New template...

Well, not quite a new template.  I just replaced the Christmas picture with something I like :)

And I've managed to lose our blogroll.... I'll fix it up sometime.

I don't like SD cards...

We've been having issues with SD cards recently.  Our (I mean Mel's) new camera uses SD cards rather than CompactFlash which our previous camera used.  So we had just started using the two cards that we had a lot more regularly (one had been in the video camera, the other in our netbook).  After having a card reader fail on us (seems like every card reader has dodgy design which lets it get bent pins unless you put the card in very very carefully...), I'd bought a $2 card reader off ebay... which had been working fine.  Until a couple of weeks ago.

Our larger card seemed to go bad, but then was working fine again after formatting.  We hadn't lost any photos though.  And then the other day, the smaller card suddenly went horribly bad in the camera - the camera couldn't access it at all.  And we had lost some photos.  Our $2 card reader is now completely dead... I suspect that it's the culprit.

Some recovery software (RescuePro and PhotoRec) has managed to retrieve some of the photos that were on it, but not all (I haven't processed any yet, which is part of the reason why our flickr uploading has been a little slow recently!).  So we don't have as many photos of Christmas Day as we would have liked.  After 7 years of using CompactFlash and never having any issues, I've decided I don't like SD cards.

Busy busy...

We've been rather quiet on here lately... partly because we were away for a week at Mt Maunganui, partly because we've been busy leading up to Christmas and partly because my parents have been here so we've been doing stuff with them instead of blogging. We don't have photos of our holiday up yet, but we'll get some up sometime soon! There are a couple of videos though...
(Oh, and merry Christmas to any readers that we're not going to get to talk to tomorrow!)

Kindy Christmas Picnic 2009

On Wednesday night was the annual Kindy Christmas Picnic. Obviously this is the first year we have been (as Ben only started kindy during 1st term). It is just held at the kindy, with everybody bringing their own picnic blanket and food, and finding a place on the grass in the outside play area to eat (daylight saving makes the whole event a feasible option). We had fish and chips, which was a popular option with other families followed closely by pizza. It was a good opportunity to get to know other kindy parents better (especially the dads, most of who don't do the day to day drop-off and pick-ups), and the kids have fun playing. The kids had also been practicing some Christmas songs, which they performed along with the Teachers.

Advent activities

Here's some photos from some activities we've being doing during Advent.

First is making icing biscuits. The kids love this activity, mainly because they get to eat sweet icing and lollies - I think. They each got to choose a colour for their icing - Ben chose black and Joanna chose blue. Then there was a variety of lollies to choose from to decorate (licorice, mnms, mini marshmallows, choc chips).

We also spent a morning decorating some boxes to use with our Nativity scene dress-ups (another advent activity that I intend to blog about sometime this month), for the wise men's gifts for Jesus. We each decorated one (Ben's is the 1st, mine the 2nd and Joanna's the 3rd), the reason we did 3 was so there is one for each type of gift the wise men brought for Jesus (gold, frankincense and myrrh) - not to perpetuate the 'three wise men' error.

Knight in white armour...

When the kids were getting dressed the other morning, Joanna decided to try out her skirt (with in-built bike pants) on her head. Ben was the first to recognise the similarity of it to that of knight's armour.

Summer is here!

We have now had 4 days of sunshine with maximum temperatures above 20C (which is comfortably warm by NZ standards - definite shorts and tshirt weather!).  Just in time for our beach holiday!

War on Santa - Attack no. 2 (aka...Christmas Tradition - Advent)

Here is the first of my more detailed descriptions of some of the Christmas Traditions we are starting this year (that I promised I'd do earlier in the week).

Advent Calendar

The main reason that we are doing an Advent calendar is so the kids (and us) are reminded of the reason for celebrating Christmas, every day leading up to Christmas.  There are a couple of reasons I think this is important:

1. So the kids (Ben especially) become familiar with the details, meaning and significance of the birth of Jesus.  Doing a little each day means Ben is able to memorise details of the story, so he can recall them whenever he wants to (which he does frequently when 'playing').  This means he is also able to tell his friends this knowledge, which they may not hear in their own homes.
   
2. It is a tool to help counteract the many messages about secular 'Christmas' (Santa, presents/materialism etc.) that bombard the kids everyday leading up to Christmas.

Ok...on to the details of what I have done for our family Advent calendar this year:

We are doing readings that concentrate on the events around the birth of Jesus. We have 25 readings mainly from Luke and Matthew's gospels.  I got the material from Wendy, who specifically wrote it to aim at a preschool age audience.  Each day there is a Bible passage to read (we're using the NIrV version); some questions to help reinforce the main points of the reading and check/aid comprehension of the passage; then there is a key verse selected from the passage and some suggested activities related to the passage (usually drawing a particular scene or person mentioned).

