Repeat after me

Bax' words are multiplying expedentially.

He now repeats song lyrics playing on the radio. Every now and then you'll hear a wooooo ooooo from the back seat , or a hell yeah hell yeah. It always takes him a couple of minutes to process and re send the messages. On the ride to work this morning G was telling me that I had been sleep talking. I'd said "I'm right here Gerard" quite a few times apparently. About two minutes later Bax says "Right Here Gerard".

Izzie broke her personal best time last night and stood up without holding on to anything for 15 seconds.

Mon petite gourmand

I have some photos to show you, but i left them at home, so you'll have to wait. They're of the little study in our garden and of Izzie wearing a tutu skirt with her hair in bunches (three).

This weekend was a three-dayer and so on Saturday we went with Trinket to the French Market and then mooched around all the little european foodie shops that have popped up all over the city selling gorgeous but extremely expensive tastys.

Bax and Izzie came along and Bax was in heaven. He just loves Trinket and laughs at everything she says and stares at her and walks along beside her clutching her pocket or even more funny the butt of her shorts!

Both kids ate nearly everything given to them: sausage, cracker, odd kinds of juice, cheese, fat sweet little organic bananas, lollipops, chocolates. We sat in a little french cafe and drank baguette and sweet panns and drank coffee (fluffy for bax). Bax is really into his food now - ever since we dropped all milk at bed time (water with a micro-measure of juice only now).

We have taught him to pick up the menu, run his finger down the items slowly and say Mmmmmm in a loud voice.

When he does encounter something he doesn't like he spits it into his hand and gives it to me, whispering as an aside "Rubbish" (as if the waiter has brought to the table something very undesirable).

With his hair now slightly long and feathered carefully over his ears he looks most european and everyone we encounter thinks he's a sweetheart.

Izzie woos everyone with her smiles and her big blue eyes, and now that she has three teeth her grin is even funnier.

They are a real treat to go out with.

Animals galore but no horse in the store!

Stop me if I've already told you this...Bax wants a book about horses and we can't find one. I have looked and looked. There are books about ducks and dogs and cats and mice and rabbits and cows and lots about pigs. there are books about frogs and goats and mammoths. Mammoths! But not one about a horse.

Of course there are a couple (but probably only about two) that run along the lines of small-woosy-girl-falls-in-love-with-pony-in-a-weirdly-pseudo-sexual-type-way-and-then-the-pony-skips-along-a-rainbow-and-turns-into-a-shooting-star, but no real horse books.

Every weekend Bax says "Horsie Book?" and if we're out we have a look but nadda - not one.

Cows we can do. Izzie is getting this leather and wood ride on cow for her birthday. I didn't take this picture, it is stolen off the internet.

Daddy and Bax made a pie!

Catch phrase

Everyone needs a catch phrase, and it is preferable to also have a theme song, mine is Randy Newman's "Short people ain't got no reason to live" but that's another story.

Bax' new theme song, after wrenching himself away from Thomas the Tanked Engine on Radio Hauraki is "Can we fix it?" by Bob the Builder. We had to introduce him to Bob at the video shop as a way to wean himself off Thomas - if Thomas is crack then Bob is methadone (is it just me or is that a deeply unsettling metaphor?)

Bax's Catchphrase is "Your turn Dada". (A little bit of background - Dada is Bax' name for himself, we have a few ponderings on why this is, but it is so it is - Dada = Baxter). So, Your Turn Dada, delivered in a sing-song voice whenever ANYTHING is happening.

Giving Izzie a spoonful of medicine for her sore gums, there's a little pip from the sidings "Your turn Dada". It's like having a careful little prompt handing lines to a hesitant actor.

Daddy hammering nails into the new bookcase. 'Your turn Dada" from stage left.

Mummy painting a sign to go above the sleepout door. "Your turn Dada".

Granny eating a scone "your turn Dada'

Poppa sipping the dreggs of his coffee "Your turn Dada"

Cousins Josh and Hailey chopping up a watermelon with a very lethal looking (but actually very blunt) carving knife. "Your turn Dada' says Bax wistfully, hopefully, wishful-thinkingly.

