do the strangest things sometimes.

My New Parenting Mantra

2011-09-19T22:38:00.003+10:00

This is an actual shot of Tigerlily leaping on top of me;

as in, I was lying on the grass and she took a flying leap

and body-slammed me. This is her in mid-air above me.

Hence the crazed smile...

I have always been a big fan of the mantra "This too shall pass" which was handed to me as a new mother and which has proved remarkably therapeutic, especially around three a.m. when one has been woken for the fourth time that night.

At risk of bringing the tone of Tiger's blog down, I have recently happened to read, by sheer happenstance, three different accounts of mothers whose children died suddenly. In each case, the mother lamented the missed opportunities with their children; expressed many and various regrets, and decried their previous focus on superficial matters (tidy hair, tidy bedrooms, matching socks etc). The similarities between these three different accounts got me thinking about the way in which I mother Tiger and what I might regret (given she rarely has tidy hair, a tidy bedroom or matching socks). I would definitely regret the snappy, bad-tempered me with whom Tigerlily so often has to spend her time.

One of the positive things that emerged out of my reading was a new mantra of my very own. Already it has been wonderfully effective in my day-to-day dealings with Tiger. It is, in short:

"Does it really matter?"

Today I really wanted to clean the house (which is a nightmare of unwashed dishes and mess everywhere) and Tiger really wanted to go to the park with the dog to do some hooping. I looked at the mess, thought 'does it really matter??' and headed to the park:

I love these two photos of my newly hoop-proficient

daughter!

One of the things that I do very rarely is to join Tigerlily in a tea party. Like so many parents, no matter how much I love my daughter, the mind-crunching pain of a pretend tea party is simply too much for me to bear. Oddly, it is also one of the things that all of the aforementioned blogs mentioned regretting after their children were gone so, today, I made time to sit and do just that...for a good fifteen minutes. Clearly Tiger was not satisfied and I found her a little while later trying to force the dog into drinking tea:

At first I thought she was going to succeed...

...but it turns out Oscar is about as keen on tea parties

as I.

Hooptastic!

2011-09-17T22:36:00.000+10:00

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!

Tiger Poppins

2011-09-14T23:09:00.001+10:00

Last month, Tigerlily and I went to see Mary Poppins after Bobbie kindly bought us tickets. Tiger had shown considerable patience in waiting for the day to arrive but she was positively thrumming with excitement on the day. As is my habit, we arrived at the theatre with plenty of time to spare so I took us around to Harry's for a hot dog (days out are exempt from the usual food restrictions which is why we also shared an entire bag of Malteasers during the show):

Tiger was wary of the ibis that were nesting in the

eaves of the theatre...

...best scoff the whole thing in one bite before they

descend!

"Mmmrph...not possible Mama..."

We had incredible seats right down the

front - Tiger thought it was hilarious that

we had to sneak this picture.

Tiger has always loved tap dancing and ever since we saw Mary Poppins, she has been simply obsessed. The scene which has stayed with her the longest is "Step in Time", largely because it is a giant ensemble tap number but also because it is in this part of the show that Bert tap dances upside-down on the ceiling. Tiger proudly announced to me that "They do that with cables Mama!" (she had been discussing her father's experiences with 'flying' in that self-same theatre). Gotta love a theatre-literate child.

Earlier this week, Tigerlily and I cleaned her room which had become completely unmanageable. As is so often the case, the cleaning unearthed all manner of toy that had been misplaced and quickly forgotten. Chief among such discoveries were the fake taps which we bought her for Christmas. This lead to my spending part of the afternoon being entertained by Tiger's unique choreography. My personal favourite routine was this one:

I love the confident introduction followed by the

"How does it go again??"

After the show, we had my brother's birthday party.

My mother's legendary carrot cake with cupcake

attendants.

The only photo I managed to take of Moo at the

party (with her cousin Elliot).

On the Fringe

2011-09-06T23:15:00.000+10:00

I recently rediscovered a delightful video on my hard drive of Tigerlily making up a story for me (I actually blogged about it here) and, as wonderful as her story was, I could not help but be amazed by how very much she has changed in less than a year. She looks like a baby! There have been so many changes in our lives in the ten months since that video was filmed but so many of the little changes to Moo have gone unnoticed that I thought I would do a post about some of the bigger shifts that I have taken note of lately:

1) Tigerlily can now read. Not just a little but at an amazing level. It has happened so quickly that it feels like a magic trick: one day she was learning the basics, the next she was getting her readers from year 2.

2) Tigerlily suddenly has impressive muscles in her legs. This may seem like a strange observation and, perhaps, not much of a surprise given all the dancing she is doing but it is still a little bit strange to see defined muscles in the thighs of one's five year-old. It's also fascinating to watch her body shift into child-mode and leave behind the pudgy cuteness of babyhood.

3) Tiger has bite. All of a sudden, my daughter actively defies me and, more's the pity, she no longer does what I tell her for the sheer pleasure of my approval. Drat. More worrying is the flash of will I see in her eyes when we have a confrontation, my teenage daughter will be more than a match for me I fear (and hope). On a sadder but related note, I no longer get running-jump cuddles when I pick Tiger up from school; it's only a hop-skip-and-a-jump until she wants me to wait in the car...parked around the corner.

4) Last school holidays, Tigerlily decided that she wanted to try out having a fringe. I suspect that its origin can be found in the fact that both Margot and Queenie have fringes but who knows? I think she looks lovely:

These photos were taken on the floor

of our Doctor's office while we waited

and waited for an appointment for Wolf.

