Friday, 30 November 2012

Bringing up baby: artwork 27 Nov 2012

27 November 2012 (c) ^_^ 2012
Medium: paint, hands, card.

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Bringing up baby: The Cat in the Hat reaction

A few days ago.

***

Tilly really understood the plot. He was really into it. He was charming.

I'd forgotten the storyline. His reaction reminded me just how exciting it was.

Story time started as an onerous event, with much procrastination on his side. Many other books were skimmed through, to prolong eventual bedtime.

Daddee open the cover of the book. He started reading.

"The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day."

Tilly was still distracted, fiddling with his toothbrush cover.

Daddee continued as best he could. Then the plot became much more exciting.

The Cat in the Hat!

The fish talks!

The Cat does ambitious things! Oh no! The fish and the cake! The books and the rake!
Oh no! The ship and the books! Tilly could hardly bear to look!
The Cat has a fall! Despair, oh tragedy! Oh that poor ball!

And look at the mess the Cat made in the hall.
Does this stop the Cat? Never; never that.

His onslaught continues, with Thing One and Thing Two, 
But here comes our hero with his marvellous net.
His capture of Things completes the whole set.

And here's more suspense - mother is approaching; 
With the mess encroaching, 
Will our heroes escape without her reproaching?

The Cat! The Cat! The Cat saves the day!
He cleans up his mess, and puts fun away.
Still an unreliable Cat for all that.

Our heroes are safe, and the fish is happy once more 
Swimming peacefully in his glass bowl.

***
This book has become his book du jour, surpassing Green Eggs and Ham.
Am I sad? Yes. Yes, I am.
He sits through this book, I must say
All patience and eager when the Cat comes to play.
Reading from page one, to the finish.
Which is the best he has yet accomplished.
So I miss his skipping pages, I miss his versions.
Daddee loves he can read a story without diversions.

Monday, 26 November 2012

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Narwhal vs Orca - People rule, and outsourcing drools!


This subject fascinates me. I can't pin down why I am fascinated. It ticks several of my interests.  

This story is about David vs Goliath. It is about community strengths vs corporate structure. It is about people vs design. It is about project management. It is about people management. It is psychology. It is sociology. It is technology. It is about nerve-wracking competition. It is about gaming. It contains role-playing and a DM. It is about preparedness. It is about high performance, and doing things to the best of your ability. 

It is loads of stuff.

It is about People.


In no particular order:

Tech analysis

Marketing analysis

Stats analysis

Journalist analysis

Republican analysis


Disclosure wrt the 2012 USA elections: my opinion is - ultimately the message carried the day. 

Not the candidates. Not the technology. If people weren't motivated enough to vote, then they didn't vote. If they didn't vote, then it's because of the message. 

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Bringing up baby: 20 November 2012 2am

2am, 20 November 2012: Daddee wears Tilly-scarf (c) ^_^ 2012

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Bringing up baby: 18 November 2012


Multitasking Tilly: watching swings, and climbing net. (c) ^_^ 2012

I'm getting better at calling Tilly "Tilly".

Yesterday was a cold cold wet day. Today was a windy wet windy day.

The best part was after Tiily's nap. He nursed to help him fall asleep for his nap - he was unmanageable for unknown reasons prior to nap. Sigh. Anyhow he napped.

When he awoke, it he ate his lunch very well - boiled wontons with macaroni and peas, and soup, and grapefruit. He played very well afterwards on his trike. He had a nappy change, and then we were off.

I grabbed his going-out bag, and then grabbed our wind jackets. And then returned for the old towel (in case the swing etc needed drying/cleaning off). Tilly walked a lot of the way, being carried for 100m or so. Or less.

We were the only ones there at the playground! Score! Swingtime4ever!

It was a lovely time. It must have been at least 30 mins of swinging. And then other people started turning up. I was trepiditious on his behalf. Would he have to give up his swing?

The first little girl was quite a bit older, and used the bigger swing. The little boy and his sister were having eats with their mother. The second little girl preferred the slide. Yay, Atilla!

We swung for a while longer. Then I asked if he wanted to do something else, like climb the blue net. He said 'yes'.

He disembarked, but he diverted to another part of the playground. He utilised his observation skills for a while, watching other people use his swing.

***
He made a token attempt at climbing. But everything around him was so distracting. He couldn't target himself vertically.

He decided he'd prefer to sit and snack and watch.

***
He took his box of raisins and went for a walkabout. It was most pleasurable for me to watch him explore his environment.

He wandered away, he trudged up the small slope to the trees, he stomped in the long grass and twigs and leaves, he sat down, he trudged around the back to reach me on the park bench, he grinned, and continued on his circuit again. Occasionally he would stop, take stock of the Play around him, laugh, and carry on.

He stood and watched the playground play. He shuffled-walked backwards as his wont. He had to re-balance himself when he reached the edge of the pavement. He tried shuffle-walk on the grass and twigs.

***
He finished his box of raisins. I asked him to throw it into the rubbish bin. He made his way there. He turned and looked at me. I mimed 'throw in the bin'. Apparently my mime looked like 'Play with the Box'.

He used the box in his play and exploration.

He threw the box. Several times. Then he used the box as...I don't know what. He dug with it, I guess. But it didn't dig very well. He played Car with it? But it didn't roll at all.

So he just held it in his hand, and used it to interact with the bark of the playground, digging into it.

He did this all over the playground, from the blue slide to the baby swing, to the steps to the yellow slide.

He became more fascinated by the "big!" branch. He left his box on the ground and started using the big branch to dig into the bark. I picked up the box, for later disposal.

He dug here, he dug there, then he dropped the branch and began searching for his box. He was delighted when I pulled it out of my pocket.

He played with it again, digging it into the bark in the playground, slowly moving towards the edge. He found another stick, and dropped the box in the bark, and used the stick for digging and drawing lines. I didn't pick up the box. He drew the stick in a wide circle. Then he discarded the stick. He asked me for the box. I pointed it out to him.

He picked up the box and began digging ever closer to the playground's raised edge. He climbed over the edge to dig the box into the bark which had fallen on the grass out of the playground.

***
Not sure what happened next.

The box was abandoned in favour of other explorations; Plant physiology - buttercup flowers, petals, stalk, twigs and leaves, "big!" tree and the lichen on its trunk.

***
Dadee surprised us, and we joined him on his stroll to the liquor shop. On the way home, it began to rain in earnest so we got home as soon as we could.

***
Today Tilly played WiiPlay for the first time. Cow Riding. I have hopes he may achieve with this.

Monday, 19 November 2012