watermelon smiles

What I've learnt about moving.

It never occurred to me that I've moved that often, because I didn't have a "house" and there weren't professional removers involved. Also, I hate moving, so I avoided thinking about it. But I recently did the maths, (while doing other maths- like, how much more money do M and I need before we can afford the deposit on a new house and never move again?) and I realised I've moved a lot. Seven times in fact, in four years.

So- I'm no expert, but this is what I've learnt so far:

• Junk from Kmart are the most annoying. It's cheap and easily replaced, but when you have to replace 30 $3 items, it adds up. I also hate consuming more resources. So.... don't go Kmart for your kitchen goods. Shell out for decent stuff. I can't recommend self sharpening knives enough. Maybe *start off* with Kmart stuff, until you really, really know what the minimum is that you'll use in a kitchen.
• But they tie with stuffed toys. By this I mean BIG stuffed toys. Willow has always had a lot of stuffed toys (big and small). They started pouring in before she was born, and never really stopped. Here is the thing: a lot (most, actually) of the stuffed toys we were given warned on the label that they were not suitable for children under three years old. They take up loads of room. I really cannot stress this whole thing enough. I get that a lot of people gave us stuffed toys as an act of love... but they're all rabbits or something. As fast as I cull, they return, sixfold. Willow doesn't even have enough room in her bedroom for a full sized bed- and our bedroom is used to hold bathroom supplies and cleaning products... our house is tiny. Even if it wasn't tiny, Willow has more stuffed toys than she knows what to do with. I've kept a small handful of the better quality ones, and even that is getting out of hand...
• Money and gift cards rock. This ties in with my first point, in a way. Everyone's requirements are different. For example: I have three cast iron pots, and a ceramic dutch oven. Most people don't even own any cast iron. I use them for bread making, chicken roasting, sausage cooking, soup cooking, porridge cooking...
• Beautiful glassware is heartbreaking. Either you take it interstate, and risk breaking it, or you leave it behind, and miss it.
• Modern technology is amazing. I am so glad I don't have to transport several large photo albums around with me. Ditto for movies- why ARE dvds filled with so much air? (Again, we don't have much room for clutter. M and I are psyching ourselves up for a cull.) But, our shelves look so much more sleek down we have less dvds- and after lugging a couple of books down with me to NSW, I've come to realise a kindle might be nice. I can even download text books for uni onto kindle, or onto my smart phone. Sure, books on a book case look classy. But a house that's not full of junk and clutter? So much classier.
• Modern technology is also annoying when it's in the form of large flat screen tvs that are incredibly fragile to get from A to B. Modern technology also means lots of cords and cables, and why why why do people feel the need to hang onto old mobiles and/or their chargers? Why? I don't recall M and I going through THAT many electronic gadgets, but we have two drawers stuffed full of stuff we've collected in the past year together.
• Bicycles suck. I have no idea how I'm going to get my bike down here, and if it's even worth it, financially. Ditto for my bike trailer. Maybe in the end it's just worth buying another?
• Boxes, boxes, boxes. Hold onto those boxes, because sooner or later, someone, somewhere near you, will be moving, and will be forever grateful for your boxes. Or you'll be moving, and you'll want those boxes. 
• Smokers are disgusting. Seriously. I don't think smokers realise how smelly they, and their stuff, are. I get stuff stored away gets musty after a while... but when you factor in cigarette smoke... it's foul. I'm only throwing this one in because I offered to help a neighbor  who smoked move, and it was awful. 
• Bring food and cold water. Packing and unpacking makes me hungry. It makes other people hungry too, except they don't always have the luxury of a fridge with cold water, or cups available to drink from, or they mightn't want to cook and mess up the kitchen.