Tiger was her usual calm, patient self.

With just a teensy bit of crazy (just

the way we like her).

Circus Skills

2011-08-31T11:49:00.000+10:00

Tigerlily's foray into soccer was short-lived. This was largely due to the fact that the young men facilitating the after-school workshops were clueless as to how to teach young children but it remains that Tiger decided that she no longer wanted to attend. This term there were two new free after-school activities: ten-pin bowling on Wednesdays and circus skills on Thursdays. Tiger has signed up for both. It amazes me that the primary school principal stays behind on Thursday for an hour and a half to teach the children juggling, plate spinning and various other circusy tricks. Last week he began teaching them how to walk on a slack-line:

First he had Tiger jump up and down on the line

to get a feel for the tension and to give her confidence.

Then he held her hand while she had a try of

walking the line (cue Johnny Cash)...

She made it about 3/4 of the way along before

finally falling off. I thought this was pretty

darn good for a first try!
Please note Emma giving the line a bit of a

wobble...

On the subject of circus skills, Tigerlily went to her very first hooping workshop today. For years now I have been impatient for Tiger to start hooping so that we could start spinning up a storm together. I have, in fact, been trying to get her interested since she was 3, as you may remember me mentioning on this blog. So far, while this has provided some great photo-opportunities, she shows no natural ability for the hoop and has yet to master actually keeping it going around her waist for more than a spin or two. I had hoped that a workshop with Bunny might kick-start the skill as it did for me. In my case, it took an entire two hours before I could get the hoop to spin around my waist while the rest of the class were effortlessly hooping after about twenty minutes. As it turned out, it seems Tiger has inherited my hooping ability and she did not manage to master the hoop during the class but she seemed to have fun nevertheless.

Tiger tried watching the other girls

spin to get help with her own technique...

Some of the girls in the class were

veteran hoopers and in this shot Tiger

is watching the girl who won the

hoop-off. I love that she and the girl

behind are absolutely gobsmacked by

her ability...

So so close!

Even though she did not manage to master the hoop in this one class, I am sure it will only be a matter of weeks before she does, particularly if I take the time to hoop with her on the weekend. Bunny said that she had a great attitude which is always lovely to hear and nothing less than I would expect from my girl.

Her love of all these circus skill activities has inspired me to investigate once again some classes which take place near us at the hideous time of 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Such a delicate balance between a child's delight and a mother's sleep...

Tigerlily "in print"

2011-08-28T12:21:00.004+10:00

I get a little bit hassled about the fact I don't directly contribute to Tiger's blog very often... in fact I have a post about the Zoo and another about last year's Halloween that I still haven't filled out the details of (and therefore not actually published)...

So when I found this (link below) on the web - Millie looked meaningfully at me said "perhaps you should post that on Tiger's blog..."

And so I am (Halloween and Zoo posts still to come):

I had been searching for Wolfie's blog - and was happy to find that it came up first with a search for "Wolfgang Gledhill" on Google. So I then set to searching for Tiger's blog on Google - to see where it came up under a search for "Tigerlily Gledhill". I was sorry to see it only came up 3rd on the list... then I wondered what on earth had come up first... and found this:

"Tiger Lilly" Fine Art Print by Hannah Gledhill | RedBubble

A fine art print, by someone called Hannah Gledhill... named "Tiger Lilly".

I won't say much more than that - except how freaky is that!

... and I think I'm going to buy one.

Book Week According to Tigerlily

2011-08-28T12:07:00.000+10:00

i went as emily eyefinger and i had a lot of fun.i liked to looking behind my back.

Book Week

2011-08-25T23:46:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago, a note arrived home from school informing us that there would be a Book Week parade at Tigerlily's school and that she would need to come to school on the allotted day dressed as her favourite book character. In the weeks that followed I saw post after post on facebook from friends who were planning and making similar costumes for their own kids for similar parades at their schools. I had never heard of such a thing and assumed it was a new scholastic tradition. I conducted a quick survey of my friends and it seems that it is, in fact, a public/private divide: all of my public school educated friends had fond memories of such parades whereas I, and other private school types, were completely ignorant of them. I find this discrepancy rather odd. Funnily enough, Daffodil Day celebrations seem to fall along similar, if opposite, lines.

McD embraces Book Week and all its traditions. When I asked Tiger which character she would like to dress as, her first choice was "The Little Mermaid" because it is the story that she listens to every night as she goes to sleep. I was unenthusiastic about the idea and explained that everyone would assume that she was simply the mermaid from the Disney movie (instead of the decidedly more depressing Hans Christian Andersen story). A few days later we were reading Emily Eyefinger and I asked her if she would consider dressing as Emily instead. I was delighted when she agreed whole-heartedly but only a few days later she informed me that she wanted to dress as a mermaid again. When I asked her what brought about the change of heart, she told me that she "wouldn't be pretty" if she went as Emily. I went berserk, on the inside. On the outside, I calmly informed Tiger that if she restricted her life to activities and pursuits which would allow her to look 'pretty' then she would lead a limited and uninteresting life. I asked her pointedly if the boys at her school worried about looking 'pretty' when they chose their costumes, and I told her that I would never allow any daughter of mine to value herself so little that she would think that 'pretty' was all she had to offer the world. In other words, I kind of went gently berserk on the outside too. I also told her that the only way that she wouldn't look pretty would be if she went to school with a bag over her head.

She went as Emily Eyefinger.

And I think she looks very pretty.

