I’m going to try to keep it short as it is already 11 p.m. and I am just starting. As you have probably heard – we have a home! 19A Dingle Rd – right near Dingle Dell Reserve, just inland and up the hill from the water so we have great views out a lot of the house. And there are 3 bedrooms plus a sun room with a single bed. A large kitchen with table adjacent with seating for 8 (and a leather sofa off to one side). It opens onto a nice deck with another table and chairs for sunny warm days (ha!). 2 stoves, a nice pantry, at least 3 means of brewing coffee (but no grinder!) – you get the picture. Family room has 2 full size sofas and a large chair/loveseat. We will be spoiled by the time we leave. Funny enough we haven’t yet found homes for what little we have and some stuff is still sitting out (there is plenty of storage tho). Have made a couple grocery runs and stocked up a bit too.

The weather has continued to be sunny with showers – kind of pretty and doesn’t really impact our day much (other than me avoiding playgrounds) as you can usually take cover for the fairly short rains. Have seen a lot of rainbows and the views are very pretty with lots of drama. Also rather blustery which I don’t mind as the weather temp wise is still similar to SF.

Saturday we checked out one of the large parks here – One Tree Hill (although no longer is there a tree!). There are actually very nice walks in the park along / under mature tree avenues etc. We did go to the summit – it reminded me a lot of going to Twin Peaks in SF – very very windy. Aidan was excited to see his first sheep and cattle of the trip – they live / graze in several parts of the park. After signing the rental papers at sundown we had a great dinner in a nearby ‘burb – probably the best dinner yet.

Sunday Pete’s co-worker for the project arrived at 6 a.m. He joined us for breakfast after helping us move a load of stuff to the house. We then took me back to have another session with the masseuse (had one Sat too as my upperback/neck was giving me fits). They have the chair kind of massage you can walk and have 10, 15, or 30 min for not too much $ ($25NZ for ½ hr). And then we checked out the Maritime Museum downtown. Quite nice – you can’t really do a museum right with a toddler though. Aidan really only wanted to find “steering wheels” to drive. Partway through he peed in his pants – and I had forgotten and left him in real underwear and neglected to ask if he needed to go. But to top it all off he decided to do a poop just before we cleaned him up instead of waiting and going on the toilet. I was a bit livid! He and I also had spent a long while trying to find Pete & Quincy with no luck. I was forcing the potty training a bit as a few days before he was deliberately peeing in his pull-ups. So he had an accident leaving a restaurant one night (fortunately outside). He had been dry since then but the excitement of driving the boats… Poor guy was constipated for a couple days too –wouldn’t go because it hurt. Then on Saturday I measured him with 101.5 degree fever too – very lethargic (although that can be kind of a nice break!). Back to normal now. Kept his pull-ups dry all day despite not getting to go potty for at least an hour after he requested at one point. How do you think he’ll like this reporting when he looks back from the future? Poor kid!

Quincy is much more the mover than I remember Aidan at this stage. Earlier I put him down on the floor and in a fairly short period he was almost 5’ away – not particularly deliberately, just rolling here and there and over and back. He also delights in rattles in a way I don’t remember of Aidan. Shaking and eating them. He so clearly wants to be eating when we eat. He is neglected in the solids department in that I can’t be bothered to give him his rice cereal everyday – it is so time consuming and messy! I had forgotten… I think he’ll be a messier eater in general than Aidan especially now as he likes to try to slide his fingers in between bites. Aidan never sucked on his fingers particularly. I just remembered today the trick where you let baby grab one spoon and feed him with another. Except Quincy doesn’t like to take the 1st spoon out of the mouth…

Today after dropping Pete at the office, heading to hotel to pick up laundry we forgot in the washer, we headed to Atomic Café (with sandbox in rear) for fluffy, trim mocha latte, and bread and jam snack. Followed by trip to Childrens Bookshop where Aidan plays with a train table and Mom can look at books sort of in peace. Bought Quincy another couple of wooden rattles as the 1st one I got him there has been so popular. Then the grocery (where of course Aidan rode the white car afterwards). He again sat next to Quincy in the “trundler”. (Very civilized carts with a variety of features to choose from – the stand in the corners for wine or flowers, the drink well for your Starbucks coffee cup, one kid or 2 upfront). Back home for naptime then off to pick Daddy up from work. Traffic around his office was terrible and we ended up in the car for almost an hour (I also took wrong turn and didn’t have map in car). Kids were NOT happy. We were so happy this morning when the commute was slightly over 10 minutes – and it is a pretty commute hugging the water almost entire way.

Quincy had gotten used to sleeping in our bed at the hotels. He would protest when returned to the co-sleeper crib and because I didn’t want Aidan woken he got away with it. The game is up. Last night he got to scream it out. Was probably about ½ hr or so and I was right beside him – and even holding his hand. But he did end up giving up and going to sleep. And then on subsequent wakings he was willing to go back into the crib without protest. I was interested to see how he’d do tonight. He passed out when nursing the 1st time. But he just woke after 3 hrs (typical and better than it has been!). He went back into crib and then smiled at me quite a bit and played with his blanket some. Then after 10 min or so drifted off. Into a happy place too to judge by all the sleep smiles he’s been doing. Phew!

I brought him into bed at around 5 a.m last night as the room was so cool and we don’t have heavy blanket on him. Turns out there is no central heating here! Just a couple space heaters! I found just before bed that there were a couple of windows that had been open (and wasn’t able to close laundry room one). I think in general that you probably have a great deal of control just using passive solar energy. There are lots of north facing windows and a large skylight – and they have absolutely everything with some sort of shading devise that you can pull down when needed. I think if gets hot here in the winter… Today the house warmed up fairly nicely from the sun. I did buy some high performance fleece pants at Kathmandu store that I love and have worn for the past few days. So I haven’t been cold…
Aidan woke inconsolable last night despite the fact that Pete was in bed with him. I went down and comforted him and asked him if he was scared “yes” said the little voice “can you tell me what scared you?” “daddy”. I think he had been perhaps asleep freaking out and Pete woke him. I lay down with the 2 of them for perhaps 5 min and he was back out again. He was upset to find himself alone after napping today too. Hopefully he’ll get comfortable soon so Pete can return to the master bedroom where he belongs. I have to say that I personally find Aidan’s bed to be the most comfy in the house. He always asks in a most pathetic way “will you sleep with me?” and if the answer is no “will daddy sleep with me?”. He did get used to going to sleep by himself again at the hotel although he wasn’t happy about it. Pete’s co-worker still has in the bed issues with his 5 & 7 yr olds – we need to get our kids in the right direction now not later!

well it is midnight - I did take a Quincy break but it isn't as short as I planned - sorry!