Sunshine

I am sitting in the study working on the computer. the window is wide open and with the ledge at the same height as the desk it feels as if I'm sitting out over the garden.

I am contemplating the budlea and the forsythia and wondering what the name of the big tree with the yellow/green leaves is. Dennis who lived next door in Grey Lynn had one. The last of the blossom is holding on tight to the apple tree.

G is finishing off the tree hut and every now and then he walks across the lawn with a piece of wood and two of the chickens trot after him. it's Puha and Prickels, Parsley is too lazy and she's sleeping iun the hydrainger.

A train is going past and G is waiting for it to go before he yells something up to me.

Should he put a table in the tree house or will it take up too much room?

I say a beer crate would be better then it can be a baby's bed or a stool as well.

A few fluffy white clouds linger on the hills but mainly the sky is blue. Will it rain in the weekend, we have had a bit of rain. Spring showers? Daylight saving this weekend, then the swift march into summer.

Well, back to work now. Wish you were hear to make me a nice cuppa, it's a long walk down to the kitchen.

Jobs

Bax has little jobs to do - he helps with fire wood, hangs up the towels at bath time, puts up his dishes, herds the chickens into their coop and goes and picks rabbit food (puha and a parent always goes too).

This morning he and I went to do the rabbit food and he said to me "Mum this is my favourite job!"

Nixae on the dummaes

We went all the way to Akl for Miss O's 3rd this past wkend. it was most fun and we all had a splendid time. Lovely to see our Poppa too (Granny Rob is in KL).

AND this was the weekend Bax had been building up to. He had been told that when both he and miss O were 3 yeards old the DUmmy had to go! So first night home NO DUMMIES. This of course meant no dummies for Iz either otherwise Bax will steal it from her.

So we got through three whole days without the dreaded D and Bax still asks but we just ignor him as if he hasn't mentioned the word and he stops asking.

BUT - and do not tell him this - last night Iz was ...look away now if you get queezy - trotting along with an ice cream stick in her mouth and she fell over and it gouged her in the tonsils and boy it must have hurt. A little blood came out of her nose! She seemed fine so we put them to bed but Iz couldn't get to sleep because her throat hurt so much so we ((((((gave her her dummy))))))).

So now Bax is bravely staying off the D and meanwhile Iz as a secret D in her bed that Bax doesn't know about! Will he be annoyed when he reads this is 20 years time??

A sad story about a cat

We had a mouse in our kitchen so we went to the SPCA to get a cat. Weak excuse I know.

So we got this cat home and it was a lovely big black cat we were going to call Malawi. Then I went to the blossom parade and when I got home G had fallen asleep and the cat had got out of the house somehow - don't ask. I was so pissed off with G.

Later that evening we heard a faint and pitiful miaow. I crouched down and the cat came out of under the house and right up to me. I was so reliefed and so desperate not to be mad at G anymore I picked him up. And G was so reliefed and happy not to be in the dogbox anymore that he threw his hands to his chest and pretend fainted onto the grass and that gave me a shock and I jumped and the cat got nervous and I was so desperate not to let go that I squeezed it and it went psycho all over my face and scratched and bit me all over my eye and all over my hand and I had to let go....

Then my hand and eye were spewing blood and I was buzzing and bawling. Then my hand got infected and swelled up and I went to the doctor and he put me on a course of antibiotics.

We renamed the cat Cassius Clay aka Mohammed Ali which is a long but fitting name for it.

And now the cat has been seen about five times (this was nearly two weeks ago). We've gone through sorrow, guilt, etc, we're up to anger now. We think it'd be a Junction 23 to keep the cat now (explained below)

We've borrowed a cat trap from a friend (who also has a 22 he's willing to lend us).

We've hidden the trap in the undergrowth and filled it with stinky fish (actually it's tuna with Tomato and Basil (we are aucklanders))

We've renamed the cat Satan aka the Devil aka Beealzibub

And now we wait.


Junction 23 = is when you know something is a bad idea because you have had some kind of a warning but you go ahead and do it anyway and it does turn out to be a big disaster. Named on a long drive to Cornwall when we heard on the radio that there was a big jam at Junction 23 but the road ahead looked clear (we were at about junction 19) so we kept going and low and behold we got stuck in a big jam for over an hour at Junction 23.

A king among the Queens

That's a flower on his cheek. First face painting he's ever had I think.

