Spring Cleaning

April should be the time for Spring Cleaning, except for one small detail...we're in the southern hemisphere. It is cold, rainy full-fledged fall weather. Nevertheless, Nomad is being fussed over. I'm going through cupboards, evaluating my organization (or lack of) for a range of items as varied as cooking dishes and medical supplies.

Brian has, in between rain showers, removed the stanchions and the caulking behind them. Sanding, Filling and paint prep have him checking the rain forecast for a prediction of 4 days of fine weather. None in sight. Once the combings are painted, the stanchions can be rebedded and decked out in their new lifelines and safety netting. This is just one of the many projects Brian is juggling as we prepare Nomad for the upcoming passage to Tonga. Please pray for a good weather window some time between May 10 and May 30. That's when Tracy Hollister from the Gorge will be here and available as crew on the passage.

Eloise has projects as well. Her number one project is consuming large amounts of food at frequent intervals throughout the day. Just two days ago she figured out how to use a footstool as a walker and spent the next 45 minutes walking around Grandma Shiela's living room with me jumping in every few moments to steer her away from tables chock full of glass figurines. Yesterday, she figured out how to climb down steps using her feet first. We've been modeling and helping her do this since we got back to Nomad, in the hopes of avoiding any major nose landings. We are very proud of our daughter who at this very moment is making banshee impressions.

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Seasons changing

When we left New Zealand in late February, the humid hot days ended around 9pm. Now, cool winds, intermittent blue skies with showers and early sunsets remind us that winter is acoming.

Other things have changed. Eloise now feeds herself with a great deal of success, will have almost nothing to do with pureed foods, and crawls anywhere she pleases. In just two quick months her bursts of developments remind us that she is other than us and wonderful and unique. We watch her as we have watched sunsets in the past, oohing and ahing about subtle and rapid changing details - colorful and irreversible. Except that she is the opposite of a sunset, she is a sunrise.

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Hokey Pokey Biscuits

125 g butter (approx. one cube)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1 Tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups Edmonds standard plain flour
1 tsp Edmonds baking soda

combine butter, sugar, golden syrup and milk in a saucepan. Heat until butter is melted and mixture nearly boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool to lukewarm. Sift flour and soda together. Add to the cooled mixture. Stir well. Roll tablespoonsful of mixture into balls and place on ungreased oven trays. Flatten with a fork. Bake at 180 degrees C for 15-20 minutes.

From: Edmonds Cookery Book, "part of New Zealand's Heritage since 1879"

I made these yesterday and they were soft and butterscotchy when baked to pale and not golden brown. YUM.

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Time is swooshing past

Eloise wriggles, explores, eats, crawls, talks, and sleeps through every single day. Busier than the hungry little caterpillar. On top of all of her activities, we've been visiting with my sister and her kids, my brother and his wife, and Brian's parents all at various times. In between all the visiting, I'm teaching an Educational Psychology class at Bethany on the weekends. It's enjoyable to be keeping my teaching skills in practice and to be meeting new interesting upcoming teachers. My favorite book these days is Smart Moves: why learning is not all in your head by Carla Hannaford. I've incorporated all sorts of ideas from that book into my Psych class, passed ideas on to my father-in-law, and applied certain concepts to Eloise activities. It's fun to learn things that apply to my real life.

Brian has been busily teaching 4 days a week in Salinas, working one day a week in San Jose, selling eucalyptus firewood, and rebuilding a deck on a house in his after hours. It will be nice to have him back when we get to New Zealand!
Here are some pictures of fun times with family.

Santa Cruz

Eloise is over her jet lag. A few nights of wanting to be awake from 10pm to midnight made the adjustment a little rough for us but so did her complete disinterest in food for the entire airplane journey and the following two days. It made her a needy nurser and her mommy a bit concerned. All's well, however, she greedily is consuming the carrots and oatmeal and squashes I concoct for her. I bought beets at the farmer's market to prepare for her but luckily came to my senses before preparing it for her. Beet juice stains all over my clothes and hers doesn't sound fun.

Eloise remembers her Grandma and happily plays with her and asks her to pick her up. This makes me happy. I want my baby to know that her family loves her.
She contracted a brief case of stranger anxiety for about a week at the beginning of February. I was sure we were in for some tough times when we got home to a slew of new people for Eloise to meet. However, she recovered quickly and already reaches to have people hold her after only short interactions.

In fact, on the airplane, Eloise was making quite a scene at one point. We were just getting settled into our seats and I was holding her and standing until the last moment, I realized Eloise was looking around at the sea of faces behind us. A few people were smiling at her. She selected a couple and started flapping her arms, squeaking and crowing with her wide open mouthed smile. This delighted the row of people behind us and even a few further back. All of a sudden Eloise had captured a crowd of admirers. Her flapping and crowing increased. She was so excited, I had a hard time holding her and rested her on the back of my seat facing backwards. This exacerbated the delightful interactions. It was my favorite part of our trip home, watching the array of cultures represented by the people around us, all with smiles and shiny eyes, just because of my friendly child.

The family that plays in the rain together.....

Courgette Cake yesterday, Tomato Relish today

Tomato Relish

3 lbs Tomatoes
1/2 lb. sugar
2 Tbsp curry
1 lb. onions
2 heaped Tbsp cornflour
1 dessert tsp. mustard

Cut tomatoes and onions into separate dishes and sprinkle with salt. Leave overnight. Pour off the brine. Barely cover with vinegar. Bring to a boil and add sugar and boil for 1/2 hour. Thicken with cornflour and a little more vinegar. Add curry and mustard



The day is fast approaching when I will not be able to sit Ello on a blanket with a selection of toys while I cook. She is mobile to about 2 feet radius, getting ready to run. In the last week she learned to pull herself to standing. A few days later, she figured out how to sit up on her own.....New things every single day. To top it all off, there are new smiles every hour.