Playdates, Book Club & Turtle Bay

 Bridget hates having her hair done, and by that I mean, she hates having it touched, washed, brushed and certainly won't tolerate any form of taming of her poker straight locks!
Last week we picked out a couple of new hair bands to try and encourage some new dos... Bridget thought it was great trying them on but in the same way that putting a cardboard box on your head is also great fun! I have to admit though, the results were pretty cute... even if she did look like a Dolly Parton reject!

 Having never been able to do much in the way of styling... without getting something stuck or crying and wishing I hadn't attempted it at all, it seems safest to stick with bands!

Though, obviously when I say safe - that's a relative term, I almost lost an eye on several occasions as Bridget "helped me" with my hair.... My favourite was when she looped the band through my glasses and over my opposite ear... very attractive!

Monday mornings are always interesting... might as well dress for the occasion!

In attempts to get some cleaning and laundry done, we opted for some in-car entertainment...

 I saw this idea on pinterest to and I quote "amuse a toddler for an hour" using a kitchen roll tube and cotton balls. Naturally, any idea proposing the amusement of an under 3 for an hour is worth a try, so our cat and mouse chute was erected... I shall be repinning this one to my board of things entitled "takes longer to make and clean up than amuses my child". That said for the 8 minutes she played with it - it was pretty entertaining.

I've been trying to get Bridget to wear her glasses (for about 8 months now) haha, but since she came home from Nursery with a bruise over her eye, I've been particularly eager to encourage the wearing of these gorgeous eye protectors!

 Bridget isn't a huge fan, she'll put them on, but for about 10 seconds - long enough to get a clap and hear how beautiful she looks before trying to put them on a cat or hide them in a drawer.

 I always think that Bridget is like Kathryn - but at lunch on Tuesday I realised that she is also a lot like Joanna, Bridget insisted on having Snoopy and Baby Cat squeeze into the high chair with her and she shared her tapioca pudding and strawberries with each of them... cue a reading of Pippo and the Washing Machine!

Happy but messy arrangement!

 By far the messiest play in our week occurs out of doors, and that happens every day for about an hour to two hours a day!

Of course, the goats are a major incentive to be out of doors, there has been much petting and collecting of leaves for the feeding of Goats.

Bridget often gets a guard of honour from Clessie - he just likes to make sure all is Kosher with the beasts... not sure of those cloven hooves!

 Bridget is quite determined to hand-feed George and Porter particularly frequently, they've had a lovely selection of leaves, and we recently heard that Goats LOVE acorns so we'll be taking a nature walk soon in search of some!

 It's love - boy, does this girl need a Puppy! She's started to think she's a cat... I wonder who that reminds me of?

Surprisingly turn taking wasn't the issue I thought it would be....

We had a little friend to play this week, the two kiddos loved the slide, feeding Goats and playing bubbles.

 Spoiled Goats and very happy little girls! We put the bubble machine on to let them play and they ran around like banshies, just squealing with delight - it was an absolute pleasure to watch!

 

I finally finished Bridget's first year photo frame I got from my friend Kinyatta at Bridget's baby shower (so literally 2 years ago).

 Personally, I think it was worth the wait, cuteness factor 10

So Thursday night was our Anderson Ladies Book Club - and our book for January was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Our ladies really got in to the swing of the period discussing their bonnets and "taking turns about the room".
We laughed a lot, had some great discussion and excellent snacks! I particularly enjoyed the discussion on the issue of Pride, Prejudice and what Jane Austen has to say about the "ideal marriage".

I couldn't resist stealing this picture from my friend Kristen - who sported her Bonnet the whole night!

"Kristen has stolen Kitty's bonnet, and made it up new and says she shall wear it to church, tell her she shall not Mama" - Classic!

These were my contributions to the evening apart from leading the discussion - I ordered cookie cutters from Holland to make Lizzie & Darcy sugar cookies! I was delighted when at 2pm on the day of the book club they were finally delivered. Bridget and I had great fun rolling and baking!

 I know it looks like Bridget is taking a well positioned "selfie" but actually she was taking the sunglasses off my face using a sneaky... 'let me give you a hug Mummy' approach!

Yup, that's one bodacious babe

 Jared and I took a couple of hours to head up to Turtle Bay with Bridget, we bought a family year membership with the Christmas money Granny Coull gave us and thought it would be a lovely afternoon out!

 Bridget was in an "independent" mood... so this water/ dam play area was a great hit (unfortunately it was about 10 minutes in to our day and feet were significantly damper than I'd have liked!)

 That said, it yielded a very happy little girl albeit with wet feet!

I took Bridget into the Parrot Park - and we got a cup of nectar to feed the Parrots - who were very friendly indeed.

 Bridget wasn't too sure about the more "friendly" Parrots who wanted to sit on our hands, but these three were pretty popular... well until they got hungry... then we had to leave!

 I love that in this video you actually see Jared getting a static shock from Bridget's hair!

If the past week has confirmed anything to me, it is that Bridget has well and truly entered the "terrible twos", as with all things our delightful little determined munchkin has done, she's taking to tantruming like a pro!

Independent Miss Bridget decided she didn't need parents after all and would like to go for a walk... by herself. This resulted in a 5 minute walk taking us a little under 50 minutes to complete, inclusive of detours, tantrums and the eventual carrying of said Madam back to the exit! Glorious days!

 

I spent Saturday night preparing my talk for Sacrament Meeting and my experience reminded me of this quote from The Stranger by Albert Camus:

“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

Some days I'm not so sure I have something stronger... but pushing back we all must do, the talk was completed, I think most people are still talking to me and the ones that aren't probably weren't pre-talk anyway... so life is good.