Gifts!

Bax has been a lucky boy this week with parpels arriving in the mail box nearly everyday.

The first one was nappies from fuzzie bunz - three in green, red and blue - very exciting for a little boy who likes to tell you what colours things are (not always 100% correctly.)

Then, a red book from Gran full to bursting with pictures cut from magazines and family photos - he loves it!!! His absolutely favourite page is the bus page, but he also likes the tigers.

And today, another parpel full of socks! Bax is required to wear socks inside at Kindy and G wanted his socks to be easily recognisable, so Nana Anna sent 10 pairs in two parpels from the UK. He loves the digger and truck socks best, but I like the spider socks - only big enough to cover my toes unfortunatly.

So, although this will not pass as the official thank you, thank you to the parpels senders, you make Bax' day every time one arrives and when i get home from work you make my day too because he brings me his parpels and explains what it is, who sent it, and his favourite part of it (Mum, he'll be writing reviews in no time !)

For those who often ask who does Bax look like...

(Who does Izzie look like ? Bax!)

Ms Izz

Almost crawling, beautiful to watch as she stretches and rolls. Very confident. Eats lots and anything. Very smily and podgy. Sleeps like an angel. Ahhh!

The kind of kid people who don't have kids look at and sigh "I wish I had a baby!"

Labour weekend

Had a lovely long weekend to celebrate the fight for the 8 hour day - funny that as I work 9.5 hours a day!

Anyhowd'hooo, the weather was blue blue blue so we got lots done - lots of washing especially.

Saturday we cleaned up the old place - steam cleaned the carpet!! so much fun!!

Then Sunday and Monday we did lots of gardening and pottering and thingamejigging. Particular fun was assembling the two kids chairs sent to us by Marjorie.

On Sunday afternoon the phone rang and it was Heloise calling from New Lynn (she lives in Hastings which is about 7 hours drive from here). She was in town for the day to see a sick friend and she said she had something for us. She turned up five minutes later with two flat packed beautifully designed bent wood chairs with blue covers, one for each kid.

Bax and I spent lots of care and time assembling them. Bax loved putting in the screws and turning the Allen keys. Perfect thing for a two year old to do on a lazy weekend.

G made a pantry.

Father/son building thing going on there.

Imagine this...

Bax at the mall with G. He dressed himself: blue and red gumboots, grey shorts made from a pair of track pants with the legs cut off, pajama top and shiny, bright purple, daisy-covered anorak (inherited from Liliana) with the fur fringed hood pulled over his head.

On another matter - big love and lots of it to L and S in ChCh - new baby ready to go!!!

one last thing...

Woke up this morning and couldn't believe that neither child had woken in the night and been pulled into our bed, rolled over to check that G hadn't gotten either of them. There, with his head on G's pillow and his arms stretched above his head, was Django! Fast asleep on his back, like a little kid, I swear he had a smile on his face!

We need to get a kennel so he can sleep outside!

Boy and Dog

There is nothing more classic than a little boy and a puppy running through the grass after a ball. Bax and Django run up and down the lawn together and I can't help myself but talk to them in the same way. bax understands that though because he stole Django's toy and when Django tried to get it back he took off with it. In the end the poor puppy was getting so dejected I had to say to bax "Let him have it sometimes!" Bax nodded and said "Share" I agreed, yes they had to share. They are perfectly matched at the moment but Django has in him such a gentleness that even when he gets bigger I'm sure he'll play nicely with Bax. When they've had enough they throw themselves on the lawn and just lie there panting. Chocolate box material!

Help!!

Here's a puzzle, any suggestions please email me jesssoutar@hotmail.com.

Izzie is a very good sleeper.

Circumstance has meant that she has been sleeping in the port-a-cot and we can put her to bed and if she is tired she will roll over and go to sleep and if she's not she will play and giggle and coo for a bit then go to sleep.

But, when we put her in her actual cot - it is big and wooden and has a nice firm matress and cost a lot - she arches her back, goes bright red and screams like she's been stabbed, then coughs a lot, when we go to her and pick her up she calms right down, but the minute we put her back she screams again.

