It's not real, it's plastic

Hello there! It’s almost Thanksgiving in the US, and here, it is “almost” Christmas, strange. I’ve just smashed four mosquitoes in the last 5 minutes, ooh, five, and am feeling vulnerable without bug spray. It has been a very long, lovely, busy day and I am thrilled to be sitting here in silence writing to you all, so I shalln’t get up and look for some, I’ll just keep on smashing.

Jacinta and I went to another birthday party this morning for a five year old boy in playgroup. It was a pirate party and she went as a pirate princess. Did she know what a pirate was? Of course not! But she does now, as she left wearing a patch, one big fake gold hoop ear ring, a sword, a hat and has been talking about treasure (pronounced “treasa”) ever since. Just before bed she picked up a broken off sunglass ear piece and said secretively, “this is a treasure!” The children ran to and fro playing games like pin the patch on the pirate, decorate your own telescope, find the treasure map, throw the cannonball into the ship, and drinking games (just kidding). She’s come home saying “Ahoy!” Oh my.

We drove out to the Bellingen markets after the party. This sounds easy, but if you’re a city girl used to flat lands and grid-like roads, driving from one hilly town to another hilly town without good directions or logic, it is challenging. Most of the roads are unnamed. You’ll see signs pointing in one direction saying which town the road leads to, but if the town you want isn’t one of the choices, then you’re left to guess. So after wasting twenty minutes driving around thinking I was heading in the right direction and Jess losing a balloon out the window and wailing for a while, I ended up back in Macksville, my home town. Forty-five minutes later we arrive at the markets and race around Christmas, toiletry and fruit shopping trying to make our purchases as the stall holders are packing up for the day. The market happens once a month, so this was the big Christmas gift buying market and all the sellers were out, perhaps over 150 stalls. It was a big market, a big day, and meant tired feet for a pregnant mama pushing a “pram, but amazingly enough, Jacinta stayed happy the whole time. Perhaps she was delirious, for in the last few shops we visited she tried blowing her party horn (you know, those cardboard tubes you blow on and the tube of paper unrolls and extends with each breath?) at each item in the shop. These no nap days mean early bed time, but she gets so loopy by the end that she is a totally different little girl.

Friday was another no nap day as it was our big family day out to Kempsey to tour the hospital where we will welcome our new baby in a few months. We also had our first appointment with the obstetrician. We found him to be very kind and not at all hurried. It was strange though because I almost fainted in his office just sitting down answering the same old questions I have been asked by the other doctor, the naturopath, and the hospital. Great first impression, “Yes, I’m very healthy doctor and will be in good shape for a natural birth but…..hang on, I need to lie down…right now.” Matt admitted later that he too felt faint in his office, I wonder what it was. The doctor was such a cool guy though, it didn’t freak him out. He just laughed and said it was probably the medicalization of the whole thing and that he’d try my blood pressure again in a few minutes. We found a huge park with a gorgeous river close by that we’d be able to pass some time at in the early stages of labor. Jess had been looking forward to “going to Kempsey” for a few days and was very patient in all of these visits and some shopping. After a few stops she needed to pee and so we visited the park and its restroom. She was very sad after she came out, having peed on the big potty. “I wanted to wee in Kemspey,” she cried. We don’t know what she thought “Kempsey” was, but we told her that this was Kempsey and eventually she believed us. At the hospital we met a really cool midwife who will start teaching us “Calm Birthing” classes soon, in our own home. We’re really excited for this opportunity to focus on the new baby.

Jess is still preparing in her own way for the arrival of her new brother or sister. She practices burping her babies, feeding them carrots and changing their nappies. Anytime she sees an extra chair at a table she asks, “Who is that chair for?” We usually reply, “It’s just extra, just in case someone else wants to sit down.” She then informs us that it is the chair for the new baby. This week I made up my own “belly balm,” and now Jess enjoys smearing it all over my huge belly. Matt has been explaining and showing her pictures from her birth so she understands how it happens. She will be present at this birth as much as she wants (with a friend of ours) and so we are trying to prepare her for the normality of what she will see and hear. In the past she thought the baby would come straight out of my belly but now she bluntly states where the baby will come out. She sees me growing bigger and bigger and sometimes decides that it is time for the baby to come. “Mommy, can you push the baby out now?” I would if I could!

