Rubbish collectors

Ahhh the glorious inorganic - giving true meaning to the old ruby: One man's trash is a little boys treasure.

Daddy and the kiddlets found a perfectly good trolley in a heap up the road. just needed a new seat and a good paint job. Pulled it merrily home and tucked it for safe keeping under the carport.

Later, all piled into the car, reversed out the drive, kerlumpf badong!!! Straight over the trolley. Bax had gone out to the garden and puulled the trolley out onto the drive, and left right behind the car.

Now there is a rather not so perfectly good trolley in the heap of inorganic at the top of our lane!

Wussell to the Wescue!!

Cruising along in the big ol' truck this morning, G and I were chatting about the fact that we are broke but it's pay day on Friday, but we have bills and a bit of visa to pay off and my cars is making a tink tink sound. Then I siad without really thinking, 'We should get off at Newton rather than crawl through traffic all the way to town on the motorway'. We went up the offramp and suddenly clunk fizz the car died and an awful smell hit us. If we hadn't gone of at Newton we'd have been right in the middle of the motoway in the bit where the lanes narrow to one, and we would have stopped traffic and helicopters would have hovered from all media in town and it would have been just awful and very exciting in equal measures!

But we were on the off ramp.

I called work and Russell - who is about 6'6" and very gangly and well groomed and a Californian jew wine collected married to a beautiful japanese woman who spent most of her adult life in italy - drove out to get us in his box like tiny jap import which is turquoise blue. Then the three of us adults piled two car seats, two confused kids, assorted luggage into the blue box and drove thru traffic to work.

G called a tow company and dealt with finding a mecahnic for the beast.

Russell and I took the kids to work.

There they drew pictures with highlighters, played with paperclips and a ribbon Izzie found in Trinket's draw. Bax loved it and kept wandering down to where Russell sits. bax loves Russell - who he calls Wthel. They've met on many occasions - in fact last weekend we went with Russell to walk his two new foundlands that Bax named Teddy bear Dogs.

After a bit Bron went down to her car to get a pushchari for Izzie to sit in - she hated that and preferred to crawl around under people desk and play in boxes. While at her car Bron had found a plastic toy lawn mower so Bax mowed the entire office carpet. Both kids sat on the big high leather stools at the bar and ate toast.

Then G turned up having dumped the hephalump in a garage forecourt, gotten a lift from the mechanic's wife (it's a mazing how much people love doing stuff for G and giving him free things!) picked up the other car and driven through more traffic back to my work in the city.

He picked up the kids, we transferred the carseats from Russells box into the other car, returned the buggy and mower - then Bax, having been so so good and quiet and wellbehaved and fun and only bumping his head once, had a major tantrum because he wasn't allowed to go back into Russell's van and had to go home instead.

I went back up to the serenity of the office. My work mate Rosalie came over and brought me a fresh hot coffee from the nice place downstairs and whispered "That was sonderful. This place needed some cheering up".

We had a lovely weekend...thanks for asking.

This weekend it rained. First time in ages. it was great.

Actually only on Sunday. And we stayed inside and played games and made crumble from all the fruit in the garden - guaves, apples, feijoas - and biscuits and a big hot pot of risotto using all the stock left over from last week's roast chicken. We went over to Miss O's for an hour and a hlaf to play and the big kids played so well with all of Auntie H's old Fisher Price stuff from the seveties and Izz busied herself by sorting wooden animals. They are all so good at just going off and doing stuff so H and I can chat and Uncle R can watch the sports.

On Saturday we had Bax and Miss O's Harvest Fest at Kindy. it was really a party and there were apples hanging from trees and little boats set up in the pond and a game where you had to put your face in to try and get up chocs in your teeth. And digging for gold in the sandpit. Bax had a go at everything. Another parent said he was like a butterflying flitting from one activity to the next. Three seperate families told me how lovely and gorgeous and friendly he was and how their children loved playing with him. we have now ascertained that he favourite friend is Lockie who goes on Thrusdays. His mum is from Brixton!!

By the time we left bax was soaked from playing with big girls in the pond and he stripped off before we got to the car then peed in the gutter. For some bizarre reason he then ran down the footpath giggling and starkes with me chasing which was hilarious for all those watching!

Then last night not only to Granny and Poppa get us tickets to the movies they also came around to do dinner for the kids, baths, stories and bedtime and all that while G and i WENT to the movie!!!

All weekend Bax has been trying to get us (G and me) to admit that he is a "Big Boy" We tell him no that he is a "Little Boy". we say that Georgie and Josh and Nash are Big Boys and he is a Little Boy. He says "Da-da Big Boy!" So we say "What is Lockie?" And he says "Lockie Little Boy" Then we say "And what is Da-Da?" "Da-da Big Boy". Finally this morning he made his last offer by announcing "Da-da Little Big Boy"..

Another funny language thing: On Saturday we discovered that it is inorganic rubbish collection time. I said to G "We have to find something to put out!" Bax said without missing a beat "We could put out a fire!"

Happy to you too!!

