Sunday, June 29, 2008

It's Seems wet Days are here to stay

Well, as all you Californians (and Northern Hem folk) are basking in the glory of sun filled days and balmy nights, send some warm thoughts down south to wet and wild Auckland. Today the sun is shining for the first time in a week (bar a snippet here and there throughout the rain soaked week). What to do with Two young and very energetic kids? Playdates (at other people's houses to minimise chaos and muddy feet in own home) Make doctors appointments near the end of the week and send children off to others to play and arrange outings to museums, underground water world etc all timed to coincide with breaks in the teeming rain. I know its rained a lot as D has started to say, "Mum, gee it's raining" " Look at the rain, its really coming down", "Oh it's raining AGAIN" maybe I need to make other comments throughout the week like, "Mum you're gorgeous" " Love you Mum" "Can I do anything for you" etc. Anyway thankfully this has been eased by the increased level of energy and tolerance that I have again. I forgot what the first 4 months of pregnancy can be like, things were a bit different this time in that I did suffer morning (well afternoon ) sickness and constant fatigue. It's just passed (I'm nearly 20 weeks) and am looking forward to cruising though the next trimester hopefully the rest of the pregnancy. Cheers to summer holidays for you up North and heres to less wet days down here.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A Few Random Thoughts I Will Attempt To Put Together under "Good Friends Kick Ass"

Last night was our turn to host the BBQ in our round-robin-tournament of Summer BBQ's. This year we teamed up with another couple that lives in a different town to host at our house. I have to say that TEAMWORK rocks!! It was the least stressful social gathering at our house EVER. Not that hosting the bbq's are stressful, but there is a fair amount of work that goes into it, more so now that we all have multiple children to deal with at the same time (another shout out to the GP's who stood guard over our kids last night - another reason so less stressful!) But the tables were set-up far in advance, the burger patties were made up far in advance, the beverages were iced far in advance, the condiments prepared long before the first guests arrived. My, I felt organized! It was so nice having HollyM here to help out. She even unloaded my dishwasher! I am feeling a little guilty that she may have done a little more work than I did. I highly suggest that everyone double-up for their bbq's, it was quite a lovely evening (To AK, we also had about half the amount of people that you had yours, you are far more popular than we are!) HollyM and I will be teaming up next summer as well, even if we do all decide to make to trek over the hill!



And to VH, just so you know, I am going to make out with you when you get home from your fabulous vacation. My house is cleaner than it has ever been...EVER. I wanted to hug Alex before she left I was so excited. So really, I owe you drinks or coffee or little somethin' somethin' when you get back because I am stoked on my nice clean house - thank you for going to all the trouble you did to find her number.

A little more on the backyard...my husband kicked some more backyard booty this weekend. He braved the MILLION degree temperatures to build this fabulous-ness for us, or more acurately for little miss S...to think that I actually thought this would be for me...where was my head!



Well, I guess it doesn't matter who it "belongs to" what matters most is that now we have some shade around the pool and soon we will have a little wall to screen us from the impending doom of the "neighbors" to come.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Happy Father's Day

As a lovely ode to Father's Day, my husband spent all day Saturday golfing with his Dad (and Mom- how did SHE snake her way in??) leaving me to fend for myself on day 6 in-a-row of "alone with needy toddler and needier-still dog". Not feeling up for a trip to the beach and knowing that both 'needers' would make another day around the house not nearly as relaxing and pleasant as it should be, we headed for a 'hike' at Laguna Park. Although my two year old calls it a hike, I like to think of it more as an event entitled 'Death March for Toddler Exhaustion'. We pull up by the dog park, dog sniffs, poops, etc. and then we're off across the field with playground as goal. Toddler meanders, pokes sticks in holes (hopefully not homes of rattlesnakes) and eventually the playground is achieved. That day, for whatever reason, toddler was too cool for the playground and instead wanted only to compete with annoying dog in a game of who can stand closest to Mom- argh! Death March ON! We continue through the park(20 more minutes of marching) and come across a lovely clearing on the side of the lake with a nice little dock. As we enter the clearing, I notice an older guy sitting in a lawn chair, enjoying a patch of sun and reading a novel (yeah- I'm jealous and definitely slightly bitter). Encouraged by a small flock of ducks on the edge of the lake dog immediately starts acting like a total jackass. I suddenly realize that dog is about 90% committed to jumping into the lake to chase aforementioned ducks, and let me tell you, this lake is no pristine reservoir, it is a damn nasty-ass duck-poop filled, muddy, stinky pit and hell if I'm going to deal with this freakin' dog all covered in this biohazardous gunk. I immediately start doing the fake and dodge and manage to capture, leash and tie dog to nearest picnic table. During this 45 second process the toddler has decided he needs to try his 'dock-legs' out and is making full and steady progress down the railed(thank God) gang-plank to the very un-railed dock. Oh NO....Mom bounds across grassy patch, almost eats total-shit by slipping on a huge goose turd, stays miraculously upright and manages to grab toddlers collar just as Croc-covered toes trip their way onto the dock. Breathing heavy, Mom looks down at toddler to see his eyes aglow with excitement- apparently, docks ARE COOL. Stretching all last reserves of patience, Mom spends a good 5 minutes guarding toddler from sure toxic drowning death so that he may 'enjoy' this 'amazing' experience. These entire 5 minutes are pleasantly filled with the sound of dog-throwing-fit: barking, whining, and crying (amazingly, at times, sounding very similar to toddler-throwing-fit). Finally, Mom has had enough, gives the '2 minute warning' to leave, and after 20 seconds, declares the two minutes up and starts dragging toddler towards shore. And yes, you guessed it, toddler has now joined dog in a fit-throwing symphony. This once peaceful patch of earth has now become a total cacophony of tantrums....we all know our child throwing fits sucks, but what sucks even more is child-throwing-fits in presence of total stranger- who at this point has laid book down on knee and is just sitting and at staring at our highly annoying and very motley crew. Holding kicking toddler under arm, I kneel down in wet grass to untie dog, who has managed to wrap leash around legs multiple times AND has large white trails of foam pouring from mouth. Dragging dog, clenching toddler, I look over my shoulder and say, "We're out of here, please enjoy the rest of your book." To which this beautiful stranger answers, "You have just given me a whole new appreciation of Motherhood." Happy MOTHER's Day To All.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Second Child - A Different Perspective

