Goose tape

Happy Easter! This is what two teenage boys kindly said to the girls and I while passing us by sitting on a bench this morning, Saturday. Why mention this? Perhaps it was because they looked too cool to notice anyone outside of their age bracket or perhaps it was because it was not Easter Sunday, but the day before. Although Easter is even less religious here than it is in America, the children get a longer vacation from school in Australia. This may have the effect of making it more of a “season,” rather than a one day feast with the added bonus of Easter baskets and Easter eggs. Easter, by the church calendar lasts for seven Sundays beginning tomorrow, so it is truly a season. In some parts of the U.S. Easter symbolizes rebirth, fertility, budding trees and flowers after a long season of dormant life. Spring season goes along quite well with the theme of renaissance. Autumn is the season here in Australia. Plants and trees grow year round here, but there surely is no great burst of new life coming around Easter time. Eggs are of course, a symbol of fertility and are celebrated in many places on Easter. In America you can hardly miss the egg dying kits at the grocery store in March and April, but here, the egg dying kits are missing, unless I have just missed them. There are about a hundred different types of chocolate eggs or rabbits. The foil wrappers are colored so that must be enough. Tonight I will paint our hardboiled eggs for lack of dye. I learned my lesson on dying Easter eggs naturally last year: brown eggs don’t work, nor do my efforts using tumeric or beets for color.

Dying with beets, it may have also been the type of beet I used. It was the first beet harvest from my garden, an heirloom called Chioggia which was mostly white with a few red circles within. I tend to pick strange vegetables to learn how to grow, rather than your standard variety. It is quite typical of my personality, always having to try something new rather than sticking to things I know I like. Unfortunately, the “Minnesota Midget” cantaloupes I grew were tasteless and mushy, as were the miniature “Siberian” orange watermelons. The Chioggia beets tasted like radishes, but one success was the purple beans. I do actually look for the more standard seed varieties now. This week we harvested our first huge watermelon, grown from your average watermelon seed. Two weeks ago, I harvested one too early. This week Jacinta and I found one and were able to push our hands through the rind because we had let it rot in our efforts to assure it was ripe. I then asked Keith to check the last one’s ripeness, and it was ready! So all week long Jacinta and I have been feasting on home grown watermelon. We also harvested the last of the corn and a few more green peppers. Wandering through the garden Jacinta found a few late green beans and happily called out, “It’s bean season!” Matt asked her later on what she had found in the garden. “Did you find some….strawberries?” Jess replied as if he was terribly out of the loop, “No Dad, it’s not strawberry season!”

Jacinta is finally enjoying life outside again. It is cooler, windier, there is more shade, she no longer fears the goat and the mosquito population is decreasing. Today we went out quite a few times and never once put on bug spray. Perhaps we should have on one occasion, but otherwise, it was liberating to be bug spray free. The amount of laundry we do now takes us outside at least twice every day. When we hang clothes on the tall line, Jacinta and I take turns hiding and seeking toys in the bushes. This is slightly difficult with Genevieve in a carrier on my back, but often she’ll be inside with Matt. Jacinta again loves hanging diapers on the “baby line” and has mastered the art of a clothespin. She’ll put ten clothespins on one cloth, saying to herself in advance, “This one needs A LOT of pegs, yeah.” For a while, she would try and whine her way out of coming outside with me to help or play nearby. She would whine while outside that she was ready to go back inside. Now she’ll join me and find entertainment easily. Yesterday I told her I’d be outside bringing in nappies if she wanted to join me. A few minutes later she ran out with her boots on and said, “I’m just going for a little run. Do you wanna run with me?”

Keith and Mary are away for while, so we are feeding the dog, chickens and goat. I missed helping out with this while I was pregnant, so I am grateful to have my body back now. Jacinta and I love throwing the seed up in the air and watching it fall down like snow, although I find grains in our clothes later on. We have won Daisy the goat over in learning how to feed her out of the palms of our hands like Keith does. This goat is like a dog in that Keith treats her like a loving cuddly dog that needs love, attention, hand-feeding and walks at night. She has come to expect this, so it is the only way to avoid her horns in your stomach or rear end. Of course we are still wary and careful, but seeing Jess feed this goat out of her little hand is amazing after hearing her scream at the sight of the goat last week. Children seem to pick up and mimic our fears so naturally, but luckily, they also mimic our positive feelings towards the very same things they once feared.

