Nature and not

Monday 14th: Hezekiah enjoying the baby game I downloaded for him on the iPad. It seems only fair that he gets to play on it too. :-) I had also downloaded a free game called "dots" (you take turns joining dots and try to make as many squares as you can). It's a game I remember playing at school at exam time and it took forever to draw all the little dots on the page before we could play (as we did not have graph paper available). Brendon worked out how to play with two people rather than playing the computer - he used blue tooth and linked the iPad and the iPod. It's the first time I have ever had blue tooth come into the equation - so you learn something new all the time. Unfortunately it's really hard to be accurate for Rachel, Brendon and I on the iPod because the screen is so small. It works well for Ruth though as her fingers are small enough. Another game everyone (including Brendon) is enjoying is the free Mahjong I downloaded. I have given them strict instructions that all games MUST be finished. So if you get stuck - you undo and try again (and again and again and again if necessary). If they can't manage to get it solved they must give it to me to get done. I want 100% stats on there. :-) I have shown them where the easier layouts are though - so at least they can finish those a bit more easily.

And after all that technical game info I must make sure you get a balanced picture of our life (computer, iPod and iPad time is very limited every day). Rachel has been VERY diligent with mucking out over the last 2 weeks - making sure she gets down every single day. She can see now how much easier it is to keep things clear when you do the work every day. The hope however - was to finally get to ride Jo (the new horse). So when Christine phoned this evening to ask if Rachel wanted to go ride - even though I was just about to serve dinner - I knew Rachel would not mind eating later and she was thrilled to finally get a chance on him.
She has been cleaning out the paddocks where Jo stays - so whenever she is there she chats to him and pats him - so he already knows her and will come over to her when she comes into the area.

It's really amazing when I think about how much Rachel has learnt in less than a year. And how much stronger she is too. When she first started there was no way she could even carry a saddle for any distance - let alone lift it onto one of these tall horses.
It is back to school with Jo and Christine though - so she started off doing some "no stirrups work".

Jo has been trained a lot and is very sensitive to subtle instruction - so Rachel has to learn how to give that instruction. Even a movement in her seat can indicate to Jo that he must stop. Apparently he is the kind of horse that you could ride very easily bare back and you can even ride him without a bridle or halter. So there is a lot for Rachel to learn. She loves the thought of riding bareback and with no halter as it makes it think of Gandolf when he rides Shaddowfax in Lord of the Rings.

I got loads of work done on Ruth's hair today. I put Hezekiah down for a morning nap today (as I try to work out what schedule he needs) and he slept for over 2 hours.
I undid the 2nd big rows of braids that I had put in last week and it gave her lovely big curls in that area. The front row works really well as a natural Alice band. With the elastics on the end being pink and her wearing red today - we tucked the ends behind her ears. :-)
Hopefully we can get the last section of her hair done this week still. It is looking so nice and I really do need to keep up with it.
The photo also keeps a record of that toothy gap she has at the moment.

Tuesday 15th: What a wet day. I heard the rain through the night but it just did not stop. Through the afternoon there were a couple of very short breaks that could be used to quickly run out to check the chooks food and water. It was a nice break from the heat we have been having and a nice opportunity to have Hezekiah wearing on of his checked tops. I just love the look.
And he loves the fact that he can climb up onto the couches now. He climbs up and you can see the look on his face just says "look at me, this is so much fun, I am so big now."

It really was a load of rain last night. We don't normally close the door to the back entrance area but the rain came from that side last night and so the whole area was sopping wet (and almost all the shoes too). We closed the door this morning but at lunch time I noticed how much water came in here - just look at how much water is in that plastic container to the right. By this time the floor at dried off but the mat was soaked through and we will have to get it dried outside when the sun is out again.

Patches was not too impressed with the wet day and cuddled up with Hannah after lunch. She normally spends most of the day outside and then sleeps with Ruth - so it was a nice treat for Hannah. She was so pleased she asked Rachel to call me so that I could take a photo. It's also a nice reminder of how much Hannah loves this dress she was given. She is more than happy when there is a cooler day so that she can get to wear it.
And while the camera was out we had some fun with Hezekiah and the younger girls. What funny faces they can pull. I tried to get Hezekiah to do his "scary" face for me (it's just so cute and always makes us all laugh) but he was too interested in the camera.


Rachel also took this photo of me and Hezekiah. I decided to put it next to the one of me with Ruth before Hannah was born to compare them.
Left: 38 weeks, Hezekiah 15 1/2 months (almost 11kg and 82 cm tall).
Right: 40 weeks, Ruth almost 20 months (not even 10kg and 80cm tall).
So even though Ruth was over 4 months older at this point - she was actually smaller than what Hezekiah is now. A good reminder of how big this boy is. :-)

There was another short break in the rain this evening so Rachel quickly headed out to get some mucking out done. I had said today would be one day she could miss - but when we saw Christine mucking out in the rain earlier - it motivated Rachel to at least get some done this evening when there was perhaps only a very fine drizzle. That's commitment for you.