Big Tum: What you talkin' 'bout Sarah?

Yes, its been a while.

Its not our fault. Its the fuggin gummint.

In the past cupla weeks we've increasingly noticed that Little Miss S is emerging, ~~caterpillar~~ butterfly-from-a-cocoon-like, from the communication bubble, and hence the blog feels the urge to emerge too.

It all started with the annual Sandy Point Cup Weekend windsurf trip.

There we were, ignoring/listening to the babble that is Little Miss S of late, when others in the house said "She's talking".

"No, that's just Sarah-babble."

"No, she's talking. Listen, she's saying 'ball!' ".

And she was.

Handed the ball she was as happy as Larry-ette.

(And also clearly now ready to be taken to the footy.)

Then she started jumping.

"Jumpy jumpy" she said.

MMmmmm...

"Hat" she then said, pointing at, well, a hat.

"Up!" was next, as she grabbed a fellow one year old, who is bigger than herself though still not walking, and tried to drag her onto her feet.

(It didn't work.)

This was all finally and embaressingly topped off with "Jar!", which is a somewhat sad reflection of the fact that, being a second kiddie and all that, mum and dad have dispensed to some degree with all the pre-cooking and mashing of veges etc, and just resorted to Mr Heinz finest.

In a jar.

(i.e., "Jar" = Food.)

"Dadda" and "mumumumum" have been around for a while too.

While its one thing to mutter the odd demand, its another to feign ignorance of what mum and dad are talking about - surely a teenager, not a one-ager, trait. We know she's engaged in a bit of this because of late she's been giving the game away by actually responding correctly to the things she really wants.

A true trap for young players.

It all started with a hairclip.

"I wonder where your hairclip is Sarah?" muttered, somewhat rhetorically, mum one recent day.

Who then noticed the girl running down the corridor and into the bedroom, emerging a tick or two later with...

A hairclip.

"Crikey" said mum.

For dad it was toast related.

As per weekend-usual, there he was preparing his brekky of tea and toast - while intermittently humming the tea and toast song by the Weddos and swearing that the Sat'day Age hadn't arrived again and it was past 8am - when Little Miss S started pointing.

At his plate and the jar of Vegemite.

"Ok, if you want (my) toast, go and sit in your chair..." grumbled dad, while thinking "hehehe... she has no idea what I am talking about, but it sure sounds like I'm being a good parent...", only to turn around and see...

Little Miss S, bolting across the kitchen, pulling out the little kiddies chair at the little kiddies table, plonking herself up onto the seat, and smiling expectantly back.

"Bugger," grumbled dad. "That just me cost half me bloody brekky."

(Soon followed by; "Where's me bloody paper?".

And; "When are we getting a bloody 4-slice toaster - with 'extra little bit of toasting' option?")

Of course it hasn't been all been new talking and antiquated swear words in the Baghdad-end of Hampton.

Given the extreme time period since the last blog, we'll have to attempt a top ten (per kiddie) from the massive list of undocumented recent firsts.

Little Miss S:

First trip to the snow, including her longest car ride to date (400km+, which she did amicably), and of course her first time actually seeing snow (somewhat a shock and awe experience), first tottering about in snow in snowboots, first snowman (kinda scary/creepy cold white dude with a carrot for a nose and prunes for eyes - later eaten by currawongs) and first ride in a toboggan, in which she fell asleep. Onto the other person in the toboggan. (Yes,this all occurred prior to her first birthday too... eons ago.)
First trip to the Show. As in the Royal Melbourne Show. Hence she saw lots of farm animals, a guy on fire diving off a twenty metre high tower, a 'ride' in a fire engine, her longest train trip to date, and her first showbag (Seasame Street - she likes the Oscar the grouch umbrella). And it didn't even end in tears.
First concert (and first photo with a 'celebrity') - Justine Clarke, who appears to be famous to people depending upon distinct age groups. Either; she's been on Playschool for about a million years, or if you're pre-Cambrian, she was the original "Roo" on Home and Away.
First dancing, including claps and twirls and common or garden variety jigging. Often to the aforementioned Justine Clarke.
First swimming lessons - not that she's all that keen on going underwater, lying on her back or having water splashed on her head, but she does do a mean rocket ship. (You have to be there.) Lessons ended early as the poor lass developed an infected preauricular sinus (insert sad face), but she left defiantly with the Arnie Schwarzenegger Terminator-ism - "I'll be back."
First eating of nuts. (Not allergic.)
First "Come on, read me a book!". Though it goes more like 'pull a stack of books off the bookshelf, find one she likes, point it at mum/dad saying something we cant understand at a hundred miles per hour, then plonking herself down ready for action.'
First walk (unassisted) all the way to the milkbar... and back! (Yes, accompanied by mum.) Considering each step is about a tenth of that or mum and dad, that's not far short of pulling a cart across the Nullarbor.
First rides on a mum and dads shoulders - though she's yet to learn that yanking mum's glasses off means mum is running blind and rudderless. However little Miss S seems to think she has the solution; yanking mums hair like a set of reins.
First >100mm rainfall month (October 2010).

Master M:

First time on skis! Including first (two) lesson(s), first ride on a magic carpet, and first ride on a chairlift... with mum, who was so excited/nervous that she forgot to drop the safety bar till dad started yelling "drop the goddamn safety bar!" as they lifted several metres above the ground/snow. This was soon followed by Master M's first ski down BigD (between mum's legs).
First swimming badge (a seahorse) which means he can dogpaddle like Thorpy and hence goes up a class. No, we don't know why the badge isn't a dog either; seahorses are decidedly armless -and ipso facto crap at dogpaddle - last time we looked.
Can now pedal a bike, or at least his sisters pink trike. All the way to the shops. Where he thinks he should be rewarded with hot chips.

First washing of hair without cracking it - in fact he now even tilts his head back in the shower and washes off the "snow" himself. (Wonders will never cease!)
First Lego build. (Mum and dad can see the next obsession looming on the horizon... here's hoping the bank manager isn't reading)
First cloud identification - "That's altocumulus..."
First pash with a girl on the couch, and an older woman (Caitlin) at that; ohhh errrr! (Followed up the next day by "Not today Michael!" whenever he moved in for a hug. "Get used to it son..." Dad consoled.)
First pair of thongs. (Australian's understand this importance. Final initiation to Aussie manhood to go; own set of BBQ tongs.)
First toys ('Duncan and Charlie' from Thomas the tank engine) bought by saving up his own money. (Well, the change at end of the week in dads pants that was handed over for placing into the money jar if Mike had been 'good', where good is somewhat loosely defined as not being in the naughty corner at the exact time dad takes his daks off on Friday.)
First year with near-average rainfall... though he's yet to see a sprinkler. (We'll point one out to him in the museum.)