Someone's turning 2, or should that be 3?

We have just had a lovely long weekend with Nana & Poppa here to celebrate Noah's 2nd birthday, and I have not long ago dropped Nana off at the airport to end what has been a lovely weekend.

You may have wondered at the lack of a blog last week, well there was good reason for this as in our slight madness decided that we had just enough time to paint the lounge and dining room before Nana and Poppa arrived on Friday morning - this made for a completely crazy and hectic week as we raced around like mad people getting all the prep work done in the evenings, Mark painted for about 12 hours straight on his day off on Wednesday with me helping for 4 hours in the evening, and we just managed to pull all the masking tape down minutes before I left to go to the airport to pick them up! It was all worth it because it looks so amazing, and we now can't believe we waited this long to do it. We will take some photos when a) we get a nice day and b) the rooms are bit tidier to show it off in its full glory - which could be a while given the weather and the current state they're in!



The pirate ship was an instant hit with Noah, he very quickly figured out how the cannonball worked!

We mostly spent the weekend indoors as it was yet another wet weekend, although Poppa took Noah up to the park both days for some fresh air, and we had an excursion to the shops and Cafe California for brunch on Noah's birthday. Otherwise we just had fun playing with Noah's new pirate ship (from Nana & Poppa) and the famous Thomas train set (that we had been waiting to give Noah for about a year!). It was great because Grandma in England had sent over another train (Donald) to go with the set, and we had great fun watching the trains both go around the track. We have decided that Thomas is a bit of a bully though as he is much quicker than Donald and seems to delight in catching him up and shunting him to the point where he gets pushed right off the track. Donald also has an open carriage so we have enjoyed putting various farm animals in it to go for a ride.

We had a cake (cooked by Mummy - shock horror I know I bet you didn't think I was capable! and iced by Daddy) and chippies for afternoon tea on Saturday and Noah was very quick to blow out the candles before we had even finished the song so we had to sing it twice just so we could get it on camera!


Noah's Happy Happy Birthday




The funniest moment of the weekend is that Noah, bless him, has got it into his head that he is now three and not two. This is how the conversation goes 'And how old are you Noah?' "Three" 'Really? I think you're two' "I'm three!" 'Two' "I'm three!" 'Noah you'll be three next year, but for now you're two' "I'm THREEE!" And so it goes on, usually until we have to say 'OK I give up, you can be three'. Last week when we asked him how old he was, he would say "I'm one", but he seems to have decided to skip being two altogether. What a funny boy!

Noah receives birthday wishes from Grandma & Grandad via webcam and phone, and enjoys watching their gift Donald chug around the room

The seasoned fluffy connoisseur

Poppa had to go back to Hamilton Sunday lunchtime so he could prepare for his busy Monday on the milk run, but we were lucky to have Nana stay on till Monday night, so she got the chance to have a whole day just her and Noah today, and by all accounts they had great fun. The same can't be said for Poppa's bag which got lost on the way back to Hamilton and this made for a much more challenging afternoon than he was planning on given his car keys were in the said bag! Anyhow all's well that ends well with that story as I believe that the bag has been found and he'll pick it up tonight when he collects Nana from the airport.



Noah has all manner of fun playing with the new train set and makes sure he sits as close to the Burger rings as possible!

Well that's about it as far as the birthday celebrations go, but lastly, we have a very special message to send to Grandma in England from us all: Hey Grandma we send you all the love, hugs and kisses in the world, and wish you better really soon! We are thinking of you always! All our love, Meg, Mark & Noah.

p.s. Noah also says 'Grandma, do you remember the lovely hour we spent in your garden the day we flew home to New Zealand, you and I had such fun feeding the birdies bananas and watching them play in the bird bath, I still tell Mummy & Daddy about it even now. All my love, Noah xxx

Just what the doctor ordered

We have just returned from a lovely long weekend with Nana & Poppa, which was just what we needed after a fairly tough week of full-on sickness last week. Noah came down with a nasty cold bug last weekend and was off daycare all week. This threw us into our usual challenge of juggling work, study and looking after a poorly boy. Easier said than done when we were both feeling rather average ourselves at points over the week, Mark with a really bad tooth and me with a gammy eye.

Needless to say it was a bit of a relief to be able to get outside the four walls of home and have a change of scenery for the weekend relaxing at Nana & Poppa's. The weather was pretty damp, but we managed a few outings between the various rain showers, visiting the local wildlife (donkeys, cows, horses, sheep), watching Uncle Sam play rugby and enjoying some yummy coffee/fluffy cafe outings.






Otherwise, we just enjoyed hanging out in and around the house, playing with Uncle Nic and Sam's old toys, and running around outside chasing pukekos and jumping up and down Poppa's mounds of dirt (one was definitely a 'dinosaur' and another one 'a pirate ship'). We have uploaded the cutest video of Noah on a mini mound of dirt doing his own version of a dance to King of the Castle!








Being at home with Noah during last week wasn't all bad as we did enjoy a nice afternoon at Wellington Zoo on Tuesday afternoon, making the most of the annual zoo passes we have just purchased. There were so many animals out on show that we went around twice, I was amazed at how up close and personal we got to them, however that was a bit lost on Noah as he probably expected that as a matter of course! I found it rather endearing how fascinated he was with wanting to watch the 'pelipins' aka pelicans because he associated them with Nigel the pelican from Nemo!




