It's green outside but the slight chill in the air tells me the time of year. In England and Christchurch autumn meant changes in the colour palette from cool green to warm oranges and reds. Here in Auckland I am surrounded by heavy bush that never loses its verdant intensity. 

It's late o'clock and bedtime, but I'm remembering with fondness how often I wrote entries on here. If I write more will I get better at writing again and not find it so difficult? Will it retrain my brain to put words together into sentences and sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into stories? I hope so.

The baby is no longer a baby. She tells us stories. She broke her arm last month while playing in the garden. She was running on the wooden bench and missed her footing, falling awkwardly on her hands. She's more fearless than Small. She got a plaster cast and then a bright red cast the same colour as the one I wore on my leg. It's gone now and she ( Read more... )

I'm pretty sure the baby goes through phases of development, and I don't mean in Piagetian stage theory terms. At any one time she seems to put her energy towards a suite of developments. When Nana was here in April, it was all kissing and waving and, most endearingly, saying "Mumma". In other words communicating with her world. Now she's got that ( Read more... )

We are listening to "Charlie and Lola's Favourite and Best Music Record" and the baby is bouncing in her door bouncer. "We've got a chicken, it lives on our farm!" The baby likes to bounce when she is in a bouncy mood. Sometimes she bounces while lying on her back on the floor. Sometimes she bounces while sitting up. Yesterday she bounced sitting ( Read more... )

Oh, the baby does like to be beside the seaside. It turned out not to be "spots". Thursday was warm and springlike so the baby grabbed her bucket and spade and headed for the beach. The spade is as big as the baby. So really it was Biggest who got the spade, and the baby was given a spoon. She dug in the sand. Then she stuck the spoon in her mouth ( Read more... )

The baby likes eating in the morning. She has a big bowl of muesli and fruit. This morning I made her muesli and nectarine. She ate half of it, but not as much as usual. She's been quite lethargic today, not very keen on eating and sleepy. Biggest said she fell asleep while holding her bear. Her temperature is normal so all we can do is wait, watch ( Read more... )

The baby and I are going to her Aunty's house for Sunday lunch. Biggest comes too because the poo is wet. He had been asked to collect manure for the allotment, but it rained all night and carried on until the morning. Wet poo is nasty. We drive listening to Small's mix CD and sing ( Read more... )

A baby who is one week off seven months can sit, and giggle, and make a toothy smile and squash a lot of different foods between her fingers. She can also get grumpy and squeak. She doesn't cry very often ( Read more... )

1. Name five things you can see without getting up ( Read more... )