House-Cooling Party

You've all heard of a house-warming party, but how many of you have been to a house-cooling? When my sister Becky moved out of her flat, we had a small take-away picnic on the floor of the gutted house. The kids had a ball!


The flew through the empty living room!


The party. Grandma tucking into a chip. Amy, Lena, Erica, Bec, Josh, Jo and Gabi.



In a different light, the children take on corporeal form, though with 'orbs'....but I think they look cooler all wavy.

Grandma with the dogs. Gabi wins babysitter of the year award for skillful handling of many yougsters at once.







The game/performance that developed out of the nothing. Watch to the end, there's a giggle there...they're not all that well coordinated...



I have no photos of the next thing we did. I took everyone on a ghost walk. We snuck through the empty rooms with just a torch, kids screaming, to find the 'ghosts' - spooky window clings of a 'yurei' Japanese ghost, disembodied eyes, fingers reaching around the door, a broken window and an ant trail. All from the 100 yen shop!

One Night in Tropicoco

We stroled in to the local Mexican bar early in the night, after taking the kids out for dinner, to find it completely empty and some very tempting musical instruments on the stage. We'd missed the acoustic performance the night before that the bar owner's sons had been to, so he let us have a go.


Lena trying out pool


Erica's going to be our drummer.


The fun of bongos!


As long as there's no actual audience to embarrass them, they make quite good pop stars.


Even Erica got the hang of the mic!


Family Band


Erica and her new friend, Mic


Amy and Lena singing the theme song to Pretty Cure, a Japanese TV cartoon.

Ballet Concert for Mother

This is what little girls get up to when Mother hogs the TV all day on Mother's Day. They planned, costumed, then put on a ballet, Cinderella, for me.

Cinderella after the ball, back in her Cinder clothes.

Lena was the fairy godmother.

Erica has learned to smile for the camera!

It looks a bit like Erica's holding Amy up...the grand finale of the ballet, great leaps (with the aid of a study desk).

Cinderella hard at work

The Fairy Godmother makes her entrance

Cinderella dressed for the ball

The Fairy Godmother's magic wand



Cinderella back to the drugery, while the fairy godmother tends to her wand



These fairies REALLY know how to fly!




Erica's turn! With a little help from her big sisters. This is the second go - the first time, Amy pulled, Lena pushed, Erica fell off the desk with a thump and Lena fell on top of her - and Erica giggled and laughed and thought it was great fun!

Mother's Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day relaxing with the kids. It started rough, with everyone else lounging on the sofa while I frantically cleaned up, as you need to start with a clean slate when you intend to do nothing all day! But it got better, as Kanji came home from some fish festival he'd gone to with a pot of green carnations for me, and the girls each gave me a pink one. Amy wrote me a handmade card, with this message:

to Mum. mum you R my Supermum. and I Love You. I will LoVE You for ever. you R nice and god and responsible for every thing and I love you.

Yes, I certainly AM responsible for everything! Nice to know I'm a god too, though I think that was supposed to be 'good'.


Erica tore the card, then Lena selotaped it, so all was well.

Kanji bought a big fish at the festival and that was my lunch.


I won't show you the photo I took a few minutes later of the headless fish. This one is just here to justify the next photo...


of my husband wielding a knife and grinning maniacally. Okay, it's actually a rather sweet smile, but that knife...was used to cut very fresh sashimi for lunch. I took some unposed photos of my girls. Amy, playing with a wooden drawing model I bought her to practice drawing, only she uses it as a clothing model for which she sews little outfits.

Lena, mid-thought. And Erica eating Lena's leftover cornflakes - I think she enjoyed using the big spoon and bowl.





I spent the afternoon reading and watching TV - at the same time. And banning anyone else from watching anything they wanted to. NO CARTOONS! For dinner, I took the kids to Joyfull, as Kanji had gone back to work. Not my favorite place, but close, and cheap, and the kids love it, and I do like their chocolate sundaes!

Mad Shopper

Okay, I'm fessing up. This is the stuff I bought in NZ, and sent back to myself. So obviously it does not include the last minute easter eggs and chocolate bars, or the huge bag full of souvenir chocolates (a few of which ended up down my throat instead). Some Kiwis and other foreigners will be nodding their heads and saying "yep, you gotta have some of that" at some things, and "WTF? Is she mad?" at others. Jo will be kicking herself for prancing around with JnH'ers and not coming to get her golden syrup and I know Katy will sympathize with the rubber spatula.


