Two very different weekends (Ingrid posts)

Last weekend was a nightmare! Brad and Sophie were both sick with some kind of cold/virus and were as miserable as hell and I was just pregnant and grumpy! Made for a very interesting weekend with me growling at everyone and Sophie starting her whining and grizzling routine again – the one thing she does that can result in me going totally nuts. By Sunday night I was well ready for Sophie to go back to her daycare and was for once actually looking forward to going to work the following day. But alas upon waking on Monday it was pretty obvious that Sophie was not well enough to go back – her eyes were almost completely closed with conjunctivitis and her nose was very green! I could have cried. Luckily it wasn’t too bad a day as I tried to keep her as occupied as possible – however she got a taste of whining and decided that it sounded good to her ears (and probably because she knew it drove me nuts) and kept it up for the whole week – throwing in a couple of tantrums and a bit of hitting of mum and dad also for the sake of it! Yes hitting! We are desperately hoping it is just a phase and will pass before the new baby arrives. Needless to say she has had plenty of time out to think about her actions!!!

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We couldn't wait until Xmas

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This weekend however, after a major growling from me, her grizzling and whining stopped and she has been an absolute angel. It has been a fantastic weekend and we wish we could bottle the good times and bring them out when she is pushing the boundaries. Saturday, we had a massive day starting with doing her favourite thing (going for a fluffy), visiting Michelle and Reece and their beautiful wee boy Ronan who is just divine, we then went for a ‘ham and cheese’ sandwich (Sophie’s favourite at Subway). On the drive home she fell asleep in the car and once home after a 10 minute sleep we unsuccessfully tried to move her from the car to her bed, which had us worried for the rest of the day that we would have a very grumpy girl on our hands, but surprising us all she managed to not only stay awake until 7pm that night, but be perfectly behaved with it! As it was a beautiful day, we put up the paddling pool that we were actually going to give her as a Xmas present and let her just run around and be a kid in the water. Sunday was just as good and her behaviour was even better! As she had a massive two hour sleep this afternoon to recharge the batteries, we let her stay up later until 7.30pm. At this very moment its 7.47pm and she is up in bed singing songs to herself which she will do until she falls asleep – very cute. At times like this I can’t help but think how lucky I am to have such a lovely wee girl and how she is just so amazing – something I must keep remembering on days when she is pushing every button and driving me a little closer to insanity! Oh the joys of parenting huh?

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Check out the sprinkler too!

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A quick game of chasing shadows

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This pool rocks!
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"Timber!"
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Oh stink...tower fall over

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Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

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Exhausted and happy after an eventful weekend

Ingrid

Labour Weekend

We both took Friday off last week and headed down to the Naki for the long weekend. We drove down Thursday night and Sophie coped with the drive sweet as - we left home at 6:30pm and after a couple of hours of singing and chatting away about 'waking up at Nana's house' she eventually went to sleep. The weather wasn't the flashest (is that a word?) but we had great time there - Sophie sure does love hanging out with her relies and hasn't stopped talking about her trip all week long!

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We drove back home Sunday night so we could chill out together on the Monday - The weather gods turned up big time on Labour day so we decided to have a day outdoors - we cleaned the barbecue, did some gardening and had dinner outside on the deck - a sweet way to end a sweet weekend.

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Mother and daughter having a see-saw together...not sure which one loved it the most!

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Sophie enjoying the passage at Nana's house...put some clothes on young lady!

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A quick pose at Rochelle and Darren's house
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Cuddle time with Aunty Rochelle...
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...and Grantz...
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...and Nana...

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Sophie had more fun standing in the bucket, rather than cleaning the BBQ!

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This gardening thing is pretty sweet...

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...are you sure these things are legal daddy?

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Dinner time on the deck - Sophie is far too grown up now to let us cut her food...

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"Now listen up Mummy and Daddy - next time we have a BBQ outside - I'm in charge of salads ok!

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Brad

Shucks....

Boy or Girl?

Sand-Castles on the beach during a sunny Sunday afternoon

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Sophie patted my stomach the other night (admittedly I had eaten a big dinner) and said – “Daddy got a baby in tummy” – Thanks Sophie…guess it’s time for the gym.
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We found out last week that Sophie will be having a little baby brother come February next year – so that has worked out pretty sweet indeed – we need to start thinking of names now – Ingrid ain’t that keen on Bradley junior either…
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We had a visit from Aunty Nicky in the weekend which was nice, but I stupidly told Sophie a couple of days out that she was coming over to see her on Saturday afternoon – I shouldn’t have, because she got that excited she didn’t want a bar of her afternoon sleep – then she did the same thing again on Sunday –Hopefully it’s not a weekend trend that she doesn’t sleep during the day.
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It’s also Sophie’s last week of Kids Klub this week – she’ll be starting her new day-care next week – Ingrid is taking a few days off work to settle her in next week – Sophie keeps on referring to “New Kids Klub” quite a bit so hopefully she’ll take to it easily.