It's a great little catchphrase when you're two and a half - but unfortunately for him we are a rather stubborn cast of players and we all just laugh and pat him on the head, and he doesn't get to bang in nails or chop up melon or use mummy's oil-paints.

Miss O also has a catchphrase - I like... . As in, I like MUFFINS, as you bite into a muffin, I like cheese, as you cut yourself a slice, I like juice as you take a sip.

Last week I saw her whisper I like little cakes, and then try and swipe her Granny's little cake right under her nose - ah but granny's a quick and no matter how cute the catch phrase, they've heard it all before. I LIKE Little Cakes too Miss O, said Granny Di and grabbed the cake before Miss O could get to it.

Another matter: poor Bax and Izzie both have tummy aches. I would not be surprised if they've eaten something out of the garden or maybe just too much catfood. Each is reacting in a different way (and from a different end). Bax slept with Daddy last night after telling me he had a "Sore Tummy" . When he was particularly bad in the night, he woke G up and told him "Dirty tummy, dirty tummy" When it all exited his insides in a great rush, Bax said 'Empty Tummy" and after being cleaned up went straight back to sleep. Poor little Tummy.

This too shall pass

TTSP!! Say it with me parents of the world TTSP!!! As you raise your groggy heads from your pillows and stare bleary eyed into the darkness, say "TTSP!" (but not too loud, you don't want to wake the other child) TTSP! As you stagger into the hall and smack into the bathroom door because you can't find your glasses TTSP! TTSP! TTSP! Now whisper it quietly as you lift your bawling infant into your arms, check the vital signs (teeth, forehead, nappy) TTSP! As you clamber back into bed TTSP! as you sing a lullabye (or listen as Daddy does, Twinkle twinkle little, round and round the garden, stars, teddy bears) TTSP TTSP TTSP This too shall pass!!!

but be warned parents of the world, as you peek through the doorway to see your child fast asleep, curled in a ball, blissful, dry, asleep, gums relaxed and forehead exactly 36.4 (or whatever it's supposed to be ) This too shall pass!

Auntie Lee: master Jazz will sleep through the night again!
Auntie Laura: Miss P will get through it all and become a strong, vital, dynamic being because of it.
Auntie Rose: You are a miracle maker everyday and if spoiling your baby gives you joy then go for it - because as with everything, Baby's babyhood: this too shall pass.

I wake up early. It is still dark. I look across my bed. Some nights it's empty, some nights it's Bax and Izzie both fast asleep curled in a ball together with the kitten at their feet and Mummy and Daddy clinging like cliff-hanging bookends on either side.

TTSP! As I sneak from the room and head off to work TTSP as I drive away. And moments like that, when it's quiet and our big bed could be a raft on an endless ocean and we'd all be alright, I wish that I didn't know so well and for certian that this too will pass.

Smallworld

A fat little parcel arrived yesterday and Bax waited for me to get home before opening it (some encouragement needed from Dad I suspect). It was four tiny books from Nana Anna.

G has now finished the sleepout and Bax pulled me into the garden to see it, he was clutching the little books in one hand. "Little house, come on Mummy little house read". So we went into the little house and sat on the couch which is sans matress at the moment and therefore a little uncomfortable, and the little house is some what echoy due to the lack of soft furnishings - but we didn't care. We sat in the little house and read the little books - The Runaway Train and Faster Faster Little Red Train - in big loud voices with Bax jumping up and down doing all the sound effects, and our voices bouncing around the little room with Wooooeeee and Chuff Chuff and Clickety clickety clickety CLACK! Til the sun went down and the mossies came out.

It took a lot of coaxing to get Bax to come inside. It is his idea of heaven - a little house in the garden with Mummy there reading in a loud and not-at-all-inside-voice, and the cat and the dog, and all his bikes parked outside, and hanging pots full of flowers. When we do get a mattress I won't be surprised if he sets up camp in there on a more permanent basis - but if he does he might have a fight on his hands because I quite fancy it for myself.

Girlfriends.