Spot the Difference

2011-08-23T13:08:00.000+10:00

When I posted Tigerlily's first school photo and mentioned my own notoriously scruffy appearance at school, a few of you asked me to find my kindy photo so that a comparison might be made. I put my mother to the task and when she finally presented me with the photo, I was surprised by how neat and tidy I look; "Well, it was taken at the very beginning of the day darling" my mother said. This, however, does not explain what happened to Moo in the two hours between arriving at school and having her photo taken:

What is interesting to me is how very different

we actually are - I can see that we have the

same smile but, to me, we are not that alike.

Love the 80s collar on my uniform.

I had to also include this photo because just

one year later, the neatness has taken a

considerable dive (meanwhile look at the size of my ribbons!).

The beginning of the great descent into scruff...

Let Me Tell You a Story...

2011-08-11T22:09:00.001+10:00

As I have already mentioned, Tigerlily missed the better part of the first week of this term due to a mystery illness that Dr. Google helped us diagnose as Fifth Disease/Slap-Cheek. Normally one missed week would not be much of a problem except that it just so happened that in Assembly that week, Tigerlily was awarded first prize in the school creative writing competition.

The Arndell Writing Competition at The McDonald College happens every year. In order to tie in with Book Week 2011, the theme for the competition was “Crossing Borders; One World Many Stories.” Tiger won the Prep & Kindy Category for her story about her trip to Fiji with a twist in the tail (spoiler alert: she turns into a mermaid at the end).

Happily they arranged for Tiger to receive her prize the following week and I secretly managed to be there in assembly for the big moment. It was quite sweet, we had done such a good job of keeping her award a secret that she didn't have any idea what was going on - she looked quite confused by all the fuss. I, of course, was shamelessly proud of my budding writer...

Doesn't she look like a bookish type to you??

"Don't be silly Mama, they're Daddy's glasses..."

New Blood (Cue Twilight Theme)

2011-08-09T23:14:00.000+10:00

When Tigerlily arrived back at school this term, she immediately fell ill with 'slap-cheek' and we missed most of the first week of school. As a result, we also missed the arrival of a new girl into the class. Given we were down to the last two girls in kindergarten, this was an exciting event by anyone's standards. As it turns out, the new girl, Bella, lives only one suburb away so she and Tigerlily often get the same train to and from school. Not surprisingly, a firm friendship has quickly sprung-up between them:

First School Photo

2011-08-04T22:40:00.000+10:00

It's a special day; today we received Tigerlily's first school photo. It's killer cute as I expected it to be, the background is mottled-blue as I expected it to be and her hair is half-messy as I expected it to be. As I may have mentioned here before, my mother has always told the story of collecting my brother and me from our respective schools when we were little - my brother would always look exactly as he had when she dropped him off in the morning whereas I would have my hair flying wild about my head, ribbons and clips missing, as if I had been thrown in a tumble dryer. Now that I have my own daughter, and she has clearly inherited my fine, thin hair, I realise that it was never my fault - our hair is impossible to restrain. On the day of the school photo, I did Tiger's hair very carefully, it was perfectly coiffed, smooth and shiny. This is how it looked an hour or so later:

Only one of these cute school-issue scrunchies
made it home from photo day. Vale brave little
hair ornament...

The whole class with the very lovely Miss Shute.

P.S. I Love You

2011-08-03T15:27:00.000+10:00

Some weeks are really hard; there's not enough time, sleep, money or patience to get you through and, unfortunately, in our household, the person who gets the worst deal out of such weeks is Tigerlily. The amazing thing about children is that they are incredibly forgiving of their grumpy parents and Tiger is no exception, so much so, that on Sunday (after leaving me to sleep in until eleven in the morning) she presented me with these cards that she had made:

I love that she even added planes in

the sky and that a very little Wolfie is

featured lying on his change table.

Tigerlily calls these "flat cards" and gets terribly

upset if I suggest folding them in any way.

During the school holidays, when we went to the zoo with Matilda and Kelli, Tigerlily asked me if she could use my moleskin notebook to draw some pictures. I was terribly ungracious about the whole thing and told her sternly that she could "only use one page" and that she should be careful "not to let the texta soak through the pages."

"Ok Mama." She said seriously and set about drawing her picture.

When she was finished, to my chagrin, this is what she handed me:

I think I would be very lucky indeed

to have her fill my entire notebook

with such pictures.

Tigerlily's World

2011-07-29T23:58:00.000+10:00

Since I received my new camera, I have been snatching any opportunity I can to learn how to use it in 'manual' mode. Recently we were at a Laurel Tree reunion and I took this series of shots of Moo on a hill. They don't really work but I keep coming back to them, mainly, I think, because when I look at this picture, I cannot help but think of the Wyeth painting "Christina's World":

We studied this painting at school and it has always stayed with me - doubtless this is partly to do with the fact that the painting depicts a friend of the artist, the Christina of the painting's name, who was crippled by Polio. Apparently, while at home, Christina would forgo her wheelchair and simply pull herself about her rural property using her arms.
Thankfully, the only crippled part of Tigerlily is her volume-control and she was happy to dance about while I played with the settings on my camera - this was only weeks after I first received the camera and I was forever finding these opportunities only at the height of midday (the worst possible time for photos really) so Moo is a bit flared-out in these...

"The hills are alive..."

Tips are welcomed.

"I really think this sun is a bit bright Mama.."

Swinging Tiger.

Peaceful dragon.

Rolling for no reason at all.

"I'm getting a bit tired of all the photos now Mama."

"Do you think we can stop now?"

"Stoopid photos, I didn't want to do this in the first

place..."