So i had my birthday and it was terrific. I got LOTS of pressies and emails and calls from all over!!! Best of all it was really the first time that Bax has realised that it is my birthday and so he scribbled in a card and sang to me and said Happy to you about a billion times. And I went into work late and we had breakfast together - the four of us - in mt Edne before kindy. And bax was so happy at having had cake and fluffy milk and pancakes for brekkie that he literally skipped into kindy saying bye at the door and ran off to hang up his bag.

A quick snapshot: i realise that i haven't really let you all know where the kids are up to for a bit so here goes.

Bax knows all his colours. He is speaking in almost real sentences but he is very deliberate and has realised that we don't really talk in real sentences but more in a kind of very fast short hand so he is picking that up too - he trys to talk quickly and it all comes out very clipped and missing syllabels. He can count from 6 to 9 but we haven't taught him this and he has no real idea of what it means it's just like a little poem. He can dress his top half but finds it tricky to put shorts on.

Izzie is very keen to walk. She stands up but still has to hold on with at least one hand. she has a little wooden trolley that she likes to push around and she can walk for ages with that. If that's not available she pushes a chair around. She can even push the trolley when Bax is in it. She can feed herself breakfast but there is a pretty substantial clean up procedure prior to this activity.

Got all that?

Hansel and Gretel

G was in hysterics yesterday. Taking Bax and Izzie to the supermarket. He bought a little bag of chocolate dots and gave Bax a mouthful, then put them int he trolly and told him "Don't touch those" (ha ha ha).

At the shelves looking for museli. An elderly woman tapped him on the shoulder and indicated that he should look at his children. Bax had the bag of chocolate, his mouth was full, his hands were full and the bag had split so there was a pile of choc on the floor beneath him.

Grrr and quickly quickly run away!

A few aisles later G's feet were going crunch crunch crunch. G: "Which messy person has left mess all over the floor?" He looked at Bax. He had opened a box of laundry powder and upended it all over the floor. G turned around and saw that the trail of powder went right up to the end of the aisle and around the corner. How many aisels have we left a trail down little Mr Hansel? He wondered.

Once again...run away run away!!

The bicycle kids

Soft furnishings

Finally! We have made Izzie's room a lovely place to be. When I say we I mean Bax and G. We're putting Izzie's lovely (expensive) wooden cot that she's never slept in on Trade Me, so her room has only one cot in it now albeit a porta one.

Bax and G and Izzie went off to the op shop up the road and bought a marvellous squishy chair, very low with a winged back - really little old lady sitting room stuff. Then they put the parasol that Gran bought in China up in the corner and the big soft daisy Auntie Simone bought and some paintings on the walls and a photo of Nana and one of Gran. Bax chose where they were to go. It's lovely in there.

Of course you'd love a photo! Well I have one but not of the room - only of the fireman cushion I made for Bax at my sewing class - community college courses are so cool!

A few of my favourite things...

Because the fifties are so now I am taking a community college sewing course and making pinafores for Izzie. it is so fun and really entails sitting around chatting to Heidi who is doing the course too.

Fabric is expensive though and pretty ordinary, so I have now started looking for cool stuff to sew with on trade Me. Well, today at lunch i drove over the Harbour Bridge to pick up a 1970s Disney sheet I bought to make an Izzie dress. it was such an experience!

Over the harbour bridge I went and followed the road back on itself ending up right under the bridge at the very last house on the road with the beautiful harbour to my right and the fat legs of the bridge to my left.

The house was huge. the original owner's holiday home all built from one kauri tree with elaborate chandaliers and stained glass. the woman, raewyn, told me that the original owners used to have garden parties down on the grass wearing crinnolenes - of course this was a century before the bridge came along and ruined all that. Raewyn said that at first the noise was horrid but now she feels like she's in sydney.

Raewyn makes very cool lampshades and hand bags and hottie covers that look like something Barbara Cartland would take to bed - all pink and quilting and little rose motifs and poodles and lush rich reds and gold and beading - just gorgeous!! Her whole house is like that actually, lots of setees and chaise longes with little lacey cushions and pink with polka dots.

Raewyn herself was dressed in a beautiful black and white lace frock and she had a little girl Daisy. Her boys Jack and Billy were at school. Andre the husband was in the kitchen making honey and toast - all this under the bridge.

I took my package, wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string and left them to their lunch in the garden. I opened it up a little bit up the road to look at my sheet/dress fabric. the parcel was wrapped again in side - in white tissue with a simple silver ribbon - on top Raewyn had put a soap wrapped and stickered with her own label - it said "La di da". A few of my favourite things all squeezed together into one quick trip to the Shore. Ladida indeed!

I'm getting there

i do apologize. It's been over a month since Izzie's birthday and I still haven't got the thank you cards out the door. She got so many lovely packages for her birthday and she enjoyed every single bit of all of it, but i have just been so busy and by the time I sit down in the evening my brain is mush. I will I will I will - I promise - this week I'm sure.

Also, i have lots of little bits to tell you but I will have to find a little moment later on. Flippin heck work don't leave much time for livin' and that's the truth.

The scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - only twice the size.

