Early Bilbies

Littletree has gone away for the holidays to stay with her grandparents in Israel, so she’s over there now celebrating Passover.

We haven’t ever really celebrated Easter before, and she’s well-informed about the Pagan origins of the holiday, and knows that technically, it’s a Spring rite, and therefore should be observed around the full moon after the Vernal Equinox, which isn’t for another six months for us up here in the Southern Hemisphere. We’ve talked at length about Ishtar and Oestre and the significance of rabbits and eggs.

This year, Littletree declared that she doesn’t mind about all of that stuff, she just wants to have the “wake up in the morning and have a surprise easter egg hunt with hidden chocolates”. She explained to me that she knows that the “Easter Bunny” would just be me pretending, but she asked me to do it for her anyway. And to do it early, since she would be away on the “proper” Easter – as she wisely pointed out; it’s irrelevant when we do it, since it’s not really Easter anyway, and the whole holiday is just a made-up thing.

Fair enough.

So off I went to a purveyor of processed egg-shaped chocolate confections to purchase a small hoarde of goodies for Littletree to find. A dozen “egg-sized” chocolate eggs, a small bag of “mini” eggs, and an Easter Bilby.

The Easter Bilby is an important and noteworthy part – here in Australia, rabbits are a massive plague of a pest, and meanwhile, the Bilby is a cute little Australian native animal that sort of vaguely looks like a bunny, and they’re highly endangered since the introduction of European settlers to the country (said settlers were also the foolish imports who brought the rabbits with them). Anyway, Australia tries to cull feral rabbits, and promote saving bilbies, and somehow, eating chocolate bilbies at Easter instead of bunnies is a part of that. Or something. At least it’s educational.

Anyway, Littletree awoke on the morning before she left to find a little trail of chocolate eggs outside her door

She started collecting them up in her shirt

Until she found that the trail led out into the garden to a basket

There were eggs hidden all around the house

and around the garden

Littletree got quite the stash!

She did plan to save the Bilby, but after about an hour she came to me, all distressed, and said, “mama, the worst thing ever happened – I was playing with my Easter Bilby and the wrapping just fell off of it, and then it broke, so I had to eat the broken bits, and then it was uneven, so I had to eat more to make it neat… and now it’s all wrecked.”

The poor child – she had to eat the whole thing!

She did save all the eggs to take to her cousins in Israel though – apparently they don’t get chocolate there, only matzah.

We survived without having kittens

Home school group organised a trip to a local shelter of the Animal Welfare League (which is a no-kill shelter) – we went with much trepidation on my part; how on earth would we get away from there without bringing home a cute kitty or puppy?

There was ominous thunder in the sky… okay, maybe I’m exaggerating just a smidge; it might have even been a warm, sunny day. But the prospect of seeing endless cute, cuddly cats was daunting, knowing how much Littletree loves cats.

We were subjected to the standard “school group tour”, which was fine; an extremely effusive woman talked it up with the kids about responsible animal care and some of the work the Animal Welfare League does

The kids even got to sit for a demonstration on dog training

Which might have been interesting, had they not all been itching to see the cute baby animals!

The moment we’d all been dreading anticipating finally came:

Doggies!

please can we take one home, please…

Refusing to melt before Littletree’s imploring puppy-dog eyes, we moved on to the cat cages

And finally, the ultimate solution hit me – I can easily make it home without getting a cat: just leave Littletree there. She is a werecat after all!

(It should be noted that I started making this post several weeks ago, and something went funny with my computer, and then I forgot about it until now when I thought to look at my draft posts folder – and I did adopt Littletree from the animal shelter and bring her home; not just for Christmas, but for life!)

At the heart of science

Since Littletree’s recent foray into dissecting brains was such a success, we decided to get to the heart of the matter, and dissect some hearts.

***again: graphic pics warning, don’t scroll down if you’re squeamish, instead, peruse this old post which includes a very cute picture of Littletree***

So back to the butcher for lamb’s hearts, and out with the science lab equipment!

Littletree was really excited to see all the different chambers in the heart, and how the bigger blood vessels feed in and out of the chambers. We learned about how the valves work and how the muscle pumps.

We got out some medical books and learned about the heart in humans and various genetic disorders, and the whole circulatory system.

And as always, Littletree got out her microscope and made up some slides to look at heart tissue.

Apparently I now need to source bovine eyeballs for dissection. I swear this wasn’t in the brochure when I signed up for parenting.

Faerie Mischief

I’m sorry to admit that Littletree has picked up some terrible habits from me. I know, I know! I should have known better than to give her such bad examples; I should have known that she would see me and want to copy.

