Baby Yoga

We go to yoga to relax, release the stress, and loosen our ligements and joints to become more flexible. People spend lots of money and time perfecting this new age exercise...and babies just do it naturally! I love watching Luca play with his feet - he could probably even suck on his big toe if he was so inclined. I wander if we all continued doing this from babies onto adult hood - we would be more flexible than we are today?
NZ has a pretty good support system for mothers after they have a baby. It's called Plunket. Nurses come visit you in your home several times a week after you come home from the hospital and then the visits become more sparse....every 2 weeks, every month, every few months. The Plunket Nurses check up on developmental stages, weigh and measure your baby, and answer any questions you have. My nurses' name is Judith and she's lovely. She came round to visit Luca and I last week......5 months old now and weighs 17 lbs. He's right on track and what everyone in NZ refers to as 'Bonnie' (Bonny?) Boy. I think it means cute/happy/healthy.... If you know what that means fill me in!

1 year from today...

Luca won't fit into laundry baskets

The stroller will be a bit heavier to push

Bables and gurlges will turn into words

Sitting and laying in one place for a while won't be an option

Mom will be getting more sleep at night (we can hope, can't we?)

Meal times will be an explosion of flavours

Smiles will still melt my heart

and

I'll be marrying the love of my life

Luca and Oma (take a look at the hand in the pocket)
Luca's 'new' rocking horse - a hand me down from his cousin Caydn. One of these days we'll get around to installing horse 'extensions' to give the bald horse a bit of mane and tail.

The leaves are turning, the weather's getting colder, and everything else is going well. James is training for a big cross country run in Sept, and I've managed to get back into running a bit too. If you know me, you know I'm not a runner...but with James' encouragement and support I've gotten a bit better. In fact last weekend we (James, Luca in the jogging stroller, and I) entered a 13km race. I've never ran that far. I can proudly say that I finished the whole thing without stopping once! But...it did feel like someone had bashed my knees with a crowbar that evening and the next day...ha!) I'll keep you updated on my running adventures - hopefully I'll be able to enter a few more races like this in the near future - but it's anything but easy.

My first Mother's Day

I've been a mother now for almost 5 months and I've loved every second of it (minus some of those middle of the night wake ups!). Luca has brought so much joy to our lives, and has definitly changed us forever...for the better. My first mothers day started with James bringing Luca into our bed for an early morning cuddle and Luca (James) presenting me with a very sweet card. We were up early and I went to a champagne brunch held at the officer's mess at James work for mothers. Karlyn (also a new mother) attended with me. I spent the rest of the (cold) afternoon hanging out with Luca and James and going for a walk into town to view the baby photo competition - which we entered Luca into just for fun. Sadly, the day the photos were taken wasn't one of Luca's most photogenic days - and mommy and daddy didn't realize it was going to be a full body shoot - so his diapers looked a little bit less than glamourous....but he did win a spot prize and we still think he's the cutest baby. Ever

Mars and Karla wedding

Once in NZ, we had a very important event to attend - Mars and Karla's Wedding! James was once again in the bridal party - and here he is with Mars doing a bit of claybird shooting before the ceremony. It was a gorgeous wedding with the ceremony taking place on their farm and the reception in town....but don't be fooled by the green grass.....it was FREEZING!
James keeping Luca warm in the hayshed immediatly after the wedding.
The bridal party - don't they look good?
The guys....Karl, Phil (who flew in from England), James, and Mars. Hopefully we'll be seeing these guys next May at our wedding in the States.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all hang out in bear suits all day? I'm a big fan of any baby clothing with ears, or a furry tail....it's just so cute, and I figure that there's only a limited window of 'dressing Luca up like an animal' so I'm going to take advantage of it before he grows out of it.
Getting ready to go to Luca's first day of daycare - which he actually seems to enjoy.
Flying baby!!! Luca just laughs and laughs and laughs when James flies him over his head.

Carla (the bride) with Luca at a post wedding BBQ at the beach - I'm sure that in time they will have kids of their own.