Orange Splash

A spattering of orange and raindrops.

Young Americans

Today my children officially became American citizens. There was no ceremony, no pledge of allegiance. Just a courier envelope bearing two certificates and two passports. And yet I felt very emotional.

I opened Joshua's certificate, identical to Matthew's, and read: "Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America. This is to certify that Joshua Dylan ------, born at Wellington, New Zealand on February 18, 2002 acquired United States citizenship at birth as established by documentary evidence presented to the Consular Service of the United States at Auckland, New Zealand on October 19, 2004."

At birth. Not just now, but they've been citizens since birth. I'm not a gung-ho patriot by any stretch of the imagination, but those two simple words almost made me cry.

I live so far from home and my family. I have been away for so long that I have lost a lot of my accent, a lot of my "American-ness", for want of a better word. My distance from my past has meant that my children have never been to the States, have never met my family, do not celebrate American holidays. But now they have a connection with my home that no-one can ever take away.

I feel like I have given them something of profound value, a gift which has the potential to change their lives.

A Much Needed Break

The beach house soothed my soul. Sand, wind, rain, ocean, camera and laughing children.



Anna digging.




Adam emerging over the dune.

Tangled Beauty

Windswept blades intertwined like legs and arms...

Away

Going away for a few days...

Be safe, have fun. It is possible to do both.

What's in a name?

I used to be the only person in the world I knew who had my name. My surname is quite unusual, and there are only about a thousand people with that surname in the United States (and only one of us in New Zealand!)

But now when I do a Google search on my name, I discover that there is another person out there with my first and last name. And she's a librarian! That's so spooky. She doesn't live in New Zealand, though. Whew!

The Kabalarian philosophy holds that your name can actually dictate how you turn out in life. I always thought that sort of stuff was rubbish, but is it purely coincidence that the only other person I know with my name also chose librarianship as a career? (Although I have since moved from that career). I wonder if she's a Virgo as well.

Do you think there could be some truth in the theory that your name can influence your personality, your life choices?

I know when I was choosing my children's names, I wanted to give them names that were not weird or unusual, or easily misspelled. I think deep down that stems from not ever fitting in as a child - I desperately wanted to fit in, but never did. I guess maybe I wanted to ensure that my kids would "fit in".

We also chose not to give them a hyphenated surname because we didn't want to lumber them with a long, arduous name. So, they have Michael's last name, which is quite a common name. We gave them my surname as a second middle name (because I was damned if I was going to carry those babies for nine months and give birth, and not have my name in there somewhere!)

I wonder, though, if they would become different people if we had given them different names.

Reason No 389

Reason No 389 why my children are slowly driving me crazy:

Joshua has taken to stripping off all his clothes and running around butt naked. Whilst this is cute the first couple of times, it wears a little thin by the time you've re-nappied and re-dressed the child ten times in a single day.

So, you might ask, why don't you just let the wee fella run around in all his glory? What harm can be done by a tike just wanting to prance about and let it all hang out?

That's what I thought, too. Until one day I heard him say "Uh-oh" and turned around to discover him legs spread, peering down at the floor at a big, soft, smelly brown pile.

Fortunately we have polished wooden floors rather than carpet, so not much harm was done, but nevertheless, that did not rate as one of my top ten cleaning experiences. The only thing I hate cleaning up worse than shit is vomit.

Aside from the fact that we have to start thinking about the whole potty training ordeal, how can I get him to just keep his clothes on?

2.53 am blues

Okay, so what the freaking, flipping heck happened to spring?!

We had a lingering, cold winter. Then two beautiful gorgeous sunny days. And now there are just endless days of winds, gales, rain, more gusts and squalls. And did I mention wind?

I so hate spring in Wellington.

It's 2:52am, and every.single.night for a week or more I have been unable to sleep. I wake up at this absurd hour of the morning, listen to the wind, go crazy, toss, turn, get up, pee, go back, lie there some more, get up again.

