Weekend Update

It was a wonderful weekend for us.

On Saturday we were invited over to our friends Astrid & Lukas' place for a BBQ for their housewarming. We were up early on Saturday morning with Darian, who seems to think that it's better waking up at 6am on a Saturday but during the week wants to sleep in and we have to guiltily wake him (as was the case this beautiful Monday morning). Nonetheless, Cameron asked me to bake a ham to take along with us which I had done on Friday night but I also had a grand idea to bake a cake that morning to take along with us, so I baked a yummy chocolate cake too. Both went down as a great hit which I just have to add (no modesty here... LOL)! We finally got to Astrid & Lukas' place that afternoon and had a wonderful time with our friends whom we haven't seen in ages. Nessa & Sean are busy planning their wedding (July in Ireland), Jess & Josh are enjoying their relationship and have since moved in together, Astrid & Lukas seem to be on the verge of starting a family (that was all the talk on Saturday) and Adam & Helen are loving their growing family with Charlie now 3 and Lily at 6 months. We haven't seen this group of people in such a long time so it was good to catch up.

Astrid & Lukas have a lovely new home with a swimming pool and a spa so they asked us to come with out togs ready for a swim. After a good catch up and lovely BBQ lunch we had all the kids in the pool and cos it was a bit cool we put the littlies in the spa pool. Darian loved every minute of it. He was splashing around and having the time of his life in the pool. We just have to get our little water baby into the pool more often and I seriously have to get him swimming lessons as soon as he is of age. He thought it was just the best thing ever and thoroughly enjoyed playing with little Charlie. He chuckled and squealed everytime Charlie would play and splash about with him.



He was such a joy and everyone was totally enamoured with him. He was so tired that he konked out on the way home in the car and went from his car seat to the cot, totally undisturbed. All that splashing about did him good.

On Sunday we headed to church and afterwards went to do some grocery shopping. When mum was with us we would leave Darian with her and just go to the store on our own but now we've got to take him with us, and this is the second time we've done a full grocery shop with him and all I can say is, Darian is a handful. He is so full of energy that he can't stay strapped into the trolley for too long and just wants to grab everything. By the time we got home we were so exhausted from the shopping trip and he was still bouncing off the walls.

When it was time for bed I decided I will try something different. You see mum spoiled Darian by rocking him to sleep every night and it's been a battle to get him out of that habit. So last night I decided I would just put him in his cot and keep him there until he fell asleep. It took 45 minutes (from 8pm to 8:45pm) but he fell asleep on his own, in his cot, without any rocking for the first time in his life! Needless to say I was totally knackered by then but I have to keep reminding myself that it's for the best, for him & me in the long run. Everytime he would get up I would put him right back, cover him and say "it's sleep time now" so he can understand that "sleep time" means close your eyes and sleep! LOL! Oh well, we'll learn for next time! Granny totally spoiled this little munchkin!

It was a wonderful weekend spent with friends and my gorgeous two guys, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

On a side note: I've got Cherie's wedding coming up in just under 5 weeks and I'm on a mission to lose a few kg's so I can look my best on the day. I'm on week 2 of Weightwatchers and today started my pilates again. Last week I started going for lunchtime walks on the waterfront and lost a total of 2.6kg's so far. I have to keep at it otherwise I'll be the fat bridesmaid, and no one wants that.  My goal is to get back to at least pre-pregnancy weight by then, I'm sure if I keep this up for the next 5 weeks I'll get there. I just have 6kg's to lose to get there so.... Wish me luck guys!

Valentines Day 2013

Happy Valentine's Day...

Here is the card Darian got from his teachers for Valentines Day. It's too cute not to share...

Darian painted the card himself and they added the note and the pic...

My sweet Valentine's... the men in my life...

Fun in the Sun

This weekend was a long weekend in Auckland as it was Auckland Anniversary Day on Monday 28th. We spent Anniversary weekend out & about which was awesome cos the sun was out in all it's glory so it really felt like summer.

We started off the weekend on a good note, news from South Africa that I'm an aunty again! My cousin Rafiek and his wife Angie had their baby girl, Eva Gabriella Roderiques on Friday morning (SA time). Times like these I wish I was in SA so I could meet our precious little girl...

On Sunday we headed off to Long Bay Beach with a few friends and had a lovely time out in the sunshine. It was a bit breezy and as Darian has just finished his course of antibitoics for an ear infection I didn't want to take him into the water. So we didn't get to see him experience the ocean for the first time but no doubt we'll do so before Summer is over.

We had an awesome time with friends...

