undercoat on

Having Mia obsessed with Winnie-the-Pooh does have its advantages. She was reluctant to finish her porridge this morning…but her ingenious mom came up with a cunning plan to get it all down the hatch. “Look who’s come to visit!!” (holding up a spoon of porridge)…”It’s Pooh!!! Knock knock – IN HE GOES! And who’s this? Piglet! IN HE GOES! H-e-r-e’s….TIGGER! And who’s this? ROO! And Kanga…and….EEYORE! um…here comes Rabbit! Boing boing, in he goes! And Owl. And Small. And rabbit’s friend…and rabbit’s relation…(2 bites left)….and who can THIS be knocking at the door? Christopher Robin! Hello Christopher. And the l-a-s-t one? It’s MIA, of course! What a big party.” That’s 13 spoonfuls of porridge (Rabbit’s friends and relations are a big help and can fill in a lot of gaps). Excellent! I had Henry Pootel up my sleeve if I needed one more bite. (Henry is what Christopher Robin and Kanga decide to call Piglet after Kanga forced him to have a bath because he had hopped into her pouch pretending to be Roo…and now that he is so clean he doesn’t look so much like piglet- the wrong colour!- Henry Pootel for short.)

Upon getting dressed in her pink tights which matched her pink polka dot dress, which matched her pink stripey t-shirt underneath, which matched her pink sandals, which matched her pink hairties, Mia went to tell Jojo, “J-O-J-O! Look at me! I’m booful!”. AND, “Won’t Daddy be (im)pressed with my pink dress which matches my pink stockings and sandals!!” – if only she knew how much Daddy IS NOT impressed with pink and is only putting up with it because he hopes she’ll grow out of it by the time she’s…4? Maybe? But he does admit she looks pretty sweet in pink. Pretty IMpressed never the less.

Mia discovering our strawberry patch in the garden of our Rotorua house: “ Ah! How lovely! I love strawberries!...Are they for eating?” Yes, indeed. We ate a strawberry each, before the birds got there. The undercoat is finally on the entire house! It’s a finicky job – our ‘character’ home has a lot of little wooden skirtings and awkward bits to paint. – but, it’s getting there. Shouldn’t be too long now. Yay!