Wednesday, 29 April 2009

YMCA...

The kids and I went and tried out the kids gymnastics program at the Hamilton YMCA this morning. Afterwards Ben said that he really liked it (I could tell he was having lots of fun during it), and Joanna liked it too, trying out most of the various activities.
The great thing is the class is a combined 2-3yrs olds class, so both Joanna and Ben can go to the same one - which solves the problem of having to get them to sit on the sidelines if they were in individuals classes. Obviously Joanna is at the lower end of ability because she is so young, but the element of 'no fear' that she has in her personality when it comes to trying new things, helps to bridge the gap.
So I think we are going to do it for the term. It will be great during winter when it is wet all the time - 1 hr the kids will be able to run around, climb, jump and be all physical.

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Tobogganing!

I mentioned something about going to the snow sometime this winter to Ben. I also dug out pictures from 2006 of him tobogganing with me at the Remarkables down near Queenstown. He's decided that's the latest thing to play - I was instructed that I needed to make a toboggan. So, with the aid of a little packing tape, this is the result.
Granny W's package arrived today as well, so they could go get dressed up appropriately for the snow, even though it was decidedly not-cold today!

Monday, 27 April 2009

The Amazing Race

Started watching a new series of The Amazing Race on TV last Sunday night. While they were introducing all the teams Peter and I commented (not for the first time) about the stereotypical groupings they have when selecting the couples that make it onto the show. Every series they have the:
- newly dating couple
- long-term dating couple
- older couple
- blonde bimbo couple
- geek couple
- parent - child couple
- african american couple
- sibling couple
- married couple
So if you apply to go on the show, the probability of you getting a spot on the show is greatly reduced, because you don't have a chance of getting any 1 of the 11 teams, only the spot for the team into which your stereotype fits.

Friday, 24 April 2009

Current pregnancy craving...

...KFC. Particularly the original recipe chicken and chips. Had it for lunch on Monday, then had it for morning tea today! Apart from it being extremely unhealthy, it is pretty expensive. So I have to limit my visits to when the kids aren't with me.

Monday, 20 April 2009

Antenatal care in NZ

Thought I'd post about the nature on Antenatal care in NZ (well what I know so far) as it is a bit different to QLD/AUS.
Every NZer is entitled to free care while they are pregnant - including a single midwife to see you throughout you whole pregnancy.
You get to choose a midwife to see throughout your pregnancy and who is also required to attend the birth. You don't have to go to the Dr for anything - the midwife is allowed to order tests, scans etc.
You also have a choice of where you give birth, either at home, a birth centre, or the hospital (all free of charge). The birth centres here are just kind of like 'private hospital' style places, with single rooms, nice food etc. - they do have the whole baths and everything to do the more natural birth, but they aren't no drug places (except you can't get an epidural there - if you decide you want one you have to get transferred to the hospital).
That's all I can think of for now.

I have a Doctor...

After living in NZ for 7.5 months, I visited the Dr for the first time today. I'm not sick, I just thought it would be good to find a good Dr, so that when I do get sick (or one of the kids do), I don't have to stress about finding one. I am quite happy with the Dr I saw today and will go back to her in the future. She helped me get the ball rolling with pregnancy stuff - blood test and dating scan - and gave me some names of good midwives.

Sunday, 19 April 2009

Autumn is here

The colours have started - not all trees are losing leaves just yet, but a reasonable number are.

Thursday, 16 April 2009

Soft cheese and pregancy - danger or not?

Since moving to NZ we have been taking advantage of the good variety of quality brie and blue cheeses they make here. Hence now that I am pregnant, I'm having withdrawal symptoms from it and want to eat some (especially when Peter is eating it right in front of me). So this has led to some more research into the subject of what is the problem with eating soft cheese while pregnant.

