Trains and trains

We love trains around here. Ok well, Violet loves trains around here. Melbourne trains run everywhere and there are level crossings in the middle of all of the routes we take to get to the places we go. There's one about a 10 minute walk from our house and sometimes out of no where when we're at home she will shout "TRAIN! TRAIN!". If you strain your ears you can always hear the train blowing its horn or the warning bells of the barrier at the level crossing letting you know not to drive in front of the oncoming train. When we drive up to one she shouts excitedly until we pass it, or if we have to stop she exclaims "TRAIN! TRAIN! EE TOMING, EE TOMING. ERE TOMES!" until after it's passed.

When I was pregnant with her I had so many ideas of who I wanted to be as a parent and how I wanted my child's upbringing to go. Almost all of them were silly and only the fantasies of someone who didn't really know what's important in child raising. One of the silliest was that I was resolved never to treat my baby like a baby. I would instil in her my love of literature by reading real books to her from the beginning of her days until she wouldn't let me anymore. Spot the Dog would never sit on my bookshelf. So I started collecting beautiful second hand copies of all of the books I devoured as a little girl. A long list of serious classics because I was a very serious child. One day I found a copy of The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit and spent half an hour in the second hand book shop reading it as I remembered how I used to sneak out of the house on the weekends and down to the creek behind our house. There was a tiny and poorly made bridge going across it and I'd set myself up there with The Railway Children in hand. I would pretend that the creek was the railway and the bridge the platform, and I'd play at being the children in the story. I loved their tragedy and I loved their eventual happy ending. We didn't have any trains in my tiny town otherwise I might have spent hours there watching the trains go by like my story characters. I hope that when she is actually an appropriate age to have that story read to her that she still loves trains and that she will let me play at being characters in her favourite books with her.

an aside- Edith was on my baby names list for Violet after the author of this book

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smiles

This week has been a week so far. Just one of those. Let's just say I can't wait until the weekend, even if it's only going to be 1 day. Instead of reading me complain about how overwhelmed I've felt for the last couple of days why don't you enjoy these lovely pictures of when my friend Lulu came to meet Beatie for the first time when she was 6 weeks old. She's incredible with babies and children, someone who was born to be a mother and a step-mother (she is). She had Beatie's second smile, and her third, fourth, fifth, and one hundredth.

A day at the farm

As I mentioned, this weekend Violet's best friend Juno had her 2nd birthday party at Myuna Farm in Doveton. I'd never even heard of Doveton but it was kind of close to lots of other suburbs I've been to. The farm was so much fun! Even though it was fairly cold we were blessed with sunshine after days of rain and Rob was able to cancel his work commitment so that we could have a day of family fun. I loved the outdoor animals the best. You could take bread and feed the sheep, goats, deer, alpacas and buffalo. There were also a bunch of other animals (cows and ducks amongst others) down a path we did not follow. I didn't know any of those animals ate bread but they did eat our bread! The kids most enjoyed the petting animals. There were goats whose stalls you could go into, pigs you could pet and a huge pen full of poor guinea pigs and rabbits being absolutely harassed by small, excited children wanting a hold. Violet was not one of those children, she was a bit funny about the little animals. She liked to look at them and follow them around but freaked out whenever Juno or anyone else tried to pass her one to hold. Her favourite things were the chickens ("chich chens") and the balloons Amanda had hung for decorations in the party room. That kid and balloons at the moment, oh boy. Many toddler moments when she thought she couldn't see her balloon any more. Some of Juno's other little friends were dressed as farm animals and the whole lot of them (Violet and Juno included) seemed to be having the best time. Violet wanted to be stuck to Juno's side ("where's Juno? where's Juno?"). I think it was the best day we've had in a very long time. Especially for Rob who ate about 2/3 of the mars bar slice Amanda's mum made for the party. Actually probably more like 3/4. He even started sneaking it so that no one would know he was still eating it. I guess I'd better be making some mars bar slice sometime very soon!



p.s. "The snake room" had no snakes, real or painted and the other two party rooms are called "middle room" and "party room". I'm very confused by this.

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Princesses and particulars

A few weeks ago Violet went through a stage of wanting to pick her own clothes. Every time for a week or so she would pick these ridiculously frou-frou outfits for doing non-fancy things, like play group. Redirection need not apply, it was fancy or nothing. As mildly embarrassing as it was to show up to get-your-whole-body-dirty play dates looking like a crazy pageant mum, I really loved it. She would stare down at her sparkly skirt, touch it gently or hold it out with her hands and take a moment before looking up at me with a huge grin. "PINCESS!" she would exclaim and sometimes swish her skirt, sometimes twirl a little. I could tell she felt awesome. Maybe not beautiful because I don't think toddlers have any concept of superficial beauty yet but the toddler equivalent, whatever that is. She's past needing to wear princess dresses now, it was a quick fixation that has been switched to wearing her scooter helmet all the time but I keep finding this pink sparkly dress on the floor in the mornings and every time she sees me picking it up she yells "pincess!"

Tomorrow is Sunday and we're off to a children's farm for Violet's best friend Juno's birthday party. It's in something called The Snake Room, I hope the snakes are painted or just implied or something. Rob cancelled his work commitment to come because I asked him to and I am so excited. I don't really know what to do with the happiness I feel about this, other than channel it into a dance party to a girl poweresque Pandora Radio station which Violet, Beatie and I did in the car this morning on the way home from dropping Rob at work. Happy weekend friends.

life lately according to iPhone

in the hospital with Beatie, hours old.

tummy time, sisters.

children's museum, favourite hat.

remember when it was hot? 2 x kids at the drive in movies = success!

disgustingly good mess that I only got halfway through, newborn love.

playing all day is tiring work, sweet pigtails.

reading magazine in daddy's barber chair at his work, covered in kids.

after day care treat, a toddler meal i was clearly impressed with myself about.