We're due to go to the op shop soon, since there's no where left to stash Willow's stuffed toys. (and our op shop box is full anyway.) Which makes me a bit sad, since some of them are special ones, brought down from Darwin... It's a catch 22. I don't have room to leave them out, but if I pack them away then Willow never plays with them. (Some are too big anyway to pack away, anyway.) The only other options I can think of:

1. Take several to Sydney or Grafton next time I go there. "Accidently" leave them behind. This means by the time we get them back, they're all new and exciting again.
2. Skin them, and turn their fur coats into a quilt. 
3. Skin them and turn their fur coats into a coat, a la 101 Dalmations. 

What do you think? I don't think the current problem is that our house is too small, I just think Willow's been a very lucky young lady. (I mean, our house IS small, but doesn't it seem kinda "first world problemly" to get a bigger house for the soul reason that we have too many material goods?)

home sweet home.

Well... we're back. Back to the daily grind of everyday life. Willow and I spent nearly a week in Sydney with friends, and it was blissful and wonderful, but we're also happy to see M again... or I am, anyway. Willow declared this morning that she was happy to leave M and Uncle Sal behind in Sydney, but that she wanted Aunty Mel to come home with us.

I didn't tell Willow that M was driving down to Sydney to meet us, but told her that I had a surprise for her that day. She seemed completely unimpressed to see M again- M described her reaction as being "Oh. You're back again. Where've you been all week?"
Later she asked what the surprise was, so I told her it was M, and she gave a deep sigh and went "awwww."
Which was weird and all, because normally when M gets home from work Willow runs out to greet him, and she's super excited to see him again.

Anyways. I'm well into April, and I'm yet to send out any thank you cards for Willow's birthday; I have washing to put away, and washing to do; I have a cover for our chair to sew (since Willow spilt apple juice on the white cushion!) and food to cook and a house to tidy just in case someone visits. Plus I have a lengthy centrelink chat that I need to do ASAP, I haven't shared any photos from Willow's birthday, OR M's birthday or even my own.... plus I have heaps of posts I really need to get around to writting and sharing... and I promised Willow I'd make her something with some hideous bright pink fabric with stars that she picked out last month... and I really need to find some where to store all the homeless stuff in my house... and I really need to read some of my books on my to read pile already.... and respond to emails.... all before we go away to visit family for ANZAC day.

Frozen Meal Replacements.

Frozen meal replacements. You might also call them ice cream. Willow does. This is how ours are made.

You will need:
Those things that Willow has in the photo. You know. What I mean. You can get cheap or expensive ones, but both will break (I believe) when/ if they fall out of your freezer. Ours cost $2, and in hind sight, are probably made up of nothing but BPA.
Blender.

Method:
- Put a banana in the blender, then some good plain yogurt, and a little bit of milk. I'd say about cup of yogurt, and 2/3rds a cup of milk. Make sure your yogurt is plain- most of the fruity ones have a lot of sugar. Also, the riper the banana, the sweeter it is. If it's not very ripe, and I'm adding cocoa nibs (which are bitter) I'll put in some honey or agave syrup. The banana provides the sweetness that normal ice creams get from sugar.
- A spoonful of coconut butter. I can offer you no measurements. Sometimes my coconut butter is runny, so several spoonfuls go in; other times it's more solid and buttery and I just add a scoop. Coconut butter just makes it a bit richer, and more delicious.
- Chia seeds (because they're rich in omega 3) and rolled quinoa. If this is all new and unfamiliar, maybe just add a little bit. But the more you add... the more of a meal it is. You can also add oats or LSA mix.

Then we blend blend blend, and I get to listen to my daughter ask all day if her banana ice cream is ready yet. They are a delicious afternoon snack meal replacement.

So, autumn huh? M is convinced we are in for a very cold winter this year. I find it hard to believe with all this heat and warmth.

