marc.vic.max.elliot

I can’t believe my little baby boy is two today. Two years ago today when he was in such a rush to get here - I was cleaning like a crazy woman all morning, lay down for a rest in the afternoon and he kicked so much I couldn’t sleep, my contractions (which I thought were just baby kicks/stretches) weren’t bothering me but Marc was timing them nonetheless, then made me get into the car, took me to hospital and 36 minutes after leaving home and two pushes later Elliot arrived into the world!

Happy Birthday Elliot …

written by vic

Bet you were wondering what we’ve been up to? I realise the last big update was a month ago - we’ve been pretty busy, so I’ll just note the major things we’ve done:

Marc’s football team had a pre-season game on Sunday 25 March which they won, and Marc’s legs seem to be OK (he was out for most of last season with Achilles problems). He’s played again a couple of times since then, and all’s going well.

I did a turn at parent help at Max’s kindy before end of term. It was nice to see what Max gets up to there and how much he’s changed since he first started going. The younger kids now follow him around including three or four girls who always want to play with him. He’s off to morning kindy at the beginning of next term (five mornings a week) so he’ll be the youngest for a little while. It will be interesting to see which of the big kids he follows around!

We’ve also spent a lot of time with Ian and Ngahuia - who live down the road (both colleagues of Marc when he worked at Dell - and he now works with Ngahuia at NetApp). Ian’s daughter Megan has been in New Zealand (visiting from the UK) so we took Ian and Megan along with us to playgroup, music, swimming, Junglerama, and the local park. Max and Megan are a couple of weeks apart in age and got on really well….

We also spent a lovely relaxing weekend with them at their holiday home over the hill in the Wairarapa. The weather was great and the kids (and I&N’s dogs) spent most of the weekend running outside.

The following week was end of term for playgroup, music and kindy - with Max having a party at kindy on the last day - not because he is moving up to morning kindy - but because Linda (his favourite teacher) was leaving to move to another kindergarten. She has been fantastic with him and he (and the other children too) will really miss her.

My mum also had her birthday during that week, so the boys and I had lunch with her, and that night Marc and I, my sister Ali and her partner Clay took mum out for dinner to a fantastic Cambodian restaurant in town where we had a lovely meal - we’ll be going back again I’m sure.

Easter was nice but busy. I attempted to make Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. I used the recipe in my breadmaker book and they turned out to be absolutely revolting - next year I’ll do it the real way and knead everything by hand. Saturday the boys had a birthday party to go to for Max’s friend James who was turning 4. His party was great and the kids enjoyed a treasure hunt, pass the parcel and playing musical statues (which was entertaining as it’s pretty hard for 4 year olds to stand still!) After the party we went to Ian and Ngahuia’s for a BBQ - the weather was pretty mild so we sat outside to eat dinner (possibly the last time for a little while though). Sunday the boys were excited to find the Easter bunny had left them an Easter egg each, and they also enjoyed running around outside finding the ones hidden there.

They were also given Easter treats by Ali and Clay, Nana Jan, Grannie Annie, Clay’s little niece Emma (she’s not even one yet!) and some money from Grandad Len and Ngaire - thank you to all of you. The rest of the weekend is a blur as it went past so quickly, but I know we enjoyed a really nice BBQ dinner at Grannie Annie’s, we collected and put together bunk beds for Max, moved the boys bedrooms around, farwelled Megan, Marc played football, and I managed to do a little bit of gardening too!

We then had two weeks of school holidays to fill - so have had lunch on various days with Marc, Grannie and Nana, morning tea with Auntie Ali, various playdates with Max’s kindy friends, a visit to the library, a birthday party for my friend Nickie’s son Ryan who turned 2, and Max and I did lots of weeding and hacking of bushes on fine afternoons while Elliot slept. Marc is currently away (for the second week of the holidays) on a training course in Sydney so it’s been pretty hard going entertaining both of them all day, everyday! Thankfully he gets back tonight.

I’m also busy setting up a little business so that should kick off in the next couple of weeks - I’ll tell you more about that soon.

