Just the 3 of us.

We’ve had family up here for the past week or so which has been really nice. Sophie has enjoyed it too, having people other than her mummy and daddy to play with and stare at all day. I do think she misses the house being full though, as she keeps on looking around the room expecting someone other than us to be giving her big grins and goo’s and garrs. Even Dad and Marc managed to pop in today for a quick visit…

No photo's of Sophie doing anything special or pics of the garden...so here's a picture of Sophie's gorgeous mummy instead.

We’ve done quite a bit of gardening the last couple of days, a shit-load of weeding and only now starting to get our jungle around us into some sort of order. We’ve bought some fence trellis and paving stones too, so weather permitting we can get stuck in again tomorrow. Although I must admit, it’s not that simple shopping with a wee one who is only up for a couple or hours or so at a time during the day. Once you’ve feed and changed her, driven a round for a bit and grabbed a quick coffee, it’s practically time to take her home again and put back to bed! – naturally we’ve taken a number of trips back and forth to Mitre 10 and various garden centers recently, but thankfully only one more trip tomorrow to pick up some final bits and pieces. Sophie’s enjoyed getting out the house lots though and just between us, we both love taking her out and walking around shops with such a little cutie who gives everybody that walks past huge smiles and gummy grins.

We’ll slap a couple of photos of the garden up in the next day or two when we’ve finished.

Brad

Grantz comes to stay.

Sophie posing for the camera...again!

Grantz trying to feed Sophie...but then Sophie spots the camera!

I am loving being here with Sophie and getting those glorious smiles for the greater part of the day. Her little chuckle is adorable too. She has got two teeth now and has been very good while they have been coming through.

We watched her own special Baby Mozart DVD yesterday and it is truly gorgeous and little Sophie just loves it ----so does Grantz!!!!

Sophie is fascinated by Charlie the cat!

Grantz

Sophie's first Christmas

Sophie had an action packed first Xmas. She was spoilt rotten obviously with lots of cool presents from everybody, but what she really loved, was being the center of attention all day long…she absolutely lapped it up.

Sophie's groovy Xmas outfit

We started preparing Xmas lunch a day or two out which was great thinking too I might add, so Xmas morning we pretty much chilled out with the family and watched Sophie get all excited with unwrapping all her presents.

Xmas lunch on the Deck, Nana, Aunty Nicki, Mummy, Uncle Steve, Aunty Maria and Daddy

For lunch I cheated a bit and didn’t make my normal roast chickens…I shot down to KFC and grabbed a bucket of the stuff instead! Sounds naf, but went down a treat with everything else we had. Ingrid and Sister Nicki made some damn fine salads and deserts too to go along with the chicken and Xmas ham.

Sophie even gave us all a present by sleeping right through lunch so we could all enjoy a nice chilled out lunch outside on the deck on a stunning day.

A cracker of a day.

She was more interested in the box's and paper than the bloody contents!

Enjoying Xmas morning

Brad

A Nightmare before Xmas

Poor little Sophie woke up with a hell of a fright at 2am this morning…a scary monster had crept into her room…Sophie normally doesn’t wake when Ingrid creeps in there put her blankets back on her, but this morning Sophie's night-light had gone out in her room and Ingrid accidentally grabbed Sophie’s face instead of the blankets!...poor thing, I’ve seen Ingrid at 2am in the morning and I would shit myself too!

"Is Santa really coming tonight?"

We’ve had a pretty relaxing day today getting things organized for Sophie’s first Christmas tomorrow, Nana (no longer calling herself Grandma) and Aunty Nicki have come up from the Naki too and have helped do the cooking and stuff as well. Steve and Maria (Ingrid’s bro and his girlie) are joining us tomorrow to bring the total to 7. It should be a nice day, I’m sure Sophie will let you know all about her first Xmas in the next couple of days.

Sohie checking herself out on video with Aunty Nicki...

Brad

Run-out without facing a ball...

We played in the Grand final tonight for our Twilight business cricket tournament.
Look at the picture and guess if we won or not...try and guess who also got a duck without even facing a single ball...

Sophie heard what happened in the cricket match and tried to fight back the tears for her daddy...she was clearly distraught by it too.

Brad

From Angel to Anti-christ

Look at this shot..butter couldn't melt in Sophie's mouth...

20 minutes later after squeeling non-stop (her exciting new trick) and playing with her food...she turns to the dark side...she may be trouble this kid.

Week ending Sunday 10th December

It’s been a pretty full on week with Xmas parties and other events, so we haven’t updated for the past week…oops!