For some reason she will sleep anywhere (our bed, the port-a-cot, Bax' bed) but her own cot. And it's not just crying, it's a very strong reaction.

At the moment her bedroom has in it the port-a-cot and her proper cot but I won't use the proper one because she seems to hate it so much.

What should we do? Is it okay to have a baby sleeping in an Argos' port-a-cot permanently? Is her reaction fear, allergy, or something else? Do we give in and sell the real cot and matress?

Help!!!

So much news

I have so much to tell of what we have been doing over the last little while. I will do it in bits. First, we have now moved house and we are all in love with our new place. It has a dishwasher and it's the first time either of us have had one so we are crazy about it and even if G puts his glass down between sips I scoop it up and put it in the dishwasher! There is lots of room and the garden is huge and sunny and full of trees and there are masses of daisies. There is a huge window in the kitchen and I have picked a big bunch of roses from our garden, red and pink, and put them on the window sill in an old fashioned milk bottle I found under the house. The sky is clear blue at the moment and it is a very pretty picture looking out into the garden.

Yesterday G mowed his very own lawn for the first time in 16 years - something he has wanted to do for a long long time.

The kids seem very happy and both slept through the night in their own beds last night - although we have a slight problem with Izzie to which I have dedicated a seperate blog entry.

Our puppy is terrific and we all adore him. He is a rough coated collie crossed with a border collie. From the rough side he gets a long, elegant head, almond eyes and a very regal deminour (sp?), also a placid, nature which allows Izzie to grab onto him with both fists and chew on his fur. From his border side he gets a desire to run up and down the garden and follow me around right on my heel. He is amazing with both kids and especiallly loves Izzie, he curls up next to her and they lie like puppy brother and sister on the mat. His name is Django which is a gypsy exclamation meaning "I awake!"

Bax is very settled at his new kindy and is really loving it. His words are multiplying and becoming clearer. He loves to sing. And gentle, imagination games are coming out, he puts his teddies to bed on the pillow and takes them into the garden to sit under trees and he wonts simply drop them on the grass but makes sure they are sitting up. Bax is also eating much better. At the Kindy he gets all fresh, homemade, vegetarian food and he likes that.

So, we are very very happy and I wish I could have you all over for a big BBQ in our new garden, we could sit under the apple tree on the daisy lawn and eat pikelets and drink Pimms.

Success!

Today was Bax' second day at Kindergarten. As soon as he got up he put on his brand new St Francis sun hat and did up the toggle - he didn't take it off til he got to the Kindy. He wore an orange tshirt and hawaiin print shorts and gumboots.

As we drove up he said "Von Von" - his teacher there is called Yvonne. He was very confident going in, sat on the little stool to take off his boots and tuck them into the cubby hole. Then inside, he was welcomed and put his bag on the hook. There was a moment when I left when he cried. He had said goodbye to me and given me a kiss so I walked down the corridor but Yvonne made me go back and hand him over properly and then he burst in to tears and I had to hand him over sobbing. Boo hoo for Mummy. (To put you in the picture Yvonne is the parent of a buy who was in my primary class so she still treats me like I'm 6 - but in a nice way (mostly)).

G just picked him up and rang to say that not only did he eat a huge lunch but had a very long sleep - which is fantastic. G said that the kindy is so calm and quiet and Bax is really loved by the other kids and the teachers. Success!!

We will balance this experience out with some raucous fun at the little farm Daycare in the holidays.

A note on eating: I told you how Bax doesn't eat, we have started excluding him if he refuses to eat. It seemed harsh at first but we were getting desperate. It's getting rarer and rarer that we need to do but when we do this is how it goes. 1) Bax, would you like to eat some mash? (No) 2) Bax, i'd like you to eat some mash. (No - head to one side, eyes and mouth squeezed closed) 3) Bax, I am going to exclude you from the dinner table if you don't eat - i do actually say exclude, G says Bax do you want to go to your room? - (Bax eats). marvellous stuff.

