Helpful Guy

I'm nearly going into Seb withdrawal. What with being away all weekend, and working all week, I haven't spent a day with him for sooooooooo long! The pain, the pain!

And meanwhile he is getting cuter and cleverer by the minute. Look, he's learned how to pull himself up onto his knees using the dishwasher door. It's a soggy trick, and brings him dangerously close to sharp knives, but I'm still proud of him.

But now there's only two more days of work, and then I'll have four whole days with my little darlings while their Daddy is down in Dunedin. HURRAY!!!

Au revoir!

And so after a lovely and slightly extended visit the time came at last. Van Blanc was ready for his inaugural Jinks Road Trip. He and his new owners looked pretty happy about it!

But the ones they were leaving behind were a bit sad. The smallest one waved for a long time -- all the way up the driveway back to the house, in fact!

Snow on the mountains. Brrrrr.

And ever since, this little angel has been sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. I reckon it tired him out! This is how he was lying this morning when we all got up, and we stood around his cot whispering to him to no avail. He was out to it, and it took patting and cooing and head-rubbing to stir him in the end!

We're glad you're coming back so soon, Mutti and Bunce. We miss you.

Um, quite a lot of weeks old, but the number escapes me

Well, here we are again after a shamefully long hiatus!

It's been a busy old time. Seb's been having lots of fun at playcentre, and as you can see he's doing lots of practice at standing up. He hauled himself upright for the first time the other day, from a seated position on my lap, using his play gym -- so cool!

For the last week he's had the pleasure of his grandparents' company, which he's been enjoying mightily. Oh, the face-cracking smile when he sees them each morning! The visit was unexpectedly extended when the day of their planned ferry sailing turned out to be gale force winds all through the Cook Strait, and generally not at all auspicious. So yay! We got another three days!

And yet more standing practice:

Listening to Buncie play the ukelele was pretty riveting.

But the greatest mind-blower this week has been BUBBLES. OMG!!!!

Ten Months Old

Darling Sebastian,

Yesterday you turned ten months old. Double figures already!

You are celebrating it by having a horrid cold. There's a lot of snot being smeared around your face, your clothes, the clothes of whoever's carrying you, the floor, your toys, your bed... you get the drift. In fact we all have colds, and today I'm staying home from work in the hope that mine won't get any worse if I take it easy for a day.

Anyway. Time for an update, I think, on how you spend your days now that you're a big ten month old.

You wake us up just before seven, but I won't get out of bed before seven, so you just have to wait a bit. The morning disappears in a whirl of changing, dressing, bottle, breakfasts, Daddy making lunches, packing bags, and woof, out the door for Molly and Mama. You follow us around the house from kitchen to bathroom, squirming and yelling your way across the floor, angry as can be when we leave wherever you are.

Your Daddy puts you down for a morning nap, and then you get up and have the busy part of your day. On Mondays and Wednesdays Daddy takes you to Playcentre; Tuesdays, you go to the library for Tots Time and then help Daddy do the shopping. On Thursdays you sometimes go to Plunket to get weighed, and Fridays you sometimes go swimming, which you still love doing.

Then it's home for lunch, which you wolf down. There's not much you won't eat now! And then afternoon nap time rolls around. You've been sleeping in a bag for the last few weeks, 'cos you wouldn't stay under the covers and were getting cold. You're so cute and squirmy-wormy in your stripy khaki merino bag! You look like a Lewis Carroll caterpillar.

When you wake up, Molls gets home, and after your afternoon bottle you usually go for a walk with your Dad. And by the time you get home, Mama's here! We have a huge hug and are full of smiles to see one another again. We play and fold washing for a while, and you shout "Mamamamamamamamama" a bazillion times and try to eat newspapers and to climb under the sofa to get at the speaker wires, and Molls and I stop you and stop you and stop you, and then we all have dinner together.

You usually have a chopped up version of whatever we're having now; you love pasta dishes, bacon and chicken, beef stew, risottos, mash, anything really. You fight me for the spoon, 'cos you want to do it yourself, but that gets mighty messy, so there's a great battle of wills.

And then it's shower time with Daddy, and I get you into your pajamas and your bag, and we snuggle up on the bed with a bottle and a story-book. You bash the book with your hands and try to grab the bright pictures. Sometimes when you're too excited we read something without colours, like AA Milne poems; you seem to really like the rhythm of them. Bad Sir Brian Botany, that's our favourite, only we put your name in of course; "I am Sir Brian, as bold as a lion" becomes "I am Sir Sebby, as brave as my Teddy" and off we go.

And then I tuck you into bed, on your tummy always now, and you go to sleep.

You are strong and smiley and handsome and full of energy and determination and I love you more than ever.

All my love and hugs,

Mama

Father's Day

Father's Day is special 'round here. Because we've got the bestest papa imaginable. He works so hard and looks after us all so well and he just a seriously all-round-good-bloke.





On the other hand, if you cross him you GET PUT IN THE BASKET.

Messages

Today we've been playing with a wonderful toy. One of my favourite bands has made a very cool interactive video -- you put the address of the house you grew up in and it makes a film for you. I did it, Molls did it, Daddy did it, and I've done it for Seb, too. Seb's film is here.

I've got a request. I'd like you guys to watch Seb's film, and write him a note when you get to that part of the film (you'll know when you're there). And then, when it's finished, click on "Send your postcard downtown"; and then, click on "download postcard". You'll get a .png file. Send that to me? And then I'll keep them for Seb. What do you reckon? You do have to watch it with Chrome though, but if you haven't got it already, get it! It's really good.

Here's the one I did for him this morning:



More later -- it's Father's Day, so that's a great excuse for some Seb-and-Daddy pictures!