Sophie has been pretty good for the last week apart from a screaming match on Monday night when I put her to bed! So for the next six nights I have got Brad to put her to bed for her last sleep of the day and wonders of wonders she has gone straight to sleep – what a daddy’s girl! For the past week she has had red rosy checks and a cut gum where it seems a tooth is trying to sprout – but everyday we check and it still hasn’t come through, so she’s been a bit grizzly, but gorgeous all the same.

Wednesday night was Brads work dinner and drinks, so of course he let his hair down and stumbled in the door at 1.30am a bit the worse for wear! I think it was a very slow day for him at work the next day, but at least everyone else he works with was in the same boat. My work had their Xmas party on the Thursday day/night and very kindly invited me even though I am on maternity leave. Brad came home from work early for me so I could get there at 4pm – but as all my work mates had started the party at midday they were all pretty drunk by the time I arrived, so of course I had some catching up to do! It didn’t take me long and I was ready to come home by 10pm but am happy to report that I was the last one standing! Friday for me was a pretty slow day and of course Sophie was full of beans and ready to go at 6am.

Saturday we went out and bought our Xmas tree. Usually we don’t bother with all the palaver of Xmas, but now that Sophie is here it’s all the more exciting. It took us most of the day driving out to the middle of nowhere to pick the perfect living tree and then buying the decorations that we didn’t have time to actually get any presents to put under it - leaving it a bit late I know, but we spent Sunday at a great toy shop looking around at all the educational toys that will turn our Sophie into a top notch surgeon (a plastic surgeon would be good cause then mummy could get free facelifts when she gets older!). So without going overboard, we purchased a few good gifts for her that we will probably play with more than her, while she finds the wrapping paper and boxes much more fun.

So while we have had a lovely week and the weather in Auckland has been beautiful, proving that summer is slowly on its way, I can’t same the same for our bloody car. Today I was invited to go to a baby shower and got all organized and ready to go and hello the alarm on the car wouldn’t turn off! After half an hour of pulling the alarm apart and swearing at the car we found out that the bloody thing is all computer chipped and doesn’t work on batteries, so off to the local key cutting place only to be told they would need to reprogramme it at a cost of $100 and that we then need to follow these very specific instructions to ‘introduce’ the new key to the car. So to cut a long story short (as it is confusing and goes on for a while) we can’t use the new key without using the old key but we can’t use the old key because its broken and so is the only lock into the car! Bloody technology!

Ingrid (pics will be posted soon)

Great Weekend Away

We had a wicked time in Tutakaka these past few days. Sophie absolutely loved it and was a little darling the entire time. She slept all the way up in the car (around 2:30 hour drive) and settled in her port-a-cot really well.

The views from our apartment we stayed at were amazing (as the photos below show) but even they were eclipsed by the stunning location of Mark and Trudi’s wedding we went to. (couple of friends from work). They got married on their front lawn which overlooks a breathtaking harbour. The wedding was great and little Sophie sat quietly on the grass playing with her toys during the whole ceremony and seemed to enjoy all the other people and children around her.

We didn’t end up getting a baby sitter for the reception which was a bit of a bugger, so we did a split shift after the ceremony. Ingrid went to the formal part of the night around 6:30pm, dinner, speeches etc – then we swapped around 9:30 and I went along for the booze up…I planned that well.

Sophie lapping up the view from our deck.
Veiw from outside our bedroom

Mark and Trudi's wedding..the front lawn of their batch

The Northland weather was great, a little cold and windy at times but when you’re surrounded by Blue Ocean and white beaches you don’t seem to mind a bit of chill. We took Sophie down to a couple of remote Northland beaches where she had heaps of fun running her fingers through the sand and even managing to take half the beach back home with her too!

We stopped off in Whangarei for an hour or so on the way back to see Kaye, Jonesy and their lovely kids Cassidy and Ryan too.

All and all, our first holiday away together was perfect. Bring on the next time.

Mother and Daughter enjoying thier day at the beach

Am I supposed to have all this sand up my bum?...

A shot taken from our apartment deck...what a stunner!

Brad

My fun day at "Jumping Beans" today

I was pretty lucky today, both Mummy and Daddy took me along to my favourite place called “Jumping Beans”

I get to do all sorts of cool stuff with lots of other babies once a week…check me out below in the photos…it’s a pretty cool place!

"I love the swing...but daddy had to take millions of photos caus I was swinging so fast and he always missed me in the shot!"

"Fun tummy time on the trampoline!"

"I'm not entirely sure about this thing though..."

"Playing peek-a-boo with all the ribbons."

"Wow, trippy man...these bubbles are pretty wicked"

"After all the excitement of Jumping Beans...I'm way starving now...Bring me some food!

