cool building site

This is Quincy's "cool building site"...

Contents:

• one tough yellow digger
• one dump truck
• three little worker guys
• one dog, who's named Patch only when he is on the building site
• two "happy birthday cars" (car-shaped birthday candle holders)
• one car washing brush
• one plastic squirt bottle
• one wooden spoon
• one salad dressing shaker
• one handle from a duster
• four chewed up tennis balls
• one 27-month-old boy with a big imagination, and
• a pair of gumboots

Notice that the gumboots are missing in some of the photos. When he realized his oversight, changing into his gumboots became top priority.

meet kai, our little food hound

There is no doubt about it, Kai lives for food. And for pets under her chin, but that's beside the point.

Kai is not ashamed of her love of food. When the container comes out, she jumps with glee. Over and over again. Ga donk. Ga donk. Ga donk. Each time getting a bit higher, until she gently nips your elbow as you are pouring the kibble into her bowl.

Except when there are visitors, she gets embarrassed. She can't help but jump a bit, but she tries her best to keep it low key.

Kai is a Maori word. Translation...food.

Te Papa, Our House

This morning we headed to Te Papa, our national museum.

It is a great place to take kids, but for some reason we'd never taken Q before. He is at the perfect age to soak it all in.

Plus it's free! And we scored free parking.

He was loving playing shopkeeper and had quite a system down. Not altogether right, but very efficient!

There is a Formula One exhibit there at the moment (the special exhibits aren't free) and in honor of that they had a bunch of go karts in the lobby that you could sit in. A big hit.

We were so excited to see the model of the blue whale's heart. It just so happens that one of Q's favorite books right now is a book with lots of mammal facts, and one of the facts about blue whales is that their hearts are the size of a small car. That little factoid was certainly brought to life!

I returned from the bathroom to find these two making music, Pacific Island style. Made me smile.

Quincy loved it all, except...the wild boar was not at all popular. "Tinty NOT like the wild pig. Too noisy. Ran back to see the bugs." Here he is leaning on the insect cabinet, staring at it safely from a distance. (Jeremy is flipping a page in a book and not about to give Q a wet willy, by the way.)

We wrapped up the day with a little puppet action. And then it was time to head home for a much-needed nap.

All that for the cost of a cup of coffee and petrol. Not bad.

weta

So here's that weta I mentioned yesterday...

We don't have snakes, but we have wetas.

27 August...this day in Q-history

27 August 2007 (3 months old, in our kitchen after a bath)

He was such an observant baby. Always taking it all in with his even temper. We were still getting to know him then and finding our feet as parents. His hold on our hearts was already very firm though.

27 August 2008 (15 months old, on the swing
in my parents' backyard in Cincinnati)

A confident walker learning to run, he has never known a stranger and has always made himself at home wherever he goes. Cincinnati was no exception. He didn't waste time finding his way into the hearts of all of his faraway family.

27 August 2009 (27 months old, in our courtyard
looking at his first weta...from a distance)

Amazing us everyday with his imagination and ability to make connections, he is so engaged in his surroundings. Forever curious. The passion with which he does things is contagious. The love runs very deep.

learning the ropes

So today was our first day at Playcentre, a parent cooperative preschool. The sessions run for two-and-a-half hours and for now we will go to one session each week. Normally kids who do Playcentre start a bit younger and would be doing two sessions a week by now, with me doing duty on one day and free to drop him off on the other. We're not ready for that though. He still takes a long nap after lunch, so I (usually) treasure our lazy unscheduled mornings together. Sometimes we go to an activity or have a playdate, but more often than not, we are just doing the ordinary at home. I love that and I don't want to commit to more than one morning. Plus, he definitely doesn't need more than that right now.