The actual calendar is made up of paper lunch bags (tuckshop bags), each numbered and strung up on a ribbon.  Inside the bag each day there is a piece of paper with a paraphrased version of the key verse for that day, plus a 'fun' something for each of the kids (well not for Naomi, she's a bit young).  Some days these are small gifts (eg. balloons, bubbles, pencils, special food) and some days it is a special activity (eg. icing/decorating biscuits, special story time, having ice creams for afternoon tea).

Work Christmas Party...

Was last night.  We got friends from church to babysit Ben and Joanna so we could go (Naomi came with us).  As I mentioned the other day, it was at Vilagrad Winery.  The food was 3 course buffet style (here is the menu if your interested), with a yummy cheese platter to finish the evening.  The entertainment for the night was a live band 'The Sound Workshop' with accompanying space for dancing.  Peter's company also organised a challenge...solving a reubik's cube where the solution resulted in the new company logo (which most employees didn't really know what it looked like) being displayed correctly on each side.

Creative discipline...

Yesterday, Ben was sent to play in his room by himself for 10 minutes, as he was not playing appropriately with Joanna (whinging lots, getting overly frustrated with toys, and generally over-reacting to everything).  He initially protested to the consequence, but when I went back to his room after the 10 minutes to tell him that he could come out and play with the rest of us again, this is what I found...

A ship

The Flower mill

He said he'd made it as a 'surprise' for me.

A week of lasts...

From this Wednesday just gone, till the end of next week, there a quite a few things that will be the last for this year or forever in some cases.

1. Wednesday -  was the last day my parents were here.
2. Thursday - was the last morning Bible study for the year.
3. Friday (today) - was the last visit from my midwife - Naomi had her 6 week check and will now see a Plunket nurse (child health nurse) for her health/development check-ups
4. Saturday - is Peter's work christmas party (which I'm really looking forward to - we're getting a baby sitter for Ben and Jaoanna, plus it's as Vilagrad Winery which I've been wanting to go to sometime)
5. Tuesday - is the last day of Playgroup for the year
6. Thursday - is the last day of kindy for Ben (there is actually 1 more week of kindy after this, but we will be on holidays)
   

Immunisations... False start

I took all the kids to the medical centre for Naomi and Ben to get their immunisations (Naomi's 6 week ones and Ben's 4yr old ones).  I thought it was easiest to get both done at once instead of making 2 separate trips. Well I get there and the receptionist tells me I can't get them done today for 2 reasons:

1. Naomi has to see a Dr before she can get her 6 week immunisations (I didn't know this), so we need to make an appointment for the Dr and then an appointment to see the nurse.
2. Ben couldn't get his today because there was a nurse away sick, so with only 1 nurse there wasn't any spare time to do it.

So...we have made appointments for next Wednesday morning, for Naomi to see a Dr and both of them to see the nurse to get their needles.

Mixed emotions...

I've been experiencing very mixed emotions today including:

1. Sadness - because my parents have gone and I really enjoyed spending time with them and sharing my children (their grandchildren) with them and I am missing them.  Plus the kids really liked having them here and enjoyed spending time with them and are going to miss them too.
2. Fear - I haven't had to deal with all 3 kids on my own doing the whole day to day routine since Naomi was born (my parents arrived 1 week after she was born, so Peter was still home until then).  So I know it is going to take a bit to adjust our routine a bit and get used to getting everything done in a day on my own.
3. Excitement - About accomplishing all the daily tasks on my own without too much drama and also spending some time together as a family by ourselves.
4. Loneliness - I've gotten used to constantly having other adults around the house during the day and therefore having extra adult company and conversation to normal. (hence the marked increase in the number of blog posts today - I guess)
   

I seem to frequently be feeling more than one of these emotions at any one time.  Mum and Dad melded so well into our family life/routine, doing lots of little things (and some big things) to help out, that most things I've done today (including doing the washing, making lunch for the kids etc.) have reminded me of them and hence stirred up the emotions I've mentioned.  It is great to have had such good family support (of the practical kind) for the past 5 weeks, but it is hard to go from that to totally nothing (not having any family living in NZ).

Survived kindy drop-off...