"No one listens to me..."

Tigerlily could teach Gandhi a thing or two about

passive resistance.

Daddies everywhere provide welcome refuge from

shutter-mad mothers.

Meanwhile, I still haven't mastered the manual-mode...

Tiger's Technocolour Dream Coat

2011-07-27T22:23:00.000+10:00

Sometimes, when I'm bored and too tired to do something constructive, I browse the thousands of items on Etsy in search of something new and interesting. One night, I came across some fantabulous elf-coats made by a woman in the States who trades under the name Katwise; I had never seen anything like them. I decided that I simply had to have one, until I realised that they were in the region of six-hundred dollars each and that she has a waiting-list as long as my arm. From that point on, my Katwise-admiration became nothing more than a spectator sport. One evening, I logged onto Etsy and searched for "Katwise" and a new batch of coats appeared in my feed - coats for children. Not only were they made in Australia, but they were also made with the blessing of Katwise herself (unlike the hundreds of imitators that have sprung up all over the web). I fired off an email to the seller Sweet & Blue and, as luck would have it, she had one custom slot available this Winter. I asked her if she could make us a rainbow coat, something vibrant and exciting, "What about blending in black stitching , kind of like a liquorice allsort!!" she shot back and we were away.

In no time at all, the coat was finished and it arrived today. Showing incredible restraint, I waited to open it until we got home from school. After I told her it had arrived, Tigerlily immediately ran into the house, tore open the parcel, stripped off all of her clothes and put it on. I nearly died. Suddenly I had a bright little wizard-child standing before me. "No, I'm a fairy Mama" she insisted. Yeah, yeah, fairy, wizard, whatever, it's divine. Wool is pretty stretchy, I wonder if it would fit me?

"Tigerlily, you don't look very happy about your

new coat..."

"I am Mama! I'm crazy excited!"

Look at those colours! Look at

that hood!

It was getting a bit late for photos

but she still looks darn cute...

...and mostly happy to pose for photos...

...until she wasn't.

I think this is the moment that Tiger

realised that she cannot wear the coat

to school.

Centennial

2011-07-12T22:56:00.000+10:00

I am absolutely in love with this

cape that I bought from a little shop

in Newtown this weekend. C'est tres

mignon non?

On the weekend that my newest nephew Hugo was born, we arranged with Tim to meet the boys at Centennial Park to give them a little play time after a weekend spent at the hospital. We battled traffic for forty-five minutes to reach the park but when we finally arrived, there was no sign of the Lindleys anywhere. I rang Tim and he rather bashfully admitted that he was actually on Coogee Beach, he had completely forgotten about our arrangement. Lucky for him, new parents get at least three complete memory failures before punishments are assigned.

In typical Tiger fashion, she quickly overcame her disappointment and decided that this meant that we were free to go for a leisurely walk in the 'woods' near the bike track:

"Let's go Mama - adventure awaits!"

"Come on Oscar, it's time to explore!"

"Um, Mama, Oscar doesn't seem to want to come..."

"No, we are not chasing bikes Oscar, that's no fun

at all."

"Hehehe, I told him we are going to hunt chickens!"

Tigerlily soon found this incredible field of grass that

seemed to stretch on forever, it was impossible to

resist.

"It was actually a bit creepy in there Mama, I think

we'll keep exploring..."

By the time we were heading back into the woods

it was getting late and Nicky couldn't resist capturing

Tiger glowing in the afternoon sun.

It was pretty magical.

Intrepid Oscar checked that it was

safe to traverse the mighty grass plains...

As evening fell, we climbed up into

the hills (it's hard to see but little

Wolf is strapped to my chest in the

ring sling).

Tigerlily found some disconcertingly svelte pine cones.

And as night descended, she gave us the cutest vampire

impression I've ever seen...

As we walked back down the hill to the car, teeth chattering, Tiger told me that this was one of her favourite afternoons ever - sometimes, the best days happen when you haven't planned for them at all. Maybe Tim should stand us up more often?

Mummy Murdered a Rainbow

2011-07-11T23:12:00.008+10:00

The last of our joint-adventures with Tim and his boys this week was to be a visit to Thomas the Tank Engine at the Zig-Zag Railway. We decided that we would stay with Bobbie on the night before which gave us a chance for a long-delayed visit and also it meant that we would not need to get up quite so early the following morning.

As it turned out, we chose to visit the mountains in the middle of a cold-snap. It was freezing and Wolfie did not sleep well as a result which made feeding throughout the night a decidedly chilly affair. The next morning, cold was only one of our problems with Bobbie announcing to us that there was a black-out in Glenbrook so, though she was kind enough to build a fire to warm the house, there would be no showers. Those who know me well, know that I don't function very well without a shower. As Nicky emerged from bed, he told me that he had been feeling sick all night and that he was still feeling unwell. "Yes, yes, hurry up, there, there." probably approximates my response. I had been unwell all week and assumed that he had the same bug, which made me horribly nauseous but that was about the extent of my malady. I was wrong.

We drove to Leura to meet the rest of our group for lunch. Naturally I had chosen a restaurant that specifically instructs its guests not to use their address to find them, using a GPS, they warned, would only result in our getting horribly lost. We all got lost.

Nicky vomited violently on a golf course, much to the disapproval of some early morning golfers.

When we eventually found the restaurant, we discovered that the 'light lunch' menu consisted of essentially two choices, one of which was inedible (as I was reliably informed by half the table who had ordered it).

