I'm On 2 Wheels!

It took 2 years on training wheels and finally we've nailed it! Go Erika! We're so proud of you!

Mom watch me!!

Bike Riding - Long Bay reserve 2010

Erika finally learned to peddle her bike which she got for xmas in 2008. She learned yesterday and straight away biked 3km down to the reserve to the park and back home, up and down hills and today did the same again - in the rain!

She was feeling so confident and pleased with herself she went on the flying fox... which she has never been brave enough to do either.

Now - she wants to bike everywhere and she cant wait to get back to the park to play on the flying fox.

She also started swimming lessons a few months ago and already she can swim across the pool. She is doing really well, going from strength to strength. So clever!

Fortunately this means she no longer needs to wear all this snazzy gear...

Isnt she all class...

Learning computer skills

A computer game that I just bought Erika has her completely enthralled and although she still needs directing through it, she is picking it up very well and her mouse skills are coming along very nicely.

The game has a tractor pulling a trailor which appears on the screen with a letter on the trailor. A voice-over says 'the letter J - pick the orange with the word that starts with a 'J' sound'. As she hovers the mouse pointer over each orange with a different picture on it the voice-over says what it is. Once she has decided that the correct orange has a picture of a Jam jar on it she has to click on the orange pull it down to the tractor and click on the trailor. Then the tractor chugs away and returns with a new letter. She has to get 26 stars filled in at the top of the screen to get a certificate which you can print out and colour in if you want.

There are other games but the videos below are of her doing this game.

Here she is concentrating so hard on picking the right word:

Her delight at getting the right orange into the trailor:

These are a couple of videos I took of her doing one of the games on the first day she got them.

One is quite long so it will take a while to load, but perservere as they are worth looking at even though the person operating the camera (me) could do with more lessons:

Showtime at Bright Minds

The kids staged a half hour concert at daycare where they wore costumes, some that they made themselves, danced and sang songs - either to musical backing or alone with the microphone they made.

Here is Erikas masterpiece costume:

Some of her friends dressed up: Zoe and Liam.
Erikas awesome headgear would have made a red indian jealous!

Complete with cellophane and feathers she outshone them all...

And the fairy wings and wrist band that rivalled the one worn by Zena warrior princess completed her ensemble.

Though she wouldnt take to the stage, she danced and clapped and sang on the floor, and that was plenty enough for me!

From the mouths of babes

Erika keeps me very entertained lately with some interesting and random statements
for example she was explaining to me today how you are not allowed to play on the road or you will turn into a pancake. Playing on the road obviously turns you instantly into a fried flour product.

Then she wanted to know if whales eat people. I told her they dont so she asked if they eat cars...??

I said they eat fish (easiest explanation of a Whales diet) and she decided that if they ate cars they would probably choke, especially if there were people in the cars..........

Never a dull moment!

Stepped right out of the 1850's

Erika helps out by volunteering at the Howick Historical Village on the third Sunday of each month. She enjoys it but hates the loud musket fire that the soldiers re-enactment of skirmishes creates. She and I were invited to help film as part of a Japanese series on places to see in NZ. The Japanese film crew loved her and I got a couple of pictures of her dressed up for them to share...

We admired the flowers in front of Puhinui house.

To be truely in 'period' 1850s costume she should have been wearing a sun bonnet, but this was much cooler and looked cute too.

Puhinui House is a beautiful old homestead which was brought into the village in 5 separate pieces from Clendon - made of pit sawn kauri logs which were floated up the river almost to the site that the house was on before it moved to the historical village. It housed the McLaughlan family who were the first to bring organised hunting to Auckland.

Erika thought she was a little stronger than she really is :)



Erika is washing the clothes in a copper, they way they would have boiled their clothes clean in the 1850s.

Fortunately we didnt have a fire under the copper or she would no longer have toes. It wasnt something that the little children helped with. They were more likely to pump the water for mum to fill the copper with.

It was very fun - and she might be famous in Japan!

Party Time

Erika went to Zoes 3rd birthday party looking much like a princess. Unfortunately the bridesmaid outshone the bride at this particular event. Looking beautiful ... but acting like a shy brat.

She was looking forward to Zoes party so much that she counted the sleeps since Tuesday. Saturday finally came round and she counted the hours down til she could go to the party... then was so shy she cried and wouldn't play with her friends or sit at the table for the delicious kiddie party food.



In this pic, Erika is hanging back from the table in front of me while her friends tuck into their sugary feast.

She even had to be coaxed to have a piece of cake. Very frustrating!



She was content to hold Lynnies hand and wait for cake while I tried to get more pics of her pretty dress
Then stuffed her face like a true lady.


However, with 5 mins left of partytime she loosened up and played with the bubbles and the other kids.

Playing with bubbles is very serious business!

In the end she had a great party and didnt want to go home!

Me and my Pak Lang

Erika met her Pak Lang for the first time before Xmas this year. It doesn't take long for them to bond, to my surprise, knowing how Erika always reacted towards the people that she doesn't know. Pak Lang was great and sliped into the 'Uncle' mode smoothly.

We had the most wonderful time together and it will be another long wait for our next meeting.

Kisses and Lots of love.

Kuatkan semangat.