Easing into 2010

Five day’s into 2010…

The weather in Welly is being a tad dicey for us, but we’re grabbing the good and sheltering from the bad (wild winds + late pregnancy hormones = unpredictable mother who should come with a ‘handle with care’ label).

Monday morning on Oriental Parade was entertaining in high winds – cycling in one direction there was no need for pedal action as the wind did all the work; the return ride against the wind was met with some resistance, but the girls still pedaled ten times faster than I could walk and caused many passers by to give a look of, ‘Where is that child’s mother!’ as I waddled along half a km behind.

A pause for ice-cream was literally that – most of it was quickly wind-swept over the children’s clothes and faces before they could eat anything. They wisely found shelter in a bus-stop, whilst I took a moment to enjoy the beach view from a wind-swept bench (and laugh at the misfortune of someone chasing after their hat along the beach – sorry!).

In the home it’s all arts, crafts and rediscovering the joys of itsy bitsy lego.
Spin art, magic fabric, painting volcanoes (inspired by Te Papa’s ‘A Day in Pompeii‘ exhibit, which we saw on Saturday), dancing around to music and shaking pom-poms, setting up lego villages with pirates versus storm troopers (Charli shooting lego canons) and a hot dog selling lego person who keeps everyone up to date on lego street gossip (voice over by Sophie).

Holiday hours = family harmony.
With no pressure to get out the door for the bell and pull ourselves in different directions the family harmony is at an all time high (with the occasional need to separate to different corners of the house or garden for a breather of individual head space). Breakfast is relaxed and unhurried, the day is spent grazing and the evening meal is later, so we can enjoy Daddy’s company (sadly he’s back at work). Bedtimes are later, morning’s are lazy.

On the calendar we’re counting down till ‘Chicken’ Grandma and Granddad arrive on 18th January. The girls are getting so excited and are enjoying getting the room ready for them; filling vases with fresh lavender from the garden, creating ‘welcome’ cards and helping out with cleaning the windows and getting the bed ready.

On the chore list I’ve had plenty of helpers.
The garage, under the stairs and the baby stuff is all sorted. The cot is up and the girls have been playing babies. We won’t actually use the cot for a while, as we have a moses basket, but it’s still a handy ‘safe’ play space to put baby for a moment. We ended up not using the cot at all for Sophie; preferring a double futon, where I could sleep and feed without so much disruption to my sleep. We shall just have to play it by ear for this baby.

Charli is super helpful these days. Sometimes she wakes before us and lays out all the breakfast dishes. We frequently come down to find her dressed, bed made, curtains open and breakfast laid out. She’s so kind, thoughtful and helpful. Last night she noticed Sophie’s clothes on the table in the lounge and said, ‘I’ll put these on the bottom step for when you next go up.’ And she didn’t just dump them – I found them neatly folded in a pile, bless her cotton socks!

Our first day-trip out for 2010 was a resounding success.
We visited The Blueberry Farm in the Akatarawa Valley and we will definitely be returning in a couple of weeks. There were thousands of bushes (4,000) and though there were plenty of berries to eat, there are many just on the verge of ripening. In another two week’s there will be galaxies of them waiting to be consumed with ice-cream, muffins, pancakes and in smoothies. We really felt for Daddy-O having to head off to the office on such a nice day and thought of him all day. We shall definitely be taking him one sunny weekend soon. There are so many fabulous school holiday activities at 11am every day – check out the ‘Earth Camp‘ calendar for more details.

Our friend, Steph, joined us and we had a scrumptious lunch of blueberry pancakes and ice-cream, before heading home via Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt for a run around.

Here’s some photos from our visit to the organic paradise of the blueberry farm…

In the garden at home the Kindi rabbit, Rascal, is chasing the cat and proving to be an expert escape artist. Just as I was about to publish this post, saying, ‘Thankfully Rascal doesn’t venture very far when he does escape – he just likes to prove he can’… he has really done a runner on us! Dan is out with a torch and Rascal’s favourite blanket walking the neighbourhood.

The few times he has escaped the garden he hasn’t ventured far and we simply throw the blanket over him, which calms him enough for us to cradle him back into the confines of the garden. We then investigate which plant-pot he has nosed out of the way to make his latest escape route. If we can’t find him tonight then it looks like the girls and I will be dropping notices in letter-boxes tomorrow morning and hoping we can track him down! We so don’t want to be ‘the people that lost the Kindy rabbit’… We are surrounded in bush and he’s not going to be easy to find. We just hope he comes to his senses and returns to us soon!

He has it good here after all… The strawberries are growing aplenty, giving us a fresh bowl a day. The cos lettuce is (was) being nibbled fresh off the plant by Rascal. We have our first blueberries and the girls are managing to eat them faster than the birds. The peas are ripening and looking tantalizing in their pods, just waiting to be popped and eaten with juicy delight. Come back Rascal! We love you!

UPDATE:

Rascal found! Phew! A neighbour thought he belonged to someone else and just popped him over a fence into someone else’s garden – with a big dog (which was thankfully on a chain!). Anyway, the neighbour picked up our notice in the mailbox and just phoned. Rascal is now back safe and sound and having a good munch of fresh veg. Poor fellow! I didn’t think he’d go far and was really miffed that we couldn’t find him. There will be a lot of happy Kindy children (and we are very relieved!).