The ghost on the wall...

In just a little over 5 weeks, Sophie will get a brand spanking new baby brother!
Yip, the countdown is well and truly on now – Ingrid wraps up work next Friday, the baby room is pretty much completede and all of us are getting more excited by the day...(well Sophie and I are...Ingrid just wants the bloody thing out!)

I’m not sure if we’re talked about baby names on the blog yet – but we’re having a bit of trouble with this one – even though we didn’t name Sophie until a few days after birth, we both really loved the name 'Sophie' weeks before hand - this kid though is a little different and even though we’ve got a handful of names that are ok-ish - nothing has really stuck...(Bradley Junior does have a nice ring to it though don't you agree?)

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"Where's Sophie gone?"

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We spent a large chunk of the day at Milford beach today – Sophie really enjoys the beach and is getting more confident in the water every time we go – hopefully tomorrow is another stunner so we can have seconds!

- The good old self timer shot...works every time

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She could have played this game all day!
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Fun at the beach
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Jeez Mummy, what's your foot doing in the shot!
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More fun with the ball!
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"love those fluffies"
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Mummy crashed while Sophie checks out her baby brother kicking and moving around...
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"Mmm meat!

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"Bugger salads..this is the bomb!"

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Mummy drying Sophie's hair before bed

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While Ingrid was drying Sophie's hair just before bed last night, Soph was singing and making up more songs (as she does) while checking herself out in the mirror...I took a wee video of her here ...but then afterwards as I was downloading the photos...I suddenly felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up...10 points if you can guess why...

Brad

Bran muffins

Happy muffin baking time with Mummy

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The house has been empty for a few days now and Sophie has been missing her rellie's heaps. We ended up having 10 people around for Christmas dinner which went pretty smoothly, we had Ingrid's father (Mike) and Carol along with mum staying for a few nights - Sophie sure did lap up all the attention and was a little angel all week long.
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The weather has been sporadic the past few days, stunning one day, then lousy the next - we've made the most of the fine days by going to the beach a few times and even visiting the Auckland Zoo - and during one of the crappy days, Ingrid and Sophie tackled a few bran muffins. As you can tell by the photo's Sophie loved every minute of it - in fact, she loved them so much she practically ate the lot...we unfortunately ended up paying for it the following day...lets just say nappy changing was a lot less pleasant than normal...

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"This is how you do it...you check for consistency of the dry mix"

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"then stir it around and around"
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"then spoon some mix into the muffin holders...being very careful not to spill any"
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"ohh mummy that's too much...take some out"
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Even time to check out my special fairy outfit Grantz bought me for Xmas

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Brad

Christmas 08

click for Sophie singing

Christmas parades and Rock parties

Enjoying her pool in the hot sun

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Sophie has has a busy past couple of weeks - We took her to the local Birkenhead Christmas parade last weekend (which she hated...) - the fire engines and trucks all decided to crank their sirens and horns all at the same time and frightened the be-jeezers out of her!...and the weekend gone we all headed over to Devonport for the annual Rock Christmas party, which Sophie LOVED! (I guess anywhere with food all laid out on a table is exciting for kids!) She did make lots of new friends and even befriended one of the caterers - Sophie latched on to her and talked her ear off all afternoon. We were all laughing at how much the Rock Xmas parties have changed over the past few years...I can remember a time there was nothing but drunken debauchery and carnage - but these days there are lollie scrambles for the kids, a civilised barbecue with caterers and the whole things over by 6pm!

Ingrid has been home with Soph the last couple of days because Kids Klub wrapped up last week - the both of them have been having a ball together and Sophie is really looking forward to seeing her relies in a couple of days...I've got a sneaky feeling she knows she's gonna get spoilt rotten by everyone too!

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Sophie's new friend...one of the catering staff at The Rock party...

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Chilling out at The Rock shindig
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Mummy and Sophie at the Christmas parade..."Don't like the loud trucks Mummy!"

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Daddy's turn

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These ones are pretty cool though...they don't make any noise!