The Big Parade

The Blossom Festival is an annual fixture in the Hastings Events Calendar! It involves big floats covered in flowers crawling through the streets watched by hundreds of public.

I took Bax to walk in the parade as part of the Council float. We had to wait for ages behind our float which was a pink cadillac with five blossom queens inside. Bax was so good and well behaved but we had to wait for ages before the parade began. I don't think Bax had any idea what we were doing. He kept whispering to me: "Can I go in the pink car please" And I'd say only when the parade finished, then he'd wait a minute and say "Is the parade finished?" We hadn't even started walking!

After a bit my mates up in the car who were playing the parts of the Blossom Queens kidnapped Bax and he got to sit up in the car with them. Having gotten what he wanted he was all shy and hid between two queens. Then the parade began and we started moving. He kept looking over his shoulder and saying to me, down in the crowd "Come up into the car mum".

Half way around the parade circute he'd gotten a little braver and was sitting at the wheel of the car driving it through the crowd. By the end of the parade he was sooo brave he was standing on the front seat, one arm draped over the window and the other waving royally to the crowd - see picture. Great stuff!!

Our house in spring

SORRY - YOU'RE GOING TO GET A CRICK IN YOUR NECK - I DON'T KNOW HOW TO ROTATE IMAGES ON THIS QWERTYUIOP!

Grown up talking

It's amazing how quickly Bax' words are coming along. I was at a thingo in Wellywood from Sat to Wed and I got home very late. Bax was in bed. I went him to see him as soon as I got in. He took one look at me and said: "You get changed, Daddy will cook you dinner."

Grown up talking

It's amazing how quickly Bax' words are coming along. I was at a thingo in Wellywood from Sat to Wed and I got home very late. Bax was in bed. I went him to see him as soon as I got in. He took one look at me and said: "You get changed, Daddy will cook you dinner."

Farmer Bax

Farmer Bax has a farmer's hat - really it's an Indiana Jones hat but to Bax it's a "Farmer Joe" Hat. He wears it all the time and it goes with his whole Farmer vibe he's got going on at the moment.

Earlier in the week G was reading up on the balcony and he heard: "Audrey audrey audrey" He looked down into the garden to see Bax had gotten out of bed and gone into the garden and was trying to wrangle the rabbit. Then G watched as Bax played in the garden and the chickens came walking along the wall to him, Bax did a double take as they appeared at his ear. Then he followed them as they went scratching through the undergrowth. He scratched too.

G watched as Bax told them all about his day, his garden, his Audrey, his Izzie, his Dad and his pooey nappy, all in a loud voice.

Both kids love having the rabbit and the chickens, they love watching them and they love going to get the chickens eggs from the coop. And even Django is pretty cool with it all and leaves them all alone as the pekpek around the garden.

Kai moana

I went on a bus tour for work the other day and sat next to our new Maori Librarian. We were swapping stories. I told her about our two and how different they are. She summed it up, saying "You've got a kina and you've got a paua" And she is spot on and now I think of them like that I am enjoying the Paua ness of Izzie and Kina prickles of Bax much more. I used to try and give him the cuddles but he hates them unless HE wants them, Izzie the opposite. Maybe I should change the blog name to kinaandpaua.blogspot.

Busy Izzie

Izzie wakes up smiling. I go in. There she is in her tatty old porta cot holding up her dolly. "Hello" says the dolly. Behind her Izzie giggles.

I take her down stairs and she gets me to help her put her back pack on. She waddles into the lounge then comes back around the corner. "Hello" says Izzie. "Hello" I say. She goes again to the lounge saying "Byebye" as she leaves. This goes on and on and on. She giggles.

G gives her a piece of banana. She asks for "More more more". She takes her two pieces of banana out to Bax in the garden. "Gu!" She says forcing the nanna onto him. They sit together munching.

In the bath Bax nicks her toy one two many times. "Don't!" she says loudly, wacking him. She's getting stroppy this little miss.

Today in the car she opened the back door as they were going along. For the first time ever G pulled over, stopped the car, went around her to her door and gave her a growling. She stared at him like the end of the world had come. She burst into tears.. it lasted about 5 seconds.

Bax says "Make Izzie talk me" He loves it when she lets him teach her words. He says "Mummy mummy mummy" and she says "Mummy". "Giggle, giggle, giggle" and she trys "giggle". "Beeble beeble beeble" and Izzie mimicks the fire engine.