It is one of the things that Mum and Dad were totally doing for me while they were here (and I was very thankful for).  Ben starts kindy at 1pm and Naomi is due to feed between 1pm and 1.30pm.  I like to stay at kindy for a little bit at the start and do some activity/play with Ben (and Joanna also likes to get some time to play there too!).  So as of today, it means I have to drive to kindy so I can spend a short amount of time there (a bit shorter than I used to), then jump back in the car to get home in time to feed Naomi.
 I then have to fit in sleep/rest time for Joanna and I (Naomi is still you enough that she sleeps anywhere still), before getting back in the car (or maybe walking if we have time) to get back to kindy to pick Ben up at 3.30pm.

It should become a bit easier when Ben starts going to morning kindy, but that won't be happening until sometime during first term next year.

Survived the morning...

Well I'm happy with how my morning went.  I managed to tidy up the table after breakfast so it was all clear (I'm bad about keeping this a habit, but Dad was doing it while he was here and I quite liked/got used to having a nice clear, clean table between meals), put away the clean washing (Mum had been helping out a bit with this, sorting and folding it all, so all I had been doing was putting it away in the cupboards), washed and dried (in the dryer because it is raining today) a load of towels, all before leaving for Bible study.

I also really enjoyed Bible study and learned a lot.  We were looking at prophesies from the old testament which prophesied about Jesus being a prophet, a priest, and a king and the birth of Jesus fulfilled these prophesies.  It meant we looked a lot of old testament stuff that isn't the usual Christmas story stuff - which made it rather refreshing.

Back to reality...

Mum and Dad left early this morning to fly back to Brisbane.  So it is just Peter and I and the kids for the next 10 days (until Peter's parents arrive for a visit).  I realised yesterday it will be the first time that I will have to survive a whole day with all three kids, all by myself.  We have the usual activities today - Bible study, lunch, kindy for Ben, special afternoon tea at the shops afterwards...a pretty busy day, so I will see how I go.

War on Santa - Attack no. 1

Some of you maybe familiar with the Jesus Storybook Bible, well YouTube has a clip with the Christmas story from this being read by David Suchet, with accompanying illustrations.  It makes a nice change from just reading the story to them, plus my kids love watching any stuff that's on a screen.  I'll definitely be watching this with Ben and Joanna a few times this month.



Thanks to Gordon.

War on Santa...

This year I'm really feeling a big influence from the secular world on Ben's view of Christmas.  He can spot a picture/figurine/statue of Santa at twenty paces (which has really heightened my awareness of how we see Santa nearly everywhere we go - shops, advertisements, magazines, storybooks etc.).  So I am trying to do as many things as I can to expose Ben (and Joanna too) to the real meaning of Christmas (celebrating the birth of Jesus).  I've already mentioned some of my ideas and I will try to blog about these in more detail, as well as other ideas I think of.

Advent has started...

As most of you are probably aware - yesterday, being December 1st, was the first day of advent leading up to Christmas.  In past years this has not really been significant as we haven't done any Advent stuff, but this year is different.  I've made a Advent calendar which includes a bible reading for each day (thanks to Wendy), along with some discussion questions and a small fun gift (toy, food, or special activity/treat).  I've also purchased a felt Nativity scene which the kids can play with - moving the people and animals around.  I'm also going to put a collection of Christmas story books (we don't have many at the moment, but plan to add to it - although it can be a challenge to find ones that aren't all about santa and reindeer).  I'm also nearly finished making some Nativity scene dress-ups for the kids to play with, so they can dress up as Mary, Joseph, a shepherd, wise men or an angel.  Now I have done/am thinking of doing some other things for advent too and I want to take some piccies of the stuff I've told you about, so you can see it, but I don't have time right now, so it will have to wait for another day.

Waking up...

Just thought I'd update you all to say that Naomi is starting to wake up a bit more and behave more like an average baby - staying awake for a bit after most of her feeds and having periods of unexplained crying/fussiness.  On the whole she is still a pretty content baby.

Cakes are now in the oven...

They won't be ready to come out until at least 5.45pm.

I should have been more organised...

At the start of the week I decided today would be the day I made this year's Christmas cake (I've actually never made one before - Peter isn't overly keen on fruit cake - but Peter's mum made one last year that was really nice - even Peter thought it wasn't too bad - so I've got the recipe from her to make my own).  I bought all the dried fruit at the bulk foods shop last friday and meant to check the ingredients list yesterday to make sure I had everything I needed.  Well I never got around/forgot to check and didn't look at the ingredients till this morning, when I realised I hadn't bought the rum! (plus a couple of other ingredients that I don't normally have in the cupboard).

