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 . . .

Spring

It's spring here in the southern hemisphere.  Warmer weather, longer days, blooming flowers, lambs (or drawings of lambs at our house), and more exciting outdoor pursuits--huzzah!

Official

At one month old, The Minnow is officially a dual citizen of both the U.S. and New Zealand. And while the U.S. requires us to jump through a multitude of hoops to certify that she is, indeed, entitled to U.S. citizenship, the NZ process was a walk in the park. The hardest part of it was getting an acceptable photo of her, but once that was done, we had her NZ passport in hand 4 business days later.

And of course the NZ passport has a black cover. And of course it has a fern on it.

The official mug shot:

In true passport form, it's not the most flattering photo of her. I read somewhere that if you look like your passport photo, you're not well enough to be traveling. I don't think I'd say hers is quite that bad, but . . .

Introducing The Minnow

Early Thursday morning, July 26, Rocky, The Squidd, and I welcomed an addition to our little fishpond:  The Minnow. She's a tiny thing compared to her strapping brother, but she is growing well and isn't shy about making her desires known.

Happy Birthday, Minnow. Welcome to the world.

Happy Birthday, Squidd!

6:30am--not the best time for a family picture, but there you go.

Last weekend we celebrated The Squidd's 3rd birthday. As requested, we went to the bowling alley and had chocolate cake with M&Ms on it.

Party was a success, though 6 children under the age of 5 running around was sheer chaos, and the only injury was to Rocky's toe, when one of the aforementioned urchins dropped an 8-lb. ball on it.

Happy Birthday, kiddo!