Ball-Vant Family and Friends

As most of you know, when we lived in Boston Tycho spent most of his time with a little Brazilian cutie pie.  This photo just in from the cutie pie and her family at home soaking up the beach.  Guys, we miss you all so much – come visit.

Whoops, I thought Greg was keeping the blog up to date. It’s been a busy month and with Anne and Robin away in the South Island this week, a particularly busy last few days. Last Friday was my work Christmas party – a big swanky do at SkyCity (a casino/convention centre in the Auckland CBD). Courtesy of the children’s paternal grandparents, Greg and I actually both managed to go. Fancy, an evening out by ourselves! That day was also Greg’s birthday so on Saturday we had a bunch of family round for a BBQ lunch. And the weather even held out for us with some fitful sunshine.
Just a few days now until Christmas which will be our first in NZ since Tycho was five months old. It still won’t be quite a family affair though, with Arwen and Anthony still overseas – we miss you A&A.

Greg and I have now racked up more than ten person years of parenting, or if you prefer, five parent unit years of parenting. Twins are good for upping one in the experience stakes. Lenya and Halen turned one year old on the 1st of November. It was a quiet day, being a Wednesday. Also both the major participants were a bit under the weather with teething/a brief cold. On Sunday we are going all out with a birthday party for 30+ family and friends so fingers crossed for good weather. This time more aunts and uncles are able to attend – we will still be missing Arwen and Anthony though, they are currently somewhere in China talking to terracotta warriors.

We seem to have been a bit remiss in getting up photos recently. This is largely because of too many cameras and too many laptops. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. However I’ve got a little bit of time now so …

This is Halen at Mission Bay some weeks ago. I think he is sitting on his aunt Kat.

Here is our Hawaian Lenya in the land of nod.

One rainy weekend morning we took the three kids to the Auckland Museum. Wow, this has changed a lot since I was a kid. Mum and I would not have been able to find our way around without a map. This photo shows Halen and Lenya enjoying the excellent children’s section.

These two photos are part of a series we started back at Christmas 2003 when we visited NZ with Tycho the infant.  I suggested we should send it into Monteith’s as a suggestion for an advertising campaign but for some reason the others didn’t think it would fly.

A very delayed look at the day Tycho turned three.  With the H&L birthday party coming up on Sunday, I thought I’d better get myself into gear.  First up the cake.

Now the birthday boy himself.

And then the support crew.

If I ever make a vast amount of money, I think I will start a charity which sends a singing telegram to the parents of twins on said twins first birthday. The lyrics would be along the lines of “Congratulations, you survived. The worst is now behind you.”

Garden by Anne.  Halen dressed by Greg.  Robin dressed by Robin.

Tycho and Anne feed a goat at the recent Verran’s Rd Primary School fair.

And Lenya and Robin share a chuckle while strolling round the duck pond.

Whoops, a big lapse in blogging.  We have just had the New Zealand school holidays which shouldn’t really have an impact on us yet you would think.  However, my mother is a secondary school teacher so she was on holiday and that means a lot to Tycho.  He visited Tiritiri Matangi Island, an open wildlife sanctury off the coast of Auckland, with Anne and a friend of hers so now he has a personal relationship with takahe, tuis, pukeko and sundry others.

Halen and Lenya are doing well.  Lenya is starting to totter unassisted from point to point.  For some reason she thinks that waving ones hands is an important part of walking.   We’ve had a big round of colds that the family seems to have been exchanging for a month now.  Tycho and Lenya both had/have croup which can be pretty disconcerting especially when you are paranoid about your children developing asthma and tend to read the worst into any wheeze or cough.

Greg was in Fiji the weekend before last for his brother’s wedding.  Three and a half days without Dad coincided with an ear infection for Halen and sinusitis for me so it was a memorable time.  Murdoch saved the day by taking Tycho out for the day on Saturday.  Gosh, I love extended family.

Our next big social event will be Lenya and Halen’s birthday party in November.  I hope the weather comes to the party as the guest list is rather large.  And here’s hoping that all colds have been banished by then.  Halen is the size of your average 20 month old so carrying him around for extended periods of time is a big ask.

Ah, weekends. Four adults to only three children. And then we manage to palm Tycho off on his paternal grandparents to visit the open day of our local police station. Wow, fancy having time to one’s self. So of course Mum reminds me that we need some more photos up on the blog.
Halen and Lenya are outdoing themselves when it comes to cuteness these days. Both solid cruisers by now and intent on getting into anything and everything. Thank goodness it will be basically summertime when they learn to walk unassisted. Curiosity and brawn combine to make a seriously lethal combination. We’ve had one playroom blocked off for Tycho so that he can have his toys without worrying about destruction and swallowing – now Halen and Lenya can get past the orginal barrier so we’ve had to amp things up. Lenya was SOOOOO happy when she found the other door into Tycho’s space open this morning. Fortunately for us, she gave herself away with her delighted (and delightful) giggle.

Greg, Anne and Robin were all out living it up last night so I was bathing three kids on my own. The crawlers found this a wonderful opportunity to get in some serious demolition work on the bathroom cupboard.

The kitchen cupboards have been secured. Halen thinks they make good drums though.

This morning, Tycho pointed out to Robin that the batteries on Halen and Lenya’s ride-on really needed changing. Of course, there were three assistant mechanics eager to help out. You should have seen them all winding the grandfather clock.

And of course whenever there is a quiet moment in the mayhem, there’s always a grandmother’s knee to lean against while you cook up some second breakfasts.

And there is just no such thing as having a quiet snack on your own these days. They are eating cold porridge and unsweetened yogurt. Never really understood why Greg likes it but apparently it is quite popular with the younger generation too.