the smaller they are...

... the wetter the bathroom!

whiling away the hours

Still raining...

It has rained all summer. Really. All the summer has been wet wet wet.
The little ones have not been happy at all about the rain. It has been a disaster.

So to brighten things up I suggested they help me fold the washing. What could be more fun!

Wee Small sorts the socks.
Wee Tiny sits on all of the clothes and gets in the way, and gets grumpy when this is pointed out to her. Oh well...
The Little One, being the eldest, is quite helpful. She can be a folding clothes Leviathan - if such a thing makes sense.

"This is my monster t-shirt," said The Little One, "and when I fold him and put him away he is always RRRRAHAHAHHAR-Side-Up!"

I'm quite impressed. And that is how I am going to have my eggs from now on.

..

rain

It has been raining on tummy mountain. It has been raining for weeks. The little ones have been spending a lot of time indoors, only going outside so they can track mud back into the house.

During one of the rainy spells Wee Small told me a story in which someone was "unbarrassed."
I can't remember the nature of the story now as I was so taken with the word "unbarrassed."

I am assuming that a person can be embarrassed, and the only way to stop this is to "unbarass" oneself. Which makes me wonder how does one unbarass oneself as quickly as possible. I usually try pointing out the window at something, like the rain, but that never works.

"Bear" Manatee

I think Manatee may have been watching too much Bear Grylls in "Man vs Wild," and may need to concentrate a little harder on geography instead.

Happy Next Orbit of the Sun

Seems hard to believe that another year has rolled by. We have all done yet another orbit of the sun.

TuMS has reported that tummy mountain is in the same position in space as it was a year ago. This news has been greeted by the cicadas with complete indifference. They seem to be only concerned about the Kookaburras, who like to eat them.

I suppose... if I was them... I would be more concerned about the Kookaburras too, than abstract concepts about our relative position in space.

Another year gone, and The Little One (being the eldest) has declared herself "a life authoritist." I think this is a good thing. She seems pretty sure about a lot of things. I am more uncertain about a lot of things.

One of the things Tummy Mountain's newly appointed Life Authoritist has told me is to avoid "panthemists."
Wee Small nodded in agreement with this wise statement.
I am uncertain what a "panthemist"actually is.

Is it a panther? Is it a phantom? Is it a phantom panther? Is it a person who studies phantom panthers?

They cannot tell me. All The Little One can tell me is to avoid them.

I assure them that I will avoid panthemists.

So there you have it.

And so it is time for the little ones to wave to you all that have followed them and their adventures over the year, and have shared with us all your little one's adventures too, as all these wee little ones (and us not so little ones) try and make sense and nonsense of this world around them.

Happy Next Orbit and Avoid Panthemists



..

the magic of Christmas

Wee Tiny has had a marvellous Christmas with many unexpected presents from Santa (although it seems that Santa could not understand her long letter of scribbles.)

Her favourite gift is from a friend of the family. This friend, shall we diplomatically state, has a love of the little ones, if not a finer grasp of what makes a good gift to a child, and thus has in the past failed miserably in the art of giving presents. Yet this time the friend has scored an unexpected hit with Wee Tiny by giving her an office stapler.

A black office stapler.

At first Wee Tiny was confused, but after initial examination it has become her favourite toy.

There are several reasons why;

Firstly, it makes a very satisfying "ka-chonk-ah" sound every time it is pressed down

and

Secondly, it spills out little glittering silver things onto the floor after the "ka-chonk-ah" sound.

And though the glittery silver things ran out after about fifty ka-chonk-ahs, the ka-chonk-ah sound never stops. In fact it can go ka-chonk-ah for hours.

Wee Tiny is very delighted with her stapler.

Being an adult, I foolishly stepped in, and demonstrated how to reload the stapler AND revealed to her it's purpose by stapling two pieces of paper together.

Wee Tiny snatched it back. Wee Tiny did not want to know about that. It was her Stapler and it was for making ka-chonk-ah sounds and for spilling silver things on the floor. However, I did note that she has taken the reload knowledge on board.

And later on I discovered she had worked out the stapling part too. She had happily stapled her socks to her t-shirts.

What a marvelous thing Christmas is.

some good advice

The little ones have told Wee Golden about their preparations for Christmas. That is to say, putting up the Christmas tree, helping with the Christmas lights (we won't go into that "help") and sending their letters to Santa.

Now it is time to perhaps pay Santa a visit, so the little ones can talk to him in person.
And this is when Wee Golden piped up with some additional advice to heed.

Wee Golden: Sometimes Santa gets angry when you whack Santa.

Now I don't think for one minute that Wee Golden has been engaged in unsavoury scuffles with Santa, but I still think it is quite unusual advice to give. Well I don't think we'll have any problem there. We are very much against violence to Santa.