The Fruit Just Keeps on Coming

Today it was cherry picking. They were seriously The. Most. Perfect. Cherries. Ever. Huge, sweet, firm, and abundant. And another wonderfully kind farmer who waived his rule of "no children under 6 allowed in the orchard" so The Squidd could help.

The dilemma now is cherry clafoutis for New Year's or raspberry shortcakes?

 

 

Not a Bummer

I love Christmas. Love it, love it, love it. I'm the person who heads to the tree farm (or nursery or whatever) the day after Thanksgiving to buy the tree, and I usually wait waaaaaaaayyyy too long to take it down after Christmas is over (read: January is in the double digits). The tree is always brown and losing needles everywhere, but I'm always so sad to dismantle it that I put it off as much as possible.

This year, we took the tree and all the Christmas decorations down on the 26th. It was long past its prime, and it had become a haven for all sorts of spiders and moths that enter the house through our unscreened windows (don't get me started). Plus, our house is so small that a 7-foot Douglas fir takes up A LOT of space that we could otherwise use for toys and playing. So down it came, and surprisingly, it wasn't sad. Not in the least. After thinking about this for a few days, I've concluded that it's at least in part because it's summertime and there's simply so much else to do that I haven't dwelled on the end of Christmas. In fact, most of the country packs up on Boxing Day and heads out for several weeks of camping on the beach and extended holidays. What a nicer way to ease into the new year than heading back to work in the dark and the cold for a few days before the new year's day off.

For our part, we've been BBQing with friends, playing at the beach, splashing in the outdoor pools, and today . . . berry picking! It's a lovely 78 degrees with a light breeze and some high clouds--we're loving it! The berry farm also had fresh berry ice cream sundaes with chocolate sauce and berries on top for $6. I was so tempted, but I didn't give in. In retrospect, we may have to pick berries again this week if only for the chance to succumb to the lure of cool, sweet treats afterward.

Tortillas and Lollies

I took The Squidd out for a drive the other day just to get him out of the house. 

The first stop on the drive was a place that specializes in pseudo-Mexican/Caribbean food.  Needless to say, The Squidd was not appeased.  I asked the shopkeeper how much was the bag of 30 corn tortillas languising in the fridge.  In response I was tsked (and boy do I hate to be tsked these days) and was told that I could only buy the tortillas individually.  Individual tortillas!  AND each corn tortillas was a little over $2!  Needless to say, I was not appeased.

Our solution to this New Zealand corn tortillas fiasco is simple.  We have asked Wordy's sister to 'import' roughly 200 corn tortillas from East LA when she comes to visit us next week.  The price of 200 corn tortillas is roughly $5 (US).  This means once we receive our tortilla 'package' we will have roughly $500 (NZ) in tortillas!  Wordy then plans to sell them on the streets to establish our Corn Tortilla Cartel where the first corn tortilla is free...

So back to The Squidd.

His mood after the pseudo-Mexican experience was not improving.  Personally, I didn't blame him.  My mood was not improving either.  So I decided to take him to a shop that I had driven by numerous times while taking him to the beach.  From the outside the building is offensively pink and reminds me of a place where zombie clowns would want to settle down and start a family.  BUT, inside this pink building I knew there would be something that would excite any 3 year old. Candy.  Lots and lots of candy.  With a name like the Lolly Shop, how could I go wrong? 

When we first started to enter the building, I was relieved to see a giant gumball machine because chances were good that I somehow missed the New Zealand vernacular for porn shop.  The Squidd was stunned into silence once we entered the main area where there were rows upon rows of candy.  He had never seen such a thing and just watching his reaction gave me the biggest smile.  I told The Squidd he could choose one thing from the store.  Little did I realize that they had a 30 pound lollipop for sale ($90!) and immediately he told me that that was what he wanted.  Crap!  Think fast Rocky!  I immediately scoped out a big display of Chupa Chups and steered him that way.  After some persuasive negotiation he settled upon a strawberry Chupa Chup in which he got to lick it all the way home while listening to his favorite Flaming Lips album.  This might not be a big deal, but it was for me.  It was his first lollipop.  And I will always remember how proud he was to be a big boy and how he enjoyed that experience with his dad.

Merry Christmas!

I Can't Wait for Tomorrow!

Candy before 10:am

To be fair, it was to be expected, and there was really no good reason to say, "no."

Preschool Holiday Party

Cue off-tune singing and mass mayhem after the children ate way too many sweets at the potluck lunch.

But there was excellent entertainment provided by a duo of singing pirates and their menagerie of critter puppets, and Santa came and gave presents, which were generously donated by a local bookshop, to all the children. 

It was a nice start to the silly season (what the kiwis call the days leading up to xmas).

 

Christmas is Coming . . .

We're getting started with our Christmas decorating.

I've also decided that, while I can enjoy certain aspects of Christmas in the summertime, I feel like I'm getting short-changed on this holiday what with all the long days and sunny weather. So I'm going to attempt to step it up a little this year--to do more holiday things so that it feels more like the holiday I look forward to every year. I want to bake and decorate a gingerbread house with The Squidd and Rocky. I'd like to have a Christmas party of some sort (I so miss our annual dessert and White Elephant Party). Maybe we'll try to see a show or go to the Santa parade next week. More baking. More crafting. As I type this, it's sounding awfully ambitious. Will post pictures if any of these grand plans actually pan out.