What a lovely weekend! Our gorgeous Miss O arrived home from her marvellous adventure. Dressed in purple butterfly boots and denim shorts she had a little welcome home party. We took a pig with a musical paw that sings old Lang Sine.

I'm jumping ahead.

on the way to the party Bax was so excited. I could hear him in the back practicing his chat up lines. "Helooo Livvy", Hulow Liiiivvvyy" "Hiya Livvy" Hi" " Hello" Hulllow Livvy" "Hi Mate!" Over and over. When he got there he was so excited. And Livvy was too, tripping over herself to get to them.

Then later, Izzie Bax and Livvy in the paddling pool laughing and splashing and having the best time. Izzie going under and popping up laughing and the other two pouring buckets of water over her. Three best mates having a grand old time, as if they'd seen eachother everyday with no big break in the middle at all.

Lovely to have our friends home, full of stories and gifts and trinkets from the their trip. Bax is in heaven and all the way home? "Bubbye Livvy" "See ya Livvy" Bye Mate".

Camping photos taken by my Aunt

Beautiful Ms Izz

Who amazes me with her loveliness everyday. She takes everything that the days has to throw at her with charm, carm and smiles. She is cuddly and bubbly and really special and 11 months old today. She's a pleasure to be with.

Horrible discovery!

I'm doing the thank yous for Christmas and I have a problem. The kids grabbed a parcel and tore it open before I could see who sent it. So, to whoever sent us the jar of bath dye - thank you, the kids love it, blue, yellow, red, now that Bax knows his colours it is just perfect - I'm sorry I don't know who to thank!

And they paint EACHOTHER with it too!

Mouse in the house

Because we felt that having three babies in the house wasn't quite enough work, strife and mayhem for us we went to the SPCA on Sunday (just for a look see, not to get anything, out of interest, something to do etc) and brough home a kitten called Mouse. He is the smallest cat on earth ever and is 9 weeks old. He is black with huge ears and anyone who knew our puss in London called Puck will recognise him as being a copy-cat.

He is a ballsy little beast and really sticks up for himself. Django is terrified.

Dog and cat happily share the same water bowl although I do hope that if Mouse falls in Django is Lassy enough to pull him out (What's that boy? Mouse has fallen in the well? Remember?). And last evening as we hung washing we watched Bax join the toy animals and kneel down to lick up water with them.

Bax loves Mouse, and for the first little while pronounced that Mouse had "Sharp toes". Now he says sharp claws but still calls Mouse "Miaow!sss!"

Automobilias klemptomania

Have I mentioned before Bax' love of cars? He loves cars and pretty much always has a little one or two about his person, clutched in his hand or stuffed into his popkits (pockets) or in a little kit he carries around or in a backpack. He also has a nasty habit of trying to steal toy cars whereever we go. We have to get him to turn his popkits out before we leave cafes, shops, doctors waiting rooms and the like. He has never stolen a new one, just the old ones in the toy baskets these kind of places provide.

He has made it home with a few (this happened before we got wise to his thieving ways) and we have quite a collection of stolen autos in our toy box.

Yesterday when we had lunch with the wontoks Bax enjoyed very much playing with Cousin Alice-Elizabeth in the sand pit, playing with the ride on grader and the big tin tractor and the little safari jeep (also metal). When it was time to leave G spied in bulging in Bax' popkit so he said sternly that it was the cafe's and it had to stay here. A bit more chat from the adults happened and then we left but not before G checked child's hands and popkits once more - all clear.

That evening G was putting PJs on Mz Iz and he sat down on the floor to do. An uncomfortable object upon which he sat made him reach into his own popkits only to find the little tin safari jeep. The little blighter had obediantly removed the toy from his own pocket and while we were chatting had slipped it into Daddy's pocket making Dad the culprit.

When we found the stolen merchandise Bax grabbed it and trotted around the house chanting "Naughty naughty naughty" . He went to bed with the little car clutched in his hand.

On another naughty matter.

