All Blacks RWC Champs

I'm an American and not into rugby until the rugby world cup
began just under 2 months ago - but I am exhausted, exhilarated and still feel a little anxious after watching the NZ All Blacks eke out a victory over france (8-7) to win the RWC.

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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.

Haka

Third rainy day in a row warranted a double-header morning of Baby Rock n' Rhyme at the library and the Haka exhibit at Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand. 

From wikipedia: "Haka (singular is the same as plural: haka) is a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge from the Māori people of New Zealand, which has become more familiar worldwide because the New Zealand rugby union team All Blacks do the haka before every rugby game. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.^[1]"

This is one of the better haka from the 2011 Rugby World Cup.  This is what it should look like: http://youtu.be/QSGTK9f3yWc  Below is Charlie and my interpretation.
 

Every picture I tried to get of Charlie "doing the Haka" -- he kind of looked bratty with tongue stuck out and snotty-faced.  This was the best shot I got...

Craziest Weekend Yet (... and it's only Saturday)

Okay - I've proven to be a pretty stinky blogger...  There is SO MUCH TO SAY about the crazy departure from Virginia, the amazing and challenging summer in MN and the insane transition to life in Wellington...  Maybe I'll add stories as things get quiet here in NZ.  That being said, I still really want to be reflective on this stage of our lives.  I know these three years will fly by, and in the busyness of life I want to make sure that I'm documenting this season of life.    I'm still not publishing this until I have SOME SORT of consistency with blog posts.

It's Saturday night and I'm passing out on the couch.  So tired...  We had an incredibly special weekend and we haven't even hit Sunday yet.

1. Hunted glow worms at the botanical gardens about 1/2 mile from our home (this wasn't our picture - but not too far from what it looked like)

 

2. Caught sight of a penguin in the Wellington harbour walking home tonight from...

 3. ...our 12 mile (9 miles running. 3 miles walking) adventure  along the water to the local beach playground where we watched airplanes take off and land

4. Witnessed the entire NZ Navy participate in a "once in a lifetime" changing-the-Queen's colours ceremony in front of parliament while wearing my bathrobe and eating pancakes on our patio.  We called them birthday pancakes, because it was the Navy's 70th birthday, and Charlie wanted to bring the pancakes down to the parliament lawn for the "Mavy".

5. Taught Charlie how to play rugby down on the waterfront where the entire NZ fleet was docked.

6. Ate super yummy malaysian food

7. Brought drinks up from the local pub downstairs promising to bring the glasses back tomorrow

It's been so fun to reconnect as a family... The boys are such troopers and it's been an incredible few weeks together!