Beautiful Babies

We're just back from a night away, over in Blenheim. We had a great time yesterday, going to the Havelock Theatre Company's latest production (their first ever musical!!) and then spending the evening in the delightful company of the Parker family on the eve of Kevin's birthday (excuse for wine).

Seb and Molls were, as ever delightful travelling companions and very charming guests. Daddy and I even got a good night's sleep sharing the same room as Seb!

But, delightful though our little jaunt was, I don't have any good photos of it. Only a couple of bad to average snaps. And why would I post bad pictures when my lovely husband has taken very good pictures with his birthday toy?

I fell in love with Fuf's Hipstamatic pics. These are taken with the Android equivalent. I think they're really funky! Also, my children are beautiful and I love them.

Camping!

This week Seb and Daddy did a very brave thing and went CAMPING. Actually I think Daddy was the bravest, I'm not sure if I would have had the courage to try it! But they went up to Quinney's Bush with Lydia and Gillian and a whole swarm of boys, much older than Seb, who thought he was the best toy ever.



How cute is that? Gosh they're nice boys. So Seb had a great time, being fawned over by everyone and doing lots of swimming and 'sploring and sploshing.

Corn Cob Number One

Today Sebby tried his very first corn cob; we weren't awfully sure how this would go down.

Turned out there were Four Stages of Corn.

Stage One: CONSIDERATION, aka wtf?



Stage Two: EXPERIMENTATION, which had a couple of intermediary stages which didn't get captured, such as "Should I start at the end?" but finally determined a successful methodology.



Stage Three: ADMIRATION, or "Hey! This yellow stick thing is actually pretty awesome!"



Stage Four: OBLITERATION. That boy liked him some corn!

The Boy I Love...

... is full of smiles.

He loves his books...

... and he has a face that begs to be covered with kisses.

Fings I Love by Seb

Today it was sooper raney so there was no beach time for me BOO! But there are lots of uvver fings I love. I love making a snuggly buggly nest on the sofa and reading my books. This is me wiv my favourite book from my frend Thijs.



And I love my MolMol being home speshly cos she got a new skarf and it is so fun! It fitz perfickly and it makes the whole worl go noringe.



And I love BEETY what is reely called BEETROOT and I eat heeps and heeps of it. Even Daddy's home made beety. Even homemade beety relish on toast. Mmmmmmm beety!



You know what Mummy loves? Mummy loves having her beautiful and charming daughter back home. All's right with the world now we're four again. Thanks so much to everyone who gave her such a wonderful trip!

Mountaineer

Seb's learned to climb up on the sofa. There he lounges, wanders about in cushioned comfort, and drops things down the back. The usual.



This would fill me with visions of head trauma, only luckily he has learned to descend in a sensible manner. Although a very speedy one, hence the blurry evidence.



Even more luckily, he is the handsomest boy in the world. Today I was listening to a folk song that described the hero as "bonny and braw". That's our Seb, bonny and braw!

A Wonderful Moment

Guess who took two steps all on his own today?!

This pic isn't of The Moment. It's a placeholder to show our little star on the day he took his first steps, from his Daddy to his Mummy. It was wonderful.



Daddy says it was his circus pants that made him feel all acrobatic.

Hulk Hand Goes To The Races

Its me SEB and look wot Ive got! A HULK HAND!!!

It dozzint look as impressive in this pichure as in reel life. It is all swelleded up cos I got bit by a BEE, a HUUUUUUUUUGE bee! And my hand is like a big Hulk fisht and BAM I can smack you up if I want to!

But I dont want to cos I like you.

And I didnt cry at all not one squeaky squeak cos I am sooper brave. Or maybe a bit dim we are not sure.

Anyway yesterday me and my oldies went to the races and did gambling or is that gambolling? One of them. We had a top picnick well the oldies did and I et CHIPS heheheh.

We didnt win lots of dosh even though my Mum did get one goodie when she bet on a horsie called LIONSIXCHRISTIANSNIL wich she thort was reely funny. I crawlded all about and did climbing and made frends wiv strangers.

And when my Mum took me for a walk a camra found us and put us on the BIG SCREEN and made me FAMS. And while I was being FAMS I smiled and smiled and smiled like a Baby Anjel and then I grabbed my Mums boob really hard heheheh and everyone seed it.

And I gave my Daddy lots of HUUUUUUUGE kisses becos he is ace and I luv him. The end.

Busy Guy

So, it's been a lovely week of holiday for me. Pottering around home, plenty of outings, plenty of lazy time on the sofa, plenty of painting and even a bit of writing. I only have one Little Angel at home at the moment, since the other's living it up in Auckland, but it's lovely nonetheless.

Here we are earlier in the week at Rabbit Island, early evening. It was awfully windy and not the best really. But Molls stoically sheltered behind some driftwood and read her book... and Seb drowned his sorrows.

Here's an adorable thing: Seb came into the lounge, where I was playing on the iPad, and stole its special cleaning cloth. He crawled with great speed into the kitchen, where I found him busily cleaning his iPad, aka a book about animals. Too cute!

A big first yesterday: a ride with Daddy on the back of the bike! There was a brief period of dismay and consternation when Seb was forced to put on his helmet, but he soon recovered and had a fab time.

Also, this boy loves him some cherries!

A Birthday... and some History

So one of Daddy's birthday presents was a rather wizzy smartphone (a.k.a. GOMEZ, which he is playing with RIGHT NOW -- it's very cool) and the upshot of that is that I inherited his old phone (having lost my own a good six months ago and been forced to use the small pink one that M had aged 9 ever since). So we cleaned out all the pictures from his SD card, and they dated back a fair way. Here, for your delectation, a selection!

Awwww, baby Sebby!

Winter walks for the boys up some valley or other. Cool hat eh!

If you happen to be close to eating, you might not want to scroll down right now. A poo incident worthy of whipping out the phone is a scary concept, trust me.

If you're feeling courageous, down you go.

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I warned you!

And yes, it is a disposable. Snazzipants NEVER do that.

Here is Seb's very first sand eating experience. You can see he enjoyed it. Of course, he's much better at it now; he just puts his whole face in it and gorges.

Big of a vigorous nap this one, ended up wearing his sleep bag toga-style.

First time on a bouncy castle, with sissy for protection.

This one isn't a phone pic. This is the pool at Brightwater school across the road, to which we have a key. Seb just loves going swimming with his Daddy! And now he's got a swim ring that's just like a car, so he can drive himself around the pool.

On to the birthday! We took Birthday Daddy to Haulashore Island for a lunchtime picnic. The ferry* runs three times a day and it's a pretty cool view of Nelson. We were surprised at how large the island seemed to walk around; it's very wild and scrappy and for a five minute boat ride it's pleasingly "away". It has a nice beach, and a weird saltwater swamp sort of thing, and a trazillion pinecones, and a memorial to a bloke who emigrated with the New Zealand Company, accompanied his wife and four children, and promptly contracted a fatal dose of typhoid, leaving the poor woman to it. Gah, I think SHE deserves the memorial!

And in the evening it was down to Rabbit Island for a birthday barbie. He's not bad for forty-*cough* is he?

Happy birthday, Daddy. We love you!


* A small open boat named "The Ferry". Not like the Devonport version!