June 2008 Archives

At my in-laws house in upstate New York, my mother-in-law has designated one drawer to the grandkids. It's filled with all sorts of stuff to spark their imaginations and keep them out of the real stuff around the rest of the kitchen. It's a low drawer filled with empty spice jars, pie tins, plastic measuring cups, stuffed dinosaurs, jello jiggler molds, popsicle molds, and many containers with tops. The girls know exactly where it is and run to it. Or they can be easily directed to their drawer if they need some distracting.

We adopted the same idea after we moved out of their house and allowed the girls to play in our tupperware drawer. They couldn't break anything and enjoyed stacking the various containers and lids.

Unfortunately, we haven't yet established a drawer full of stuff that we don't care about here in Wellington because none of it is ours. It's much harder to pile a bunch of stuff (even if you don't like it or want to use it) into a drawer if you have to face replacing each piece of it upon leaving. This lack of established drawer hasn't stopped Josie from trying to stake a claim to various cupboards and drawers. I feel bad for her because every where she turns we are saying "That's not your drawer". She's been favoring one cupboard in particular and it's more about the contents than the container. An abandoned phone lives in this cupboard and Josie loves to get on the phone as an excuse to avoid whatever it is you've asked her to do.

Mom - Josie, time to get your coat on.
Josie - Mommy, I talking to somebody.
Mom - Who is it?
Josie - Uncle Atony. Ok well, mommy say mine have to get mine coat on so well, I gotta go now, yuv you bye.

Or
Mom - Josie, time to get your coat on.
Josie - Mommy! I told you! I on the phone!

In addition to the abandoned phone, there are various cables and an empty shelf. So far she hasn't touched the cables but I did catch her laying on the empty shelf "taking a nap" the other day. I guess she is choosing her cupboard her in the house. It's just not the one I would have picked for her.

We've been playing a lot of ball here lately, with the big orange 'Sunkist' beachballs that the girls got from our friends at Miramar Fruit Supply. And by a lot, I mean just about every morning, noon and evening before bed.

Sophie & Josie sit up on the bed in the extra bedroom (we call it Sophie's room even though she hasn't ever slept in there) while I sit on the floor and bounce or toss the ball to them. Sophie's getting pretty good at catching things but Josie can pretty much catch it only if you manage to land the ball into her outstretched hands with the proper angle and amount of spin to keep it from flying off again.

This happened the other day, and as we were all in the room to witness it there was a big eruption of cheers from Brandie, Sophie & myself. Josie was so simultaneously excited and pleased with herself that she stood up on the 1/2" wooden bed-frame, kind of hopped a bit, lost her balance and somehow did a forward flip onto the floor. (I understand that her maternal grandfather is a gymnast: she must have inherited it from him because I couldn't have pulled that off if I wanted to!)

From cheering, we went quickly through our surprise to make sure she was ok (she was) and then compared notes. Why didn't she just fall forward?  What would make her think that bending completely in half would save her? How on earth can one child take every situation and make it 10 times more dangerous than you would expect?

I'm generally in awe of my wife for a variety of reasons, but most especially in the realms of being a human being, friend and particularly parent. I know, it sounds like I'm bragging or scheming to get a new batch of cookies with those yummy chocolate chips she picked up, but I'd wager anyone who knows her has probably felt the same way at some point. Most recently for me, it was last night at the girls' bed-time.

We usually read books to the girls, but last night we stayed up later than usual eating popcorn and watching The Lion King so we had a make-believe birthday party instead. This is a nap-time routine that Brandie & Sophie have developed together, and it usually involves Snow White, Mickey Mouse or some other celebrity (at some point or another I think every one of our long-distance family and friends has been the subject). Last night I was the guest of honor, a rare instance where Sophie didn't have to take on the role of the guest mid-way through. Here's a rough transcription of what it's like:

Mom: "Ok whose birthday is it?"
Girls: "Daddy's!"
Mom: "What do you think he would like for his birthday present?"
Sophie: "A new boot!" (just one)
Josie: "A pancake!"
Mom: "Does anyone have a pancake?"
Sophie: "I do!  It's a squeaky one!"
Mom: "Ok let's wrap his present! What color box should we put it in?"
Sophie: "Brown!" (looks at me) "Do you like brown?"
Me: "I do."
Mom: "Oh I only have a white box. Does anyone have some brown paint they could color this box with?"
Sophie: "I do!" (pretends to paint the box)
Mom: "Here, hold your finger on this ribbon and help me tie the bow. Perfect. Now does anyone have a boot for Daddy?"
Sophie: "I have a cowboy boot right here."
Mom: "Josie, do you have a pretty box we could put this boot in for Daddy?"
Josie: "Uh-huh." (pretend wrapping, rolling of the arms, ribbon placement and the addition of sprinkles commence)
Mom: "Now, what kind of cake do you think Daddy wants?"
Sophie: "A boot cake, but not in the shape of a boot, just with a boot on it with icing."
Mom: "Ok we need 3 cups of flour. Josie, do you have any flour?"
Josie: "Yeah!" (pours into imaginary bowl Mom is holding out)
Mom: "Ok now we need 2 eggs. Sophie do you have some eggs?"
Sophie: "Here you go!" (cracks eggs into bowl)
Mom: "Alright, we need some vanilla. Josie do you have any vanilla?"
Josie: (pours in vanilla)
Mom: "And two pinches of salt, one from each of you." (a pinch added by each)
Mom: "Can you whisk it for me?"
Sophie: "Sure!" (crazy stirring with lots of sound effects) "Let's put it in the oven." (slam!) Ding! It's done."
Mom:  "Ok, take it out but be careful, it's very hot. Daddy I think it's about time for you to go in the hall."
Dad: (I do)
Mom: "Ah! I hear Daddy.  Let's hide. (they duck down and cover their eyes) One, two, three. Surprise! Happy Birthday Daddy!"
Me: "Oh! Thank you!"
Mom: "Would you like to open your presents Dad?" (Josie hands over the squeaky pancake then Sophie hands over the boot, insisting that I try it on)
Mom: "Are you ready for birthday cake?" (Mom, Sophie and Josie all sing Happy Birthday to me)
Mom: "Now make a wish and blow out your candles." (I do) "Sophie would you like to cut the cake?"
Sophie: "Sure! Here's one for Josie, one for Mommy, one for Daddy and one for Sophie."
Mom: "Did anyone else come to Daddy's party?"
Sophie: "Oh yeah. One for Grandpa, one for Grandma, one for Eulie dog and Julia-n-Jessica. Dad, my cousins came to your party!"
Me: "Hooray! Thank you both so much for my presents and wonderful party."

..and welcome baby Roan! Details are brief so far but from what we know she was born early yesterday afternoon and everyone is well.

Way to go, New Parents of Experience!

We had a relaxing Father's Day here in NZ this year. We started the day with some video chatting with family and friends then took a walk to Seatoun Beach. Jake got a nice afternoon nap in the sun then watched the Iron Giant with the girls.

Happy Father's Day Dad, George, Grandpa Joe, Uncle Anthony, and New Dad, Danny. We hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing day.

Yesterday we celebrated Sophie's successful week of staying in her bed all night (and getting over her latest bout with croup) by going to the Wellington Zoo. It's less than 10 minutes drive from our house, and in a beautiful setting on top of the hill overlooking the city. The weather cooperated in a big way, and we met our friends Nadine & Scott for a very nice 2 hour stroll around the zoo.

Click on the lion to see the rest of the pics!

What would you do for a sticker? My kids will do pretty much anything for a sticker. Plus if you display all of the stickers they've earned on a piece of paper with their name on it they go crazy!

Currently we're running three motivational sticker charts here at the house. One for Josie to start using the potty. She's pretty good at letting us know when she has to go #2 but we like to reinforce it with a sticker (most if which were provided by our dear friends Susan from Idea Duck and Amy). We keep the chart taped right on the tile wall next to the potty so that it's instant gratification.

The second chart is for Sophie to start telling us she has to use the bathroom before actually going in her underpants. I know life is exciting and I'm sure she doesn't want to miss a thing. So she waits until the second that she actually starts going to the bathroom to tell us she needs to go. Hence the chart to motivate getting there before actually going. I like to call it the "dry underpants" chart. (ok, I just realized that anyone who doesn't have children will probably be bored to tears by this post. Sorry, Potty is a big portion of our life, like it or not). Her chart is also right next to the potty for instant gratification. She's been progressing through her numbers recently as we have some scrapbooking stickers that I've never used and she can't get enough of the numbers.

