Little Model Man

After a several month break, I've decided to continue with the floristry learning. I have another wedding coming up next month, so I need to get back into it. I've taken a bit of break while James focuses on his officer training course, and his University study. It's a bit hard for both of us to study at the same time, b/c someone needs to watch Luca. Luckily James has only 2 more weeks of his officer course - then he's home for a month, then he goes away to Singapore for a month of training.

This weekend I whipped together a few ring bearer pillows and matching buttonholes. Luca was my model, but he's constantly on the move, so it was quite hard to get pictures.


I got him all dressed up in his suit from our wedding - It barely fits anymore! He wasn't in the mood to cooperate (spelling?) and barely wanted to hold the pillow. I'm amazed that he did so well at our wedding.

And a rose pomander for the flower girl....except I didn't have any little girls to dress up and photograph.

James was away this weekend, but we kept ourselves busy going for a long walk to play around at the construction site. Good news, we got our council permits to start building last week. This was finished about a week earlier than expected (yay!) We also visited a few friends from the coffee group, went swimming,drank milkshakes (suprise, suprise), hung out at the park, and practiced making biscotti. Tomorrow is Monday - yuck. So not looking forward to a week of work.

Pee and milk and other nasties

Our car has developed a nasty mould smell. Last week I dug through the mound of toys, breakfast crumbs, gym clothes, house plans, Luca's daycare stuff, and other junk determined to find a soiled diaper that had been stashed away somewhere. I couldn't find anything. The smell only got stronger. What happened to my nice clean car? Luca is what happened.

Jo told me she suspects it might be sour milk. Yep, she was right. Milk that had spilled from Luca's cup and got all over the seats. I've tried everything to get the smell out. Now the car just smells like white vinegar. I'm hoping it will fade over this week, but at least it's better than sour milk.

Oh, right and tonight....James goes back down to Wellington. Luca and I are eating dinner at home, when I leave for just a few seconds, I come back to find his dinner all over his hair, the highchair, and yes....the carpet.

Then after our shower he throws his usual temper tantrum cause I make him get out of the shower. I know, I'm such a horrible person right? I let him continue his tantrum in the hallway. Naked, screaming, and kicking around on the floor. I leave him there (cause the 'good' parents are just suppose to ignore this behaviour) to go prepare his bottle. I see him run into the lounge to his toys. No big deal. What harm can he do?

A LOT. I find him sitting naked on the couch and he has successfully peed all over the laptop, all over my clean clothes that I was going to iron tonight, and all the couch. I gasp, and immediatly run to grab a cloth. He then grabs his bottle (which he knows is strictly reserved for storytime before bed to be consumed in his room only) starts chugging it down his throat while laughing histarically like it's a game. Then when I go to put his pj's he kicks and screams like crazy. His favorite place to kick....my stomach! OUCH.

I know he doesn't know better about the peeing thing....but he really got me frustrated tonight. After tonights episode of pee, and sour milk, I've decieded the last thing we need to do is buy a nice new couch with our winnings. What's the point when you have a new baby and toddler which will just wreck it.

Ahhhh, the joys are children :-)

Pregnant 10K

In other news - I competed in a 10k race today. To be honest, it's the first time I've gone for a run since becoming pregnant, and I amazed myself by actually running the whole time and finishing at a pretty good time. I don't even like running, but when I'm in a race enviroment, it motivates me to keep going. James is my usual running buddy, but he spent the day at work studying for his degree while Jo and Bruce watched Luca for us. In lieu of James, I was motivated by my ipod.

I might try to keep going for jogs till the belly gets to be too uncomfortable. The more I exercise the more I can eat....ha ha!

"I'll take that, and that, and that....!"

Our big news for the week....is reason #1432 why I love my husband....he actually goes through with the crazy radio competitions that I enter us in. AND HE WINS!

(sorry I have no idea why all of this text is being underlined...???)

Okay, so most of you know we're building a new house. It's going to be great, and we'll have so much more room than we do now. Our house at present is....well....cozy. Our new place is 2x the size, which means 2x the furniture. We had accepted the fact that we just wouldn't be able to afford new furniture for the house with our new large mortgage and me on maternity leave.

But then, I registered us both for the Buns of Steel MoreFM radio competition. The prize? $4,000 of furniture from D'zine furniture (they have quality low priced furniture...so $4,000 would go a fair distance). We just HAD to enter, and we just HAD to win. Can you tell how desperate we are for money right now (hey...who just got married!?) James was selected as one of the 5 compeititors and it just worked out perfectly that it was his 1 day off from his 8 week Officers course down in Wellington. Perfect timing.

