And that's how it happens...

I wrote a letter to various friends and family that have been waiting to hear from me for years in some cases... I'm printing it here because I think it's funny and interesting... it's kind of long though...

Hello!

Yes it’s me, really me… I am writing YOU a letter/email- I know it’s absolutely shocking isn’t it??!! I mean when was the last time you heard from me?? Well I happen to know there is one person receiving this who has been waiting about 7 years… that’s right 7 years… let’s hope the next gap between mailings is not that long eh!

You know how people put on a different persona depending on who they are talking to? And it changes from your Nana- to an old family friend- to your English–as-a-second-language penpal to the next person and so on… well this letter is going to all those people and many more and so rather than going for a best fit persona I just went with pure me… so I warble on and I talk about stuff that:

• You may already know
• You may not understand
• Is totally irrelevant
• And so forth.

You may find that confusing or you may find it refreshing, hopefully it will be amusing but honestly I’m not too worried I just wanted to get the flippin’ letter written so I can send it to those who have been waiting… (the only thing I toned down is my language I can’t swear in front of my Nana)

So what are we up to? Well Les is away this fine weekend to an Airshow in Masterton a bit of work and pleasure. Kieran is on the third night of a sleepover at his other home (his friend Jake’s house). Merenia is watching The Simpsons and Will is eating a plastic bird as he looks out the window for the real thing and waits for me to change his nappy (which I am delaying because I am pretty sure there is more to come). And I am sitting at the computer typing a letter/email.

In general? Hmmmmm…

Kieran is about to start year 7 at school – for those of you who are old school that’s form 1- his school is a full primary so he doesn’t have to change schools till year 9. He is pleased to be the smartest kid in school now as his closest rival left at the end of last year for another school. After a couple of years of Soccer and then a couple of years of Hockey, this year I have given in and, he will be playing Rugby which I think will be the highlight of his year. Unless of course he gets to attend a Chiefs game or an All Blacks game… not sure which of those would be better. On the subject of the Chiefs he scored himself a Chiefs jersey on trade me and I believe (other than PJ’s) I have only seen him wear a different top on 3 of the days since he received it 15 days ago…. If I had of known that it would have meant that he’d only need one other T-shirt I would have brought it myself… serious value for money!

And that’s how it happens….

I started writing this little missive at 7:00pm as Merenia sat down to watch The Simpsons. As I typed that last sentence above I was joined by Will who insisted I needed some help with the computer operation… it was slightly annoying and the smell emanating from his cute little bottom was even more so. So I changed his nappy which I then proceeded to put it in the laundry rubbish grabbing his dirty t-shirt and last nights PJ’s as I went, as well as a pair of my (clean) jeans, disregarded in the early hours of the morning. Dumping the rubbish and the dirty washing I headed for the bedroom where I ‘put away’ the jeans (the end of the bed is put away isn’t it?) and then decided to make the room ready for Will’s impending bed time. I was joined by the afore mentioned baby at this point who proceeded to practice his baton twirling on the floor with my back scratcher. All good, except it is a small space, the available bedroom floor, and I was also crouched down in it in a search for 3 of the boy’s 4 dummies (he still has the occasional night when he feels that it is the way to go). It’s strange you know normally the dummies are flung in anger or shunted in sleep out of the cot and under the bed or behind the door but not tonight there were none to be found. So I carefully stripped back the bed (I had just made) to find that 2 of the blighters had snuggled down and cozied up at the end of the cot. I gave up on the third and headed for the kitchen to clean them, picking up the fourth dummy from under the computer chair as I went. It was in the kitchen that I my gaze fell upon 2 things… One was the final dummy that had already made its own way to the ‘I need to be cleaned spot’. And the second thing was the mess from dinner that I had conveniently ignored as I passed through on the way to the rubbish bin a few moments earlier. It’s summer and Auckland is hot and humid and therefore these things can only be ignored for so long. I proceeded to start on the mess and realised that due to Kieran’s absence the dishwasher was still full of clean dishes… after I agreed to pay the full sum (as opposed to the part payment she receives normally for doing the cutlery) Merenia started on the dishwasher. The door of the dishwasher opening has a curious effect in our house. And so arrived Will who is somewhat of a dishwasher aficionado. He is absolutely passionate about inspecting at close quarters as much of the dishwasher’s interior as is humanly possible. This can be ‘slightly inconvenient’ for other dishwasher users. And so I took Will out to give him a bedtime drink. During which we also discussed; bees, birds, facial features, my magazine and various other subjects of which I am unaware and so Will did most of the talking. It is indeed quite hard to drink and talk and so this was a rather drawn-out process, much like a horse you can lead a baby to a boob but you can’t make him drink. Drink finally finished Will and I went to tuck Merenia in and administer the prerequisite before bed kisses. After which time I proceeded to ‘tuck’ Will in. I headed back to the toy strewn lounge and figured that with the retirement for the night of the ‘toy strewer’ now was as good a time as any to tidy up. Will being the ecologically aware baby that he is had already started the recycling process on last weeks TV guide and so, all toys put away, I headed for the recycling bin for the next step in the process. A trip which took me through the kitchen… which funnily enough was pretty much just as I had left it with the exception of the dishwasher, which I then proceeded to refill with a fresh heap of dirty dishes. During this time I was reminded of the Starbucks Caramel Syrup that I had purchased earlier today and my intention to blog about it and so with the fading light in mind I grabbed the camera for a couple of quick shots and along with it a my Daily December Album (a small scrapbook about our month of December) to take some photos of the pages I had completed in the last couple of weeks and had still to photograph and upload to the blog. Photos taken I returned to the mess and finished loading the dishes and putting away the detritus of the day. I turned on the dishwasher and poured myself a Coke as surely I would need it having been up past one last ‘night’ driving across Auckland as I picked up my sister and friends amidst 40000 odd people from the Big Day Out ( a big all day concert). I headed back to the lounge and computer to find that the light was now truly fading so I closed the windows to the evening insects and turned on the lights. It was 8:51 when I sat down to write and honestly the couch and the magazine that has spent 6 months waiting for me to read it were beckoning me with a comfy call. But I really wanted to relay this tale to you… those who wonder how I am and why it happens that I have not written. Because truly I have good intentions and sometimes I even start and then do not finish …. and that’s how it happens.

