It was fun

Well, we had a great Christmas - back on the beach - almost like we never left. Just a shame the weather didn't play along...we're still hearing weather reports of snow in places. We're not supposed to have snow in December in the Southern hemisphere! But I guess there's no snow to speak of in the skifields in Europe...strange but true. I spent most of the time in denial and was c-c-c-c-cold, but I insisted on bare feet and shorts!

Christmas is a big event for Ben's family and needless to say a BIG event in the life of a 2 year old. A very clever 2 year old who asked me today: "Is Santa real or pretend, mommy?". That threw me a bit! Ben points out that even if I admit to him being 'pretend' it wouldn't be devastating to her since her best friends are all 'pretend' at the moment (Piglet and Pooh Bear).

We did have a lot of fun, us adults, getting it all prepared...and leaving a beer and some Christmas cake for Father Christmas (I say Father Christmas, they all say 'Santa'...Mia pronounces it 'centre' at times, which can be confusing!NZ accent comng through). The best reactions came from Mia as she opened all the little presents in her stocking (the FIRST presents): "Ah how LOVELY!" she would exclaim, "how booful!" (pink underwear). And the sweets and lollies were just the best for her - could hardly get any breakfast into our little girl. And naturally there were tears when the sugar surge faded, but all in all a lovely, busy, eventful day.

sun?

It's that time of year again and feel like I've come full circle. We're off to the family beach house for Christmas (no computer) just like last year. Last year I was hugely pregnant and totally disorganised. This year I'm still not organised, but not embarrasingly so, and a little less exhausted. I know what to expect this time - Christmas is a big event for Ben's family! We'll be having a brunch with Ben's mother's family (11 or so adults, 3 children) and dinner with Ben's father's family (20 or so adults, 9 or so children) but we're missing out on a Christmas Eve dinner with more family because they're spending their holidays in Australia - so not as busy as last year when there were a few more family members present. With second cousins, cousins and cousins once removed, I've decided on plain old 'cousin' to make things a bit simpler to explain to Mia. But no doubt we'll be trying to work out who's once removed, or twice removed, over a drink or two. I'm looking forward to it.
I haven't sent out any cards or written any letters to anyone. I'm sorry. I still haven't found a place to put my clothes and bits and pieces in the house, so it hasn't been at the forefront of my mind. I've still got a few days to sort out a few presents...
Anyhow, let's hope it stops raining so we can enjoy the beach (I knew we shouldn't have watered the garden!). It'll be a while before I can post again, so, merry Christmas!

funtime in Rotorua

take the good with the bad

After picking Mia up from Montessori the other day, she was so pleased to see me she gave me big leg hugs and was ever so affectionate. "I 'specially love you mummy," she said in the car "...and Bosh," (Josh - we all call him 'Bosh')"...and Daddy".

But today I got "go away! I don't like you!" because she didn't want me to get into the hammock which we've put up on the back deck. Ah well, there have been more "I love you's" than anything else, and anyway, today we played a kissing game - she kissed my cheeks and eyebrows and forehead and chin and ears (very ticklish) and knees and legs and ankles and arms and, well, I thought it was a fantastic game! It doesn't always work! heh heh heh.

dumb animal

I drove Mia to her grandparents yesterday (another sleepover 'adventure') when I had a close encounter with a Pukeko. It flew across the road, from right to left but it wasn't going very fast, or gaining much height. I saw the look in it's eye as it flew past my window - it knew it was doomed. A sickening, solid, warm THUMP on the passenger side front window, and it was gone. I didn't see it land, or fly away, or get squashed, but I knew I had killed it. Of course hearing "What was that, mommy?" didn't help my racing heart or ease the sick feeling in my whole body.

I drove the same route today and had a look for any telltale sticky remains at the side of the road, but I couldn't find my contribution to the huge number of New Zealand's roadkills. Of course it is a bit tricky at 80kms an hour.

Not a ding or a scratch on the car or the windscreen.
(Subaru)

nasty little scratch

There's a little scratch on Mia's face - probably from her tree climbing (which is improving) which was doing fine..almost healed. But of course, she had to fiddle with it and scratch it off...so it bled. Not much, but still, it looks worse. "Oh no!" I said, "you've scratched your face!".

