Tintin angst

Aidan had to return his Tintin books to the library today. Not a problem - we can get new ones out! But horrors, there were none on the shelves! He was very upset. Not even getting the librarian to reserve us one comforted him.

What gave me more angst was the photo in the newspaper of the young actor who is to play Tintin in St Peter Jackson's Tintin film (which, like all his films, is given regular gushing publicity in the local pr rag (a.k.a. the Dominion Post) ). Now I know Tintin is supposed to be young, but he is also old enough to fight, drink and smoke opium. And, unlike the look of this actor, he is old enough to go out without his Mum.

I hope the boy beefs up a little before shooting begins. Perhaps its just an old publicity shot?

Or perhaps I'm just getting older. Police officers are getting younger too, you know. And doctors.

Another cat

While we're on cats....

Brendon did some work under the house yesterday installing some underfloor insulation.

Under Isabelle's room, he found a dead cat.

It had been there a while, and was only skin and bones. It is now resident down the far end of the property, awaiting a return to the soil (an eco-burial of sorts).

I imagined some poor family waiting and waiting for the return of their pet....

(This is the type of secret knowledge our cats have. Houdini likes spending time under the house, and no doubt found and inspected the body on one of her first forays many years ago. What else does she know about that we are yet to discover?)

Wanted

Well blow me down if Bully Cat's visage wasn't looking out at me from a poster stuck on one of those green electrical boxes down at the bottom end of my street. You might remember Bully Cat from posts like this. (Scroll down to New Year's Eve...).

It looked like one of those "Wanted" posters from a Western. But no, Bully Cat had been found wandering our street and was now resident at the SPCA.

Given his past form, I wonder if he actually was "lost", or if sometime, in some house nearby, he just stepped over the line once too often.

I do hope Bully Cat is reunited with his owners, whoever they may be. Perhaps a bit of gelding might be in order to stop the wandering....

It's all relative

Tonight we attended our first parent teacher interview.

"Do you feel old now?" I asked Brendon as we left.

"No, teacher's still older than me" he replied.

(All was well. I especially liked some of the personal touches Isabelle had added to her language book - the figures, the flowers, the decorations and coloured panels).

Smoke

Yesterday after we dropped Isabelle off at ballet we saw two emergency vehicles speeding up Makara Road, sirens on, lights flashing. Both were incident control vehicles - one an ambulance, one from the fire service. As we made our way back through Karori a police car zoomed past us, heading westwards.

As we turned towards Wilton/Northland, we could see a thick fog sitting over the hills.

Smoke.

Up at our place the smoke hung stationary in the still, warm air. It filled the valley below. We couldn't even see the nearby hills from our deck.

It smelt like wood burning.

Quickly, I sprang into action and removed the washing from the line. I was glad that all the windows had been closed.

A helicopter chugged overhead somewhere in the haze.

We listened carefully to the 5.00 pm news and heard that there was a large vegetation fire in Takarau Gorge Road in Ohariu Valley.

Slowly the smoke began to dissipate. When Brendon came home, he said it was smoky in town too.

In a small side-bar on page three, this morning's Dom Post said:

A large scrub fire on the west coast of Wellington caused a smoke trail across the city to the airport yesterday afternoon.

Despite its visibility, it appears that all turned out well, no-one was hurt and property damage was minimised. They didn't even need that helicopter after calling it for assistance.

And the washing was saved. (Got to get your priorities right....!)

Eggs

Today's creations were polystyrene Easter eggs, painted, glued, collaged and ribboned. Aidan's is in the middle, Isabelle's are to each side. These are much cooler than the photo shows - each is different, and each is decorated on all "sides", showing different decorations from different perspectives.

Both children were very focused on this activity, coming back for another go after the initial layer of paint and/or glue dried.

Orla writes

The human talent for mimicry is certainly evident in Orla! Here she is making marks on paper with a pen, as she has seen us all do. On the same night that this picture was taken, she drew purposefully on Brendon's leg - right next to the "Isabelle" her sister had written earlier in the day!

Learning, learning, learning.

Tunnel and tea

Today's mission was a trip out to tunnel gully to check out the old Mangaroa railway tunnel. It was last used in 1955. Here's some pictures of us entering and exiting! The tunnel was cold and very dark. Isabelle didn't like it and neither did Orla. Isabelle held my hand tightly and said it was scary. Orla howled from about half way in. Aidan tripped along happily, blowing on his Thomas the Tank Engine whistle that Brendon had brought with us.

Later, we had a very pleasant Devonshire tea in Te Marua. I had the Tokyo Lime - Brendon had the Kawakawa fire. The date scones were warm, delicious, and smothered in jam (strawberry for me, blackberry for everyone else) and cream.

Isabelle and Aidan played fairies in the grove of trees next to our table. Orla played in the gravel. The sun shone.

Hot cross buns!

Yesterday Isabelle, Aidan and I made chocolate hot cross buns! We even managed proper pastry crosses for the first time too (by special request of Isabelle).

Isabelle says they are yummy. Aidan says they taste like good.

I think they're mighty fine too.

