Telephonic communications systems

Now that I'm working I have very vital times with Bax and Izzie in the morning and before. And of course the weekends are precious. The best thing is that Bax rings me at work (I have a feeling G helps him dial) and we have great chats which consist of: "Hello. Mummy. Shop. pop-pop. Car. Vroom. Beep beep. Uhoh. Oops. Bubbye." or on other days; "Hello. Mummy. Teeeveee. Puppy. Roar! Bubbye." Or: 'hello. park. play. Bye." The most common story he tells is the one about the lollipop and when i check with G later he's quite correct - they do go up the road to the shop and the lady there gives Bax a lollipop.

A funny thing: some words and concepts come out upside down. See Ya is Ees ya and when someone cries Bax says Happy - so i guess the whole thing about Happy Bus harks back to the time we saw a bus broken down on the side of the road.

A bit about Izzie

A monumentous moment in our Izzie's little life: She is sleeping, as we speak, on her front! If you don't understand how advanced that is I will not even try to explain but I asked G to photograph her because I believe it will be a particularly cute picture - if it isn't I will not post it here.

On the subj of Iz yesterday she had one of those dredded jabs and apparently she didn't move a muscle and smiled the whole way through. When I heard this I at first thought that maybe there was something a bit off with her but now I think that because she had such a painful first month she now has a very high-pain threshhold - she'll be the first kid at school to have tats, and everything pierced (maybe not EVERYTHING).

A sweet little story about a boy and a bird

I've told before how Bax loves Parpels (parcels) well one arrived this past weekend and Bax opened it up to find the stuffed pukeko that has travelled with Nana Anna around Europe - Mum sent him home to us to celebrate Bax' birthday and be her ambassador to his and Miss O's party in early Sept. bax was thrilled. Thrilled too with the little book with photos telling of Kuki's travels with Nana Anna. We put Kuki up on the bookshelf next the the photo of Nana.

There he sat.

On Monday night Poppa came to visit while G and I went to a pub quiz. Well, Bax very carefully climbed onto the couch and all by himself got down the photo and the stuffed bird and put them on Poppa's knee. Then he said to Poppa "Nana" and pointed and the phot and then "Kuki" and showed him the bird. I was amazed at how desperate he was to explain the bird situation to Poppa. Poppa is a bit deaf but he still got it and was wrapped to make Kuki's aquaintence. bax was very proud of his new friend.

Then this morning Bax showed me the old fridge magnet we got ages ago from the library that has a pukeko on it and he was delighted to discover it was no longer some nameless thingamebob but "Kuki!"

I promise to take a picture and post it here ASAP but I wanted to share the story immediately

Muddy in Rotovegas

We've just spent the weekend weith The Clarks in Rotorua. On Sunday Graham ran the infamous Mud Run and the three little boys had a great time playing on a huge mountain of mud, filling their gumboots and covering every surface with orange clay. When we headed out onto the road homI looked at Bax sleeping in his car seat behind me and thought how lovely it was to see him so happy, covered in a thin layer of grime, then a layer of mud, then a layer of thick jam from his lunch. mmmm terrific!

Bus fuss

I took Izzie and G took Bax for days out yesterday. I took Izzie to the hair dresser then a bit of shopping then lunch with H - a girls' day out you could say. G took Bax to Point Chev ( a near beach) and there they saw a bus with the driver just hanging about waiting for his run to start. The driver saw Bax ooogling the bus and invited father and son to step aboard. Bax sat in the driver's seat and immediately knew where to put his hands and to make vroom vroom noises. The driver let him explore the whole bus and even printed him a ticket. Bax LOVED it! When the bus had to go Bax wasnt finished with the whole bus thing so G took him on another bus and they travelled two stops then rode it back to the carpark. Very exciting - Bax has been talking about the "Bussss!" ever since.

Get a haircut and a real job!

We've finally kissed goodbye to Bax' curls and given him a real haircut! A mohawk! He was very good thanks to his Tintin book - you can take him anywhere if you have a tintin book.

All change!

This is our change over week - the one between me going back to working fulltime and G being home with Bax and Izzie. Every hour, it seems, he is slightly adapting the house to suit his way of doing things. Today he took all the mess out of the cupboards in the kitchen and then re stacked the shelves so that it was neat, tidy and accessible - whatever next! I joked that he would soon paint black shapes on the back of the cupboard: a honey pot shaped one to indicate where the honey goes; a pepper grinder one to denote the home of said pepper grinder; you get the gist. HELP!

Best best friends

After a very busy few days we had a bad night with both kids ending up in bed with us. I woke up in the half light and saw they were both finally asleep, holding hands.