So I went off to the supermarket at 9am to get the missing things and intended to drop by the bottle shop on the way home to get the rum (can buy wine in the supermarkets here, but still have to go to a bottle shop to buy spirits).  Anyway as a I suspected, the bottle shop was still closed - didn't open until 10am.  Which meant I had to come home and wait until after Naomi's 10am feed to then go and get it.  Which has meant that a morning/half day cooking Christmas cake, has turned into a whole day event.  Because the fruit has to sit in the rum for 2hrs, then the cake has to bake for 2.5-3hrs.  Therefore the fruit isn't going to be ready now until 1pm (Naomi's feed time), so the cake probably won't get in the oven until 2pm at the earliest etc. etc.

I have managed to make some shortbread and rum balls (stuff to give to the neighbours for Christmas) to use up the time, so I have got something done this morning that needed doing.  Now for a bit of sit down and rest, lunch, feed Naomi and then back to that Christmas cake making!

"Mum, I'm about to throw..."

"...up!"  Ben woke up this morning and promptly threw up.  So he's spending the day at home (and hence so am I).  There has been a tummy bug going around the kids in Hamilton the past couple of weeks (a few kids from kindy were away last week with it), so I'm assuming that this is the bug Ben has.  It's nice that my parents are still here, as it means they are able to take Joanna to playgroup still.

Taupo touring...

Last weekend we decided to go away for the weekend so that Granny and Grandpa B could see some of the country other than Hamilton. They were keen for some mountains and some thermal stuff, so Taupo seemed like the best place to base ourselves. We booked a bach (a holiday house, for non-Kiwis) through bookabach and headed off on Friday afternoon. The weather forecast was good for Saturday, so we headed up to Whakapapa in the morning. We went for a short stroll at the now-closed ski-field and managed to find a last little patch of snow to play in - which Ben had been keen on! After warming up in the cafe, we headed back down to the village and went for a short nature walk and had a picnic lunch. After that, we went for another short walk, this time to Tawhai Falls, followed by the drive back to the bach. All up it was a pretty long day - we were all tired by the end of it.
On Sunday we planned to have a slightly more relaxed day, so we just went in to Taupo to the AC Baths (thermally heated pools) for the morning (as a special birthday activity for Ben!). That ended up being very nice - Ben had oodles of fun in the nice warm water. We had a relaxing afternoon back at the bach and then went out for a nice birthday dinner in town again.

Monday morning was pack-up time, so once we'd done that we started heading north again. A stop at Huka Falls for morning tea, then on to Orakei Korako - a thermal area about half an hour north of Taupo. We all had fun walking around there looking at steaming pools and bubbling mud, before heading back home after lunch.

A very busy weekend, fitting in lots of stuff, and tiring Granny and Grandpa B out thoroughly!

Naomi update...

Naomi is now just over 4 weeks old, so this can be a slightly late 4 week update or a slightly early 1 month update - you choose! She's still a pretty sleepy little girl... she decides to wake up and be a little grumpy right about the time we sit down for dinner, and right about the time we want to go to bed. But other than that, we can't really complain - she's really pretty good!
Ben and Joanna still love her lots - we get lots of comments from Ben about how he loves her and how cute she is etc.
Anyway, here's a shot of each of them at as close to one month as we have: see if it's any easier to pick which is which!

Internet grocery shopping - post script

I forgot to add that most times I also receive a bag of sample goodies along with my order, which usually has a value of at least the $5 extra I pay for the person to do the shopping for me. For example, today I received 5 Select brand newborn nappies; 5 sachets of formula; 12 green tea teabags; 4 sachets of baby food fruit puree (which don't expire until after Naomi will be starting solids, so will be used); and a fridge magnet.

Internet grocery shopping - Even better!

I posted earlier this year about how I loved internet grocery shopping as it was convenient to do while doing other stuff at home. Well it is now even better!

About 2 months ago they added the option of pick-up from the local supermarket that is just at the end of our street. This means instead of paying $13 for delivery, I now have the option of just paying $5 and going and picking it up and bringing it home myself. At the moment with 3 kids under 5 and a very young baby (plus people staying), I think that paying $5 for somebody to walk down the aisles of the supermarket and putting all the items I want into the trolley and packing it all into bags (a task that would take me at least 1 hour), is value for money.

It means that instead of trying to get Naomi to sleep in the trolley or baby carrier, she can be sleeping in her own bed, while I do my shopping order on the computer. And instead of having to keep the other two under control in the supermarket, they can be playing happily at home, while I do the order.

Now I know that the children learn many helpful life skills by going on grocery shopping trips, but I think it is best done on shorter little trips to the shops at this point in time (mainly for my sanity and their enjoyment) - and this happens fairly frequently as we pass through the shopping centre on our walk to and from kindy each day.

Not my problem...

Peter found this article today, where a study finds: "The average British mother relies on just nine different meals to feed her family," and "Nine in 10 mothers polled admitted cooking the same meals over and over again while one in four made the same meals on the same day of the week."

