Cross Country

I never did post the pictures from Kieran's trip to the zone Cross-Country. He was super excited to be in the top 7 of the Year 7 boys at school meaning that he had a chance to represent the school at inter-zones (one of his goals for the year). Then they said they were only taking the top 4 (gutted!) then they changed their minds (hooray!) then they said the venue booked was wrong and they were back to top 4 (gutted!) then they said they'd take them all (phew).

I got there just as they had all lined up to start (Les and Will were already there). That's Kieran just to the right of that radom kids shoulder. He wasn't happy to have to run in shoes and the kids were all less than happy that one of the schools kids didn't have shoes. Kieran spends most of his life in bare feet.

Will enjoyed playing in the sand under the rugby goal posts (the race was held at K's Rugby club grounds).

I'm not going to mention where Kieran came it was in the second half of the field which is about what you'd expect considering he was in the second half of the field at his school race.

And it doesn't matter anyway we were just super proud that he got there and did the race.

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Loving Grass

With the exceptionof the absoultely un-tropical school holidays Will and I are totally loving the opportunity to get outside and feel the grass between our toes. Don't forget to take your shoes off and enjoy it yourself!
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From Mary to Ali and Me to you

Loved this quote on Ali Edwards Blog today... and I so need to take it to heart- the kids are back from their week in the South Island and a little off kilter and life is a LOT noisier!

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return." ~Mary Jean Iron

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Mouse Trouble

This is the mouse, brought in by the cat, who lived for a day in Kieran's room.


This is the mouse brought in by the cat who moved to the scrapbooking room after he'd lived for a day in Kieran's room.

And this is the mouse we found with the cat who was in the hallway just outside the spareroom where he moved just after he lived for a day in Kieran's room.

And this is the mouse who jumped in my lap and caused a squeal, after we rescued him from the cat that brought him inside so that he could live for a day in Keran's room.

And if you look closely you will see that here ends the tail of the mouse, brought in by the cat to live for a day in Kieran's room, who was caught in the hall and jumped to the lap and recaptured again to live another day in the safety of the compost heap.

And here is the cat that caught the mouse and brought the mouse and lost the mouse and found the mouse, and still looks for the mouse in various rooms around the house.
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Water Fun

I am remembering that the funnest things that keep babies busy and let you get stuff done are also the messiest things that generally require a change in clothes.

They are also the cutest.
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Either. Or. 2.

Just say I put him down to bed and just deal with the screaming. What then?

Either; Run.

Or: Stop.

Run to hang the washing, wash the bathroom/laundry/kitchen/floors/fridge, change the sheets, do the garden, update the NZMAA website, write important emails and letters, prep the dinner and so on.

Or.

Stop and read what I want, scrapbook, nap, exercise, eat, write, breathe, bathe. Relax.

What to do?
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Either. Or. 1.

Each day I have two choices.

I can feed Will and put him in his cot. Leave him, walk away from his sad horrified little face. Let him cry for up to two hours because that's the minimum period I think he should sleep for. Then I can spend 2 hours doing whatever I need or want with an un-tired fully coherent brain. I can do it without interruption, without having to provide a diversion that I would most likely need to clean up after. And I can do it with two hands. All the while listening to my own child, not even two years old still a baby to me, scream ad sob and wail and howl. On occasion he may sleep or at least go quiet for around 20 minutes of the 120.

Or.

I can still down on the couch feed my baby and sit for sometimes more than three hours while he sleeps and snacks. During that time I can surf the net, watch tv or a DVD, read and even type one handed. Invariably I will end up needing (desperately) to go to the loo. I almost never achieve anything really important or valuable other than allowing my son the safety and comfort to get the daytime sleep he needs.

What to do?
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My 'Ideal' Boy

Way back when they had the prize giving at Kieran's Rugby club his team received the Sportsmanship Trophy for the whole of the Junior Division......

And my boy, my awesome boy, my amazing boy, my dedicated boy got to shake hands with Anthony Tuitavake (a Massey Club member and All black)

And Anthony gave him these trophies.

Because he was the Massey J3 Gold Ideal Player of the year! Pretty flash eh? Better than most valuable the ideal player does just what the coaches need and ask, always turns up for practice and games, works hard and is respectful and gives 110%. What I think is great is the fact that someone other than us recognised the fact that he is an ideal sort of kid and gave him his dues because of it!