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Sophie bit her own cheek...Ingrid looks in more pain they Sophie!

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Kids Klub Xmas Party

Kids Klub held their Xmas Party yesterday afternoon down at one of the local parks. There were fish and chips for all the parents and kids - lots of sing along's and everyone got a present. It started at 6pm and we didn't get home till around 8pm so was a pretty late one for Sophie - add in all the sugar and excitement and she was buzzing for ages! - Kids Klub finishes up next Friday and return on the 5th January.

Sing a long time

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Oh!...what's in here?"
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"yay...more singing!

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Check out the video here of Sophie singing with the other kids.

Xmas Trees

We’ve been telling Sophie all week long that we’re going to buy a Christmas tree this weekend. So you could imagine how excited she was when we finally got around to getting one. We drove to place way out in Albany where you drive onto a farm and they have a zillion wicked trees to choose from. The friendly old geezer who owned the property took a wee shining to Sophie and told us we could go for a walk around his property and look at all the animals too...good to see there are still some genuine people around. When we got home we did lots of colouring in and drawing in her activity books - we're trying to teach Sophie to colour in between the lines...it's a slow process...

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Sophie in full concentration mode...

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How did I do mummy and daddy?

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Yesterday we dropped Soph off at Auntie Nicky’s place for the afternoon – Nic offered to have her for a hew hours so we could go Christmas shopping and chill out with just the two of us. Even through it was only a few hours, it was quite relaxing shopping without a 2 ½ year old latching onto us and wanting to play on every merry-go-round and play thing that malls have these days! Sophie had a blast at Nic’s place anyway- they went to the park, had a swim and did lots of Auntie/niece things all afternoon…cheers Nic! (we'll see you next weekend too huh?)

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Yay Auntie Nicky!

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"Mmm which tree do I like?..."

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"I think this one!"

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"Come on Mummy!...I know you're pregnant but I want to see the animals!"

Brad

Samoa

Next time I'm having a crap day at work, I need to remember how lucky I am...I've just spent a week away in Samoa with the entire Rock team. It was a sort of conference/thank-you for a big year. The resort we stayed at, (Aggie Grey's) was nothing short of spectacular and we all had a great time.

I did miss my two girl's back home though...I left Sophie a video of me on the computer and Ingrid said she would watch it every mornng and talk to me while trying to feed me toast throught the screen...

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A typical Samoan night...pretty awesome.

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The beach on our doorstep

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Whoops don't tell Ingrid!
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The locals came out and entertained every night
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Trying out for the olympic dive team...more like the special olympics!

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Working hard.

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Dinner at the restaurant...the only downside was the prices...HUGE!

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Is that Rog from The Rock or the dead guy from weekend at Bernie's?

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More work.

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The view from my room...O for awesome.

Three Blind Mice

Sophie’s latest obsession is stickers! She can’t get enough of them – we’ve ended up buying her a couple of big sticker books where you have to match the hundreds of stickers to the right pictures and shapes in the book – and Sophie has pretty much nailed the entire thing!

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Sophie is 2 ½ and learning more and more every day - she was in the bath last night singing “I can see a rainbow” with full-on hand movements and even throwing in a couple of verses that I've never heard before! – and today we were reading a nursery rhyme book and Sophie got all emotional and dropped her lip when we were reading ‘Three Blind Mice' she said she was 'weally sad' because 'the mouse’s can’t see and they might fall over and hurt their knee…'

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Sticker time with mummy

This weekend, I finally finished off the 'man-cave' outside too - it's only taken four months to get the entertainment system hooked up...and last night we set up the projector and cranked the volume to 'Ear Splitting 10' and enjoyed a movie without fear of waking Sophie up!

Today, we checked out Big Boys Toys - Sophie got a bit freaked out by the share amount of people there but still seemed to enjoy herself...

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The Man Cave

-All the necessities...a couch, fridge and entertainment centre

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"Arhh I'm not sure about this dude daddy.."

Brad