Yesterday morning G heard an almight crash in the kitchen and ran in to find all the Christmad decos on the floor and Bax sitting amongst them. Izzie was up in her highchair looking innocent. G went off at Bax saying that he had been told to not touch the decos and now look. Bax looked shame faced and very sad and whispered "Bubba" and yes when G looked again he could see quite clearly that izzie had reached across fron her chair and pulled the whole lot down on poor Bax.

Well I never

This entry does not star Bax and Izzie and therefore has no rightful place in their blog but as I am in charge of their blog and i want to tell you this story it shall appear here anyway!

We were in the HB last week and while we were there we went to look at a couple of potential areas where we might like to live when we make the move down there. one of them was called Raukawa Valley. G went for a reccee on a tip off from A and R. He came back full of smiles saying that it was lovely and much closer to Hastings than some of the other areas we've looked at.

He had found two derelict houses on a lovely little chunk of land and had knocked on the door of a neighbour about a kilmetre up the road to ask who owned them. The neighbour had opened the door very hung over but lovely and had said that the owner was also his landlady, a crazy old mad woman called Belinda Something-Johnson. He gave G a telephone number but said that over the years many people had come and gone asking to buy some of her land and she'd always said no.

Then G and I went to have a look together and it was lovely and very handy. As we approached to tiny Raukawa town hall we saw ahead of us two people on farm bikes. One a man on a two wheeler and the other an old woman, filthy, long plait, beanie, dryzabone, on a four wheel bike. the watched us drive towards us, and glaring they watched us drive further up the road passed them, do a U turn, then drive back.

I said to G that I thought that was probably Belind Thingee-Johnson. He agreed and said that if he rang her he thought she'd answer the phone "What doya want?" in a think and gruff kiwi voice. Joking, i said that she proabably had a very well to do posh voice and would answer with her full name and title.

We drove back to A and R who were having drinks with friends including a local 5th gen HB chap who is in real estate.

We told all assembled about the beautiful valley and the derelict houses and the funny old woman.

Mike the Real Esate man said that would indeed have been Belinda Whatsit-Johnson. That she owned the whole Raukawa Station. That she would never ever sell any bit of it. That she was the wealthiest person in the area. That she spoke with a thick english posh accent. That she had been a model in her time on the cover of Vogue UK. That she was a close friend of Cliff Richard.

He is also said that there was a lovely little cottage on her property that she had put there a few years ago but then had discovered that iot would cost $50,000 to hook power up to it so now it was just sitting there, although it had been recently painted. Mike said that she had moved the house there from the other side of the station but rather than pay the $150 license fee to move the house along public roads she had taken down trees and fences to get it over her own land.

So, it looks like we can't have a tiny slice of Raukawa - unless the old witch pops her clogs of course.

Hol-ahh-daze!!!

Over and over I can hear Bax sounding out the word as we drive away from Optiki. Hol-arrrggghhh-days. It's still early morning really but we've had breakfast (meat pie and a drink - don't tell anyone!) and now we're heading around the East Coast to Anaura Bay. Other people might choose to go down in a straight line to Gisborne and then pop up to Anaura Bay but G has never done it the long way roung before so here we go...

I spent holidays down here as a kid so it's sort of familar to me and I know that the best bit is the drive to Te Kaha, of course that's the bit where I fall asleep so I miss it.

We arrive at the bay at 2pm and we can't find my aunt Gas. We're staying on the D.O.C. land rather than the Motorcamp. We're right on the beach near an ancient Morton bay Fig tree, up a dusty road. After a bit of crafty guess work I find Gas reading a book in a pocket of shade and we set up camp.

We've cobbled togetther a jury-rigged camping arraingment by borrowing lots of bits from various bods. G was so sure it'd be a disaster that he didn't think we should invest in camping until we knew we liked it.

Did we like it?! Did we ever.

