9 posts tagged “olivia”

We have spent the week recovering from a nasty flu bug - chills, fevers, coughs, the full deal.  The joys of winter in Dunedin.  Actually the weather's been very pleasant since the snow - calm, mild, and sunny - but it's undeniably winter and that's a shock after three years of perpetual summer.  My neighbours have flown off to Rarotonga for two weeks in the sun, leaving me to collect their mail.  I envy them their tropical island.

Hanging out in front of the fire with Petra brings its own satisfactions however.

We're witnessing one of Petra's periodic developmental leaps.  She sings, she dances, she runs around. She sticks stickers on the walls and draws on her feet.  She spends ages quietly absorbed in putting things in other things and taking them out again.  Her language acquisition proceeds at a dazzling pace.  She walks around the room pointing at objects, waiting for us to name them, and repeating the names after us.  She says "look" and "hello" and "up please".  She takes our cellphone and walks round the lounge talking and laughing into the aether.  She's very cuddly.  Leave takings are lengthy affairs because she works her way round the room kissing, and often rekissing, everyone.  She likes to fall asleep at night with her arms wrapped around my neck and her face on mine.  I enjoy that as well - I get to breathe in her baby smell and kiss her soft baby cheeks as she dozes.

She's also revealing her inner egomaniac these days.  Olivia came to stay a couple of weeks ago and Petra was a thug baby with her.  I gave Olivia a drink in a purple cup because Miss O is very very keen on purple and Petra stole the cup, hugged it to her chest and handed Olivia her own, much less desirable green cup.  I had to find another purple cup for Petra to avert a tragedy.  Petra's also discovered that she elicits all sorts of interesting reactions if she pulls Olivia's hair or pokes at her.  I spent a lot of time soothing Olivia's wounded feelings while trying to convince Petra to be gentle.  They did play nicely as well, as long as I hovered nearby to deal with potential trouble.

 

I'm mustering up the courage to attend a nearby playgroup to give Petra a chance to socialize with other kids her own age.  I fear that it will be a nervewracking experience as Petra tests her edges against the other kids.

Aunty Lala and Olivia wearing the bow from my birthday gift for Travis.

Our lawn hasn't been mowed for a couple of weeks so it's covered with daisies and dandelions.  It's pretty in an unruly way and makes a good backdrop for pictures, especially when the subject is a little girl wearing her best fairy dress.

We also took a few pictures of us more ordinary folk.  I have yet another cold and look pretty battered - everyone else is fine.  Petra insisted on wearing her woolly hat even though it was over 30 degrees here today.  She's very proud indeed that she can pull it on and off herself and wears it every chance she gets.

Christmas Day has just ticked over here in the southern hemisphere.  Everyone else has gone to bed and I'm taking a few moments to myself to drink some water and blog a little.

Today has been busy.  Wrapping presents takes on a whole new meaning when you're dealing with gifts for children.  You have to wait until they go to bed - which means until very late when one of the children is Petra - then engage in a frenzy of paper-folding, tape-sticking, and label-writing.  The end result of our burst of activity is a truly impressive number of parcels under the tree waiting for Olivia and Petra.  Petra's still too young to really care - the paper will amuse her as much as the presents themselves - but Olivia at 3 1/2 is old enough to be very very excited about it.  Watching her enthusiasm will be fun.  I just hope she doesn't get up too too early......

I don't have many pictures this month - losing our charger, illness, and the general chaos that is living out of suitcases, have all made me a less than efficient photographer.  But I do have one of Petra and Olivia breaking out their winter woolies.  It was 31 degrees here on Petra's birthday.  But yesterday's high was only 13.  Island weather is changeable!

I'm sitting at the kitchen table in the sun.  The dog's nearby, draped over the doorstep snoring gently.  Apart from her I'm on my own, for the first time in weeks and weeks, or months even.  Carla and Olivia have gone to play with friends, Travis has braved the vagaries of Dunedin's topography and the difficulties of right-hand driving to go look at cars, Petra's napping.

It's lovely to have some alone time.  I haven't written or read anything or had much of a chance to catch up with myself since we arrived in New Zealand and I'm getting a little stir-crazy as a result.  I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert so I get uncomfortable when I don't get to be by myself regularly.  That lack of space is one of the toughest parts of being a parent.  I now hanker after time by myself doing nothing in particular the way I hankered after sleep when Petra was first born.  We co-sleep with Petra and I have only been away from her for more than an hour or so a handful of times since she was born.  As she gets bigger and more independent that will change (and I'll miss her as she moves away from me), but to this point we've had very intensive mother-daughter time.  I'm grateful that I've been able to be with her so much, but there's no denying that it's a huge change from my former life.