Grafton

So, actually. These are from earlier this year, but I never got around to posting until now. So, here you go. Our trip to Grafton, at last. 1. Group tickle attacks. 2. Floodwaters. Willow asked if she could go splashing. 3. Willow on the levee wall. We later discovered that another two cms, and it would have gone over the top. 4. A fat Clarance river. That's the top of the leevee wall right there. 5. With a jacaranda seed. 6. Attempting to plant the jacaranda seed in the leevee wall. 7. Splashing in appropriately sized puzzles. 8 & 9. More Floodwaters. Yay. 10. A snake. 11. Sandbags at the shopping centre, ready for action. 12. Redback under my chair. You don't want to know the number of times M has stopped me from doing what I'm doing- picking up pots in the garden, sitting down- and hunted out and found a red back for me. He's my hero. 13. M's parents have this kart thing, so M decided to bring it out for Willow to play on. Willow's favorite thing to do in it was chase me and try to run me over. 14. Willow's face when the kart thing ran out of charge. 15. M teaching Willow how to catch. Willow was very chuffed and excitedly attempted to teach me. The trip to Grafton also covered one of my goals for this year- #35, which was to work on Willow's catching and throwing and #22: Introduce Willow to M's family. So, huzzah! I feel like I'm doing well this year with all my goals.
>

in wonderland

Can you believe I never got around to posting these till now? Another shamefully late post.

1) Our flight left in the middle of the night. Willow was very worried we would miss the flight, and everytime there was a PA announcement she would ask if it was time to go to our gate. She only managed to doze at the airport.

2 & 3) Boarding the plane.

4) Willow was seated in her seat and buckled up, ready to go, before my mother and I managed to finish stuffing the overhead compartments with luggage.

5) My parents just happened to match up with their seats.

6) Willow, snoozing. It took her forever to get comfortable.

7) Dad: "Hmmm, in hindsight, I should have booked the later flight from Brisbane to Newcastle. We could have had breakfast at Brisbane airport." We ended up missing our flight to Newcastle due to bad weather, so I accused Dad of jinxing us. I ended up slumping over and sleeping at Brisbane during our three hour stop over.

8) While I slept, Dad got to walk all over the airport with Willow, who decided she really, really liked my pink silk scarf. It would be her horses tail, or doggy lead, or princess dress. I actually packed quite a lot of stuff to keep her entertained, but a simple scarf kept her amused the longest. I don't know where she found the energy to run all over, but as it got closer to boarding them she had a bit of a hissy fit/ tantrum, and ended up sleeping for the whole flight to Newcastle.

Then we arrived in Newcastle, and choirs of angels practically started singing. Because really, there's no place like home.

them time.

 M took Willow to a playground the other day. Just the two of them. They had fun. (Still not feeling very autumny). Last time M supervised Willow, when Willow saw me again she came running up to me and happily shouted "Mummy! I'm still alive!"

M's supervised Willow since these photos were taken, when I went to kick boxing class. Willow really, really wanted to come "foxing" with me, claiming she's big and strong enough. When I got home, I asked Willow what her and M did while I was out.
"Oh. M played foxes with me," Willow explained. (M: "Oh yeah. She was still talking about foxes and foxing, so I tried teaching her how to box. She just stood there with her arms out looking confused.")

Willow has two toy foxes- Foxy, and Mummy Fox. She gets a real kick out of the fact that there's a mummy and baby fox pair. Foxy is one of her favorite toys.

Bizarrely, Willow can't hear the difference between "boxing" or "kick boxing" and "foxes" and "foxing." It's unusual for her. She's using "foxing" and "foxes" in the correct tense for what she thinks we're talking about ie "Mark and I played boxing" vs "Mark and I played foxes."

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She's fallen off about three times so far going too fast around sharp corners. With training wheels on. Her ability to take corners at high speed is truely heart stopping.

Willow & Peppa, take 2.

Willow unwrapping Peppa, part two. You can click on the settings and tell it to play in HD, and it will, and it will look a lot better than it does in the low default setting.

Sydney #6

Not pictured: Me, obvously going through my folders and realising there's quite a few photos I haven't shared yet.

1) Willow with Digger, Mel's dog. She tried very hard to order Digger around like she saw us doing- sit, stay, lie, go away- with zero success. She doesn't have a commanding voice. Oh, Digger obeyed her once- Willow was telling him to sit, and he was bored of standing, so he sat anyway. Willow was so excited and came running to drag me over to look.