Not making any promises but I am going to try to update more often (more than once a month anyway) in the future!

written by vic

I can’t believe it’s been over a week since my last entry - we must have been having fun!
We had a nice quiet day on Wednesday followed by dinner at my friend Anna’s house with her children Zach and Stella. Thanks so much for a lovely time (and meal) - we all enjoyed it.

Thursday morning we went to music and took along Zoe from down the road, while her mum was helping out with swimming at school. She is a lovely little girl who behaved beautifully, but I’m glad I don’t have three children to keep an eye on all the time!

Friday morning Marc surprised us by arriving home earlier than expected - he’d managed to catch an earlier flight from Auckland, so was home at 7.30am. The boys jumped all over him, followed him around everywhere and Elliot kept walking up to him, holding up his arms and saying ‘cuddle’. So I think I can honestly say we were all pleased to see him come home

Saturday we had a lovely time with Marc’s old boss Pete (not that he’s old), his wife Jan and their little boy Finn, who came to us for lunch. The boys all played really nicely together (Elliot and Finn are about the same age) - it’s just a shame they live over in Australia as it would be nice to spend more time with them.

Saturday night the clocks went back so the boys were up at 5am instead of 6am! After our nice early start on Sunday we dropped the boys off at Marc’s mums house (Grannie) for a few hours while we went round the shops looking for a new watch for me. I’ve lost the winder off the side of my old watch so I can’t change the time. I didn’t find anything I liked there, but have since found (and bought) a lovely Tissot watch.

This week has also been busy. It’s gone something like this …
- Monday morning playgroup, Monday afternoon kindy for Max and nap for Elliot, then in the evening I went to the kindy committee meeting (I’m the secretary on this committee)
- Tuesday morning Max went to play at a friend’s house and while Elliot had his nap in the afternoon I did a second coat of paint on the fence out the front
- Had a playdate with my friend Siobhan and her children Tyler and Mikayla on Wednesday morning and in the afternoon Elliot had his nap while Max and I did some painting, drawing, coloring and reading.

It’s Thursday once again - we had music this morning, Max is now at kindy, Elliot is asleep and I’ve been typing this instead of doing the housework and folding the laundry! Had better get a move on to get something done before I have to go and collect Max.

written by vic

We have been busy busy busy this past week (just like every week!) We’ve managed to fit in the following:
Monday - Playgroup and the Fire Station visit in the morning and kindy for Max in the afternoon
Tuesday - house work and then kindy for Max. He learned to flip over holding onto the swinging rings and also helped a lot at clean-up time so the teachers gave him the ‘well done’ badge for that day.

Wednesday - a visit to the library, grocery shopping and lunch with my mum (the boys’ Nana). I later baked supper ready for the Playgroup Committee Meeting (I’m the treasurer on this committee). Very nicely they all came here for the meeting so I wouldn’t have to organise a babysitter to go out.
Thursday - music in the morning, a trip through the car wash (very entertaining as Elliot screamed the whole time we were in there!) and then kindy for Max. After that we popped in to see my sister Ali, who was flying out to Europe that evening for three weeks of work.
Friday - swimming with my friend Anna from up the road and her two littlies Zach and Stella (which the boys loved, so will try to do that more often). Our plans for dinner on Friday night unfortunately fell through as another friend Mary Jane’s little boy James was unwell - but the boys and I had takeaways instead.
Saturday - Our visit to Grannie (Marc’s mum) was postponed as she was also unwell, but the boys played outside most of the time until Max pulled a muscle in his neck jumping on the trampoline. He then spent most of the rest of the day with an icepack on his neck, or asleep. He was not a happy boy, and even opted out of going to his friend Neve’s 4th birthday party (very unlike Max).
Sunday - Max said he was feeling a bit better this morning although he was still holding onto his neck most of the time - but we went out (with my Mum) and visited a new clothes shop where I managed to find three new winter tops. We also stopped in to see Grandad and his partner Ngaire (that’s Marc’s dad). Ngaire has her own business doing Bowen Therapy - so while Max played she did a little bit on his neck and the difference is amazing. He could turn his head both ways and didn’t seem to be in anymore pain. We’ve just come back from a BBQ dinner at Nickie and Quintin’s house (a lady I met through playgroup) which was very nice.Somehow we’ve also managed to fit in eating, sleeping, showers, dishes, laundry, playing with and tidying up mountains of toys and books, and also Elliot’s afternoon naps.

