Your Favourite

It all gets better from here. We've just had the shortest day of the year, so it will slowly get lighter and lighter outside. Before you know it we'll be rolling out the BBQ's, swimming in the outdoor pools, and rejoicing in lower power bills.

One difference living in NZ is that they don't have as many pre-preparred food items (like instant jello cheesecakes, carrot cake mixes, angel food cake, refridgerated biscuits, cinnamon rolls, pizza doughs....basically all the things that make our life easier but our waists bigger!) When the evening gets dark, and the house gets cold I usually go to the kitchen to entertain myself by baking or cooking something. You have to bake most things from scratch over here. This week I'm making chicken n' dumplings....but have to actually make the dough for the dumplings myself....I know, I know.....I'm used to being spoiled. This is where I want to share something with you...

One of my all time fav websites.....(drum roll please)......

www.allrecipies.com

It seriously is the B-E-S-T. You can type in the ingrediants you have and it spits you out all kinds of recipies you can make. You can search by time it takes to prep, cooking method, highest rating, get metric conversions (for me in NZ), and learn all kinds of amazing new recipies already tested by hundreds of other people. It seriously is fantastic...I get most all my recipies from it. Go ahead, check it out. I know you want to.

Look at my assistant :-) I can't wait till he's a bit older and we can make cookies together, decorate easter eggs, bake bananna breads...no sexism here!

A few of Luca's friends from coffee group. In the red is Olivia (she's very advanced - already teething!) and the other boy is Zeke.

So what's your favourite website?....I'm curious, and I've just told you mine, so it's time to share!

What goes in must come out!

What's this stuff?!

Last week we started Luca on 'solids.' At 5 1/2 months was his first taste of real food. Here are the photos from his first few bites. Suprisingly he knew exactly what to do when the spoon came to his mouth. We're not sure if this is because of his careful observations from Mom and Dad eating, or just because he likes to put everything in his mouth. The opening of the mouth bit he got, but the swallowing of the food....well that took a few more days to get the hang of. He's loving the food, and seems to want more everytime we are finished. Such a boy!

Take a look at the video from his first bites.....too cute.

Sauvignon Blanc

I was invited on a famil to Portage Resort (in the Marlborough Sounds) and it was a much needed mini holiday for both James and I. We were wined and dined, and enjoyed the winter solitute of an almost empty resort. Oma watched Luca, so we were baby-free for almost 3 entire days....and boy was it nice :-)

After a ferry to the South Island, and a water taxi to Portage Resort, we were whisked to our really luxery rooms that were pre heated for us upon arrival. James and I had just recently been to the Marlborough Sounds for Bruce's 60th b-day in Feb with Dad and Fran....but it was a much different feel during the winter time.

We spent the afternoon walking around the sounds and touring the resort...basically doing nothing....and it was soooo nice!
The resort was amazing, and the the next day they sent us on a personalized wine tour of the Marlborough region. About 65% of NZ's wine comes from this region. This area is famous for it's Sauvigon Blanc and we did our fare share of sampling. James, Dad, Fran, and I had been on a wine tour before but we definitly weren't going to say to another one! We visited a few wineries we had been to before, but many that we hadn't. It would take you several weeks to make it round to all 110 of them.

We had a beautiful winery lunch in front of the fire, and toured wineries, gourment food shops, and a chocolate shop. Gorgeous, sumptious wines that put our el cheapo supermarket wine that we drank in our hotel room the night before to shame......ha ha. Several bottles of wine later, and feeling very very buzzed we boarded the ferry back to Wellington where we met up some friends for the night.

The next morning was spent hanging out in cafes in a very windy Wellington before heading back up to Foxton beach to celebrate James' moms birthday. Luca greeted us with huge smiles, and we heard stories about how wonderfully behaved he was. All in all....a very perfect few days away:-)

The ferry that takes you from the North to South Islands.

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.