But I can’t! The house is not yet finished and we want to christen it with this new baby. Although, it is getting closer and closer, so close that Matt called the electrician to come! All within two days, he visited and gave us a quote, came out the next day with his son and installed all of the wiring we need. Now we “just” have to put up all of the insulation and interior walls and finish the floors. Then Matt has to build most of the furniture, which he is truly excited about. Besides his heavy theological reading, he reads “Cabinetry” and “Woodworking.” I finished my nail punching and completed the bedrooms and hallway, and now Matt is working on the kitchen/living room. He is also installing interior rafters from which he will hang the ceiling. No major injuries for Matt this week, it was me this time and not building, just walking. About a year ago Matt ripped open his heel on the screen door. Well, I did the same exact thing, but luckily it did not go as deep as Matt’s incision. It is disgusting, and hurt almost as much as breaking a bone. It happened a few days ago and is healing, but still throbs from time to time. I can not wear real shoes and am having to break in flip-flops which hurt the front of my foot. Bandages, stinging disinfectant, and cream, it’s just another discomfort and keeps me from doing much in the garden. Complain, complain, poor me.

One great start to the week was hanging the garlic. What a pleasure to divvy up the garlic between Michelle and I and hang it in beautiful bunches down in the shed. Jess made soup out of the garlic “babies” and dirt, of course. We also cleaned up the chamomile patch and hung a bit to dry for tea. The turkeys are still making a mess of the teepee garden, but there’s not much I can do. Matt, Jess and I did spend one evening hanging out in the shed and that deterred them from coming in the garden. Jess played in the dirt and in the hammock while Matt and I looked at kitchen and bathroom magazines for ideas and watched the sun set. It was a great way to spend an evening, we’ll have to do it more often. The winds came though, it got very cold all of the sudden and there was actually snow in towns only a few hours away. After I mentioned the progress of my corn to you last week, well, this week, half of it blew down in the heavy wind. Maybe it will come back, or so I can naively hope. We harvested a few button squash, and the lettuce is finally big enough to eat. We’re still harvesting carrots, which is particularly good because Jess will not eat carrots in the house, raw or cooked, only in the garden. The vines are vigorously climbing and crawling, and love this great combination of rain one day and very hot sun the next.

I suppose this weather makes me happy also. The cold and wet sometimes make me stay inside and rest and give thanks for the rain. The hot days make me active in the morning before the heat is too strong and then stop me in the afternoons and force me to rest. One afternoon this week Jacinta and I made tortillas. I fed her well before we began so she would not eat all of the dough. There are certain tasks in the kitchen which she would rather watch me than join in, like cracking eggs. It’s as if she knows the difficulty of the task and wants to watch just a few more times. Rolling dough is often tough, but this day she decided that she was ready. Her arm muscles weren’t strong enough to make a nice thin tortilla so as I looked away for one second, she got on top of the rolling pin and tried rolling with her belly. It was at this point that I decided to find a small wooden rolling pin for Christmas.

Matt will probably look for a nice little tool set for her. How funny that we fit so well into the gender roles that we sometimes deny. At least our daughter can be both a cook and a builder. Today she said that she was going to come home and help daddy build with both her sword and her party horn, her new tools. As usual, Matt worked at the bank and at Macnuts, worked on the house, and had a few nights with Jacinta. One night I sat on the couch with my injured heel and the other was my choir night. Matt often takes Jacinta out when they have time together, maybe to the beach, the river, or the supermarket. Since our supermarket is part of the town co-op, we are shareholders with share numbers. Each time the cashier rings you up they ask you your number. Matt says that recently when he is asked for his number Jess will spit out a random chain of numbers, just to be helpful.

So the title, where’s the explanation? Well, this can just be an example of all of the funny things that happen throughout the week that Matt or I will say, “We need to remember that for the journal.” All we can remember is that we were all out on the veranda and that in response to some forgotten question about some forgotten object, Jess replied in her “how could you ask such a dumb question” voice, “It’s not real, it’s plastic!” Children are perceptive and pick up on our judgments, whether we want them to or not. She has picked up on my disdain for plastic toys, furniture and utensils and is now mimicking it. I fear the day she walks into pre-school and thinks that nothing in the room is real because it is all made of plastic. Perhaps by then I can teach her that I prefer natural materials such as wood, glass, cotton, wool and metal because they are not as difficult for the earth to process while they are being made and once they go to the dump. I’ll have to teach her that plastic is real, but just made from petroleum, a product that will soon be extinct. She will be about four years old, hmmmm….maybe I’ll just tell her that I think natural materials are prettier and that I like how they feel.

Well, it has been another eventful, humorous and productive week. We are another week closer to the birth, and another week further on the house. We’ve missed you for yet another week and are inevitably one week closer to a visit to the States. Yet, we’ve spent another week learning to love our new home. Here’s wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving next week, and wishing we could have a feast with you too!

Peace,

Shana