Author Archives: Jenny @ Practically Perfect...

10 Months

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Dear Joseph,

It’s unbelievable to me how much you’ve grown and changed in such a short period of time.  How is that you’re already 10 months old?  You’ve gone from this:

Less than 2 hours old

To this:

Just shy of 10 months old

You’re alert and moving and growing in independence every day!

Movement

You crawl everywhere, but you’ve also started taking a few unassisted steps.  If someone is holding your hand(s), then it’s a guarantee that you’ll take off in whatever direction you please.  You’ve grown quite adept at using furniture, toys, and people to aide you in your travels.  You’ve figured out how to go up the stairs, too.  Next step is teaching you how to safely go down the stairs.

You’re incredibly fast.  In the time it takes me to empty your nappy into the toilet and return to the nursery (all of 10 seconds, door to door), you’ve zoomed out into the hallway and are off like a shot.

You’re fascinated with pretty much anything that is unsafe: cords, wall sockets, electronics, toilets (ew), stairs, and all sorts of other things.  It’s a challenge to keep up with you.  We’ve baby-proofed, but there are few things that can resist your tiny, incredibly strong fingers.  Thankfully the socket plugs seem to be one of the things you can’t pry loose, along with the oven latch.  Good to know that some of those baby-proof supplies that we invested in actually work.

Eating

You eat solid foods for breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner.

Eating some homemade pea soup

When you were very little (around 6 months) I would make purees of some of our food and feed it to you.  We’ve always fed you things off of our plates, but now that’s what we do exclusively – no pureeing and no “special” meals.  You feed yourself but sometimes we feed you, and you know what?  You’re fine.  You eat a huge variety of foods: onions, carrots, beetroot, garlic, chicken, beef, pineapple, feijoa, avos, hardboiled eggs (actually, eggs in any form), porridge… you love to eat!  You’ll gnaw on apple slices and feed yourself orange wedges.  Other than the time that your daddy attempted to feed you spicy chili (momma was at work), there hasn’t been a thing at which you’ve turned up your nose.  Last night, you ate roasted onions, carrots, and potatoes with olive oil and garlic.  The onion was your favorite, oddly enough.

You let us know that you’re done eating in a very blunt fashion: you throw food on the floor.  Needless to say, we’re working on breaking you of that habit!  You have also figured out how to hold up a sippy cup.  Like everything else, you mastered it in your own time and now you drink water quite well.  Right now, you’re drinking about 1 1/2 sippy cups full of water a day.

I’m still nursing you and plan to do so till you’re 1 year old.  I’m not opposed to going a bit longer than that, but we’ll see how you go.  You nurse 3 times a day right now – mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and in the evening.

Talking

You babble all the time.  You mimic us and you make noises like “da-da-da”, “mama”, “brrrrrrr”, “ba-ba-ba”, and you love to make “pfffbt” noises.  Today at the grocery you were singing “la-la-la” so loudly and sweetly that I couldn’t help but laugh.  You “sing” to us if we sing to you, and I love to hear your sweet, darling voice.  You recognize some words: daddy, cup, brekkie (breakfast), mama.  I think that you realize, recognize, and understand a lot more than we know!

We have been trying to keep your pacifier away from you during the day, because I notice that you say more when it’s out.  You still get it at times – when we’re out and about and you’re stuck in the pram, right before nap times, etc – but I want to make sure that we’re not giving it to you for no good reason.  I had a feeling that you could manage having it less, and so far, you’re doing just that.

Sleep

You sleep like a champ, most of the time.  You rise around 6am, take a morning nap around 9am for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours, then go down for a 2 hour nap around 2pm.  Come 7/7:30pm, you’re sleepy and ready for nighttime.

Shortly after waking from morning nap

I was concerned about weaning you off nursing and how this would affect your sleep.  I shouldn’t have been.  You no longer let me nurse you to sleep.  Instead, you nurse and then are up for maybe another 30 – 40 minutes, then go to bed.  We go into the nursery with the shade drawn and the lights off.  The light from the hallway or from around the edges of the window is just enough for me to read to you.

One of your favorite sleepytime books is “The Silliest Dream”, and I have to say that we really enjoy it, too.  I’ll read your some of that book, or maybe sing “Hush Little Baby” while holding you in the rocking chair.  Usually within 5 minutes, you’re ready to lie down in your cot.  I turn on the sleep sheep, give you a pacifier (with a spare where you can reach it) and shut the door.  Sometimes you cry.  I’ll come in and settle you – shushing, lying you back down, making sure that you have your pacifier – and then go back out.  It make take 1 or 2 times of settling, but generally speaking you go to sleep quickly.

You’re not a robot.  Sometimes no matter what I do, you’re not ready for a nap.  In those cases, I’ll make sure that there isn’t something wrong (like a dirty nappy or something else that makes you uncomfortable, like being too warm or too cool).  If you’re fine (fed, dry, and well) then I might give you some quiet time in your cot for a short while – keep the lights dim and the sleep sheep on, but not bothered if you don’t actually snooze.  It’s still good for you to rest, even if you’re awake.  I know that you feel much better if you can get in a morning nap, so I really try to make sure that you sleep for a tiny bit, even if only for 20 minutes.

