Afternoon/Evening at the Gardens...

We went for an afternoon at the Hamilton Gardens including picnic dinner. I had been told that the roses were looking really nice and so we decided to go take some photos/kids play and have dinner while we were there. Didn't really get many nice photos as the sun was still way to high in the sky (a downside of daylight saving), so I could only try to take ones of those in the shade, which was limited. Ben and Joanna had lots of fun playing cricket and with the play equipment (see-saw, swings, slippery slide). We had sushi for dinner (that Peter had made during rest time in the afternoon). As we were preparing to leave (well literally putting everything in the car), we heard some drumming start, and I convinced Peter that we should go see what it was. It was a Japanese drumming group of about 10-15 playing a end of year informal concert. So we sat down to watch/listen for a bit and ended up staying for 40min or so. It was really nice weather and the drumming was pretty cool. Ben really enjoyed it too!

Garden update...

Our garden has been growing really nicely with the warmer weather recently (yes, it does actually get warm here. Even if the temperatures don't really seem to show it). Our spinach had grown enough that we harvested the first batch on Wednesday - it was very yummy... very tender. Anyway, this is what the gardens now look like... lots of green stuff sprouting! We can look forward to some sugar snap-peas, lettuce, zucchini, spring onions and pak choy among other things...

Absolutely free!!

1. Kindy - I actually got around to visiting the Kindy that I've put Ben's name down at. It looks good with lots of outdoor play (which Ben will love) and to start with he will go Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday afternoons (12.30-3pm). Ben must like it too as we had a bit of a tantrum episode when it was time to leave (I only popped in for a quick look around). Anyway was talking to one of the kindy teachers and found out that there are no fees/voluntary contributions etc. to pay. The government pays the teacher's wages and they also get funding to provide stuff for the kids. They do run a fundraiser each term to help make bigger improvements to the centre, but the teacher said they like it if family spends $20 or so on each fundraiser - which I'm not going to complain about $20 per term (especially when compared to how much I was going to have to pay in Brisbane).

2. Passionfruit - A vine appeared on our fence a few weeks ago, it seemed to have sprouted from a crack in the concrete. Anyway at that stage I didn't know what it was, but thought I keep it there and see what happened. Well it started to flower on the weekend and thanks to google I was able to identify it as a passionfruit vine! Peter and I have always wanted one so we are really excited and can't wait for the fruit to come.

Air guitar extraordinaire!

Ben did a bit of a show for Mel the other evening - something about a "dog mowing song" I think it was... you'll have to watch the video and see if you can figure it out!

Ben's Birthday

I started writing this post the night of Ben's birthday, but haven't got round to actually posting it until now (needed to fix up some photos to go with it).
We thought Ben had woken up early because he was excited, but it wasn't really... it was that he'd woken up with a temperature and a sore head (he's had a temp for the past 2 days, but we thought he was getting better). After breakfast he got to talk to Granny and Grandpa B on skype and open some presents with them (with the webcam). He then had a morning nap (something he hasn't done for years) during which the Hulls's arrived from Auckland (Peter's PRC friends). The plan was to have the birthday cake for morning tea before going to the park at the lake for play and then lunch. But because Ben wasn't feeling himself we ended up hanging around at home a bit longer and having cake a bit later (it was a Bob the builder themed cake).

The sugar hit from the cake seemed to make Ben feel a bit better so we went on down to the lake where the kids played and fed the ducks and we had a picnic lunch. After lunch there was a bit more playing at the park before it was off home for rest time. After rest time Ben talked with Granny and Grandpa W and opened some more presents with them. Then there was a little time to play with the presents before dinner, bath and bed. Thankyou everyone for the presents you gave Ben, he loves all of them (and so does Joanna)!

Mel's got the flu...

I've now been sick for nearly a week and we think it is the flu. Achy joints and muscles, temperature, sore throat/swollen glands, but no runny or blocked nose. Peter had a flu shot at work this year, so that's why he hasn't got it (well that's our assumption). We now think that what the kids were sick with was the flu too. So hopefully I will start feeling better soon, I'm getting sick of being sick, especially when I can't take sick days from being mum during the week (Peter has been great this weekend taking the kids out so I can rest at home and looking after all the feeding, changing, bathing etc.). And next year I'm going to make sure I get off my butt and have a flu jab (annoying that I can't get it free like Peter used to at UQ).

