Summer is Here!

Finally - we are experiencing the amazing heat of New Zealand sun - summer has arrived! Although the temperature gauge is only reading 73 degrees - the sun is HOT. Unfortunately due to the ozone hole above NZ the sun can be fierce. Our friends from Australia complain of how quickly they burn in the sun even compared to southern Australia. In conclusion, I think you can add at least 10 (maybe 15) degrees to the forecasted temp.

We are enjoying the buildup to Christmas - the boys sat on 3 Santa's laps over the past 5 days (I will recap in a future post). There is a giant Christmas tree (made entirely of lights) in the city center near our home that we have yet to see lit up due to the 9pm sunset. I did a cookie exchange with some of the women from the embassy (thank you Joanne for the Mexican wedding cookie inspiration from last year). This is truly our first Christmas together as a little family and we are slowly establishing new traditions -it's really exciting.

Kiwis aren't bashful with the word Christmas. A "holiday" is a vacation and I haven't once heard "happy holidays.". The city puts on a Santa parade (complete with baby Jesus float). We went to the city park to sing Christmas Carols by "Candlelight" (or Carols in the bright sun at 8pm).

It's just really refreshing to be free to say Merry Christmas without any of the PC weirdness that has crept into the US. It reminds me of my childhood in the US in the 80s - yes, the Christmas lights and the consumerism is here, but scaled back 10-fold. It's just, well, nice.

As an aside, we had a celebrity sighting tonight at the beach.
Jason pulled the boys in our Burley bike trailer to meet some friends for dinner and relaxing time at the beach. Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords was sitting next to our group hanging out at the beach with his family. Funny enough, he was sporting a child carrier in the back of his bike for his little one. In true Kiwi fashion no one gawked and they were able to just be a cute little Wellington family.

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Hot Cross Buns

 

I never really knew what hot cross buns were. Growing up I remember learning to play the song on the recorder or piano (maybe my french horn?).  Our friend frequently makes reference to baking them - but we've never tried them  I was grocery shopping in Moore Wilson's (not sure if I mentioined before - but my favorite grocery store in Wellington - a hybrid between Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Costco) this afternoon and picked up a 1/2 dozen of them.  We warmed them and ate them with tea - a truly British affair.    I learned tonight that it is common to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday.  The cross on the buns signifies the Jesus' cross.  

Charlie and I got silly after eating our hot cross buns.  This dance reminds me of the HOURS we spent dancing to Grandma Dot's crazy floral bird music box thingy in the living room.  I think I resurrected a few of the moves in this video.  :) 



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Marmite and Lemon-Pears

Liam got to hang out with his buddy Rohan this morning.


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Kiwified

Top 3 Reasons Charlie Looks Like a Kiwi

1.) Bare Feet.  Oops we forgot his shoes when we went to the grocery store - never fear!  We are in New Zealand - land of the barefooted - even in public places such as gas stations, grocery stores and church.  Charlie walked the whole way home without his shoes - toughening up those delicate feet like a good little Kiwi.

2.) Sun hat.  Gotta beat the treacherous ultraviolet rays with a nice 360-degree hat.

3.) Shirt on Backward.  In line with the independent Kiwi spirit - Charlie dressed himself incorrectly but we praised him for the effort (you can't see it here, but his undies are inside out).



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H20

Okay - this is a pretty lame Valentines Day post, but I am without my Boo due to a work trip, so I thought I would highlight one of my favourite things things about dining in NZ.  These pictures were from an afternoon lunch with a friend who has a baby a few months younger than Liam.  Charlie was at preschool, so it was fun to go out to eat with only one little guy (who tried to throw food at other diners and barfed on me - but oh well!)

Restaurants and coffee shops offer a "water station" near the condiments.  Basically you can grab a long clear jug that is filled with water, or (this is the best part) there is a little faucet where you can fill the bottles your self.  I love this!  Do we do this in the USA? 

3 Reason Why I Love H20 in Restaurants
1.) Free!
2.) I can be an autonomous H20 drinker  - i don't need to keep bothering the waitress/barista for water (in high school, I would take my friends water glasses because I couldn't wait to be refilled).
3.) Environmentally friendly -- cut out those nasty plastic cups!

A friend gave us a bottle that we keep filled in the fridge.  Why can't this catch on back home?  Maybe it has?

The video rental guy made me sad today... and Being a Boy Mom

I went to our local video rental store, Video To-Nite, this evening trying to find season 2 of the tv show Modern Family. Unfortunately I got a little hooked on it on the flight from the US to NZ -- I was laughing uncontrollably on the flight trying not to wake up Liam. That being said, NZ is not a good place to get hooked on a tv show. For starters, we don't have a tv here. This wasn't a problem in the US because we could stream the occasional episode of The Office or Saturday afternoon Florida Gators football game. The NZ gov't blocks almost all streaming video from the US. No nbc.com, no CBS sports.com, and no Hulu. As a result, the neighborhood video rental store (a relic of the past in the US) is still thriving in NZ.

