23 September 2008

Delightful start to Daylight Savings


 

Cute moments...this week when Daddy told Noah he was going to Sydney for work in the morning, Noah got very excited and said 'see Goofy and Mickey, Noah come too and Mummy come too', so I think he thought Daddy he said he was going to Disney! Then when we asked who lives in Sydney, he said 'Nemo and Dory and the shark - I want to go to Sydney too'. Bless him.

It really is quite amazing to see Noah's vocabulary literally growing by the day..he is speaking in whole sentences all the time now, and is constantly surprising us with little gems of cuteness. A couple of times this week when he's fallen over, he's said 'I fall over, and hurt my bum bum'. Not sure where he got that one from, it sure wasn't us!

Noah and I survived the two nights Mark was away, I tried to make sure we had some fun so we had a picnic dinner both nights - Daddy's lasagne and some raw veges, yum. We made a big deal about getting out the picnic mat, and Noah helped putting out all the plates...as you can see Monkey had to come along for the picnic too with his own plate and all.


 

This weekend we had a haircut for Noah (long overdue), he wasn't too pleased about the scissors going near his ears, but the overall result was pretty good. Yesterday afternoon the wind was blowing a gale so Mark took Noah for a walk up to the wind turbine so I could get some work done, and then when they got home, we built a cave which then turned into an ark that Noah welcomed all the animals on board!. Each animal had a different spot to sleep in and we made sure that penguin got some ice to sleep on so he was happy, the camel got to sleep in the hottest part of the boat, and the lions slept away from all the other animals just in case they ate them all! Then we sang 'Little Noah had an ark, e-i-e-i-o. And on his ark he had a zebra, wake up zebra' etc etc to wake them all up again. Great fun!


 

And now Daylight Savings is upon us. This morning we went to church, and spent this afternoon in the garden. We have taken it upon ourselves to pull out one half of our raised garden bed on the left as you look out from inside. We have decided to make a go of a bigger vege garden this year and to try and grow things together in a dedicated area rather than dotted amongst all our other plants. Mark had a bit of a job on his hands digging out some of the bigger bushes including 2 rose plants. Much as I love roses, these ones have not really produced many flowers, and as much as I tried to make in roads into them producing better flowers last year, they weren't a patch on the roses I had in Norway Street - must have been all the TLC I gave them in the early days.
Anyway, we have certainly been inspired to make a go of the garden, we are hoping to have peas, strawberries, tomatoes (last year our cherry toms were something else!), and hopefully a variety of lettuces, and maybe some courgettes and peppers. We will also need to make sure that we give the soil a good turning over, and a fair amount of nutrients before we go planting anything given the number of plants and roots that have been in there for the past few years.






Noah had a great afternoon with us out in the garden, helping out moving lots of weeds, and investigating all the worms, snails, woodlice and bugs he could find that we dislodged as a result of all our efforts. Not that he is at all keen to touch any of them, just happy to watch them and talk to them...'Hello Mr Big Fat Worm'..(Mummy's fault that one as he repeated what I had called it! There is no getting past him these days). All the energy he burned in the garden made him more than happy to chow through his roast dinner, even with a few mouthfuls of carrots and broccoli to boot...we are getting there slowly!

 

Onto another week..full of fun and hopefully a fair amount of study getting done along the way too. Less than five weeks to go now!

21 September 2008

Helicopter....

Ok...I'm cutting to the chase this week!! Two very tired parents and a busy week ahead.

Noah survived the whole week at daycare (yeah!!) which made our lives a little easier (or busier at work which ever way you look at it).

This weekend we took a trip up to Gee Gee's in Jules Alfa Romao (lush..) and had a great old time. A stop at the mountain (Mount Egmont) was a waste of time on the way up as visibility was down to about 3 metres (max), a real shame as from the photo's below you will see how incredible the mountain looked the following day (this was at 7am after we had an early riser!!). For the rest of the weekend's action I will bullet point what transpired below...

  • Helicopter - the title of this blog is deliberate and will be explained now (briefly). Noah's managed to find an awesome sense of humour. He happily reads books with us, finishing sentences and this weekend he decided to replace the real word with helicopter. An example of this is... "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of....HELICOPTER"...classic!!
  • Salad - Well, we did manage to get Noah to eat some (a tiny bit in a quarter of a sandwich), but on the next quarter of a sandwich we gave to him he found a bit and said "what's this mummy", to which mummy replied "that's your greens" and Noah's priceless reply was "No mummy, it's salad...??" ha ha...that taught you mummy!!
  • Okurukuru - for brunch (again) and it seems to be our hang out when we visit New Plymouth. Noah got his usual fluffy (what have we started!!) as now every fluffy has to have chocolate sprinkles and a marshmallow (expertly asked for each time)
  • Kites - We were very lucky when we visited the walkway in New Plymouth on Saturday afternoon to see some 'crazy' kite surfers doing their thing just off the coast. The pictures tell the full story, but Noah was so impressed by them he was even talking about them when I put him to bed tonight
  • Chatter Box - and that's another thing...wow can he talk (wonder where he got that from?)
Anyway...I'm off to Sydney this week for work and Meg has got a whole stack of study to catch up with, so just enough time for some photos and then bed!!






Noah enjoys being 'as snug as a bug in a rug' - another of his favourite expressions this weekend

Noah has fun picking lemons off GeeGee's tree

Burning off a bit of energy jumping....and jumping....and jumping.....