I have a slightly different view of the "second child" than our friend Gabrielle (see here: http://culturednativity.blogspot.com/2008/06/second-place-revelations.html) Granted I am in COMPLETE agreement of the first child syndrome...I am also one and I am watching history repeat itself in my first born daughter - Holy Cow, Look Out. However, the second child thing is going a little different for me. For one, he's a boy. There were no boys in my family growing up, just my dad and he was already grown. So I am going into this "boy thing" totally blind AND he is the "second child". Does this mean different things when you have two different sexes? As far as my mothering goes...V gets a lot more undivided attention than S ever did. She got trucked all around and dropped off here and there and watched a TON of Baby Einstein movies so that Mommy could keep working. Well, there is no more of that silly work business so V gets Mommy, all day, every day. And I have not plopped him in front of movie yet and he's 7 months old. Am I going to turn him into a mama's boy? Let's hope not! But there are some other firsts that kid number 2 gets that kid number 1 never did. V has nice bisphenol-A free baby bottles, S had nothing but baby bottles chock full o' bisphenol-A. S breast fed and then had regular formula. V breast fed and then had only organic formula, which made him completely constipated and I had to switch him to regular formula (at least I tried, right?). S ate mostly organic baby food, but if they were out, I would just get whatever they had. For V, I made organic homemade baby food (never had the time the first time around). Did he enjoy it, did I feel the satisfaction of feeding my precious baby something that was not processed in a factory? No, he gagged and then threw everything up. NICE. I am chalking that up to "it is not as smooth as the store bought stuff, we'll freeze it and save it for later when he is eating chunkier food." Does anyone want to place bets on how long that organic homemade with love baby food is going to be taking up space in my freezer? Anyone? I went shopping today and stocked up on some lovely organic mass produced baby food. Maybe this is how the "second kid" gets the stigma, the mom tries and then gives up because the "second kid" is just uncooperative! I'll go ask my husband, he's a second kid...combined youngest for a while and then became the middle kid...which could explain A LOT!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Sex and the City for One

Well, if ever there was a movie to go to with a girlfriend then SATC would be it, however I braved the room full of girlfriends and plonked myself down in the middle row about as central as I could get and let myself get taken up by my New York City Girls. To my surprise I was not the only lone female in the room and quite frankly I believe I was much more comfortable and in the zone than the lone guy sitting in the back row with his girlfriend and her hoard of friends. Had I not been pregnant I would have gone to the Rialto Cinema which has an open bar and you can take your drinks in to the movies. Dan and I did that on Sat when we ventured out on our own (sans kids) and had dinner and movie. It's been quite a while so we sat for the first 1/2 hour almost dumbfounded and almost a little nervous (Does my breath smell, hope my boobs look good in this) then we remembered who we were with and chowed down of some yummy Japanese. Then off to the boozy cinema to see a great film Brick Lane. It was really a wonderful time and like every other year we vow to do it more often (I think we'll be missing our anniversary this year, what with the 2 week old and all) Anyway just wanted to let you know that the SATC movie was great and reinforces just how great good friends are, and how much we need them, whether their just down the street or half way around the world. Stay in touch and keep the lines of communication open. Love to my girlfriends

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Adding One child makes two disappear

I had a very exciting discovery today. D had a little boy come for a playdate. I was planning to do nothing other than field questions about how I could make this, do that and help with something else, yet after some lunch and some introductory questions I was left to fend for myself. Both D & E and little Riley disappeared, surfacing every now and then to ask for assistance with the bathroom and for refreshments. I have not had such a break since my wonderful neighbours entertained my boys for bouts of time after finding them wandering in their backyard (or on the streets!!) Trully relieved that 3 boys really could handle playing peacefully together (no bloody noses, scraped knees or fistycuffs). I suppose this will be too much to ask that I experience this euphoria for the next 20-30 years. (ok well here's to wishful thinking) I almost thought see three children isn't hard then I remembered that our new addition will be at min 3 years younger and is likely to be the bain of the other twos existence as they demand attention from Me all the time leaving little Mummy time for D & E. D is going to be great, he has never had a problem (not that he ever really had a choice or knew any different) sharing me however little hothead E seems to think that I'm his to do with what he pleases. His latest demand is that I get Mimy for him even though most of the time he is in very close proximity, short of telling him to to go .... jump in the lake!!, I merely explain that Mummy is not just here to get his things whenever he wants something (Mmmm wonder where he got that idea from??????) Anyway life here in NZ is good. It's getting chilly especially in the morning but the days aren't too bad. I think of all my gorgeous girlfriends starting this years round of bbq's, who shared a drink or two in the cinema while watching Sex and the City and who are always on my mind. I am already planning to join you for your next trip (doing my bit to read ads) hopefully it doesn't fall too close to Nov 2008. anyway keep me posted by next year I will be desperate to see you all again.