Other Bits and Pieces

You’ve started to interact a bit more with other babies.  I go to an exercise group on Thursdays, and it’s fun to bring you along and watch you crawl across the grass to the other littlies.  You aren’t terribly interested in them just yet, though.  We do a rhyming session on Mondays at the library, and you love to watch and play with the other babies.  You hang out with your friends on Wednesdays when we swim, and there’s always at least one other day during the week where we’re meeting up with someone with a baby or children.

You also go into the creche (nursery) at church on Sundays and love to play with the toys and with your friends Zoe and Sophia.  They’re a little older than you, and we’ve noticed that whenever they do something, like wave at you, you are really good about doing it back.  A lot better, actually, than when your daddy or I try to get you to do it!

You still love to “read”.  You turn the pages and bang on their covers.  You love to be read to, and you love to “read” to us.

Another incredibly sweet thing that you’ve started doing is sharing your food with me or with your daddy.  I think that you’re modeling what you’ve seen us do – we hand you food, and then you eat it.  You’ve started handing us food or trying to put it into our mouths, and you laugh and giggle when we pretend that we’re going to eat it.  You do this routinely.

You love to clap your hands.  If I say, “pat a cake” you start clapping your hands.  If I say, “Yay, Joe!” you start clapping your hands.  If I say, “Good job!”, you clap your hands.  You wave “bye bye” and point your fingers at things now.  You are such a smiley baby, and I love it.

You do love your routine, I’ll say that.  In some ways, this is nice – I tend to know what to expect and when to expect it.  It does make things a bit tricky at times, though.  I’ll be out with friends and I know that you want to eat or that you’re getting sleepy.  Sometimes there’s no help for it and you have to wait a bit longer.  I think that’s OK.  Actually, I think that it’s good for you to start to understand, as much as your little 10 month old self is able, that the world does not always start and stop according to your schedule.  That might sound mean, but I do it because I love you – I do it because I think that it will help you start to learn patience.  Your daddy and I both hope and pray that we can teach you the right things, and learning how to be patient is a good and valuable trait.  Don’t worry – you’re only a baby and we remember that!  We don’t expect you to be patient for very long :-)

And last but not least, in my opinion, you’ve started to recognize what you should and shouldn’t be doing.  You really enjoy getting into your bedroom closet.  How you manage to open that door, I’ll never know.  In the time it takes for me to wash my hands, you’ve opened it up and are digging around.  We’ve told you “no” about this on several occasions, and I’m pretty sure that you realize that you’re not supposed to be in there.  I’ve even got some videographic evidence to back up that theory…

I’m so happy that I get to be your momma and that I get to take care of you.  You are precious to us and we love you so much!

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Casual

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It’s official: I told my boss today that I would come back from mat-leave on a casual (as needed) basis rather than on a regularly scheduled week.

It wasn’t an easy decision.  I batted around several possibilities with both Chris and my manager, but in the end, this option (doing casual) is the best one for our family.  Chris will be traveling a lot and since he watches Joe when I’m at work, there would be a lot of times when I would be unavailable.

So, casual it is.  I was surprised at how sad I felt once the decision was made.  However, once Joe woke up from his nap and I was cuddling him and kissing his sweet, fuzzy head, I knew that it was the right choice.  We can afford it, and I love taking care of Joe.  I’m sure that at some point down the road I’ll return to more regular paid work, but that will have to wait till a later date :-)

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My Monster

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Most people think of scary, terrifying things when they hear the word “monster”.

I’m sure that some of you might be a bit surprised to hear that I have my own personal monster, and I actually like it.

I’m talking about a green monster, of course.  A green monster monster smoothie!

In my journey to eat just a bit more healthily, I started researching smoothies.  I was actually researching spirulina smoothies, but came across the Green Monster Movement website along the way.  I decided to give it a whirl (tee hee) and try one.  I used Angela’s basic recipe and thought that it was quite tasty.  So, I thought that I would try a few more.

Unfortunately, my blender was not a fan of green monsters.  It broke after the second one (a chipped chunk of plastic from one of the screws = husband decided he could muck something together to make it work = sparks and smoke and an entire pitcher-full of smoothie ingredients being dumped down the sink with the remnants making it into the rubbish bin = less than pleased email to husband).

Fast-forward a few days: the Easter Weekend was over, stores were open again, and I was able to buy a replacement blender.  I used what was left of the spinach (much of it had been eaten by then in other forms: salads, omelets, etc.) to make another smoothie.  It was as yummy as I remembered, which led to making today’s green monster, pictured above.

I’ve tried various adaptations of the original recipe.  I’ve used regular milk, soy milk, Greek yoghurt.  I’ve used peanut butter and gone without.  I’ve added ice or skipped it.  I think that what I like the best about this recipe is that it’s very adaptable to what you have on hand.  The things that have remained the same in my monsters are (1) at least 2 big handfuls of rinsed spinach, (2) a tablespoon of chia seeds, and (3) a frozen banana.  In cases where I’ve only used the banana, I found that it wasn’t quite sweet enough to mask the spinach flavour (and let me tell you, drinking spinach and having it taste like you’re drinking spinach isn’t as nice as drinking spinach and having it taste like something else).  In those instances, I added a bit of honey and that was enough.

