Goofing off, snapping pictures of Tau playing in the living room this afternoon.

This past week, each child took their own disposable camera into daycare so that the teachers could take pictures of the kids doing various activities.

Of course he is now very interested in the whole concept. So we sat in front of the mirror and took pictures together. Then turned and took more of the armchair on the other side of the lounge.

And I thought I was a shaky photographer!

Crazy Hip Blog Mamas are talking this week about their favorite hobbies.*

I work full time, have a kiddo to get to and from daycare, no extended family close by to lend a hand and, oh, did I mention my two-hour freeway commute? Not so much time for cross stitching.

I love my yoga class but that is more like breathing or eating — a necessity — than a hobby. And of course there is this here blog, which I consider more a means of keeping sane and in touch than a hobby, though it is a lot of fun.

That said, I do have a new almost-hobby: vicarious crafting.

Huh? In reading other blogs, I’ve discovered a number of women who stay home and abracadabra the work of their fingers into a crafty online presence. And I find that their websites make for great diversion and visual satisfaction.

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Fifty nine words learned so far. Not perfectly enunciated mind you — you have to be one of the parents to get a couple of them. But they’re real words, said in context with meaning and often a fair bit of volume.

airplane, all done!, apple, B (the letter), baby, ball, banana, bear, beep, bellybutton, bird, Big Bird, book, bye, car, cookie, cheese, cow, cracker, daddy, diaper, dig, do, dog, down, ear, eat, Elmo, eyes, hello, juice, me, milk, MINE!, mommy, moo (the cow noise), moo (movie), moo (music), moon, more, no, nose, one, pig, poo, raaaah! (lion noise), shoes, socks, spoon, Tau, teeth, this, ting!, two, uh-oh!, up, whoa!, woof-woof, yay!

We’ll keep adding to the list.

How ironic. It’s Photo Friday at Crazy Hip Blog Mamas and the theme is “Messes.”

The irony is that there’s a big old MESS on the WordPress server today. All graphics are DOWN! See, no header image on the top of this page and all my images in past posts are missing!

Never mind, they fixed it. Love the hardworking folks at WordPress!

So here is a link to Chili and Cornbread Face on our Flickr account. It’s one of my favorite pictures of Tau, taken about eight months ago at daycare. I’ll add the picture here when WordPress fixes the problem.

And here it is folks:

Chili and Cornbread Face

Click thumbnail to enlarge.

Last Sunday afternoon, we spent some time in the garden pulling out a palm hit by the frost and planting some new cannas, wild grasses and a kangaroo paw.

Tau was pretty thrilled by the idea of walking around in bare feet and digging with a tablespoon in the soil.

That evening, as dark fell, Dave was still outside finishing up, Tau and I, inside getting dinner.

“Daddy?”

“Daddy’s outside, honey.”

Under his breath, poking at the table top, “Daddy … dig-dig-dig-dig-dig.”

Ah! Spring has sprung in our fair neigborhood,
and the aloes are blooming!

I ran this through some pretty strong graphic filters.
The original picture was unremarkable.

And yes, Dad, about the Jacarandas,
Oktober is die mooiste, mooiste maand!

Around Christmas, I bought Tau the Sesame Street Sings box set expecting to get the very best of this famous series. Neither Dave nor I grew up with Elbow or Big Bird and we don’t have cable, so thought it best to find another way to introduce Tau to these characters.

The selection on this three-DVD set of classics seems pretty mediocre to me, but then hey, what do I know? I grew up watching* a frenetic bee and a half-blind worm. Tau seems to like them just fine.

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Yes, according to our son, this is Elbow.

We’re so ready for Spring!*

Starting this year, Daylight Saving Time starts three weeks earlier and ends one week later.

That means we’ll be setting our clocks forward an hour this Saturday night and getting less sleep. So what else is new?

 * Way back, when Mister Kapister was barely a gleam in his dad’s or mom’s eye, Granny Di threw this KFC freebie into a parcel she mailed us. We added it to the box of toys we kept under the sofa for visiting kids.

Recently discovered by Tau: “Do? Do kaah? … Ma … kaah? DO!?” His fingers are not strong enough to press the red button that sends the chicken racer through the loop. So we “do” car together.

We have a couple of friends that are pregnant who, like ourselves, are damn furriners.

Says one of the husbands in passing the other day, “We even have one of those cots that start with a G.”

I thought that was kinda cute considering that in a year’s time he will probably know more than he cares to admit about the virtues and shortcomings of every item of baby gear on the market — not to mention exactly how to press that very awkward button just so to collapse his Graco Pack ‘n Play.

Which got me thinking on how we learn to talk about babies as new parents who were raised in another country.

Sue, some time back now, staring at the daily daycare report: What’s a binky? 
Daycare teacher: Binky?
Sue: It says here, “Tau’s binky…” Oh … oh! Soother.
Daycare teacher: What’s a soother?

This is what you get for living in Canada for twelve years and then moving to yet another country.

Sue: A binky. A soother. Mn … pacifier?

She gives me the look of sympathy, as if she knows the sleep deprivation is talking again.

Daycare teacher: Soother?!
Sue to self, too polite to yell out loud: Honey … you’re lucky I didn’t drop dummy on you! You would have had NO clue!

Considering the one-year-older thing, noticed this, printed on my morning coffee cup: 

The Way I See It #215 

Your body is a whole, all of its parts connected. Your body wants to be healthy. Every lifestyle choice you make has a profound impact on how you live, feel, age. Only a true understanding and appreciation of your body will enable you to live long and live well.
 
– Andrew Weil, M.D.
Author of Healthy Aging and director of the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine.

This is part of Starbucks’ The Way I See It campaign, and I’m probably not the only person who finds the union of holistic health guru Andrew Weil and corporate coffee strange. Everything in moderation I guess.