A Declaration of Intent

I hereby declare that I intend to run the Rotorua Marathon in 2009.
There. Now that I've said it, I need to get off my behind and out of bed in the mornings and get some training done. I started this morning - it was my first run since mid-July. Hamilton seems like a pretty ideal place for running - it's pretty flat, has little traffic, and, probably most importantly, has very good weather. I found it really hard to do marathon training through the summer in Brisbane - it was just way too hot, even at sunrise. Hamilton, in contrast, cools down overnight, even through summer (average minimums are around 13C in mid-summer, as opposed to Brisbane's 21C). Which hopefully will make it more pleasant to run in. Let's see if it makes it any easier to get out of bed for those long runs...

Ancient history...

I discovered some ancient video in our photo catalogue yesterday... of Ben at one year old, taken on our old point and shoot camera. Mel thought it was Joanna initially - they looked that similar. So, I took a little bit of video of Joanna in the bath this evening (and tried to make sure that embarrassing bits were kept out of sight!). Here's the results - they do look very similar don't they?

Sick...

Well for the past week at least one of us has been sick! First Peter...then Ben...then Joanna...and now me. Peter had just a straight cold, Ben had a bad cold with temperature for a few days and very lethargic, Joanna had a straight cold, and I started off with the beginnings of tonsillitis (I haven't been taking my daily antibiotics for a couple of months, but got straight back to them as soon as my throat was sore), and now feel like I'm coming down with something else. Peter doesn't get any sick leave until he has been at the company for 6 months.

Happy Birthday to Ben...

It's Ben's birthday today! He turns 3... and woke up a little early because he was excited. Anyway, we have a full day planned, with Hannie and Jono down from Auckland for the day (among other things!). Hopefully we'll get to chat with both sets of grandparents as well. If anyone else wants to say hello, "thewaldeckfamily" is us on Skype!

Free Flowers...

I do like having fresh flowers in a vase at home, but very rarely get given any from Peter (sound familiar?). I kind of get his argument about the exorbitant amount they charge at the shops for them and the short amount of time they last (which actually was totally blown out of the water with the last bunch he bought me - when I got back from Oz after September school holidays - they lasted 2 weeks and I didn't even change the water!). Well thanks to the good growing soil of the Waikato and the keen gardening neighbours that we live next to, it looks like I will be able to have fresh flowers throughout spring and summer! Our neighbours are always doing something in their garden every weekend and they just happen to grow climbing roses on the fence between our properties , so I take any flowers which are growing on our side of the fence! (they don't mind) And then yesterday I discovered this tree down the back that had these cool looking little buds, with tiny white flowers. What you see in the picture is the result - I would have liked the roses to be sitting up a bit more, but the fence limits the length of stem I can cut.

Craft of the Week

This week the craft at library story time was to plant a bean. The kids coloured in the label and stuck it onto the stick. Then they pushed the bean down into the soil. They now sit on the windowsill in the kitchen with all the other seedlings. Now we just have to wait and see if they sprout. (the one on the left is Joanna's, on the right is Ben's - their names were written on in felt-pen so have washed off with watering)

New Recipe for Caramel top n fill

Step 1. Purchase can of condensed milk.
Step 2. Place carefully in a cardboard packing box.
Step 3. Place cardboard box in 20 foot high cube container.
Step 4. Place container on ship and sail across the Tasman Sea.
Step 5. Turn out from packing box.
Step 6. Open can with can opener.
Step 7. Spoon out and enjoy!

Finally, video #2

We posted a video of Ben a while ago and haven't posted any since then. The main reason for that is that the software which came with our video camera was so atrocious that we couldn't edit the video into an appropriate format for uploading. Now, we have invested in some new software, and voila... it's a whole lot easier to edit our video. So you might get a few videos to look at now!
This is from yesterday, file size 1.8MB. Check out Joanna's little wiggle before she starts walking!