Now I already know that I'm not the norm when it comes to my cooking habits - I like trying new recipes all the time, so usually at least 1/2 the meals I cook in a week, I've never tried before. And it is a rare occurrence for a recipe to be cooked twice. I would get bored if I cooked the same meals all the time and especially cooking the same meals on the same days of the week! Trying out new recipes all the time keeps me motivated to get into the kitchen each night to cook dinner. I also enjoy sitting down and looking through recipe books and magazines to find new recipes to try - it's quite relaxing.

Understanding underwear...

Thanks to this article I now know why I'm the one that has to go out and buy new undies when the others are getting too worn-out and hole-ly, that I can't stand the sight of them anymore. (This is the point at which they get put in the rag bag and the kids use them to help wash the car!)

Home sweet home...

We just got home from a weekend away - I took today off work to make a long weekend. We headed to Taupo... and popped up to Whakapapa, went to the AC Baths in Taupo, Huka Falls and Orakei Korako. More details and many photos to come...

Sculpture park

On Monday, I took Mum and Dad to Waitakaruru Arboretum and Sculpture Park to look at the RE:FRACTION Outdoor Glass Sculpture Exhibition. I'd never been to the sculpture park before, although I have had the brochure for it stuck to our notice board since last year.

It was a bit of a walk from the carpark to the area of the park where the glass sculptures were, but the kids seemed to cope really well - it helped that there was other interesting sculptures to stop and look at on the way. The actual glass exhibition was a little smaller than I imagined it would be, but there was still a number of sculptures for me to take some photos of, although it would have been nice to have a little sunshine (the weather was overcast, with a cold wind and frequent scuds of showers/drizzle). We took a picnic lunch which we sat and ate amongst the glass sculptures before heading back to the car and home again.

To early for Christmas?

I used to always think that shops were jumping the gun if they had Christmas decorations etc. in store before my birthday (26th November), as I thought 1 month was plenty of time in advance to prepare for Christmas.

Well this year I have changed my view. As I mentioned last month, I've been thinking about what traditions we can begin as a family to teach our children about God. And Christmas is an obvious time for God-focused traditions, so we are wanting to do some Advent stuff leading up to Christmas. As we want our kids to learn the real meaning of Christmas, and think a little a bit about it each day, to balance out all the stuff they will hear about Santa etc. during this time. So this means, I need to start organising this now - early/mid November - so it is ready for starting on the 1st of December. Which means I'm already looking for Christmas things in the shops - Nativity scene, some little gifts for the Advent calendar to make it fun, Christmas decorations that are related to the real meaning of Christmas (ie. no Santas, snowmen, reindeer etc.), etc. I know some of the stuff that I'm looking out for this year, will be one off purchases that will be able to be reused in subsequent years, so I might not have to start so early with my looking out for Christmas stuff in the shops next year.

Ahoy there, matey!

Today we had Ben's birthday party. It was a 'Pirate party' complete with a Pirate ship, treasure chest present storer, fishing game, treasure chest craft, and pirate bandannas, eye patches and jewels to take home.

For food I made:

• Blue jelly cups with chocolate fish swimming in them,
• Mini hotdog pirate boats (cocktail sausage with puff pastry wrapped around and toothpick flag),
• Fish shaped fish fingers - a favourite with the kids,
  
• Jammy jewels,
• Sticky chicken nibbles - a favourite with the adults.

The cake was a Island with hidden treasure - complete with a red 'X' marking the spot, which Ben had to smash open/dig to find the buried treasure. This was a highlight for all the kids who all dived in for their share of the treasure once Ben had discovered it.

While Ben was opening his presents, he surprised both Peter and I with his appropriate use of present opening etiquette/manners (without us reminding him about it at all): thanking each child for their present before opening it; reading the cards before opening the presents; and then at the end involving all the kids in a group hug to say thank you for his presents (we would have loved a photo of this, as it was really cute, but it was totally spontaneous and unexpected that nobody had their camera before it was over).

Naomi update: 10 days

Time for an update on how Waldeck jnr #3 is going: Naomi is now 10 days old. There's no particular reason for choosing 10 days as time for an update other than that I have time now! Naomi is doing well - she's been a little jaundiced, but nothing bad enough to be particularly concerned about. She sleeps like a dream still... let's hope that continues! Yesterday afternoon we finally got around to giving her a bath - she loved it, just like Joanna did.
Nothing much else to report really - she's cute and we all love her lots!