2) We went Ikea, which is right next to the airport. Only because M decided it was the lesser of two evils. Later, we drove down a little side road and parked and got out. Right under the planes on their flight path, we watched them come in and land. Willow loved sitting on M's shoulder's and being an airplane.

3) Airplanes. M could tell you a lot more about this than me. Err, this one is from Jetstar and carries people? Sometimes, after we go to Ikea, we find ourselves sitting in his car for nearly an hour, just decompressing and watching the planes fly in.

4) Random train yard. M swore that it looked like something out of a war movie.

5) Another airplane. M was impressed that my phone's camera could capture those propeller things in action.

6) $109 (on sale) doll's pram. We went to some baby shop, just because we can.

loading... loading...

Yeah. I'm working on it. I'm not very good at this, and they kept getting cancelled when my laptop ran out of juice, or when I closed the lid.

Willow says...

What is your favorite food?
Strawberries!
What else?
'nana.
What's your favorite insect?
Spider.

Willow and Peppa Pig.

I was working in my garden when the mailman rode up and handed me a letter from my Aunty Jen.  (thank you.) It was a lovely letter, and she mentioned she had sent up a box of things for Willow. It turned out the box- filled with mysterious pink parcels- arrived a few hours after the letter.
Naturally, we decided to dig straight into it right away. Well, not the bits marked for Easter. But everything else. M filmed Willow's reactions as she opened stuff. For some reason, I can download a new HD episode of the walking dead in 30 minutes, but it takes 117 minutes to upload a shaky film off a phone to youtube.

 Expect the longer part two in another week or something.

Willow's birthday.

Shamefully late, I know. The table arranged for Willow's birthday. One of the small parties, anyway. This was a few days early, held just so we could celebrate with Mel before she had to return to Sydney. Nothing very grand, but Willow was delighted.

beading

Willow asked me to take a photo of this because she wanted to show off her fruit beading to her grandparents. :)

Chinese New Year (thoughts)

So, obviously, this is an out of place post since the lunar year was last month. But since Willow associated Santa with Chinese New Year and thinks Sacha Baron Cohen's charactor, Thénardier, in Les Mis, is also Santa... and seeing as I've been eating a lot of miso lately as I've realised it's delicious with just about everything.... anyways, it popped back into my mind.

Pictured: Santa.

It's weirdly freeing having no one else around to celebrate the lunar new year with. Sad and lonely, but you're free to do what you want. Beat your own path, so to speak.

In the car, before we saw the lion dance, Willow was asking about the whole thing and asked if Santa would be there too. Later that night, she was telling us how Santa was there, with the dragons, and they said "how do you do," and Santa let her pat the reindeer.

Right.

But it got me thinking. And so when we went home, we left out a red paper plate of salad for the dragon to eat. At this point I feel like I should clear something up. We went to the lion dances, but I call the things that dance dragons. There's a difference between a Chinese lion dance and a Chinese dragon dance that wikipedia explains, but.... Willow knows what a lion looks like. You know, roar lion that lives on the savanna. And Willow can be very literal. Like sometimes she scolds me for calling her honey, because she's not honey, she's Willow! Anyways, I decided it was easier to call it a lion dance, with dancing dragons.
So anyways. We put out a paper plate of salad greens for the dragons to eat, since the dancing dragons that we saw dancing were jumping for lettuce, so Willow now understands that dragons eat lettuce.
In the morning, Willow found a toy dragon (one I got when I went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" last year, but shhhh) and that the dragon had taken a bite out of the paper plate. The dragon taking a bite out of the plate made an impression on her as she still mentions it, even though the lunar new year was a month ago. It's something I think we will totally do every year now- a new tradition for our hybrid family. I mean, we leave cookies out for Santa, why not leafy greens for a dragon? Next year too, we might also make paper lanterns.

But best thing of all? Willow's finally started to eat her leafy greens as they are "dragon food."