The dog has snuck in through the door and curled up on the other side of the table, just out of my line of sight.  I think she thinks she's fooled me.  Because I'm a soft touch, I'll leave her be for the moment.

We had a wee party for Petra yesterday afternoon.  Olivia was very excited about it all.  She had trouble sleeping the night before because she knew party-day was coming.  And she was a very eager helper when it came to unwrapping the gifts.  Petra was a blase one-year-old, however.  She sucked on her gifts, played with the boxes they came in, hung out with her rellies, and was generally a mellow baby.  She's tired today though.  As am I.  Both girls had trouble settling to sleep after all the excitement.  We were all out driving around Dunedin at 10 last night, trying unsuccessfully to knock them out.  Petra finally passed out around 11 and Olivia (who is usually the world's best sleeper) wasn't much earlier.

Petra's just woken up - time to go. 

We've been here for more almost four weeks now and I'm still not sure that I'm the right way up.  We had just recovered from the jet lag when we all acquired a nasty virus.  Petra had never been sick before and was very put out when her throat hurt her.  She was a trooper though and didn't complain much.  I was less stoic than her and spent a few days moaning about my imminent death. 

We're mostly better now though and have started all the running around that setting up a whole new life involves.  We want all the domestic trimmings so we're looking at houses and cars, visiting the bank, buying bed linen, searching through our newly-arrived Costa Rican boxes, and generally dealing with logistics. 

We're staying with my sister until we get the house we want.  3 adults, 2 children under 4, and 1 bouncy dog make for a very full household.  So far, it's working out well though.  Olivia has enjoyed having two extra people to take her out and possibly buy her treats.  Petra loves Auntie Carla (who also provides treats even when she doesn't intend to.  Carla had a cheese scone all nicely buttered for her morning tea yesterday; Petra stole it right off the plate.) and is having a fine time with all the new toys.

Petra will be one tomorrow.  I can't believe the year has gone by so fast.  The trip to the hospital, the process of labour and delivery, are still so vivid in my mind that they seem to have happened just the other day.  I'm a bit nostalgic for my lovely little baby, but Petra's charging onward, full steam ahead.  She's no longer a little baby; she's turning into a toddler.  She's eating solid food with gusto now.  She can ride Olivia's old trike like a pro.  And, most exciting of all, she's taken her first steps.  She's still a bit nervous and tends to collapse into a relieved heap on the floor after a few steps, but she's looking increasingly sure-footed.  Now it's just a matter of fully grasping the implications of her new skill.  Once she's done that, she'll be off, tearing all round the house with us in pursuit.

The camera battery has died and I can't find the charger in the chaos that is our half-unpacked luggage, so I'm short on photos.  But I have a couple of Petra with her cousin Olivia.  Petra's fascinated by bigger kids at the moment and has been crawling around after Olivia just as fast as she can, which is nowhere near fast enough.  Olivia is a runner, a jumper, and a hop skipper who can run three times around the lounge before Petra has even made it half way across the room.  Petra's nearly nearly walking - she stands, thinks, twitches a bit, then can't quite bring herself to do it and falls down onto her knees - and the frustration of being left behind might encourage her to take that first step.

Petra's hair stands on end - no matter how much we wash, brush, comb, or otherwise attempt to squash it, it sticks up.  She looks electrified.  It's very cute.

Unruly hair must run in the family.  Here's my favorite picture of Petra's cousin, Travis's nephew, Nathan. Does he look like Petra?  I'm not sure, but maybe around the mouth, especially when Petra gets grumpy and squeezes her mouth tight.  Here's a (not grumpy) picture of Petra for comparison purposes. And while I'm on the subject of family resemblances, here's a picture of my niece Olivia.  Check out those lovely thighs.  Petra's working on some Rubenesque thighs of her own, but she's not quite up there with Olivia yet. I see similarities around the eyes and nose.  So Petra's a hybrid with the upper part of her face looking like me and my family and the lower part looking like Travis and his family.  When I look at her though, she doesn't look familiar - she looks like her own unique, inscrutable self.