Fear is also something that was keeping Genevieve out of the garden, and thus Jacinta and I. It is a fear of snakes, spiders and mosquitoes, all valid fears for a newborn. This week though, I wore Genevieve in the carrier for a while, then set up her ‘Moses basket’ on a table in the shed. I strung up a mosquito net to keep her safe. This allowed Jacinta and I the time to water and fertilize all of the fruit trees. The citrus trees look terrible, well, half of them were almost destroyed by aphids while I was busy having a baby. We may be able to save them, this is our goal before we leave for the US. Matt started shredding more trees this week to make mulch. Next week we will start building wooden frames around each one to hold the mulch, compost and fertilizer from rolling down the hill in the rain. Strangely, the cold weather trees (pear, apples, plums, and nectarine) are growing stronger than anything and look great. Today Matt and I took the girls to a tree fair to pick out a special tree to plant for each of them. Jacinta is excited about taking care of her fig tree. Genevieve’s tree is a pecan tree. It seems silly planting any more trees when we have a hard time keeping up with the trees we already have, but we wanted to honor Genevieve’s birth with a tree and Jacinta in her new role as a big sister.

Genevieve is doing great, growing, eating, pooping, sleeping well at night after working through her colicky evenings. She smiles and curiously looks around when she is awake. She is growing more alert each day. We received a huge box of Jacinta’s and her cousin’s baby clothes in the mail, so Genevieve is now even better dressed than she was before! She has finally grown into the smallest hat we have. She still has hair. She still suffers from colic in the evenings, but can often be appeased by a dry diaper, a swaddle, a rocking mom or dad, a candle and a pacifier, all at once. Jacinta’s answer every time she cries is to give her a cuddle, and say, “Give her some milk mum!” She was asleep by 7:30 tonight so we fear a 3am wake up. She actually sleeps about 4 hours at a time at night, waking only for diaper changes and milk. We are thankful that the nights are pretty good as we live into our new life with no afternoon break or nap. It was very hard for me to give this up, but I am finally letting go and embracing the new flow of the day. The evenings are longer now since Jacinta goes to sleep so early and going out in the afternoon is now possible.

One afternoon this week, we had a family dentist outing. Jacinta’s first dental experience was exciting, especially watching them work on Matt. Matt and I both need to return for more work, but we knew this would be the case. Only disappointment: they don’t give out free toothbrushes in Australia but sell them at the front desk. We also went to the beach with some friends, including Jacinta’s new friend Nicholas. They are only a few weeks apart in age, and quite similar developmentally so they play really well together. I have never see Jacinta able to play with another child and need no adult direction or support. Nicholas’s mom and I breathed a huge sigh of relief while we sat in the shade watching our little ones laugh and play in the wet sand, without us.

Eating has not been such a drama this week as I’m learning to eat dairy free. I can’t say I’m effectively doing the elimination diet, but I’m limiting myself. I really love fish and rice now. The type of fish changes each day, but I’m sticking to the same preparation. I grease a small baking dish with olive oil. Pour a tablespoon of oil on top of the fish. Sprinkle salt, pepper and fennel seeds on fish. Rub it all in and coat with crushed nuts (macadamias). Bake on 450 for about 10 minutes. For a sanguine who thrives on change, this diet is teaching me to enjoy familiarity. Jess learned a new skill in the kitchen this week, peeling carrots all by herself. She has renewed interest in cooking now, feeling slightly empowered with a peeler.

Matt has been reading, writing, fathering, mulching, cleaning, and laundering this week. He is the “nappy man,” and takes care of all dirty diapers. He is also the toilet maintenance man for our composting toilet, he probably spends about twenty minutes a week keeping it clean and efficiently composting. I feel so lucky to be exempt from these tasks. One sad part of this week was a loss of technology, our Ipod broke. Matt used it quite often but we had just begun really using it to listen to podcasts together for evening entertainment. Days later, Matt finally called a place in Sydney to repair it. While the phone was ringing, the Ipod came back to life. Miracle!

So life is good. Genevieve is learning to deal with food in her belly, I am learning to be more flexible in who I am, Jess is learning to make jokes, and Matt already knows everything, just kidding. Today Jacinta giggled and asked, “Why don’t they call duct tape goose tape?” I didn’t bother explaining that a duck is not a duct since I just learned a few years ago that it is not called “duck tape.” (Although Matt now informs me that Duck Tape is a brand of duct tape…)

The moon has been so bright all week long that our bathroom’s skylight has lit up the bathroom at night. Tomorrow is Easter and we will celebrate with friends. We will celebrate new life, rebirth and overwhelming love with Jacinta and Genevieve, our most recent manifestation of love and new life. We wish you all a lovely Easter season.

Peace,

Shana