New year goals #64

64.Tell willow stories. Lots and lots of stories.

We read at least a book a day. Normally two. Willow had LOTS of books in Darwin, but I had to be really selective in what I brought down with me due to the weight of books. I'm tempted to say that the ones I choose to bring down with us makes them the creme de la creme of her collection.... but that's not really fair. Some got left behind because Willow wasn't into them, or she liked them but she had grown out of them, like touch and feel books. Some got left behind because I didn't like them, or like the art work, or simply because I had to be totally ruthless about what I could bring. There are three I really wish I had brought with me, that I didn't. I left them out, meaning to pack them at the last minute... Oh well.

There is a lovely second hand bookstop that we go to, and the lady there always gives Willow a book to take home. We try to get Willow Australian themed books... I had the horrors last week because I realized we don't have Possum Magic! (Nor do we have the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Oh dear.)

Here's some of Willow's current collection. I think it'll be interesting to do this again in a year's time, don't you think?  (Her Easter ones and Christmas ones are packed away for now.)

There was an Old Bloke Who Swallowed a Chook- The Australian version of one of my favorite rhymes. I picked this one up in Grafton when it was raining and I hadn't brought any books with me. By the time we left Grafton my mother was ready to burn it, I am sure.
One very tired wombat- I love this book more than Willow does.
Come Fly With Captian Kangaroo- Can you tell I'm trying to keep Willow's library well stocked with Australian books?
Mulga Bill's Bicycle- Willow seems to like stories that fall into a rythem, like "There was a Bloke Who Swallowed a Chook." I really want to get a Bush Christening, which is my favorite Paterson tale, and the Man From Snowy River. Willow doesn't seem too keen on this book.
Willow and the treasure hunt. My parent's got this for Willow. The first time I read it to Willow she was outraged and said "That's not Willow, I'M Willow!" Also, Willow wombat is a boy.
Stellaluna- Who DOESN'T love Stellaluna? Willow loves dressing up as Stellaluna, so I'm eyeballing this bat mask and wing set as a Christmas gift for her.
10 Little Fingers and 10 Little Toes- this one is so sweet it chokes me up a bit. Plus again with Willow seeming the like the rhyme and rythem.

The Echinda Leaves Home- There's no point reading it has a hedgehog, since Willow's seen an echinda, and knows what an echinda is... and who cares about european animals, anyway? Pfft. This book is from Ikea, so a lot of her hand and finger puppets feature in this story, including her favorite toy, Foxy.
One Minute Greek Myths- Because you're never too young to start on a classical education. This is one of my old books.
The Sign of the Seahorse. This is a story for adults. Or to read over several nights to children. There is a lot of reading in this, and it's all rhyming. M and I have never actually read this to Willow. If she ever asked it, the book would quickly go the way of "There's a hair in my dirt!" (Hidden at the back of my cupboard.) Graeme Base is amazing, and I'd like to get more of his books.
Little Bear is Ill. Since Willow loves playing doctor/ hypochondriac, she loves this book.
10 Green Crocs Sitting on the Wall. Again.... with the whole rhyme and rythem thing.
Avocado Baby- Because avocados are good for you, and I have high expectations of getting Willow to enjoy this slimy tasteless fruit.

Toffee takes a nap- Christmas gift from M's mother.
The Velveteen Rabbit- one of my old ones. Willow enjoys it.
Tasman Turtle- My parents got this for me when we went to Tasmania in 1998, I think.
Numbers: I got this one down here. It's very well put together.
That's Dangerous!- Willow likes this one.
ABC: This whole series is very well done. M and I are trying to teach Willow her letters and numbers.
In the Bath: I got this from Newtown last year. Willow loves pulling it apart to see what's hiding between the pages.
The Dino Race: M loves this book more than Willow. He loves making the eyes move and making silly noises. I like that it names the dinosaurs by proper names, not calling them "long neck dinosaur" or "flying dinosaur."
Sea Creatures: Another gift from M's mother.
That's not your mummy anymore- a gift from a good friend who knows what I love. Willow loves this book. M worries it's too gory for her.