But I was weak, and I let her see me… baking. Oh the shame! And it wasn’t just once or twice… I made cakes and muffins and cookies and puddings and pies; but I didn’t stop there! Oh no! The horror of it is that I even let Littletree help me some times.

Imagine my dismay to come into the kitchen to find her standing at the oven with a measuring cup and whisk in her hands! I rushed in to stop her, but it was too late… chocolate and butter were already melting on the stove, eggs were cracked, flour sifted.

What could I do? I figured, if she’s going to start experimenting with baking, she should at least do it with me, here in the home, where I can supervise her and answer her questions. Far better that way than to have her out in the streets, trying cakes from unknown bakeries – those places are nefarious with their free samples of sugar-coated pastries that get you hooked.

So I helped her make brownies. Don’t judge! I know there’s a lot of evidence to show brownies are a gateway cake that just leads to gateaux and tortes, but I think we can keep this under control.

And she seems so happy in the kitchen. MMMMM brownies!

Since we’ve been having trouble with pesky pixies lately hiding things about the house, and inspired by The Spiderwick Chronicles, Lady Demelza suggested we make a tea party for the faeries and give them sweet offerings of brownies and other delectable treats.

Littletree loved the idea and set about making a beautiful table setting out in the faerie garden

We made cute little offerings around the garden of brownies for the brownies and honey on crackers for the pixies

And then enjoyed a most luscious afternoon tea – brownies, fairy juice (elderflower cordial), fruit tea, ginger beer, cheese and crackers

Hopefully that will restore some order to the house, so we can get back to baking!

Braaaains

Littletree’s long fascination with science endures on… she asked me if we can do some dissections for a unit on biology, and somehow tying with the recent fad of Zombies – she asked if we can get some brains.

The last time we were shopping at the local organic butcher, when the butcher asked what we’d like, and Littletree piped up with “Braaaaaaains”. Luckily Unfortunately, the organic butcher’s was out of brains that day…

But Littletree didn’t let up, so the next time I went to the supermarket, I looked in the meat section, but couldn’t find any brains. So I went up to the deli counter and asked the woman, “excuse me, do you have any brains?” She looked at me like I was mad, I quickly realised what I’d said and followed up with, “I mean, I looked over in the meat section where the other organ meats are, I could see livers and kidneys and hearts and stuff, but no brains…”

The woman was still looking at me like I was mad and said they don’t keep them in stock any more. I explained, “My daughter is home schooled – we don’t want to eat them, we want to dissect them for biology studies”. This seemed to endear me to the deli-counter woman, who directed me to try out the butcher across from the supermarket.

Off I went to the butcher… The lad working behind the counter asked me what I’d like and I said:

“Do you have any brains?”

He shook his head and said “Sorry, no one in here’s got any brains!”

Gotta love Aussie humour. When I explained that it was for a home-schooling science project, he was very helpful and found some sheep’s brains out in the back freezer. Littletree was most happy.

***warning*** From this point on, the post contains graphic pictures of a scientific nature (extremely squeamish people may like to instead click through to this post about Littletree acting like an extremely cute cat http://majikfaerie.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/littlecat.html)

***

Littletree eagerly got out her science lab kit, scrubbed up, and set up her equipment, checked a medical text book for tips, and started with the dissection

She was fascinated to see all the quadrants, how it has very clear left and right hemispheres, the lobes and such

Then she decided to make some slides and look at various bits in her microscope

Most importantly, Littletree can see why a brain is called “a noodle”.

Learning Nothing

Since Learn Nothing Day is coming up (there’s been an informal movement for the past few years where unschoolers “Learn nothing” on the 24th of July as a way of highlighting how we are all learning all the time), we’ve been practising.

Well… trying to.

Even when I tried to distract Littletree into a wasted afternooon of not learning anything by watching mindless sitcoms, she got inspired to look into tidal waves. Which led us to looking on YouTube for videos about tidal waves. After an hour of watching BBC documentaries on wave patterns, tidal waves, costal formations (which, of course, led back to our recent lessons on The Giant’s Causeway and how lava can cool into interesting geometric shapes)…

We ended up discussing trees, googling what is the oldest tree in the world, the largest, the tallest. Somehow I forgot that we’re not meant to be learning anything, and mentioned the time back in 2002 when I went around Namibia and saw the 900 year-old petrified trees at the Dead Vlei.

