She ruins everything. On purpose.

Life is so, so hard when you have a heartless mama who won't let you spend the entire afternoon climbing in and out of a large hole in the garden, over and over again, clutching handfuls of dirt.

So hard!!!

Raiding the liquor cabinet

Well.... this happened at least 14 years earlier than I expected. Next I'll find him trying to take his daddy's car for a spin...

.

A twist in the tale

Berry brought me a book to read to her before bed.

"It's about bugs," she said. It was actually "My First Book About God" – but it had a tiny bug on the flower being held by the girl on the front cover.

So I read.

"...and God gave us the sun and the flowers and the rivers and the sea..."

"And – candy!" she exclaimed.

"Oh! Really!"

"Yep. [pause] They got good lollipops."

"Who has?"

"The Baby Jesus. All kinds of lollipops and fruits in a bowl."

She made careful little sprinkling motions with her fingers.

I hope the Baby Jesus knows how lucky he is.

.

Squeezy

Such a squished-in little building,
right in the heart of Sydney.
Built in 1886.
Any smaller and I would've smuggled it home in my suitcase.

Nights are not for sleeping

Hello! I got two hours of sleep last night! I am not exaggerating! I am going to drink six cups of coffee today and cry a little bit! I will probably also snap at my children and then cry about that too!

I've been having not-so-quiet midnight (and 2am, and 3am, and 4am) battles with little Man Show* to eliminate the last vestiges of his waking-in-the-night-to-eat habit, and it is seriously, seriously taking a toll. On me, not him.

More later, when the world stops tilting...




{*Right – he's no longer a baby, so Kickbaby is now Man Show, which is the nickname Berry gave him. There you have it.}

Breakthrough

I've just had a breakthrough on a new design, so excuse me while I jump up and down a bit.

I have a series of letterpress art prints planned for Sweet Olive Press, but they're still in the design phase and a couple of weeks ago I ran into a creative hurdle on how to handle part of the artwork, and I couldn't seem to get past it. I went on designing other things and printing other work, but this block hovered, nagging, at the back of my mind all the time. I didn't even want to look at the half-made art, for fear of feeling mocked by the impossible-ness of it all.

Tonight I opened the files with a sense of duty and dread, and after about half an hour of fiddling around despondently – eureka!!! Problem solved, on with the show!

You know, I just had to share.

Advantage receiver

Over the past month Berry has taken up tennis, giving Nathan the first outlet for his coaching urges since waaaay-back-when he worked at Fair Oaks in Dallas. She has quite a fierce forehand, and is extremely proud of her "tie shoes".

She has also learned to do somersaults, or flips, as she calls them. She doesn't do them while playing tennis, but maybe one day....

.