Our dog needed a walk. Poor Django. And we needed to all be together for just an hour or two - to reconnect, as they say. So we concocted a crazy plan which involved loading two bikes, one kids seat, one kids backpack (the type the kid rides in on the back of a parent) four helmets, one dog, two kids, us etc into G's truck and driving into the hills West of Auckland.

Then we unloaded everything and assembled our troup. Me on my bike with Bax in the kids seat behind. G on his bike with izzie in the backpack on his back, and Django running along behind.

It worked marvellously but we must have been a funny sight. We sang the whole way down the track - Wheels on the bus, Bax can do all the noises and the chorus - and made up sotries the whole way back up the track about monsters and chasing and trying to get away from Daddy who was scarey and then G and Izzie running away from Bax who had turned into a tiger and was roaring. It was a bit of a performance what with the dog and the helmets and all but very fun and we were all so pooped when we got home that we literally collapsed in a heap and slept all afternoon.

Another little bit: I took bax out for a coffee (in his case fluffed milk) and we were the only ones there and the woman behind the counter had cooked herself a big brekkie and was eating and Bax took a real shine to her. Everytime she put something in her mouth he told me what it was - a running breakfast commentary 'egg. sausage. hashborwn, egg, toast, hashbrown, egg, tomato" And she smiled at him and said "cute" and then when we left he went right up to her and waved and then gave her two big "blow-me-a-kiss" kisses -emmarrr! emarrr! it was so funny and cute and delicious.

Creep

I have had some feedback posted which is nearly creepy and almost sinister so I am posting this Wiccen mark of protection to ward off evil spirits. Please gather round, Witches, and join virtual arms to create a net of warmth and love around our children. If this happens again I will not be able to post pictures of the kids here.

Mouse but no Mouse

Mouse has gone AWOL. What a shame. He'll be back. Although I don't have a good rep when it comes to black male cats.

First there was Rainbow who got eaten by a possum.

Then there was Rastus and then Smith who both left pretty early on in the tenure.

Now Mouse. And when we most needed him. We have an awful truth to unveil - we have a mouse. Actually we had a mouse. Mouse is no more and neither is mouse.

Last night G set traps all over the kitchen, then he lay in wait, on the couch. 4am. Woke up to check the traps, all cheese gone but no mouse. 6am. Whammo! with the smallest bit of cheese left in the trap the mouse had fallen for it and was no more.

I found it of course and anyone who knows me knows I hate dead things, so when I came into the kitchen this morning and there it was on the stove top, I backed away slowly screaming "Geeebbbbss" With Bax behind me screamminngg "Geeebbbbss"".

Drama at 6.50am.

Gotta go - kumara boiling over.

Not the meningitis rash

Bax has a little graze on his cheek which has been there for a few days but only today has got red. When he woke up from his nap today G noticed a rash all over his face and panicked thinking it was meningitis!!! AAaggghhhh. But then he realised...the stamp he'd pushed onto bax' hand before lunch had transferred to various parts of his face has Bax leant on his hands in sleep. What with the graze and the transferred ink he really did look sick!

Beauty

Zooming on the cow

photo update

Captain Buzzy
(and the little story about the kids in the basket is that we could hear Izzie playing in her room and then we could hear yelping and we sent Bax to look (he was naked at the time) and Izzie had climbed in to her baby bed amongst all the toys and was stuck so Bax just drove her into the kitchen by pushing the little basket. Great fun for both, climbing in and out in the kitchen all morning)

Bombastic Bee Boy and the singing princess in "The Battle of the Motorway Monsters"

Bax is no longer Dada - well not often - now he is just Da and we've realised that it is the last bit of his name the way he hears it "Bax-da" - really the way Miss O says it. but now Da has become Captain Buzzy and goes about in his Bee gumboots which are yellow and black stripes and a bee dressing gown G found at the Warehouse - it even has a hood with antanae on it for a more complete Bee look. Bax calls this outfit his Buzzy and wears it constantly - over his shorts and t'shirt to kindy, over his pjs to walk the dog, over nothing at all to do nothing at all, just hang around and fight monsters.

G came in to town to pick me up from work yesterday and there was Bax dressed at General Sting and Izzie smiling and chatting and actually giggling so hard she couldn't stop - she does that quite a bit. And the whole way home Bax told us about the monsters and lions and King Kong who were all chasing the car - the back window of G's car goes right down and we drive along like that because it lets in just the right amount of air circulation - and Bax turns around to look out the back and then reports back "Monsters! Arggghhhhh! Run truck run. Go go go Daddy, Fast run away run away run away!!! Oh no Roarrrrrr. King kong!! Go daddy please run run truck!!!" This goes on for quite some time. Izzie giggling the whole time.

Then Bax will start humming a tune and Bubba will chat chat chat and giggle and that'll start Bax giggling too. Then more monsters will come and chase us home down the motorway.

Izzie loves music. The only thing that gets her to stay still is the music box Auntie Bec got in russia- she loves it and it transfixes her and relaxes her and if you listen really carefully you can hear her singing to it. but you have to listen carefully because there is often a monster masher dressed from head to toe in black and yellow stripes chasing dragons around and around the house.

PS i do have a photo of Buzz Boy but i'll have to put it on from home not work because of the shoddy technology here!