Love

There has never been a love like that between Bax and Izzie. Bax can't get enough of his Bubba and likes to cuddle her by wrapping both arms and legs around her and rolling over the floor. Izzie smiles a lot but never as much as when she's smiling and laughing at Bax. Now that she can sit in the bath they get a toy between them and pat it back and forth and izzie doesn't mind at all when bax splashes her or trys to clean her with a flannel.

They are tricky too. I was outside last night bringing in washing and talking on the cordless phone to an old friend and suddenly the phone went dead. I went inside and found both Bax and Izzie by the phone cords - they'd pulled them out and were very pleased with their efforts. Bax was giving me a cheeky smirk, Izzie was gnawing on the cord.

Izzie isn't yet crawling but she is very close and can get whereever she wants to go by wriggling. She does go up on her knees and even right up onto her feet but then she can't propell herself forward and ends up going sideways.

They are a funny pair, best mates, and such good sports.

Long time, no blog

We've had so much happening in the last little while! Three fourths of us have had colds and sniffles and snotty noses and one quarter has had tooth head and is literally acting like a bear with a sore head - poor thing. I think he sees a trip to the dentist as the difference between us and a new dishwasher!

Good news though we get the keys to our new house today and will move in the big, heavy things this weekend with some help from Poppa and Uncle Gray. There is a dishwasher on the list of chattels so maybe G can go to the dentist afterall!

Bax had two days at the famr this week and he loves it. Trouble is he doesn't sleep there, he gets the chance but just doesn't so it is a good thing we have decided to balance out his time there with time at the small Steiner kindy in Epsom - he starts next week.

Last night he went to bed at 5.30 becasue he was so tired, but was so snotty he got up again at 8.30. He was really out of sorts, mumbling and sitting on my knee trying to keep his eyes open. Then he suddenly jumped up and said clear as a bell: "Berries!" "Bowl!" he took my hand a led me into the kitchn saying "Come!" then he got a bowl and opened the freezer. (I like eating frozen boysenberries which i buy in boxes from the supermarket - i have offered them to him in the past but he has always turned up his nose). He carefully carried his bowl of frozen berries back to Daddy on the couch and happily sat there munching his way through them getting red juice all over his face and hands.

I also gave him one peanut M&M - yellow - he held it carefully in his hadn for ages and the colour started to go onto his fingers - I wasn't sure he knew what it was so I stupidly broke it open to show him it was chocolate - he burst into tears. I had to give him another one. I took him to bed and read him a story, he was still clutching the M&M, then he slowly put it in his mouth but the coating just feel hard and shiny and not nice really - after a long while it melted enough to release the chocolate when he tasted it and realised whjat it was a quiet smile spread across his face - "Chocolate!" he sighed quietly to himself.

We are terrible parents really - chocolate after bed time, really! what would people think!

Izzie is still very snotty and had her jabs yesterday - she doesn't even notice them she has such a high pain threshold. big thing in her life this week is she can sit up in the bath by herself. I have a terrific photo I will put on here as soon as i get a chance and am in the right place to do so.

The dreaded lurgy!

We've all come down with the bot! Snot and mucus drip from all four noses and at least three of our collective eyes - and G has tooth-ache. I have dettolled all door-handles, watered down all bed-time milk drinks and bought boxdes and boxes of tissues. Bax has become chief tissue handler- it's a messy job but someone has to do it! He knows where all the boxes of tissues are through the house and he fetched and carries on command. he is also very good at taking used tissues and putting them in the rubbish! izzie keeps smiling despite the fact that her nose has exploded across her face. yes, yes, I know this is grose, but a problem shared is a problem halved and all that.

We begin to move into our new house next weekend so I hope that the sun will be shining and the bugs will be gone! I pity the poor people who move into our current abode after us - who knows what germs they'll be inheriting. A cure for the common cold? Move house to escape the germs!

I'm waffling now...

PS - I found Lemonade fruit for sale at Pak n Save (bog-standard supermarket) so life isn't all bad!!