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"Man" Fan

Some vowel sounds are really tricky- F being one of them. That's why whenever my boy sees any sort of Fan (Ceiling, pedestal, air con and so on) he points and says "Man Man!"
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Random Musings

In my meandering around the web I have come across some noteworthy stuff...

Kraftbomb a Craft market that happens once a month or so in Grey Lynn, Auckland.

Craft 2.0 The Blog; These guys and girls also run indie craft shows and other such stuff in Wellington and Christchurch. When I say craft shows I mean as in craft for people to buy as opposed to stuff that crafter's want to buy to craft with. I'd be seriously keen to go to the Fabric-a-brac in November!

Toggle; An online store which has collected some of NZ's best artists and crafter's; Look out for; Sarah Neale, Trixie Delicious, Birdsong, Yoozzoo, Sugar Loop, Luxford St, and Nut and Bee.

Nut and Bee; I love their Amigurumi and rubber stamps best.

Zen Family Habits; Leo from Zen habits has launched another blog along with Sherri Kruger and other contributors.

I enjoyed Sarah Fain's post on Roman Polanski... if you can enjoy such a thing.

I saw this quote on the Happiness Project Blog and thought; "Hell Yeah!";

“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.” --Henry David Thoreau

We just got Animal Babies A to Z on Goodbooks- it rocks!

I liked this quote on Jim's blog as well; "It’s not the lens, or the body, or the flash. It’s not the equipment. It’s the light, the patience, and the trigger finger"

Have you checked out Katie lately? What about her boyfriend Matt's website. I love the videos on the Katie page- they make me swoon... I'm a romantic at heart. You should also check out Reservoir Santa's on the North Pole Page it's NOT for kids though!

I read a line in Matt's writing that I liked as well it talked about growing old but staying young- which is a great idea and reminded me of an article I read in Next Magazine recently which talked about 'standing in love' which is what you need to work on once all the heady falling in love stuff is done.

While I was looking for something else I found this rather cool and useful (for scrapbookers) site of colour palettes. I never did find the site I was looking for though- it allowed you to choose your own pallette and from the colours you chose brought up heaps of photos (possibly from Flickr) with your chosen colour(s) in them... do YOU know the one that I mean?

If you like vintage images then you should check out the Clearly Vintage blog... lots of cool old Halloween postcards on there at the moment.

If you are a parent who wants ideas for creating meaningful stuff for your children then Friday Letters is a good place for inspiration. You can just pick and choose what's important to you and I think some of these questions could be adapted for asking your own parents or other family members.

I'm sure there's more but that'll need to do for now!

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Weekending

You can tell by the kids and the weather that this wasn't the weekend just passed but I wanted to post the pictures anyway because I love all the stuff going on!

Saturday Les was extending the compost heap and putting a pallet floor in our new shed. Will always a fan of a good Hammer (Ham-MA!) was 'helping'.

He is a super good helper!!

Sunday and Kieran is on the phone to Grandad to tell him about the Rugby Prizegiving. While Les and I are cleaning out the shed.

And Merenia is weeding out the kids gardens ready for this summer's crop of lettuce, tomato and such.

She also has 'help'.

To be honest we shouldn't have taught Will this particular lesson as he now feels free to garden whenever we are outside. The other day he was ever so helpful and added some lovely fresh dirt to the basket of clean wet washing I was in the process of hanging on the line.

This was one of those really cool weekends when we got heaps of good stuff done. Boring mundane stuff which is just so satisfying when it is out of the way and lets you move onto more satisfying stuff- like planting! :-)
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Easy Rider

As part of our cruel and horrible parenting plan when Kieran was little we let him go on the rides but we never let him know that you could but money in them. In fact it wasn't until my parents came over to Australia when Merenia was about 3 months old that good old grandad busted our scheme putting some cash in a ride at the mall when we weren't looking! :-) We could have run the scheme again with Will but I tell you this kid is so darn charming when you see that little sparkle in his eye and those cheery wee cheeks your hand is getting the dollar out of your wallet before the rational part of the brain comes even close to kicking in.

And when that car starts a rockin' you see the pure delight on his face its worth every cent!

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Reach

Cute huh?
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Sun Set and Moon Rise

Before the weather turned to crap we were having the coolest sunsets which were totally complimented by an awesome full buttery moon. (Will's favourite).

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Para-TOOT!

Will loves his parachute. In fact when Will and I get out the parachute he loves it so much he's been known to go from mild mannered cutie...

To freaky little red head looney!

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