Today . . .

It was a quiet day at home today, but still some of us were busier than others. Least productive: The Minnow. Most productive: Rocky. The Squidd and I were somewhere in between.

Thankful

According to our friend down the street (who is also a kiwi), turkeys are sold out around Canterbury. Having never actually seen turkeys or even turkey cold cuts for sale anywhere (not at the butcher, not at the grocery store, not at the specialty shops), this surprises me. Rocky and I are now left to conclude one of two things:

1) That there are more Americans in Chch than we realized, or
2) That the kiwis are adopting our holiday because it is really a kick-ass holiday.

I suppose it could also be a combination of the two things. But because of our diet, it doesn't really matter in the end that turkeys are nowhere to be found in the greater Chch area.

Turkey or not, I really do love Thanksgiving. I love the "more the merrier" attitude that pervades this holiday. I love that it's not about gifts or things but about getting together with family and friends and taking stock of the things for which we are grateful. Among many, many other things, this year I am thankful for these:

1) My family, both near and far. I love you so much.
2) Far-away friends who work hard to keep in touch and nearby friends who make the absence of family so much easier to bear. I love you guys so much, too.
3) A preschooler who sleeps like a rock most nights and wakes up with a smile on his face every day
4) An infant who's learning to put herself to sleep and only wakes briefly at night for a quick feed
5) A spouse who shares equally in the parenting of our kids and is just as adept at making dinner and changing diapers as he is writing equations and identifying rocks
6) A warm, weather-tight home that wasn't damaged by any of the thousands of earthquakes we've experienced over the past few years
7) Our health and the wonderful, affordable healthcare we receive here. We don't carry health insurance, yet we paid nothing for the birth of The Minnow. The Minnow and The Squidd receive all of their healthcare free, and Rocky and I pay roughly $30 to see our family doctor. Anything related to an accident, whether car crash or blowing out a knee playing rugby, is completely covered by the government.
8) The money to afford high-quality food and the time necessary to prepare it

We'll be celebrating with some of our favorite friends a day late in New Zealand, which means we'll be celebrating the same time as everyone in the States. We'll be thinking of you.  Happy Thanksgiving!

My Dad Is Home!

It Takes a Village

For the last 9 days I have been solo-parenting as Rocky is away for work. It's been hard. Really hard. And for the first time since moving here I felt every single one of the miles stretching between me and the support system my family provides. But into the void left by far-distant parents and siblings, a grand party of friends stepped in. They took The Squidd to school and picked him up. They invited us over for dinner. They came by to play with The Squidd and hold The Minnow. They hosted slumber parties and dropped food off.

It's said that it takes a village to raise a child, and these friends have shown themselves to be true villagers living alongside our young family. So while I still do miss the proximity of my blood relations, it was such a gift to realize how terrific our little community of friends is and to feel so well looked after. I am ever so grateful to them for helping me make it through these long days with my sanity and good spirits mostly intact.

Tomorrow Rocky returns. Hallelujah!

Brownies!!

By Request . . .

 . . . from the g-parents.

And here's a funny. Yesterday was my first day on my own with both urchins as Rocky was at work all day. The Squidd has swim lessons in the morning, and Rocky was champion enough to pack the swim bag with towel, dry clothes, etc. But in my haste to feed The Minnow, change her diaper, make sure The Squidd went to the bathroom, and get them both packed into the car and to the pool by the start of the lesson, the swim bag got left by the garage door.

With no dry pants to wear after swimming, and with The Squidd unwilling to wear the damp trunks for the 5-minute drive home, I put The Squidd in an extra tshirt I found in the car. It was a stellar parenting moment. Yes, his legs are poked out through the armholes. But better that than have him go commando buckled into his 5-point harness.

Here's hoping I pull this two-child parenting thing together a bit more with practice.

Big Planes

For quite a while now (a year or more), The Squidd has been taken with airplanes. Every morning, he comes downstairs and before he does anything else, he sets up an airport with his toy planes. He loves watching You Tube videos of anything related to Boeing or airline commercials or plane spotting at various international airports. We hang out at the airport just for fun to see the planes take off and land, and of course he was thrilled with our flight to the U.S. earlier this year.

Apparently, October is the beginning of the Antarctic "season," when research and activities ramp up down south, so the beginning of October also sees the first flights by the huge transport planes (think C-5s, C-17s, and C-130s) to Antarctica. Christchurch is the headquarters of the U.S. and N.Z. Antarctic operations, so our modest little airport is also where these big planes take off and land. So when I saw in the paper that several of these transporters would be parked on the tarmac and open for the public to tour, I had to take The Squidd.

Of course he was thrilled, and as it turned out, the C-17 we toured is stationed at McChord AFB (check out the tail of the plane in the photo). Practically a visitor from home. Cool!

2 Months

 We made it through the first two months as a foursome . . .