Our family's life in New Zealand
She found this hat and put it one, along with the sweater she got someone to put on for her.
Esther made her a dandelion crown.
Little Miss and Mr. Imagination are best friends. They spent one evening crawling around the house pushing their vehicles.
Blackberries!
When your brothers adore you, you can get them to do anything you like.
Another hat!
Are you ready for a cheerful post on this blog? I am! Little Miss has been such a bright spot in our lives, especially the past few weeks when we needed someone cheerful and funny around. She loves pretty things—pretty dresses, pretty flowers, and pretty broken pieces of crockery! She also loves transferring things from one thing to another. This afternoon, she came inside with this handful of old broken plates, bowls, and saucers. She gave them to me one by one, then took them back one by one, then gave them to me again…. For once, I had the camera handy to capture the moment. After I had to get busy with something else, she spent 15-20 minutes transferring her pretty pieces from one little gumboot to another, and back again! Right now, she’s standing on me, singing about her big brother who just drove the van up to the house after moving the camper. She is so much fun!
Little Miss is starting to talk quite a lot. She obviously hears a lot of counting, because she frequently says, “One, two, three!” Or, “Two, three, four, ten!” I went to the freezer at lunch time today to get something, and she came over, asking, “Want two-three-four!” She knows the blackberries are in that freezer, and she wanted some. I gave her a few. This afternoon, I was sitting at the computer doing something, and she started counting and then racing to the bedroom, then counting again and racing back. I was able to capture some of her game in a short video.
I spent some time sewing today. The sewing machine is on a table in the little boys’ room. I was sitting at it this afternoon, sewing, when Little Miss came in. She started climbing up to the top bunk, saying something like, “Daddy, daddy, dee dee dee, crash!” over and over. The “crash” was the clearest word, and the one she emphasized. Then, she swung herself down by one hand to reach the bottom bunk. I was able to get a video clip of the last time she did it. Enjoy!
We sure are enjoying this little girl! She is pure fun most of the time.
This little girl is already ten months old. She is more fun all the time. All her brothers love to cuddle her and encourage her to walk, although she isn’t taking steps on her own yet. She stands up from a squat anywhere she is, though. She’s a very happy little girl unless she’s tired or hungry or gets hurt, and she’s very good at expressing herself.
A week and a half ago, we spent the whole day getting Esther and Mr. Handyman ready to leave for six weeks in America. Little Miss loved playing on the suitcases.
Little Miss loves her Daddy! She was overjoyed last Saturday afternoon when he carried her around this way for an hour.
Last year’s Swiss Chard (called Silverbeet here) is going to seed, so I’ve been pulling it and cutting off the leaves to cook. Little Miss “helped” me and tasted the stems.
When I washed the Silverbeet, she helped by pulling leaves out and throwing them around.
She loves her doll, as well as this one, which belongs to Mr. Imagination.
Mr. Sweetie was trying to sweep and wash the kitchen floor last week. Little Miss wanted to “help”, but I locked her into the living room with the help of two chairs. She was not happy about it–watch this short video to hear what she had to say! She often talks like this.
This little girl LOVES books! She is tired of her board books; she wants the books everyone else reads. Just before I took this first picture, she was looking at the books in front of her, pulling one out partway and studying it, then letting it go back in place.
She was looking at picture books this afternoon. I wanted a picture of her doing that, but the camera distracted her. Mr. Imagination, however, got this gem. She often smiles/laughs this way, but it’s very hard to get a picture of it. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to let the little boys have the camera!
Little Miss loves books already. Her very favorite story is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? She loves the colorful pictures, as you can see in this video. This is put together from a number of different readings. In real life, she gets a lot more excited than we were able to capture on video.
Here are some recent pictures of some of my favorite little people.
First is a picture of both of my daughters.
Little Miss has been standing up without support lately. This was the first day she was doing it, and she only did it that day on the edge of the kitchen door! She was enthralled with Mr. Imagination playing with that stool! I couldn’t get a picture of her standing up because she went down again so fast.
Little Miss, watching us working in the garden.
Helping Daddy take the sprouts off potatoes.
Little Miss loves the baby geese—look at her mouth!
Mr. Imagination wanted to make a recipe video. He really didn’t know where he was going with it—just wanted to make one. He was going to use water and cooked rice. Then, he spilled the water, and then my memory card filled up so we had to quit.
She was thrilled to be outside!
This is jealousy. Little Miss was unhappy with Mr. Imagination being on my lap.
This little girl is getting very very busy. Now that she can get around, she is a very happy little girl, and loving being able to investigate all the interesting things that are at her eye level.
One day, a big brother took her outside. She found a mud puddle, and had lots of fun!
After I got her cleaned up, she fell asleep almost immediately.
One day during school, she tipped a book box over and ended up on top of it! She was not happy, but not hurt so I grabbed a picture quickly before rescuing her.
The big thing right now is going under things.
One day, Esther took Little Miss outside and put her on a sheet to play. Mr. Imagination played with her.
“Why can’t I go outside like everyone else?” Look at that sad face!
Mr. Handyman loves to hold his sister; here he was singing after church.
Happily banging away on top of a trash can.
“Yes, I’m cleaning out the cupboard for you. You mean I shouldn’t be tasting all the containers while I do it?”
She was so pleased with herself the day she discovered the pantry shelves and that she could pull containers off! The next step was the discovery that the lid of the brown sugar container was loose. I have now moved that one up higher.
