Palomino

Ever since Sabina read the "Silver Brumby" she has, first of all noticed, and secondly fallen in love with, palomino horses.  The palomino has a golden body, with a silver mane and tail.  They are beautiful horses.

Now, palomino reverberates in her play, and in her life.  When we drive in the car along country roads, she spots palomino horses in paddocks miles away.  The other day, she saw a labrador being walked through town - "oh Mama, look!  A palomino dog!".  Cissy is her favourite guinea pig, because part of her coat is gold and white, and that makes her edge towards a palomino.

Finally, one day Sabina ran into the bathroom, then ran out again, smiling.  She looked at me, then said "Mama, I'm also a palomino!".

Kids and puddles

There is something about puddles that makes them absolutely irresistible to kids.  Even if it's just wading through them in your gumboots to see how deep they are.

 But even better if you can take your schleich horses along for a bit of a wade!

Thowra and the foal were also lucky enough to snack on an apple.

While Boon Boon chose to go for a drink.

Good thinking

Now, remember that brand new schleich horse Sabina was playing with in the man made creek yesterday? Well she's got a couple of others, but, it's not enough!! So she's been begging me for more schleich horses. I'm a tough mum, and said "no".

Today, I was away for the entire morning at Adult Riding Club. When I returned, Sabina's play room was spotlessly clean. I marvelled at the cleanliness, realising that either Sabina or Papa are behind this, and in either case praise is a good idea.

"Mama", Sabina spoke up first. "I cleaned the playroom!", she said excited. "Papa helped", she added, realising that Papa was listening in the kitchen. "But", she continued, "he didn't want to help at first. It was too hard for me to clean it all up. So I told him he must help me, and he did. And now it's beautiful." She danced across the room.

I gazed over at Papa. He nodded.

"Well Sabina, I am very impressed", I said. "You realised the problem was too big for you to handle, you asked for help, and when you were refused help, you didn't give up. Well done. That, my dear, is called thinking."

The little girl was beaming.

"I think you can have a reward for that - a schleich horse", I smiled.

The hands went up in the air. "Yay!", cheered Sabina, jumping up and down on the spot.

"Do you know why you're getting the horse?", I asked. I've got to be sure the right message is sinking in.

"Because the job was too big, and I asked for help, and when Papa said no, I didn't give up", she re-iterated perfectly.

"That's right", I said, triumphant that the right lesson had sunken in.

"Mama", Sabina gazed at me, "it's such a big achievement, that perhaps I deserve two horses?"

"No! Don't push your luck!", I laughed. "But, Sabina, I love the way you think!"

The BBQ

We had to do some shopping this morning, so we zipped down to Warragul.  These sort of trips are always troublesome for us, because by the time we've had our sleep in and we've arrived in Warragul it's almost time for lunch.  But, with Sabina being allergic to wheat, finding the "right" lunch, at the "right" price is not so easy.

So I came up with the brilliant idea that we'll have a barbeque in Warragul.

We arrived in the park.  Sabina quickly ran off to the man made creek with her brand new schleich horse, while Pete and I surveyed the barbeque.  It was spotlessly clean.

"Why?  It's brand new!", exclaimed Pete.  "We can't use that!"

What?!!  Hello?  When a barbeque is dirty, he complains about it, when it's clean we can't use it?  Make up your mind!

We used the barbeque, and it was fantastic.  Our onions and sausages were perfect, the weather was perfect, and we had the perfect family lunch in the park.  Priceless.

Expecting Harry

While on chemo, and recovering from it, I have been forcing myself to rest by watching videos. Amongst these, a friend lent me two of the Harry Potter DVDs.

My daughter came home from school, and noticed the DVDs lying on the coffee table. "Mama, what are these?", she asked immediately.

"Oh that?", I peered at her over the rim of my glasses, in a manner similar to that of Dumbledorf. "That's Harry Potter."

A twinkle lit up in Sabina's eyes. "Mama, I've ... I've heard about him at school", Sabina stumbled over her words. But she may as well have said "Mama, I've been expecting him".

Taming Thowra

Once upon a time, when I was young, I was sent on a horse camp and fell in love with horses. My pleadings for a pony fell on deaf ears, but my parents were more than happy to drive me to the local library. There, I found "The Silver Brumby" books (see also here) and immersed myself in them. In my imagination I gallopped breathlessly with Thowra and Storm up the Ramshead range, and together with them I jumped down rocky outcrops.

So last year, when I spotted "The Silver Brumby" in a second hand bookshop, I bought it for my daughter, thinking that when she's about 10, she too might enjoy reading it. Well, that timeframe was shortened when a friend lent us the first series of "The Silver Brumby" cartoon. Sabina immediately fell in love with Thowra and Storm and watched the cartoon over and over again.

Then we watched the movie together, and then Papa read her the book. Sabina fell further in love with Thowra, with Bel Bel and with Golden. She would run around the playground, holding her arms out pretending that she was Thowra, rearing and striking out. Sometimes she would gallop around on Golden, and when we loaded the ponies into the float, her pretend Golden would always go on first.

In her playroom she added new horses, and they all jumped across "the ravine".

And finally, whenever we went out for a walk, Sabina would pretend we were brumby hunting. One time, I actually rode out with her, and we had to get off our ponies to herd the pretend brumbies, into the pretend corral. Of course, her brumby hunts were never fruitless. At the very least, she would come back with two brumbies. Then we had to spend time taming them, lunging them, getting them used to the saddle. Remember, we're talking pretend brumbies here.

In her brumby hunts, Sabina caught all sorts of brumbies, Bel Bel herself included. But for a long, long time Thowra eluded her. Although we did catch glimpses of him every now and then. Eventually, she gave in to temptation, and achieved a fete that no stockman in the book could. Finally, Sabina caught Thowra. And ... yes ... she tamed him, and rode him.

In the process, she became fascinated with the palomino colour. So when we started discussing a new pony, she desperately wanted a palomino. Luckily, when she met her new pony, a chestnut with a flaxen mane, she felt happy enough, as long as she could call her "Bel Bel".

The emergency

It's Sunday evening and we're getting ready to leave. This is never an easy time of the weekend - not because we have to leave this beautiful place and return to work. No. Simply because getting Pete and Sabina to come in for dinner is like herding cats. And after dinner I still have to clean up, pack the esky, the rubbish, the recyclables, and so on. My priority is to get on the road sooner rather than later, while Pete and Sabina appear to be hell bent on having a leisurely bath.

So I'm in the kitchen, starting to get frustrated, when Sabina runs in "Mama! We have an emergency!". Oh for goodness sake! These, so called, "emergencies" happen far too often for my liking. But, on the surface, I remain calm. I put down the tea towel, and follow her outside.

Well, it turns out that when Pete adjusted Fort Cavy this morning, he accidentally put one of the corners on a rock. However, the rock was surrounded by tall grass, so he didn't see his mistake. The guinea pigs ate the grass, and found a way out of Fort Cavy, and into the big world beyond. Yep, you could tell from the way the grass was eaten down, that they had ventured out of their little enclosure.

Very, very carefully, we slightly lifted a tunnel inside Fort Cavy. Just enough to reveal a couple of white paws. Cissy. Then we lifted a bit of bark. Just enough to reveal a brown backside. Ginny. Yay! The emergency was over, both GPs were sitting in the Fort, and I could happily return to being frustrated in the kitchen.