Wicked witches, guns, floods and earthquakes...

In an ideal world my little ones would only know sunshine and rainbows and cuddles and flowers and joy, joy, joy. But we currently live in a world that is stunned by one catastrophic natural disaster after another. The news is overflowing with increasingly graphic, apocalyptic-movie-like images of raging fires, quake-split roads, churches turned to rubble, muddy, disease-filled excess water and people waving toilet paper out of windows seeking rescue. There is something a bit sick about the way this stuff is shown on TV, the way Channel 7 goes into natural disaster programming mode and show unfiltered pictures of other people's pain for hours at a time.

When I wasa little girl TV coverage was obviously less immediate and therefore more censored, and I don't recall ever seeing the type of horror that has entered our living rooms of late. I can't help but wonder what it is doing to my kids...

I had a little panic the other day when Otis, in pretend mode, "killed" Peggy over and over with his "water pistol" (he only calls it a water pistol because I told him that guns, real and/or imagined, are banned from our home), and then, that same day, "shot" me when I asked him to do something he didn't wish to do. I sent him to his room and told him that all his good vs evil movies - the best kind, in his little drama-seeking mind - were being put away under lock and key. Snow White, his current favourite, plus The Neverending Story, The Little Mermaid... There is a real undercurrent of aggression in these films that I was/am starting to be concerned about. I guess I want him to stay that sunshine and lollipops boy who just cuddles and smiles all day long.

And then, today, I see him playing with his Little People... The plane is on top of the car which is teetering on top of a fire engine... "It's a flood, Mum! And an earthquake, look! They are all drowning and dying!!!" Cue huge smile of delight and mischief.

I can censor fiction, but I don't know how I can contain what is fact.

Chatterbox...

She never stops. Here's a little list, for Peggy to look back on with wonder one day. I don't mean to brag, truly I don't. But she's so full of life, and full of words:

Mummy
Daddy
Otis
Brother
Wee wee
Nappy
Dummy
Mine
My
Peggy
Baby
Doggy
Bird
Bear
Doll
Happy
Hair
Toes
Shoes
Nanny
Poppy
Isla
Indi (Didi)
Lan
Gwammy
Piggy
Book
Block (for ice block)
Yummy
Car
Bob (as in the Builder)
Fish
Bike
Side (outside)
Door
Cot
Wrap
Toast
Brekky
Duck
Cow
Bart
Jord
Yuck
Poo
Yeah
No
Hello
Bye
Bag
Boat
Apple
Bikky

And one beautiful, heart-warming phrase...

I LOVE YOU. (Sounds more like "I lup mmm")

16 months of age and already a great conversationalist.