Fussy eaters, and dusk at our place

I looked at the calendar this morning and realised we've been in NZ for six months already.  Which means that our wood burner has been going for approximately five months, three weeks and three days.  Give or take.

Yup, two-thirds through October and we're still lighting the thing almost every day.  And, for me at least, the novelty hasn't worn off yet.  The carting, the stacking, the sweeping, the kindling, it's all worth it.

I have a confession to make.  Baby A (how long until I have to call her Toddler A?) is a good eater - loves her food - but she eats jar food almost to the exclusion of anything else.  Well, she also eats cracker-type things, and weet-bix for breakfast.  And yoghurt.  But when it comes to her main meals, she only accepts food from a jar.

It's my own fault of course.  She started out on homemade pureed vegetables, then we got ready to move to NZ so I switched to packet food because: stress... and here we are.  She's been eating 90% packet food for over six months and now accepts no substitutions.  She likes anything, as long as it comes out of a jar or a packet.  Any tips on how to get her onto regular food??

To illustrate the depth of obstinacy in this child, she won't even try cake.  It gets dropped off the side of the highchair tray along with any other lovingly prepared meals.

McDonalds hash browns?  Acceptable.  Mum's mini-quiches?  Most likely poisoned.  I mean I thought J was fussy.  This is on another level.

So, yeah.  Like I said - any and all advice gratefully received!

On a different note, last night I got both kids into bed, stepped out the back door, then leapt back inside to get my camera.

The light, my god, the light.

I took approximately eleventy-billion photos which I have tried to whittle down for you.  These are pretty much unedited straight off the camera.

You know how baby animals get all skittish and crazy at dusk?  Our calves are no exception.  They have a well-worn racing circuit around their paddock and off they go, bucking and leaping.

With occasional stops for pats.

I love - no, I love - where we live.

More rain and indoor pursuits

Edited to add my muesli recipe which I should have included in the original!

You'll be shocked I'm sure to hear that this week we've had a whole lot more of this:

In the interests of accurate reporting I should add that we've had a day or two of sunshine and warm temps as well (19C the other day!  I nearly melted!  I'm being sarcastic obviously!), but mostly it's been very wet.

Can you believe my flowers, which have all been going strong in vases for weeks?  I'm very lazy about changing the water and it's always warm inside due to the fire, and yet still they give and give.

Anyway, the rain has kept us indoors most of the time which I wouldn't mind at all except OH YEAH I have small kids who are going insane.

We're all doing our best but the cabin fever is reaching a critical level.

My knitting is still going strong, and in fact I've cast on another project.  I'm making a raglan jumper for J in this adorable self-striping yarn.  It's working up very quickly and I have to force myself to keep working on the jumper I'm making for myself.  The adult jumper pattern comes with tutorial videos and I won't be able to finish either garment without the assistance of those videos.  So I have to keep working on mine even though I'm at the round and round stage of knitting the body and it's sooo borrrrrrinngg.

So I should have these done for next winter anyway.

What else have we been up to here?

We've baked some biscuits.

We've eaten lots of dippy eggs (or duppy iggs as my little Kiwi calls them).  Did I mention we have chickens now?  Normally there'd be a photo or two of them here but it's way too wet out there to be mucking about with my camera.  And I assume you know what chickens look like.  Ours are brown. There's three of them.

I've made a batch of my trusty muesli.  No yucky dried fruit.  Just the good stuff, ready for my yoghurt tomorrow morning.

If you're interested, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

6 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup maple syrup

2/3 cup honey

1 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup pepitas

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.  Line two baking trays with baking paper.  Place oats in a large bowl.  

Gently heat maple syrup and honey together in a saucepan.  Once warm and combined, pour over oats, then toss with two metal spoons.  

Spread oat mixture evenly over baking trays.  Bake one at a time for 15 minutes or until golden.  Watch them closely to make sure they don't burn - this can happen within a moment!  