We had a whole week of pure sunshine. A couple of afternoon a southerly came in and we had to battern down the hatches but other than that we had cloudless days and warm evenings. My uncle went out twice a day to set traps and nets so we ate crayfish and fresh fish everymeal. And when my cousin Joe came for a few days he dived for Paua and we aate it fried. Others camping there came sniffing round and all said that my aunt cooks paua better than anyone on the coast. One day Joe caught a kingfish over 10kg on only a line off the back of the dinghy. We all took photos and he couldn't get the smile off his face. We got 14 steaks off that fish, plus we smoked the tail section (about a foot long) and I did another whole bit as cerviche (cut very finely, raw but marinated in lemon juice and coconut cream). We had gurnard and trevally and goat fish and kawai. On a couple of days we had to go into Tolega Bay for red meat because last year my Uncle and his mate Lynn both got gout from eating too much seafood. We also had fresh salad from Gas' garden in Gisborne and the most beautiful fresh corn (10 for $6 from a road side seller).

Every day we swam and walked the beach and lay about and bathed the kids in the gubbas and chatted and played scrabble, shared the chores, went out in the boat to help my uncle. We had a big camp of 5 couples and five kids of various ages and three dogs. Lots of extras arrived everyday for lunch or to stay a few nights and we moved things around and fitted everyone in. One day one of the stars of my favorite NZ TV show arrived (he is married to my uncles daughter and they have just had a baby) and we got on really well and we had a big chat about babies and his show and NZ TV in general.

Django loved the beach. He followed people on their morning runs up the beach and must have run its distance three times a day.

Bax was befriended by ten year old Willy and the two of them played all day with Bax's cars and his plastic tricke we'd taken with us.

Everyone loved Iz and she got lots of cuddles. Both kids seemed to grow about three inches each, and Bax' words multiplied - some not so good additions thanks to the lovely Will I suspect, such as poo-bum.

One New Year's Eve we had a big communal dinner with about 5 families and then sat around a bonfire and Tony pulled out his guitar and we all sang Pink Floyd and the Eagles. The older kids toasted marsh mellow on the old fork I used as a kid.

On Jan 2 we packed up our parts of the camp, leaving the space free for some new arrivals due that day and headed off slowly towards Hawkes Bay. We stopped in the visit both my cousins who had deserted camp before NYE.

At Hawkes Bay we checked into a swish motel - washed clothes, washed oursleves, slept in real beds, ate pizza, watched TV, turned on the AC. The weather had turned and the winds had come in. It was quite severe and we were glad to be in safe, warm, dry place.

Next morning we toddled off to the Careys' and spent the next 4 days there eating, drinking, swimming in the pool, making chit chat with a long line of important guests, including an MP, a number of very famous biz people and a notorious art dealer, plus their assorted kinder.

On our last night in the HB I went out for dinner with my dear old friend Heloise and we sat in a Thai Restuarant for hours and hours eating slowly, un interrupted, sans children, she drank glasses of wine and told me long, dramatic stories about mutual friends and I listened and let my sun weary self relax. and slump a little with the comfort of it all. I got into bed at 2am, got up at 6am, got on the road at 9am and arrived back in Auckland at 5pm.

Now the house is full of washing, the children are asleep in their own beds, dinner is cooking in the crock pot, G is mowing, and I am preparing myself for work on Monday.

I am sure that I have missed bits of the story and I know my blog will be full of little snippets for the weeks to come, mainly because my mind will take a little longer than an eight hour drive to come back to the city.

Christmas and all that

Christmas Eve was the best. We had a lovely supper of bits and pieces with Granny and Poppa and our lovely Auntie Pat. We had a few small presents and then hung up the stockings. Bax stood in the middle of the lounge and said to each one of us "Happy to you" "Happy to you" and then without any prompt we all burst out singing "Happy Christmas to Baxter' And he loved it so much he clapped us all and asked for more so we sung it all again for Izzie.

In the morning Bax woke up (not too early - I had been up for hours!) and we brought him in with us where he pulled all the little toys and lollies out of his stocking and smiled and laughed and loved every bit.

Then I did a very grown up thing and made everyone eat breakfast before we opened all the fantastic present from all over the world.

Later we went to Granny's sister's house and swam in the pool and ate.

It was a very calm, happy, relaxing and lovely Christmas.

Boxing Day: We woke up at 2.20am, left Auckland at 3am and drove to the East Coast. We arrived at 2pm for a week of camping. When I am back on terra firma I'll fill you in on all the wonderfullness of it.