In our plans, we had allowed for an entire hour and a half to get from Leura to Clarence under the understanding that there would be delays at Medlow Bath after the infamous ‘train squashed by tree’ incident. You can all guess where this is going, that’s right, we arrived a full hour early for our appointment with Thomas. This wouldn’t have been so bad (even allowing for the shockingly icy 4 degrees that greeted us when we arrived) had there not been a disaster that morning which meant that poor Thomas was running an hour late.

By this point Nicky had permanent pins-and-needles in his hands and feet and he was relegated to lying as horizontal as Tim’s passenger seat would allow. He spent three hours in that spot, covered in crochet rugs and baby slings, and occasionally turning on the engine so that he wouldn’t freeze to death. Meanwhile, the rest of us had examined pretty much every part of the Zig-Zag gift-shop and sampled almost all of their refreshments – interesting piece of trivia: French people do not enjoy Mars bars.

This photo was meant to document Moo's little pink

nose from the cold...

Please note chattering teeth!

"Seriously mama, I am NOT cold!"

The children were so excited that it was virtually
impossible to get a straight face out of any of them
all day.

I think Tiger's expression here says everything one

needs to know about the wait.

All was forgotten once we were on-board (the

hot-chocolates that Tim bought for all the children

just before boarding probably helped too).

When Thomas finally arrived an hour late, it turned out that most of our fellow passengers had somehow been squeezed onto the earlier train so there were only about fifty of us in total. When we arrived at the sheds where exciting Thomas-type activities were to take place, it turned out that the people working at the fair-ground attractions and food-stalls had assumed that the previous train was the last for the day. As a consequence, they had deflated the jumping-castle, switched off the coffee machine and we were left with a slightly depressing assembly of tired workers and dormant attractions. On the positive side, this meant that there were no queues to speak of and Tigerlily had her choice of face-painters and no less than seven rides on the flying horses.

Tiger may have been taking Granny's advice on

'matching' too far when she colour-coordinated her

face-painting and her horse.

Clearly Tigerlily did not mind one bit that she was

the only child on the ride.

I have no idea who this engine is meant to be but

it did not stop Tigerlily from prancing about very

excitedly on his rails.

For some reason, we were delayed for about twenty

minutes on the trip back up to Clarence. One of the

conductors had left a window open which Tigerlily

thought was wonderful, the rest of the carriage, not

so much.

By the time we had clambered back up the mountain, it was so cold that even Tiger complained, her little teeth chattering and her hands driven deep into my pockets in a desperate attempt to get them warm (I won’t mention the fact that she was appallingly underdressed for the weather). I dragged Nicky back to our car, threw Tim’s keys at him in as friendly a fashion as I could muster and we began the long drive home. We arrived back in Newtown around half eight. It was about then that we realised that Wolfie was sick, but that’s another story…

Activities to the Max (also with Max)

2011-07-08T20:34:00.000+10:00

When I organise school holiday activities, they tend to happen very close to home and, let's be honest, the amount of planning can be counted in minutes rather than hours. When my brother organises activities, they tend to be exciting, creative adventures that are so appealing that he often has an entourage of adults tagging along. It just so happens that these school holidays coincided with the birth of his third son, Hugo, so Tim was extra-motivated to come up with special things to do with his older boys to make extra-specially sure that they didn't eat their new little brother.

Tim had arranged for us to go whale watching on Tuesday, that's right, whale watching. We were lucky enough to have Nicky off work for a couple of days so, in total, we had six adults and five children along for the ride. On the morning of our trip, the company had called to say that the cruise might be cancelled due to the 100km winds offshore. As it turned out, the trip went ahead, for good or (profoundly) ill.

Tigerlily likes to limber up before an excursion.
Here she is practicing her ballet on the station while

we waited for our train.

Sam and Max waited for us in a tree
(Tiger took this photo).

Study of seagull by Tigerlily.

We headed out the heads until Sydney was far behind

us. Please note the waves.

Once we were on our way, Tiger was visibly excited,

especially when Tim suggested that we head upstairs

to the viewing deck.

I, however, was terrified as the boat pitched and swayed

to an alarming degree. It was also bone-achingly cold so
I clung, frozen, to the seats in the centre of the boat while
the kids took up their positions around the perimeter.

Max gauged the winds using that time-tested
tongue technique. They were so strong that he
seems to have lost a tooth to their fury of Mother Nature.

Tim and his father-in-law show remarkably similar
physicality...

Nicky and Wolfie took up a peaceful position at
the back of the boat. One-sock Gledhill strikes again!

Eventually, they spotted the whales.

They stayed only metres away from our boat for

a good hour.

As testament to the incredibly short

attention-span of children, after watching a

particularly spectacular series of fin-waves and

tail-splashes, they turned to me and said "Are we

going back soon??" Sigh.

Nevertheless they seemed to have a fantastic time.

I'm not sure the woman in the background has her
camera quite close enough to her boyfriend's face...

After a couple of hours in a severely rocking boat,

we finally started the journey back to Circular Quay.

We also started the delightful social-vomiting. It's

like social-networking but with more lunch involved.

Tigerlily felt ill and rather sleepy.

She and Max and Sam all tried hard to sleep on

the journey home.

They tried...

...and they tried...

...but only little Elliot succeeded.