Sanitarium weetbix, because the variety you can get through FBC just does not work in the muesli recipe I use (thanks Jo T.). Gingernuts, which I always waver over - scoff them soggy after a dipping in hot tea...or crush them for a sweet dessert pie base. Hmmm....Favourite sweets - I LOVE licorice, all the more since I can't get it here. I'm sure I wouldn't eat it as much if I lived in NZ and could have it whenever I wanted. When I find a source for favorite foods in Japan I often just stop eating them - it's their rarity and elusiveness that is so appetizing. Ditto Continentals and Old Gold. Custard powder, which just isn't the same here, which I use for trifles mostly. Silver cachous, which you can get here in a smaller size. Mixed nuts, UNsalted. I can get salted mixed nuts at Costco, but finding unsalted nuts is a bit trickier, expensive, and in mixes I don't like. Might as well throw some in then! Turkish apricots, for the muesli again. They are sometimes available in the supermarket here, sometimes not, usually not when I want them! Chuck some in just in case. My favorite UV moisturizer. At $15 a bottle, much more economical that the Japanese products, and a lighter lotion style that I like, rather than a thick sunscreen. I use it everyday in summer. The chocolates at the lower left I have no idea what they are! I must go check them out...


In front a bunch of liquid food dyes. The black LEAKED IN THE BOX. Only leaked, thank goodness, not spilled, but enough to dye the labels on all the dye bottles, so now I have no idea which dye is which without a very close inspection of the bottle! More gingernuts, golden syrup and NZ honey. Tomato sauce for me and the kids. Totally not a necessity since we all like Japanese tomato sauce. Favorite chocoate bars, and Cadbury favorites. More from the Alison Holst food bins at Pac'n'Save - this is chocolate-covered crystallized ginger, I think. OXO chicken stock cubes, as while I do like Japanese Maggi consome, I do get tired of it too. Cake decorations and NZ jelly, which is just DIFFERENT. Pitted dates, which are very hard to find in Japan. I think Tengu has them. I would snack on them more if I could find a cheap source. As they are a rarity for me though, so I tend to save them for Sticky Date Pudding - divine! And Instant Oatmeal.


And more instant Oatmeal. Okay, I know oatmeal is something you can get in Japan. At Tengu, FBC and Costco, and I've even seen American Quaker oats in the supermarket (though not last time I looked). I'm having trouble finding the right variety to a) make muesli and b) to make creamy porridge. While I continue to buy and experiment, I like to have something tasty and easy on hand for days when I don't feel like being chief cook and taster in the Great Oatmeal Experiment. BAGS of soup mix - because Erica LOVES vege soup, and it's such an easy and nutritious lunch or dinner for her, and so easy to make with these sachets. The bigger bags are just the beans, for when I'm feeling ambitious enough to do it from scratch and make stock too. Speaking of stock, more stock powder. More golden syrup and brown sugar for baking. I think that's coconut rough in the bin bag. More food dye. More licorice - my new hot favorite, chocoate stuffed licorice rolls. Superb! And TO-DIE-FOR Cadbury creme eggs!!


Another key link in the Great Oatmeal Experiment - Scotch Oats. It's spring, so I won't be testing this theory until at least November. NZ cornflour, since I heard that Japanese starch just won't do for pavs. A vertical potato peeler. Corn forks. Possibly here, probably in some big department store, but I've never seen them, and there they were on a shelf in NZ, so I threw them in. A BIG bottle of vanilla essence, which I use a lot of, and another of peppermint, which I couldn't find in Youme Town last Christmas when I had my eye on home-made peppermint lollies. More licorice, a Lindt Easter Bunny, the kids' favorite NZ snack, Twisties, and my favorite salt & vinegar chips. Would you know, I got back to Japan and guess what I found in the supermarket? S&V chips! Too bad they were vile. Guess I'll be saving up my chippies for my birthday and Christmas after all.

Family Dinner

On the evening of Erica's baptism, the family got together to eat, and the kids got together to play, and in what you will now recognize as a very repetitive cliche, they all got on the tramp.



We were entertained by a fashion show, which even Josh joined in!



He wore the superman suit every time, with various superhero and/or joke accessories.



Amy announcing something, Lena taking a break. Most of the show ended up on video where we can embarrass them more thoroughly in years to come.



