Thursday has come and gone. Pete is using a co-worker’s car (identical to ours even down to color & the squirrel noises!) to commute in and out so we haven’t been driving him this week. I didn’t mind too much (and he was taking bus in the p.m.) as it got us out of the house and across town early(ish). Tuesday this week we went back over to Devonport for another playdate with Jordon/Samuel/Liza. Nice people. Took a bit of a walk to playground at adjacent park then to a beach. Jordan also had a couple of riding toys in the backyard from the toy library (although she assured me that there was an 18 month waiting list so not to bother) – Aidan enjoyed that. She also introduced Aidan to Vegemite – a hit. And peeling his own Mandarin Oranges. And me to cheese and gerkin sandwiches!

Today we puttered around “town” this morning. I drove us the ½ km as I knew we would be toting puzzles and drycleaning on our way back. We found and used the puzzle library 1st. A nifty idea - $25NZ per year and you can rent a couple puzzles and a couple videos each week for 2 weeks. Nice. A couple of new keys made. Then the regular library. I am impressed with New Zealand – the libraries are open 7 days a week and have good (business) hours. We walked in just as story time was apparently ending. I asked and learned that there is storytime 3 days a week! Again, I am impressed. Then off to the post office to mail Pete’s envelope full of huge expense receipts and a couple of things for Thomas & Zoe. Too bad I switched their addresses on the packages! Aidan was distracting me. Then our morning snacks (hot chocolate & mocha lattes with toasts today) at café. Pick up Daddy’s drycleaning and stop by the butcher’s shop. The butcher gave Aidan a “cherio” – solved the mystery (if you can call it that) of why our friends were stopped at customs when they reported that they were carrying Cheerios – customs thought they had sausages not cereal. Aidan gave it the thumbs up so I may buy some as snacks for days we don’t have any meat in our meals. I picked up a corn fed chicken for dinner. Then we dropped our stuff off at the car and proceeded back to Plunket (where puzzle library had been hosted in the a.m.). I wanted to meet the nurse. Another nifty New Zealand thing. Free nurse visits for your kids. I have a well baby appointment scheduled with her for Quincy in a couple of weeks. And she gave me a couple of brochures re food ideas for Quincy. We still haven’t figured out when our age groups are for playgroup but I hope to have that sorted out tomorrow. Got Aidan into a little gym class – but only for 2 weeks then they have a 4 week break! Well it is something. We’ll see how it compares to Acrosports. I also learned that one of the YMCAs (not too near us) has true gym classes starting at age 2 so may try to check that out.

Last night was the first night of trying to let Quincy cry it out to try to get him to sleep through the night (or at least stop waking every 2 hours). He can and does put himself to sleep anyway with sometimes a bit of grizzling. He wasn’t thrilled. I slept downstairs where Phyllis & Dave will be sleeping – and with the door closed I almost couldn’t hear anything. Pete slept next to him and only sometimes heard him. I did go in at 4.30 a.m. and fed him as he was used to getting a lot of milk at night and I didn’t want him to be too starved. Pete didn’t hear him crying or me in the room at that time. We’ll see how it goes tonite. I read that it is supposed to take 3 days… The only real bad (other than Quincy’s feelings) is that it is a bit cold and he doesn’t keep a blanket on if crying and rolling around. So I have him better bundled tonight (I added socks and sweater last night at 4.30 a.m.). Aidan also has gone to sleep for last couple of nights by himself (after a good month of requiring one of us to join him). He isn’t thrilled about it either but has been tired enough to cooperate.

Saw a nice big rainbow today. They really do occur pretty much everyday.