the new place

While we miss our old neighborhood and Lonnie misses riding the ferry to work in the morning (he now takes the bus), we are loving the extra space in our new home.  Not only did we gain an extra bedroom (which will be used by the new baby) but we also gained a front room/dinning room and a small play room outside of Max and Maya's room.  I love that when I put the kids to bed there aren't any toys in their room for them to play with (except for the ones that the kids have secretly stashed under their beds).  

belly shot

I realized a couple days ago that I didn't have any official belly shots of this pregnancy.  When Lonnie came home from work I asked him to take a photo.  He asked if I wanted to get a little bit more glossed up.  While a little bit of make-up and running a brush through my hair might have made for a prettier picture these photos are closer to real life.  They were taken at the end of a long day of playing with two energetic, creative, emotional and wonderful kids.  I should remember to take some photos on Sunday, the only day of the week that I usually manage to get at least a little glossed up (put on mascara and brush my hair).  :) 

By the way...we still haven't settled on a name for our new little guy and we are taking suggestions.

humidity is good for my curls

30 weeks

I am 30 weeks pregnant this week.   Three years ago at the exact same time, on the other side of the hemisphere I was also 30 weeks pregnant.  Our newest little one is due on exactly the same day that Max and Maya were due.  Of course, Max and Maya came five weeks early.  We are hoping to avoid that this time around.  You won't hear me complaining about being overdue (at least I hope not).  I want a fully cooked baby this time.  I want one that comes out and starts breastfeeding from the start  (5 hours a day of pumping for four months was not easy) and comes straight home skipping any NICU time.  I am also hoping that baby#3 will weigh almost as much as Max and Maya combined 8 lbs 6 oz.

It is hard to believe that I am already in my third trimester, let alone 10 short weeks from having a new baby.   Despite chasing around and potty training two toddlers who can out run me due to my wobbly ankle this pregnancy has been so much easier than my first.  I still have a weak stomach and will occasionally lose my lunch, but it is nothing compared to my twin pregnancy.  I don't have gestational diabetes this time and I feel better in general.

Aside from my health my feelings are quite different also.  With my first pregnancy I was excited to become a mother.  I'm not sure exactly what I expected motherhood to be but I wanted to dress the kids in cute clothes, change diapers, breastfeed, baby wear (didn't quite happen with twins and and exhausted mother).  I wanted to go to play groups and participate in mommy-conversations.

This time around I'm more interested in finding out about this little guy's personality.  What will he add to our family?  How will he chance the balance that we have created?  More than thinking about a new baby I am looking forward to meeting this new person who will be part of our family.  I also hope that I will be better equipped to deal with the long weeks (I'm hoping not months) of sleep deprivation, knowing this time around that it will come to an end eventually.   I have some fear that I will feel that desperation again this time around but I hopeful that I will be able to better cope with new motherhood better this second time around.

Motherhood didn't start out quite the way I imagined.  Max and Maya were born via c-section at 35 weeks.  They were only about 4lbs each.  It took months of determination and stubbornness before they would learn to breastfeed and I could leave the house for more than a 10 walk around the neighborhood.  I was exhausted and felt desperation sinking in until finally I was able to regularly get good night's sleep, almost eight months after they were born.  But eventually I found joy in being a mother and I feel like that increases the more I get to know my kids.

Max and Maya are excited about having a new brother.  They like to talk to my belly.  They ask a lot of questions about when the baby will come out, what he will eat and where he will sleep.  They are also both spending a lot of time these pretending to be parents to their dolls and toys.

I think we are all excited to have another member of our family.

feijoas

I've been a blogging slacker lately.  Please forgive the silence.  We are doing well and hanging on to warm days of Fall while our friends in the north are hoping for Spring to start the defrost.

We are settled into our new house.  I keep meaning to take photos but I can't seem to keep the house clean long enough for blog photos.

One thing the kids and I are really enjoying about our new house is a large feijoa tree that is bearing a lot of fruit.  I'd never heard of feijoas before moving to New Zealand.  The fruit is related to the guava and tastes like a mixture of guava and pineapple.  We have enjoyed eating them and sharing them with friends and neighbors.