Here are some summary points that we have discovered/observed from our research:
  • In Australia, the reason they tell you not to eat soft cheese while pregnant is because it may contain lysteria (mostly a problem with cheese made with unpasteurised milk)
  • lysteria is a bacteria which is present in a number of foods we eat everyday, but consuming it doesn't have any adverse effects on the average human adult
  • lysteria may cause miscarriage in pregnant women, although how high of a risk it poses is not really known
  • In countries where the consumption of soft cheese is an everyday part of the culture, they don't seem to worry about pregnant women eating it (including France where a number of their soft cheeses are made with unpasteurised milk).
  • In countries where the consumption of soft cheese is not an everyday part of the culture, then they seem to be overly cautious and advise pregnant women not to eat it (pasteurised or not).
So this means for me both Australia and NZ advise not to eat it. Whereas my pregnant sister in Denmark has not been advised to change her cheese eating habits at all.

The Hokey Pokey...

Simple song, simple dance, but not so simple history/background. Since being here I have noticed in a couple of different places (creche at the gym and Joanna's swimming lessons) that New Zealanders sing the 'Hokey Tokey' instead of the 'Hokey Pokey' like we are used to in Australia. Anyway I had a look on the internet to find out why and found that the whole history behind the origins and meaning of the song is rather complicated and surrounded by controversy. The song actually has 3 titles depending on where in the world you live...either 'Hokey Cokey', 'Hokey Pokey', or 'Hokey Tokey'. Anyway if you want more details about it, go look here. As far as NZ is concerned, the name may have been changed to avoid confusion with the NZ ice-cream flavour 'Hokey Pokey' (plain vanilla ice cream with small lumps of sponge toffee).

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Morning at the park...

School holiays = no kindy, no playgroup, no bible study. This means I have a lot of time to occupy kids for. So after going slightly batty yesterday having not planned anything (well I kinda turned into grumyzilla mum), I came up with the idea of taking the kids to the park this morning (the thing is activities have to not take much energy on my part as I'm not that energetic at the moment). I took them to the one next to the Claudelands showgrounds. It was great!...Joanna stayed on a swing for about 30min (which meant I just had to stand and give a little push every so often), and Ben pretty much entertained himself the whole time (since starting kindy, I've noticed he is much more confident at talking to other kids - especially ones he doesn't know). The most painful part was leaving, as neither of them wanted to!

Monday, 13 April 2009

Visit to the Mount


In NZ, everyone knows what you mean when you talk about the Mount. Mt Maunganui of course. It's a little mountain near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty region, with a very nice beach. I decided to take the kids there while Mel blobbed at home today. The drive there is reaonably straight (Mom, I think you would survive it!), although Joanna was a little whingy. We got there in time for morning tea and enjoyed sitting on the grass, having an Easter egg, among other things.
After that, we got changed into our swimmers and headed down onto the sand to play. Ben had lots of fun playing in the sand, and then "skiing" in the water. I had a quick swim as well - it was warm enough in the sun, even though the temperature only got to 21C today.
Fish and chips for lunch was followed by the drive home... I would have liked to spend the rest of the day there though - it's a really nice place.

How to tell when Ben enjoys something...

He starts incorporating it into his play. I'm sure it's not just him, but it's fun to take note of what he really enjoys about things. Last Easter we went to Fraser Island, and for months afterward he would "play" about it (going on a barge, going to Lake Wabby etc). After our overnight bushwalk a couple of months back, he didn't really "play" about it as much as I thought he might have. So I thought maybe he hadn't enjoyed it quite as much as I'd hoped he would have. Just recently though, he's been playing about going into the forest and sleeping in a hut. So I guess the memory is still there, and he did enjoy it after all. Or he was traumatized by the experience. I choose to believe the first option. :)

Sunday, 12 April 2009

West to Marokopa


With Mel feeling rather tired at the moment, we decided to not go away for the Easter weekend. Instead, I took the kids out for the day on Friday. The destination was Marokopa, a really tiny town on the west coast about 1.5 hours southwest of Hamilton (maybe a bit more actually... hard to tell). Anyway, we went with Glen (friend from work). Some highlights:
  • Mangapohue Natural Bridge is kind of cool.
  • Marokopa Falls is quite a nice waterfall.
  • Marokopa village is a pretty ordinary place.
  • It's quite a long way back winding through the hills towards Kawhia.

Catering for a pregnant woman...

Mel: I feel like a toasted cheese sandwich.
Me: OK.
Mel: But I don't feel like the really really mild Edam cheese - the flavour's too strong.
Me: OK. What sort of cheese do you want then?
Mel: Ummm... some really strong blue cheese would be good.
Me: mmm... right.

