Waking up

It’s been awhile, but Deb left me an encouraging comment so I thought I’d come back.  This year has been tremendously…. interesting…. and between all the family ups and downs I have mostly been doing my best to just.hold.it.together while simultaneously being sleepily, 27 weeks, pregnant (with a boychild this time! we will have the full set!) and having comprehensively destructive renovations happening in the house since February.

For example, this morning we only had the three identically bewhiskered gib-stoppers in the house and it was like, woo, a holiday, how’s the serenity?  And the dining room and kitchen is coated entirely in some kind of powdery plaster dust, which I suppose I ought to tackle somewhat soon, unless it’s going to be Roast Shop for dinner again.

We’ve been coping with the chaos of the invasion by shutting ourselves in the lounge (one of the two unaffected rooms in the house), and during Billie’s naptime I’ve been switching on the Kidzone for Beetle while I curl up on the sofa and have a Pregnant Lady Nap.  It’s amazing how well I can nap to a soundtrack of drop-saws,  Radio Hauraki, and Hooray For Huckle. A lot of the time it feels a lot like I haven’t done anything else, all year.

Still, in the meanwhile Billie can nearly sing her whole ABCs – apart from when I try and video her, when she switches on the “SEE IT! SEE IT!” she learnt from her big sister. And she’ll sit entranced and perfectly still through a stack of stories, demanding “LAST ONE!” when we think we’ve finished. And Beetle is still entranced by “vo’canoes,” wants to call the boychild either Bonny, Steve Irwin or Ash Dolomite Scoria Lava [Lastname], and is starting school next month, which we are still trying to get our heads (and our routines) around.  These girls (and these parents) are not morning people.

But, although we’re trending more towards “Keep Calm and Carry On” than “Get Excited and Make Things” in our current season, we have still been doing something in my brief, cranky, wakeful periods.  I think I will look through my photos and see if I can post a few.

Fabric marker t-shirts

This activity happened by accident. I was inspired by Tiny Happy’s single-colour painted t-shirts, but when it came to the crunch I thought that Beetle could do the drawing first with a fabric marker, and then we could paint in a few bits and pieces.

I slid the shirt over a bit of cardboard and used a few bits of sticky tape to hold the fabric taut, then handed it over to Beetle with a fat black fabric marker.

Beetle has been doing very detailed pictures recently, with lots of funny little features in them, and she got right into decorating the shirt.

So when she had finally finished the art work (complete with signature in the corner) I decided it didn’t need painting in at all, and was rather striking in just the black ink.  It set in 24 hours too, so we were ready to roll without even ironing it. Sweet as.

This is a good activity for doing towards the end of summer (or winter) when your kids’ plain tshirts start to get a few stains and be a bit worse for wear!  I even had Beetle decorate one for Billie as well.

Stredwick Reserve, Torbay

We went out this afternoon for an iceblock, a play and an explore at the Stredwick Reserve in Torbay, up behind the Titoki Montessori Preschool at 70 Stredwick Drive

The girls played on the reserve playground, which was a bit challenging for Billie (especially since the swings had all been removed when we visited) but Beetle had a great time climbing on the chain climbing-net thing and trying out the flying fox.  She has really blossomed in her physical courage and ability recently.

We followed the concrete path beside the preschool’s (fenced off) playground and switched to a gravel path a bit further along, to stroll through some reasonable bush and beside the stormwater collection pond, where we were mobbed greeted by some very enthusiastic ducks.  Note: bring food for ducks next time.  The pond is stocked with grass carp, not that we saw them.

With a few trit-trot-trit-trot bridges to cross, and toddler-accessible terrain, this is a not-terribly-exciting walk through not-that-fabulous bush, but a quick one, good enough for small ones who want a new place to explore, particularly one with a playground attached and just down the road from the Stredwick Dairy. There are no steps, so a stroller would be fine.

Littlest Hutch Dresser

My heart has longed for a play kitchen like Soulemama’s for a long time, so I was very enthusiastic when I spotted this little wee hutch dresser on Trademe.  Even better, it came with all the carefully collected vintage cookware from its previous life – lovely little saucepans, tiny enameled baking dishes, wooden spoons and a wee teapot.  I was very happy to bring it home.

Beetle has been busy cooking from a colourful recipe book Mum found for me at the opshop:

Amazing Magical Jello Brand Desserts from 1977 – promising “72 GELATIN AND PUDDING RECIPES YOUR KIDS WILL ENJOY, plus MagicTricks by Marvello the Great”

The graphic design is magnificent, but Beetle is a literal sort of a girl and struggles with “cooking” recipes that she doesn’t have the “ingredients” for.  She was probably happier when she was mixing the dry ingredients (dolly was mixing the wet) for her carrot pixie buns, without the book.

(in one of those synchronicity-of-the-universe moments, we discovered pixie buns when we saw the trays for sale at a kitchenware shop at Thames on holiday last week, then found a tray amongst the lovely bits and pieces with the shelf)

Here she is studying the recipes for Ambrosia Pudding and Sunny Whip.

Late-afternoon rockpools

We had a lovely time yesterday at the beach, poddling round the rockpools, finding shells and sea-weed, peeking under rocks for crabs, and admiring the “beautiful patterns” left by the boat-towing cars on the sand.

Easy paper doll chains and snowflakes made with paper napkins (serviettes)

Beetle and I were trying to make paper snowflakes the other day. She is just getting the hang of using scissors now, and she has been doing a lot of practice at snipping little bits out of paper.

But we found that once a regular bit of paper was folded the four or more times required to make a decent snowflake, it was far too thick and difficult for her to cut with little safe scissors and little hands.

