And again

Yet more ducklings

Elizabeth took this one as well.

More ducklings!

Well, actually another shot of the same ones. Elizabeth took this shot.

Ducklings!

On a visit to Barshaw Park, Elizabeth insisted I photograph the baby ones.

Ducklings!

On a visit to Barshaw Park, Elizabeth insisted I photograph the baby ones.

--
Dave McLaughlin
Language allows us to learn from the experience of others. The most reliable experience is forged in the crucible of science.

Eighth birthday

The birthday girl at her party, at Damselfly Crafts:

The other birthday girl, and sister:

Cousins:

a work in progress:

and the result:

A little owl

Yes - that's what it's called

--
Dave McLaughlin

Keyboard lessons

Elizabeth was apprehensive before going. The lesson started with singing a simple melody accompanied by gestures representing "do", "re", "mi", etc. (Think "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and you won't go far wrong.) Throughout all this, Elizabeth was mouthing something to me; I couldn't make it out, but I assumed she meant she wasn't enjoying herself; I smiled (I thought) encouragingly. After a while, I realised she didn't want me to watch. After I took to reading my email and surfing the Web on my phone, she had a whale of a time.

Unfortunately, only three kids turned up for today's taster lesson, so they won't be starting a new class until they get some more - pity, because she's quite keen: we came home and took the stickers off the keyboard because she doesn't need them any more.

Vegetarian!

Yup! That's what she announced earlier this week. I don't know if it'll last.

--
Dave McLaughlin

Tricky business, this reading

Elizabeth [reading Alexander McCall Smith's "The Girl who Married a Lion"]: "What's a knob?"

I: "What's the context? What else does it say?"

E: "Soon the people were upon him, beating him with their knob".

I had a look. The word was "knobkerries", hyphenated at a line break. That, of course, made it much clearer.

--
Dave McLaughlin

Chocolate ice cream

Very tasty!

--
Dave McLaughlin

Riverside

What fun!

Wide-ranging discussions

Elizabeth shouted for me shortly after going to bed this evening. When I went up, we had a chat about: Hawaiian life and culture; manned lunar missions; the possibility of life on Saturn and its moons.

--
Dave McLaughlin

Technology

Elizabeth's going mad for console & computer games. She's started showing an interest in some Mario game we have for the Wii and she's been going on so much about the PS2 games she plays at the after-school club that we've bought an old console. Now she can regularly beat us at a couple of variants of Sonic.

When we're out she sometimes plays with her DS, though she's more likely to borrow Mum's iPod or my phone to play Angry Birds.

This morning she disappeared for half an hour. I found her in the dining room on the venerable PC that serves as a file/printer server, watching Bakugan movies on YouTube. Time for parental controls!

--
Dave McLaughlin

M&S quality control ain't what it used to be

Can anybody see what's wrong here?

--
Dave McLaughlin

Test post

Sent from my new phone.

--
Dave McLaughlin

First loose tooth!

Not much more to say (lower right 1, if anybody's interested).

Hazards of growing up

There are various stages in a child's life when there are new dangers to be considered. When they start to crawl, hot drinks and sharp knives need to be kept out of reach. When they can stand up, that reach is dramatically extended. Then comes the time when they can both drag a kitchen chair around the room and climb up on it.

In the run-up to Christmas (and a December birthday), when she can play games on Mummy's laptop, it's important to remember that she can read!

Swimming!

Elizabeth's been very nervous of getting her face yet when in the pool
lately. I thought a mask would help, but she refused even to try one
until Thursday. Today her confidence dramatically improved and she
swam a metre and a half with mask and snorkel. Then she announced she
would swim two lengths (probably because cousin Daisy did that on
Thursday). It seemed outrageously ambitious, but she did it!

Photographer

We had time to kill at the airport yesterday.

--
Dave McLaughlin - sent from my mobile phone
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/start-here/