A muslin full of cherries

Babin and I were having a leisurely wander through our local park yesterday, marvelling at the ducklings and goslings, the sticks on the ground and the park in general, when we noticed a man picking things from a tree. Upon enquiry he told us he was picking 'bird cherries' and handed us some tiny, dark cherries - and ate some himself. They were juicy bursts of tart sweetness and Babin and I both got covered in the purple juice.

Not one to miss out on free food I suggested to Babin that we could pick some, and she began reaching for the tree to do just that.

We didn't have a bag, so I bunched up a muslin, and slung her on my hip (in my very lovely NM Girasol Ringsling) and we merrily picked cherries for half an hour or so in the beautiful sunshine.

At home Babin carefully washed the all cherries, and I washed our pink-stained hands. They were a feast fit for queens as we sat in the paddling pool and ate cherries and spat the stones into the garden to see if we can grow our own tree in 10 years or so!

Take one box...

How much fun is a cardboard box?!!
We've made it into a supermarket checkout, a cave for Babin's bear, a boat, a place to hide, a table for a tea party, and who knows whats in store for it for the rest of today! Her imagination is limitless and its a pleasure to watch and an honour be taken along for the adventure.

ear defenders

So somehow, we ended up in Romania, with himself playing a music festival and me and babin rocking some of it... until a very nasty temperature for little one arrived, and then we had a some very long and anxious times in a hotel room and eventually a trip to a Romanian a&e... all very scary.

There was also me wet nursing for a fellow band member's baby as his wife had a nasty case of mastitis and a visit from Romanian paramedics who prescribed medication which they we convinced could not be taken while breastfeeding.

But in between all this 'excitement' we did have a short time on stage with the ting tings... I wonder which experiences will feature most when we tell of our Romanian adventures!

wraps.....

As you can see Babin is greatly enjoying rebuilding a studio for her daddy...

The taste of blue...

Babin loves playing with her crayons or 'colours' and spends lots of her day putting them in and out of her handbag, asking to draw with them and showing them to 'baby' or 'bear', and telling Nana about them on the phone.

So, I thought we'd try some finger painting. She loved it, we looked at the feel of them and she decided they were 'silkeee', and she became totally immersed in smoothing the paint around the paper, naming the colours, swirling the colours together and generally painting.

Then, I turned my face away for 30 seconds, just thirty seconds, suddenly I hear a spitting sound and her saying 'blue, blue' spit spit 'blue, blue'. Her whole mouth, teeth, tounge, lips, cheeks were blue, covered in finger paint.

We rushed to the sink and I helped her clean her face, and tried to get her to clean her mouth out, but she just kept making funny spitting noises and saying blue! 10 minutes later she was blue free and was clear that she didn't want to do anymore painting.

So we put the painting to dry and went off to read some stories and when 'daeee' came home she proudly showed him her painting, pointing out the blue!

I chalked it up to experience and made a mental note to not turn away next time we finger paint. Interestingly this morning she has run around the house pointing out everything blue!! All other colours are still getting mixed up, but not blue!
Oh no, now she's tasted it, she's learnt it, so next week we might try red though this time with beetroot not paint I think!!!

long time no see....

This blogging game is a funny thing, and not one I'm proving to be very consistent at!
I think of blogging a lot, particularly when I read other people's fabulous blogs, however living gets in the way.

Occasionally I feel guilty and crap about not blogging but mostly I've decided I'm just enjoying what I am doing; learning and growing with my fabulous daughter, learning to knit (six scarves and counting), dancing with my baby (somehow she's very into Plump DJ's at present), reading stories with my baby, baking, cooking, walking, reading and when I really have to cleaning.

So, I suspect I will continue to be an erratic blogger, though hopefully more than every six months!

so, fingers crossed, see you soon!