Christmas Day in Glorious Technicolor

Here it is, as promised - a video of our Christmas morning on the beach. Mmmmm. Plus, heeheehee, that boy is funny! (Sorry about the awful quality, I used the older camera for it and it's not quite up to scratch I fear.)

I thought my funny boy was a lot LESS funny this afternoon when he decided to expand the list of "stuff I will happily put in my gob" to include a big ol' cube of RAT POISON. Fear not, the nice man on the 0800 poison line assures me that Sebby is unlikely to start bleeding internally any time soon, given the tiny smidgen he ingested. But still. Was it only yesterday that Fuf and I were talking about the challenge of keeping them alive all day? Yeah. Quite.

A Real Kiwi Christmas

We're baaaaack! (Long story, will illustrate at the end of the post.) But for the past week we've been having the loveliest laziest lollingest holiday in a bach in Pakawau, which is a bit past Collingwood, which is a bit past Takaka, which is over the world's worst hill road. The road left its mark on us, with Sebby making it to the top and past the worst of it, and then promptly hurling about seventeen litres of rancid yoghurty spewkle all over himself and his seat. And the car. And some of the bags. And bits of his sister.

Mmmm holiday memories! Or should I say flashbacks.

But we scrubbed things down and finally made it through to our little holiday home, which was up a long curly driveway, hidden in trees, and backed by a long lawn that reached down to the beach.

Not a bad back yard, eh? The beach right in front of us was very tidal, great for a tiny boy, but five minutes away it turned into a more standard beach. Here are Seb and his Daddy heading off on a backpack trek.

The day after we arrived, Molls and Bink went horse-trekking. For three hours their trusty steeds took them along Whakariki beach. The photos are spectacular, though they were both a bit cowboy-legged the next day!

Meanwhile, Seb was just interested in BEACH TIME, preferably the NUDDY SORT. That boy enjoyed himself so much. Every day he had one or two beach sessions, which invariably resulted in a compulsory shower or bucket-dip. Filthy! He's eaten about two kilos of sand this week, I swear.

Miss M doesn't eat sand. She just sits around being gorgeousness incarnate. What a dear thing she has been! So helpful and sunshiny. Love that girl.

Aunty Will, this is Proof for you that we made some effort towards Christmassiness. Not a BIG one, but an effort nonetheless. And Seb thought it was fab!

Christmas Day was gorgeous. We spent all morning on the beach (I'll try to post a vid tomorrow) and then went home for brunch on the verandah, accompanied by champagne and strawberries. Oh, it was so lovely!

After Seb's nap and the rest of the present opening (we were so spoiled, thank you everyone!) Liam cooked a truly divine turkey and we had dinner out in the garden. Seb was bemused by the hats but went along with his nutty rellies. He loved dinner so much that at one point he abandoned the whole spoon/fingers/middleman scenario and shoved his whole face into his plate.

And he loved all his presents! Adorable clothes, and the sweetest cuddly monster (he has named it URH! -- the exclamation mark is part of the pronunciation) and a car with a winch that SHUDDERS in a way that brings him a ludicrous amount of joy.

Here we all are posing after trifle. Looks like we all had a good day! It was really a wonderful Christmas, relaxed and easy and full of love; the only thing that could've improved it would have been having more of our darling family around us.

Next day we decided to feed Sebby to the eels at a funny little nature park. Whoa, they were some big and disgusting creatures! They didn't get us though. Molly, however, did get bitten rather savagely... by a guinea pig.

So after a truly fab week we packed up on a gloomy Tuesday morning and headed off up the road... for a good five minutes, until we came to this and realised that we were in fact NOT going to be sleeping in our own beds that night.

Worst flooding in years, all over Golden Bay. State Highway was impassable. Oops! Luckily, the people who were due to come and stay in our bach were stuck on the other side of it. So we got to turn around and spend another day in our little home. By afternoon it was even clear enough for more Beach Time for Sebalicious!

All in all, we had a whale of a time. Merry Christmas, everyone! And maybe this post will convince some of you to plan for a trip south this time next year :)

My Holliday by Seb

I went on holliday! It was ace. I got to play wiv all my fambly and they are pretty grate. And nice to me! Here are some pichures my dad took of me and the rellies.



