Roewan’s Neighborhood

Big Girl Petra

Janette
4 days ago
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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

Shut-in Mum

Janette
Dec 1, 2009
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This poor mum had a really really bad day yesterday. Living with a toddler is dangerous!

Happy Monday/Sunday

Janette
Dec 1, 2009
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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

Photo Shoot

Janette
Nov 30, 2009
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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.

At the Cricket

Janette
Nov 29, 2009
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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.

Summer

Janette
Nov 25, 2009
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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.

Big Brother is Watching

Janette
Nov 21, 2009
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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

Janette
Nov 20, 2009
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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

Let Them Eat Cake

Janette
Nov 16, 2009
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So my birthday cake making efforts met with mixed success. The cake itself (banana cake) was really good - nice and light and just right. Unfortunately, the cream cheese icing was too too sickly. We just scraped it off and ate the cake naked. Maybe a chocolate icing would have been nicer. I'll have to do some research before I make the cake again