Arram's first story

The boys are sharing a bed now.  At bedtime last night, we did our usual routine:  Mama told a story, and then Amiri told a story.   I was just about to do the final hugs and kisses before lights out, when Amiri said, 'Arram should tell a story!'

What a great idea.  Although his vocabulary is still quite limited, Arram jumped right into his storytelling responsibility.  It seemed like he was just waiting for an opportunity to be asked!  He told a very nice story using just a few words augmented with lots of pantomime and facial expressions.  Here is Arram's story.  Because it was largely visual, I have taken some liberties to convert it to text so that you can share it.  But I believe this version is entirely consistent with the spirit of his tale.

The Hurt Turtle

     There was a turtle.  Hello turtle!

     There was a dog too.  Hello dog!

     The turtle and the dog played.  They wrestled. 

     But the dog played too rough.  Grr!

     So the turtle's foot got hurt.  Oh no!  Owww!

     The dog felt sad that he hurt the turtle.  He kissed the hurt.  He hugged the turtle.  He did gentle touching.

     Then the turtle was happy again!

     They went home together.  Bye-bye turtle!  Bye-bye dog!
  

The weather makes me feel a little ripped off.

It is very cool to be seeing snow for the first time in six years.  It is clean and bright and gorgeous. 

But it is so COLD.  Man, it's cold!  I go outside and my fingers hurt.  It makes my face tingle and not in the 'it tells you that it's working' kind of way.  We go all pink-cheeked.   Deep breaths make me cough.

And amidst all my shivery complaints I have to be aware that it was 77 degrees and sunny in Auckland today.  We've traded gorgeous mild summertime for no-fooling-around winter.  Sigh.  (Of course we are all happy to be here.  But come on.  I can't think of anyone who would happily trade 77 degrees for, you know, single-digits.) 

So here is a warm memory of our visit to the Santa parade.

It was sponsored by Farmers, the NZ equivalent of Macy's, and had lots of balloons and floats.

OK, you've all seen parades before so I don't think I need to give you a play-by-play of every bagpipe band to march past (FYI, there were four).  And if you've watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade then Auckland's Santa Parade will seem pretty underwhelming.  So instead I will show you the good stuff:  the reactions of our little guys.

We were lucky to snag a shady spot with a railing that the boys could perch on.  The anticipation leading up to the start of the parade was barely tolerable and our monsters got a little antsy.

But then once it started, all the excitement bubbled over and Arram had to get a lift up.

Look!  It's bagpipes or something!

And a happy young man got to spend a fun afternoon with Mama.

The best moment, of course, was Santa's waving, smiling, and Ho-Ho-Ho-ing arrival.  Here is how that comes across to a little kid.

An interesting moment left over from NZ

We went walking by the boats and saw a cormorant! 

At least I think it's a cormorant.  Either that or a penguin.  What do I know.
 

Fun in the snow

We got the kids some snowsuits and went out this morning.  It was only ten degrees-- cold, yo. 

Amiri was way into it.

Arram was not.

Amiri explored the yard.  Arram wanted to stay right where he was, thank you.  We had fun throwing handfuls of snow around.  Amiri tasted it.  'Snow is cold water!'

The snow wasn't very packy because it was so cold.  So Arram, totally of his own volition, went for a snow angel.  He was not impressed.

Amiri ran through the snow and tried making snowballs.

Arram stayed behind and wailed.

We rumpused and played.  Amiri took a try at snow angelling too.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

So we ran back to rescue the little guy.

Then we all looked at the icicles that had formed on the dryer vent.

And then it was time to go back in and warm up.

Jet lag= no fun for toddlers

Auckland is 19 hours ahead of the Midwest.  (Yes, it's mental gymnastics every time we pick up the phone to call home.)   Functionally, though, it means dealing with a 5-hour backward time shift when we travel.

A regular bedtime here feels like it's the middle of the afternoon on New Zealand time.  Afternoon naps feel like they're coming at breakfast-time.  As a result our little guys merrily stayed up past midnight for the first few days had have steadfastly refused to take any naps at all.  Between that and our not letting them sleep until noon, the poor little things have become steadily more and more sleep-deprived.  Toddlers were not meant to subsist on eight hours of sleep a day!  Not surprisingly, this has resulted in some spectacular hyperwhining.

But it all caught up to them today.  We took them for a ride in the warm car right after lunch.  They zonked out in about two seconds.   Hopefully this indicates that their internal clocks have been adjusted.  Hopefully this also means that everyone else in the house will be treated to a quiet night.

Okay, so this is useful information.  It takes four days to shift toddlers over five hours.