Mmmmm dinner!

I have 2 BIG cuzzies too. Even when I was a little bittle boy my cuzzie Sophie made me larf and she is still funny and so is Annabannanna.





And this is one of my big but not super big cuzzies! An my narnty Fuff what looks just like my Mum.



And tomorrow I am goin on ANUVVER holliday! Hape Krpo!

When The Boys Are Away...

The girls will just DIE! No, wait, that's not how you spell it...



M looks fantastic. Totally spunkalicious.







It's possible that Mama just looks slightly mouldy round the edges, but she likes it anyway!



It's now only an hour and five minutes till we hop in the car and go and get our menfolk. Oh my goodness I am desperate for some huggles and snuggles and big gooby kisses from that little boy of mine! I need their smiles, both of 'em, and to yak with my husband. We had a fab girl time, really we did (hairdye, chocolate, movies that make you cry, movies that are too crass to be funny with a boy in the room but pretty hilarious when it's just us females, more chocolate, makeup, shopping... yeah it was pretty good) but I will feel complete again with my three darlings in the house with me.

Thanks to everyone who looked after them for me!

Tiny Dancer

Time for some serious cuteness.



Bet I know what Seb will be doing with his darling cousin Pearl next week!

Stuff I Have Bin Doing

Hey everyone it's me SEB!

I have bin so bizzy you wouldn't beleeve. There is so much to do every day! Here are some fings I have bin doing this weekend. It is so hot now that it's offishly summer I can't even tell you how hot it is! All I can say is it's a GOOD TIME TO HAVE NO PANTS ON.



And a good time to go for walks in the evenings when there's some WIND to tousle my luvly blond locks. My daddy thinks this is a funny thing to do in my stroller but my Mama is not so sure.



Apparently there's something called CRIPSMIS or somefing like that coming. Anyway I fink it means time for lots of being drunk. Bet I'm not allowed. Boo.



Here is me being cute as custard. Daddy says my hat is really gay and he is right it makes me look dead happy eh?



And here is my new brother VLAD, I think Mum might love him more than me even though she says she doesn't.

Turns Out the Sore Paw Was Nothing...

...compared to what Miss M did to herself today. She fell down a rocky hillside on a school trip. My poor little monkey!





And you should see her back. I won't show you, 'cos I'm going to preserve her modesty, but oh my goodness. Her arms look like she's been through a thornbush. Poor wee angel pie! Goodness, my darlings are in the wars this week.

Sore Paw

Today was a landmark day. Sebby's first trip to the Emergency doctor, resulting in a referral to ED!

He's fine, don't fret. He just got some splinters in his palm, and during his intense schedule of crawling-all-over-the-place he's clearly crawled through something less than sanitary; the end result being that this morning he woke up with a red, swollen paw. And the redness was spreading from his palm back between his fingers to the back of his hand, and that's no good. So it was off to the doc.

Long story short: oral antibiotics, one splinter removed, the rest bandaged up under some sort of magnesium poultice to try to draw them out. And Seb and I have to go back to the hospital tomorrow to get it checked. Before bandaging his paw they drew all around the red area with magic marker so that we'll be able to tell if it's spreading. But he's perfectly happy and well in himself, so I don't suspect anything major at this point.

More importantly, this boy was an ANGEL at the doctor's and at the hospital. Sunniest little patient you ever did see. After bandaging his hand the nurse actually asked bashfully whether she could have a cuddle, because he was so dear. What a star!



As you can see, the boxing glove has not unduly hindered his daily duty, viz., creation of chaos.



Also, he is an enthusiastic naturist, and I still think he might choose ballet over rugger.

Smartypants and Nopants

First, let me tell you about Smartypants here.



I mentioned before how hard this girl has been working. And it's really paying off! Although she's only in year 10, and NCEA qualifications are in year 11, Molls is doing NCEA units in several subjects, in preparation for next year. She's had exams, and practicals, and NCEA assessed projects.

And so far... she's doing great. In maths, her hardest hardest subject, she's just gained another three credits in a statistics exam. And in Science she did a three-lesson practicum in experimental method, and got a Merit! So now she already has ten credits towards the 80 that she needs for NCEA Level 1. Isn't that fantastic?

Meanwhile, Sebby is working hard too. Look at the concentration!



