Anyone who has ever had the dubious pleasure of watching Teletubbies will know what a Noo Noo is. It's a large, rather over zealous vacuum cleaner who whizzes around the Teletubbies' house sucking up everything, whether they want it cleaned up or not. When it comes to food, my house is full of Noo Noos 24/7 and they are sucking everything up at an alarming rate. So alarming in fact, that we were forced to do not one but TWO significant supermarket shops in less than a week. Yoghurts were slurped, ice cream was guzzled, chippies were munched and all the lunch box snacks were devoured in TWO DAYS. Mainly by the Noo Noo formerly known as Liam.
I remember a few years ago when Alex first used to come and stay with us that I joked about his unbelievable appetite and how it was a good indication of what I could expect with my own boys when they reached the same age. However I didn't realise that with Liam this phase would hit two years sooner. Holy cow this kid can EAT! And eat and eat and then some. We even tried buying food he didn't like so much so it would last longer but that didn't work for long, he just went on to something else! And heaven knows we don't want the poor kid to starve. And he is gluten intolerant so is very hard to fill up. If he wasn't it would be easy, I could just churn out a never ending supply of home made bread, buns, pizzas and muffins to fill those hollow legs - but making their gluten free versions is so expensive and to be honest dodgy. Now we're in Whangamata I can't get the same products I used to and too many of my experiments result in a costly and epic fail.
Still, I did get a great deal of help from the Simple Savings January newsletter when it comes to feeding them and their friends, who stay over almost constantly. For example I've discovered that teenage boys don't mind being fed leftovers. In fact they love it! Particularly random creations such as last night's spaghetti bolognaise on toast for breakfast ('is there any more of that mince stuff?') Or pretty much anything in a toasted sandwich for lunch. I should have learned this from Alex, who is a Noo Noo of the highest order. From him, no morsel of food is safe. Leftover roasts are hacked into, sandwiches are made out of whatever and if there's any leftover dessert, it won't be leftover for long!
But that's a great way to be; waste not want not. And as I wrote in my last blog, isn't that what we buy food for, to eat it? So I shouldn't complain! And I shouldn't feel embarrassed about feeding other people leftovers because from what I can make out, when it comes to teenage boys it's what they like best. Which is just as well because I can see it's going to save me a fortune over the next few years. The number of boys taking up semi-permanent residence in our house grows by the day but there are some things which are priceless. In fact, the more the merrier because I've never seen my children so happy and I wouldn't change that for the world.
It's also good for Noel to see that Liam is not the only one who is completely and totally vague. I call it wonderfully vague; Noel doesn't. Take the other day for example. Liam came home from school and said 'Mum, there's going to be a tsunami next Wednesday'. 'What?!' I said. 'Don't you mean this Wednesday?' (Seeing as it was Monday at the time). 'Nope' he said confidently, 'It's next Wednesday. Mr Preece told us in assembly today'. Now I don't mind admitting I was fair crapping myself. There was going to be a tsunami NEXT Wednesday and they were telling us about it already? That meant it must be going to be REALLY bad. When you live as close to the beach as we do, you don't take the threat of a tsunami lightly. Still, I tried to sound as lighthearted as I could and try to keep the fact I was terrified hidden from my beloved eldest. I did a stirling job too! Until later on that night when Ali arrived home and shortly after Liam slunk sheepishly down the stairs. 'Er Mum? Dad? I think I got things a bit wrong. There's not going to be a tsunami next Wednesday. There's going to be a tsunami DRILL next Wednesday'&
