New Zealand Wins the Rugby World Cup (Well.... Almost)

Jason and I just finished watching the Rugby World Cup semi-finals. New Zealand pulled off a stunning win and they'll meet France in the finals next week. I've grown to appreciate the athleticism in the sport - but the crazy cauliflower ears, bloody noses and absence of protective equipment make me less inclined to encourage Charlie and Liam toward the sport. Speaking of sports we'll likely encourage our kids to play, Jason played a nice pickup game of soccer with some local Indonesians. We were skyping with Gran and Grandad as we watched Jason show off his superstar moves on the field. Unfortunately I wasn't actually filming him - so we'll need to get footage at another game in the future. I did a 9 mile-run along the harbor earlier. I was going really fast (for me) and I think I pulled something in my hip/booty so I'm hoping that it feels better tomorrow. I think I found a marathon in February that I want to train for, but ... not sure yet...

There was a Diwali (festival of lights in India and Nepal) celebration along the water today and it culminated in a fireworks tonight. We told Charlie there would be fireworks at 830pm, but soon learned that they wouldn't be until 10pm (MUCH too late for the little guy!). Anyway - we started putting him down to bed when we realized he needed to go poop in the potty. He sat on the potty for over an hour while I told him stories that he dictated to me. i.e. "once upon a time there was a boy who wanted to see fireworks but his mommy got the dates wrong and they weren't for another 3 weeks" -- Charlie insisted that he would wait 3 weeks on the potty for the fireworks but when we counted the days and he ran out of fingers after 10 days, he realized it would be too long to wait. He finally got to bed (after making quite a few poopies in the potty - yay!), and Jason and I started to watch the game, when of course, the fireworks began. Charlie yelled "MOMMY!" as soon as the first one went off. His bed is right next to the window, and he happened to be looking out the window at the city before he fell asleep. He was a little surprised/freaked to see the fireworks erupt behind the building. Jason and I had a nice laugh.

Last but not least, we've been talking a lot about Charlie's upcoming 3-year old birthday. We didn't celebrate 1 or 2 very big, but I'd really like to do something fun for 3. Well it turns out THOMAS is coming to New Zealand on 13 November for the Thomas and Friends Day out with Thomas (http://www.thomasandfriends.com/au/Thomas.mvc/EvMarents ). It also happens to be a 3-day weekend! I don't want to get his hopes up, but I'm pretty sure we're going to make the trip up to Auckland for it. Here is a video of me trying to get him to guess the special blue birthday surprise.