But really he was just having a good time crawling around the front garden with no pants on. I have carefully selected images to preserve his modesty, but there were a lot with no modesty whatsoever!l :)

A fluffy-headed darling

Apologies for two posts in a row with no Sebby in them. I shall endeavour to amend the situation.How adorable is his little fluffy goldy-locked head? And his air of great and serious concentration?



And I have to apologiese for this one, because I did that enormously stupid "oh this video will be much better in PORTRAIT" thing. So you will just have to turn your computer on its side. Sorry. But look how he is standing up now, against flat surfaces; or chair legs, or your trousers, or anything at all, really. He often tries to stand up right in the middle of the floor and ends up in a classic Downward Dog pose, yelling irritably. Heh.

Mmmmm Naughty Mummy!

There are new babies in the house!



The sort you can walk all over. Ooh they are so yummy! And yet so comfy. I am a naughty naughty woman.

An Excellent Child

I'm just going to boast quickly today about my OTHER excellent child, the big smart one. She's been working so very hard this weekend, prepping for a maths test and working on a speech for English. And today she came home with two marks: a Merit* for her Spanish speech last week, and an Excellence* for her social studies project. Check out the comment from her teacher on her marking sheet: "seriously impressive"!



Yeah, well -- Mutti and Bunce may remember this project. It was a family effort. Thanks Buncie, model-builder extraordinaire!

But despite the team approach I'm very proud of how hard she's been working and the attitude she's putting in to her work. She is a wonderful girl, that big girl of mine.

* For the benefit of Passing Foreigners, there are four possible results: Not Achieved, Achieved, Merit, and Excellence.

Chilling with the olds

Well after all the excitement of last weekend, this weekend has been very cruisy and pleasantly uneventful. Saturday was spent with Mama, doing not very much at all really; we had plenty of outside time, 'cos it was a beautiful day. It's so yummy being warm and being able to leave this little man in his vest, and squeeze and kiss his dear little muscly arms!

And Sunday was spent mostly with Daddy doing Boy Things, like going swimming, and most importantly WATCHING RUGBY.

What else... Seb has been cruising around all the furniture, managing to reach something new and surprising just about every day. Oops, now he can reach the windowsill, bye bye avocado! And lo, now he can reach the table, bye bye glass of juice! Sitting in the bath is no longer sufficiently exciting, and it's a constant battle of wills as I try to convince him that it isn't a safe place to stand, let alone bounce. Yes, we have reached the Menace stage. But oh, he is so very very smiley and cute with it!

Official commemorative badge issued

How adorable is my aunt?

Very. Thanks, Pen!

ONE!

The unbelievable has happened. Bam, just like that: my baby is one. A whole year old!

And my oh my, what a sunny and happy boy he was on his birthday. To start off with, he had French toast and a big old pile of presents. I confess that most of the presents were NOT from his immediate family; luckily he has many admirers scattered far and wide who were very generous with him!

With a little help from his friends, Sebby launched into opening his swag. He was such a spoiled boy!

Of course, the next stage after opening something is always testing it. By which I mean, stuffing it in one's gob.

The boys were both rather taken by the train from Aunty Will & co. I think Daddy has some short-to-medium-term plans for some serious train sets...

After nap, we headed out to Macmillans and painted some cool birthday crockery for the little man, while he played in the garden with the rabbit and in the playpen with the great selection of toys. And then it was lunch time.

Now some one year olds might like kid's food for their birthday lunch. Maybe nuggets? Little sarnies? Pizza? Sebbo had an antipasto platter. He ate salmon, smoked chicken, salami, breads, olives, strawberries, apple and grapes. What a guy.

He did share that platter, I hasten to add! He would share anything with his Daddy.

Dinner was followed by an ICE CREAM CAKE... well, okay, it was just a tub of vanilla up-ended, with a candle stuck in it. Seb was impressed anyway. And eating the icecream was just the best thing ever. If his jaw had opened any wider he might've unhinged it.

And finally, there were fireworks to celebrate our baby's first birthday.

It was a lovely day, for a lovely boy.

One of the loveliest moments came at breakfast, when Daddy disappeared to put on some music. His choice? Piaf, Je ne regrette rien. The perfect choice for this little man, indeed.