Vroooooom!

So in a completion of our journey away from sophistimacated city living, Liam took the kids (and M's friend Amy) to the SPEEDWAY last night.  Vroooooom!  As far as I can gather, it pretty much just involves cars driving round and round a muddy track at high speed.  Seb was riveted.

Also I think he was trying to get a chip out of his teeth, hence the freakish lumpyface.  It was very loud however.  Loud enough that he was spending a fair bit of the time with his hands over his ears, till a nice man sitting behind them made a donation:

Now, Aunty Fluff took a photo a few weeks back that made Cousin P's bum look big, which is completely counter to all laws of physics.  Last night Liam followed in her footsteps and vaulted over the boundaries of the time-space continuum to take a photo of Seb forty years in the future, when he has topped two hundred pounds after living off nothing but chips-eggs-and-beans for the last decade, and when a major night out consists of a dozen cold ones at the speedway.  Behold:

Bloody hell.  When we showed him that picture he did this:

Nah, that's just the position he adopts whenever he's requested to do something that he's not entirely in favour of, such as have a shower.  It's generally quite annoying, but the absence of pants did give this one a certain charm.

A Hot Summer Weekend...

... means that you need to do plenty of playing with water.  Especially if you're Seb.  On Friday, which is a day off for him and Daddy, there was much abandon in Sundial Square, where Daddy let him run riot with the fountains.  He had to walk back to the car in his nikkies.

And on Friday afternoon it was down to Rabbit Island for fish and chips and playing in the sand.  Love this pic, it's like a painting.

Saturday was hot.  REAL hot.  By ten in the morning Seb was out in his baby paddling pool, naked and happy and cute as a button.

By ten fifteen he had a bucket on his head.  Sigh.

Day Care and Nuncles

A huge week for us this week: Liam started study and Sebby started daycare.  He has just settled in SO well.  Thank goodness for one easy kiddling!  He's come back every day on a high, talking about Kiri and Michelle and Tor and all the cool things he has played with.  Here he is having Mat Time with Kiri.

And here he is on Friday, when I popped in to say hi, sitting down for lunch with his friend Tor.  They are holding hands in preparation for karakia.  It was too cute for words.  I'm so relieved that he is enjoying it so much.

And this weekend we have had the pleasure of Nuncle Dave staying with us!  Seb was mad excited about it.  He's been trailing round after Dave non stop, a little whirlwind of overexcitedness.  Here we are up at the Centre of New Zealand today; I can't believe Seb walked all the way up there!  We took the stroller, but he wasn't having any of it.  "I got stwong legs!"

The man himself, plus the view and some random teenager who got in the picture :)

Thanks for coming to see us Dave, it was fabulous to have you here!

Big Cousin, Little Cousin

Last week the Littlest Cousin had a visit from the Biggest Cousin, aka Sophie Rose.  She braved a visit despite the hindrance of a moonboot, and Seb seriously enjoyed her company.  The only thing better than a visiting cousin is a visiting cousin who can't run away, right?  She was at his mercy, heh heh heh.

The night Soph arrived we had a barbie down at Rabbit Island.  At which Seb got some sand in his eye; resulting in a trip to the doc the next day and a couple of days of eye cream.  You can imagine how well that went down.  But apparently all the bellowing has not put Soph off obstetrics, she is made of stern stuff.

Maybe it's because of all the CORNFLAKES.

Or maybe it's all the smiles.  Whatever it is, Sebby had a top time with his Big Cuzzie, and we loved having her here too.  Come back soon, Soph!

This weekend, Sophless, we amused ourselves with a visit to Jester House cafe, a very cool arty farty spot out beyond Mapua with a fabulous playground for the littlies, and *drumroll*...

TAME EELS ewwwwwwww!  Here is Seb feeding them his finger some raw meat.  They came writhing out of the water, urrrrgh, it was perfectly repulsive but undeniably mesmerising.

I've been painting, or rather oil-sticking, this weekend, inspired by Mutti...

And so has Seb.  Look at this lovely delicate (left-handed, hmmmm) line work!  Also, see the two-ended pen?  Seb came up with that one himself, using a lid to join the two together so that he could just turn it round and change colour.  Smarty pants!

Big week coming up this week: Liam starts Skool and Seb starts at Campus Corner.  Wish us all luck...