So Merenia… you know how in many families there is that one kid who is justice for the grief you gave your parents as a child… did I ever tell you, apparently, Merenia is just like me. Hmmmmm. Currently she is in that phase many girls go through- Horse Crazy! I think I also may have had a phase of this albeit briefly and maybe not so much crazy as simply interested. I say this because I remember riding the fence with my skipping rope reins at my home in Leith street. I also remember coveting the horse outside the big farm supplies shop at the southern end of the one way system in Dunedin that was used to display their horse gear, saddles and such. I reasoned that one day it would surely wear out and then they’d need a new home for it and I would have been happy to oblige.

But I digress- Merenia has taken Horse madness to the extreme and the internet age is a curse in this respect. If you were to look at my favourite clips on You Tube you’d find they were all from The Saddle Club! (sorry Nana I realise that last sentence was gibberish for you!) And many is a time that we hear the clippity clop of some or other horse riding game on Mini clips. Merenia is rather assured in herself to she truly believe that she knows it all… which she doesn’t- this doesn’t stop her making out like she does. For example… last week we picked up (my sister) Caitlin and her very lovely friend Margaret who was in the back with the kids. She proceeded to have a great conversation asking all sorts of intelligent questions including; “So do you do any sports or anything?” Kieran replied honestly enough and Merenia stated that she “Just did Horse-Riding” Ahem??? The girl has had exactly one lesson, one trek and a few side-show pony rides I don’t think that constitutes doing horse-riding. But apparently that and spending countless hours ‘hanging-out’ at the paddock across the way makes her some sort of expert and we are expecting a call-up from the Olympic team selectors any day- Not. What else about the girl?…She’ll be a year four this year and is lucky to Have Mr Hounsel one of those rare breeds- a male primary school teacher- she’s very lucky because he is a super lovely guy and I think if she works a little harder she’ll have a great year. I’m also hoping that she’ll make a bit of the transformation that Kieran did as a year 4- being a part of the set of older, more ‘mature’ kids in the class he really did seem to become a lot more thoughtful and sensible than he had been – a little less egocentric.

The Baby… there’s a million things I could tell you about the baby I am sure. For one he’s not so much baby anymore… he’s still MY baby, always will be, but being the ripe old age of one as of last December he no longer qualifies as a baby I guess. If you spent anytime with Les’ Mum you could be forgiven for thinking he’s not doing so well… “Oh only 6 teeth”- “not walking yet, oh well”- “No words for ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ don’t those normally come first?” Blah blah blah… it’s no wonder I feel insecure sometimes. (I simply lied about his sleeping habits!) (Seriously Nana can you stop sending her Christmas cards please).

