Recent photos for your viewing pleasure

Giving the daffodils a kiss






David with Uncle Mike

Winter 09

As anticipated, winter has been so much more enjoyable this year with our nice warm sunny house!! The little things (like internal access from the garage!) add up to a much more pleasant experience, and we are very grateful to be here at the moment.

David has now been at the uni daycare for a couple of months now, and seems to really enjoy his days there. He's a busy, happy wee boy who loves exploring and investigating how things work, and is very social. When we take him to a playground, he generally heads for the very biggest slide he can find! He can communicate pretty clearly what he is thinking and feeling most of the time, through a combination of words, half words, and signing. One of his latest (which his Oma taught him) is signing 'yummy' by waving his hand near the side of his head. It's very endearing when you give him some food that you have slaved over to make him and he lets you know that he thinks it's pretty tasty :)

As I write this, Reuben is in Dunedin, working on a job his company has just started recently. He has spent the week there, and will be back down there again next week (noooo!!!) but then we are off to the Whitsundays for a week together (just the two of us) which we are very excited about.

I'll see if I can find a few photos that might be of interest... enjoy, aunties! :)

This one is catching David having a wee tea break (yes, there is watered down tea in that cup!). He had been busy outside but thought a cup of tea was a good idea... I think the cloth on the floor is probably because he had a wee spill - when this happens he rushes quickly to the bottom drawer and pulls out a cloth to wipe up the mess... don't know WHERE he would have got that anal kind of behaviour from...


Bouncing on his tramp from the toy library.







Amazingly, Reuben sometimes pauses long enough in his weetbix inhillation in the morning to share some with David. What an example of fatherly love :)

Farmer Brown

Annabelle's first birthday

While up north on holiday, we were able to attend Annabelle's first birthday party at Steve and Ange's house. Kids sure do grow up fast when you don't get to see them that often! So here are some photos:


The birthday girl


The cousins meet


Reuben with Annabelle (and dolly)


Who wants cake?!

We also met for a quick brekkie with Grandma and Steve and Ange and family before heading out to the airport.


Family stripes :)


Grandma


Reuben with Annabelle and Zara

Mount Maunganui

We recently had a lovely 4 days at Mount Maunganui celebrating the 'end of the golden weather' with Liz. The place we stayed in was a tidy apartment with a view of the Mount and it was close enough for us to walk down to the beach every day. Golden sand, sparkling clear water, and warm sunshine - we were very pleased to be there.

One day we looked up the two houses that Lizzy and my (Katie's) grandparents had owned - one that mum had been holidaying in as a teenager the summer she met dad on the beach (a "mind if I sit next to you" moment from dad by all accounts) and then the house my grandparents had retired to which I had a few vague memories of visiting as a child. It was cool to dwell on parts of our family history in this way.

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We went for several walks along the beach and also around the Mount, and even managed a picnic bbq by the beach Wilson-family-style with "public facility bbqs" (eew yuck, unclean!). Reuben, being the man he is, swam every day. It was a very relaxing holiday with some beautiful views and was a lovely way to end the summer.

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We also stopped in Paeroa on the way through - Reuben holds a certain passion for L&P so we had to celebrate this suitably... hence the photos!

More photos of David as requested

Just photos this time!

Summer time

What to report? We've been settling in to our new home, enjoying the mod-cons that come with a newish townhouse. The botanic gardens are a short 10 minute walk away, so we have been walking down for the occasional Lazy Sunday concert and have taken David to the playground there a lot. He wades around fearlessly in the pool there (with water just about up to his chest) having a great time with Reuben. David is starting to look like a real little boy (and, I think, more and more like Reuben) and has a LOT of energy! He's loving his bike and the push car we have hired from the toy library (although he can only push himself backwards at this stage!) and is into everything. We try to get out and about on the mornings I don't work so that he can expend a little energy, and have joined Mainly Music on Thursdays.

My being at work two days a week seems to be working quite well for everyone concerned. I really enjoy having that time to do something different, and David has a great old time with friends and family looking after him. We're really thankful that it has worked out so well.

We spent a night, over Waitangi weekend, camping at Port Levy on the front lawn of a place Mike and Carley had hired. The camping went surprisingly well, although it helped having a house (with kitchen etc) handy. We went out in the morning on the boat with Wim and Trudi to explore the surrounding area. David wasn't quite sure what to make of being on the boat, although quite fancied the idea of being in control of the wheel with Opa!

We also caught up with the Kuipers family while they were in Christchurch for a family reunion. It was great to spend a little time with them, and get to know some of them better.

Here are some more photos of David for the aunties:

Holidays

We've had a very busy last few months (along with everyone else!).

An exciting development is that we are moving flat in early January, after being given notice in our current flat (because the owner is moving in, not our wild weekly parties!). We will have a bit more room in our new place and a few new luxuries, so we are looking forward to moving now.

Reuben's sister Marisa spent about a month in Christchurch over the Christmas period - meeting David for the first time. It was lovely to be able to spend some time with her and we had some great family times together. There is a bit of a hole in our lives now that she has left :(

Along with Katie's birthday recently, we also celebrated Lizzy's graduation. Katie's (and Lizzy's!) brother Steve came down from Auckland for a surprise visit and we had a great family meal at Tutto Bene - their calzones are highly recommended!

David is now motoring around at high speed on his chubby legs, and is getting more proficient at manoeuvering himself in tricky situations - he can climb surprisingly well! We had another visit to Willowbank (for Reuben's end of year work family function) and it was cool to see David walking around, since last time we went he was not walking unaided. This time he got up close and personal with a mummy wallaby (until he spotted the baby in her pouch and thought that was a better target for stroking) - all very cute.

David has also had a few new experiences this summer - he has been for his first 'swim' at the pools in the Botanic Gardens, had his first magnum icecream (yum, thanks Opa!!) and has discovered a fondness for frozen berries. He has also been boating, and spent several days at the beach. He has just started pointing at everything and saying the baby version of 'look', so the seagulls and ducks have had plenty of attention.