Noah enjoys playing doctor and checking all our heartbeats including his own, and is incredibly gentle with Panda who lets him get close enough for nice cuddles


There are advantages to being woken up early by a little voice in the room saying 'galah galah galah' at 6am...it meant we got to see the mountain in all its glory before most people were even out of bed! We also had a visit from 2 cute fairies - the two little girls who live across the road from Gee Gee came to show us their lovely outfits as they prepared for Ellie's 5th birthday party (Ellie is on the left). The day made more special for them as Ellie is still recovering from leukemia and I can only imagine what a happy day it must have been for her parents.

Okurukuru in all its glory....what a perfect spot to enjoy a stunning Taranaki day.

Later in the afternoon, a trip to the seafront saw us exclaiming in awe at the exhilirating sight of kite surfers out getting some big air

14 September 2008

Done and nearly dusted.....

It's been another one of THOSE weeks. Noah came down with a nasty virus and temperature on Monday and we were back to the juggling act of looking after a sick boy, trying to get through a busy week at work, all whilst I was preparing for my last PAS workhsop.

Mark, still suffering from awful pain in his tooth, took Noah home after only an hour at daycare on Monday, then came back to town for the first half of a root canal later in the afternoon. When Mark asked the dentist whether he had found the right tooth, the dentist said 'If you consider that tooth was half dead and full of pus, then yes we got the right one!' I'm not too sure how Mark even made it to Monday given the pain he must have been in. The second half of the treatment is tomorrow but he has been a different man this weekend compared to last, and I don't think he has given his tooth a second's thought since getting some positive action on it on Monday!

I took Tuesday off and Noah was in reasonable spirits - we enjoyed a trip out to the airport to watch the planes - not that there were many planes taking off but we enjoyed a coffee/fluffy and the buzz of being at the airport amongst all the coming and going nonetheless. By all accounts, Mark had a tougher day on Wednesday with him, and there was lots of 'Muuuuuummmmmeeeeee, Muuuuuuuummmmmmmeeee' going on. After a trip to the doctor just to confirm all was in order combined with a trip to see Mummy at work for some cuddles and reassurance, Noah and Daddy headed off to the zoo to wile away some time. Noah wasn't back to 100% on Thursday, but we gave it a go sending him back to daycare and he lasted the day, and also more importantly, Friday, where Mark and I both were on courses and we were going to be a bit stuck had Noah still been ill in the afternoon. Thankfully Allie (Baba's sister) had kindly agreed to be our backup for the afternoon just in case. As it turns out we didn't have to call on her, but it was a relief to know we had someone lined up as we are always a little short on local support in times like this.

Well, I have reached a milestone this weekend, no more accounting workshops! It hardly seems possible that 5 months ago I was attending my first one just as we were heading off to England, and trying to get Noah over his ear infection in time to fly out! Out of the six workshops I have attended, Noah has been sick on 3 of the weeks leading up to the workshops, so there have been some stressful weeks in our housefhold in the leadup to these events. Luckily, my policy for being super organised and always getting through the study well in advance has paid off when things have gone a little 'pete tong' in the few days beforehand. Now, I have just over 6 weeks to go till the big 6-hour exam and then it will REALLY be all over....bring it on.




Today, we enjoyed a lovely family day out together to Staglands Wildlife Reserve - an hour's drive away in the Akatarawa hills between Upper Hutt and Waikanae. It is a picturesque spot, totally away from it all, with a winding goat track of a road to get there, and having heard this, I was quick to offer to drive! The day had been organised by a couple of the mums at daycare, and we met up with 4 other families for the journey around the reserve. Noah was happy to see his friends Phoebe, George, Maya, Arnav, and Ryder, and seemed very confident in their company. It was interesting to see him at times striding off ahead of all the others, and engaging in conversations and play with them all. The animals were all very friendly and happy to eat out of our hands, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how confident Noah was to be close to them (not necessarily touching them but then none of the kids were overly keen to do that!). We had a lovely lunch together out in the sun, and then home mid-afternoon.




We are going through a little bit of a trying time with Noah at the moment, and think it must be a sign of the him trying to push the boundaries now he's in those 'terrible twos'. Nothing major, we are just finding him a little whingey, and crying for no good reason (when there really is nothing wrong other than not getting his own way or seeking attention). We have had to threaten the naughty corner a few times, and have been trying to ignore it at other times. We will have to keep a united front and try to distinguish between times when he is in fact genuinely upset vs. just trying it on.

That being said, he is also so darned lush at times that it is all I can do not to squeeze him and cuddle him endlessly. This week, on a couple of occasions when I was play-acting being sad when we were playing together, he rubbed my face and head and said 'You're alright, Mummy, it's all right'. So adorable! Tonight, when I was trying to tell him that something he really wanted to eat was still too hot, he started touching bits of it saying 'it's not too bad, Mummy'. Even with the maddening times when it is all one can do not to scream back in frustration, it only takes just one adoring look, or impromptu cuddle or gorgeous unexpected turn of phrase to be spoken to put the world to rights....and the timing is always perfect to bring back the balance.




This week, we have a short week and a road trip to GeeGee's to look forward to where we will also catch up with Nana and Poppa. This is something to really look forward to, as it is not only our first road trip since before going to England in April, but we're taking Baba's Alfa Romeo for a run-out as it has been confined to local journeys since she went to England. Mark is already drooling at the thought!

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