Friday, 10 April 2009

Strange pregnancy dreams...

As a lot of you would know pregnancy hormones cause you to have some very strange and vivid dreams. Well last night I dreamed that Peter was flying a small plane (a 2 seater job with me in the passenger seat) to the airport to catch an international flight. Except he had forgotten to book a space to park the small plane, so we went to the airport caravan park to see if they had a space where we could park it! Then on our international flight we were travelling in 1st class which was at the back of the plane, not the front like normal.

Thursday, 9 April 2009

Last swimming lesson...

Joanna had her last swimming lesson for the term today. We aren't doing them over winter (today was just like a winter day at 11C) - even though the pool deck is heated to 30C and the water to 31C or so. She was enjoying them a lot and loves the water, but the last couple of weeks has been tired and only participates in the 1st couple of activities before just wanting to cling on to me. She is happy enough to stay in the water, just as long as she doesn't have to participate. If we'd been continuing on, I would have tried to change to a different lesson time, but with only a couple of weeks left, I thought it would be pointless (new teacher, new kids etc.). Unfortunately Ben never got a space in any of the classes that suited us, so he missed out on swimming this term. I will make sure I get organised a bit earlier for term 4, so he doesn't miss out again.

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

We went to the wiggles!

Last week we went to the Wiggles concert in Hamilton. And the benefit of going to the show in a small city (= small theater), was that even though we were only 3 rows from the back, it didn't feel like we were that far away from the action. Plus being above stage height means that we could see everything that was happening on the stage. Ben really enjoyed it - no dancing, he not really that kind of kid, but he was watching the whole time and there were a few excited comments (and he did stand up for the last song where they ask everybody to stand up and dance). Joanna enjoyed it too, although it was a bit long for her. The rip-off item for the mechandise I think had to be the helium balloons at $10 each!

Broke...


...my sewing machine needle. After only getting 1.5 pairs (out of 5) of Joanna's long pants taken in. Annoying. Now I will have to drag the sewing machine out another day to finish them. (Thankfully Peter reminded me that there is a sewing machine shop in his building, so he can pick me up a new needle - so that saves me a trip.)

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Kill the Possum


Is the title of the book I've just finished reading (author: James Moloney). It's another young adult fiction novel (note: Don't read more than one juvenile ficiton in a row - you get a bit sick of the ego-centric lives of teenagers and school). I found it a bit slow and didn't really tell you much. It's underlying theme is about domestic violence. I wouldn't recommend it for young adults as it seems to support killing as a viable solution to the problem - even if it does point out all the associated complications/consequences of this. It also gives a lot of detail as to how it is planned and practiced - which if in the hands of the wrong teenager I could see the possibility of copy cat situations.

the plunge...

into darkness has happened.  Daylight saving ended on Sunday, which means the clocks have gone back an hour, and we've lost an hour of daylight in the evenings.  So, instead of riding home in bright afternoon sunshine and having daylight until after dinner time, it's now close to sunset on the way home and nearly dark by dinner time.  
I guess that's the last link with summer now gone... just waiting for the rainy winter to start.

Monday, 6 April 2009

Another Ben-ism


The Meringue-a-tang.

I'm going public...

...I'm pregnant. Due mid november, around Ben's birthday.

Sunday, 5 April 2009

Stumped

Peter and I were having a discussion about where the word 'stumped' originated from. Peter was certain it was from cricket - ie. in cricket - the batsman gets stumped when he doesn't know how to attack the ball (and ends up missing it). I wasn't sure. So like all good children of the internet age, we 'googled' it to try and find out. Most information we could find doesn't link it back to cricket, but to tree stumps and various situations in which these used to stop/hinder peoples' activities, particularly in the American West. But that sounds like an American definition to us...

Saturday, 4 April 2009

King Burger

Hungry Jacks is called Burger King here, but again Ben has given it his own personalised name - King Burger!

Suprise breakfast in bed

I got breakfast in bed this morning, for no particular reason (no birthday, anniversary etc.). It was nice and it was yummy - buttermilk pancakes topped with warm blueberries and greek yoghurt.