Once toasted, remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Repeat with remaining tray.  

Once cool, place mixture back into mixing bowl and stir through coconut, pepitas, and sunflower seeds.

You can add in anything you like in the last step.  Some other ideas: dried apple, dried apricots, dried cranberries, chopped almonds, bran, linseeds, ... whatever!

I serve mine over natural yoghurt with some in-season fruit.  Or tinned peaches.  You really can't go wrong.

There's been lots of building with blocks and some of the constructions are quite elaborate.  Until A the one-woman demolition team rolls through.

I think the most newsworthy news item this week is that A's sleep has taken an amazing and unexpected turn.  She sleeps!  She sleeps all night!  She sometimes wakes for a bottle at 4am but the rest of the time she sleeps through!  Don't worry, I'm keeping my glee in check because I know all too well that things could turn back the other way but it sure is nice, and she is SO much happier.

Speaking of A, I was having a read through my old blog from a year ago and it's funny how much you forget.  A year ago I was talking about what a chilled out and easy baby she was, the big sleeps she was doing overnight.  I totally forgot what an easy newborn she was.  I wasn't exactly smug back then but I have certainly attained a difference perspective on it all.  I'm so glad I've got all the ups and downs recorded.

World of Wearable Art and the ever-growing menagerie

This weekend I went for a whirlwind visit to the World of Wearable Art exhibition.

How's the alliteration in that sentence!

What an experience.

I went with B's mum and I'm still sort of processing what we saw.  The show was nothing like what I expected, not that I had really known what to expect.  Googling it and asking people, no one can explain what it is.  Now that I've seen the show I can understand why.  I still can't explain it to you.

It's fashion, costuming, music, dancing, art, and performance, all rolled into one.  It's a spectacular spectacle.  Overwhelming, exciting, eerie, and beautiful.  Clearly I don't have enough adjectives to describe the experience but it was truly breathtaking.

I didn't take my camera, and in fact photos aren't allowed during the performance anyway.  It was nice to just enjoy it without always half-thinking about capturing good images.

I had such a wonderful time.  We drove to Wellington, which takes about 4-5 hours, leaving New Plymouth about lunchtime.  It's an easy and very picturesque drive down, past the mountain and the lush rolling hills of Taranaki and then the open plains, before the hills creep up and in as we approached the Kapiti Coast.

We dropped our bags at the hotel in Raumati Beach, got changed, and headed down to Wellington.  We somehow snagged a free car park right near the venue, and then had an amazing dinner at Two Grey.  They were doing a set menu for WOW which was insanely good.  As in, I ran my finger around my plate to get every drop of the sauce.  That good.

Then the show itself was mind-blowing, and just long enough for our bums to let us know we had done a lot of sitting that day.  We got back to Raumati just before 11pm and rolled into bed for a blissful uninterrupted sleep.

I woke before the alarm (as usual) and was soon in our courtyard soaking in the solitude - just me, the birds, and my cup of tea - and watching the clouds roll overhead.  It was a real treat to just have that early morning stillness, especially when mornings at home are so frenetic.

We had a delicious breakfast at a cafe across the road from the hotel, before hitting the highway back to New Plymouth.  The rain settled in as we headed north, and I arrived home almost exactly 24 hours later.

I feel so refreshed.

I really, really needed that.

Briefly, in other news...

B has perfected his onion ring recipe.  Crisp and light as air.  And very hard to stop at one.

The various bulbs in the garden are starting to look a bit tired and are flopping everywhere.  I know I have to let them die back to feed the bulb for next year, but once that's happened I'll be digging them out.  I can't deal with how messy the dying back stage is so they'll go into pots where I can move them out of sight once they start falling over everywhere.

New growth everywhere you look.  Even my poor lily of the valley shrub which couldn't muster even one flower this winter has marshalled itself.

The maple is unbelievably pretty.

And look at this sunshine!  Don't worry - it's raining again now.  Of course it is.