Erica taking a shine to her Aunty Deb and Uncle Chris



Sweet girls with sweet flowers, but this photo has a bit more of an interesting story attached - the girls picked up flowers in their hair while climbing tres, and noticing the pretty effect, they decided to finish off the decorating themselves. After showing themselves off to us, as we were chasing them outside so they wouldn't drip petals all over the carpet, Lena heard a buzzing noise. She tried to move away, but wasn't able to. Soon she realized that the buzzing was coming from her own head - a bee had followed the flowers and got caught up in her hair! Uncle Tony came to the rescue and risked a sting brushing and shaking it out. It'll be a long time before she tries that particular method of beautification again.

Shonenji Golden Week Camp

Amy, Erica and Lena on a broad concourse at Asia Pacific University, where we went to pick up a friend to take with us to Miyazaki. Looking all fresh and new after only an hour driving - we sure looked a lot worse for wear when we arrived! Erica was in pyjamas, having lost her lunch all over herself. Amy was looking shattered with her hair all messed up, having lost her lunch as well, though in a bag at least.


Our brief at APU was to chat to and amuse a bunch of high-schoolers in a kind of extra, casual 'lesson', in exchange for a free lunch. This mostly took the form of them fussing over the kids and taking photos. Lena, for all her desire to be a model/actress/popstar/all-round famous person, got sick of posing very quickly.


Dinner on the first night, which happened not long after we arrived. We arranged ourselves around two barbecues plus one extra table, under the carport and a tent by the side of the house. I can't count how many guests there were! About 12 children, 15 or more adults. On the left, Amy, Lena and Sahara talking to a boy whose mother is Tunisian. In front of them, the Tunisian food - chicken and vegetables on couscous; also rice balls, sushi and a cheese and cracker plate (it took four of us to get that cheese platter right!)


Breakfast was in the Rec Room, an old town hall near the property bequeathed to the temple at some point. Bread and fruit and yogurt and bacon and eggs and rice and miso soup.


Out the front of the temple, the kids all fascinated by an irrigation ditch. Erica was calling it a bath, but keeping her distance. They had the most fun throwing balls in at the top and catching them. At this time in the morning, they wanted to go to the river and swim, but we said No, as I had a few things to do first. In retrospect it would have been the best time...

Erica found a dandelion in seed. She was just a little bit rough with it! On the second day, we made Banoffe pie - a banana toffee pie with a biscuit base, which Amy is crushing here. You make the toffee or caramel sauce by boiling a tin of condensed milk for several hours, then top with sliced banana, whipped cream and grated chocolate.








I love this total relaxation shot of Lena! Erica having a go at croquet. We all kept our distance!

Just because babies and flowers are so cute!


Hostess Queen Victoria directing the placement of her canopy of state. Or, shifting the tent in for a lunch on the lawn.


Bubbles in the English Garden

Croquet man-style. Or is this golf? On this beautiful day, eating lunch in the sun, suddenly we heard thunder. I looked up and saw the black clouds swirling over the temple and realized our chance to swim in the river was all of a sudden very, very short! I rallied the kids, we got changed, and off we went, after Erica showed us all how cute her bum is without a nappy.

The girls in the river.

(lfet)"Hurry up, Mum, what's going on!" (right) "I'm in!". It was only a wee bit cool, I'm sure that if the storm had allowed us more than a few minutes of swimming time, we'd have gotten a little wetter.


Sigh, not even the explosive fun of a wild thundery river swim can put a stop to the sibling fights!


"Noooooo, it's too cold!" Lena would not get in. No worries, Amy was happy to jump in!


Dinner on the second night was a bit simpler, in reflection of our general state of tiredness. Just curry and rice, and barbecued meat. On the right, the girls eating on the lawn. That's about the distance I saw them most of the time, if at all!





We had spent the earlier part of the afternoon watching Mamma Mia on a big screen in the temple's main hall. Talk about Abba worship.

Erica tucking into her curry. On the right, Amy having her turn whisking the cream. The electic beater had broken the night before while whipping cream for the trifle, so we took turns whipping with a whisk!

Fire. Meat. Yum.
On the right, Amy at breakfast the next morning, trying a unique new game. That is Erica back there trying to push.


Lena and Sahara meanwhile, were playing in a tent. On the right, the grown-ups, having placated most of the children with a DVD, enjoy a quiet cup of tea in Victoria's kitchen. I love that view!


Lunch on the lawn again. Loads of children again. The mostly all run off after their tummies are full. It took me ages to round them up for the trip home!


How many kids can you fit in one toy car?