Waikato's World 2009

It's that time of year again...show time! You might remember us going to this last year - and how we thought it was nice, but nothing exciting. Well we went again this year, mainly for 2 reasons:
1. So my parents could experience the local version of the 'Ekka'.
2. There is no entry fee this year - so you can go in and see all the animals, competitions etc. and only had to pay for rides.

We got to see horse judging , sheep dog competition, farrier competition, pigs, cows, goats (including South African Boerbokke), sheep and alpacas. There was also a small baby farm animals enclosure where we could go in and the kids could pat the animals. Ben was keen on this and patted a few sheep, goats, very hairy cows (obviously from somewhere in the highlands); Joanna is going through the 'afraid of going near any animals' stage (which Ben was going through this time last year), so she didn't pat anything, although she did like looking at all the animals.

The rides etc. were the same as last year - except you had to pay for them this year (as opposed to paying an entry fee and the rides being free like last year). So we let the kids have one turn on the Jumping Castle - which they thoroughly enjoyed (little kids are easy to please!).

Overall we enjoyed our Waikato's World experience much more this year than last. Mainly for a couple of reasons:
1. The weather - it was nice and sunny and warm this year, compared to last year where it was overcast, windy and cold.
2. Last year we were in the middle of a failed attempt at toilet training with Ben.
3. We had some idea of what to expect, so our own expectations were more aligned with what was experienced.

And Naomi has now been to her first annual show! (at the young age of 1 week and 2 days old)

1 week old

Naomi was 1 week old yesterday...The midwife came and completed her 1 week health check, which she passed with flying colours (well except for looking a bit yellow). She has already passed her birth weight and now weighs 2890g (10g heavier than birth weight), so she is obviously eating well.

And then there were 7...

My parents arrived last night, after a marathon 3 days of travelling for them (they came all the way from Denmark - where they had been visiting my sister). They are staying with us for 5 weeks, so there is now 4 adults and 3 children in the house. The plan had been that they were to be here a couple of weeks before I had Naomi, but as you all know, Naomi had different ideas. Ben and Joanna are excited about being able to play with Granny and Grandpa B while they are here.

The story of the birth...

Once upon time, a long long time ago (last Thursday), it was a normal day, just like any other day. I rode to work, as usual, at around 8am. Once I got to work, I checked my email and so on. And then Mel rang me... saying she thought her waters had broken. She wasn't sure, so she was going to see the midwife to see what she needed to do. She dropped the kids off at Lisa's (a friend from playgroup) and then headed to the hospital, where Val the midwife was attending to another birth. Val decided that yes, it was Mel's waters that had broken, and yes, baby was coming soon. So Mel rang me and got me to ride to the hospital. I arrive about 11h30. After being there for a little while, contractions got a little more frequent and intense, and a little girl popped out, at 14h54. All rather quick really.
Because Naomi was techinally premature by 9 hours, the doctors wanted to make sure her blood sugar levels were satisfactory before letting her out. So, rather than letting her transfer to a nice comfortable birthing centre, she got to sleep in a noisy, old hospital instead. That wasn't the most comfortable, so they both came home the next day - Friday. Her blood sugar levels were fine.
And that's the story of the birth.
The End.

Three peas in a pod...

We've been thinking that our three kids look pretty similar to each other as babies... people have also been asking if Ben and Joanna had dark hair when they were born. So, I've dug up photos of each of them when they were 2 days old... to see just how similar they are. There's an odd one out - but only a little bit different. Which is which?

Naomi Jayne Waldeck

Was born this afternoon (at 14h54, 2880g). Mel was 36 weeks and 6 days, so little Miss Naomi was technically a few hours premature. But that's OK - she's fine and Mel's fine too. Anyway, there's another few photos on flickr, and more details etc will be up here in due course!(Apologies for the slightly funny colour on the photos... our desktop computer is currently not operational, so I had to do a bit of a hack job from our netbook to get these up...)
(EDIT: Replaced the dodgy-colour photo...)

Furniture for summer...

We bought some secondhand outdoor furniture about 4 months ago for our wedding anniversary (which was in February)... the idea was that we'd get something more affordable that we could restore to being nice again. I'd been attempting to sand it all back by hand, which was a very slow process. I eventually gave in and borrowed a couple of sanders from Tony and the job only took another couple of hours. The kids helped to oil the table last weekend and the chairs this weekend. This is the result... nice outdoor furniture - even if it is a little late as an anniversary present, it's just in time for summer!

The weather is looking up...

After a few days of constant rain this week and my despair about having to get the thermals out again during the school holidays...the weather seems to be finally warming up. The yesterday and today have been beautiful sunny days, with the maximum reaching above the teens (ok...so it got to 20C - that's warm over here). We have dug out our T-shirts and some of us (Peter) have got out shorts too!

