Update

It's been a while since my last update. Things have just been ticking along here. The girls are continuing to go to daycare, and Playcentre and playgroups most days of the week. Kathleen now goes to daycare three days a week but I am thinking about changing that next year to two days at daycare and two days at Playcentre.

Kathleen has now started going to ballet one afternoon a week. She is enjoying it. I never would have thought I'd have a pre-schooler going to ballet. I always thought that was for once you started school, and that younger children that went were pushed into it by their parents. But I took Kathleen along to watch one day because she loves dancing at home so much, and being the centre of attention. She really enjoyed it, and so that was that. Now she goes every Tuesday afternoon for half an hour. One of her friends from daycare also goes, which is good but they also distract each other.

At the beginning of November I went away for a week to Norfolk Island with my friend Lou. We'd been planning this trip for a couple of years. The way it happened was that when Victoria was a newborn and I was spending countless hours pacing around with her in my arms, I started thinking about getting away, and how Kathleen was just getting to that age when she didn't need me so much any more. I thought about how nice it would be living in the UK and being able to go anywhere in Europe so easily. Then I thought about how we have all the Pacific Islands on our doorstep and why not go there. So I said to Lou "when Victoria is two we're going to Norfolk Island for a holiday". I chose Norfolk Island because we'd both read the book Morgan's Run which is set there, because it is close, and because I'd seen special deals on flights a long time before (although it wasn't on special any more but I had it in my head it wasn't too expensive). It also turned out to have a lot of history, which we are both interested in.

Peter took the week off work to look after the girls, which I would say was an eye-opener for him. Meanwhile Lou and I had a fabulous time. Norfolk Island is a two hour flight from Auckland. It is made up of a mix of Australians, New Zealanders and Bounty descendants. The climate is very mild and warm. It was about 20-24 degrees the whole time we were there. It never drops to single digits and never really rises above 25 either apparently. I'm planning on writing a whole other blog about it.

A week after I returned was Victoria's birthday. She is now two years old. Her speech has really improved lately and she is now speaking in sentences and is able to make herself and her wants understood. Her hair is still very short, about the length Kathleen's was on her first birthday. She knows all her colours (but sometimes gets mixed up) and can count to three "wuuun, tooo, beee". She loves to sing and often sings the rainbow song or the alphabet song to herself. "Wed an lello an peeeenk an geen. Porpul an o-wintz an booo. Rainbo too". She now calls herself Tora.

We celebrated her birthday on the Sunday before her real birthday which was on the Tuesday. It was a bit strange as neither day really felt like her birthday. We got up and watched TV in the morning as we usually do on the weekend, then gave her her presents. Some Dora books (she is even more of a Dora fan than Kathleen was), some paint since she loves painting at Playcentre so much, some 'new' summer clothes (that used to be Kathleen's) and a teddy with two outfits that she can dress and undress herself.

After that we drove up to Palmerston North for a play at Lollipops with some of our friends. I made her a butterfly birthday cake, which turned out really well.

And now we have the busy season just around the corner - Peter's birthday, Christmas, New Year, Kathleen's birthday, plus all the parties and get-together's that go with it. Although I'm still wondering where summer is. I think I left it in Norfolk Island. It's been raining here for weeks.

Love Meg

Growing Up

Today marks the day where Victoria is the exact same age that Kathleen was, on the day that Victoria was born. It feels like a milestone to me, but I'm not exactly sure what the milestone is. It's as though Victoria is now officially a big girl, big enough to be a big sister (not that she's going to be, BTW).

At the time it seemed like Kathleen grew up a lot after Victoria was born. Around that time she started speaking in sentences instead of a word or two at a time. I almost expect Victoria to start doing the same thing overnight. Which is a bit silly really. Although her vocabulary grows every day and her pronounciation is getting better too. Today she said "goggie" for doggie instead of her usual "dadu". She knows so many words, and she's getting pretty good with her colours and shapes too.



But at the same time I also look at Kathleen and marvel at how much she too has grown up in the last 21 months and struggle to remember her being Victoria's age. In my memory it feels like I've been having conversations with her forever but it has only been the last 21 months. She can now draw with ease and can write her own name and many other letters besides. She is learning to read simple words like CAT, DOG, HOT, etc.



Lately I have started hearing things out of Kathleen's mouth that I didn't think I'd hear for years: "Vic-TOR-rii-aaaa", "Mum, Victoria's being a pain", "Give that BACK".

What doesn't help is that they are very similar in their tastes, so if Kathleen has something, Victoria wants it, and (more often than not) if Victoria has something, Kathleen wants it (especially if that something is Mummy's attention). This gets worse on the days when we go to the Toy Library because they are usually both drawn to the same toy and both want to play with the best pieces themselves. This photo actually shows them playing nicely side by side. They both wanted the same horse toys to put in their Duplo stables, and it probably would have ended in tears if Mummy hadn't seen what was going on and made sure they both had two horses each.

I'm sure part of the squabbling comes from the fact that any toy looks more attractive if it is in use - i.e. that doll moving around looks much better than this doll on the floor.

However I fear that some of it is also because they each know how to wind the other up - "She wants this? Well so do I". Case in point...

Last month I took the girls to the zoo. Afterwards we had a good browse around the gift shop and ended up settling on a bag of about 12 small, plastic zoo animals. When we got home they both wanted to play with the chimp. Fair enough, they both had their turn and then it got put away (actually the dog ran off with it).

The next day they started fighting over the hippo. The Hippo. My apologies to any hippopotamus lovers out there ... but really? ... the Hippo? Of all the animals in the bag, they weren't fighting over the chimp (but you loved it yesterday?), or the lion, or the zebra, or any of the other cool animals. But the Hippo.

