Cornwall Park

This weekend I took the little boys on an outing to Cornwall Park down in Epsom.  First we walked to Britomart and got on the bus.  Amiri was so good at following my directions:  when it was time to get off, he waited for me to get Arram's stroller safely off and to then turn back for him--he didn't jump down onto the street unsupervised.   Then we walked and walked, and waited for our next bus, and did it all again.  The boys got a little fussy on the second bus, so I doled out bits of trail mix one by one to keep them occupied.  While we were on the bus, it started to rain.  HARD.  Uh-oh.

But it was just a cloudburst and was resolved by the time we arrived.  There is an impressive fountain at the entrance of the park.

We proceeded in, past the Saturday morning rugby matches.  The sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful.  I took my jacket off and enjoyed the first t-shirt day of the year.

Amiri enjoyed running through the grass, running back and forth under a stone arch commemorating The Great War, and finishing up the trail mix.

 I really only had to keep track of Amiri; here is what Arram was doing starting from shortly after his snack:

Then we retraced our steps to get home, and since the little guys were hungry we stopped at a cafe for a plate of noodles and some milk tea.  They boys were absolutely wonderful the whole time-- no crying, no tantrums.  The worst thing that happened was that Amiri sat in gum at the bus stop (and that's not so bad!)  After arriving home after all that exercise, Amiri napped for about three hours.

Amiri writes his first word

"Mama, what's your name?"
     "Allison."
But what did Daddy just call you?
     Allie.
Allie is your name too?
     Yes.
How do you spell Allie?
     A-L-L-I-E.

After hearing the spelling, Amiri dashed off to the other room.  Whatever.  Three year olds often dash away unexpectedly.

I'll admit that this little conversation barely even registered for me amongst all the other chatter... I was distracted with something in the kitchen and paying attention to Amiri with only a quarter of my brain. 

Seconds later he dashed back, holding a piece of paper.  "Like this, Mama?"

When I saw what he had, I paid him some BIG attention!

Things the children have stolen from us and hidden away

1. Cell phone.   My phone was missing for two days.  We finally found it by calling it with another phone and listening very carefully for the muffled ringing, which turned out to be coming from the living room cupboard.  Under the kids' towels.  And several of Arram's toys that had also been stashed there.
2. Amiri once stole $20 off the table and hid it in an inaccessible (to adult-size people) corner behind his bed.
3. Keys:  house, car.  They've swiped these many times.  The most recent event resolved after finding them in a shoe. 
4. Amiri apparently used to believe that the TV remote belongs in the laptop bag.
5. A pair of pants.  No, wait, I mean trousers-- 'pants' means underpants.  A pair of trousers.  Depending on the imaginary scenario you subscribe to, they were either accidentally dropped or enthusiastically flung off the balcony.
6. Daddy's watches:  they keep turning up in unexpected corners.  Get ambitious and vacuum under the couch?  Find a watch.  Naturally.
7. Our hearts.  They've stolen our hearts.  Barf, I know, but I couldn't resist...

How I occupy myself while waiting for business meetings to start

I had a meeting for work recently on the 17th floor of a building facing the Harbour (well, except for the other big buildings right in the way).  Here are some views, starting with facing westward and moving eastward.

The building I was in happened to be across the street from the building that the kids were in.   I could look down into Arram's classroom's playground!  Unfortunately the babies weren't outside playing, or I would have probably missed my meeting trying to get a snap of my little guy. 

S

Sorry the picture's so bad... camera phone...

The languages of Oceania

In the US, when you look on the label of supermarket items like toiletries and paper products, you sometimes see Spanish or French on them in addition to English.  Makes sense, it's so that the same product can be sold in Mexico and Canada.

Here, it's even more common to see multiple languages on a label.  The languages I see most often are Indonesian (I think), Arabic script which I presume is Malay, and my favorite because I think the script is so pretty, Thai.


Translations on signs around the city or on websites, though, are more often Pacific in origin.  Te reo Maori is of course the most common.  But I've seen signs with five or six translations.  I can't tell what's what.  My guesses are Cook Island Maori, Niuean, and Tokelauan (since those islands have loose governmental associations with NZ), or Tongan or Samoan since they're relatively nearby.  And then there's Vanuatu, where conveniently they speak English or Bislama (read the sign phonetically.  It's a fun little creole.).

City lights on a wintry night

School picture day

The backstory:

The school told us that the photographer was coming.  So we dressed our boys up in their suits and hoped for cuteness.  Each child was supposed to have an individual sitting with the photographer and Amiri predictably put on the charm and the big smiles.  Arram, however, objected to the whole idea and screamed inconsolably.  So, wisely, his big brother was brought in from the next room.  With his calming influence, our cranky-pants little boy was able to be photographed.

I don't think the tongs provided are big enough for the job

Sightseeing at the fish market--

It's like going to the aquarium except you get to eat it if you want to.

Auckland's regional personalities

Central city:  A place to work, not live.  Except for the immigrants who will put up with renting an apartment.

The south side--  Counties Manukau:  These are the low-socioeconomic, high-crime areas.  Large minority populations.

The east side--Mount Eden, Remuera:  Old money.  Proper.  British influences.

The north side-- Devonport, North Shore City:  Posh, expensive, and newly-built.

The west side--Waitakere, Henderson:  Hippies and bogans.

Bike safety

This bike sat un-locked and un-stolen for 48 hours downtown recently. 

I know it's not a very nice bike.  But it's un-stolen!   On a very busy street!  Over two nights!

Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. What.

