Hard Conversations

I don't know if all children are like mine or if I've just been specially chosen but my kids say the darndest things and ask the most jaw dropping questions!

I had to have a really hard conversation with my girls today. I'm a big believer in being honest and upfront with your kids and things that are going on, but telling them things at their level. So, when I got the news that my mom had been admitted to the palliative care ward at the hospital and things weren't looking good, I had to figure out a way to tell my kids.

What I find hardest about these conversations is that you never can guess which way they're going to go. And, with my girls, that's especially true.

Here's a few golden gems from our conversation today:
Me: Girls, grandma is really sick. She's had to go to the hospital and she might die soon.
pause. breathe.
Kelsey: Will Grandpa marry a new wife?
WHAT?! Seriously, that's her first questions? pause. breathe. look at her funny.
Kelsey: well, your grandpa married a new wife when your grandma died.
Me: yeah, well, not yet. maybe. I don't know. grandma's not dead yet.
Kelsey: well, maybe Grandma will rise again from the dead like Jesus.
Me: no. It doesn't work like that. Jesus rose from the dead because he's God. Grandma's not God. But Grandma will get to go and live with Jesus in Heaven.
pause. breathe.
Kelsey: oh cool. She'll get to see the holes in Jesus' hands and feet. I can't wait till I die and get to see what Jesus looks like.
(by the way, she thinks Jesus looks like Eli from the Max Lucado kids books)

Yikes. So, then we got onto a conversation about how we don't want to die, but if we love Jesus while we're living, then we can go and live with him in heaven, after we die, when we're old. Which also led to talking about how we all are going to die, we can't live forever.. oh boy. this was supposed to be an easy conversation. Every time I said something about dying when you're old, Kelsey would interject that sometimes babies die. Oh boy. panic mode setting in.  At which point Morgan burst into tears. After some gentle, "what's wrong Morgy?" prodding. She answered, "Kelsey's my best friend and I don't want to die and leave her." Gotcha. Note to self: Don't have conversations with the sensitive one at the same time as with the curious one.

I suspect we'll be having a lot more conversations like this one. I hope they show a progression in their thoughts though... I don't think I can handle too many more questions like these..

First Look-See of the 'Naki

Marco and I took a weekend visit to check out our new home base (or what will be our new home base if we ever finish and sell our house).

We dropped the girls and the dog off at various locations, boarded a plane and headed off for 2 nights of peace and quiet. Or, as much peace and quiet as one can get with a 3 mo baby in tow - but he's sort of attached to his food source, so taking him was a necessity.

It was Owen's first time flying, so we took the customary first picture. However, the lighting was a bit off, so imagine, if you will, that we went for a arty look. :)

As expected, Owen did great in the plane. he doesn't seem to like boarding the plane very much, but then again, who does?! But, as soon as we were sitting and he was eating, he was lovely again. 

We didn't arrive in New Plymouth until 7ish, so, we quickly made up a bed for Owen (I LOVE my safe t sleep that allows him to sleep in a normal bed without costing us extra for a cot).  After a feed and a change, he was out like a light. I also LOVE sleeping babies. :)

 And, after a feed and a change, we were out like lights too. After the customary wine in bed, of course!!

Saturday, we drove. And drove. And drove. 

Over the whole weekend we put 370 km's on the car, and the large majority of that was done on Saturday. (we'd be lucky if we put 50 km on the car on Friday or Sunday). 

We drove through wide roads and narrow roads. flat roads and hilly roads. paved roads and gravel roads. Road with pig farms, roads with chicken farms, roads with houses, roads with ocean next to it.
We drove.

 Oh yeah, and it rained. and it stopped. And then it rained some more.
So, there were rainbows.
We joked that if we were driving somewhere and there was a rainbow it was a good place to live. No rainbow meant bad place to live.

 We did a bit of sightseeing too. :)

 Look, we tried to see the mountain!! (its behind the cloud)

 And through it all, Owen was cute.

 And cuter.

It really was a good weekend for us.
On Sunday we had the opportunity to attend the church that we hope to become a part of when we eventually move. It was good. The pastor was gone, but an elder preached and did a pretty good job. The congregation was friendly and lots and lots of people introduced themselves. I hope they don't expect me to remember all their names in several months time! yikes!
But, we had a lovely lunch with a couple who live on a gorgeous rural property. They have a 5 & 7 year old who they home school (and who are really eerily well behaved - but I'm sure my kids will cure them of that when they get to know them!). Anyway, they also invited 2 other couples around for lunch so it was a great chance for us to get to know a few different people and ask lots of questions.
We eventually had to head home again, where Owen was another pro-star at flying. But, what else can you expect from a "nearly-captain"'s son?! ;)

I think I can now say that I'm looking forward to moving to the 'Naki. it has stores, beaches, places to walk, playgrounds, (i even saw rumour of a mall!). It should be a good place for us to raise our kids, meet new people and make new friends!!

We did however, have a good laugh at the local slogan:

 - really? that's the BEST slogan you could come up with?? it's "like no other". WOW! Owen just had a poo "like no other", you don't hear me bragging about it?? :)

Piper's Party!!

So.. Piper turned 1!! Yippee!!!

However, I was being a bit lazy and wasn't going to do anything, but the girls insisted. So..

(why can't you hear the girls singing?? how embarrassing!)

During the girls nap, in the afternoon, I whipped up a batch of banana cupcakes so that as soon as they got up the party could start!! We whipped some hats on and took the customary pictures. 

Kelsey took this picture, to prove that I, too, was part of the party!

 Then we put a candle in the cupcakes (this was completely necessary according to the girls!), sang Happy Birthday, and Kelsey got to blow out the candle! Woo-hoo!! (by the way, Piper got a few pieces of raw apple)

Then it was onto presents and party games! 