When I went to the video rental store tonight, I asked about Modern Family season 2 (originally aired Sep 2010) and he said it should be in later this week. I explained that in the US we stream most of our tv shows, and he got a semi-horrified look on his face and crossed his fingers and said hopefully it doesn't catch on in NZ. I want to say to the video rental guy, "Sir, I coming back from the future to tell you that video rental stores won't exist in the near future in your country... it is time to start looking for a new profession, or consider opening a new type of store store, or a new something..." It kind of made me sad... I felt very nostalgic in the store as he advised me on different kiwi films -- it was nice, and not really possible when streaming entertainment from home...

On another note, I like being a boy mom. I'm sure it is super sweet being a girl mom and perhaps not that much different, but I really, really like being a boy mom.  Wow - I never dreamed it would be this much fun to have boys. Charlie got a Hot Wheels loopy track thing from a friend at his birthday party (pics from party later - I promise!) and I was a little mystified at how to put it together... I've seen them before, but with four daughters, I don't think we ever had one in our home. Jason (coming from a family with three sons) kept saying: "this is so cool, this is so cool." He was thrown back to his childhood and had so much fun playing with Charlie. I am thankful for these new experiences with my little men. I'm just having a lot of fun.

Charlie is BIG into imaginative play lately (of course, usually involving trains) - our whole home is a train, divided into dining, sleeping, toilet and sitting cars.  He also takes these buckets and makes them into train seats for all of us to ride. 

This Boy Mom did splurge today and got her haircut (the first one in over a year - YIKES!). It was so, so nice... I left Liam with a really great babysitter and Charlie was at creche. As I left our home, I felt naked without kids, diaper bags or strollers... it was a really foreign feeling. After getting super cute, I met Jason for lunch at work and got a few hours in at work.

This is our friend Minnie (Minneline) from church who is helping us to watch Liam.   She went to beauty school and works part time at a salon in the city.   She reminds me of my sisters!  (combination of Emily, Maria, Juliet and Ashley!)

The video below shows Charlie passed out after a dinner run.  We bought one of those coupon Entertainment books for Wellington.  On Monday or Tuesday evenings (slow times at restaurants - so we don't feel too obnoxious with our double BOB stroller) our tradition has been to run a 5k and end up at a restaurant from the coupon book.

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A little embarrassing

Sorry for the small break in blog posts. As you can see (by the humungous hot springs pic) I am playing around with the blog format. I am also trying to convert pics to picassa because the picture quality is much better.

I picked up Charlie from crèche on Tuesday and enjoyed seeing Charlie and Lola play. Although Lola is only 2 weeks older than Charlie she is quite the biker. Her mom expects that she will drop the training wheels at Christmas time. I feel bad saying this but sometimes Jason and I find ourselves a little embarrassed at the parks in Wellington because the kids are so adventurous. 2 year olds scale huge playgrounds and masterfully ride scooters and bicycles. We are still trying to teach Charlie how to pedal. Honestly it can be a little embarrassing.

Lola and Charlie took turns pushing each other and riding each others' bikes. I thought maybe charlie's tricycle was hard to ride but Lola took it all over he preschool, literally doing circles around Charlie. This video shows pretty clearly the difference in abilities.

All that being said, i learned when Charlie was very small the dangers of comparing him to his peers. I am excited to live in a city with plenty of opportunities to hone gross motor skills.

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Kiwi Accent and Paci in the Potty

Here is a good sample of charlie's kiwi accent (especially the beginning).

This morning we had a great family long run. Jason was amazing and pushed the boys in the double BOB for 8 miles (an especially arduous feat with the Wellington winds) and I was able to go 12 miles. The boys are so content in the stroller and there is plenty for them to see along the way. Jason and I are just longing for family and friend visitors to come visit so we can show them this beautiful place.

Today is Guy Fawkes day.  Our sponsor family came over for dinner (Greek yumminess!) and then we watched fireworks on our roof. (historical note : Basically Guy Fawkes tried to kill the King if England in the early 17th century and was caught and hanged/executed and people celebrate with fireworks)

Pretty gross...

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Kid-Friendly

It's hard to believe we've been here for over 2 months - wowsers.... I think the biggest surprise for me is how kid-friendly Wellington is. When I was here in 1998 I remember a large counter-culture scene that was into alternative music and piercings and tattoos. The really, really cool thing is that they all have babies and toddlers now. Everywhere you walk you see tattooed mommies and daddies toting their babies in their ergo baby carrier or pushing their toddlers in phil & ted strollers. The dads are especially so involved with the children. Jason and I noticed that usually on Saturday mornings dads are running their kids around outside likely giving mommy a much needed break. As I'm sure everyone already was aware, 10-16 October was International Baby Wearing week. There was a walk from a park about 1/2 mile from our house to a very family-friendly pub in the city. All this being said, one of my biggest fears about the move to NZ was that I would be an isolated stay-at-home-mama. It is really crazy to see how that deep fear was really unfounded.

One of the coolest discoveries we've found is the fluffy. A fluffy is a little coffee cup and saucer filled with the froth and topped with chocolate sprinkles. It is served with 2 little marshmallows (or chocolate fish) on the side. Charlie and I can drink our coffees together - it is THE CUTEST thing ever. This NEEDS to catch on in the US.

This video was taken at Chocolate Fish - a really cute cafe located near Sir Peter Jackson's studios - this cafe is where all the LOTR cast and crew would hang out...

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.