Words, Words, Words

Erica's had a language explosion recently, starting in NZ so mostly in English. At the moment she seems to be adding a word every day!

We've spent the last week making a list:

Mum, Papa, please, thank you, food, I, yumyum, dog, duck, "cat", bird, bath, poo-poo, wee-wee, Dorothy, "horse", book, ow, um, wow, What is this?, Oh No!, Oh God!, why?, car, toot-toot, beep-beep, shoes, I love you, more, "boobies", (one) two three (five), wheee!, (growls), "monkey", hot, baby, cheese, Cheers!, pretty, (ba)nana, bug, ball, don't, stop, no, go-go-go-, Wiggle, "sad", happy, Amy, Lena, jump, oishii, wash, Where are you?, dance, help, wait!, walk

Sentences: "I food" "Up please" and this morning "more babblebabblebabble I food" "a poo" (while patting her bottom)

Language development is one of my favorite parts of watching a child grow. I find the process so fascinating, so let me waffle on for a bit! Like all Mums I am convinced my child is indeed a genius, but really I don't put much store in things like the age when they do this or that thing. So this is not a skite session or one-upbabyship compared to Erica's other little toddler friends, I'm just interested in the wonderful things all little humans are capable of doing.

I'm intrigued by how she expands the meaning of each word she picks up to cover several similar situations, for example calling other men 'pappa'. This can easily be dismissed as the baby being dumb and not knowing the difference, but I think they do know the difference, it's just that their drive to communicate is so strong that they'll use whatever they have in their repertoire to achieve it - this is why learning baby signs tends to support language development, not result in a delay. She'll say the word, sign, use other gestures, and if all else fails, stamp her feet and cry! Obviously my job is to get what she means before she gets to that stage!

Other examples of word expansion Erica's doing include 'bath' for any water, including rivers and lakes, the toilet and the whole Pacific Ocean; 'hot', which she uses mostly to talk about food, to say she doesn't like food; 'book' to refer to other toys and games and play in general; and most annoyingly (since I have to answer enthusiastically each time to encourage her) 'MUM!' also apparently means 'look' and 'hey!'.

Of course there are occasions when she is genuinely confused, like 'duck' for all large birds, and 'ball' for organes and tomatoes! Over the long weekend, she wasn't happy with just my reassurance that her tomato was indeed food, she had to check with several other adults first. She went round, holding up her tomato and babbling away at people, with the words 'ball' and 'what' popping up, and when each of them in turn assured her it was a 'tomato' and 'food' she finally bit it!

Grandma's House

Despite running here and there Hawera and half the North Island like a bunch of headless chooks visiting and touring, we do end up spending some time at home with Grandma!

Curry!


I came a long way to eat yummy NZ food, but I spent the first day cooking Japanese! I spent the day unpacking, but the cousins couldn't resist coming over to play with Amy, Lena and Erica. So we decided to cook up a pot of Japanese curry, two actually, one spicier than the other, and invited everyone over to eat up.

Pumpkin


On Grandma's back porch enjoying the last warm rays of summer sun before the cooler autumn temperatures hit. Erica enjoying what I think was maybe pumpkin, but could just be some random baby food jar from the airplane. Either way, her nickname is pumpkin. She answers to it!

Jo's kids


Rachel, Gabi and Josh

Bathtime!


Erica in the bath, wearing the pudding basin, an indispensible bathing tool in the Greenwood household. She's standing up - she never got used to the sit-down NZ baby-bathing style. In Japan, the bath is deep and narrow, and she stands up in it.

Ticklefest


Aunty Becky is the absolute queen of tickling. She can take on all three at once and get the upper hand. I think she practices with her dogs.

Child Prodigy


Erica's favorite toy at Grandma's - her dictionary. The compact size fit nicely in her small hands, and she loved flicking through the pages, pointing at words, and 'reading'

An ordinary Day


We take so many photos of extra-cute stuff and special occasions, but I think in years to come, the photos of everyday, ordinary stuff become more interesting. How many photos of prettily dressed posing children do you need (I know, I'm the worst, I can't stop taking them!)? Already this photo brings me back to our time in NZ more than the other, 'special' ones. We're eating Grandma's Thai curry pumpkin soup, which is delicious! Lena's still in her school uniform, which is a no-no, she's supposed to change out of it as soon as she gets home from school. She usually has no problem with this, as she's nothing if not a fashion victim, so something must have happened today to stop her getting changed. You can see the thick blanket under the table-cloth, put there to try to protect Mum's lovely table from bangs and heat marks. The highchair was a cheapie from the Hospice shop that's already been loaned out and brought back, and will live in Grandma's shed for all the new babies to use. You can see the splash mat under it, in a (mostly futile) attempt to save Granma's dauntingly cream carpet.

