127 posts tagged “petra”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
To Petra. She's two today. And now I have to make cake.....
I thought that babies changed a lot in their first year, but I think now that the difference from 1 to 2 is even more dramatic. A 1-year-old is still a baby, while a 2-year-old is a little girl. Petra's baby fat has given way to a much more upright and sleek child build. She's beginning to look the way she will for the next few years, until the ravages of puberty hit.
Here she is then - November 2008.
A Petra update because I haven't posted one for a while.
She'll be two on Sunday. Already. This time last year, she was a fat baby who'd just taken her first teetering steps. Now she runs, jumps, balances on one foot, climbs stairs without holding on, climbs up onto everything she can, and yesterday rode her bike down the hill at Nanny's (much to Nanny's consternation). Petra's very poised physically and very confident about her abilities - she's only to happy to give things a go. She might just have some of her father's daredevilry in her.
She's also a big talker. We have long conversations about things like the helicopters that fly over and the house truck that occasionally parks outside our house (she's having a toddler vehicle enthusiasm at the moment). She tosses out her words and phrases - truck, copter, noise, look, etc, etc - and I translate them into whole sentences for her. We then repeat and repeat until we've thoroughly canvassed the subject. She has a few whole sentences at her disposal as well. The things she's figured out how to say give a nice insight into the egocentric workings of the toddler mind - "I will do it." "I don't want it." "I will get it." "Pick up, pick up," said with upraised arms and urgent hand gestures. "Come here" and "in here," used as she leads us round the house.
When I point a camera at Petra these days, she makes faces at me or gives me big cheesy scrunch-faced photo grins before rushing over to look at the picture. Natural photos are not easy to come by as a result. I have to sneak up on her.
Here she is posing with a cart we borrowed from the toy library across the road.
Petra's gotten very enthusiastic about drawing and writing recently. We bought her a little etch-a-sketch this afternoon so that she can practice without being tempted to draw on the furniture. (I've been finding scribbles in unexpected places because she sneaks off to test out her skills on any available flat surface when no one's looking.) She walked around the store with it, writing industriously and bumping into things because she wasn't watching where she was going. And she kept on writing for the rest of the afternoon.
She came up to me waving the etch-a-sketch around and yelling "P P P". She'd written a clearly recognisable letter P on the etch-a-sketch and was extremely pleased with herself. Yay Petra! She's been interested in how we write her name for a while now, getting us to write it for her over and over, and she's been producing Petra-like squiggles, but today's effort was by far the clearest so far.
I took a picture for posterity.
The weather has been fabulous, amazing, stunning - 20 degrees today and August is usually the coldest month in this part of the world. Lambs frisk, our camellias and irises are in bloom and the rhododendrons and daffodils aren't far behind. We've visited beaches and gardens, spotted albatross on the peninsula, and shown Petra around the town. I'm loving it here.
Here are a few photos from our outings.
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