Dump shop bargains...

Had to go to south-west Hamilton today to pick-up something from the couriers and on the way back I realised that my route conveniently took me past the recycle shop next to the dump. So I stopped in to have a quick look around. I ended up picking up:

1. A pair of plastic racquets for the kids - Ben has made passing comments in the past that we don't have any sort of racquets to play with at home.
2. A soft toy sheep - I've just started wanting to get things together to create a collection of nativity/Christmas story dress-up/pretend play items for the kids to play with in the lead up to Christmas.
3. A large picture frame including glass - cheap way to get glass for Peter to use in one of his home made frames.

= $6

And the most exciting and best bargain...

4. A Sunbeam Ice Shaver for $8! So now I'll be able to make nice cold summer drinks.

Hit the wall...

This week, I've seemed to hit the wall as far as energy levels go. I think it just end of pregnancy tiredness (I'm 35 weeks now). Usual everyday tasks tire me out and by lunch time I'm really ready for an afternoon nap which I don't want to get up from.

Lost and found...

Lost a library book 'Spot goes camping' back in August. I looked everywhere for it, but couldn't find it anywhere. This was very frustrating as library books don't leave the house, so I couldn't understand why I couldn't find it. So before we went back to Brisbane we had to pay the library for the book - about $18 (I found it rather annoying having to pay money for a book that we don't get to keep). Anyway, was changing the sheets on Ben's bed the other morning and there it was sitting on the slats in between the base and the mattress! Some little boy had obviously crawled under the bed (as he sometimes does to play) and 'posted' the book between the slats and forgotten about it (under his bed had been one of the places searched on numerous occasions). We didn't know what the library policy was if you found and returned a book after you had payed the replacement fee. The final outcome/good news is they accepted the found book and refunded the replacement fee! And now under the kids mattresses will go on the list of places to look for lost books.

Boxercise classes...

This is what bump #3 like to participate in most evenings. Either while I'm sitting on the couch, watching TV, or when I'm reading my book in bed. While I'm not an active participant in these classes, it is still tiring for me, especially when I'm trying relax and have a bit of a rest.

Thinking about traditions...

I'm currently reading Diciplines of a Godly Family by Kent and Barbara Hughes; as well as Treasuring God in our traditions by Noel Piper (also available for free here). Both of these have got me thinking more about intentional traditions for our family - what the purpose is, what they will look like etc. Being significantly separated from both our families, living here in NZ, I think is a perfect time to assess what we have done, what we should do etc. Now some of you (especially if you haven't read either of the above mentioned books), might think this is just about creating a warm, fuzzy feeling for our family. But as Noel Piper emphasises it is a bit deeper than that:

The things we do regularly that help us in our deepest being to know and love and want God, the things that help our lives to be infiltrated with God—those things are tradition. And then if there are children in our lives, to pass these God-focused activities to the next generation—that’s what tradition is for a Christian. (p. 25)

So I'm therefore thinking specifically about traditions that will help Peter and I teach our children about God. Now I haven't really started thinking about specifics yet, although Peter and I have had a couple of discussions about the different traditions our families had when we were kids. So obviously there is a lot more thinking to be done, but I am excited about putting some more intentional thought into it.

Lack of posts...

Caused by lack of energy, school holidays and busyness getting ready in case bubs #3 comes early.

I've needed to sleep more lately - so when Joanna's sleeping in the afternoon, I am sleeping too. I think it's caused by the poor quality of sleep I'm getting at night, feeling uncomfortable and having to change position often.

School holidays has meant we've been catching up with lots of people - play dates and birthday parties of Ben's kindy friends.

Also doing extra loads of washing and cleaning various baby items (such as the basinett) to get them ready for use. I'm 34 weeks now, so it is possibly only 3 weeks until bubs #3 arrives. We therefore would like to have ready: somewhere for them to sleep, some clothes to dress them in and wraps etc. to keep them warm. It also is only 3 weeks until my parents arrive, so need to do a couple of things to get ready for that too.

Just when I thought I could pack the thermals away...

It is very cold, breezy and non-stop raining. It's currently 6C at midday - it's forecast to get to 10C, but I doubt it will get there.

Little Dorothy...

Joanna used her Dorothy the Dinosaur raincoat for the first time today. (It was a present for her 1st birthday, but is a size 2-3). She loves it!

Working...

From the Saturday to Wednesday I was working each day marking QCS short response papers. I did this last year and enjoyed having a change of pace for a few days, that I decided to do it again - plus the money I earn doing it pays for the airfares.
I was fortunate again to be given my first preference for the unit I wanted to mark. It was a question about Fire Service Medals - maths based question. It was a nice fast unit to mark, only taking 15-20 mintues per folder (24 papers per folder). Hence all the marking for the unit was finished by 5pm Wednesday (each paper gets marked twice and then gets a 3rd/referee marking if the first 2 marking disagree too much).
The food again was also really nice - morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. Over the 5 days I ate dishes including: vegetarian lasagnea, thai curry, chinese, cupcakes, cookies, fruit, and rocky road.

While I was off working each day, Peter's parents looked after the kids. They did things like catching the train to Roma St Parklands; visiting Linda and cousins; and going to the Colin Buchanan concert with Kathryn, Rohan and Xavier.

Now I wouldn't choose to work full-time all the time - especially if I had to do all the other day-to-day house keeping tasks (cooking, washing cleaning), that Peter's parents were also doing for me. But it is nice for a short change of pace and does allow for us to see grandparents etc.

Since marking finished early (it could have kept going until the Friday), it meant I got to have a couple of extra days holidays. So these were filled making another visit to Rocks Riverside Park with Peter's mum and Linda and her kids on the Thursday - and the water was on this time, so we got to have our play in the water play stuff after all. And on the Friday we caught the train to Indooroopilly (the kids really enjoyed the train ride the other day, so I thought I'd do it again, seeing as it isn't something we can do in Hamilton), and had morning tea at Breathing Space cafe - which was unusually very quite for a school holiday morning.

Saturday was spent visiting the Rocklea markets, where the kids got to ride on the mini Ferris wheel and doing other logistical organisation for flying back to NZ the next day. In the afternoon/evening we had a Birthday party for Peter's mum (a bit of deja vu from previous saturday), so the cousins got their final chance to play together (and Joanna got her final chance to dote on baby Amy).

The flight home went well - well except for the 1.5 hr departure delay in Brisbane - the kids spent the 2.5hr flight watching stuff on the in-flight entertainment and eating. And we were all very happy to see Dad again at the airport.

Catching up with friends and family...

The main aim of our first week back in Brisbane was to catch up with family and friends, so this meant spending each morning catching up with various people.

Saturday involved a family afternoon/dinner with Peter's parents and the Colyer's to celebrate Linda's birthday. It also included a visit from Peter's cousin Matthew (who I had never met before). Ben and Joanna both enjoyed playing with their cousins and we all got to meet baby Amy (the latest addition to the Colyer's) for the first time.

Sunday we caught up with our Unichurch family at the morning service. Ben is old enough now that he remembers people and places, so he enjoyed seeing his friends again and getting to spend time with them in Kids church and playing afterwards. This also meant I was also able to chat to a number of people afterwards.

Monday we spent the morning with Dania, Sofia and Owen - our old Kenmore neighbours. It was the first time we had met Owen and it was good to see how Sofia had grown up. Dania was also able to fill me in on all the baby news from Kenmore mother's group. Ben and Sophia had great fun playing ball together.

We caught up with Linda, Matthew and Amy again on Tuesday morning. Joanna enjoyed being a big girl, looking after/watching baby Amy. We also got the added bonus of seeing and patting some farm animals that were making a visit to the playgroup at the church next door. Ben had a tomato sauce, tuna, and cheese sandwich for lunch - because his cousin was having a straight tomato sauce sandwich.
It was great to catch up with Ben's mothers group on Wednesday - we hadn't seen them for a whole year. The kids have all certainly grown up and it was interesting to watch them all play and interact together a whole lot more. Ben seemed to decide that Felicity was his special friend and wanted to do everything with her. It was also good to be able to celebrate Joshua's 4th birthday at the same time.

We spent the day with Kathryn, Rohan and Xavier on Thursday. Firstly at Rocks Riverside Park, where we had planned to play in the water. But unfortunately the council had decided to do maintenance on it that day (before school holidays started), so the water was turned off . The kids still had great fun playing in the sand, going on the flying fox and attempting to climb the spider's web (with a rather dramatic moment where Xavier was hanging on, legs dangling in mid-air - half way up - waiting to be rescued after his feet had slipped off the ropes). We then went back to their place for lunch, sleep/DVD watching, playing and dinner before I took 2 tired kids home. Ben and Joanna really enjoyed playing with Rohan and Xavier and wanted to spend more time with them.

Friday morning was time to catch up with mum's and kids from Unichurch. As I arrived at the park early (our old park just down the road from our old house), I was able to fit in catching up with Jo (from Kenmore mother's group) and meeting her 2 week old baby girl (which was suppose to be a boy). It was good to be able to sit down and chat with friends while the kids were having fun off playing on the play equipment. We also got to meet the latest addition to the Avery girls.