I have mentioned it a few times over the last two weeks, but didn't tell him we were going today until halfway through breakfast. He got so excited, barely taking a breath as he chatted away and frantically chose some cars to put in his backpack. He kept mentioning the ropes. I dismissed it, thinking he was getting confused with gymnastics (which we have yet to return to, by the way, because one or both of us have been sick for weeks and weeks). But he kept saying things like, "See the ropes," "Play with the ropes," and "Tinty play with the ropes at Playcentre." Finally I asked what he meant. He responded, "Amelia show you the ropes at Playcentre." I couldn't stop laughing. On Sunday we ran into Amelia and her family and when parting ways, I turned to Quincy and said just that. How's that for a literal interpretation?!

I warned him that I needed to take his picture in front of the front door and even armed myself with a few mini marshmallows, but he wanted nothing to do with the camera. Nothing. He said many times, in the angriest voice he could muster, "NO Mama take a picture." I still managed to sneak a few though.

He assumed we would ride a yellow bus, but was satisfied with bringing his bus along.

He was so proud to carry his backpack and walk through the park and up that big hill.

He stared through those gates for ages while I snapped away, telling him that I was taking pictures of the sign, not of him. That was truthful on one occasion at least!

Everyone was very welcoming. There were about 20 kids, 4 and under, and 8 parents. My favorite part was watching him sitting at the long table with the other kids as they ate their morning tea in silence while one of the mums read a story. His favorite part was most definitely playing in the big sandpit on the big wooden digger.

There are some things I don't like about it, but for now this is going to work for us. He is more than ready to go back, that's for sure!

He was pretty wiped afterwards, but didn't nap. He talked to himself in bed for long enough though. His thoughts must have been swimming with excitement.

who knew?

It started out innocently enough.

Who knew that this

would lead to this?

Not me.

spooky small world snippets

I was tagged by Juli, a fellow ex-pat American living in Wellington whose cousin I happened to go to high school with (small world, yes?), to do the following...

• Open your first photo folder.
• Scroll down to the 10th photo. Or, you know, just pick a photo.
• Post that photo and story on your blog.
• Tag five (or more) friends to do the same. (Sorry, but I'll skip this part.)

I enjoyed reading her story and when you combine photos with stories, well, there's no need to twist my arm...

So I went looking, only to get bummed out all over again about all the photos I lost when Q was three months old, but then I quickly got happy looking at so many photos I had forgotten about. Anyway, get this, my first post-crash folder was 25/08/07. Spooky. And here is the photo...

Margaret and Jon being their usual silly selves
with a three-month-old Q-bert

Once upon a time, Margaret and Jon lived in Wellington and we got up to all sorts of mischief together. Then they sadly moved to Auckland, and if that wasn't bad enough, they now live in Abu Dhabi. It's not often you find "couple friends" and Wellington will never be the same without them.

Margaret is American and Jon is a Kiwi. Margaret and I bonded instantly. We had an amazing amount in common. We had very similar upbringings, coming from large Catholic families. She felt like a sister, and that's pretty cool when all your sisters are a world away. Her sister lived in Cincinnati at the time. Did I already mention that it's a small world? And once, without any planning, we got to meet each others' families while all coincidentally celebrating Christmas in Cincinnati. The weather nearly got the better of us, but we had travelled across the world and we were not going to let that massive snow storm get in the way of such a rare opportunity. If it had not been for my brother-in-law, Eddye, it wouldn't have happened. He was the only one brave enough to collect them on Christmas Eve in that storm and then drop them off again at, what 3am??!!

Do you know how priceless it is to have someone know virtually your entire family when that family lives 6,000 miles away?

The first time they came over for dinner, I had Over the Rhine playing and she immediately recognized it. An "Oh. My. God. You know Over the Rhine" moment led us to discover that many many years ago we had been at the same OtR concert that couldn't have had more than 100 people in the audience. Once again, spooky.

So, the photo...At this time two years ago, they visited from Auckland to meet the newest member of Team Buckley. As usual, lots of laughter and silliness ensued and Quincy was a more-than-willing participant.

And now in less than three months they will have their very own little munchkin. (I guess that that weekend didn't put them off children afterall!) They will make great parents and we are looking forward to seeing them in action and meeting Team Sickling's newest member early next year.

The end.