I got a proper written letter from my mum, along with an article from the Weekend Australian newspaper all about Taranaki!  Number 2 region in the world to visit in 2017, people!

As you may have seen on Facebook and Instagram, we have the sweetest little calves here now.  Oh. my. GOD.  They are adorable.  And can you believe their tiny little raincoats?!  I know.  I know.

Unfortunately this means that I have re-commenced worrying excessively about their wellbeing.  I mean, I thought I worried about the older cows.  The worrying about the calves is NEXT LEVEL.  It's exhausting.

Surely farmers don't fret about their livestock this much.  Do they??

I really never expected that I would be so concerned, not just for their welfare - that's obvious - but for their wellbeing.  Are they cold?  Are they scared?  Are they dry?  They're so little.

Luckily they have one very attentive mother-figure in me, and a perhaps even more attentive one in J.  Little A loves them too but she's more inclined to screech excitedly at them.  I have to physically restrain J from trying to go in the paddock to give them "cuddles".

We're getting some chickens this week which means the menagerie will be almost complete.  Just a couple of sheep for the orchard paddock.  And possibly a dog in a year or two's time.  Oh and let's not forget a pony for J.  Maybe a couple of goldfish.  And hell, why not throw a few ducks into the mix?

No more baby

My second and final baby is officially a baby no more.

This whole year I've been meaning to write about what it's been like going from one child to two and I'm glad it's taken me this long to get my thoughts together.  Had I written this post in the first six months of her life - or even a couple of months ago - it would have been quite different.

When I was pregnant with A, pretty much as soon as I saw those two lines, I started obsessing about what it would be like.  What kind of baby would she be?  How would we all adjust?  What if she was a screamer like her sister - as a newborn - had been?  How would I cope?  I had an absolutely terrible time adjusting to life with one baby, I really hated those first few months and cried all the time, what if that happened again?

I asked everyone with more than one child what their experience had been.  Surprise surprise, everyone had a different story.  My sister helpfully told me that "one is like one, and two is like twenty" and that the adjustment from one to two kids is way harder than the adjustment from none to one.  In hindsight that probably was helpful since she prepared me for the worst but at the time it just sent me into a panic spiral.

J was only 19 months old when A came along.  We were given lots of great advice about how to gently introduce them to each other and to ease the transition for J, and we needed none of it.  J was entranced from the moment she laid eyes on the baby.  She adored her little sister instantly.  So that all went swimmingly.

As it happens, I found the first three to six months - if not an absolute breeze - pretty easy.  I had occasional moments of feeling overwhelmed, but it wasn't the calamitous chaos I'd feared.  Even those first intense weeks where you have no routine and just ricochet through the day didn't faze me.  A cried quite a bit but I knew she was just very small and things would settle down soon.



My main fear and obsession as soon as I knew I was pregnant again was, and continues to be, sleep.  I've written about it before.  A is a really poor sleeper.  This has been the hardest thing, by far, about having a second child.  At first I could put it down to her being too little to sleep well.  Then it went on, and it got really hard, really hard, because she was so grumpy all the time as well.  There were days where she cried ALL DAY.  As did I.

So then we moved to New Zealand because you know, tickets were booked.  It's safe to say that the move did not help A's misery, or her sleep, one bit.  Things got a lot worse, and then it got a bit better.  And then worse again.  And now better.

We've come a long way.

What a joyful member of the family she has become.  Her personality has started to come through and she is pure delight.

No, I don't like babies much.  But boy do I love toddlers.  Chubby kicking legs and throaty chortles and fat hands clapping with glee at every little thing.  Waving vigorously at anyone who comes or goes (including passing cars at the shops).  She laughs with her nose all scrunched up, she dances - and she really gets down with the shoulders shrugging and the hips wiggling.  She imitates us all day long, determined to participate and to learn.  She's talking more all the time: "You want a snack, bubby?"  "Yeah".