On the Friday, Tim suggested that we all meet at Luna Park. Tigerlily had only ever seen it from a distance but she felt sure that any place that required one to enter via a giant, illuminated mouth must offer something pretty special. As it turned out, we had a scant two hours to explore.
Luna Park has an incredibly irritating system for determining how much to charge their littlest patrons: they measure the height of the child and give them a colour code which determines which rides they are able to enjoy. The thing is, if one only wants to let one's child ride the least terrifying rides, the slow and gentle amusements, but one's child is tall enough to ride the more exciting rides, one is nevertheless expected to pay the higher price. I kept arguing that I didn't want my child to ride the rollercoaster (she would have flipped had I even suggested such a thing) so I didn't see why I should pay for the option. "Nope, your child is tall enough for 'green' so she pays 'green'" I was told. No amount of arguing would have them change their minds so, in the end, I paid for twice as many rides as I ever had any intention of using. Grrr. I am sure there must be some consumer protection law against this kind of fleecing...
As it was, the collection of children we had with us meant that we were pretty committed to only going on the ferris wheel, the merry-go-round and, of course, Coney Island.

This photo seems to suggest that Tiger's horse is

elevated by a burst of pure and blinding energy...

Tiger was delighted to ride the Ferris Wheel with

Max.

Wolfie's first Ferris Wheel ride (I think I was more

scared than he).

Coney Island was definitely the highlight of our

visit.

Tim took all the children up the slides...

As one can see in this photo, Tigerlily was a little

terrified...

...but she kept going back...

...and back. Each time she reached the bottom she

would exclaim "That was so scary Mama!" before

scrambling back up to have another go.

Max was completely unphased by the whole thing.

And Elliot, ever the dare-devil, would have ridden

the slides all day had we let him.

One of the most enduring memories I have from my

own childhood visits to Luna Park is of the "Joy Wheel."

Tiger, Max and Elliot were very enthusiastic about

giving it a try...

Elliot looked confident...

...Tiger rather less so...

...as it began to spin, she gripped hard...

...concentrated all her will...and was the third person

to spin off the ride (after Elliot and another child).

In true Tiger-form, once she had been unceremoniously

dumped to the side, she grabbed Elliot's hand and

guided him safely to the exit.

Elliot narrowly escaped being knocked over by a
rolling boy.

Tigerlily had actually horribly scraped her finger falling

off the ride but, in typical Tiger-fashion, she did not let
a mere flesh wound ruin her day...

Clearly she was less pleased when

I announced that we had to leave.

Luna Park is definitely on our must-do-again list, just as soon as I sell off some of my organs to fund the visit...

Hugo le Troisieme

2011-07-04T22:45:00.000+10:00

On Thursday evening, Tim and Maud's newest son was born and was given the super-awesome name 'Hugo Raphael'. He is the biggest of the three boys but still tiny in comparison to our whoppers at 3.1kg and 51cm (with a dainty 34cm head). To me, he looks like Tim with Francis' mouth, so, I suppose, something of a combination of Max and Elliot.
When my brother rang to give us the news, we were at dinner with Bobbie at the Carlisle. When I told Tigerlily this, she exclaimed "It's like we had a celebration dinner for a new cousin and a new nephew and we didn't even realise Mama!" She has such a lovely sense of occasion...

As it is the school holidays, we were able to spend Friday with Granny for the first time in some months. This meant, of course, that we all went together to meet little Hugo.

Tigerlily was beside herself with excitement over

Hugo, Wolfie was less enthusiastic.

In fact, he was boring holes into my head with his

stare - "what are you doing with that baby in your arms??"

Tigerlily assured me that she was now well-qualified

to hold her new cousin all by herself. "He's only very

little Mama..."

Tiger was justly proud that she was the only person that

Hugo did not cry with that day. Perhaps this is the

beginning of a beautiful friendship?

2011-06-30T22:24:00.000+10:00

I imagine many mothers feel like they do not always live up to their own expectations but one of the areas in which I feel I consistently fall-short is in actually taking the time to play with Tigerlily. Not the silly playfulness that is a staple of our family diet, but play which she determines; which takes hours; which is, often, mind-numbingly boring to anyone over the age of eight. This week we've had the extra week of school holidays that is the boon of every private-school kid and the bane of their parents. As Tiger is one of the only kids we know in private school, most of her friends have not been available for play so it has just been Tiger, Wolf and me. Yesterday I told her that her uncle had bought tickets for us to have a ride on the 'real' Thomas up at the Zig-Zag Railway and she suddenly announced, after almost three years, that she wanted to play with her Thomas train-set.

Now, it happens that when Tiger was little, she was quite Thomas-obsessed so I bought her a small set of tracks and a station which she loved but which, it must be admitted, did not provide the right level of challenge or excitement for her parents. I wanted the trains to go up and over, through, and round-about instead of simply going around in an oval. Before we knew it I was buying Thomas-lots on eBay and sourcing difficult to find pieces from Korea. Nicky even took a side-trip to the suburbs of Brisbane to collect an entire trunk of Thomas gear that I had won on eBay when he was in Queensland for work. The result was that we ended up with one of the most impressive Thomas collections imaginable. We played with it all the time, and by 'we', I mean Nicky and I. Our constructions took up an entire area of our house and getting to take a simple shower in the morning took a feat of considerable balance, dexterity and nimbleness as we stepped over and around a growing track. Eventually we realised that Tigerlily wasn't interested and that we couldn't really justify giving over a portion of our living space to a small blue plastic city. We boxed it up and have pretty much never played with it again - until yesterday!

Tiger is now old enough to not only have opinions on where the track should go but to also put it together herself. We spent the entire day putting it together and it took up most of the available floor space in her room. I am already buzzing with ideas of the new pieces we need...the places we could take the track...first her room, soon the world!!!

Diesel stopping at Harold's station...