We wondered outside where I let Kelsey and Morgan each open one of Piper's gifts. 

Morgan got to open the new ball thrower

Kelsey got to open the well-timed new Kong
 (Piper had just managed to chew the entire top ring off her old one)

 After a few practice throws and a bit of peanut butter in the Kong, it was onto party games! And what game does Piper like better than "Bubble catching"!!
So, with each girl armed with a container of bubble mixture (and Owen safely put back to bed), we blew bubbles!

Kelsey even managed to catch one of her bubbles! 

Overall, I think Piper had a great birthday. And judging by the fact that she's sound asleep in her kennel, I'm guessing she's well and truly tuckered out as well. 

Owen's 3 months!!

I can't believe how quickly the time is buzzing by!! My baby is a quarter of a year old already! oh my!

Owen is brilliant. He's smiley, sleepy, hungry... practically perfect - just like his mommy :)

he's still as seriously expressive as ever. 

 The Plunket (well-child) nurse came by the day after Owen turned 3 months (13 weeks). He weighed in at a healthy 6.19kg (13 lbs 10 oz)  which is not quite double his birth weight, but more than double what he dropped down to after birth. And, he's moving perfectly along the 50th percentile graph. So, we're happy.

Actually, I think sometimes that the girls are growing just as fast as Owen. scary. 

 Owen, measured in at 63 cm now. That means he grew 2 cm in 4 weeks. Again, I'm pretty happy with that..

Owen's been sleeping great. So well in fact, that I'm contemplating dropping the "dream feed" (that feeding you do before you go to bed at night, without waking the baby).  but, its a scary feed to drop - what if the baby really can only go 10 hours and starts waking at 4/5am - ugh. COULD. NOT. HANDLE. THAT!!!!!
But, I'm waking him for every single feed during the day, so I'm thinking its time...

 Owen's also laughed a few times. I LOVE baby laughs. They are SO cute. The cutest, though, is as they're learning to laugh, it sort of scares them. He laughs, and then gets this look on his face like, "who did that?!" hilarious.

Owen likes cuddling with his sisters and being "one of the big kids"

Piper's Potty

I've had this project in mind for a while. In fact, I meant to work on it BEFORE we acquired a dog, but as usual, over 1/2 a year has passed and I've finally just now gotten around to it (nothing like a little pressure and the need to finish and sell a house to get things done!)

One of the annoying things about dog ownership is having poos all over your yard. Especially when this is also the area where your kids play. And even more especially when your kids are quite small and not always smart enough to avoid the poos (although ironically,we've had more problems with guests not avoiding the poos than our children).

So for the last several months, Marco has diligently walked around the yard at least once a week and picked  up all the poos. Eww yuck. But, I'd heard there was a better way. I had previously trained a dog to go to the toilet in approximately the same spot every day, so I figured, surely you can build a boxed off area to clearly define for the dog EXACTLY where they should go!

So, step 1: find a spot.

Marco put a couple old pieces of wood together in the right dimensions and the girls helped me clear the area of weeks, and dig it down. We covered it in weed cloth and then put about 2 inches of bark mulch over top. 

Then we (Marco) picked up all the poos from the lawn and mowed the grass. 

At this point I started to take Piper outside on a leash every hour or so and bring her immediately to her new toilet area and say, "Piper Toilet". After a few minutes, I'd bring her back inside. 

Day 1: Piper had NO clue what we were doing to her. 

Day 2: she finally did a wee - 22 hours after starting with her. Yikes. Stubborn dog. 

Day 3: getting weary, but 48 hours in, she did her first poo. Tiny success. Especially tiny since she only did 1/2 outside, and then promptly finished off her poo inside in my living room. Urgh! But, by the time the day was over she'd had 2 more wee successes and another poo success. 

Day 4: I think she's clicked. woo hoo!

A week and a bit on from when I started, she's doing great. I've caught her twice, while running around free in the back yard, starting to do a poo on the lawn, but usually a look and a "Ahh" noise is enough to send her running to her "toilet". And yes, I have to clean it up a lot more often, but at least its all in the same area and easy to spot. Which should also help me keep an eye on her general health. And FINALLY, the girls can run around the back yard with no worries of "stepping in it"!! 

Kelseyism - April 2nd

"Ahh.. I'm devasted!" I hear the dramatic cry from the lounge while I'm prepping dinner in the kitchen.

"Devasted?" I reply, "why, what happened?"

"Mom LOOK!" she's close to tears at this point as she shows me that her flashlight's batteries have died.

Thankfully, I'm super mom. I change the batteries and a major crisis is averted.

Phew!

Exploratory Demolition

So, now that we have a serious deadline to move, and thus sell our house, we've been talking a lot about what needs to be done still, what we're not going to do, what we need to pay someone else to do, and how much time each job will take. 

Inside the house, the only rooms left to do are the dining room and the lounge. We weren't going to touch them until mid July. However, one of the things we'd like to do is put a new wood burner fireplace in. In order to do that there are grants to attain, council permits to apply for, and quotes to get. 

So... 

Before.. 

 I cleaned off the wall and the mantelpiece. 

 And, Marco started ripping in!! The first thing we found is that someone had some fun before they put up the "gorgeous" wood paneling! 

"All this writing was done between the 6-7 of February 1981"

So, we had some fun of our own before ripping it down. Marco had just picked up a bit of this tape that said, "CAUTION Archaeological site". How appropriate! 

Marco's not entirely sure how to get these tiles off the front as they appear mortared on - VERY securely!

 At the end of the day, THIS is what I'm left with. Still no idea what size of fireplace we can put in (that was the whole purpose of this exercise, but whatever!). Its really exciting to see it now and imagine what it could look like when we're finished. 

Any ideas???