Sophiexx

At home with the girls this week

It’s been great being home with the girls this week.
In fact Sophie’s enjoyed it so much I think it’s busted up her routine…the past 3-4 nights she has been a little horror. She’s going to bed at her normal time of around 6:00 -6:30pm, but then waking up about 45 minutes later and NOT wanting to sleep at all. Last couple of nights she has cried herself into a stupor and it’s not even food she wants, just a bit more human contact…need to knock that on the head pretty quickly though.

Apart from Sophie transforming into the antichrist after 6pm, she’s been a little angel the rest of the time.

We’re heading off to Tutakaka on Friday for the weekend; friends of ours from work are getting married up there. We’re staying at the same place Ingrid and I went on holiday at the start of the year…it’s awesome. Sophie should enjoy it too – the resort has a huge heated swimming pool so she’ll get to try out her new togs and little arm floaties…(just hope they are the only floaties in the pool after we get out though…) It will be the first time in her porter cot too, so lots of first for her this weekend.

Tutakaka - a snap-shot from when we stayed there early this year...beautiful.

The couple getting married have a baby boy around the same age as Sophie, and a few of the couples coming along have little ones too…so they’ve organized babysitters during the wedding and reception, (which is 2 minutes from the place we’re staying) fingers crossed Sophie snaps out of her post 6pm freak-out before we go!

Brad

Sophie tries to crawl...

She's trying really hard to crawl...but is making more progress going backwards!

A big Week and U2

Slack again for not updating – It’s been a big week.

Ingrid and I went out for dinner for a work function on Tuesday and had Steve and Maria come around to baby sit, along with Maria’s parents who have just flown in from Boston. Sophie was a little angle for them too.

I spent most of Wednesday recovering from far too much alcohol from the night before and managed to miss an extremely important meeting at 9am…Ingrid woke me up and asked what time I needed to be at work…that was 8:51am…whoops!

Some great news on the Sophie front, we have finally knocked out her late night feed and she’s slept right through from 6pm to 6am for the past three nights! The only stink thing about this, if I get home late from work now, I won’t have seen her all day long!

My two sister’s came up Friday night and babysat for us while we went to U2.
Wow what a concert too…this gig would certainly have to be up there among the best I have ever seen. We were bloody lucky to scam a corporate box there so the entire Rock crew along with partners went along…I have spoken to a couple of people today and I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling a wee bit dodgy…we didn’t wend up getting home till well after 1:30am. Sophie again, was on her best behavior, she woke a couple of times so Nic and Rochelle went up and gave her a quick cuddle and she went back to sleep again.
I dropped the two sisters off at U2 tonight and I’m sure they will have a blast there as well…the gig was truly amazing.

Brad

Striking a pose

Sophie striking a pose for the camera...show off.

Overdue Update

We’ve copped a bit of flack that we haven’t updated for nearly a week...sorry

Sophie is over her little cold now and is in really good spirits. She had her Poppa (Michael), Ingrid’s father up here for a few days this week which was nice and also good for Sophie to get some more male contact too, because apart from me, Sophie pretty much only sees female’s everyday. There’s her lovely mummy of course and really only Ingrid’s coffee group friends and their babies the rest of the time. I noticed it last week when Sophie came up to work, she was a lot more dubious around all the blokes and she seemed to flock towards the girls at work.

"Check out my new High Chair"

It’s been full on at work recently, so I’m taking some time off at the end of next week (Ye-haaaaa!). Ingrid and I have a work dinner next Tuesday and Steve and Maria (Ingrid’s bro and girlfriend) are coming around to baby-sit which will be great and then Friday night, U2 are playing! My sisters (Nicki and Rochelle) are both coming up from the Naki so they can baby-sit for us and then they’re both off to U2 on the Saturday evening - so it’s worked out brilliantly. It's hard to believe though, 2 nights out together in less than 4 days…christ, we haven’t done that since way before Sophie was born!

Happy that daddy is taking some time off work soon

Sophie’s cool little high-chair arrived on Monday too, but tonight (Saturday) was the first time I’ve actually seen Sophie in it and eating…crazy! I’m normally off to work before she has her morning feed and her dinner time is becoming earlier and earlier these days… so I’ve missed bath time and feed-time all bloody week!...at least with some time off soon I can spend some overdue quality time with my two girls…can’t wait.

Brad

Daddy trying to be cool with Rockstars

This is my daddy pretending to be cool with the new singer of Rockstar Supernova (Lucas Rossi) when he visted The Rock Studio this morning...what's with wearing shades inside dad?...uncool.

