Chapter Forty

Dear Little Miss,

It is so wonderful to be taking you to something just for you. As a second child you have had to watch on the side lines for too long. B has had all the fun. I have fed you all manner of junk to keep you happy during B's swimming lessons and battled with you to contain you in the straps of the pram, for you safety and my sanity. But now, at last it is your turn.

It is like you are finally free, in an environment so suitable to you and what you love. At last I get to see your face light up, watch you concentrate, interact and assert yourself.

You dance and sing, you know the words to songs already. You have quickly picked up the hand movements and actions. You are the star of the class, in my eyes.

Theatre bugs has become the highlight of the week. Not only do you get to sing and dance with your peers and a real life fairy teacher, but your Mummy gets to as well.


These real life tea parties are one of the best things about having a daughter. I hope we will always share these little moments of life together over a hot brew.

What a star you are in my life.

Love always Mummy

xxx

Prepare to get sick of these. But the kids never tire and nor does their creator. Big and little food faces are made from sausage, capsicum, cheese, cucumber, cherry tomato, lettuce, and mayonaise.

I have to find ways of making meals more interesting for my kids and for me to put together. This food face is made from carrot, cheese, snow pea sprouts, snow pea, cucumber, steak, corn on the cob, asparagus and  bread.

Dearest B,

What on earth is going on? You have developed a major fear of bugs. I am having a lot of trouble sympathising with this fear. I know it doesn’t help the situation that the warm weather has meant ants have moved into the kitchen. And it also probably doesn’t help that there are multiple varieties of ant to contend with. We have the regular black ant, searching relentlessly over kitchen surfaces for any sweet abandoned crumb.  Plus we also have little native sugar ants that immediately gather on the dining room floor around a morsel of dropped food. We are alerted to their presence by the brown mass that gathers about the morsel to feast. They really are tiny little beings that are not interested at all in your toes. In the garden we have inch ants, that really are better to avoid, but just want to go about their own business.

We keep the bathroom light on at night so we also have a few moths gathering there. I know that something happened a long time ago at child care between you and a moth.  I never really got to the bottom of that story, so I suppose I can find a bit of sympathy for you. But flies, my dear child, flies are here to stay, this is Australia. I know they are dirty, but seriously what do you think a fly is going to do to you? You had better get used to them. Learn the ‘Shoo fly’ song and do the Aussie salute (wave your hand about) to move the flies on.

We have tried to personalise the large huntsmen spiders that house share with us by calling them Gavin, and I do totally understand that they are a little creepy. I was also totally freaked out by that black spider that was on Little Miss’s head the other day. It was met a swift brush to the floor from my hand and a loud stomp from my shoe. But you have to admit it was very funny that she thought the spider was her friend. (Charlie and Lola have got a lot of explaining to do.)