Beetle worked on paper folded once, but then she found some single-ply paper serviettes and started cutting those. They were super easy and soft to cut and they make a lovely square snow-flake. Not to mention being pre-folded neatly into quarters! She soon discovered that she could fold them once more, diagonally, and they were still really easy to cut. So we were very pleased.

Next I realised we could make a paper chain of dolls using the napkins. I’d demonstrated them with some junkmail, but realised they, too,  were too tricky for Beetle to cut.

I unfolded the napkin and cut it in half:

Then I zig-zag folded it into quarters, and drew the shape of the paper doll… making sure it touched the folded edges. To make it easier for her, I coloured the bits that she needed to cut out, and trimmed off the top, so only some simple cutting was required.

It worked really well and made simple paper crafts much easier for a child who is just starting with the scissors.

And it is also why I now have a very very beautiful window indeed.

Lollipops and Aunty Em’s Farm

We went on a car trip to the Waikato today to my Aunty Em’s farm.  She has the best place; every window, every wall, and most of the ceiling are covered in marvellous, glittery decorations. Oh, and the garden, too.

I imagine that a first-time visitor might be taken aback at first but you know,  it is very beautiful.

The girls mouths open wide as they walk in, looking at all the glorious things. It’s like walking into an Eye Spy book.

We stopped on the way at Candyland, a big warehouse of lollies in Taupiri, the name of which makes me hum the song from Charlie the Unicorn. The girls were more interested in sitting on a tiny, coin0-operated, ride-on plane, but were persuaded to come and look around. I let them choose a big lolliop each because I know how they work when it comes to lollipops.

They beg and beg till the lollipop is opened. Then they will have a go eating it for a few minutes, and chuck the remainder in the bin. Like, an entire lollipop minus 8 licks. Which still doesn’t take away from the BAD MUM look of a tiny toddler with an enormous lollipop. Like they’re gonna eat the whole thing.

So, after they licked the three-atom-thick layer off their lollies and discarded them, we had a lovely lunch. Billie helped herself repeatedly to a bowl of grated cheese. We helped shoo the rooster back out-of-doors when he came in to eat the dog’s food. Beetle helped Uncle Henry adjust the fountain outdoors, drenching them both in the process, and then went ’sploring in the rain in her new dry dress to find some eggs in the henhouse. Then she skipped back into the house with those three eggs in a plastic supermarket bag, and immediately pressed the button on the wall-mounted singing fish. The music roused her in her a dramatic corridor-dance that involved a great swirling of bags and cracking of eggs on the door-frame.

We left the eggs.

It was long past Billie’s nap time, so we reluctantly left, farewelled in a sudden rainstorm, rushing through the garden to the car, Uncle Henry grabbing an umbrella to shelter us while Aunty Em sheltered under a boogie board.

We waved goodbye as we backed the car through the gate, draped in bunting and gaily wrapped in rain-dripping tinsel.

It’s a wonderful place to visit.

Two Thousand and Nine

Happy New Year, everybody!

I sent out text messages last night; got one back this morning with a grizzle about being woken up at midnight. Whoops. I put mine on mute before I went to bed.

We finished 2008 with a second round of Christmas dinner.  We had a big family gathering at my parents on Christmas day; afterwards Mum and I decided we could cope with just a little more potato salad and another round of trifle. So, greedily, we arranged to have another crack at it for New Years Eve.  I even made my Very First sponge cake for the trifle, flinging together a 3-minute-sponge from the Edmonds Cook Book.  Good one, Rosie. Gold star.

And we started 2009 with a trip to the Auckland Museum. The girls had a ball, especially opening and closing the drawers-o’-critters in the Stevenson Discovery centre.

Me… I was fine with the drawers (moth, moth, beetle, moth, scoria, moth, algae, butterflies, giant cicada) then HOLY CRAP THERE’S A WHOLE PARROT IN HERE.

*mutters* stoopid pinned insects were meant to desensitise me to the dead stuff in drawers when they turn up actual MAMMALS.

Yeah I know, parrots aren’t mammals… the bottom drawer had a helpful comparative display of stoats, weasels and ferrets.

We moved along from the small dead stuff to the really big stuff and visited Sue the T-Rex, where I learned my mental image of a Tyrannosaurus’ posture was stuck in the 1970s.

After a stroll down Centennial Street and back through the Origins Gallery, the girls were getting tired, so we headed out and under a tree for a picnic lunch, and a bit of a climb.

A good start to the year.

Billie’s Stained Glass Windows

While Beetle was making her lovely canvas paintings, Billie made stained glass windows.

The detailed instructions are at Kids’ Craft Weekly, but I basically peeled back half a sheet of clear Duraseal and let Billie stick bits of cellophane, ribbon, feathers and sequins on it, then stick the other half down over the top. Then, to share the project amongst various Friends and Relations, I chopped it up and stuck the pieces between some cheap scrapbooking frames from The Warehouse.

Except  I didn’t count Great Grandparents in my estimations, so we have another round of canvas-making and window-making tomorrow…. somehow.

PS: I had to use the touchup tool on at least three chunks of banana and spaghetti on that wall, which is adjacent to the highchair. You can still see a bit on the window sill under the star. The touchup tool didn’t like those lines!

Welcome to Bethlehem

Beetle and I went for a drive tonight, with Nanny and Aunty Emily, to see Christmas Lights. We visited the “Come to Bethlehem” drive-through Christmas display at a local church.

Beetle brought with her a card she had made to give to Baby Jesus. It said, “Dear Baby Jesus. I love you so much. Love from Beetle”

She was very proud to give it to the holy family in person.