Adventures in Packing

Things are a bit frantic around here, with us working like mad to get all packed up to go to New Zealand for the World Rainbow Gathering, and getting the house cleaned for our house-sitter to arrive.

Littletree was “helping” me pack, but mostly getting in the way ;)

 

In the end, she was thankfully distracted by the arrival of presents in the mail

Then I went down to the basement with her so she could try out her new (hand-me-down) rollerskates

When that got boring, we got out Littletree’s latest project – drawing with a feather in ink.

And while I’ve done a great job on playing with Littletree today, the packing still has a ways to go – somehow there’s a huge pile of things to go into the backpacks, but they’re both full already! WAAA!

This will no doubt be my last post till after the Rainbow, so long till then!

Christmukah Party

This weekend was the Christmas party in our village. It was a lovely picnic – lots of fun, everyone was hanging out in the park, singing carols, there was live music, and kids running everywhere

Santa arrived, on the village fire truck, of course.

The kids crowded around him while he gave out presents, and poor Littletree was the only child standing there politely with her hands out.

All the other kids were yelling and pushing and grabbing, while Littletree stood patiently waiting… and in the end, “Santa” passed her over about a dozen times giving little candy bags to the louder kids, and she missed out all together.

Littletree was so sad – it was the first time she’d ever seen a Santa :( She didn’t even really want the lollies, but it really sucked getting passed over like that when she was the only child not jumping around and pushing.

We sat down together for a hug, and she told me that he wasn’t the real Santa; just a man dressed up, and the real Santa is just something people believe in.

She got over it pretty quick, and went to play with her friends until it was sunset - time to light the Hannukah candles

I really enjoy the ritual of lighting the candles, and singing songs. 

 

We thought it was pretty funny to be lighting Hannukah candles at a Christmas party, but no one else seemed to know what it was. The Hannukiah did draw some interested guests though

Merry Non-Specific Holidays to everyone!

Scrambled Egg

Littletree came home in the morning after a sleepover at her friend’s house, and announced that she wanted to make breakfast.

All she needed help with was finding the appropriate pans from the shelf.

She broke eggs into a bowl and beat them up

Added milk and salt and pepper, and poured it into the pan (not spilling too much)

Then we all sat down to a yummy breakfast – scrambled eggs on toast

Pretty awesome stuff! and it looks like my plan of breeding my own tribe of servants is coming to fruition! Bwahahahahaa!

Dive!!

It’s been really hot here this week, and we’ve been going swimming a lot, both at the local creek and the pool in town. Littletree has been improving her swimming so much, and is even putting her head under water and doggy paddling around.

The other day she started practicing to jump into the pool; I feel so awed by her achievement, and her journey with fear of water. :)

Littletree is getting a lot more independent in general, lately. A new family moved in next door with a 5 year old girl, and Littletree has been walking out to play with her several times a week. Then she started venturing 100M further down the road to our neighbour’s where they have a son the same age as Littletree and a 3 year old girl. The kids have a great time. Occasionally, Littletree even rides her bike down a further 200M from there to another family, where a 7 year old girl lives.

I love it that quite often all the neighbourhood kids get together and play around, riding bikes, climbing trees, running around. I love the sense of community, and that we don’t really have to worry about cars, and everyone knows everyone, and that I feel safe for Littletree to go out for walks to friends’ houses on her own in the afternoons.

Life is good :)

Technical Littletree

Littletree has been getting into more intellectual pursuits lately. She has a little notebook she calls her “homework” book, and spends lots of time writing things in it, copying sentences from books, writing out sums and stuff.

I bought her a wall chart of the multiplication tables and she loves it to bits. It’s so cute, not only does she spend hours reading it and telling everyone the times tables, she snuggles with the chart like it’s a security blanket and carries it around with her all the time.

Purple started to teach her more about computers, and the two of them sat drawing turtle graphics pictures with LOGO (Logic Oriented Graphic Oriented) language. I remember spending hours programming LOGO when I was about 8 or 9.

We’re reading our first chapter book without any pictures! I’m really enjoying it, and I love the idea that now we’ve opened up our story-time possibilities dramatically. Previously, we could only choose books that had at least a picture every few pages.

The book is fantastic, a story about a hunter faery, called Knife (the US title is Faery Rebels which isn’t as good a title or cover – try to get the UK edition if you can).

Catchup

Química came up for another visit this week; she’ll be staying till we go to New Zealand for the World Rainbow Gathering.

Littletree has been really bonding with her… well, really bonding with her iPhone anyway!

Purple has been getting back into practicing his Flute, much to the admiration of all the local wildlife (lucky his code was compiling).

I get a new bookshelf for my midwifery books – about time, coz they were totally taking over the kitchen shelf.

The books and folders I use more regularly I have lined up on my desk, which is at a comfortable level of clutter

I’ve been getting lots of free time to study lately – Littletree has been exploring new levels of independence, and a new family moved in next door to us with a five year old girl. Littletree walks over to her house to play almost every afternoon.

Littletree Life Drawing

This week we had Life Drawing class again – classes were off for the past 6 weeks or so because the teacher was having her baby (a beautiful water birth I attended), but we thought we’d try having another class and Littletree agreed to “babysit”.

Which meant that Littletree sat with the baby at the mama’s side, bouncing her and being cute. We managed to have a good class, despite regular breastfeeding. Here’s my fave picture I did:

It didn’t really take Littletree all that long to get bored, and she decided to join the class and do some pictures. I was slightly reluctant, because usually when she draws pictures she get very perfectionist and cries that she needs help if she doesn’t get it “right”.

But this time I was amazed. She did really well and came up with some fantastic pictures.

Honestly; how many schooled children get to do life drawing? I think it’s such a great learning experience.

 

Now the problem is going to be getting to go out for Life Drawing on my own, because Littletree will want to join! I’ll have to find another class I can do on my own. LOL