A present for mum on his birthday

Alex turned 1 today - can you believe it? I can't, in fact I think I'll continue to deny it and call him 'my baby' for at least another 7 years.

So far we have spent most of his birthday on Skype. In fact, I think that is what Skype is specifically designed for, grandparents, great grandparents, aunties to wish happy birthday to their respective grandkiddies, nephews etc.

And generous soul that he is, Alex has given his mum a present on his big day. He's been asleep for almost 2 hours this morning - and those that know him will know that this is an incredibly rare event. In fact I've done all my morning jobs and admin and don't actually know what to do with myself now, hence the blog update.

Chatting with Aunty Sian & opening presents

And can I just mention that in the video above, Alex is chatting to his great grandma and other family in Florida. Great grandma has very recently acquired her own skype account. If anyone tells me that technology is all bad I say... 'bah'.

The big day approaches

Well, actually there are a few big days approaching, and one is happening today. This morning Haydn (aka Dadda - Alex is pretty good at telling the difference these days) started his new job.

It's great news really, a good company, interesting job and it only took him a couple of weeks to find it which is good for the bank balance.

But it's also the official end to our lovely, luxurious, long holiday together and back to reality. I realize most new families don't get the opportunity to spend such a solid block of splendid, sunshiny time together, without the pesky interruptions of a job and all that real life stuff. Most babies don't get the pleasure of undivided attention from both mum and dad (and various nannas, cousins, aunts and uncles) for close to 5 months. And we SOOOO appreciated it.

I know it's a cliche but all good things must come to an end eventually and more adventures lay ahead. The fact is we won't have as much time with our gorgeous bundle of joy over the coming months, so the time we have together will have to be that bit more special.

A new home... again

Considering we've uprooted the little man once again, introducing him to a new place, a new home, new furniture, a new bed (in his very own room for the first time) he's handled it all pretty well. I actually think he enjoys change, new people, new places more than the same old routine but I know that goes against everything you read about in baby books so I should probably put that uneducated opinion away.

We've had a few bumps along the way - some actual bumps (did I mention the new furniture?) and a brief spell when we first moved into our place where the little man got a touch of the lurgie (not sure how to spell that). It manifested itself with a bit of a fever, a grumpy temperament and a bit of a rash but cleared up after a few days and now he's back to his old self. He's brief illness also made Alex more cuddly than his normal self, usually he'll have a bit of a snuggle then see something shiny in the corner then crawl off to investigate. A bit like the dog from the movie Up whenever he sees a squirrel.

In the picture above Alex spent hours clinging koala-like to his Dad's back - a game than normally gets boring after a few minutes ... Squirrel!

NZ bye bye

For a while there Alex got into waving bye bye. Not always at the right time but with a bit of gentle encouragement he would start waving and sometimes not stop for most of the afternoon. I'm not sure if Alex gave NZ an official goodbye but we had lots of lovely fair-well adventures before we left. Here are a few photos from our last few days.

Fairwell BBQ at Nanna Bs

Last picnic at Pilot Bay

A professional haircut from Kyleigh 

The family resemblance? - cousin Ruby & Alex 

Having fun... I think... At Ruby's 2nd birthday party

Chasing ducks

watch out little feathered friends

Such bad blog admin, I've just realised that I never posted the video of Alex chasing the ducks at McLaren Falls back in New Zealand. It feels like a million years ago now but it's nice to look back and remember a less busy time... Personally I think Alex gave up the chase a bit to quickly (I think it was the gravel path that scuppered him).

More up to date news soon... I promise.

excuses excuses

note chaos of toys in the background

Well... the thing is... I've been a bit busy: moving countries (again), doing lots of admin, trying to get the internet for our new place... and there was all the unpacking and job hunting and illness. OK, so just insert any of the reasons above for why we've somewhat dropped of the blog radar during the past couple of weeks. Very sorry - bad blogger!

Anyway, lots to catch up on which I will do over the next week or so, but the recipe includes a dollop of Alex having his own room for the first time, a few drops of virus and fever, a cup of 'tough love' all on a bed of new routine which today resulted in the little man sleeping for 3 1/2 hours during the day! A world record by any standards - I realise this is probably standard for a lot of 11month olds but it's definitely a personal best for our little man.

So in all the aforementioned busy period I've hardly taken a photo of the little man - how things have changed. So in a fit of sudden guilt I took a few photos of Alex playing in our new lounge room 10 mins ago.

See you soon, won't be so long next time, don't be a stranger, you've changed etc. etc.

The balcony has been a bit too tempting already