Weekend update

This weekend we took Darian for a haircut. We've taken him twice before to the Just Cutz in the mall and we weren't very happy with the cut. I mean it was good, they did what you asked but his hair grows so fast that you have to cut it quite short and the ladies there I think were a bit scared to use the machine on his hair so would just snip with scissors and tidy up his hair. So when Cameron suggested we take him to his barber for a proper haircut I thought, why not. So Saturday morning we went into Onehunga to our old neighbourhood and went to the barbers. He was all to happy to cut Darian's hair and did a really good job. Cos Cam had a haircut too we got Darian to sit on his lap while the Barber cut his hair. And he was too cute and thought is was so much fun. He had this huge smile on his face and sat really still while the barber did what he had to do. Everyone was totally amazed at this little boy cos most kids kick & scream.

Here's a few pics:

I do miss his curly hair but I have to admit it's so much cooler and so he is less fussy in the heat! And he looks so cute....

We then headed off to a BBQ at one of my work friend's place, he simply adores Cameron & had not met Darian yet so was looking ofrward to meeting Darian and his kids and his wife were eager to meet Darian as well. It was a lovely night, we had karaoke and danced and had a blast. Thanks Elroy.

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Pictures from our Christmas Holiday

I couldn't manage to get all the pics uploaded into one post so here are just some randoms from our trip to Australia over Christmas & New Year.

Baby's First Christmas

I don't know who's more excited for Darian's first Christmas, but I think it's me. I just want to experience this through his eyes and see his reactions to everything, the tree, the presents, the carols, the christmas goodies and everything else that comes with Christmas. Cameron & I are huge Christmas fans so I am hoping this can be instilled into our boy. I want to creat lasting memories and fun family traditions for us so we get to enjoy this holiday every year and maybe have something that our kids can pass on to their kids.

We hadn't made elaborate plans for Christmas so after talking to Bradley & Shamini we decided we'd go to see them over Christmas instead of staying home. They are coming to us for Darian's first birthday so we thought it would be good to go and see them over Christmas. We had booked our tickets about a month ago before so plans for our trip had to be put into place, after all it is our boy's first ever Christmas. We eventually, after a few weeks of deciding what would be the best way to protect Darian and well, protect the tree from him, bought a playpen that we could put around the tree so he wouldn't be able to get to it. When we put it up, he was asleep so we were anticipating his reaction when he woke up the next morning to see the tree. Unfortunately, all that worry about him wanting to rip the tree to shreds quickly dissipated when he woke up that morning. He gave the tree one look and carried on as if it had been there all along. He was totally uninterested in the tree, we even tried to get him to touch it but he wasn't interested at all. So all that faffing over the tree was for nothing! We left for Sydney the Friday before Christmas and I have to say our boy was amazing on his first trip in an airplane. He fell asleep while we waited at our gate so when we got onto the plane he was fast asleep, he slept through take off and woke up about half an hour into our journey. He didn't cry, or moan and groan but was quite happy. Except he eventually got tired of sitting on our laps and just wanted to get down onto the floor and crawl around. He was so full of energy and wanted to play with everything other than his toys, so by the time we landed in Sydney 3 hours later we were exhausted. It was then that we decided that we wouldn't go to South Africa until he was old enough to sit in his own seat! It didn't help that his pram was over 10kg's so it had to be booked into oversized baggage so we had to carry him through customs and passport control until we got to baggage claim. We were seriously exhausted by the time we got into the arrivals hall, only to not see Bradley or Shamini! When we called them they were at a different arrivals gate (Sydney has two - go figure)! Anyway, it was so good to see them that when we did we just kind of forgot all about the tiredness! It was just after 6pm Sydney time when we arrived so about 8pm Auckland time so Darian was quite tired by then. We grabbed something to eat before we made our way to Fennell Bay, where Brads & Sham live, about 2 hours drive out of Sydney.

We spent the first day in at home because it was terribly hot. It left me drained and Darian was getting used to the heat himself, thankfully he wasn't too fussy over it. He spent the whole holiday in just his vest and nappies. Christmas Eve we took a drive to the mall and around the Lake Macquarie to see the area. I must add that Lake Macquarie and the surrounding areas are beautiful. We went for dinner at Blue Water Pizza on Warners Bay and then got some ice-cream and just walked along the Esplanade. It was a lovely cool afternoon and there were families out picnicking and enjoying some family time.