Peak-bagging in the Waikato

The Waikato isn't particularly renowned for it's mountains - the big mountains of New Zealand tend to be either in middle of the South Island (e.g. Mt Cook), in the central part of the North Island (e.g. Mt Ruapehu) or Mt Taranaki (it's a whopping great big volcano which kind of just sits out by itself).  The highest mountain in Waikato is, I believe Mt Pirongia (959m), which is the mountain I trotted up a few weeks ago.

Over the weekend, the weather forecast was good, so we decided to get out and get the kids into the bush again.  Pirongia was the destination again, seen as the rest of the family hadn't been there and it's pretty close to Hamilton.  Ben was excited about going for a bushwalk, but only if I carried him (lazy boy!).  So, Ruapane (728m) was climbed - it's one of the minor peaks on the way up Pirongia.  It only takes about an hour of walking, which Mel reckons was far enough to carry Joanna!  I did pretty well considering how heavy Ben is now (I know, I know, he's still a lightweight, compared to some other kids his age...) and wasn't feeling particularly tired by the top.  The way down was a bit harder on the legs - my quads and calves are feeling a little achy, but not too bad.  I guess I'll have to do it again sometime to make sure my legs get used to it!

All up, it was a nice walk through some nice forest, with very expansive views from the top.  The kids both had colds, but still enjoyed it (J fell asleep on the way down).

Mmm... maybe I'll have to get them up Taranaki one day... :)

(A few more photos are at flickr as well!)

Waikato's World

I guess you're wondering what "Waikato's World" might be... well, it's the slightly cheesy name that has been given to Hamilton's show (their version of Brisbane's Ekka). But, of course, with Hamilton being one tenth the size of Brisbane, "Waikato's World" isn't anywhere near as big. We were given free tickets to get in (courtesy of Karen from work - thanks Karen!) so we went and had a look last weekend - it's only on for 3 days.
There was all the usual sort of show stuff that we saw at the Ekka back in Brisbane (horses, some rides, farm animals etc), just on a smaller scale. One of the good things about it was that all the rides for the kids were free. Ben was really excited about going for a drive in the cars, so I stood in the queue with him for about half an hour to get to ride in one - he was a pretty good driver, except he wasn't tall enough to reach the pedals properly, so I had to push it with my hand! We also got to see:

• Bob the Builder, up on stage.
• Wood-chopping contest
• Some John Deere products
• Sheep-dog competition
• A monster truck

And all this for, well, free. For us, anyway. It was nice enough to go, but it's taken us a week to get around to blogging about it. Maybe that tells you how exciting it was!

By popular demand...

I am proud to present 'Joanna Toddling'!

Credits
Photos: Peter
Lead Actor: Joanna
Supporting role: Mel
Production: Mel
Wardrobe: Ben

New shoes...

Joanna is no longer shoe-less. Farmers (the closest you get to Myer in Hamilton) had a one day sale on yesterday with 20% of shoes, so I got Peter to buy a new pair for Joanna when he popped across to the shops after he kids were in bed. She looks all grown up now, toddling around in her new shoes (still soft sole pre-walkers).

Playgroup...

Now that I have been going for a couple of weeks and paid the fees yesterday for the term, I thought I'd let you all know about the playgroup we have joined. It is run by Chapel Hill Community Church (one of the churches we visited, but have decided not to attend), and they have 3 groups (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings). We go on Tuesday mornings from 9/9.30am - 11.30/12pm. The first half of the morning is free play time (with a variety of toys to choose from, both inside and outside), then there is a 'mat time' which is just announcements and singing a few songs, then morning tea, then creative time (playdough, craft, painting, sandpit etc. - see the photos).
Ben and Joanna have started to settle in well and are both happy to go off and play without me being right next to them (I really noticed this today, as I managed to have 2 cups of tea - it was our 3rd week). The mums are friendly and not all go to church or that particular church. I'm enjoying being able to talk to other mums and starting to build new friendships. There is one particular mum who I have talked to each week (my 1st week there was her 2nd week) and I've organised to meet up with her in the coming week so our kids can play together (Ben has been asking about making friends in NZ). Hopefully Ben will start to make some friends over the coming weeks, at the moment he is too interested in what he is playing with (as everything is new and exciting) to think about talking to other kids.
Playgroups are actually quite rare in NZ these days for 2 reasons. Firstly about a year ago the government brought in funding for 20hrs free early childhood education for 3-4year olds, so more parents are sending their kids to Kindy, so there isn't such a demand for playgroups (kids can actually go to Kindy from the age of 2 - if there are places available). The second reason is that in NZ there are places called 'Playcentres' (these have been around for a while) these are formally run, parent-led early childhood education centres. Parents can attend with their children from birth up to school age and they do the same sorts of activities that kindy/playgroups do.