Which of course turned into a discussion about petrified wood, sand dunes, desertification, climate change. So then we had a read about the history of climate change, which led us to reading about Doggerland – the recently-discovered land that once connected Britain to continental Europe, and about how Native Americans possibly contributed to climate change and a mini-ice-age in Europe due to deforestation.

And on and on it went, through Native American history, through to Native Australian history, to the history of women’s suffrage and the rights of children.

Eventually, I gave up on trying to stop Littletree from learning anything and took a break while she played around on some silly website.

I came back to find her flipping through a picture book (finally! something non-educational!) She glanced up from the book and announced that she now has a better understanding of how the human urinary tract and kidneys work. Turned out what I thought was a harmless picture book was actually a book on human anatomy. In Hebrew.

So much for unschooled kids not learning anything!

Brave

We took Littletree to see the new Disney movie Brave last week, and I have to say, I’ve finally encountered a Disney princess I can get behind.

Littletree loved the movie; well, I probably enjoyed it just as much. Most definitely the first time I’ve sat through a Disney Princess movie and not been cringing at all the princessy messages they drill into girls.

Basically, Princess Merida is set up, like every other princess, with a bunch of princes competing for her hand in marriage. And then she gets up, grabs her bow and quiver of arrows, and announces that she will be competing for her own hand. Awesome.

And of course she’s a gorgeous redhead full of strength and determination and entirely un-girly.

But most of all, she reminds me so much of how Littletree looked when she was about three years old, before she got dreadlocks. Especially in the opening scene which shows Merida when she was about that age.

Oh how I miss Littletree’s wild, flowing red curls! And it turns out she misses her curly red hair now too. So funny, after she so determinedly convinced her hair to grow straight – the day Littletree decided that she wasn’t going to have curly red ringlets any more, she said she was going to have “princess hair”. Which is apparently light brown and straight with a little wave in it.

I rolled my eyes and thought, ‘Yeah, right. Kid, your hair is ginger and in corkscrew ringlets, and that’s how it is, you can’t change it’, but Littletree sat in front of the mirror for hours, with a hairbrush and a look of fierce determination on her face, brushing and brushing, all the time chanting “straight hair, brown hair, straight hair…”

And lo! Before my very eyes over the next few months, her hair started growing in straight. But now she wants it curly again!

Rain, rain, rain; Flood!

Just to add a little déjà vu from this time last year when all the world around me went under water, it’s been raining again. Wait, raining doesn’t really describe what’s going on – we’ve been in a torrential deluge – 420mm (16.5”) in the last two days! This is coming on top of a whole load of rain over the last week or two.

Yesterday, we got flood warnings, I drove out to visit my beloved Ocean, and already some low-lying areas were under water.

But the roads were mostly clear, and the bridges passable, so we weren’t too worried… until we woke up to find over 100mm (4”) had fallen overnight, and the roof was leaking terribly, and the roads were all impassable, with rapidly rising waters.

Then the crawlspace under the house filled up with water – it got to be about knee-deep before it started seeping through the cracks in the wall and flooding the flat downstairs where Wind and Coola live.

Rushing around with towels and buckets, and in-between dealing with a sick Littletree (who fortuitously came down with a case of gastro in the night), I managed to get down into the muck of the crawlspace and set up a garden hose to siphon water out. At some point the electricity cut out, but it’s back on now. I hope that, at least lasts!

Phew!

In the afternoon, the rain eased a little, and we donned wet-weather gear and went for a walk down the hill, only to find half of the village under water, and all of the roads impassable.

Here’s some scenes from the highway and the back road out of the village – this is actually the bridge over a normally very small creek that resides about ten metres under the bridge it is now totally over the top of. The main river that runs through the village was a massive torrent, about 6 metres over its banks!

Well, at least we’re mostly dry and we have enough food to last a few days. I hope everyone out there is staying dry and has plenty of wine stocked up!

The Piano Girl

Littletree came and said she wants to get an electric keyboard for Christmas, and to learn to play piano. I said an electric keyboard might be a bit out of our budget at the moment, but we can save up for it.

She shrugged at that, and flounced off… An hour later, I found her set up in the living room, having made herself an electric keyboard, practising her piano skills.

Apparently it’s got all the best features and she’s been playing some awesome music on it already! ;)

Giant Perspective

I was just putting Littletree to bed and giving her a snuggle, and she said "Mama, can we talk about Stereotypes?"

"Okay", I said.

"Well, I think it's really mean that so many people make stereotypes. Like they say that Giants are mean and nasty. But Giants are people just like everyone else, except that they're really big. Like, really, really big. But they're nice, and kind. It's so insulting to stereotype them! I just don't understand why people keep making mean stereotypes about all different kinds of people."