In the toy department.  At Smith & Caughey on Queen Street.  In amongst the hand puppets and other sweet fluffy toys.

The manufacturer calls these "a wonderful collection of beautiful and colourful gollies." (Fifteen pages' worth?  Seriously?) I had to look the term up.  Just what I feared. 

I expected better, New Zealand.  Fail.  Rethink.

Spring cleaning

It was a dreary rainy day today.  We took it as an opportunity to give our apartment a proper cleaning.  The biggest difference came from having the professionals over to shampoo the carpets.  After nine months or so of toddler detritus, the rugs really needed some stain removal.  I learned, after seeing the enormous amount of dry debris they extracted and the gallons of grimy water that it took, that the brushless canister vac that came with our place really doesn't cut it. 

We organised our papers and the closets, did heaps of laundry, and bleached every available surface in the bathrooms.  Amiri's favorite part was helping with the windows.

We are happy about our new bathrobes...

but it is past our bedtime and we are unable to be happy about ANYTHING else.

But I'm slightly OK about this orange.

Ramadan mubarak!

It's been a long day already so just a short post today.  Wishing all a happy day and month.

The little tiny baby monkey and the co-co-die-lo

In keeping with his top animals to feature in our round-the-couch make-believe chasing game, Amiri was recently given some Just Because presents.  The monkey has magnets in its feet and can cling to his shirt.  He holds it sweetly in his arms, and he tells me several times a day, 'Mama, I love my monkey.'

The crocodile SNAPS! at Arram's feet.  Behind Amiri, by the way, is Arram's Time Out chair.  We have recently begun to implement one minute of sanctions for serious infractions.  Last night:  biting Mama.

The best part is I don't have to do any diapers today

Today we mark the event of my making my way around the sun one more time.  An eventful year it's been, too... what with having made my way halfway around the Earth, besides.  It's very odd now that I have an early-spring birthday.  Thanks for the good wishes, everyone.

As for me, I had a nice day being pampered, and got to have a NAP, which any mom-of-two-toddlers will tell you is her fondest desire.  It rained most of the day but then it stopped and there was a beautiful rainbow.  Then the two oldest males in the house ventured out to harvest a pretty cake.

About that cake...  Three layers, with custard and strawberry jelly in between.  Whipped cream frosting and lovely fruits on top.  Just before cutting it, Amiri told me, "Mama, I'm so excited about your birthday!  Your cake is beautiful."  We all ate too much sugar.

It was also a big day for Arram, who officially transitioned from Baby to Little Boy today.   (I'm not sure where we came up with that, that Arram Will be a Little Boy on Mama's Birthday, but it's sure been a much-discussed crowd favorite around here.)

Amiri told anyone who would listen that it was Mama's Birthday, she is 43 today.  Thanks, Amiri, for adding ten fifteen eighteen years to my age.  That's totally believable, right?

By popular demand...

Enjoy the interactions of our little guys as they eat a snack of toast on their new kid-sized table and chairs.

I'm NOT crazy

Last summer, I got sunburned even through my SPF 30 sunscreen.  I know I'm a burny-prone person, but still, I was surprised.  I was lamenting the upcoming summer and my apparently melanin-free skin to my coworkers today.  They gave me some valuable information.

The sun in NZ actually IS stronger than it is in the States! 

The intensity of the sun is measured in the UV index.  The UV index ranges from 0 (night-time) to 20 (laser sun).   Florida beaches have a UV index of about 10-12.  Summertime in northern New Zealand regularly reaches 14-15, even if the temperature is much lower than Daytona.

This happens for three reasons:  the ozone hole is nearby, the Earth's axis and orbit mean that the southern hemisphere is physically nearer the sun during the summer, and (ironically) there is less air pollution here to impede the sun's rays.

With this information, I'll be investing in SPF 45 this year.

Literacy

Arram loves it when we read him picture books.  He stands in front of us with armloads of books, begging for a story.   His favorite is 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?' and he excitedly joins in with 'Burr! Burr!' which, of course, is Arram-ese for Bear.

But yesterday we discovered that we aren't the only ones who can read to Arram.  Watch our big boy teaching his brother.

And so let the feasting begin

I had a couple of wonderful meals to celebrate my return to chemosensation.

Last week, we found a food court in one of the towers near our house.  It's described on one website as having 'all the ambiance of eating in a carpark', but it consistently gets five-out-of-five-stars reviews for the quality of the food.   It's a collection of twenty-plus Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian and other Asian stalls hawking steam buns, claypot cookery, any number of ugly-to-look-at, scrumptious-to-taste seafood, and everywhere you turn it's rendang this and goreng that.  It's been named the Best Food Court in Auckland.  Why oh why did it take us so long to find this place?

Anyway.  Look at this insanity I picked up at the Sushi Buffet stall upstairs.  $10 for 12 pieces, plus miso soup, condiments, and that crazy-good pink ginger.  You'll see that I am a wimp about the raw fish, but look... they deep-fried a Philadelphia roll.  Seriously, that's about as good as it gets in my book.  And when I saw that they made a nigirisushi out of a prawn twister, well, that's what sold me.

And then later I made a lunch of tapas.  Oh yeah.  On the left we have albonaya beef (I'm sure I've spelled that wrong):  it's a spicy stew of niblets of organic beef in a tomato-based sauce with cumin and saffron.  I mixed the cilantro and lemon zest throughout for an even more complex treat.  On the right are fresh local cockles, steamed open and dressed with a little garlic butter and herbs.  They're chewy little briny bites of happiness.