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!

Last Day

Due to some changes being foisted upon the wonderful daycare The Squidd has happily attended for almost two years, Rocky and I made the difficult decision to move The Squidd to a new daycare center that will hopefully offer him more stability in the coming months.

Pros: the new center is much closer to Rocky's office (a 5-minute walk), the new babe will eventually be able to attend with The Squidd (not an option under the new arrangement at the current center), The Squidd has a couple little friends who already attend the new center.

Cons: The Squidd has been so happy and settled at his current place, and the teachers are so wonderful (!!!) and caring and know him so well. He knows the routine there, he knows the other children, and we have hated, hated, HATED the thought of uprooting him from all that.

So today was The Squidd's last day at his current daycare, and not surprisingly, the incredible teachers planned a little "graduation" party for him to celebrate all that he's accomplished with them over the years and to cheer him on as he moves on to the new place. They told stories about him and what he likes to do best, they sang his favorite songs, and wished him good luck. He got to wear a special "graduation cape" and they presented him with graduation certificate and a bouquet of putiputi flowers that were handwoven by one of the teachers out of New Zealand flax (harakeke) leaves.

Thank you, Te Ao Tamariki, for being such a big part of our little guy's early growing-up years. We love you.

An Apple a Day

When my sister and I were young, our parents took us out to U-Pick farms pretty often (at least in my memory it was often). We regularly picked strawberries and raspberries in the summer and sometimes branched out to blueberries, pumpkins, and apples. I loved it and think of those excursions as a key part of my growing-up experience. When Rocky came into the picture, I hauled him out to the U-Pick farms almost immediately. 

Naturally, once The Squidd came along, I was eager to share this experience with him, too.

Here in the Garden City, I thought we'd have ample opportunities to take The Squidd out to the local farms to pick produce, but it seems that because it is the Garden City, U-Pick isn't particularly popular. Most folks have their own mature fruit and vegetable gardens in their own backyards (or the backyards of relatives) and literally reap the fruits of their labor right at home.

As we are the proud renters of a townhouse with a miniscule back patio, a home garden isn't really feasible for us. So I've been methodically looking for places we can go to have this harvesting experience. Today, we went for apples, thanks to the lovely generosity of some local organic apple growers we met at our farmers' market. You see, there aren't places in the Canterbury region to pick your own apples, so on Saturday, I mustered a little boldness and asked our favorite apple vendor if there was any way we could bring The Squidd by their farm to pick a few apples, just to give him the experience. The farmer immediately responded that we'd be more than welcome to drop by, so today we took her up on her offer.

The morning dawned clear and cold--a perfect fall day--and as we drove, the weather steadily warmed. When we arrived at the orchard, it was high 50s, perfect blue skies, and sunny. The couple who grow the apples greeted us, showed us around the orchard, explained a bit about their work, and left us to it. They harvested most of their fruit a few weeks ago to beat the first frost, but a fair number of apples remained on the trees.

The Squidd had a blast picking the small apples ("kid-sized," he said) and eating them whole, seeds and all. After we finished picking, we were invited back to the farmers' house, where they served us tea and carrot cake and engaged us in a nice long chat about a variety of things, from Harley motorcycles to the geology of the local area (of course). And when we left, they refused any payment for the many kilos of Braeburn, Granny Smith, and New Zealand Rose apples we picked (and the additional kilos of Cameo apples they pressed on us as "must try" variety). They were so generous and kind, and The Squidd had a day he won't soon forget. Hear, hear for local farmers!

Like Father, Like Son

I'm fighting a bit of a cold right now, so Rocky valiantly took on the lion's share of childcare this past weekend. On Sunday the boys went to one of our favorite places, Birdling's Flat, to play on the beach and collect agates and other cool rocks. Here they are inspecting their haul. Birds of a feather, I tell you.

Incidentally, unlike the past two years, during which all three of us were perpetually sick, this is our first real illness of 2012. I think The Squidd's immune system has finally matured enough that he can fight off a good number of the viruses that circulate at school. Hallelujah!