Our family's life in New Zealand
“I like my tongue!”
Can I get up now?
This is blurred because he was running towards me at top speed! He goes all over the kitchen in that walker.
A friend sent him this kiwi and he was investigating it tonight.
The second-youngest often falls asleep during Worship!
Our baby is really trying to communicate now. He turned three months old last week, and is getting more fun every day. His coos are more of a growl right now. The other morning I got a video of him, and tonight I actually found time to share it here! So glad for the occasional Sunday that we come home from church before 5:00!
It’s not real easy to write when most computer time involves multi-tasking (which being interpreted means feeding the baby!). I’ll just put in a few pictures from this past week.
Baby thinks life is rough! He even frowns in his sleep!
For Dead Boring last week, we met in a gym and the children played while the moms talked. The group is so large now that we’ve had to split in two, but still want to all see each other occasionally. Four times a year we plan to meet this way, and just have a social day without sharing writings like we normally do. The children played hockey.
These are two of my boys, James and Simon.
The child farthest left and the one third from right are mine.
Baby studies things–mostly to figure out how they’ll taste!
Haircuts last night! This was the pile after I cut six heads of hair!
Bedtime story! We’re reading Horse of a Different Color, by Ralph Moody, right now. Baby was asleep with his mouth clamped tightly shut.
On our way home from church today, we stopped for half an hour at the beach, where the Kowhai River empties into the sea just south of Kaikoura. The waves were very high today. I love those cliffs in the distance, just south of Oaro.
Brotherly love–the bank at the edge of the parking area, going down to the river’s edge, was steep, with these large rocks. I like this one so well I put it on my desktop screen!
This is the boy who reads the best, enjoying Naya Nuki by Ken Thomasma for the fourth time.
Big sis was playing with her new tripod, and caught this picture. Glad that leg was up to hide everything else!
Yesterday at our homeschool writing group meeting, a man showed us a powerpoint presentation about fossils. He has been collecting fossils for several years and has an impressive collection from the local area. My boys badly wanted to go to Gore Bay and search for fossils along the cliffs there, so, since it was sunny and warm today, we went right after lunch. When we arrived, the tide was high, with waves hitting the cliffs, so we sat on top and read some of our books for school before we went down. The tide was still so high that we couldn’t get to the best places, but the boys climbed up some of the less-vertical cliffs anyway. We never found anything that we were sure was a fossil today, but had fun exploring anyway. One unusual thing we saw was an oystercatcher (bird) with a missing foot! I could tell something was strange about it, and when I was able to see its tracks, it had one normal footprint and one that was just a round peg. Poor thing.
The tide when we arrived.
Reading stories.
This one quickly got bored with the stories and found something more interesting!
Climbing the cliff to hunt for fossils
After they gave up on fossils, they cut a few branches of lupine bushes.
Driftwood makes a great boat.
The tide when we left–quite a ways farther out, and notice the shadows. Short days right now.
And these two pictures are just because they’re cute! The first one was this morning when 2-year-old needed something to do during school and I assigned him to “read” to baby.
This one was after we got home this afternoon. I set baby on the couch while I went to do something else, and when I came back he was staring, fascinated, at his booties! They kept wiggling!
Six boys live in our house. Want proof? Today’s game: tackling (till too many got hurt and came in the house saying they were done!).
Gayle butchered a goat yesterday and a couple of the boys decided to tan the hide.
….And number six would dearly love to join the fun! He can’t wait till he’s big enough.
Cooking a meal can be quite a challenge when baby wants to be held–and according to him, Mom is the only one qualified to hold him! He tends to be fussy in the evening, of course. Tonight, I cooked supper this way:
Isn’t he sweet? I love having him snuggled up to me that way, although it does get a little tiring after awhile.
This is like a Moby Wrap. After my last baby was born, a friend showed me the one she had made. It’s very simple. I just bought a 3-yard length of 60″ wide knit fabric from Joanne Fabrics, and cut it in half lengthwise along the fold. Then, I took one end of each of these strips and sewed them together securely with several rows of stitching:
That’s all! Then, to use, I wrap the cloth around the back of my waist and cross it over my front, then over my back, bring the ends around front and tie at one side of my waist. Put the baby in with a leg on each side of the X on your front and spread out the cloth to support and cover him. Then, jiggle and sing till baby goes to sleep!