Happy Birthday Daddy

I'm too young to go shopping to buy daddy a present, so I decided to make him something groovy at kids-klub instead. First, I painted my hands and feet (which made me laugh caus it tickled a little bit) and then I slapped my hands and feet on some black canvas stuff, then the teachers helped me stick cool little Paua shells all around it...and only helped a little bit with the handwriting (ok, helped a lot with that) but it turned out pretty cool aye!

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When daddy got home from work yesterday he had a big smile on his face when he opened my present and then gave me BIG cuddles!...Mummy got him a guitar thing that you can play games with on the computer...I think mummy secretly will play it lots too...

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Daddy giving me cuddles after I gave him his Birthday present

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Grantz (that's my mummy's, mummy) is coming around today and is going to look after me tonight so 'the olds' can go along to see something called 'Guns 'n' Roses'...I've got no idea what that is but I hope they have fun!
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See ya!
Sophiexx

Walkie Talkie Sophie

Sophie’s bung eye’s cleared up pretty quickly last week, plus she couldn’t wait to get back to play with her mates at Kids Klub (which I’m sure sped up the healing) The care-givers at there have mentioned to us in a nice way how 'vocal' Sophie can get during the day too….I think that’s their very polite way of saying…”WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU FEEDING THAT CHILD OF YOURS…SHE NEVER SHUTS UP!"

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Never short of a word or two these days

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It’s very cute hearing her make noises though and Sophie simply loves the sound of her own voice, she's trying to say new words all the time and the louder she tries to talk, the more excited she gets!
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I'm not sure if I mentioned, but a few weeks ago we installed a safety gate at the bottom of the stairwell at home. Sophie accepted the fact we had locked her in and has since forgot all about it, until, she figured out over the weekend that it’s not quite Sophie proof. She can now unlock it with one hand and scamper up the stairs in record time. Ingrid and I literally turned our backs for 2 seconds yesterday and next thing we know, Sophie had climbed 3 flights of stairs and was running between her room and ours...while making lots of noise of course. – We’ve had to lock it again and tie at least three knots in the gate so she can’t get through anymore…can't get through this week anyhow...

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Back to Kids Klub...you beauty!

Brad

Bung eyes and an overdue update from Ingrid!

We've all been pretty busy this past week, with little time to update the blog sorry.

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I started a new job last week managing Solid Gold (as well as The Rock) so I'm now starting a lot earlier and Ingrid has been full on at work too with book launches and lots of publicity.

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Sophie has been enjoying herself at Kids Klub this week though - she's down to the one sleep only during the day while she's there, but is still full of beans when she gets home each afternoon.
The one down-side of Kids Klub, is obviously the amount of bugs and things all the kids pick up...poor little Sophie has had a bad run of things in the past and has now got conjunctivitis back in her eyes again. We've been giving her special eye drops this weekend and there's every chance that Ingrid may have to keep her home tomorrow, as you can't take sick kids along.
Apart from a bung eye, she's very happy - lots of running, heaps more talking and learning cool new things everyday.

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Even Sophie needs a coffee while shopping!

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Sophie's so lively these days, she even makes boring jobs like going to the supermarket, heaps of fun!. I gave her my empty coffee cup yesterday as we walked through Foodtown and Sophie somehow, managed to suck out the last remaining drop and proceeded to let out a huge cheer and then started shouting really, really loudly!...guess that's why you don't give kids caffeine!. In saying that, Sophie was really well behaved (apart from wanting to throw out every item we put on the trolley)...one stage I grabbed a bag of tennis balls from a shelf and started bouncing the whole packet on the isle ...Sophie was almost beside herself and let out huge belly laughs...she sure knows how to give the other bored shoppers a smile...

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Wrapped up nice and warm and ready to hit the shops!

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Brad

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ps.

I don't believe it...miracles do happen!...Below is an update from Ingrid when she went away on her girls weekend recently.