For one, Costco kinda blew my mind

I'm really enjoying my time in the US.  After having been away for a year, I'm realising that there are a few things I'd forgotten about.

--How CHEAP things are.  I just meandered around in a CVS for like an hour, grinning like an idiot and trying to restrain myself from buying everything on the shelves.  That fluid for my contact lenses?  Half price here.  Drugstore-brand makeup?  One-fifth of what you can get it for in NZ.  Yesterday I bought a container of 300 Tylenol for what I'd pay for a 30-pack.  (Yes, we have a suitcase that's just for Bringing Back Some Deals.)

--Putting a full sink of dishes into the dishwasher and having plenty of room left over for the pots and pans.  What, the world doesn't subsist with Dishdrawers?

--Snow.  Awesome.  Happy child photos to follow.

--I totally ate some Taco Bell.  It tasted good-not-great, and I got a little grossed out with myself and a little sick.  Probably for the best.

--Big buildings.  Big houses.  Wide aisles in the stores.  Lots of space to stretch out wherever you are.  Big indoors.

--Wide ranges of selections and big items.  Gallon jugs of milk!  20-can cases of pop!  Bags of flour larger than 5 lbs!  It's a cornucopia of plenty!!!

--Insulation and efficient central heating.  Seriously, NZ, you really MUST get on board with this.
  

SSS on vacation

You may be wondering, Why no new posts in a week?  Where have all the baby pictures and kiwiana gone?  Well, it's kinda hard to post at 35,000 feet.  We've gone on vacation!

We departed Auckland at about noon the other day.  A few hours' flight, and check this out:  due to a scheduling irregularity, our few-hour layover in Fiji ended up turning into about 36 hours.

Bula indeed!  I've had unexpected overnights on long trips before, but usually it means I get waylaid, exhausted and grumpy, in some sketchy airport motel outside of DFW or something.   This, though.   This was not that.  No.  We were still fresh and happy and walked out the front door of the airport to see this:

For those of you who are unaware, our last trip to Fiji nearly five years ago was pretty great.  So we have a soft spot in our hearts for this place.

So, OK, we picked a hotel from one of the brochures in the airport and caught a shuttle to check in.  And yeah, there we were.  A surprise day in Fiji!  But packed for Chicago.  Chicago in December.  Yeah.

But we are resourceful and know how to make the best of things.  We went down to the shade by the pool and had some cold drinks...

 ...and sat there being all, Holy moly this sure beats the Fort Worth roach motel!

We slept well under the fans in our room.  The next morning, Arram and I took a walk in the early morning dew before the other boys woke up.  We liked the sunshine and the flowers. 

Our hotel was ringed by mango trees:  large, low, spreading, and easy to climb.  We watched a troop of ten-year-old boys systematically harvest the trees one by one, expertly tossing the mangoes down to their mates on the ground, and then departing with bulging plastic bags.  We sampled one and it was amazing.

Once it got too hot to think (you know, by 8:30 am), we spent the rest of the day swimming, playing in the playground, and rescuing the World's Tiniest Gecko that had gotten stuck in our kitchenette. 

We got a late check-out from our hotel and flew out late that night bound for LA.  What a wonderful surprise.  Bula Vinaka, Fiji.

Busted!

We put the boys down for their naps together in the same room.  We heard a big rumpus and lots of delight.  We walked in to find this.

Follicular characteristics

Amiri really took his time growing his hair, staying pretty much bald until his second birthday.  Even now, it's kind of sparse and his scalp shows through.  But what hair he does have is so curly!  It forms these great little springs after a bath, and turns into a fuzzy halo when it's messy.  Arram was a baldie baby too, but is now quickly growing a fine head of hair of his own.

Just look at this post-bath fluff!

U2 puts on a good show

We had a great experience when U2 came to town on Friday.  What a performance!  They do a great live show.  We had RedZone seats, which put us right up near the stage, and they had these walkways that extended out into the crowd and brought the music right out to us.  That is Bono on the left and The Edge on the right, and then Bono again up high.

They saw seven birds

Hey, let's go look at what there is to see outside!

Did you see that bird?  It was a big one!

Do you think Mom and Dad saw it?

The loquat

You know how I like to find interesting edibles and bring them home to try.  My excellent husband brought me a little basket of organic loquats from the farmer's market this weekend.

Loquats!  Even the name is fun.  They are a berry/fruit from China.  They grow on bushy trees.

I put them on a plate and surgically removed the stem end of one.  Big seeds are inside.  They remind me of a lychee seed-- so dark brown and smooth.

Then you remove the seeds and dig out the membranes.  Then you eat what's left, skin and all.  They're quite nice.  Kind of like.... an orangey peach?  An apricotish plum?