Max and Maya sitting on the back deck with the Feijoa tree in the background on the left.

Please excuse the partial nudity.  We are still working toilet training and spending time in the nude seems to help.  :)

visitors and torn ligaments

Alisa mentioned in a recent post that we just had family visitors. This was actually our second visit from family members since we moved to New Zealand. The first visit was a quick overnight stay by my aunt and uncle, Vicki and Jerry, who had planned a trip to Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand even before we had moved here. So our visit from Vicki and Jerry was sweet but short as they had accommodation planned in places other than Auckland.

Last month's visit was from Lucky, one of my brothers, who had been planning for some time to come visit us and see New Zealand. At the last minute, he was joined by Tiffany (one of my many cousins), who is a flight attendant and flew here stand by.

When Lucky made his plans to come, we planned a trip to see some sights around the North Island. We went to the Coromandel Peninsula, which is a beautiful coastal area about 2-3 hours from Auckland. The Coromandel has beautiful beaches and a forested coastal mountain range. We enjoyed a couple nights in Whitianga, where we went to Hot Water Beach, which has a hot spring that flows out of the beach right in the surf. We also did a glass bottom boat tour, which took us to Cathedral Cove (filming location in one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies). We also got in a quick snorkel and looked at the marine life through the bottom of the boat.

After the Coromandel, we moved on for a night near Rotorua. In Rotorua, we enjoyed doing "The Luge", which involves taking a gondola ride up a mountain and carting down a concrete track. We enjoyed some hot mineral pools, and we also kayaked on Lake Tarawera.

The next destination was Lake Taupo. We had just arrived at our holiday home (bach) when trouble happened. We had been working on potty training for a few weeks before the trip, and the kids had actually been doing very well on the trip. But we arrived at this house, and Alisa went to find Max, who was on a spiral staircase and had peed his pants. Alisa can't remember exactly how it occurred, but she picked up Max and slipped in his pee, which was trailing down the stairs. Fortunately, she did not land on her stomach, and baby Tyrone (at least that's what I call him, for now) was just fine. But her ankle and shin got worked over. Just to add insult to injury, Max and Maya both pooped their pants within a half hour of Alisa injuring her ankle. It was a crazy hour. Alisa spent that evening on a bed and couldn't put any weight on her foot without unbearable pain.

The next morning, we ended our trip (just one day early) and headed back to Auckland. A trip to the doctor with accompanying x-ray revealed she hadn't broken anything, and later a physical therapist indicated she had a partial ligament tear. After a few days of resting the ankle, Alisa was able to get around on crutches. Our ward and friends really took care of us while Alisa recovered, and she gradually got more mobile over the next week. We were actually fortunate to have some other visitors (Devin and Ivan; Alisa got to know Devin while at BYU). Devin and Ivan were on a long trip through NZ and stayed two nights with us. While I was at work during the day and out of town for work one night, they provided great help to Alisa during the first few days after her ankle injury. A month later, the ankle is still weak, but she's getting around okay.

So it was a wild end to the trip, but we enjoyed a great week with Lucky and Tiffany. On our return to Auckland, Tiffany flew back to the US. Lucky went on a quick trip to Queenstown by himself and had a great time touring Milford Sound and doing a few of the extreme adventures available in Queenstown. We loved having our visitors and enjoyed a great trip with Lucky and Tiffany, even if it ended with some craziness. At least, we can promise some great memories for visitors that make the long trek to see us in NZ.

Walking along Piha Beach

Cooks Beach (near Whitianga)

Alisa loves to get ice cream for the kids so she can help them finish it (not that the kids don't enjoy it too)

View from the highway between Coromandel Town and Whitianga

Max and watermelon

                          

Glass bottom boat tour in Whitianga

Maya with Tiffany

We got in a quick swim while on the boat tour

Skyline Gondola at Rotorua

"The Luge"- Alisa had to skip the luge but Max and Maya really enjoyed it.  

Taking the lift back up for another luge run

Lucky with Maya on the lift

Blakc swan on Lake Tarawera (near Rotorua)

Huka Falls, near Lake Taupo

The infamous staircase where Alisa slipped from about half way down the metal stairs.  