This little doll was given to me by a Japanese

exchange student when I was a child, when Tiger

found it, she was enraptured and named her Koko.

At first, Koko was placed on stations to wait for

the trains...

...then she was a passenger on various trains until

Tigerlily decided it was much more fun to place her

on the tracks or to deliberately have her decapitated

by slightly too low overpasses. As you do.

Thomas touring the three story spiral track...

It was so big I couldn't capture the whole thing in

one photograph.

It stretched all the way under her desk and beneath

her 'space chair'.

Toby hanging out in the sheds.

Easel Junction was the site of many collisions.

Many of which were, um, orchestrated by an

otherwise angelic-looking child.

We even had a bus/rail interchange with Bertie

going 'round and 'round in an infernal buzzing bus

route.

The bullet train from Tokyo goes around Pony-Hoof

Bend...

The maniacal train conductor herself displaying

sheer joy...a look well worth a sprained lower-back

and mildly grazed knees from crawling around on

the floor all day.

Wintry Wardrobe

2011-06-29T04:43:00.002+10:00

Tigerlily has recently become more forthright about her clothing choices and in response I have tried to be more relaxed about letting her determine her own outfits. The only real point of contention that we encounter is over the degree of warmth that her outfits offer with Tiger insisting that she "never feels cold" and me insisting that she must nevertheless wear long sleeves and something to cover her legs. This negotiation has resulted in some truly wonderful ensembles that she insists on wearing until they are too badly stained with mysterious muck to be seen in public.

This was one of her first outfits. Please

note the dark green tights and purple skivvy

combo.

She seems to favour maximum flounce,

lots of pink and she will always wear her

black patent mary janes if I let her...

Oh, and we mustn't forget to tie a

broken plastic necklace around our

waist, the outfit wouldn't be complete
without these kind of details.

On this particular morning, Tigerlily

had just returned from hunting babycinos

with her father when I started taking photographs.

It wasn't long until, in protest, she began the

dance of the sugar-high fairy...

"Are you finished Mama??"

"No, seriously, enough already."

Here Tiger teams a dress I bought for her with

her new "Rapunzel hat" from Nepal.

"Really Mama? More photos??"

Please note the patent leather shoes once again.

On this day Tigerlily was rather

excited to have me document her

chosen outfit and she took me on

an expedition up the street to find

the perfect backdrop for the photograph.

"Come on Mama, there's a better

spot up here..."

Strike a pose!

She tried against someone's fence...

...with a birdie companion...

...against a psychodelic wall...

...before settling on a blue-on-blue

theme.

Today's combo is one of my
personal faves: who could resist
the flower-print tights teamed with her
favourite pink skirt from Charlie and Leah,
a magic purple vest and finished with
pink sparkly shoes?? Like the black
mary janes, Tiger will wear this headband
with everything and anything if I let her.

On this grey and grissly day, she
was certainly the brightest thing
walking the streets...

T is for...

2011-06-21T21:49:00.040+10:00

The Termination of Term Two

The end of term two came with the excitement of another performance and with the sadness of Tigerlily's best-friend's departure. The final assembly also held a particular highlight for me as Tigerlily was 'running' assembly (with Margot) on behalf of kindergarten:

Here is a terrible photo of Tiger asking everyone
to "please stand for the National Anthem..."
I am not at all sure that I would have felt brave
enough to run a school assembly when I was five.

Tigerlily also received her first Silver Award. She

looks rather wary of the Principal, Mr Slattery, who

is valiantly trying to get her to look at me taking the

photograph. The young boy to the left is Harry, the

Deputy School Captain - how cool is he??

Tiger and the other Silver Award recipients.

In the show this term, Tigerlily

played a 'ballerina doll' in Pinocchio.

With all the changes at the school, we have had a lot of students leave. This has somewhat rocked the little community but, for us, the biggest issue has been the imminent departure of Tiger's best-friend Margot. Like many of the families at McD, Margot has a little sister who was due to start at the school in a year or two. Now that there is no longer that option, her parents decided that she should leave for a school that both girls can attend, so, Margot is off to PLC. The last day of term was a mufty-day combined with a 'crazy-hair' day. Tigerlily decided that she wanted to wear her mermaid costume and I gave her one of my many wigs for the creative hair element. As a result, these final shots of Tiger and Margot at school together do not feature what one would consider regulation uniform for the school:

Anyone who thought I was exaggerating

when I said that Margot was a full 'head'

taller than Tigerlily can have their doubts

answered by this photo.

When this photograph popped-up

on my computer during the holidays,

Tigerlily said to me "I feel so sad

when I see that photo of Margot and

me Mama..." Cue the sound of my

heart breaking for my girl.

I think it is clear, in the way that Tiger is clutching

Margot, just how much she loves her. I know that

she will forget her altogether too easily but it still

makes me so sad that she has to go through the loss

of her first school friend...

Daredevil

2011-06-05T20:50:00.000+10:00

Charlie and Leah To the Rescue

2011-05-19T21:18:00.000+10:00

In all our plans for me to get to my grand-father's funeral and for Nicky to make it to his day of filming, we never considered that the set for the tv show would be way out in the middle of nowhere. The night before it became apparent that Nicky would need to leave at half past seven in the morning and that he would also need the car - who on Earth would be able to take Tigerlily to school?? As is so often the case, it was Charlie and Leah who made it all possible and, in the end, Charlie came to our house at the tender hour of seven to collect her.