Errata

To address recent Error Reports:

Apparently yesterday's video didn't work. I re-loaded it, a slightly longer version this time.  Try it again.  It should be working now.

Also, for those of you with deep interest in both protein powder and Clear and Accurate Bloggery (TM), I will note that the 12 grams mentioned here is the mass of the protein content, and not the mass of the entire portion of the chocolate powder.  Total mass of powder consumed = 15.2 grams, +/- 10%.

Management regrets any inconvenience.  As compensation, here is a picture of a happy little boy on a seesaw.

Tragedies!

Arrams' vocabulary is starting to increase dramatically, but his most common words are still 'uh-oh' and 'oh no'.  And everything's an Uh Oh for this kid.  He sees catastrophe all around him.   A cluttered mess.  A tumbled-over toy box.  Some spilled water.  Or things that come apart unexpectedly.  He is acutely aware of a sense of disorder.  He must announce his horror with The Things That Should Not Be.

The results of all that good eating

As babies, both our kids used the Graco basket-style carseats. 

Here is a leaving-the-hospital picture of Amiri in the carseat.  Look how tiny.  He spent quite some time sleeping in that seat once we got him home.

And here he is about ten months later, monstering it up in the carseat during a plane ride.  Fills it out nicely, doesn't he?

He outgrew it not long after that picture was taken, and now of course Arram is too big for it too.  So we gave it away to someone who could use it.  But first we had to get an 'after' picture of Amiri in the old carseat.  He very gamely wedged himself in.

 

Wow, right?  His baby feet didn't even come close to reaching the edge, and now they're lapping over by like half a meter.  It seems like, oh, last month that the photo of that not-even-seven-pounds baby was taken, and he's now, what, like THIRTY FIVE pounds?

I'm probably going to be saying things like this for the rest of my life, aren't I?

Cool.

 

As if the fluorescent lights in the dressing room weren't bad enough

Clothes shopping here has been a little interesting.  The first time I ventured out to the department store, I got an armload of clothes in my usual size and took them into the dressing room.  And then dejectedly realised that NOTHING fit.  And not the 'oh, it doesn't look quite right' kind of not-fitting... I'm talking the not-fitting where the pants won't pull further up than mid-thigh and you wonder if somehow you'd been accidentally browsing in the children's section.

Although my first thought was horror at the 20 pounds I must surely have gained for this to have happened, investigation has told me that clothes here are usually measured in UK, Australian, or New Zealand's own sizing schemes.  A size 6 in the US (not that I owned anything that petite) would be anything from a size 8 to a size 12 here.  That would explain my problems.  It took a bit of work to adjust my attitude about sizing up, but my ego has recovered and I'm wearing appropriately-cut clothes now.

Alternate sizing algorithms also apply to shoes (I think I wear a size 39??) and women's undergarments (not gonna go any further there, but trust me that I spent half an hour just staring at the tags like they were the Rosetta stone). 
 

Updata

I have follow-up information on some past posts.

Remember the mystery ditch weed?  Today while the train was stopped at a signal in the middle of the domain, I noticed another example.  Turns out they grow into big bushy shrubs about ten feet tall, and have bluish-purple flowers.  That gave me the clues I needed and I was able to identify it as Wooly Nightshade, a noxious pest weed.  It crowds out other plants, and its berries are toxic.  It's all over the country after escaping from decorative gardens.

And remember how the sun is hotter here?  Kind of like snowy climates' Wind Chill Factor, here they have Burn Time.  It tells you, given the time of year and the cloud cover, how many minutes it will take for a fair-skinned person of European descent to get a sunburn.  Today was a beautiful day in Auckland... and the burn time was only ten minutes!  And given that I'm not just fair-skinned but more like pink-white... I now carry my sunscreen everywhere with me.
  

Eating machines

They're just good growing boys.  Working so hard at getting big and strong.  And tall.  To that end, before school this morning, each boy consumed:

A serving of oatmeal (1/2 cup dry), with a handful of blueberries and 12 grams of chocolate protein powder.

A slice of toast with butter.

Another serving of oatmeal with blueberries and protein powder.

Lots of milk.

Vitamins.

Then they waddled off to school where pasta was on the menu for lunch.  Their teachers reported that they were very hungry.  I guess so!

We were still finding streaks of chocolate on the walls a week later

After one dinner that was characterised by enthusiastic and voluminous consumption on the boys' part, they were given a great big hunk of chocolate.  They shared it nicely.

And of course then it got melty and went everywhere.  All over Mama's water bottle, for one.

And of course, all over their faces and clothes!