my boy

My boy is asleep in his pushchair next to me as I'm writing. He fell asleep as we walked back from school. He'd got up at 5.15.

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He was a little bit quiet when we dropped Ella at school. He loves having her about all day to mess about with.

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He's two and so lovely. Leans close in to his Dad at the dinner table, head cocked to the side, and asks: "Daddy - 'appy?" "Happy.""Checks with everyone: "Ella - 'appy? Mummy - 'appy?"

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Goes for some big tantrums. "Nooo!" Not this shirt, not those shoes. I WILL lie on the ground and kick my feet and howl.

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Loves cars (dar) and trams (bam). "Mummy! Loooo! Dar!"

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Golden brown ringlet curls. Hair that's never been cut.

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Big brown eyes. Long lashes.

six

Ella turned six last week. There'd been a lot of ongoing discussions about her party (a whole year's worth) but on Thursday we sat down together and had a bit of a planning session about what we'd do. How I love these discussions - a girl after my own heart - a fairy corner, a royal court, a night sky (I found a note she had written on the topic: "moor stuf - wot ubat wee can mac a nyt skuy").

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I suggested some crafty and maybe a few dress-ups, and she came up with the genius suggestion that the kids could make masks and then get dressed up for a Samba parade "like at Womad". Brilliant. And then we thought we'd have a wishing tree - where Ella could attach leaves for each of her party friends and they could attach leaves for her. We did a lot of thoroughly enjoyable preparation - painted party bags, drew a tree, cut and painted leaves, picked glitter and lanterns.

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All of this pretty much worked out - this short sentence underlying a fair amount of activity and chaos and joy and excitement. I thought they might have lost interest, but the kids insisted on a Samba Parade up the street with flags, drums and tinsel. They wanted to go further, but the grown-ups were flagging. Of course I didn't get one photo - too busy banging the drum and tying elastic on masks.

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What a joy to be six.

toot

leaf

I've been reading Keri Smith's two beautiful books (The Guerilla Art Kit and How to be an Explorer of the World). We were inspired to make some leaf sculptures at the Botanic Gardens. Ella also did some 'sap-exploration'- she's deeply interested in tree-sap at the moment - collecting bits of it in pockets and bags. Last time we were at the Botanic gardens we made flower sticks - threading flowers and leaves onto sticks. I'd seen Bhutanese girls from the village of Laya making these in a break from collecting firewood on Tribe.

my sister's garden in Fremantle

I went on a holiday to Fremantle for four days to see my sister. How lovely to travel peacefully solo, to take a break from early rising and toy-tidying. How amazing to visit a home where all items are not in the process of continual rearrangement. How lovely to get home and hear and see and hold my children.

fire

This summer we had, on the same day, Melbourne's hottest recorded day (47 degrees) and Australias worst natural disaster. Fire everywhere. Screaming north and south winds fanning flames. Huge treetop fires that ate up everything. Lots of people died and pets and homes were lost. A whole lovely forest village (Marysville) was pretty much wiped out. Our family was OK, but we watched in shock.

first day of school

My little big girl, all ready for first day of school. Messing around on the step. Excited and nervous.