Milestone

Well, we've known that Isaac has been heavier to lift and carry around than his older brother lately, that he's been eating constantly and has needed 3 haircuts in the last month, but at the Chemist's we got the measurements to back up our empirical data. It's official! Isaac now weighs 4 1/4 stones to Nikolas' 4 stones (whatever that means!) Nikolas is still taller for the time being, though, and Isaac better not forget it!


Here they are too, helping out with the dinner dishes. I should mention this as another milestone! They've been great, especially if you promise them spaghetti dinner.

Sunset Pictures

Some sunset pictures taken from our balcony

Winters Blues

I am excited about the "Winter Blues" festival coming up next weekend. Great bands and great venues, and we'll have a full house here too. Here is a promotional video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxkUUIRG9JE

Apparently, some of the musicians started playing on the ferry ride from Auckland to Waiheke, surprising the passengers on board. I recognized at least 3 of the passengers, Nikolas recognized two of the them, and Dave would probably recognize more.

Can't wait!

A morning jog...

I finally got my running shoes out for a jaunt. Well, yesterday, at the beginning of soccer practice, the coach told the kids to run all the way up to the bench on that mountain over there on the other side of the field. I looked. That one??? The one you can barely see?? Isaac was a little shy to play with the big kids, so I ran with him, and realized that these little 8 year olds are in great shape! (Isaac is only 6, but could run as fast as I could). That was at the beginning of soccer practice, and I sat and chatted with the other moms for the rest of it. The kids came home with dirty knees, muddy shoes, and huge grins. I decided that today it was my turn to play.

So today, on my first venture out, it's raining with strong Northerlies. Isaac is home sick, and I walk Nikolas down to the bus stop. I'm dressed for running, which is a little cold for standing at the bus stop, so the two of us jog 1/2 way down to the beach together and back. Still no bus, so we jog a little ways up the road and back. And again.. and again. I ask him where he thinks I should jog, and he recommends getting out of the wind on the other side of the island. Brilliant! So today, I run along the Esplanade, where the weather is drizzly, but no wind. I look for birds and mammals and admire the ferry in the distance in the rain. I run over to the Rec Center to ask about the indoor soccer for the kids . And I run back.

Total today is about 5.5 km. This is a long ways down from where I was running last year at this time, but it's a HUGE improvement over where I was last month at this time. No matter how you look at it, I come back with dirty shoes, sweaty clothes, and a huge grin. It's a good day.

Auckland Museum and Yacht Race

We made it to Auckland again yesterday. Dave and Bryon competed in a yacht race, and it was beautiful to watch all of these sail boats (about 40) come by the wharf at Mission Bay. We spotted their boat and waved, but they were too busy and far away to see us on the shore. Dave was on the main sail and he was sore afterwards. Bryon described it as doing curls for about 6 hours non-stop. They had a great crew (8 of them), and came in second place overall. (Although Bryon did mention that there was that one mistake on the main that cost them about 4 seconds; ah well).

Amy was incredibly busy, making about a dozen post-natal house calls, after spending 15 hours in the delivery room the day before, and looking forward to very busy day today as well. (Be sure to hug a midwife next time you see one).

So I took the three kids and we visited an awesome park (flying foxes rule!) and then we went to an amazing museum in Auckland. We saw a Maori long boat that was adzed out of a single log and carried up to 100 warriors at a time. We saw the ice axe that Hillary used when he climbed Mt Everest. We saw dinosaur skeletons, stuffed polar bears, Greek statues, guns, swords, armor, Elizabeth II's wedding dress, fish, cockroaches, rats, something to fascinate everybody. By far, Isaac and I spent the most time in the volcano exhibit. It was a very dramatic exhibit, and he was both terrified and fascinated, and this morning he was asking more questions about volcanoes, and is absolutely certain that he will never be a volcanologist. Aaah, it was great. We'll definitely have to go again.


Also, it my first time to ride the passenger ferry (I've only ridden the car ferry before), and it really is incredible, especially on the way home, as we had an incredible view of the Auckland City skyline at night. Cool as! (as they say here in NZ).

Femme D'Arts

Saturday evening we went to a party at Palm Beach Hall (not one wrong turn either, I'll have you know!). A friend invited us to it, and it was a fund raiser to help raise money for a film she's making. Oh, I wish I had my camera. It reminded me of some of the parties we used to have at JP's house in the Aves. Colorful people, many of them barefoot and dancing to African drums. The first band of the evening was a group of 5 women, all dressed like either rock stars or hippies, and my friend explained to me that they probably have 14 children among them all. Hip mommas, rock and roll! Plenty of fun tearing up the dance floor until the kids finally pooped out, and then we headed home.