"Quick mommy - put some gasoline on it!"

It took me a few seconds...vaseline. I laughed and laughed and went to find some gasoline. She laughed too and corrected herself without me telling her.

a shame

I haven’t mentioned that we were burgled. The night before we moved in, Of course it was a shock, but in truth, it could have been so much worse. Considering what could have been taken (tv, stereo, ready-to-pick-up-and-take-me-home-to-unpack boxes) it’s only really Ben who is really miserable. His touch rugby things and his ski touring bag were stolen, and his sunglasses and favourite hat as well as a few other things. It’s not that he’s upset, but he’s UPSET because it was a special top: swapped with the NZ Touch team when he played against them representing England, just over a year ago. He hasn’t been wearing it much (in truth he hasn’t been able to play much) but it’s been making an appearance more and more often, and, well, it’s upsetting. So we had to replace half of a sliding door. And the police popped round. A neighbour popped over a bit later with some of our mail that had been removed from our letterbox and dumped with 3 of Mia’s books, next to his car, which had also been broken into. It was clearly an opportunistic break in, but it did put a bit of a dampener on things. Not, naturally, for the hard core desperate-to-be-in-her-own-new-house ex-South African who faced her first night in her violated home ALONE while Ben was on his nightshift. No, seriously, I didn’t flinch or falter! In any case, Ben wangled a bit of a shift swap (he did 3 hours before Graham took over) and Ben’s mum and aunty helped whiz around unpacking kitchen things and tidying and cleaning and assisting with the children. It’s fantastic to have such willing and able and enthusiastic family help.

And then our bed didn’t arrive because the delivery guy couldn’t get hold of me, (my phone was out of range) and so we faced sleeping on the floor for a while…but to their credit, they made a plan – being so central really helps I think – and we had a bed (unassembled) and a mattress. A mattress which turned out to be too soft in the end, so we decided to change it. Only…Joshka vomited on it…which we cleaned up, of course, but then we debated whether they would take it back or not. They had to order another one in, in the end, so, after a week of sleeping on a soft…erm, ever so slightly soiled mattress, we WERE able to swap it for our current (divine) one.

You know how people always say how there are so many hidden costs when buying a house? And you go, yeah, yeah, I know. And you do know, but you never QUITE know and it’s always a surprise when you can spend a thousand dollars in a day and not really have anything to show for it. Furnishing a house is like that too. But we’ll get there!

Note to self

Unlike the beach house or the parents-in-law's house, when you sit on the toilet in this house, you should close the door.

I keep forgetting and find myself looking out onto the street! (Looking down the passage and out of the study). Oh, the joys of suburbia. In any case, once we have the proper curtains up, it might not be as much of an issue. Curtains, paint, cupboards, lawnmowers – these are some of the things we still need, BUT, I feel I need to point this out, we DO have a dishwasher! I never expected to have one, ever. And I can only assume, had it not come with the house, I probably never would have. But look out! I have arrived!

And I have been continuing on the gardening front, with my weeding. After breaking the weeding knife in my attempts to rid the in-laws garden of broadleaf weeds, I bought a little weed thingy (red, because red goes faster) and have taken the odd moment, with the children, to weed our front lawn. Mia pretends to be a dog, walking on all fours with her shoes on her hands, and goes woof! woof! to let me know there are cars coming. And to tell me that Josh is crawling into her ‘kennel’. She can climb up a tree but is still a total wimp when it comes to climbing down. I just let her stay up there (it’s really not high) because then a) I know where she is and b) I can listen to her prattling on about Pooh bear who’s come to visit with Christa Robin and c) she’s not terrorising her brother-who is usually knawing on stones, or frothing over a leaf. Or pulling himself up on me. It’s a good little break from being inside. And I have discovered we have (at least) three different types of weed, so that when one is a vigourous weeder, there isn’t much real grass left.

Mia went off to Montessori today and was happily playing with playdough when I waved goodbye. Joshka is asleep and Ben is painting the hall. I should be working. Or clearing up. Or folding flat more boxes. There are a heap of things I should or could be doing.