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We brought a new hair contraption that is supposed to strip out 'ginga'...I think this one is broken though...

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Guess who dressed Sophie today?...
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Brad

Sweet as Sunday

Say that again Sophie

"Bouncy castle fall down"

[CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

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It's official: Sophie is a little chatterbox! She's forming loads of full sentences and talking up a storm lately and one thing she tends to do a lot (and I mean A LOT) is repeat the same thing over and over and over again, obviously it's how they learn but it does get a tad bit repetitive as you could imagine.

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I played Rugby with The Rock team a couple of weekends ago and Sophie and Ingrid came along to watch. There was a huge bouncy castle there for kids to play on and lots of other things to do. At some stage during the afternoon they took the bouncy castle down...and since that point - Sophie has told the following story: "Mummy and Fofie watch Daddy play wugby and then bouncy castle come down, mmmm"

The little 'mmmm' she says at the end of each sentence is very cute though, even after we've heard the same story 150 times...

Brad

Chillin' out in the Naki

Sophie and I took a few days off work and kids-klub and headed on down to the Naki - it worked out well, Ingrid got a couple of overdue days of R&R and we got hang with the Nana in New Plymouth.

I was a little bit apprehensive about driving with Sophie for 4 hours, but it worked out really well: I left home around 7pm her normal bedtime - and she crashed out after 40 minutes in the car and then woke up about 40 minutes from Nana's place. I did get the fright of my life on the way down though...It was dark, hosing down with rain, we were in the middle of nowhere, I had the radio turned off so I wouldn't wake Sophie and as I was winding my way through the Awakino Gorge deep in thought...and then from out of nowhere a voice boomed out "Daddy go fast!" - talk about giving me the shits!...I thought she was fast asleep in the back!

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Sophie enjoying the fast slide...

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...enjoying it over and over and over again
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A quick spin on the tyre ride...
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We don't have parks like this back home...check out the view!
- Family snap with Aunty Shell and Nana...
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Daddy trying to be arty again with the camera

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Sitting with Nana wearing my new princess crown - thanks Grantz!

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Exploring at the beach with daddy

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It's been a very relaxing trip and Sophie has been a little angel. We're gonna head back tomorrow around noon...fingers crossed Sophie sleeps for a long time during the daytime.

Sophie (and Daddy) will miss Nana heaps, but Sophie (and Daddy) are looking forward very much to seeing mummy again too.

Brad

Painful weekend...

"Check out my chinny chin chin"

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Sophie has been in the wars all weekend - the poor little thing tripped on the step outside and started a a chain effect...she smacked her chin - then bit her tongue and moments later twisted her ankle trying to run after the ball - then to top it off - she was given an enema from a nurse this morning as she hasn't been to the toilet for days...an eventful weekend!

Cuddles

Sophie has been little Miss Cuddly all week, I'm not sure what's come over her, but for the past 5 days or so she's been literally jumping up into our arms and then wrapping her arms around us and giving Ingrid and I some gigantic cuddles!...it's been very cool.

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"How you doin!"

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We've had my family up last weekend - It was Aunty Nicky’s birthday so Nana, Aunty Rochelle and Darren all came up for weekend. It was great to see everybody and Sophie was extremely excited having the extra attention all weekend long. Mum ended up staying and then babysitting Sophie on Monday though, because she developed another batch of hideous nappy rash and couldn't go to Kids Klub. We’ve taken Sophie back to the Doc’s (again) as her bum rash flares up something chronic still and she still isn’t coping with ‘number 2’. We suspect it may be allergic to something so we're cutting out various things from her diet to see if it makes any difference -the docs have all scoffed at the idea she may have an allergy to something and have prescribed more medicine for her...guess it's a waiting game for a couple more weeks.

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Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth...yeah right!

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"Fun-times with my Aunty's!"
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Feeding the ducks...then ripping out half their feathers!
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Ingrid is feeling a lot better now too - the first three months of pregnancy have been pretty rough for her - but she seems to be feeling heaps better now...she's just missing her wines!

The due date for baby number 2 is 23 Feb - we're all very excited obvioulsy and Sophie keeps on touching Ingrid's tummy saying 'baby in dere...baby in dere!'. I think this time around too, we may even find out what flavour it is...

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Feeding the ducks and a couple of greedy little eels showed up!

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Brad