We are hoping that we can have a 'normal' week this week, it is certain to be another busy one with Mark away again on Thursday/Friday for a work roadshow in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch. My study suffered a bit of a setback last week, as having to take 3 days off work looking after Noah meant every spare minute was taken up trying to get some 'work' work done, so I hope I can catch up a bit this week.

Just one last thing, Noah was most spoilt by Nana dishing up 'ice-keen' every night, and it was nice to see him finally get his appetite back by the end of the weekend. Though we can't forget that it is Noah's birthday in less than two weeks' time, as he is already been practicing for it......

Warm Sunday

After 3 weekends in a row of cold wet weather, we have been blessed today with a mild, sunny day so we could almost be forgiven for thinking Spring had arrived early! So we made the most of it by taking a family walk to see the ducks, play in the park and watch the cable car, the first time in a very long time that we've all been down there together.

The ducks and pigeons were also clearly feeling a little unloved and they can't have had many people visiting lately as they were ever so hungry and ever so friendly, as Mark can testify with one pigeon deciding to perch itself on his arm! And all our bread was gone in a matter of minutes!


 
We spent a nice hour in the garden this afternoon doing a spot of tidying, then Daddy got out his train set for Noah to see it in action. Only 3 more weeks and he'll be able to play with his own Thomas the train set..we are hanging out to give it to him more with each week that passes.

I can't vouch for what the boys got up to yesterday without me as I was stuck in my PAS workshop till 2.30pm, but no complaints as that's now 4 down, and only 2 to go. It's also a 5-week break until the next one which is great, particularly as we have 2 weekends with Nana & Poppa to look forward to in the meantime....next weekend we're flying up to Hamilton (another plane ride for Noah which he's sure to love!), and 2 weeks after that Nana & Poppa are coming down for his 2nd birthday.

This week Mark was away for 2 days in Auckland, and thankfully that passed uneventfully for me and Noah. We were very fortunate that Mark could get back late Friday afternoon without any weather trouble given what we've had in recent weeks, but we had lined up my friend Sarah as a back-up to pick up Noah just in case (since I would be in my workshop and not able to collect him from daycare either). It's times like that that we really notice not having family or many people locally that we can call on in emergencies. Anyway, we make the best of each circumstance as it arises so don't want to complain too much as it is our choice to be in Wellington after all.


 
Last night, we had a night out together at Mark's staff mid-year party. It certainly is nice to get out together, and we do make the most of it since it doesn't happen very often. I must say it is very nice to step back in time to pretend we're still in our pre-parenting days, even if it is just for a couple of hours!

Anyhow, the three of us are about to sit down to a lovely roast chicken Sunday night dinner together, so I'll leave it at that, my mouth is watering big-time having smelled it cooking in the crockpot all day!

A visit from GeeGee and a party to boot!

Well this has been an action packed long weekend for us. GeeGee arrived from New Plymouth on a plane Thursday afternoon, so Noah and I took the opportunity to do a bit of plane spotting before her plane arrived. We were so intent on plane spotting that we must have missed GeeGee walking right past us when her plane arrived...silly billies!

Noah was very excited to see GeeGee (and not a bit shy which for him is pretty good going), and he was very excited to show her all his toys when we got home. We had a lovely day together on Friday, making the most of a glorious morning to take a walk up to the park. On the way there we were very excited to discover that there were not one, not two, but THREE diggers doing some work on the road which we never would have seen had we not gone for the walk. The nice construction men said that Noah could get up on the little blue digger, so we had great fun pretending to drive it for a few minutes.






 
Later in the day, we came to town and enjoyed a look around Te Papa for a couple of hours. GeeGee even ran into some friends from Palmerston North while we had a coffee in the cafe...small world..that could only happen in New Zealand! Then as the weather had turned very sour, we picked up Daddy from work on the way home and dropped him off at our new local fish n chippie to get us all dinner. We were more than impressed with the food so will definitely be getting our takeaways from there when we next decide to treat ourselves.

Saturday we enjoyed a lovely breakfast together at Eva Dixons cafe before onto the supermarket shopping and then a look around The Warehouse's annual toy sale, where GeeGee kindly bought Noah an early birthday present, a great crane & digger set which he had fun playing with yesterday afternoon. It was really cold yesterday, to the extent that we actually (REALLY TRULY) had some snow fall at midday for a few minutes.





 
Then sadly it was time for GeeGee to return home, and as it turns out she flew out just in time, as yet another weather bomb hit us just as the first TriNations rugby test kicked off at the Stadium. In the end, the rugby got off quite lightly as it was only raining for most of the game, and the southerly gales didn't hit till right at the end. We wouldn't have thought that last Saturday's night's ferocious weather could be topped, but the wind overnight last night and for most of today was equally as fierce and rampant.

This morning we whizzed round doing all the housework (Noah helping out with his Elmo hoover), and then this afternoon we went out to our 2nd antenatal birthday party which I had organised. It was lovely to see all the children again, all growing so fast and all with such cute and different personalities.

On the couch from left is Emma, Charlie, Noah, Grace, and Piper

Now I really should get back to some study...next workshop looming this coming weekend, and Mark will be away in Auckland 2 days Thursday/Friday, so no doubt it'll be another busy week ahead!