New Zealand earthquake

Our southern cousins have yet again stared utter devastation in the face. Christchurch has suffered immeasurable damage and destruction with another earthquake this week.  Incredible scenes fill our TV screens as we come to comprehend that yet again Mother Nature has been scorned. 

It seems that no one has been left untouched.  Everyone you speak with knows someone who has been affected. Once a beautiful city, now lying in ruins.  But phoenix-like, they are determined to rise from the ashes and rebuild in memory of those who have lost their lives.

Once again, please find it in your heart and deep in your pockets to reach out and give a helping hand.  Donations can be made through Red Cross.

As time goes by...

Time is an abstract concept…one that ironically takes time to come to grips with…yet, when we do, it seems to speed up and slip us by.

Recently, we have been working with the short one teaching her how to answer simple questions about herself.  Questions like: What is your name? How old are you? Where do you live?

We can proudly say that she has it all over questions 1 and 3.  Question 2 still needs a little work though.  Being that it was the-slightly-less height-challenged one’s birthday recently we appropriately made a fuss over turning 2.  She seems to have that notion, it is just the qualifier that we seem to be struggling with…you see, she insists on being 2 minutes! And there is no telling her otherwise.

So for now, 2 minutes she is – not unlike a packet of noodles, slightly less time then it took for Madonna to save the world and slightly more time then it takes to become a manager.

Serendipity

Some call it the circle of life, some karma, others what goes around comes around, others still call it fate…I just have a real sense of symmetry.

The short one started at day care this month…and this meant, coincidentally, a return to my old stomping ground.  Nostalgic moments swept over me like waves.  The place of the short one’s day care is in fact a transformed former workplace of mine from many years ago.  The old school has been re-birthed into a childcare centre. Classrooms have been replaced with nurseries, principal’s office with play spaces, staffrooms with offices.  While the squeals of delighted children still ring through the corridors, there is a distinct change in the purpose of this special setting now.

But the circle starts in the knowledge that this was the very same setting that the short one’s mummy and daddy met for the first time, so many years ago…Who would have thought all that time ago, that we would be following in the footsteps of so many before us, but this time returning as a family ourselves and entrusting our little one into the hands of others.

There is an amazing sense of symmetry about this story…so many things had to fall into place for this circle to form.  The circle of life brings with it the inevitable feeling of …this was meant to be.

I believe our comfort and familiarity with the centre has transferred across to the short one, leaving her in her own place of serendipity; paving the way for the short one to be the author of her own destiny.

First day at day care

Happy Chinese New Year birthday

The short one graduated this week from infant to toddler status.  Turning the big 2 was a very special event made even more so by the date coinciding with Chinese New Year.

Not a common occurrence, but one that sparked an interest and further investigation.

The short one was born in 2009, the Year of the Ox.  Characteristics commonly attributed to the Ox include being:

• alert (particularly noticeable when she is awake)
• demanding (also evident during wakeful moments)
• stubborn (some would say not unlike her mother)
• methodical (particularly when pulling out every single book from her extensive collection) and
• great parents (not if her mothering skills with her dolls are anything to go by)

I would also go so far as to add determined, bossy, a sticky beak and fiercely independent.

What got me though was the animal she should avoid is the one animal she has been obsessed with since infancy, the sheep.  It was unclear as to why she should avoid ovines, but clearly it would pose a difficult transition for her as she is so obsessed that she can recite ‘Baa, Baa black sheep’ and ‘Mary had a little lamb’ verbatim and her favourite book is Mem Fox’s ‘Where is the Green Sheep?’

But the most intriguing were the ideal career choices…surgeon or a hairdresser.  Fairly disparate choices surely, despite both livelihoods reliant on cutting!