But lots of things change in the space a week with Will and from where I’m stand he’s just incredible! Seriously since we saw Les’ Mum last week he has had this word explosions and while you most likely wouldn’t recognise most of them we know that he can say: Bird, ball, brother, Mira’s, Dad, finished, this, that, Willy, plane, glider, helicopter, puss, ruby-girl, moooo, flowers and one other word which maybe boobs or buzz (there’s a reason for that- has to do with ‘Will’s song’) which means Mum. He’s got a bunch of others as well like sparrow but until we have a number of confirmed repetitions I won’t put them on the list. He also babbles like a champion yodeler or a leprechaun on speed- it’s soooo funny. He both talks and claps in his sleep (just like his mama and papa). He loves to ‘read’ books especially Maisy and lift the flap type books. After doing his own weird commando crawl for quite a long time he now has the perfect cross-pattern crawl and I don’t care that he’s not walking at one because I’d much rather he got his hours up on the crawling as he is building really good foundations for his future development! He cruises around the furniture and is an expert at getting himself into tricky situations. We call him Danger Baby because he so doesn’t get the concepts of gravity or cause and effect or head-first! You can’t leave him on the bed that’s for sure. And he has ‘open door sensors’- he’s drawn to the back door, front door and Kieran’s room like a moth to a flame. He has a good sense of humour, he’s ticklish, he’s extremely strong willed and he has the most god-awful SCREAM when things aren’t going his way whether by design, or by accident. He’s a real pleasure to spend the day with even if I do have to stumble through most of them because he wakes me up 2-3 times at least each night.

Les. Ahhhh Les.

I’m procrastinating. I just went and read Santa’s blog. Have you ever read Santa’s Blog? it’s very cool (http://clauschronicles.blogspot.com) (A blog is like an online diary Nana- Gee, do I need to explain online as well?)

Anyway, clearly I don’t know what to tell you about Les. He’s Les. What more is there? He’s still doing the same airforce-y, glider flying type stuff. He still looks mostly the same. He plays with the kids, he mows the lawn, he cooks, he cleans and he’s just generally fabulous. What more is there? He went to Turkey this year he flew RC Gliders and represented the country- the team he was in got the Bronze Medal- pretty flippin’ superb really. So , yep… he’s Les.

Me. Well… what else could I go do now?? It’s 11:37pm. This is why I don’t write letters and emails… it takes sooo long. That baby is going to wake up soon and demand a drink… I already fobbed him off at 9:30 when he did it- He won’t take no for an answer a second time… so if I disappear for 10 minutes you’ll know why ok. Just kidding I know you aren’t reading this is real time… that is lucky because you’d get quite frustrated! Because I keep diving off… I was uploading pictures earlier so I kept checking on those … there’s the ever present email to flick over to and I sent a text in reply to the one I received from Les…. I’m not all that focused. I’d like to say it’s because I am tired and maybe in part it is. But it’s also probably because I don’t lead the most healthy lifestyle… lets not go into that except to say I am working on it but it’s going to be a while before my brain can focus in a straight line.

I keep wondering to myself what various recipients of this letter are going to think when they read this… you’ve never seen me like this before… it’ll be kind of strange I guess… It’s almost a little scary… but not so much… if you decide I’m weird and you don’t want to be my friend after this I’m cool with that!

Wow 5 pages… goodness are you bored yet?

Ok me… I am actually pretty much loving my life at the moment… it’s not all smooth sailing- there are a few squalls and some little storms but essentially- it pretty amazing. I get to hang out at home with ones of the worlds top 4 babies. I get to scrapbook. We have enough money. We eat good food. I’ve got lovely kids. Fantastic husband. Books and magazines to find the time to read and I have good friends! I have big plans for the year which should see our family lighter, and richer by 2010. I have plans to save, to lose, to clear, to declutter and to simplfy so that next year (if I write to you next year) I’ll be able to say I am even happier.

I don’t have plans to write more often or even on a regular basis. My love and friendship with you is not contingent on how often you contact me and conversely if yours with me is such then you should let me know now and we’ll call it quits with nothing but good will.

I’m going to sign off now… let’s face it if I go to bed with this unfinished (and it’s almost midnight so I should head that way) then I may never post it! It’s been a strange letter but a good one. A window to my life that’s not normally open.

Much love,

Gypsy