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Yes I know its been a while and Brad keeps telling me off for not updating. I guess by the end of the day all I want to do is put my feet up on the couch and have a rest! But anyway here I am, with a few minutes to spare.
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Sophie is back at daycare and enjoying being back with her friends again, making noise and mess and running everywhere. Yes that’s right, running. Ever since Sophie has found that she can get around on her feet she doesn’t just walk, she runs! If only I could take a little bit of her energy, bottle it and drink some, I might not be so tired by the end of the day!
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I haven’t update since I went away with Katie for a girls weekend! We had an awesome weekend – thanks Katie for coming away with me. Friday night we left Auckland at the dreadful time of 5pm, but surprisingly it only took us half an hour to get to Waiwera as there was just no traffic on the road! As soon as we unpacked the car in our villa, we cracked the first bottle of wine, and that was pretty much how the evening continued – a few drinks, dinner at the local pub over the road from us with another bottle of wine, and then after being hit on by an annoying, drunk and old South African fella we went back to our villa, opened another bottle of wine, put on a chick flick DVD and settled in for the night. Katie fell asleep within minutes and I couldn’t keep up with the movie as I was feeling a little too drunk by this point – Katie you are a dreadful influence!
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Saturday morning and I had a sleep in! Although was feeling rather the worse for wear. So a very slow day was had with a trip into Orewa for the obligatory hangover feed at McDonalds. In the afternoon we had booked our pampering at the dayspa in Waiwera. Body scrub, massage and facial, oh what luxury! Was so relaxed by the time we finished I could have just gone straight to bed – but it was only 4pm. So we went for dinner again at the local pub (no dodgy fellas this time), went back to our villa to watch some more movies and crack open one more bottle of wine…
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Sunday was another sleep in! We had to book out of our accommodation at 10am so we decided to drive back to Auckland and go shopping (without spending anything of course), have lunch and then get back to my family. But by the time I got home Sophie was in bed asleep! God I was missing her so much and desperately wanted to see her and she decides to have a MONSTER sleep. After much pacing around the house, reading the paper, eating and pacing again, my little angel woke up. Needless to say, I missed my bubs (and husband) heaps and it was good to be home.

Ingrid

Back to Kids Klub for Sophie

I didn’t get a chance to update the blog over the weekend sorry. So here’s a quick version of the past few days:

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FRIDAY

Sophie and I spent our last day hanging out together, I took her along to Kids Klub to see her little friends that she had been missing all week, we stayed there for 40 minutes or so while she played with the other kids and ran around lots. (This time I managed to avoid injuring her while we were out) Friday afternoon Aunty Nicky came up from New Plymouth to see us all and spend some overdue time with Sophie. It was great to see her again and she even managed to convert Ingrid into becoming a computer game junkie!

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SATURDAY:
Nic brought up her Guitar Hero game and Ingrid liked it so much she’s decided to buy it for my upcoming birthday…cheers sis, the plan worked well. We also played cards both nights and drank far too much over the weekend too.
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SUNDAY’S weather was complete shithouse, so we didn’t achieve a hell of a lot – Nic left to go home around midday, so the three of us, (Sophie, mummy and daddy) pretty much caked out inside for the rest of the day reading books and playing with Sophie’s toys….which ended up being very cool.

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MONDAY:

Both Sophie and I had crap sleeps overnight, Sophie grizzled and woke constantly throughout the night and for the first time ever, I seemed to wake each time she made a noise and couldn’t get back to sleep afterwards….maybe after spending the last week hanging out with Sophie, it’s somehow enhanced my ‘natural baby tuner’…na, I think it was Ingrid’s snoring that did it.

- Chilling out on a lazy Sunday

Back to Kids Klub for Sophie

Saturday's weather was better, So Sophie enjoyed afternoon tea outside on the deck

Playing with Aunty Nicky this weekend...Sophie misses you sis!

Brad

Watch out Sophie!

It did look funny, but man, it must of hurt.
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I’ve managed to teach Sophie how to kick a ball around in the lounge. She now runs up and gives the ball a good kicking and then watches it race away with a big grin plastered all over her face. This morning though was different, Sophie looked like she was in a sprinting race when she booted it across the room, but instead of looking up to see where the ball went – this time she just kept on running…and staring at her feet the entire time. I was just about to yell out "Watch out Sophie!" when BANG! – she ran head first into the wall and bounced straight back and landed square on her backside...and you know she’s in pain when she appears to be screaming, but there’s no sounds coming out of her mouth at all…it takes her a good 10 seconds to wind up and then POW! - she lets it rip.