The very busy spider- Willow still loves this book.
Busiest Fire Fighter's ever- On a random note, Willow loves to ride up and down her bike, pretending to be a lady fire engine.
Chipmunks ABC: Willow's still learning ALL her letters. We're getting there. I hope to have her recognise all her letters before the end of the year, and all her numbers up to somewhere in the teens. This is a goal for me, not for her... Because I'm the one who needs to set aside some time every day to go over this with her. Oh time. I need to learn how to live off six hours sleep, otherwise I'm going to turn into a harridan.
Paddington Bear: I love Paddington.

Sometimes I look at her collection and I feel bad. I feel like I should get her more books, because everyone else seems to have more books than Willow. But eventually, I realise we're doing ok. We have enough. Not just with books, but everything around the house. We don't have every book or toy or gadget under the planet. But we don't waste what we do have. We are not grand, but at least we are not cluttered or cramped or dirty. We're doing ok. Things get read and used and doesn't get much of a chance to collect dust or to be forgotten about. It's easy to keep our place tidy, and Willow is never bored. Willow doesn't ask for more books, and she seems happy with what we do have. She has her favourites that are in high rotation. Her favourite part though, isn't being read to every night. She loves it when I lie beside her in bed and we chat. Often she'll play with my hair. But we chat about whatever it is that Willow feels like talking about, and I look at her, and I'm amazed at all the growing she's done.

things eaten- pizza.

Topped with garlicky olive oil, tomatoes from our garden,  herbs, rocket, spinach, pamesan cheese and I tried buffolo mozzarella for the first time. Yum. Very melt in our mouth.

The tomatoes from our garden and I have had a very passionate love affair. Like all good love affairs... it's simply too short, and there was always others getting in our way... in the form of Willow, who kept picking and eating all the tomatoes as they ripened. All this rain has caused our tomatoes to swell and split, plus it's the natural end of the season, anyway. Willow's been a bit sad about all our tomatoes dying off, so she's been regularly watering them with her watering can, hoping to bring them back to life.

New year #48

48. Make Willow a play kitchen. Somehow. Somewhere.

So, it happened peeps. Our low cost play kitchen for Willow. We don't have a lot of money for a play kitchen, plus we don't have a lot of room. Plus you know me well enough that going out and buying something cheap and awful wasn't an option.

Would you like to have a look?

CAN YOU SEE IT? There's no built in storage in Willow's room, so this large bookcase serves as her wardrobe, as a room divider (my study is on the other side), as her bookcase, our linen cupboard, toy holder... and play kitchen. Can you see what's on the shelf with the saucepan?

And no, they're not monster eyes. Yeah. So one day, it occurred to me that I could just draw some hot plates on some red paper and blu- tack them down. These are so badly drawn I feel like they don't belong online, but keeping it real guys. Willow doesn't seem to like it any more or any less then the fancier play kitchen she had in Darwin. Sometimes we bring in her all purpose wooden stool/ table and shift a hot plate to that, so she has more cooking room.

At the back of her kitchen, for some reason, live these gnomes that I gave her. I got them from the flying penguin in Sydney, which is one of my favorite shops. They were plain, so I drew the little faces on them. They also serve double duty as "medicine" when Willow plays doctor. I'm not sure if now they are kitchen gods in the Asian tradition... or condiments.

Some of Willow's play food you might recall from this post or this one, back when Willow was still a tiny baby in a play gym, and she used to bat at the tomato with her hands, rattle the pea, or cuddle and suck on the bean. I do feel like it's a pretty sad play food collection because the lamington and the fish are the only thing there that didn't grow on a plant. I have plans to add a wooden sushi set and more sweet goods... Perhaps when Christmas rolls around.

Come and see us sometime. We can't offer you tea and cake, but Willow is happy to serve you tea with asparagus, lemon and fish. Which is healthier for you, anyway.