When I thought about it, I realised that to a child, everyone is a giant. It's all about perspective.

Hangin’ with the girls

Life has been a little crazy hectic lately, since Purple came back from Israel and we’re dealing with the re-shuffling of our lives and living arrangements. Our friendship has been a little strained, and the plan to stay sharing the house together… well, it’s not always flowing gracefully.

I’ve been living downstairs in the basement-converted-flat, and staying with my girlfriend a lot, while Purple has been in a deep jet-lagged funk.

But still, we’re doing our best to make things work for Littletree, making sure she gets to her social engagements, Spanish group, Homeschool group, tutoring session, Circus class, Dance class, the library, the beach…

I’ve been making extra effort to spend time with her, just hanging out, working on her Altered Book, various craft and science projects. And of course, her favourite activity: hanging out down at the village pub for dinner with friends.

The best part being, of course, enjoying the cool night air in the beer garden and pretending that the ground is lava while jumping from table to table and along the garden wall. The even better best part is salad-eating contests!

Because who cares for calamari and chips when there’s a salad?!

Farewell Lady D

The ever-gorgeous Lady Demelza and her partner Uncle CJ left us this morning, off on the journey back down south.

*sniff*

They did leave us with a parting gift, so that we’ll always have a bit of their awesomeness around: a shiny new SodaStream machine! Littletree was ecstatic!

Once Lady Demelza got it all unpacked and set up, she gave Littletree a demo of how it works, and away she goes! So now we have plenty of soda water with which to make bubbly drinks. I suppose I shall have to start making my own cordials to go with it now.

So last night we had a farewell feast, Uncle CJ cooked a yummy roast dinner, which is now all eaten… but we still have the happy memories of Lady Demelza plying us with Pink Champagne

And the ultimate proof that Real Men do Drink Pink:

Happy journeys, Lady D :) and thanks for everything!

¿Hablas español?

¡Hola! Littletree has been loving the homeschool Spanish-language group that started in our village :)

Since Spanish was essentially her first language (we were living in Central America when she first started talking and she spent the first 15 months of her life in Latin America, but it’s since fallen into disuse), she’s picking it up faster than the other kids, but it looks like they’re all having fun.

The teacher is from Spain, so it’s interesting to get the differences between the Spanish and the South American accents – apparently I have a funny Argentinean accent!

The kids have a great time, it’s very casual and “unschooly”.

They play a lot of games, like card games to learn numbers, playing with differently-coloured stones to learn colours…

And the classic Twister – colours and body parts!

Today we learned to sing “Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes”, played “Animal Families” to practice numbers and learn animals, and practiced basic small-talk. Then we sat together for lunch – a great way to learn food words :)

Meet May

The newest member to join the majikfaerie family – May. She’s a home-schooled girl, also eight years old, just like Littletree. May came to live with us for a while because her parents are on a three-month long seminar cruise in Hawaii, which is really boring for kids.

May and Littletree are getting on great. May’s parents are incredibly rich, so she doesn’t know much about living in a normal house, but we’ve been showing her how everything in the kitchen works, and how to do things like sweeping the floor and getting the fire started.

May is exactly the same size as Littletree, which is great, because May’s luggage didn’t arrive yet, so they’re sharing clothes and accessories. Littletree is totally ecstatic to have a kid her age staying with us; the two of them are getting along so well, making up songs and dances together, playing games, trying on clothes, building cubby houses… it’s loads of fun!

Yay for new best friends!

Adventures in Brisbane

Littletree and I went to a SameSame LGBTIQ meet-up picnic in Brisbane on the weekend, it was so much fun!

It was great to connect with people, and meet internet-friends in real life.

(Photo from Chad)

I made Guinness muffins and goji truffles, and a few dips to share; super yum! The sweets went down so well!

 

(photo from Hazy)

Someone brought a badminton set, and Littletree got into playing with some of the guys

Littletree made friends with the other little girl; the two of them had loads of fun getting up to crazy antics

Until her new friend bet Littletree that she couldn’t climb to the top of a light pole. Of course, Littletree easily and quickly scaled the pole, touched the top and slid down again.

(Photo from Chad)

Grinning after her winning attempt, Littletree said she felt guilty taking his money, saying “he made that bet, but he didn’t know I could do it, and I knew.” Too cute! We convinced her that she’d earned her $5 fair and square, it was hilarious!

(photo from Hazy)

In the end, Littletree didn’t want to leave, so we’ll definitely try to get to the next one :)