A

Tucking the boys in

Scene 1: Dining room, late dinner. Dad editing lecture notes for tomorrow's online class, Boys asking for more beans and kumara. The late hour is formally announced and there is a rush to brush teeth and get boys to bed by 9pm.
Scene 2: Bathroom. 9:15pm, teeth brushed, Isaac declares he is hungry. He also has a slight cough, so 1 tsp of generic cough supressant has been administered post-brushing. Since glucose is an ingredient, Isaac is given a banana since teeth need to be rebrushed.
Scene 3: 9:20pm. Boy's bedroom. Isaac calls out for a snuggle and backrub. The request for Dad is heard. Dad wanders into the bedroom.
Scene 4: 9:21pm. Boy's bedroom. Dim light from hallway. Isaac gratefully receiving a snuggle and back-rub. The roll-over indicative of "I'm done, thank you" occurs by about 9:26pm.
Scene 5: 9:27pm. Boy's bedroom. Dad rises from a comforting 5 min slumber with the Isaac-Bear, wanders toward Nik's bed to share some love, but is cut short by a voice.
Scene 6: 9:28pm. Nik, wrapped up tight in a sleeping bag and posing to be asleep, but not really at all, has sensed the approach of the Dad and announces with eyes shut, "Dad, I just want to go to sleep; I don't need a backrub; I do love you, but just go do your work"--a quick peck to the forehead visible through the small hole created by the tightly wound drawstring of the sleeping bag.
Scene 7: 9:30pm. Dad back at laptop with multiple windows open. Course notes obscured by the Blog. These words of a 9-year-old will be used to the parental advantage someday, and they are documented here.

Laundy Day today

It's laundry day again today, and I have Bob Dylan's song in my head, "The laundry, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, the laundry is blowin' in the wind". It kind of looks like Sherpa prayer flags, too doesn't it?

I learned that if I leave my clothes out overnight, they get a faint comfy camp fire smell to them, from the neighbor's wood burning stove (I am SO jealous of their wood burning stove, by the way!)

You know how when you have an errant piece of clothing on your closet floor and you pick up and sniff it to determine if it's clean or dirty? Well, if it smells like camp fire smoke in our house, you know it's clean!

Kei te Lightning's Maiden Voyage

We took Kei Te Lighning ("I am Lightning") out for her first voyage. Doesn't our car look SO much better with a kayak on it? It's all in the accessories. :-)











We took her down to Blackpool, which is very shallow, very calm, and very clear. The only waves we get are from the wake of the occasional ferry, and for a nervous novice sea kayaker like me, this is an ideal maiden voyage.

We ended up taking two solo trips, because unfortunately there is a health warning advising us to keep children and dogs (at least the ones we care about) out of the water for the time being. Apparently, some dogs have gotten sick and died of puffer fish poison. I'm not sure how puffer fish poison works, but I'm reasonably confident that if our kids don't eat puffer fish or sea slugs, then they will probably be all right. Still, we're reluctant to ignore the warning and find out later that we really didn't understand that much about puffer fish poison after all. So no kiddos in the ocean. Dave and I were willing to risk it though, and we each took Kei te Lightning out for a spin. Neither of us saw any fish, but we could see plenty of starfish and sand dollars. Dave also saw a rookery on his turn out.














Here's a sample of the starfish and sand dollars you find at Blackpool. They're plentiful, and hide just below the sand. The starfish are pretty flexible too, and if you hold it upside down, it will start twisting and turning, trying to right itself.


All in all, it was a great day.

Swingers

The boys are often found in trees. Here they are, the two of them just "hanging out" at Blackpool.

Mosquito Abatement

Yes, it is offseason for mosquitoes, but all five of them have set up residence in our house. Make that "all three". Graphic kill depictions follow.














Target 1 of 2 on bedroom wall. Weighty reading material on floor.























One book, 2 kills. Enough to give one a case of the raving fantods.







Local arachnid not doing its job--soon to be evicted from its corner. Looks like the plaster is cracked a bit--make a note to landlord.

Are you as smart as a 9 year old?

Nikolas is taking an ICAS math test tomorrow, which is an international test (Australia, NZ being the biggest participants). He took some practice tests at home, and some of the questions were very tricky.

Here's an example:

"Emma wrote a 5-digit palindromic number. Its first and last digits add up to 8. The rest of its digits add up to 7. How many different numbers could Emma have written?"

or

"Five counters are overlapped and arranged in a row. The area covered by the five counters is 31 units. Two of the counters are removed, and the area covered by the remaining 3 counters is 19 units. What is the area of one counter?"

Can you guys figure those out?

He did fine on these, and did really well on all of the puzzles, but he got frustrated over a question about puppies who were born close to midnight, and he was completely convinced that 12:00 am should follow 11:59 am, and wanted to shout me down over that one. Hey, it's not my fault that the 12 hour clock definition sucks, and it should have been done differently! Oh well. He felt better about himself once he realized that he was comparing himself with some of the best and brightest math whizzes, and he really isn't an idiot after all. I'm sure he'll do fine.