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Daddy prentending Sophie is in a James Bond movie..."turn around real quick and point at me Sophie"

The photo doesn't show up all her bruises, but you can certainly see a couple of them..
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So, after lots of cuddles and tears, I took her off to the indoor sports centre where we went for the combined 1st birthday a couple of weeks ago. Sophie was on cloud nine and got to run around, kick balls, jump up and down, play on cool toys, and all without any fear of solid walls or hard ground anywhere...the place is almost child proof…almost, there are a couple of big old Tonka trucks lying around in there – and yip, you guessed it, Sophie went running past one of the Trucks at full pace, tripped up and went flying head first, right into the side of it.

The poor thing is now sporting lumps, bumps and bruises all over her face and I’m sure the staff at Subway looked twice at me when I took her in for a sneaky sandwich this afternoon too…

Let’s hope tomorrow’s outing with daddy is less painful.

Brad

Swimming with the fish's

Sophie was feeling a lot better today, so we headed off to check out Kelly Taltons.

With Sophie's lunch and bottle neatly packed in the stroller, her shoes on and jacket buttoned up, we headed inside. It took me a while to get my breath back when we entered...not from the stunning surrounds, but the cost of the bloody thing! - $28 for 1 adult and a further $20 for a so called 'complementary photo: (below)
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I shouldn't moan too much about the price, as Sophie seemed to enjoy most of it - although the conveyer belt underneath the aquarium freaked her out a little and she didn't like the lobsters all that much either - she did however, get all excited when we went on the 'Penguin Train' through the 'Antarctica display'. I was a little nervous taking her on the ride to begin with as the display sign said it takes between 8-10 minutes and once you get on, there ain't no turning back! We eventaully got squeezed in with a bunch of snotty nose school kids and their teacher on our train...Sophie freaked a little at the start when we went through a revolving tunnel, but soon as she saw the Penguins up close she started waving frantically, giggling and yelling at eachand every one of them!...it did gave the kids on the train thing something to smile at too.

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The place isn't set up that well for little ones, I ended up taking the stroller back outside to the car half way around as it got jammed on the conveyer belt a couple of times, and the amount of stairs in the place with no ramps is a bit of shocker - then the chick behind the front counter gave us a dirty look when we came back through the front entry again- I think she thought we were trying to do a dodgy and go in again without paying...christ for $50 you should be allowed to stay in there all day long!

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But as the Mastercard add says:

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1 adult at Kelly Taltons: $28.00

1 (so called) complementary photo $18.00

1 shit coffee half way through: $3.50

Watching your daughter squeel with excitment when she's -

up close with Penguins for the first time in her life...............Priceless.

She did love the fish swimming around in the tank

but loved the Pengiuns even more...

...she didn't mind the sharks...

but the lobsters freaked her out...I think she had flashbacks of her evil sheets again after seeing it!

Brad

13 months of Sophie

Day 1 with Sophie and daddy hanging out together on my holiday and doing really cool stuff, didn't really eventuate today...Sophie hasn't shaken her nasty ear infection which made for a horrible nights sleep for her, and this morning when she woke the poor little thing couldn’t open her eyes due to a crusty layer of thick gunk that had cemented them shut - so it was off to the docs again to get some magic medicine...
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Anyhow, Ingrid and I were going through some of the thousands of photos we have on file last night, and I decided to do a bit of a time line of the last 13 months. The following photos were taken a month apart to the day. Enjoy.

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May 4th 2006...Welcome Sophie Joan King to the world.

1 month old

2 months old


3 months old

4 months old


5 months old

6 months old

7 months old

8 months old

9 months old

10 months old

11 months old

12 months old - Happy Birthday Sophie!

13 months old

Brad

Holy Sheet!

Ingrid put new sheets on Sophie's bed this weekend - some brand new blue ones covered with cute little farm animals. The first night sleeping on them, Sophie hardly slept at all - so the next day she was obviously grumpy and tired all day long - and when we finally got her down late in the afternoon for some much needed rest, she awoke 20 minutes later almost hysterical!

We thought she may be coming down with something - and then it clicked. The sheets were scaring her!...when I went into her room, Sophie was curled up in the corner staring at the evil little farm animals looking absolutely petrified! so we whipped them off and put her non-evil white sheets back on...and then she gave us the smile below...

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I like these sheets much more.

Brad

Time off work.

Today felt a little bit like the day before Christmas. I’m now officially on leave and I get to spend an entire week off work hanging out with Sophie!

Stay tuned and I’ll let you know what we get up to each day...

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Daddy and Sophie getting ready to spend the next week together hanging out!...(Except tomorrow night...I've been forced by work to go along to see the all Blacks play France for the first Test of the year...)