Elven Child

I give Sabina a quick haircut. Nothing fancy, just enough to get the hair out of her eyes. The rest stays long, even the whisps of hair around her ears. I admire the finished product, and realise she distinctly looks like a child of one of the Elves from Lord of the Rings. Minus the pointy ears of course.

Later on, Sabina is enjoying the swing and I joke with her that she is the "Elven Child". "Who are you?", I ask her. "Avon Child" she responds with a smile. Hmm. I have a vision of Sabina walking into kindy, proudly declaring "I am the Avon Child". Not funny. "El-ven Child" I correct her.

The Snake

Quite a collection of toys have now made it the hay house. Kettle, fry pan, dog bowl. I even spot my cup and spoon in there. The toys are spread throughout the little home, and as we leave for the day I am acutely aware that hay is really good at burying stuff. "We need to put all the toys away" I insist. "Mama, but why?". "Well, if we don't put the toys away, then snake will come and get them". The hay flies as the toys are quickly put into a box. "Gee I'm smart", I think to myself.

Fast forward to 2:20am. Yes, I'm asleep, but I get woken up by a little wimpering voice. I race to Sabina's room, cuddle her and ask her what happened. "Ba" she says (Ba is her toy sheep). "What happened to Ba?" I ask. "Snake" says the little fragile voice. I shake my head, gee I'm smart.

The Hay House

We wonder down to the big shed and Sabina sees the stack of hay bales. "Mama, lets roll down some hay" she suggests. I figure I'll need some anyway, so we may as well. She is sitting about 6 bales high and pushing them off the edge - all smiles. But after eight bales, the fun has to stop. What to do next? Build a hay house, of course. We build a "u" shaped house, about three bales high, with a fourth bale on top as the roof. It's brilliant. Like life-sized Lego. We play "house" visiting each other, making tea, lunch and dinner. Deep down I'm wanting to build another hay house, or perhaps add an extension to this one. Maybe we could make it split level?

Buckets ... with water

There was a storm during the week, which blew my horse feed buckets down into Bob's valley. I manage to sell the bucket recovery trip to Sabina as an adventure, and we wander down together. I hold her little hand on the steep slope, and gently try to slow her down every now and then. I can't keep up! We find the first bucket and Sabina "ooohs" at the amount of water in it. We pick it up, as well as some rubbish, and go up to the next bucket. "But mama, why is there water in it?". We pick up more rubbish enroute to the third bucket. "Ooooh! Look water! Why is there water in the bucket?" She never asks "why is there water in the rain gauge", so why this fascination?

When papa comes home I encourage her to tell him about our bucket recovery trip. "Papa ... and there was water in the buckets!!!" is her wide eyed version of the story.

Jake's 21st

It's dark and drizzling as we make our way up the driveway. We're all warm and cozy in our winter gear and Sabina has gone overdrive with monologue. "That's why I have two hands, one to hold Mama and one to hold Papa". At the end of the driveway we swing right, up the hill, then down to Phil Hill's for a festive celebration of his youngest 21'st birthday. Half the town seems to be there - it's nice to finally meet our other neighbours.

Sabina is a bit shy initially, but by the time dinner is served she is happy to sit next to me. And what a dinner it is. Local pig, slow cooked on the spit, with perfect crackling, loads of oven roasted vegies, and salads a plenty. We tuck in as though we haven't eaten for a week. Some of the vegies look local too. And on the way to the kitchen we spot a couple of beautiful pumpkins.

It's way past Sabina's bedtime and we need to leave before she turns into a pumpkin. Thrilling conversations are cut short, and we wander slowly into the darkness and up the hill. Sabina bravely walks all the way home, but once she's in bed, we don't hear another peep.

Bed time for us? There are logs to be moved, apparently. I change coats and we go outside.

Sam's Birthday Party

We're off to Sam's first Birthday Party. Sabina is wearning her sparkling party stockings. She does a toy headcount: bear, lala (doll), fire truck ... Tornado? Yes, Tornado is coming to the party as well. "Is he in the trailer?". Yes. Half an hour down the road, "Is Tornado in the trailer?" Yes. One hour down the road, "Is Tornado in the trailer?" Yes. We get to Sam's. Maddie (Tornado's previous owner) runs out followed by a bunch of curious children. In the frenzy of children and a dog, Sabina hands over the lead rope. Just like the piped piper, Maddie and Tornado lead the children away.

We join the party, and manage to get some food into Sabina between goes on various swings, hand swipes into the lolly jar, and blowing bubbles. The trampoline ... the last frontier. I climb in with Sabina, but after a couple of minutes I am disposable. It's great to see children jumping up and down and laughing.

It's almost time to leave, and we explain that Tornado will stay here for a bit of a sleep over. "But why is he staying here?" the little voice is puzzled, and the question keeps ringing out all the way to the Yarrambat vineyard.