The competition consisted on proving you had Buns of steel by completing a variety of challenges outside a furniture store. Don't worry, no nudity required. It started at 7am and went all the way until 5:30. James did the best, by far. HE WAS AMAZING. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole day as I went to and from my office, to the furniture store to support him, back to the office....trying to listen to the radio as they broadcasted live. AT 5:30 when they announced the winner a small crowd of about 50 had gathered at the furniture store. I was too nervous to even listen as they made the announcement. I was in the furniture shop with Luca....and then I heard that James had won!!!!! YAY!!!!!! You can't even imagine how thrilled we are.

We will now be able to afford some furniture for our new house....Yay!!!! I love you James - thanks for going through with the competition!!!!

I wander what else we can win through the radio?

Strawberry milkshakes....mmmmm!

I got to see our baby today during the 13 week scan. Good news - the radiologist said that everything is looking good, heartbeat is still nice and strong and the little baby was moving all around. So very cool. Seeing it makes it feel more real. Unfortuantly James couldn't be there - he was on his course in Wellington - so I emailed him a few pictures today. He was so gutted that he missed out.

Last pregnancy, I remember looking at the images on the screen and thinking "what the heck is that!? What is that women looking at? I don't see a head...it's all a bit blob like..." But second time around I feel a bit like an old pro. I can actually see what the radiologist is talking about and it all strangly makes more sense. Hmmm, maybe I should study this radiologist stuff - after all I do seem like a natural. And what could be better than showing pregnant women their baby for the first time. Oh, but then I guess the downside would be having to inform a pregnant woment that something may be wrong, or further tests might be required. Gulp....I can't think of anything worse than that. Ok, maybe I won't quite my job just yet.
(This is a picture of the baby's spine....if you're not used to looking at these things, it's kind of hard to pick out....just look for the little white bumps...)

This is a profile of the baby's head and shoulders with it's hands up in the air. It almost looks like it's about to suck it's thumb. Look at the little fingers....cool, eh?

I'm feeling better. Still exhausted from pregnancy, full time work, looking after Luca by myself while James is away, and house stuff. Ahhhhhh.....HOUSE STUFF! so much to do, and think about....and I'm strangly craving bagels (rock salt with guacomole to be exact) and strawberry milkshakes. Not together, now that would be kind of gross. The milkshakes in NZ are different than those in the states. Better in my opinion. They're less ice creamy and thick, and more milky. I'm sure they must be mainly made with milk, so I feel like I'm getting a bit of calcium when I drink them. Surely they can't be too bad for you. Same with the bagels...guacomole is a good fat, right? Not sure if I can say it's the pregnancy making me crave the food, or I'm just eating because it's comforting with all the stress. Probably a bit of both!

Lovey Dovey Post

One of the (many) reasons why I love my husband...

It was approaching the 4th of July, and I didn't even mention it. I didn't want to make a big deal out of the holiday because I was only just getting used to being back in NZ....I didn't want get homesick thinking of everyone back in the States having summer BBQ's, hanging out at the pool, and enjoying fireworks together. I LOVE the 4th of July. It's the one holiday that every American celebrates - regardless of race or religion, it's the one time that everyone comes together.

So James emails me at work to tell me he's got a 'date' planned for Saturday night (the 4th of July). I ask him who's going to watch Luca for us, and he tells me that Luca is invited on the date. Oh, great....I think, this isn't going to really be a date now is it. But I go along with it anyways.

(Photo from our honeymoon.....ahhhhh, the memories...how I'd kill for a glass of wine right now)

James had this suprise all planned out for me. We drove out the an American diner called route 66 near Foxton Beach and had burgers and milkshakes. They had all kinds of usa decorations up and even had a american flag cake and this vintage american car club drove all the way up from Wellington so there were all these cool old cars in the parking lot. After dinner, we went to James' parents house and set off fireworks. They only sell fireworks for 4 days out of the year in NZ (during guy forks day in Oct) , so we usually stock up and have some on hand for random events...like this.

Luca didn't like the fireworks at first, but when we moved a bit further back, on the upper viewing deck, he started to enjoy them more. It was freezing cold out -so we were all bundled up in mittens and hats.

James mom even baked us a pumpkin pie as a 4th of July suprise - you know in order to make pumpkin pie in NZ you have to make it from scratch.... much to my dismay, no pumpkin sold in cans in NZ. Ha ha.

It was really sweet that James did something special for me on the 4th of July - I didn't even mention it to him, he just did it. Awwwww......

More Honeymoon photos...we had such an amazing time. I wanna go back!!!