Sophiexx

Sophie makes Brad sick...

Things are good, Sophie is back to full health (well almost, she’s picked up a niggly little cold, nothing major) but apart from that she’s in good spirits.

Showing us she's feeling much better, no more nasty viruses thank you!

Sophie has been absolutely hoovering down her food lately as well. I on the other hand, almost passed out while she ate her runny, disgusting mashed pumpkin for dinner…I was holding her pretty close to my face feeding her and the smell of the stuff made me dry reach on more than one occasion (I’m not exactly sure why I hate the stuff so much, I’m bound to have some repressed childhood memories relating to a horrible pumpkin incident...or it could simply be, Pumpkin is f*cking awful!)

"OK daddy, so tell me, what exactly is your issue with pumpkin?"

Anyway, Sophie awoke from her morning sleep just in time to catch the second half of the emphatic slaughtering by the All Blacks over France this morning. Although I must have frightened her a couple of times when we scored with all the screaming and jumping around! The poor little thing shit herself!...no surprises whose turn it was change her either…

Brad

The Mighty AB's...you beauty.

Sophie is back in form

As you can see, beautiful Sophie is back to full health and doing well.

Much better today

Sophie had a much better day today. She’s still not quite 100%, but certainly on the mend. She spent most of the day sleeping. (the poor wee thing needed it too after spending most of yesterday awake and not eating). Bit of a scare though last night…at one stage they were going to give her a spinal tap among the kazillion tests they did…thank god they didn’t have to in the end...that would have been real scary.

The colour is now back in her face and she was full of giggles and smiles this morning…so apart from a few out of character grizzles and feeling sleepy all day, little Sophie is a lot better.


Changing subjects entirely, we were sent a complementary copy of this months Bride and Groom magazine…with Sophie's parents starring in it!…sweet as.

Brad

Rough day for Sophie

Poor little Sophie developed a sudden fever and became quite hysterical this afternoon. Ingird took her along to the doctors and they recommended she go straight to Starship Hospital – She became inconsolable at times - friggen aweful when you can’t do anything to make her feel better.

Got to the hospital around 5:30pm. and Sophie got the full examination including a couple of chest X-Rays…and man, X-Rays suck for little ones …forcing a screaming baby to hold it’s hands above it’s head, while having to keep her completely still, ain’t an easy thing to do...

Anyhow, the good news, after a few hours at the hospital she slowly came around and her temperature dropped as each hour passed - the Doc's said it was a nasty viral thing and obviously we needed to keep a close eye on her over the next few days.
When we left the hospital, (after Sophie's traumatic day) she even managed to sneak out a couple of cheeky grins to all the doctors and nurses...

Brad

Fun with Sophie.

Sophie looked so content by herself, so Ingrid and I popped off to the pub for a few hours...Sophie was fine by herself....really.

BRAD: "Hey Ingrid, Sophie has fallen over again!"

INGRID: "Oh well, it'll toughen her up...I'll get to her after my sandwich ok!"

You should have seen what we dressed her up in before this shot!

Sophie now 6 months old

Mummy and Sophie enjoying the day out

We took Sophie out to the park today for her 6 month birthday.
Its funny how small things amuse, she was absolutely fascinated by all the grass. It makes sense I ‘spose why she loves it…we don’t have any lawn at our place and it was the first time she’s sat on the stuff. (Without falling over too I might add!)

The forecast is pretty good again tomorrow, so we’re heading off to have a big picnic lunch – I just hope she manages to sleep alright tonight…because as I write this, it sounds like World War 4 outside…there are fireworks and crackers everywhere!

Look, sitting up all by herself!

Brad

Rockin' out at daddy's work

Mummy packed me up and dropped me off at daddy’s work today…she was mumbling something about wanting to hang out with grown up people for a while…surely they can’t be as entertaining as me!!!

Anyhow, daddy did the same thing like last time I was there, he ran around his work with a big grin on his face showing me off to everybody in the building, I of course played along, and smiled at everyone there and gave the odd giggle and squeal to make him feel good. I did notice though, daddy got very angry when people starting talking about the colour of my hair?…he started yelling stuff about fruit I think?...mentioning strawberries and blondie things...I don’t get it though?

What did you just say to me!...You can't say that on the radio!

I could get used to this...chilling out, talking dribble here and there...

After showing me off, we went into the studio thingy and I got to have a talk on the radio…I couldn’t understand what I was supposed to do, so I just dribbled into the big microphone thing, then daddy told me my dribble sounded much better than the real dribble he has to listen to everyday….shucks.

We had the coffee group girls and babies round here yesterday

Sophiexx