Janette At Home

Opening Presents

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:43:35 +1300

Petra had a fine time this morning ripping open her parcels and trying to play with everything at once.

Petra 063

Petra 064

Petra 065

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Happy Holidays

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:08:59 +1300

It's a sunny, warm Christmas Eve down here in the antipodes. We have guacamole and salad to prepare tomorrow morning and presents to wrap after Petra's gone to bed tonight. But apart from that we are pretty damn organised.

I can't quite believe that the year is ending already. 2009 has run away, disappearing in a rush of relocation and renovation. It's been a full year, and in some ways, a difficult one, but it has given me great pleasure as well. People have died and others have been born. There have been accidents and engagements, illnesses and parties. Travis has had pneumonia, been made redundant from one job, and acquired another one. Petra has changed from a toddling, gurgling baby into a climbing, dancing, talking little girl. I am learning how to make my way in the world as someone's mother while still retaining some sense of my own identity and purpose.

Dunedin is fabulous. I love having my own house and yard. And I'm really enjoying having so much of my family around. All in all, life is good.

Merry Christmas everyone. And a happy healthy prosperous New Year.

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Big Girl Petra

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:31:34 +1300

Petra's looking and sounding disconcertingly grown-up these days. She says quite complex things now, mixing and matching her words to make an ever-increasing number of grammatically correct sentences. And she's becoming more intelligible all the time - even strangers can pick up some of what she says. She still has her idiosyncrasies though. Her butt is a bumby for reasons best known to herself and water is wawy. She's also fond of glottal stops, shoving them in the middle of words like cat ( ca'at) and using them in the place of the t in words like Petra (Pe'a).

She's grasped the concept of I - I will do it, I will get it, I don't want it - and moved on to me and mine. My daddy, my nanny, my shoes, my dress. She's been pretty good about sharing stuff to this point but that might change...

And she's in that wonderfully loving toddler stage. She loves her people, giving everyone, even the reluctant teenagers of her acquaintance, big open-mouthed, toothy kisses and agitating to visit her rellies as often as possible. We were at the bank the other day, re-fixing our mortgage which involved signing a huge stack of paper. I had to do the paperwork with a kissy, cuddly Petra standing on my knee with her back against my shoulder, one arm around my neck, and her head resting against mine. She was a lovely distraction from the pain of signing our lives away for our house.

Petra with pasta

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Shut-in Mum

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:24:24 +1300

This poor mum had a really really bad day yesterday. Living with a toddler is dangerous!

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Happy Monday/Sunday

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:42:07 +1300

A great video for "I've got a feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas (as found by my sister).

Black Eyed Peas - I got a feeling

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Photo Shoot

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:39:35 +1300

Petra's very difficult to photograph these days - she runs away, makes faces, charges over to grab the camera, says "no photos", and generally does her best to avoid being flashed at. I don't blame her; I don't much like people sticking cameras in my face either. But I persist. And here she is posing in her glam glasses and hat, and her fancy dress.

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At the Cricket

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:13:15 +1300

The test between New Zealand and Pakistan was very evenly poised going into the last day, so we spent another afternoon in the sun at the Oval.

New Zealand 235

New Zealand 236

Petra lasted a couple of hours, hours during which it seemed that New Zealand was going to be batted out of the game. The Pakistani contingent in the crowd got increasingly vocal and active, running around the ground with flags waving. The wickets didn't start falling until after we got home - I listened on the radio as the New Zealand fast bowlers whipped through the final five batsmen. I bet the Pakistani crowd got quieter while the NZ supporters became rowdier and rowdier.

New Zealand 232-1

New Zealand 230-2

Cricket has gone into a decline in New Zealand during my years overseas. Watching New Zealand play recently has required a special kind of masochism. Until yesterday, they hadn't won a test match for a year. The poor results have led to a huge drop in attendance at matches. I used to go to Carisbrook along with 10 to 20 thousand others. Yesterday, we were at the University Oval (a much smaller ground) as part of a crowd of just over 2200. It was fun and atmospheric even so - but the reduced crowds are a bit alarming.

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Summer

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:33:18 +1300

It's been slow coming but summer has finally arrived. I know because the first cricket test of the season started yesterday. We've had a few days of fabulous weather as well. We celebrated by going to the cricket for a couple of hours this afternoon.

I used to go to the odd cricket match when I were a lass, but it's a whole different ballgame with a toddler along. Cricket's a contemplative kind of game that unfolds gradually and you need to pay attention to pick up the subtleties. Petra's not so big on contemplation or subtlety - she's more about talking and dancing and climbing on us. She had a fun time clapping along with the crowd, eating everything she could lay her hands on, demanding repeated applications of sunscreen, and trying to flirt with the people sitting around us (it didn't seem to faze her that they were a tough crowd, mostly old guys and students, who weren't particularly interested in her dance moves).

While we were picnicking and playing with Petra the Blackcaps' batsmen survived a few nasty blows to the head and body and managed to bat through to the last ball before lunch without losing a wicket. Travis and I only got intermittent looks at the play but I enjoyed the sound of bat on ball and what bowling and shot making I did see.

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Big Brother is Watching

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:25:55 +1300

After reading an article about Google's sprawling influence and the sheer amount of information it gathers, I went to google.com to check my cookie settings (click privacy on the home page, then Ads Preference Manager). Here's the list of ad categories linked to me. Some of their choices are a bit random, but on the whole Google knows me disconcertingly well.

Your interests

Below you can edit the interests that Google has associated with your cookie:

Summer

nobody@vox.com(Janette) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:06:34 +1300

We had the first really warm day of spring/summer today. Petra took the chance to get her gear off and run around naked first at our house and then at Nanny's house. She's recently turned into a mini naturist and getting her to keep her clothes on for any length of time is almost impossible - luckily she's chosen the warmest time of year for it.

Before she quit wearing clothes for the day, I managed to take a couple of photos of her in her sunhat and glasses looking like a lady on her way to the races.

Petra 054

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Janette At Home

Opening Presents

Happy Holidays

Big Girl Petra

Shut-in Mum

Happy Monday/Sunday

Photo Shoot

At the Cricket

Summer

Big Brother is Watching

Your interests

Category

Summer