Entry for February 20, 2009

Here’s the thing: Henry can’t pronounce a lot of consonants. Mostly at the beginning of words, but often, they’re missing in the middle. Especially r’s.

This leads to things like confusion between his favorite Engine from Thomas the Tank Engine fame: Henry, and his bottom: heinie. They both sounds like Heeny.

It’s probably good we’re not potty training right now – but it does make for some weird sentences. Sentences he might come up with anyway, but still weird.

For example, he has said, “My heeny ‘oits.” So one of us looks up from a book or from the stove or something. So something hurts – his heinie? His train? Is that damaged? Then one goes to secondary clues. Is he clutching the train? Is he grabbing his butt?

What do so when he is both clutching train and grabbing butt? W will try to make Henry point to it – which might lead to the train toy being rubbed against the butt. But, we keep trying. Someday, he will be able to pronounce his r’s and we’ll be able to go back to our papers in peace.

Entry for February 15, 2009

Funny story.

I was looking at a parenting magazine, and on the back cover was an ad for diaper cream. Henry saw this ad, and said, “Baby heinie.”

“Yes,” I said, “baby heinie.”

He said, “Keem.”

I said, “Yes, cream.”

He said, “Mommy hand, keem.”

I said, “Yes, Mommy’s hand is putting cream on baby’s heinie.”

Then, with some astonishment, he said, “Baby heinie broken.”

(What could I say?) I said, “Yes, baby’s heinie has a crack in it.”

Then he kept repeating it. “Baby heinie broken.”

I said, “Yes, everybody’s heinie has a crack.”

He seemed really surprised by this piece of news. He reached around to his own bottom and said, “Heinie broken.”

So when W came home, Henry had to inform him of this world-changing view. Without any prompting on my part, he said “Yes, everybody’s heinie has a crack.”

So, now I know when this piece of information comes to people – at about 2.5 years.

Entry for February 09, 2009

It is astonishing to me how much the Australia experience has stuck. I lived there for 5 months and the effects linger on, some two years hence.

For example:

1) I still have the socks from the Quantas flight. (Of course, that might still be due to my cheapness, but anyway….)

2) No ‘poo.

3) I tune into Rove Daily online every so often, and I find Rove just a little cute. Only a little, though. It’s a little tough saying this, but I think Hughesy is more my type.

4) I check the Australian weather report almost as frequently as I check my local weather. Mostly because of envy.

5) I crave the ginger beer there – I have no idea why it’s better. It just is. Other things that fall into that category are lollies and choccies and bikkies.

6) I was complaining to W that I don’t get Playgroup anymore – and W said, you don’t, but Henry does. (which is true, now that Henry is in daycare. I still miss Playgroup, and the women who all joined in.)

7) I miss the fish, the gorgeous fresh fish and shrimp available.

8) I miss being able to walk to the greengrocer’s. And the fact that you could buy a clump of salad that still had the roots, stick it in some water and get salad all week.

9) I miss fish and chips – they tended to be done better by Australians.

10) Australians are pretty funny, and so friendly.

11) It’s given me a concept of what life would be like if Americans were less uptight about sex, swearing, and the little blue butt dot on TV.

12) I recently, no kidding, made a wide right turn and freaked out because I ended up on the wrong side of the street.

13) Beaches within a 10 minute drive.

14) The nicknames. I suppose if I had stayed there long enough, I’d have turned into Myo or Chuckie or something. (W and I heard an interview by Hugh Jackman, and when he talked about wanting to become a ‘journo’ while in school, we both thought “what an aussie.”)

15) Real butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers.

16) The nonchalant way Australians consider their unbelievably deadly wildlife as just part of the scenery.

17) Almost everybody gardens, or cares about gardens, or just likes gardens.

18) Everybody cares, deeply, about what happens in their country, and seem to consider all other Australians as neighbours. (spelling intentional) I love that.

19) It seems to me, anyway, that every Australian actor/singer/comedian you can possibly name has been on “Neighbours” or “Far and Away” and will be referred to as such. (As in Kylie Minogue is still ‘that girl from Neighbours’, or the father in Ugly Betty is “that guy from Neighbours”)

20) Virtually everybody can swim. This also impressed me.

21) The language difficulties between American and Australian English. i.e. “Thong” is or is not a flipflop, depending on the speaker. This can lead to childish giggles.

Nope. No ‘poo here.

So, I’ve succumbed to the Richard Glover challenge that I heard about while I was in Australia. The no shampoo (or, as Australians might say it, the no ‘poo) challenge. I have now successfully stopped using shampoo for over a year. I have to say, I quite like it, and would recommend it.

Given, I have very short hair, and things like body and shine have no meaning for me. But, I haven’t bought shampoo for a long time, and that’s quite freeing. I’ve had to slap on some conditioner every so often when the hair seems a little – heavy – but that’s not a big deal. A real benefit for me has been that my scalp in winter has been very much less itchy and prone to dandruff. (I would occasionally resort to using hand lotion or olive oil on my scalp to relieve the itch and dryness. It was kind of yucky.) All that stuff about shampoo being a harsh detergent actually makes sense now.

The first 12 weeks was a challenge – really. I sort of had to taper off shampoo use, because my hair was super oily. (Weird how my hair would be so oily and yet my scalp so dry.) I would use a bunch of conditioner to cut the oil – but went from a couple of times a week to once a week to a couple of times a month, and then just stopped. The hair did adjust. Or I did. And now, it’s nice because I have that much less to pack whenever I go anywhere.

I still shower very regularly – I just don’t use shampoo – but I still use soap – let’s not get crazy here.

Hooray for Richard Glover!