We are just about to make some more traditional spicy fruit ones for supper tonight.

Bang!

"There are valid socio-cultural reasons for children to engage in gun play"

- someone on a Playcentre website

Aidan comes over to me. He is wearing a backpack. Inside is his toy rifle and a stick. He looks at me and says, very seriously:

"This is my gun. I am going to take my gun into those hills [he indicates with his hands to the hills visible from our deck] and shoot an animal. Then I will take my sword and cut it in half. Then I will bring home its meat".

Just like Daddy. (Except for the sword bit. I expect butchering animals is far less poetic in practice).

A comfortable end?

It seems inevitable that the slow descent into middle-age has started when one finds oneself in bed early on a Saturday night cuddled up with a kumfs footwear catalogue - and entirely happy with this arrangement. I think it had something to do with the large number of interesting looking red shoes.

One style that I won't be buying is the unfortunately named "xit". I can only presume that this is pronounced "ex-it" rather than starting with a "z" sound (as in Xena), or a "sh" sound (as in Xiao-Ping).

Although come to think of it, given the likely demographic of kumfs wearers, perhaps "exit" is not a good name either. The last pair of shoes you'll need???!!

Mama! Mama!

Orla's babbles are slowly transforming into words. There is no doubt that she assigns certain meaning to specific utterances. Her main vocabulary comprises:

- Mama
- Butt
- Cat
- Ta

(and I could have sworn that she said "cheese" the other day when I brought out the block of tasty, but even I think that could be pushing it a bit).

She also seems to say dada for "brother" and "duhduh" for sister, but that's still evolving and not really developed enough for inclusion.

The meaning of the words might appear to be clear - but it's not. Right now she is pursuing Brendon to the bathroom, crying "Mama! Mama!". She is a real Daddy's girl. Only Daddy will do. At almost all times (except when a milk drink is required). So "Mama" really means "loved parent who I currently desire the most", rather than something specific to me. "Butt" means nappy, nappy insert, or wipe.

"Cat" is solely for Houdini. "Ta" is the all-purpose baby thank-you (which really means "give that desired object to me right now while I'm looking cute, or I shall screw up my face, yell, and look a lot less cute").

In addition, we still have lots of ba, pa, na, random da, random ta etc.

Tintin

Aidan really likes Tintin at the moment. Every time we go to the library, we get two new books.

He pores over the books, carefully looking at each illustrated frame, sometimes frowning with concentration.

He was very pleased when we saw someone wearing a Tintin t-shirt at the bus stop one day.

Overheard...

Overheard recently:

"I am your stepmother".
"I am your stepbrother".
"No, you can't be my stepbrother because I am your stepmother".
"OK. I have two stepsisters. But they died. I was just a tiny baby. They were 100. But they died".

Play has been very peaceful and co-operative here for the past couple of days. I am sure it is directly linked to Isabelle having two days off school convalescing from an ear infection. She is less tired, and more eager to make social links at home.

Aidan basks in the glow of his older sister's attention.

Isabelle still seems to process school in her play. Her stepmother is teacheresque - she's mother-like, in charge, and speaks in a commanding voice as if addressing a group.

Aidan embraces Isabelle's play offers and fits them within the fairy story that is already ingrained in his consciousness - yet adds his own twist!

Walking...

Seven steps in a row yesterday...fourteen today!

It's all about incentives

A small piece of chocolate lies in my outstretched hand.

Orla fixes her eyes upon it in a determined fashion.

She walks four or five steps, and claims it.

Wacky weatherpixie

Did anyone notice that my weatherpixie mysteriously morphed into a redhead with glasses? So I went back to the original site and decided to change her. Now I have a crazy woman who stands around in the 16 degree rain wearing a sleeveless top.

Why I hate voice recognition technology

My phone company has this awful voice recognition technology in place when you try and call them. It sort of goes like this:

Phone: Hello. I can understand some of the things you say.
Me (under breath): Oh no, they've got a...
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that..
Me: Doh!
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that
Me: (finally learning. Holding breath).
Phone: .....tell me your customer number.
Me: 12235566
Phone:
Me (inside head): sooooo....
Phone: I'm sorry, you must give me eight digits. Tell me your customer number.
Me: 12235566
Phone. OK. I heard 1.......2.......2......
Me: This is going to take forever!
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Please tell me your customer number.
Me: 1! 2! 2! 3! 5! 5! 6! 6!
Phone: I heard 1.....2......etc. OK. Now what are
Aidan in background: aaaahhhhhhh!
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Please...
Me: Aidan! Quiet, I'm on the phone!
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Now..
Isabelle: Muuuuum, I need..
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. N...
Orla: Ba! Ba! Ba!
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that.
[sound of head banging on wall repeatedly]
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't understand that.

What's so bad about pushing number 1, 2, or 3? At least you can swear away happily to yourself in the background, bang around in the kitchen or separate warring children without sending the software into a spin.

Tips for parents

Tip for parents # 345

On those tough days, pretend that your house is covered in tv cameras and you are part of a reality tv show. It won't solve your problems, but it will make you much calmer, more polite and nicer to be around because The Nation Is Watching.