Toast Boy eats toast

Birthday Boy

Bax had a lovely birthday thank you very much. GAS was up from Gis too which made it even more like a party. Started pretty early of course with presents in the kitchen. A trike and trailer from Mummy, Daddy, Izzie and Nana Anna, piled high with parcels "Parpels! parpels!"
Auntie B in London sent a terrific dragon from China, some books and stickers and two masks from Japan (one is a piece of toast so for a bit Bax was half boy half toast!) From Seal and L and the kids in ChCh animal jigsaws and a book about farm things. From Auntie Liane a book about zoo animals. From Linda and Ellie in London three perfect books - Fix It Duck is the new fav. And from Daddy a wooden marble run and a wooden digger. From Mummy books. From GAS (Great Auntie S) The Little Yellow Digger which is a hot fave too. And from Izzie a little car and a ball. Phew

Then another parpel arrived from Nana with a lion puppet, a hat from Madeira and a London cab which is the fave toy! Izzie was sent a beach ball and a book!

Then we were off to brunch with GAS and Heidi and Miss O. They had another parpel - a wooden tool set! Miss O and Bax sat and played with it under the envious gaze of every other kid in the cafe. (Little motherly side bar - I got the chef to do a plain egg and a piece of ham on toast and Bax ate it ALL which is a lot better than getting something he only eats a bit of)

A wonderful day split into two by a very big sleep by Bax and Izzie. In the early evening Poppa and Granny came over...more parpels! A tractor and a train (for a little train set that they though they'd given him but have actually saved for Christmas! - he loved it anyway) . Then all of us walked to the lovely little Italian place across the park . Bax LOVED it. He loves a show and he squeeled with delight when we did Cheers! He loved the antipasti platter and giggled every time the waitress came up. He had to hide his face he was so so happy.

Next day more parples arrived from Gran and Auntie L - Bax really loves the bowl and the cup with trains on them!

So thanks to everyone who sent parpels and thoughts to Bax and us and here's a big Yahoo! to our super two year old boy!

The makings of a Kiwi Bloke

Just got Bax' hair cut: A mullet - before you say anything it is very cute albeit in a rather Rod Stewart way.

He has a new catch phrase too which he particularly likes to use on pretty ladies in shops and blokes in cafes "Hey Mate" . And G has got him chanting "Kiwi! Kiwi!" which is very funny (of course he's talking about the fruit but we pass it off as his uber-patriotic streak).

You all know how much he loves cars - well Auntie H rented a couple of big toy ones and Miss O and Bax have loved playing with them. They are pretty good at sharing but it was two for one so we got both - of course they both want to be in the same one together though so I don't know why we bothered.

Izzie has a cold and is being very dramatic. She loves toys more than Bax did at this stage so that is very satisfying. She has a killer smile and even though she has snot escaping across her face she is still grinning behind it!

singalong

I've told you already about Bax and me playing the song-stop-more-song game well here's another one for you: In an on-going drive to carve him into a musical prodigy (actually any kind of prodigy would do) I am currently teaching Bax to do the woof woof bits between the verses of How Much is that Doggy. He's quite good and as soon as he stops wandering away after only the first chorus we will be getting matching show biz suits made up and hitting the road to do a world tour.

Also, last night we were out and Izzie was grizzly and we asked Bax to sing her a song and he did! It was very sweet and involved twinkle twinkle up above old macdonald had ten thousand men and best of all happy bus (Bax' new fav catch cry - at least THIS one we can understand!)

dish de jour

Wow wee Izzie is really getting into this eating thang! She gobbles up everything I make which is very rewarding and spurs me on the make more, wild wacky combos.

Today she had a big bowl of avonana which is a new and exciting fusion twist on the old Bacon, Avocado and Banana buger that Burger Wisconsin make - without the bacon or the burger (in fact just avocado and banana mushed together).

She also loves kumara (sweet potato) and apple together and parsnip and pear together. You should all try it. As my mother said as she watched my brother drink a spirilina smoothie for the first time - "That'd be nice with a big dollop of vanilla icecream).

The winner on the day...

G took Bax to a rugby game in the weekend. One of those old fashioned ones where the lads play on a muddy bit of grass and all the supporters stand round the edge with golf umbrellas yelling orders. Bax loved it. So much in fact that at one stage he decided he wanted the ball so he headed onto the field. G had to follow him of course. There they were in the middle of it all going for the ball, thing is the opposition had the same aim and they found themselves face to face with a pack of PI and Maori rugby players running full tit towards them. The players must have thought it was pretty funny this little smily blond kid challenging them for the ball. Wish I'd been there.