Tigerlily and Ivy

Tigerlily was incredibly excited to have a new way to travel and, apparently, she held Ivy's hand all the way to school. According to Leah, their conversation was quite animated and at one point she quizzed Leah about the circumstances under which they had met. When Leah explained that she met Tiger when she was about 2 years-old, Tiger replied "I wonder why Mummy waited so long to introduce us?"

Gypsy Fairy Ballerina Princess Bride

2011-05-14T22:45:00.000+10:00

Today Tigerlily chose her own outfit: when she emerged in a pink fru-fru dress over a purple long-sleeve top with pink leggings, sparkly red sequined shoes, and a kerchief headband, she looked like nothing so much as a gypsy fairy. Nicky told her as much and she was delighted.

While we cleared up the backyard today, she told me she was, in fact, a gypsy fairy ballerina princess who also happened to be getting married. She was decidedly cagey about the groom, but all the other details were disclosed enthusiastically - she had a carriage drawn by flying 'Buttercup' ponies, lots of 'sometimes-food' for the guests and her very best fairy-wings to complement her outfit. All the weeding we had been doing revealed that begonias had gone feral throughout our backyard, there were pink, white and red flowers everywhere. Tiger decided that these would be perfect for her wedding bouquet (Kate Middleton has a lot to answer for!):

A couple here...

...ooh, pink ones!

Perhaps a snail to off-set the pastel tones?

I wonder if a career in floristry awaits?

You wouldn't know it, but Tiger is actually standing

in our sandpit (next week's clean-up goal!).

Mmm, odourless begonias!

Tigerlily has learnt from somewhere, I know not

where, this cutesy pose in photographs...

I prefer it when she doesn't know I'm taking the shot,

Or sometimes when she's simply looking away...

And, as we know, for some reason I really like

the photos where she looks melancholy or

downright sad...

In the middle of our backyard is a giant, and very beautiful, old apricot tree. It is so old that is has spawned only two apricots in the four years that we have lived in this house. It is also a perfect tree for climbing but, for some reason, until today it never occurred to Tiger to use it for that purpose.

The first part of the tree trunk is completely smooth

so she needed Daddy's help to get up to the branches...

...and then she was away!

Climbing up..

...and up...

"Maybe this is high enough Mama?"

"Just kidding!"

I think this must have been the look on Hillary's

face when first he sighted Everest.

"Haha, fear is for the weak!"

"Ooh, did someone bump the tree?? Whoa..."

My favourite photo - can you spot the fairy in the

tree?

As most of you know, our house backs onto a lane and, on most weekends, the children from the various houses in our row close off the lane with garbage bins and turn it into an impromptu skate-park and general play area. Tigerlily has always been a little too little to join in properly but today she was scootering up and down the lane on her own when she was joined by a little girl from six houses up. It was a fast and furious love affair and before long we had the little girl, Queenie, in Tiger's room, her little brother Julius in our Wendy-house and various other kids from the street traipsing in and out of our house.

City kids have a different sense of appropriate play

surfaces: note the large expanse of grass in the

foreground and where they choose to sit to play with

Tiger's pretend-shop toys...

I am actually really excited that Tigerlily has made these new friends, it gives her ready-access to playmates and the parents seem lovely so perhaps we'll have some new friends too!

But Everything Was Beautiful At The Ballet...

2011-05-02T22:52:00.001+10:00

Of the many boons that I received through my last job, top of the list would have to be the friendships I formed with some incredible people. One of the closer relationships I formed was with our Producer, Libby Hill. We don't catch up often but we have stayed in touch since moving on from SoA. Libby, lucky-duck, moved on to a new role as Ballet Mistress with the Australian Ballet. Last week she phoned me and asked me if I would like two tickets to the dress-rehearsal for their latest triple-bill "British Liaisons" so that Tigerlily could see the 'real' ballet.

I had originally planned to take Wolfie along in a sling, assuming that he could feed and sleep throughout - let me just say that I had a sickening sense of gratitude during the three hour performance that we had made other arrangements. Amazingly, Nicky took Wolfie into work for half the day, surely the ABC is one of the few places where such a thing is even possible??

Tigerlily was so very excited about the ballet, and I was rather giddy myself to have the chance to spend time with my daughter without having my attention divided. At the end of last term, during the final assembly,Tiger was asked to get up in front of the junior school and say what her favourite thing at school was - her reply was, naturally, 'ballet'. Until today, however, the only professional ballet she had ever seen was the fabulous Angelina Ballerina show done by the Royal Ballet that Bobbie took us to back in 2009. The dancers today were rather less likely to be wearing giant mouse-heads so it was sure to be a different experience.

Tigerlily reaching critical-mass after the

orchestra started tuning their instruments

(or perhaps from too many Malteasers).

It was an amazing program, one I heartily recommend: the pas de deux in the second act "After the Rain" was absolutely beautiful. Tigerlily, too, was incredible: she sat quietly without jumping about through the whole thing and was the only small child in attendance to last the distance. I was shamelessly smug. When she needed to, she leaned over and whispered questions and commentary in my ear - my favourite of which was when she whispered "That's very tricky isn't it Mama?" after a particularly impressive leg extension.

I seem to have a bizarre compulsion to take photographs

in horribly back-lit situations.

We ate the traditional (and noisy!) Malteasers, played at being ponies (to run up the stairs from the car park to Door 23), chatted with 473 lovely little old ladies about Tiger's interest in dancing and generally enjoyed each other's company. It was a lovely day and well worth playing hookey from school to make it happen...

On our way home: a little tired, very hungry indeed,

and with a whole new repertoire of ballet moves to

practice...

Question of the day: "Is tofood ("tofu") made from people's toes and turned into food?"