The lake itself, I've recently found out, is twice the size of Sydney Harbour. It is really picturesque and a wonderful holiday spot. The only thing that freaked me out was the fact that Bradley told us about "The Family" that lived at the creek where they lived (it led onto Lake Macquarie), about 2 houses down the road from their house. "The Family" sounded very mafia like when he started telling us, only to find out it's a group of Iguana's or Goannas (huge lizards...urgh) that reside at the entrance to the creek. Just thinking about this freaks me out. Needless to say, I did not venture anywhere near there. I did take Darian for a walk one afternoon just to the end of the road, where the grass patch started, about 5m away from the entrance to the creek and turned around and went back home. I was interested in seeing this but when I thought if these things attack and I have Darian with me... so I chickened out. Anyway, I sooned realised we weren't in NZ anymore and had to get used to the idea of creepy crawlies and snakes and spiders and iguana's for the next 2 weeks.

Christmas day we spent at home. We had some relief as the weather cooled down and we had some rain so we spent the day indoors. Brads and Sham made a marvelous Christmas lunch and we just enjoyed each other's company. By now, Darian who was not interested in teh tree at home was quite fascinated by the tree at hs uncle & aunty's house and kept going to the tree and fiddling with the decorations.

Here are a few pics of Christmas day:

On Boxing Day we got out of the house and went to the mall, but everything was closed so we just headed down into Newcastle and took a walk on the pier and I had an interesting look at Newcastle Harbour and the Port operations. They had a vessel coming into port so I had a good look at their Tug operations. I was probably the only one interested but hey, these things interest me now... work habit! LOL!

The Thursday after Christmas Cameron & Bradley had tickets to watch the A-League (Autralian Soccer league) and they headed off to Sydney to watch Sydney FC play the Central Coast Mariners. One of their favourite soccer players, Allessandro Del Piero plays for the Sydney FC so they had to go see him in action. They had a bit of drama on their trip though, they took the train into Sydney but got off at the wrong station. They went to the wrong stadium and had to take another train to get to the right Allianz Stadium.

Here they are at the wrong stadium... Sham & I couldn't believe that they didn't realise this when they got there and nobody was there...

That weekend we went tenpin bowling, which was fun. Darian was really intrigues by the lights, sights and sounds, thankfully he stayed in his pram and didn't try to crawl on the aisles!

New Years Eve we went and did some shopping for stuff for New Years and spent the evening at home, just the 5 of us. We had our own little party and danced the night away, Darian decided he would wake up at midnight so just after the countdown I had to get him back to sleep. By then I too was exhausted and headed to bed. Such is the life of a parent! Brad then made my favourite, Crab curry for lunch on New Years day... mmm wouldn't mind some of that now... he also showed me how to make it so I'm definitely gonna have a go soon.

We then just had one more day with Brad & Sham before they had to get back to work. We then had to get ourselves ready and pack for the trip back home. We left on Friday morning and Bradley drove us back to Sydney, Sham had to work so we said our goodbyes that morning (VERY HARD) and we flew out of Sydney that afternoon.

It was a wonderful holiday and I am so glad Darian got to spend his first Christmas with his aunty & uncle. These memories are to be treasured and I can't wait to make more memories for our little family.

Getting ready for Baby's first Christmas

I cannot bleieve we are at the point of celebrating Darian's first Christmas. Last year this time , we kept saying that in a year we'd have a little baby at Christmas, and here we are. Time sure does fly.

Last Sunday we went to Westfield's St Lukes Mall as we needed a Westpac and they were the closest branch open on a Sunday. As we got to the mall we walked past the Mall Santa and his elves and saw they had already started taking kids Christmas photos. As there were only 2 people in the line I suggested to Cameron that we take Darian for his first Santa photo. So we did and he was such a cutie, and was so good. He sat very quietly and didn't cry or moan, he was rather intrigued with this white-bearded man and then looked straight at me and smiled. The photgrapher didn't have to try to get him to smile or look at the camera, he just did it instantaneoulsy. She was very impressed, and must've been brought straight back to reality when the little Asian girl who was next started screaming her head off as soon as her parents got to Santa.

How's our boy's first photo with Santa?

This week his day care had their Christmas Party so we had to get him all dressed up in his christmas outfit (I had bought a little elf's costume last week) and have a little gift wrapped for him so Santa could give it to him. It was really cool to see all the kiddies in their christmas outfits and the teachers looking all festive. The centre itself was all decorated and it really felt christmasy. They had invited the parents as well to join in so I went along, how could I miss it?

Waiting for Santa

 Getting his gift from Santa

At the lunch table with my friends

Christmas celebrations are in full swing now... can't wait til he's old enough to appreciate it.