It was all because Kathleen was playing with the hippo first. Victoria saw her playing with it and then she wanted it too. Kathleen saw that her sister wanted it, so she held onto it even more. And when Victoria did get hold of it, it just made Kathleen want it back all the more.

And all I could do was stand there and watch thinking "Really? Really? But it's the HIPPO!".

Love Megz

Lost and Found

About six months ago we joined the Toy Library here in Levin. I have found it to be a pretty good service. There is a great selection of toys and the price to hire is pretty reasonable (although I'm told the toy library in Palmerston North is even better but too far away for us to really use).

We've had some great toys out of the library. My favourites would be the indoor slide which we just couldn't keep Victoria off of, and the Candyland board game which we enjoyed so much we ended up buying our own copy.

Quite often we will get Little People toys because they are so simple yet so detailed. We've had the Little People Farm, Little People Main Street, Little People Noah's Ark, and currently Little People Circus.

Back in April we got out a Mega Bloks fairytale set with King, Queen, Princess and glittery carriage. Both girls fell in love with the princess doll and played with her all the time. Victoria even slept with her a couple of times because she wouldn't let it go.

However, when it came time to return the toy, the princess was nowhere to be found. We searched high and low, all over the house. I felt so guilty because, really, the toy was boring without the princess doll. The king and queen must have been from a different set because they weren't particularly cool.

Peter returned the toy and paid the lost toy fee (which he told me was $30 but was actually $3). But I still felt really guilty, to the point where I watched Trade Me auctions to see if I could buy a replacement (only saw a couple which I lost the auctions on).

I've always had it in the back of my mind, wondering what had happened to her. Best guess was that it had been taken into the car (even though I've always been careful not to let them take library toys out of the house), and that it had fallen out somehow. Or that it had accidentally been put down on the bench and fallen into the rubbish bin.

However. A couple of weeks ago Peter and I went out for the evening. I put on my nice clothes that I hardly ever wear. And my nice black shoes, which had been sitting in a box for months. And out fell the princess!!! She was hidden inside a shoe, inside a box, in our bedroom, for all this time. I have no idea how she got there, other than a child put her there. What a great feeling of relief it was to finally find her and to set my mind at ease as to what had happened to her.

I was very happy the next time we went to the toy library, to be able to return the princess and wipe my conscience clean.



-Megz

Hibernating

Haven't heard much from me lately? I've been hibernating for winter. It is SOOOO cold.

Apart from freezing we're doing well. Kathleen is now going to daycare two days a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Victoria goes on a Tuesday too, so I have the day to myself and usually spend it working on the farm. They both seem to enjoy it there. It is in the country, near where they will go to school, so I hope a lot of the kids there will eventually go to the same school with them.

As well as daycare we have also joined the local Playcentre and will be going there one day a week as well. Most of the kids there are Victoria's age, so it is more for her benefit than Kathleen's. Vicky loves copying the big kids at daycare, but I want her to have socialisation with kids her own age too. Besides, Playcentre offers such a big range of activities and opportunities for both the kids and for me too.

We also regularly go to playgroups and music groups and the library. I have to get out of the house most days for my sanity. Plus it's warmer to go out than stay home!

I realise I haven't blogged in a long time. The girls have grown heaps. Victoria is one and a half now. She's talking heaps and learning new words every day. Kathleen still just loves to play and watch TV. Kathleen's favourite sayings at the moment: "I'm such a girly-girl" and "pink is my favourite colour". Groan

The girls are starting to play together sometimes (with help from me) but mostly Victoria likes to play with toys on her own and Kathleen likes to play pretend with me. Kathleen has also started enjoying board games and card games, so we will sometimes sit down and play a few games together. We especially enjoyed Candyland when we had it out from the toy library. Victoria has been watching with interest and actually played a game of memory with us yesterday (with lots of help).

I've been a little surprised how much both girls have learnt at daycare. Mostly songs. In the beginning Kathleen would come home and sing new songs for us every week. After a while Victoria would stand up with her and do the actions to the songs as well. Kathleen has learnt all her Maori colours and Maori numbers up to 10. She can now count to 100 (in English).

One thing we've been struggling a lot with lately, over the last several months, is sleep, or lack of it. First it was Kathleen. She'd have trouble going to bed at night, complaining she didn't want to be alone, then waking up in the middle of the night wanting to come to bed with us (which would be fine if she didn't then keep us awake for the rest of the night or hog the bed). After about a month of that we started a star chart, where she got a star every night she stayed in her own bed and once she had 20 stars she'd get a reward. That worked amazingly better than I could have ever imagined and I think she only got up once or twice since then. Her first reward was a trip to Lollipops, and she still hasn't collected her second reward, which will be a trip to the movies.

We had a month or two of good sleep after that, and now it is Victoria's turn. She is going through a major Separation Anxiety phase, where she cries if I leave her sight even for a second. So she'll wake up in the middle of the night and scream for Mummy. She'll usually re-settle for Peter but if I'm the one to wake up and go to her, I end up being there for a couple of hours because she'll just scream the house down if I try and leave the room again.

Things are going well on the farm. Our neighbours are grazing their stock in our fields now, so that is one less thing we have to worry about at the moment. For a really funny story on farm life, read my farm blog.

-Megz

Face the Future

Well I've finally caught up with the times and joined Facebook. I've been meaning to get around to it since Peter's sister Gayle was here last July. But it's been one of those things low on the priority list. I've also been invited to join by a couple of other old acquaintances.

Then last week I discovered (while playing around with www.pipl.com) that my best friends all have Facebook pages and never told me, nor invited me to be their online friend. How rude!

So I've joined up and already have almost 20 friends. I feel so important! ;-)

Still trying to figure a lot of it out though. Not sure if I'll get a myspace or bebo page. Definitely NOT going to use Twitter.

-Megz