Cosy on my couch


Erica all set up to watch the Wiggles, with a Winnie the Pooh quilt, on the miniature Winnie-the-Pooh toddler couch, which once belonged to the McLeod children. It even folds out to make a miniature Winnie the Pooh toddler bed.

Squeak's Mouse Collection


Mum's cat is nuts. Instead of catching the mice inside the house, Squeak catches mice outside and brings them in. Then he lets them go so he can torture them in time-honoured feline fashion, only they are too quick for him, and get away and race under the furniture. Here, Amy, Keelah, Lena and Michael are all attempting to catch a mouse that ran under the couch. They had no chance - our best bet is to chase it out from under the furniture with the cat in the room, and hope that he catches it. The worst day was when I was quietly reading in bed and caught sight of one climbing up to my pillow. The natural human 'flight or fight' response, here taking the 'squeal and jump' form, scared him away. Of course I was then faced with an even worse situation, as the kids sleep on the floor! I recruited Grandma, and we searched and searched, throwing nearly everything out of the room (a lack of drawer space meant most of my clothes were piled on the floor, along with blankets, book, school bags, etc). We did not find him, and I think Mum was beginning to doubt me, so we gave up. However, I could not relax, and sat up reading, and waiting. Until I saw him toddle across the floor from the wardrobe (the only place we didn't look) and out the door. I then quickly shut the door, and later when I heard the cat come in, I went and fetched him and put him in the room with us. Mouse out, cat in, a much better set-up! Squeak heard him though, so I had to let him out, then listened as he stalked him through the piles of clothes and things that were now piled up in the corridor! The mouse was caught a few days later in a trap, the sight of caused all of us to scream in horror and Chris was left with the awful task of chucking it over the fence (into a paddock, not the neighbour's garden!)

Taken for a Ride


The serious expression belies the fun she was having, really! At least, she should have been having fun, because she'd been trying to get onto to an old lady's Walker at the rest home since we got to NZ, and finally this kind lady offered her a ride!

Yummy Stuff


Another thing I really like to do in NZ - drink crisp, fresh sauvignon blanc accompanied by a plate of nibbly things, like olives and cheese and crackers and pickles and relish.

Kitchen


Typical kitchen scene, Erica in her highchair munching away. Oh, actually not quite typical, as there is no food or plates on the floor yet!

Bedtime


This is how Amy and Lena sleep when staying at Grandma's. Of course, this is not Amy and Lena, it's Michael and Keelah, who stayed with us one night, while Amy and Lena stayed with Josh. Michael's playing his playstation, and Erica and Keelah are watching a DVD. Lena lamented at one point that she comes all the way to NZ from Japan, but has to sleep on the floor! So she got to sleep in a bed at Keelah's house. The wardrobe behind Keelah is where that damned mouse was hiding. It was still not caught at this stage, I remember checking the trap under my bed before they slept.

Last Supper


A superb fragrant mutton roast with all the trimmings, which I, sadly, could not eat much of due to the tummy bug I'd picked up at the weekend. I did enjoy the flavor though, even if my body punished me later. A bit like morning sickness - which is was NOT!

The Patea Maori Club

I got quite excited when I saw written on the board at the old folks' home Mum works at "Thursday 4pm, Patea Maori Club". I admit I feigned hatred of their hit song "Poi e" when it came out, mainly because it wasn't Duran Duran, but the group are a legend, especially in south Taranaki, and the chance to see one of NZ's best kapa haka, or traditional Maori singing goups, and for my daughters to see Maori culture up close was not to be missed.

So we waited around for an hour after we went to pick Grandma up from work at 3pm, but the time ticked on...and on...and on...

It turns out they had inadvertently double-booked, and were in Palmerston North doing another show. Meanwhile, all the oldies were gathered in the Living Room waiting, so Amy and Lena got up and amused them instead with a Japanese song. It took some convincing on our part, as Amy was feeling shy and wasn't sure if it was okay that no-one could understand, but once we convinced her that no-one would have understood the Maori anyway, they did it. Amy had already been whiling away the time on the lounge piano, with Lena swanning around and Erica dancing.

So here they are, singin 'Kiseki' (Miracle) by Greeeen: