today

Today Mia blew a small leaf out of her nose.

I've reconfigured the settings on this blog so that it reflects the correct time of publishing. I was on L.A. time, not N.Z. time. So, while I was most probably awake at 1.32am patting Joshka back to sleep or picking Mia up off the floor after she rolled out of bed, or recovering some wayward duvet, I was definitely not sitting in front of the computer reminiscing about the day just gone.

I'm quite excited about the next step in our house...we (I) have chosen (we've agreed) the paint for the inside of our house. Finally I'm starting to feel the excitement of doing up one's own place. It'll be great to have the painting all done (I think we can start this weekend) so we can finally bring in everything that's waiting in the wings: fridge, washing machine, dryer, IMAC, bed and mattress (joy to have our own bed after all these years!), some furniture, and the stuff my Mom sent over from Cape Town. (Can't wait to have all my old photographs and THINGS in one place again - near me.)

AP in NZ

I'm happy to report that Ben may now call himself an 'Advanced Paramedic' here in NZ. It's taken many hoops to jump through, but happily he's made it. He was super stressed about it, what with fitting in all the new house demands, the grumpy wife and needy children, studying to make sure he didn't stuff it up, commuting to and fro at ungodly hours...and actually working. Well done! Or as MIa said when he walked in the door (after coaching of course!): 'Congratulations Daddy!'. We had some bubbly. Feeling sleepy.

shop shop

Mia: Can I have some punk pie please?
Me: PUNK PIE??!!
MIa: (giggles) Yes! Punk pie.
Me: What is punk pie?
Mia; It's a salty sort of thing...

Ouma

We miss you.

cutting a tooth

Joshka has a razor sharp new bottom tooth. It's making the attack-of-the-chin manoevre a bit risky. He's crawling around all over the place and loves 'boy' things. It's quite fascinating to observe the difference between Mia and him. She was happy to sit at this age...never really had an interest in crawling - walking more her thing. Josh is happy to bounce and leopard crawl, but ends up sucking his toes if encouraged to sit. Put a car in front of him, or a shoe...or something he can slap about and make a noise with and he's happy. A lot of 'bpbpbpbpbpbpbpbp' noises - absent with Mia. I remember watching other boy babies do that when she was little and wondering if it was a 'boy' thing.
Interesting.
Always a wonder to watch children grow.

Logic at age 2 and a half.

Mia: “ Is your name Linda?”
Me: “Yes it is!”
Mia: “I call you mummy.”
Me: “Do you know what Daddy’s name is?”
Mia: “Daddy!!”
Me: “What do I call him?”
PAUSE.
Mia: “Boss.”


Mia: “The cows are eating the grass!”
Me: “Yes they are, just like the sheep – they eat grass too…”
Mia: “The cows make milk…These cows make milk for us!”
Me: “Yes, they do.”
PAUSE.
Mia: “They turn grass into milk. Cows turn grass into milk.”

Perfect. I’m so proud of my logical little girl!

While picking wild flowers next to the drive today, Mia ventured into some longer grass and was heard to say: “ Oh! Now my knees can’t see!”

It keeps a smile on my face.

Mia is obsessed with Winnie-the-pooh at the moment (has been for the last 10 months!) and forces us to read and re-read the stories to her. When we’re lucky she’ll ‘read’ to us. It’s wonderful to hear her recite so much of the story and to use such big words. She’s really getting the hang of some biggies. At dinner I was asked: “ Do you mind if I use a big fork, mummy? Because I’m a big girl.” She is a big girl now, It’s amazing how much she’s grown and how huge her vocabulary is. She has such a good memory and seems to be quite musical too…she can keep a tune. She makes up her own words a lot but interestingly, even it is gobbledygook, she’ll rhyme it quite well.

Some words she still gets wrong (with NO help from me to correct her!):
Ephalent = Elephant
Pate = Tape
Booful = Beautiful
For a long time milk was “nulk” but that seems to be disappearing.
Interestingly words like rhinoceros, hippopotamus, dinosaur cause no problems.

I have never called Ben ‘Boss’ before. No idea where that came from!

bye bye blue house

Ben is at work tonight and Mia is on an 'adventure' sleep over at David and Jo's (Ben's parents)...and Zorro the dog, Fish and Albert the cats, and Angelface and Butchie the cows. Joshka is asleep and I am in charge of the final bit of packing. The computer goes into a box last.
I had a little walk on the beach by myself to say a quiet goodbye to this lovely place. It's been amazing to be able to live right on the beach and to hear the waves all the time. Every day the ocean is different so the view out of the window is always a new treat. It's been a once-in-a-lifetime experience to live here for 6 months - we'll forever be tied to a mortgage now, or a job, or a school. I always said, while in limbo, what better place to be!? When things got a bit much I could just bundle Mia down to the beach to ease the cabin fever.

It seems sand in the mouth is not a hindrance when you have no teeth. Joshka was exploring his surroundings while sitting on my lap yesterday. He found his sandy toes very enticing snd had no qualms about the crunch. More bothered about me trying to get it off his face.

Things I like about NZ

*Roadworkers are not always men.
*Telephones can be connected instantly.
*Children see loads of animals in every day life. Just driving around here we see cows, sheep, hawks, pukekos (purple swamp hens..I think), hedghogs, pigs, horses...it makes driving around with a toddler a little more eventful.
Granted, you don't see zebra's like you do in Cape Town, but hey... If you live on the beach like we do (for another 24 hours before we move to the in-laws) you get to see dolphins and whales (only if you have very observant people about). And horses on the beach. And after a storm you can find heaps of starfish and beautiful shells. Once we had a mattress wash up in front of our house. That wasn't too picturesque.
Mia is a total dog-lover, thanks to her 'best friend' : Zorro. He's been lovely with her. I wonder how he'll cope with a crawling Josh...or how will Josh cope with a big, black, wet, inquisitive dognose?

There are more things i like, but I think I'll sign off for now.

It's lunch time after all.

I don't know why I didn't do this before

It's quite hard to get creative after a long day (starting around 5am...) entertaining a 2 and a half year old and a 7 month old, but I do try. It's the only time I have to 'get in the zone' ie. escape being a fulltime mom, with a stack of dishes to do and yet another load of washing...not to mention an escape from the '3D' dust (so aptly pointed out by my mom!). I'm not after heaps of design work at the moment, especially since I'm once again in the middle of a house move - but at least it's not a move to the other side of the world, like the last one. Having said that, design work keeps coming my way and somehow I manage to squeeze it in. Judging from the paranoia I experience at the start of every project (I'm not good enough to do this!!) it's just as well I'm keeping a hand in the business - it would be weird and scary to go into the workplace after a break of 5 years or so. No, I'm grateful for the projects that come my way - they keep me sane. Almost as good as a holiday. Hours pass without me realising. Granted, I should most probably be asleep (again I hear my mother whispering in my ear...) but for my SANITY, I am grateful. I get ever so grunpy if I go to bed at the same time as the children and wake up at the same time - no adult time!

My...ahem...Imac is waiting for me. I am delaying gratification by waiting until we have moved into our new home in Rotorua before I have it delivered. CAN'T WAIT!!!! Will only get my fancy design software early next year, so until then I'll have to be content with the PC. I can do that. It's a dream come true, thanks to my mom and inheritance money.

Well, can't play around here too long, I have a job I need to get back to. Or another box to pack. Or washing to be folded. S-i-g-h.

Other news: Ben is back after 2 days away at work. He's been preparing the rooms at our new house for the plasterer at night. (That is another story - the wallpaper we pulled off the walls was, in a word: revolting.) Mia has just gone to bed after much protest, but I know she is really tired. No doubt she'll wake up around 11pm. Probably try and get into bed with me around 1am...but no chance when Ben's here. I LIKE it when she gets in with me, but in truth, there's really not enough space in the bed for 4...usually Joshka gets a feed sometime in the night (and I fall asleep). Um...I found a lovely king size bed for our house, can't wait for that either!

Joshka is sitting now and crawling (pulling/pushing/rolling). Clever boy. Favourite words: Da da da da da da.

Mia pretends to be Winnie-the-Pooh, or Kanga. I am Rabbit. Joshka is Roo. She has a wonderful imagination. She runs fast too. Favourite words: NO! Don't! "if bears were bees they'd build their nests at the bottom of trees. That being so, if bees were bears we shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs". A great memory and vocabulary.

My favourite words: Hooray! Mia's doing poos on the loo! 3 cheers for poo! for who? for POO!

I baked Melanie's banana loaf today. Idiot proof. Yum.

OK, seriously, got to go. Ir's a bit strange writing to no-one in particular and yet everyone at the same time.

Linda