The only other thing I can think of to mention is that Elliot no longer sits in his highchair for meals - he’s been sitting at the little table with Max for breakfast and lunch, and at the dining room table for dinner. He’s been pretty good for the most part and doesn’t get up and walk around too much!

Just off to make playdough to take to playgroup in the morning, and then I will be collapsing into bed - all ready for the chaos to begin again tomorrow!

written by vic

Today our playgroup visited the local fire station. One of the dads that comes to playgroup is a volunteer fireman so he organised it all. It was fantastic - he showed the kids inside the station, put on all his gear (including mask and tanks - he honestly looked terrifying so I hope we never have a fire where they come in dressed like that), let the kids climb inside the engine, turn on the siren, and best of all - they all got a turn squirting water from the hose.

Back at home and the boys had had their lunch and were sitting at their table drawing pictures so I popped out of the room to put the washing machine on. I heard them laughing and thought “oh that’s good - they’re playing nicely together”, when really I should have thought “that’s strange - they’re laughing and not fighting with each other”. Max came through and said “Mummy - Elliot’s drawing”. Warning lights went off in my head and I ran back through to the family room to discover Elliot standing with a whiteboard marker in his hand and black scribbles on the windows, floor, tv screen, Max’s new book, and on two of the three new rimu bar stools by the kitchen bench (the third luckily had a magazine on the top - but that was also covered with scribble). Elliot got put straight in the naughty corner while I tried to clean up - FYI whiteboard marker comes off glass and laminated flooring, but not books or bar stools (it’s just soaked right in). Max claimed he hadn’t seen Elliot do any of this - however I later found pen marks on the top of my laptop (kept on the breakfast bar) so knew Max had been involved too - there is no way Elliot could have reached that high. I’m guessing Max started it and then gave the pen to Elliot and told him where to draw. I hope we’re going to be able to sand the stools down, re-stain and oil them to get rid of the marks.
It’s going to be a long two weeks ….. at least it wasn’t a permanent marker pen!

written by vic

Marc has gone to the States for two weeks for his new job induction and training. He used to travel a bit with his last job, so now I’m used to dealing with the boys by myself. It just means I have to be a bit more organised - sorting out bags, snacks or lunch boxes the night before for whatever we have planned the next day, and while Elliot sleeps in the afternoon and Max is at kindy I get dinner organised (instead of doing housework or surfing the net:)). We’ve even got our bedtime routine sorted out so Max tidies away the toys while I bath or shower Elliot. All in all for the most part it’s not too bad and I no longer dread the thought of Marc going away. In fact it means I have one less person to tidy up after (sorry honey!) although I do have all the dishes to do myself!

This morning started off bright and early - I picked up mum at 7.00am and we headed over the hill to Martinborough (about an hour away) to the Martinborough Fair which is held the first Saturday in February and March every year. Got there nice and early so didn’t have to pay for parking this year, and it also meant it wasn’t too hot. Managed to get a good selection of native plants (so hopefully fairly low maintenance) for planting on our bank, a couple of t-shirts for the boys, a lovely cd rack made of macrocarpa, and of course a bag of coconut ice for all my boys.

We headed back around lunchtime, so I got home in time to take Marc to the airport for his flight to Auckland and then onto San Fransisco. The boys love the airport and are so excited to see the planes taking off and landing, the little trucks with the bags on, the fire engines and this time they got to see the rescue helicopter flying off as well.

Now we’ll just see how the next two weeks go …..

written by vic

written by Marc

Work’s crazy, home is crazy, the kids are crazy!

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written by Marc