Toddling...

Since the weekend Joanna has started toddling. I'm not going to say she has started walking yet as it only lasts for about 4 steps before she plops onto her bottom. But she is starting try walking between places before plopping on her bottom and crawling the rest of the way. Sometimes after she has plopped down after the 3-4 steps, she will stand herself back up again and take another few steps. She behaves very proud when she does this. This means I now have a dilemma with her footwear...the pair of pre-walkers we bought soon after we arrived in NZ have been totally worn through at the front (ie. the sole and upper are totally seperate and there is a big gaping hole that you can see all her toes through!). But now that she looks like she is very close to walking I feel it would be a waste to buy another pair of pre-walkers as it wouldn't be long and she will be needing proper walking shoes (not to metion the change in season from closed shoes to sandles). So at the moment she is in limbo with no shoes to wear when we go out.
She has also started to stand up more and dance when music is playing on the stereo or we've got a DVD on. It is quite a cute style of moshing with her bobbing up and down, nodding her head and clapping or flapping her arms.

Appreciation by tackling

Each morning when I leave for work, I try to give a hug for each of the kids and Mel.  Ben, being a 3 year-old, doesn't always want a hug - he sometimes runs away saying "no, don't want a hug from Dad".  So, I have to try something different to make sure he knows he's loved and appreciated.  So I offer to tackle him instead of giving him a hug.  He's happy with that - this morning he didn't want to give Dad a hug, but he was certainly happy to tackle Dad good-bye!

Toilet training scrapped...

As of lunchtime today I have decided to scrap trying to toilet train Ben. After that 1st day which seemed to go as expected for a 1st day, things have not progressed at all. All that has happened is Ben training me to put him on the potty at the time intervals that will mean his wee will end up in the potty and not in his pants. No amount of reminding or rewarding has resulted in him working out for himself when he needs to go and he is totally unconcerned about having wet pants (or poo pants, as was the case once today). So it's back to the world of nappies.

Mmm... goodness.

Here's a record of the produce we bought last weekend in Hawke's Bay... we finally got around to taking a picture of it all. Needless to say, the cheese and apples will soon be consumed and all those bottles had better last us quite a while longer!

Testing, testing, 1...2...3...

Ben is, well, being a little testing at the moment. Probably just because he's being a typical 3-year-old. He's generally pretty happy, but as soon as he has to do something that he doesn't particularly want to do (e.g. tidying up toys), he just says, matter-of-factly "I don't want to". And we usually have a tantrum in the process of getting him to do whatever it was. Toilet training isn't helping - Mel did up a chart for him, and got some stickers which he gets each time he does a wee or poo in the potty. Trouble is, he now just doesn't care whether he gets a sticker or not. We're really struggling to find anything to motivate him - whatever we try doesn't seem to work for more than about, oh, 2 minutes.
I guess that's a 3 year-old.

Toilet Training update...

After what I thought was a pretty good first day, we haven't progressed much. Ben is quite capable of doing his wee on the potty if he is sitting there, but still lacks any skill recognising when he needs to go sit himself on the potty. It doesn't matter how much questioning/reminding that we do (ie. sometimes he wets his pants after only being asked 30sec before if he needs to do a wee!). I know it is early days yet, so we will keep persevering I guess.