Last month we settled into some routine and are all thriving in it, especially me. With more holidays around the corner I find myself treasuring our precious routine. I suppose that’s often how it goes though, as soon as we get comfortable it’s time to mix things up!
Anyhow, the snapshots from March are much more everyday and less exciting than the past three months. I won’t repeat what I shared before we saw Teresa and her family off.
March 2
Twill helps me pick rosemary leaves off the stems for our meal of roast root veggies and roast leg of lamb. When our dinner guests cancel last minute we invite Jessica and Scott and their three girls, Adele, Bethan, and Mary over to share it with us. The kids have fun climbing the tree in the back yard, and we get to hear about how Scott and Jessica will be moving back to their hometown on the North Island. Thankfully they aren’t moving until July, after we go back home, because we are very fond of them.
March 5
For my cenita we head up to Ray Blank park after an early light dinner. We play frisbee and hide and seek, then go get ice cream, for Mardi Gras.
March 11
Twill and I check out the Avonhead Playcenter. It’s a parent run early learning cooperative. Twill enjoys painting with cotton swabs and baking muffins with homemade play dough. Hiromi and Kuni join us. Kuni is strikingly interested in cooking and running the cash register, which I find interesting since his father runs a food caravan. He is always wanting to share food with us too.
March 12
Ilam School holds a duathalon where students can run, bike, and/or scooter around the school fields and courts. Lewis just wants to run, and runs strong. Stewart signs up to bike and run, but as he is trying to bike to school in the morning we realize that the front wheel of his bike is very loose, making it impossible to ride straight. We have a very dramatic and challenging walk to school with the bike, in case he can’t back out of it. He can just run. Stewart ends up being one of the last to run in the middle of a very hot day. Twill is toast by the time Stewart finishes. We unknowingly miss Wesley’s race later in the afternoon.
March 13
After music class Twill and I join Hiromi and Kuni at Castle Rock on Sumner Beach. It is a wonderland of caves and pools of water and sand. Twill doesn’t want to share me, but ends up having a lot of fun. We keep thinking this might be our last really warm day, so we have to live it up and get to the beach!
March 15
The weather takes a 180 degree turn and I am thankful that I found rain jackets for the boys and puddle boots for Twill. We walk to school and back in the rain, and find the sprinklers in Ilam Gardens running, ironically, even as it rains. The mass shootings at the Muslim mosques happen in the afternoon.
March 16 and 17
We pick up momentum on the fort building era that’s been going on since the beginning of February. A slightly shorter lived scavenger hunt era has accompanied it. On this Saturday evening we host an American family, also Erskine Fellows, from Davis, California. Their two daughters go to school with Lewis and Stewart.
On Sunday we go to morning church and then to Jack and Hannah’s house for lunch. Jack works for the guy who helped get Chris down here and it’s neat to hear his story about how well they have taken care of him. Jack and Hannah have a two year old and an infant and were willing to host the six of us for lunch. Again, I am blown away by hospitality down here. They send us home with a huge bag of peaches from their peach tree and a board game to borrow.
March 18
Jessica and Mary take us up to the Sign of the Bellbird to hike for mental health after the shootings. Jessica impresses me with her warm picnic. She even has hot chocolate for the kids. Twill and Mary play a little hide and seek, fight over feathers, and generally enjoy a typical hot/cold friendship between 3-year-olds.
March 19
We get to school early enough for Wesley to show us his climbing tree, and his new friend Shantha. Unfortunately, Shantha moves back to Sri Lanka the following week. She and Wesley were taking care of a little nest together. Wesley writes her a goodbye card that says, “I don’t know what I will play during lunch. Maybe I will take care of the nest.” And draws a picture of it too. Very bittersweet.
Twill and I walk to a friend’s house in the afternoon. They are friends from our women’s bible study, Katie and Hugo and baby Nina. It’s warm enough to play in the kiddie pool. Katie is kind enough to invite us over, because Twill has been having a hard time settling into creche (childcare) at bible study. She reasons that time with other kids at their home might help him feel like he has friends there. It does tremendously. We go to Jessica and Mary’s house nearly every Thursday after bible study, or they come to ours. And this play date with Hugo solidifies their friendship. The following week when I pick Twill up from creche and he is jumping on the trampoline with Mary and Hugo. He says, “I’m having fun with my friends!” This is pretty huge after all the resisting he has done.
March 20
After music class Hiromi and Kuni meet us at Victoria Park, up in the Port Hills around the city. The views are spectacular. Kuni and Twill bond over hide and seek on our little hike, and actually play together on the playground some.
March 21
After dinner Chris takes us down to see the wall of flowers, where hundreds of people have left flowers and notes for the victims of the shooting. Twill wants some flowers, but soon catches the somber mood and wants to look for a dandelion to give.
March 22
Twill and I join the Nature Play group for some foraging in the red zone. There’s a large neighborhood where hundreds of homes were destroyed after the earthquakes, because it was cheaper to displace the people than get the land safe again. It’s like a huge park of old yards, where you can pick fruit long ago established by others. We go hoping for peaches and apples and find grapes and pears instead.
March 23
We drive out to Castle Hill for Wesley’s birthday adventure. We arrive in a cloud and have no idea what we are in for until it lifts. It’s a huge rock playground of caves and boulders. We play hide and seek after an explore and a picnic. It’s a magical day, but not a hike, Wesley points out.
March 24
We continue celebrating Wesley’s birthday with blueberry muffins, forts, and scavenger hunts. I am thankful for his simple birthday dreams, but still get overly anxious about making them all come true.
March 25
Wesley takes mini muffins to school for his actual birthday, and we think the birthday fun is over. But we get yet another “last warm day” where Twill wants to go to the beach. Kuni and Hiromi are housebound waiting for a plumber, so we go to their house to play in the morning. We decide to wait until after school and surprise Wesley by taking everyone to Castle Rock for a picnic supper on the beach. It is raining a bit as we drive out, but clears up when we arrive. We play hide and seek in the caves, jump in the waves, and run Lewis’ MarioKart race tracks and battle mode courses in the sand.
At the end of the week Wesley talks about his birthday fun in his weekly oral language speech. He is overjoyed at how many good questions his classmates have.
March 29
Twill and I take the bus to the National Remembrance Service in Hagley Park. I am thankful to learn from victims and leaders alike. After the service we queue up to cross the bridge in a sea of people. I overhear people talking about how tension is still rising in America, so the world’s in a volatile state, even if New Zealand is not tolerating racism. I find it fascinating, but just listen, knowing my accent gives away my nationality every time I open my mouth. When we get across the bridge we find Hiromi and Kuni. We have a fascinating discussion about religion and racism, then play in a huge leaf pile under a basswood tree.
March 30 and 31
We have a quiet weekend preparing to send Lewis off to camp. His class was supposed to go the week after the shootings, but it’s postponed until April 1st. Lewis and I go for a run together, because I want to soak up more time with him. It’s our first time sending him away overnight and it feels like a very big deal to me. He helps me bake a peach rhubarb crumble and lasagna to take to camp. Twill helps me pit a bucket of plums. He thinks he’s cracking them, like eggs. Wesley makes a rhubarb fountain.