balancing act

Last year M told me my new green jacket looked like a pool table. 15 months later, and I'm yet to ever wear it.

So when he said something in passing, while putting together a blog post, about how I'm trying to make it look like a perfect magazine life, I stopped blogging while I thought it out. Also, I found myself busy with life, and it was nice- freeing- to release those memories into the wild without having a record of it all.

On the other hand, Willow told her first joke about two months ago and I've already forgotten it. If I was really pretentious and twee, I'd throw something out there about the lightness and weight of being... but I'm not.

Willow's suddenly Grown Up these past two months. She's more and more her own person, with her own opinions, with her own twist on things.

The other night M started playing The Last of Us. Willow wandered by and casually asked M "Why are you strangling those people?"
"I'm not Willow," M replied. "They're just going to sleep."
"No they're not. They're strangled."
"Sleeping."
"Strangled."
"They're sleeping, Willow."
"They're not! They're strangled!"
"Sleeping!"
"Strangled."
They had this argument every single time that M strangled someone in-game, until M just gave up and put Peppa Pig on for her.

My camera phone got all scratched up, so I don't get very good photos off that anymore :( I think next time I might join M and get an iphone for no reason other than it's easy to get cases for them. M and I have looked and looked for a case for my HTC with zero luck. But iphone cases? Well, there's this one, and this one, and this Florance Broadhust one, and this Cath Kidson one....

M is at work and Willow is at pre school. It's wonderful. A whole day- well, until 3:15pm, where the whole empty (rainy) day stretches out wonderfully in front of me.... mostly when I get days like this I seem to end up cleaning. M and I have very different ways of cleaning. Or rather, M (and Willow, for that matter) just make sure things look neat, normally by dumping everything somewhere else. I tend to be messier, as I don't make things neat, but I'm cleaner- I dust, and I file things away (instead of dumping the paperwork somewhere) or hang the clothes up (instead of dumping things in the wardrobe). It makes me forever to dust, clean, file, hang up, sort, put away, rearrange the house, clean under the beds and sofa, but I think it's totally worth it in the end. We've all agreed to disagree.

Speaking of cleaning... if Willow doesn't clean up, it gets thrown out. Well, op shopped. Although sometimes I tell her (if she doesn't see me pick everything up) that Santa's elves came and gave her toys to someone who would properly care for them. The upside is that the house wonderfully clutter free. The downside is that I've come to realise that I'm more attached to some of her toys then she is so I save them- like Esme the doll, an old dog of mine that she likes, and her tonka trucks that I got at a garage sale for less than $10 each. The quality of them is so much better than the newer ones- It's like the newer they are, the more plastic they are. My only regret is that I didn't get more from that garage sale- I got a digger and a fire truck, but they also had a few dump trucks in various (large) sizes. At the time I quite logically thought "Well, we really don't have room for a dump truck big enough for Willow to sit in, and we already have a small dump truck." I should have found room. 

Sometimes the toys come back, and Willow gets super excited about that. I don't know if there is a wrong way or right way to do this. Maybe I'm scarring her for life. Or maybe this is an effective method of teaching her to value her stuff, and to clean up- mostly to clean up. Should I be teaching her to value her toys? I mean, maybe I should be teaching her to not value materialistic things? Yikes. M and I discuss how to parent Willow more than anything else. We have similar destination in mind- happy, content, able to support herself and a family, true to herself- it's just we disagree on the route, and neither of us have a map.

A few months ago we were swimming in laptops. Then two of them broke, which left us with one, and neither of us are good with sharing. Since one of the two that broke is mine... down when a lot of photos waiting to be uploaded. So boo. Here, admire some old (singlet and nappy clearly indicates it wasn't winter when these were taken) photos of Willow instead.

Like I said, these are from early autumn. Since then Willow's been toilet trained, and it's gotten heaps colder, and I've put a rug down in the living room.

We got the wood for free from Master's, as it was an off cut. Willow really loves balancing. She normally pretends she's balancing over the water, and there are sharks waiting to get her.

When we walk home from childcare, she always has to balance on the curb when we walk home. Always.