As the health nurse said last month "No flies on that one".  No, indeed.

She loves to play with J.  They are each other's best friend.  Especially since A has finally got mobile, oh boy.  The fun they have.  J encourages her: "Crawl to me, bubby!  Come on!  Come over here.  Here she comes!"  J adores her little sister.  She shares generously with A, and only gives her the occasional swipe or push.  Often, if J is upset, she wants a cuddle from A - not from me.  The bond between those two fills me to bursting.  When it's time to get A up from a nap, J runs excitedly down the hall squealing "Bubby!  Bubby's awake!".

It's one thing to love your kids, but then you see them love each other.

And that is a hell of a thing.

Trees and flowers, knitting, and so forth

Not to be completely unoriginal or anything, but I cannot believe how the weeks whip by.  Suddenly it's Sunday night Monday morning again.

We've had a reasonably quiet week, just the usual schedule of child-related activities, although I did get to have my hair seen to and my eyebrows groomed all within the one week which is making me feel very polished.  I might even put on some make up.  Well... maybe.  Ok.  Probably not.

The garden continues to spring (get it!!) anew, bringing me no end of delight.  More trees and flowers, I'm afraid, my friends.  Brace yourselves.

You'll have to excuse the patchy lawn - you may recall that we dug out the delightful fishpond/garden bed, and the new grass is taking a while to come through.

How adorable are bluebells?  They're everywhere here

Did I mention that we have cows again?  We have cows again

There are so many beautiful spring bulbs scattered randomly through the garden beds (interspersed with a good amount of onion weed).  I want to dig them up and rearrange them for maximum enjoyment.  We have some stunning freesias but they're tucked down the side of the house where we can't see or smell them.  What a waste!

I bought a packet of forget-me-not seeds the other day and only then noticed that they're already popping up everywhere in the garden and the paddocks.

The plum trees keep on giving, and now the blossoms are starting to fall like confetti.  I hope we get a good crop of fruit.  Apparently one of them is a damson plum from which you can make gin!  It'd be rude not to!

As you may or may not already know, a few years ago I taught myself to crochet by watching many Youtube videos.  I had originally attempted knitting but found it too hard and when I switched to crochet it felt much more natural for me.

I just realised that this is possibly the most boring story ever.

Anyway,  I decided to have another go at knitting this week and guess what!  It's not so hard for me anymore!  I think crochet got me familiar with the general ideas that also apply to knitting so now I'm off and away on my first knitting project.  In my experience, knitting is a far more useful skill because there are only so many crocheted blankets and beanies that people need.  But being able to knit cardigans, dresses, jumpers, etc will actually be quite handy.

Can you believe these curls?

A major event this coming week is A's first birthday.  She's turning one at last already.  She is so stinking cute these days, you guys.  She still doesn't sleep terribly well but (touch wood) I think we're leaving those cranky baby days behind us at last.  Crawling has definitely helped.  Boy is she proud of herself crawling around the house and popping her big noggin around the door to find me.

Speaking of that big noggin, she had her first check up with the baby nurse the other week and finally got weighed and measured for the first time in about six months.  Decidedly average for height and weight.  Head circumference?  97th percentile.

Her confidence with the crawling has grown so that all lower drawers are now being opened and investigated, and the TV remotes will be on the kitchen bench for the time being.  There's also plenty of bumped head incidents and getting oneself wedged in various unlikely spots, requiring cuddles before she's determinedly off again.

She and J have started to discover how much fun they can have together and while there is always the odd scrap (in which A can most definitely hold her own), it's very rewarding to see them playing together.

Even if it does mean that A jams her fingers in the cat flap approximately 17 times in 10 minutes.

Last bit of news, we had a very lively thunderstorm last night which gave the house a good shake, and apparently the Wind Wand and the chimney at the port got hit by lightning!  I can report that the poor cows here were certainly freaking out.  Poor cows.

Got any news for me?  Can you knit?  Been struck by lightning?