I don't know if it's the wind that wakes me, or keeps me awake, but it sure doesn't help. Please, dear lord, let me go to sleep. If this is some cruel punishment for past misdeeds, then it's worked! Enough already. I'm exhausted.

Okay, let's try this drill again.

A Holga-ing we will go

Okay, so tomorrow morning, Marc and I are meeting up to go out shooting (providing the weather holds). He has two Holgas and is going to let me borrow one. I am so excited, but also a little nervous.

Only 12 shots, and a square format. I am so used to digital - I can delete 12 shots in a matter of minutes. Now I'll only have 12 shots in total, and each one for keeps. It will be a different way of thinking and shooting.

I'm also a little nervous 'cos Marc is a very good photographer. I mean, like, really good. Check out his Holga gallery as well.

I may have to get a Holga if this turns out well. I also want, nay, NEED a Lensbaby.

New domain name

I have a new domain name, which I have yet to get up and running. I need to transfer everything over to the new account, but I hope to do that in the next few days.

I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to just put a redirect on here, or whether I'll just stop it and email the new url to those on my notify list, and to those people who contact me.

So, if you're not on my notify list, and you'd like to know where I'm going to, let me know. Either that, or join my notify :)

Stairway to Nowhere

Taken at the Circa Theatre, Wellington.

Fed up

My children's eating habits are driving me insane. They both like completely different things.

Matthew (aged 6) tends to like rabbit food: salads, hard boiled eggs, meat, vegetables. He doesn't like anything that's mixed together, such as casseroles, stews, pasta with sauce (with a few exceptions).

Joshua (aged 2 and a half) on the other hand, won't eat vegetables unless they're mashed up with butter and completely non-identifiable as vegetables, and he prefers things mushed up, mixed up, and soft.

Josh likes soup, Matthew won't touch it. Josh likes macaroni cheese, Matthew hates it. Matthew will eat burgers, Joshua will just chew around the edges of the bun. Joshua likes spicy foods, Matthew doesn't.

And neither of them like that one thing that all children love - pizza. How can anyone not like pizza? My kids won't touch it.

About the only things I can cook that they both will eat are crumbed schnitzel, mashed potato and spaghetti bolognaise. This makes for a rather limited culinary experience in our household.

I've started to be a bit tougher of late. If one of them starts to moan, I say "There are two choices for dinner in this house - take it, or leave it". And if they don't eat it, they don't get any dessert, or anything else to eat. This generally works for Matthew because he's older, and I can usually coerce him into eating at least some of what's on his plate. But Joshua is still not at the age of reasoning, so this tactic doesn't really work for him.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated... especially ideas for meals that don't involve cooking two or three different dinners.

Tempting Waves

A cold raw southerly wind was blowing on this day. We thought Seatoun Beach would be a little sheltered from the southerly but that proved not to be the case. The kids, nevertheless, seemed not to care, and ran on the beach, tempting the waves and getting wet in the process. The score: Waves 2 - Kids 0.

Mama's Big Boobie

Tonight Joshua, aged two and a half, is bent over pushing two cars along the floor, side by side, as if he is racing them. Through the living room, around a chair and into the kitchen he comes... and all the way he is saying "Concentraaate... gotta concentrate... concentraaate!"

The mind boggles. What goes through the brain of a two and a half year old, and how does he even know the word "concentrate"?

I think he must pick it up from his older brother, who has a vocabulary well beyond his years.

Matthew came home the other day and informed me that Gabriella had used an "inappropriate phrase", as he put it. I was surprised at his appropriate use of the phrase "inappropriate phrase" because I didn't even realise that he knew those words.

When I asked what this inappropriate phrase was he said she had called someone a "Mama's big boobie."

I agreed that I didn't think that was terribly appropriate or, indeed, very nice. Although I suppose there are worse things in the world that you could be compared to than Mama's big boobie :)

Kids!

200 Things

What have you done out of the following list of 200 things? The bolded items are things I can tick off the To Do list! Thanks to Deb at Sugarfused for this :)

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said "I love you" and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten my own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
More...

12:45pm, Wellington Station