Today’s green monster was put together in the following order:

  • 3 large handfuls of rinsed spinach
  • 1 T of chia seeds
  • 1 avocado, peeled and with the stone removed
  • 1 frozen banana
  • 2 small handfuls of frozen berries (try to find ones w/o added sweetener)
  • 1 C of milk
  • Juice from 1 orange

It was delicious.  I think that the avo helped give it a smoother, less liquid-y texture, more like a green monster shake.  If you don’t have any avos, just use unsweetened yoghurt in place of the milk, blend, and add water to thin as needed.

I’d recommend checking out the recipes over at Green Monster Movement and seeing what works for you.  The smoothies that I’ve made have never been overpoweringly fruity – I’ve always felt like I could taste just a wee bit of the spinach – but that’s because of the way that I’m making them.  If you don’t want to taste any veggies, then just add more fruit!  My advice is to take a small taste while it’s still in the pitcher, and then adjust as needed.

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Living in New Zealand: Easter Weekend

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Hello, my lovely readers :-)   I hope that your week started out as well as ours did – lots of sunshine and lovely weather.

Celsius

Fahrenheit

I was reminiscing about last Easter weekend – I was roughly 2 months away from delivering Joe and in the thick of my antenatal classes. I remember that my fellow classmates decided to cancel the Good Friday class session.  Not for religious reasons, of course, but so that they could get the most out of the Easter holiday and travel.  Very contrary to my American desire to just get stuff done and over with.

This Easter weekend was spent in less educational pursuits and much more comfortably.  On Friday, Joe and I took a walk to the park.  We had intended to go to the grocery, but alas, it was closed, along with many other businesses.  I had to work on Saturday for 12 hours, so Joe and Chris were on their own.  I was pretty tired when I got home, so I didn’t notice Chris’ ingenious design for keeping Joe trapped maintained.  I saw it the following morning and wondered what had been going on in my absence!

Yes, those are chairs along the floor.  He figured out pretty quickly how to crawl between the legs, but at least Chris tried!

Sunday was spent going to a different church.  Our regular church was not holding a service, so we got the chance to visit Auckland Bible Church.  We really enjoyed it.

Easter Monday was another relaxing day.  I’d never heard of Easter Monday before moving to NZ.  Chris went to work, but Joe and I met up with our friend Alisa.  She came to our apartment, and the 3 of us set off to Wynyard Quarter to take in the views and dip our feet into the fountain.

Wearing my Gamecocks shirt, naturally

The rest of Easter Monday was equally low-key.  We walked back home, Alisa visited with us for a bit more and then she headed home, too.

Easter Weekend is right in the midst of school holidays.  Schools in NZ don’t take the long breaks like they do in the States.  The amount of time in session varies by age and level, but generally speaking, primary school students are in class for four 10 week terms with short breaks periodically throughout the year (based on what I’ve been told).  Most schools started their holidays on Thursday and will be off for the next 2 weeks.  This includes universities, which of course affects us.  I think that Chris will enjoy having a bit of a break from teaching, and we’ll enjoy seeing him around a little more!

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Overnight Oats: Vegan Version

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I’ve heard about overnight oats before.  Thought, “Eh, that sounds interesting” and then moved on with my day.

I’m not sure what inspired me this time around, but I decided to give them a try.  Before Joe, Chris and I had a fairly even split as to who decided what we ate.  I did most of the shopping and cooking, but there were days when he would throw stuff together, too.

Now that Joe is here and I’m at home most of the time, the responsibility of cooking and meal planning has fallen to me almost entirely.  Rather than complain about this, I’m embracing it and looking for ways to steer our family toward a healthier eating lifestyle.  Overnight oats is one of those ways.  Food isn’t broken down and nutrients aren’t lost by heating the ingredients.  Instead, it all stays in one bowl which I get to eat in the morning!

I researched several recipes, but ultimately decided to start with one that seemed the most basic and that did not use any unsweetened yoghurt.  I like unsweetened yoghurt, but I also think that there can be too much of a good thing.

I turned to “Oh She Glows” (a site that’s been around for awhile but that has only recently come into my regular rotation) and found a recipe for vegan overnight oats.  You can make these using any type of milk (though if you use cow’s milk, they’ll no longer be vegan, which is fine with me) and they’re sweet enough as is that I haven’t needed to add any of the “morning of” ingredients, such as honey, maple syrup, or peanut butter.

I whipped up my first batch, stuck it in the fridge, and the following morning, voila!

It may not look too appetizing, and the thought of eating cold oats might turn you off, but don’t let it.  It doesn’t have the consistency of oatmeal, and it’s not the consistency of cereal, either.  It’s somewhere in-between.  The chia seeds add a really nice bit of texture, and the sweetness from the bananas is just enough.

For those of you who are interested, click on over to “Oh She Glows” for the recipe!

And yes, Chris does tease me when I tell him that I’m “making my oats”.  He neighed like a horse once, and from that point on, I’ve just said that I’m making my breakfast :-)

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Thankful Thursday

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It’s Thursday night here in NZ.  I’m stressed and tired, and part of me wants to have a worry-wart session where I think about a lot of things that are way off in the future and that are in my control.  It’s really easy for me to worry.  Please tell me that I’m not the only one!

But I’m not going to worry tonight.  Tonight, I’m going to take a few minutes to list some of the things for which I’m thankful.  It’s the mental equivalent of taking a deep breath, relaxing your shoulders, and letting the tension ease out.  Take a moment and join me, won’t you?

I’m thankful for…

  • God – I’m thankful that God loves me no matter how many times I fail, fall down, and mess up.  I’m thankful that He encourages me when I need it and that He reminds me of the many ways that He’s always been there for us, caring for us.
  • My husband – He loves me and is willing to pitch in whenever he’s needed to help me out.
  • Joe – I love him so much.  There are times when he frustrates me and I lose my patience, but within minutes I’m over it and so glad that I get to be his momma.
  • Food – There are people all over the world who don’t have it, and I’ve got a pantry and a fridge that’s fully stocked.  I’ve never, ever had a day in my life where I’ve had to worry or wonder about where my next meal would come from or if I would have enough water to drink.
  • Health – I’m thankful for my family’s health and that we live in a country where quality medical care is accessible.  I’m thankful that I have a life that enables me to make healthy choices – choosing good foods, time and resources to watch documentaries and read books about healthy lifestyles, and the opportunity to work out and stay physically fit.
  • Friends – I’ve got some amazing friends here.  I’m thankful for them and for the many opportunities that I have to meet new people in New Zealand.
  • Sleep – I love to sleep.  Love it!  And I’m thankful that Joe is asleep right now, giving me time to relax, put my feet up, eat a whole wheat + grilled cheese sandwich, and write this post :-)

I can feel some of the tension leaving my shoulders… relaxing…  it’s a wonderful exercise, taking a moment to list your blessings.

What are some things that you’re thankful for in your life?

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Living in New Zealand: Tourists in Your Own Town

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How many times have you heard the phrase, “It’s important to be a tourist in your own town”, or something like it?

I’ve heard it a lot.  When we first moved to New Zealand, it was fun and easy to be a tourist in Auckland.  Everything was new to us and we wanted to see all of it at once.

Now that we’ve been here for some time, we’ve gotten into a rut.  There are some things and places that we see routinely, but others have been neglected.  Forgotten.

It’s a shame, really.  Auckland has so many great things to see and do  Now that we have Joe, even the smallest excursion has an extra layer of fun added to it.  We get to see things through his eyes and watch as his world grows.

This past weekend, we decided to play the tourist again and head to Devonport, Auckland.  It’s a quick, 10 minute ferry ride from downtown and a great place to visit, whether you have kids or not.

Looking back at downtown Auckland on the way to Devonport

Devonport is a great little neighborhood, accessible by car or by ferry.  It’s still considered part of Auckland, but it feels remote and special when you have to cross the water to get there.

Looking up the street toward Mt. Victoria, and toward “Wild & Woolly Yarns”, where I had just purchased some needles and some merino yarn to knit a blanket for Joe… fingers crossed!  Or knitting needles crossed ;-)

First up was a quick trip to the yarn store.  That’s right – the yarn store.  I’ve decided that come heck or high water, I’m going to learn how to knit.  I’ve been beating around the bush since Joe was still in utero, and it’s time for me to cut bait or fish.  I bought 8 (50gm) skeins of New Zealand wool, a set of needles, and had the lovely lady at the counter, Fran, write out a very basic pattern for me, with words of encouragement included and the reminder that I can come back if I have any hang-ups.  The plan is to make a small cot blanket for Joe – not a full size, just a half size.  I want him to have something special and homemade and distinctly New Zealand.  I hope that I get it right, and that it’s something he treasures.

We grabbed a quick bite of lunch, then headed down the road toward the beach.  On the way, we spotted this guy.

I’m not sure if this guy was a real sailor or going to a fancy dress party.  Either way, he didn’t seem out of place in Devonport.  The whole area has a small-town, throwback kind of feel where a sailor would just fit right in.

We eventually made it to the beach.  Joe was tired – side effect of getting him prepared for the end of Daylight Savings Time the following day – but he perked up at the sight of the water, at least for a few minutes.

It was a lot of fun, and a great reminder of the importance of playing the tourist in our own town!

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What are some of your favourite “touristy” things to do in your hometown?  Are there any tourist attractions where you live that you have yet to see?  If someone were to visit your town, what things would you tell them they have to see?  Now ask yourself, when was the last time you saw those things?

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Dreamboat Books

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We love to read to Joe.  Even before he was born, I was already buying books for him.  Thankfully, I had the foresight to buy most of them from our library’s withdrawn books sale.  They’re already banged up, so I don’t mind if Joe tosses them around, crawls on them, bends (or rips!) the pages, or spills a bit of water from his cup onto them.

We’ve had fun discovering different Kiwi authors and sharing them with Joe.  Some of our favorites books (and his, too!) are by Mark & Rowan Sommerset of Dreamboat Books:

screenshot via

We’ve read all of their books to Joe: “The Silliest Dream”, “Cork and the Bottle”, “Cork on the Ocean”, “Baa Baa Smart Sheep”, and their newest offering, “Two Little Bugs”.  Joe’s favorites would have to be “Baa Baa Smart Sheep”, with “The Silliest Dream” a close second.

It’s hard for me to identify just what it is about these books that makes them so special.  We love their rhythmic style.  The stories range from sweet to funny to poignant.  The pictures are simple but beautiful.  The colors are relaxing and a nice contrast from many of the other baby books we have for Joe.

Chris reading “Baa Baa Smart Sheep” to Joe, 3 months

Chris reading “The Silliest Dream” to Joe, 5 months

Joe, 9 months, reading “Baa Baa Smart Sheep”

We’re very glad that we’ve “found” these books.  If you haven’t already, you should find them, too!  You can buy the books on Dreamboat’s website (free shipping in Australia and New Zealand).

*****I’m not sure if there are any US sites that sell these books, but I do know that Dreamboat ships internationally*****

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Duck Bites

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I do not have a gentle child.

He loves to crawl and bang into things and beat his palms on the floor (or on me).  He loves to grab and yank and drop and yell.  He burps and passes gas and laughs at me when I say, “No”.

I’m serious – if I say “no”, Joseph gets a great big grin on his face and bursts into giggles.  It’s all a game to him.  One great, big game of discover and wonder.

Until, of course, he bangs into something a little too hard.

Suddenly, all that “fun” isn’t fun anymore.  It’s tears and sadness and “what happened?!”

In this case, “what happened” was the wire popping through Joe’s pop-up nylon laundry bin, which just so happens to be in the shape of a giant ducky.  I was folding cloth nappies in the nursery with Joe toodling around nearby.  He attacked the ducky bin, and the bin bit him.  Thoughts of sending that ducky sailing through the air out of our window and into the fountain in the courtyard below raced through my mind as I kissed his poor, injured face.

Of course, within 2 minutes of Joe’s “duck bite” he was off again, tearing around corners and bumping into walls with that mercifully hard head of his.

Babies are sweet, but thankfully they come in sturdy little packages :-)

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The End of Daylight Savings Time

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I thought that I was being so smart.

Daylight savings time is coming to an end here in New Zealand.  I was already dreading the effect that turning the clock back 1 hour would have on Joe.  I envisioned him waking up at 4am, ready and raring to face the day.

No thanks.

I decided to be really super smart and start working on him, sneakily adjusting his routine by 15 minutes every day starting on Wednesday: instead of lunch at noon, it would be 12:15, then 12:30, then 12:45, and then finally, on Sunday, at 1pm.  Except it would be the end of DST, so it would be back to noon.  I did this with his morning naps, his lunch times, his afternoon naps, and his bed times.

So, so clever of me, right?

Except not really, because I got the end of Daylight Savings Time wrong.

I thought it ended last Sunday.

Nope.  It ends this Sunday.

Ugh.  Side effect of not working outside the house on a regular basis, I suppose.

Who’s the smart momma?  Not this momma!

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Living in New Zealand: Give Way Rules

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When we first moved to NZ, one of the things we were told was that the traffic in Auckland was horrible.

It’s not.  Well, not compared with Boston.  Or New York.  Now that’s terrible traffic.  Traffic here just seems like regular, big-city traffic, the likes of what you’d expect in a country’s largest city, but nothing the likes of what you’d expect in the US’s largest city.

The one rule, aside from driving on the left, that kept tripping us up was the “give way” or “yield” rule.  Used to be that if you were turning right, you had right of way.  The US equivalent would be that if you were turning left, you would have right of way.  It was confusing and weird.  It meant that even if you were turning onto the street, and your car was closest to it, you needed to stop and wait for cross traffic to go.  It was counter-intuitive and I’m sure resulted in a fair share of fender benders and honked-off motorists.

Thankfully, graciously, mercifully, that rule changed this weekend.  We don’t even own a car, and yet we were glad to see it go.

Here’s the new rule: if you’re turning right, give way.  Seems fair enough, right?

Perhaps you’re like me and need a picture to help it all make sense:

Doesn’t that make sense?  Can you understand why the old way was so confusing?

 

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Watching Movies With Chris

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Here’s how things usually go when Chris and I try to watch a movie:

Me – I feel like watching a movie.

Chris – What do you want to watch?

Me – I don’t know… you pick something.

Chris – (sigh) Here we go…
He then proceeds to start picking all sorts of movies: Kung Fu Panda 2 (???  I didn’t even know we had that movie!), Casino Royale, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (yes, he suggested that) and so on and so forth.
Finally, in a fit of exasperation, he ends with this:
“Between all the Clint Eastwood choices and everything else I’ve named, that’s like, 30 choices, just so you know.  Pick something!”
Me – (sigh) None of them sound good!
Chris – Why did we even get the Clint Eastwood collector’s set?  You don’t ever want to watch them!
Me – I like Clint Eastwood!
Chris – Come on!
Me – Just pick something… don’t even tell me what you’re putting in!  I don’t care.
Chris – Ughhhhh… alright, but no complaining.
It’s annoying.  I find it annoying, and I’m the one doing it.  I hate picking a movie, even when I know that I want to watch a movie.  Chris can (and has) selected 15 different movie choices, pulled them out for me to select one, and I’ve rejected each and every DVD.
I’m amazed he puts up with me.
The movie that he put in?  A Clint Eastwood one: “True Crime”.  And I promise that I didn’t say a word of complaint.  I’m just glad that I didn’t have to pick it!
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In other news, my laptop is fried.  Exactly how fried is the question du jour.  I did the classic bumble: spilled about 1/2 a glass of water on the keyboard.  I immediately flipped the laptop over the drain the water, powered it off, unplugged it, and let it dry out for 24 hours.  What did I forget to do?  I forgot to remove the battery.  So 24 hours later, computer starts up just fine but unbeknownst to me, it wasn’t recognizing the power cord.  A few hours later, and it was dead as a doornail.  I’ve called a laptop repair service that will come to the apartment, pick it up, and fix it for me.  They should be here tomorrow.  The plan is that if it’s under a certain dollar amount, we’ll fix it.  If not, then I’ll just buy a new laptop here.  I was planning to buy a new laptop in the States the next time we visited, but that may not happen :-/

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Here, Piggy Piggy, and Wet Weather, too!

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New Zealand truly is a beautiful country, but just like anywhere, it’s got its share of pigs:

That’s a photo via the NZ Herald, showing just how piggy people can be.  This is in front of a McDonald’s in downtown Auckland.  It doesn’t normally look like this, but add in an event, lots of people, and most likely a fair bit of alcohol, and this is what you get.  The article wrote about people sitting near piles of vomit whilst eating their food.  Dee-sgusting!  It’s a really bad representation of New Zealand for visitors.  I feel sorry for the poor McDonald’s staff who kept trying to keep the area clean.

And in other news, it is getting wet in Auckland.  What looked to be an Indian Summer has turned into a deluge.  I’m hoping that our autumn will perk up a bit, but for now it’s quite damp.  I was walking home from the bus stop after being at work late last night, ruing my decision to go without a jacket.  I did have my umbrella (I’ve learned never to stray too far without one of those nearby) but still managed to get soaked thanks to driving winds and large puddles that had turned into flowing streams.

It was worse in Whangarei (pronounced, “vahn-gah-ray”), an area in the Northland region of New Zealand:

You can see Whangarei circled in the black, and Auckland a bit further south in the green.  They were literally flooded yesterday, with rescuers being kept busy plucking unfortunate people out of the water:

image via NZ Herald

Definitely time to get out the gumboots and brollies!

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Living in New Zealand: Work-Life Balance

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One of the main reasons (that I hear) people offering up for moving to New Zealand is that they’re looking for a simpler lifestyle with a better work-life balance.  New Zealand does a great job at providing employees with vacation time and encouraging them to take it (I believe that employees here are entitled to 4-5 weeks leave, and that employers can get in a spot of trouble if they deny their employees this time off – people who are more knowledgeable about this, correct me if I’m wrong).

It can be pretty appealing to hear about that when you’re working away in the States or in the UK – a country as beautiful as New Zealand, a simpler way of life, with guaranteed vacation days.  Who wouldn’t want that?

We certainly love it.  I have spoken often about how my current employer compares to my previous (US) employer.  I loved the last hospital that I worked in the States.  More specifically, I loved the people that I worked with: great manager, great fellow RNs and medics and CNAs and clerks, and great doctors.  However, my NZ employer has them beat hands-down in the way that they support employees to maintain a healthy balance between working and family/vacation.

I’ve also written about Chris’ employer, just a tiny bit.  I feel like they do a great job of encouraging family involvement by giving Chris the freedom to do things like meet us in the park for a picnic, providing adequate funding and research opportunities, and much more.  I know that Chris appreciates it, too.  Both of our employers were encouraging with taking parental leave once Joe was born.  I remember feeling anxious about informing my manager about my pregnancy.  I worried that she would see it as nothing more than, “Oh great – another employee is going to have to go on mat-leave and I’ll have to fill in her slot”.  That wasn’t the case at all, and as a result, I felt a lot more loyalty and desire to work at that hospital.

We have had great experiences with our work-life balance in New Zealand.  However, not everyone is so lucky.  You can still find jobs and employers that expect you to devote 99% of your life to your work, or bosses who are less than encouraging about taking parental leave.  Some friends arrive to their offices at 7am and aren’t able to leave till 9pm.  Friends who feel that they can’t officially take a vacation, so they squeeze in quick weekend holidays.  Friends who work 6 days a week, then continue to work once they get home.

So, yes, you can have a good work-life balance here, but be sure to be clear with your employer what their expectations are for your work commitment.  It would stink to move here thinking you’ll have more free time, only to discover that it’s basically the same, just in a new country!

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Pavlova Love

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Pavlova is a quintessential Kiwi dessert.  Named after ballerina Anna Pavlova’s tour of New Zealand around the 1920s, it used to have hotly contested origins, but has recently been accepted as a distinctly NZ creation.

The first time that I had pavlova was when we were still living in the States.  My sister-in-law, Becca, researched it and made it for us.  It was delicious, and I couldn’t wait to have more once we were in New Zealand.

Fast-forward to now: we’ve been here nearly 2 years and I still have not had any pavlova.  While I often saw it in shops and restaurants, it just didn’t appeal to me.  That changed today.  We were having people over for drinks + dessert.  They’re new to NZ, and I thought, “What better way to welcome them than to serve pavlova?”  I’m so glad that I thought of doing this and that I overcame my fear of meringue.  The result was fabulous…

It’s so easy to make.  I was worried about dealing with egg whites, but to be honest, this dessert is a lot like most Kiwis that I’ve met: sweet, and not full of itself.  If it has a few cracks in it, no big deal – just smear a little whipped cream over it and enjoy!  Come to think of it, I believe that pavlova is supposed to have cracks.

A dessert that’s designed for cracks – now that’s something I can make.

To make pavlova, you’ll need:

  • 4 large egg whites, room temperature
  • 1 C castor sugar (let me know if you try it with regular sugar – I’m curious how this would turn out)
  • 1 tsp white vinegar
  • 1/2 T cornstarch
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract, divided
  • 1 C heavy cream
  • Fresh fruit, such as kiwifruit, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, passion fruit, etc.

Preheat oven to 275F (140C) and place rack in middle of oven.  Line baking sheet with foil, and using the blunt end of a knife draw a roughly 7 inch circle, making sure not to tear the foil.  Set aside.

Measure out sugar in 1 C container, and place nearby.

Whip egg whites in a medium-sized bowl (some recipes insist on a metal bowl, but I used a plastic bowl and it was fine – just make sure that it’s squeaky clean), beating with electric mixer on medium speed.  Beat till whites form soft peaks.

While still beating, gently sprinkle 1 tsp of castor sugar at a time into whites.  Make sure that you’re beating continuously, and don’t dump the sugar or it will deflate the whites.  When sugar has all been added, stop the mixer and pull out of bowl – the beaters should form stiff peaks in the whites when you pull them out of the bowl; if not, mix a bit more until they do.

Gently fold in cornstarch and vinegar with a plastic spatula.  Add 1/2 tsp vanilla and gently fold mixture again.

Carefully spread meringue onto foil circle, making sure that the edges are just a bit higher than the center (you want a shallow well to form):

Place in preheated oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or till meringue turns a pale, pinkish color.  Don’t open the oven door while baking – observe through viewing window.

When done, leave meringue in oven and crack open the door.  Allow to cool completely (takes about 20 minutes).  Your meringue will crack during this time.  Mine looked like this within seconds of opening the door:

By the time it was done cooling, it looked like this:

Don’t despair!  Using a spatula, gently remove from foil and place on a plate, like this:

Take whipping cream, add 1/2 tsp of vanilla, and beat till stiff peaks form – be careful, because there’s a thin line between stiff peaks and butter.  Check frequently to see if beaters form peaks when pulled out of the mixture.

Spread whipped cream onto pavlova, then top with fruits of choice.  If some pieces of meringue fell off during the pan to plate transfer, just “glue” them back into place with whipped cream.

My husband, who is not a fan of “fruity” desserts, declared this to be one of the best desserts that I’d made in a long, long time.  He even ranked it up there with “Chocolate Death”, which is saying something.

Notes: Total time for this recipe is roughly 2 hours: 40 minutes of prep and about 1 hour, 15 minutes of baking.  If you need the dessert by 8pm, the latest you should start is 6pm.  However, you need to be sure to do a few things:

  • Take the egg whites out of the fridge about 40 minutes before you’ll need them.
  • Once you’re done beating the egg whites, put the clean beaters into the freezer for the whipped cream, and put a small bowl (plastic or metal) into the fridge – this makes it much easier to beat the whipped cream.
  • I made this dessert for 8pm.  However, at 11pm, it still tasted good.  The meringue will go a bit soft, but it was still delicious.  With that in mind, I would say that if you do want to make it in advance, don’t do so more than 3 hours beforehand.

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9 Months

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Dear Joseph,

You’re 9 months old, baby!

You are such a sweet, creative, smart, strong little boy.  I’m so happy that you’re our son and that we have the privilege of raising you :-)

Movement

In addition to crawling everywhere and getting into everything, you’ve also started “cruising”, or moving around while standing and holding on to furniture/toy bins/people/whatever you can reach.  You stand unassisted for several seconds now.  It’s fun to watch you as you grow in independence, even if only for a teeny tiny moment before you land on your bum!

Eating

You love to eat.

You eat 3 meals a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  You nurse first thing in the morning, before your morning nap, before your afternoon nap, and before bedtime at night.  You use a cup, but water’s the only thing other than breastmilk that you drink.  We’ll keep it that way for awhile!  You’re eating homemade pea soup in the photo above.  Watching you eat it was hilarious – you loved it so much that you started lunging for the spoon after a few tastes, and toward the end you were crying in-between bites.  Everytime you got some in your mouth, you’d make a loud, “Mmmmmm” noise.  Too cute.

Talking

Lots of baby talk, but no official words.  You do make the “dadda” sound a lot, but I don’t think it means anything.  You’ll get there, though!  You still like to play copycat with us – we make a sound, and you make it back.  You make a sound, and we make it back.  So fun!

Sleep

Still napping in the morning for about an hour, then in the afternoon for about 2 hours.  At night, it’s bedtime around 7pm and then you’re up at 7am in the morning.  You have your rough days, to be sure.  Today, for example.  You completely skipped your morning nap, then went down for the afternoon nap over an hour early.  I don’t fuss about it too much, since it’s not a pattern.  I’m already dreading the time when you go to only one nap a day.  Hopefully that won’t be for another few months!

Other Bits and Pieces

In addition to clapping your hands, you’ve also started waving!  It’s fun to say “bye bye” or “hi” and watch you flap that little arm.  You also still love to read.  You flip through books like nobody’s business, and there’s always a stack of them lying around.  Some of your favorites for us to read to you are “Where is the Green Sheep?”, “One Fluffy Baa Lamb, Ten Hairy Caterpillars”, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, “Beep Beep, Peek-a-Boo”, and several nursery rhyme books.

And last but not least, here’s a cute little video of you and your daddy, playing “keep-away”.  You make the most hilarious face, and I promise to remind your dad of it whenever he starts to exasperate you!

And here’s another one, just so you won’t think your dad does nothing but tease you. You LOVE to play with him and he loves to play with you!

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Getting Over Monday

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I’m tired today.  I worked my first 12 hour shift in over a year yesterday and, unfortunately, my bus home was late.  This means that I got home just before midnight, and was so keyed up from my shift that I wasn’t asleep till nearly 2am.  Joe was bright eyed and bushy tailed a few short hours later.  He completely bypassed his morning nap.  I had a moment where I felt like my eyes were bulging out of my head – I was tired, Joe was tired, I felt like crying, Joe was crying.  I attempted to put Joe down for a nap at one point.  I hopped on the treadmill, cranked up the speed, ran as fast as I could at a high incline… and was at least able to get a few minutes in before having to hop back off and take care of Joe.

In the end, we headed out across the street, making the most of the gorgeous weather while playing in the park.  I didn’t care that my hair was a mess, my workout clothes were still on, and Joe was in mismatched clothes – we needed to get out.

Joe had a blast.  I wasn’t able to take many photos of him – he was all over the place – but I did snap a few of him chewing on the lid to his water cup.  He’s cutting another tooth, so anything he can reach, he starts to chew.  Including the furniture.  Or random leaves lying on the ground.

I’m glad that we were able to spend time outside, soaking up some of these few remaining summer days.

I wish that the rest of the day was as sunny and relaxing, but the clouds did come back.  One particular cloud came via mail (I’ll bet you didn’t know that the NZ post delivered those, did you?): we were notified that our rent would be increasing.  I told myself that it didn’t matter – I want to move from our apartment regardless of what they do with the rent.  It would have been great if the rent had remained the same for the rest of our lease, but it’s only a few weeks’ increase once the 60 day notice period is up.

And speaking of ending, the day did finish on a high note.  I sent a text to Chris before he left the office.  It was a short message: bring chocolate.  Joe went to sleep at his usual time, and I was able to have a few bites of cocoa goodness to take the edge off.

Ahhh, chocolate… I’m forgetting my worries already.

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Living in New Zealand: Online Grocery Shopping!

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I absolutely love that I can shop for groceries from the comfort of my own home.  It’s not just an issue of convenience.  For me (and for many other parents) it’s a matter of preserving our sanity.  Taking Joe to the grocery requires a certain amount of coordination.  That coordination jumps up a level when you consider that it has to be done without a vehicle and involves carting the groceries up a flight of stairs while also holding a baby, a pram, keys, and a nappy bag.

I do our meal-planning over the weekend.  Usually it’s Sunday night, where I find myself scrambling to come up with recipes (love using Pinterest for this!), looking at the calendar, searching through the pantry, and then coming up with a grocery list.  I often buy fruits or veggies at the farmer’s market, but the supply has been dwindling as summer draws to a close.  As a result, I’ve started to shop for our fruits and veggies online, too.

My usual store is Countdown.  I was also ordering from a store called Green Eden, but no more.  I ordered from them about 6 – 7 times.  Of those times, there were 2 times when they came outside of the 3-7:30pm time-frame listed on their website, and I was lucky to be home (they can leave your order at your doorstep, but as we live in the middle of the city in a locked-access apartment building, this isn’t an option).  They also twice failed to deliver my order (2 weeks in a row!).  I wouldn’t have ordered from them again after the 1st failed delivery, but rather than refunding my money, they gave me a voucher.  The 2nd time around, I said, “no thanks” and made sure to get a refund.

The delivery fees vary with Countdown (the more you spend, the less the delivery fee).  There’s a Countdown grocery near us that’s newly opened, and as a result it’s much easier for me to walk there than in the past.

If you’re new to New Zealand, I strongly suggest physically visiting the grocery for at least that first month.  You’ll need to familiarize yourself with what’s available and get used to the different names (capsicum = bell pepper, kumara = a type of sweet potato, pumpkin = squash, coriander = cilantro… the list goes on!).  But once you’ve got it down, it’s worth searching out the delivery options in your area.

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The Sock Bun

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There are some days where I look like a hot mess.  I didn’t shower the day before, Joe woke up before I could take a shower after running the next morning, and now it’s 11am and my hair is, in a word, icky.

What to do, what to do.

Time for the sock bun!  Easy, and makes messy hair look good because, guess what?  It actually works best when your hair is kind of gross.

You’d never guess that hidden in that bun is a sock, or that my hair hasn’t been washed in nearly 2 days.

It’s quick, cheap, and easy.  Just follow the steps in this video.  The only thing that I do different is that I use hair pins to secure it a bit more – otherwise I think it would fall out.

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