We had a rest stop at the Hamilton Temple on the way back to Auckland

names

So, I have yet to find a name that I really like.  Unfortunately Lonnie has found several names that he likes.  So he has posted a poll over on the right hand side of this page.  In the meantime....we are open for suggestions.  :)

been busy

I have been absent from the blogging world for a while....why?  Well, several big things have been taking up my time lately....

1.  Moving.  We recently moved to a new house.  (Photos to come soon) We are no longer in our 2 bedroom unit.  We now live in a proper house with three bedrooms and two family living areas.  Moving from a furnished unit to an unfurnished home also meant that we spent about a week without a single chair in the house, which seriously cut down on my computer times. We did finally purchased and collect all the needed home furnishings and for the first time in a year I can put nails in the walls and decorate to my heart's content....to bad we don't have much in the way of decor.  :)

2.  Potty training.  I have been talking about potty-training Max and Maya for months.  My friend Kate convinced me that the chaos of the move was a good idea.  New house = new rules....we all use the toilet.  Toilet training twins is not for the faint hearted and I am certainly glad that we are doing it before the new baby arrives.  This may require a post all to itself.

3.  Pregnancy.  I feel so much better during this pregnancy than I did with the twins.  My vomiting has slowed to about once every two weeks, rather than two of three times a day with my first pregnancy.   Unfortunately similarly to my first pregnancy I seem to be prone to chest infections.  I have gone through two bouts of bronchitis and I now have yet another head cold.  But, this time I  haven't been sent into the hospital to stop preterm labor brought on by coughing.

4.  Visitors. We have had our first family visitor!  Hooray for Lucky (Lonnie's brother) for coming to visit.  We had hoped that photos of beautiful landscapes and red-headed children would have brought us family visitors sooner, but New Zealand really is quite far away for most of you.  Lonnie took last week off work (in NZ he automatically receives 4 weeks vacations vs. 2 weeks in the US) and we took Lucky on some travels around the North Island (photos to come).  Lonnie's cousin, Tiffany, who is a flight attendant, flew down on stand-by and also joined us for a few days. We will also shortly be picking up an old BYU friend who is here with us for two days.

5. Accident.  Combine #2, #3 and #4....Last Thursday ten mins after arriving at the holiday home we were renting near Lake Taupo I found Max on the steep spiral staircase trying to outrun his trail of pee.  I picked him up to carry him outside, not thinking about how pee, steep wooden stairs, flip-flops (jandles) and my awkward pregnant body would add up to disaster.  I slid down the stairs holding onto Max and seriously twisting my ankle and bruising my legs.  Thankfully Max and my pregnant belly were saved from any harm.  I immediately yelled for Lonnie as I felt the pain in my leg.  I was put into bed and we abruptly ended our vacation the next morning when we realized I wouldn't be walking anytime soon.  The dr confirmed that I didn't break a bone but didn't have much more advice other than to take pain meds (whatever I can take while pregnant) and stay off my foot and keep it elevated. Anytime I put any pressure on my foot I feel serious pain. At least now I have crutches so that I can get to the bathroom without having to crawl.  

courthouse on blyth

 One last post about our trip down south....
This is the place we stayed in Central Otago.  We stayed in Clyde for almost a week.  Clyde is an old gold mining town and it had lots of old historic buildings.  The house where we stayed was the former the courthouse.

The building was beautiful and had lots of character. 

The kids loved playing in the large fenced in area and quickly discovered ripe white nectarines growing on the vines.  

The building has been beautifully restored.  The kitchen counter is right where the old judge's table sat.

The old jail cel has been turned into the bathroom, you can see it in the far corner.

cromwell and lake dunsten

This is just a small sampling of the amazing wildflowers we saw all over Central Otago.

The water was pretty cold but Max and Maya insisted on stripping down and getting in the water like the big kids. 

After testing out the water the kids returned to the playground before we could catch them and put clothes on them.

Old Cromwell was relocated to accommodate the Lake Dunsten Reservoir.  The result is a cute old town area that the kids loved exploring.