The third and final chart is Sophie's sleeping chart. In the past two weeks she's been getting up and coming in our room at all hours of the night for various reasons. "I need my covers on", "I wanted you", "I'm scared". Most of these are valid for a 3.5 year old (other than the covers request. Jake has actually given her instructions on how to pull up her own covers if she is cold.) however, they seemed to becoming more frequent. So we told her for each night she stayed in her bed all night, she'd get a sticker and after 7 stickers she could choose a reward. At first she requested a candy bar as her reward but with a little suggested redirection, she settled on a trip to the Zoo. This chart is right next to her bed and we remind her how many nights she has left before bed each night. She did pretty good at first, three nights straight. Then she got scared, then she got sick. So we are stuck at 6 stickers with that reward square just in reach. I keep hoping she'll sleep right before the weekend so Jake can join us at the Zoo.

So the question stands, what would you be motivated to do if a sticker was involved?

You may have noticed we've been sprucing up The Ranch a bit: along with the new pics, colors and side-bar content we've made some under-the-hood changes (with help from our friend Ingar) that make running the site a little easier.

While we're at it, if you have any requests or suggestions for further improvements please feel free to send them along: it's been fun to learn how to do and become a convenient way of sharing stories with all our long-distance family and friends, as well as a journal of sorts on our experiences here.

If there's anything we can do to make your visits better, just drop us a comment and we'll do our best to amend it!

Inevitably, the first question asked every morning: "Can I please play Faloney?" Sophie loves to take care of her little digital friend (Nintendogs on the DS), which surprises me a little since the tasks are very mundane: she has to give her food and water every day, take her on walks, clean up after she goes potty. Not a bad intro to pet guardianship, if you ask me.

It's not as surprising though when I remember how much she loved letting Eula out first thing in the morning, and how much taking care of the pets formed the first part of our day. Usually Sophie would come out of her room in the pre-dawn hours and get greeted by Eula, thump-thump-thumping her tail on the wall in the dark, then Eliot would start meowing for his breakfast (poor, famished creature that he was, I guess he always suspected we'd put him back on the 'Fat Farm' up in Grandma & Grandpa's barn.)

New Zealand is definitely a dog-friendly country, so there aren't too many days where we don't see some dogs around the neighborhood. The girls both get very excited wen we do. Whenever we're at the beach I'm also reminded how much she'd love romping there with the girls. As much as we miss her we know she's resting very comfortably on a very nice Oriental rug in upstate NY, and that she'd still be in quarantine if we had brought her along for our adventure. (To be honest, she'd probably still be shaking from the 32-hour flight!)

We miss you, Pupperoni!! Take good care of Grandma & Grandpa for us, and take it easy on that leg - don't show off too much!

Brandie's out seeing the Sex and the City movie with some friends, so the girls & I made pizza (my first attempt at dough, a plain cheese and something resembling Joey's #8) and popcorn and watched Toy Story 2. Bed-time came a little late with all the fun, so I iust finished uploading what I'm guessing will be an entire month's worth of our allowed internet bandwidth to the photo album. Along with some housekeeping and reorganization I dug up some pics from our first few weeks here, here are some highlights:

Josie's birthday party
Our new Hikes folder
Our new Recipes folder
Fun at the City Life

Another week flew past, hard to believe it's almost Sunday again!

I'm happy to report we had another banner weekend here in Wellington, assisted in no small part by the beautiful weather and our friends near and far. Friday night we had Nadine & Scott over for dinner and carousing with the kids, then Saturday morning we headed into the city to visit the central library and do some shoe shopping.

Sunday we started off with a Skype video chat with David & Karen and the gorgeous view out their window, then met our cohorts in relocation from 4kiwiwannabes at our favorite spot for lunch, Maranui Cafe. Afterwards the girls got an extended play on the beach with their friends Haley and Zoe. Topped it all off with naps and a phone call with my dad, then a beautiful sunset (pictured above) while we gave the trampoline a final bounce for the weekend.

Thanks to everyone who shared it with us, and an extra special thanks to our friend Ingar for helping us sort out our website issues. Along with some new features you may have noticed the new look, it's an attempt to match some of the interior colors of our gorgeous house rental so I feel more "at home" when reading it from work.

We hope your weekend is as excellent as ours was, and that you enjoy the new pics!

I got this sad news from Club Saranac on Friday evening:

As some of you may have heard, last evening, a major portion of our production facility was destroyed by fire. While the Brewery operations remain shutdown, it is our intention to rebuild our Brewery and plans are already underway to do so in the most efficient manner possible.

The Best Beer in New York State is now being hoarded in a secret storage facility in Elmira.