Jolly Jumper fun!

Rio has started playing in the Jolly Jumper, and she LOVES it - just like Rune did as a baby!! Its obviously hard work for her little legs though, as she fell asleep in it after 20 minutes of bouncing!! Rune thinks its great fun watching Rio having a bounce, bless him :)

Our day at the zoo

It was an absolutely beautiful day Sunday, so we took a trip to the zoo... unfortunately, so did half of Christchurch! It was sooo busy, we will have to go back another day when it is quieter so we can feed the giraffes and watch the lions being fed. We had a really nice time regardless, though the heat did get the better of us at the end!

Rune had fun running round and seeing all the animals, and Rio was quite happy looking round at everything! Rune loved the lemurs - and he even broke into song and dance when we were looking at them... "I like to move it - move it, I like to move it - move it, I like to... MOVE IT!!" ...after the king lemur in Madagascar!!!

Here are a few snaps from our day :) xxx

A very merry Christmas!

Well we had a LOVELY Christmas... despite it being preceeded by a trip to A&E after Rune declared he'd put peanuts in his ears a couple of days beforehand!!!

Rune was soooooo excited on Christmas Eve, he put a carrot on the doorstep for the reindeer, and picked out two Hobnobs for Santa and a small glass of lemonade (all Runes own choice, I might add!)... then went to bed and took three hours to fall asleep!!!

Christmas morning was wonderful, the look on Runes face was absolutely priceless when he walked into the lounge and saw the biscuits and drink had been devoured, and Santa had left the door open on the logburner after he went back up the chimney! He was into his presents and stocking like a flash, and had so much fun opening all his gifts. And helping Rio open hers, of course!

We had a lovely roast dinner (we got our oven fixed in time, YAY!) and played lots of games, Rune was busy playing with all his new toys and watching Pocoyo! We had so much fun, Rune didnt go to bed until MIDNIGHT! He felt so grown up, staying up late with everybody :) Bless him!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day. Rogie got plastered, haha!

"I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!"

Rune stoked with his Diego toy :)

Rio watching Ru open his presents

One of his favourite presents - drum sticks!

LOVING his NOISY cymbals from Grandma!!

Rio in her swinging chair from Nanny and Koro

Rune has learnt how to wink!

Old soak!



Nanny and Rune

Mummy and sleepy Rio

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas too!! Lots of love :) xxxxx

Santa Photos!!

Here they are, as promised, the pictures we've had done with Santa! :)




Merry Christmas everybody!! xxxxx

Visiting Santa

We saw Santa today, Rune was so excited... in the queue he was chatting away, and kept craning round to catch glimpses of the other children with Santa. As we got to the front of the queue, Rune was sat in the pram with Rio on his lap, giving her a lovely cuddle, saying "Look Rio, there's Santa! WOW! It's Santa, Rio, look!"...

So then it was our turn. He was a very nice Santa, great with the kids! He gave Rio a lovely cuddle, whilst Rune hid behind me and wasnt very sure! When Rune saw that Rio was quite happy sitting on Santas lap, Rune was brave enough to sit on the arm of Santas big chair. His bottom lip came out and he didnt want to smile, so Santa asked Rune what he'd like for Christmas... and Rune said a lollipop!!! So Santa gave Rune a lollipop, which cheered him up enough to give the camera a weary smile! We pick up the photos on Monday afternoon, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they came out... and I will post them on here when we have them. We're hoping to take Ru and Ri to the Santa at Harvey Norman on the weekend too, as they do some great package deals on the photos there :)

Christmas is SO close now, we're all very excited! :D xxx

MAJOR bad hair day!

Well Miss Rio is sufferring with a wee bit of eczema, just like Rune did as a baby. She's got some dry skin on her arms, legs and face - and quite a bit of it has gone onto her scalp. So I gave her a good old smothering of Fatty Cream (works wonders!), and as I tried to tease it past her hairline, she ended up with a very bad hair-do!

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Daddy and his babies

Daddy has been the favourite today - playing and reading stories (and the 'Car Dealer'!!) with Rune, and getting lots of smiles from Rio! Managed to get some lovely photos of Daddy enjoying special time with his babies :)

xxxxx

Cheekychops

Little Miss Rio has been all smiles this morning, Rune and I have wasted an hour just giggling with Rio and watching her smile! She has found her tongue and loves to stick it out when she smiles, the cheeky little monkey! Here are a couple of photos of Rio being a little entertainer! :P

Windy Picnic!

Rune, Rio and I went to the park for a picnic today, but it was a bit gusty! Here is a video of Rune enjoying his picnic and singing Bob The Builder...that is, until the wind caught him unawares... (make sure you have the sound turned up so you can hear him singing!)

Arfer Julius Caesa

Last night we welcomed a new member to the family... Arfer! Nanny and Koro's new puppy, a grey and white whippet. He is LOVELY! He's as soft as they come, was letting everybody cradle him like a baby, and he just laps up all the attention - a real little fusspot! Rune was a bit unsure of him to begin with and kept going to call him Lottie! But by the end of the evening, Rune was giving 'Arga' kisses on the nose and cuddles round the belly :)

We were told he was fully toilet trained. WELL. Poor Nanny has been telling me of the dramas which prove he is anything BUT toilet trained...including a wee on her foot, and a breakfast poo in the middle of the dining room, which quickly turned Koro off of his fruit N fibre!! AND he can jump over gates!!!! Will take a bit of getting used to, having a puppy, after dear old Lottie who was blind and deaf and slow as a snail (at least she wasnt incontinent though!!!)

Here are a few pictures - and just keep in mind that Koro said NO to getting a dog, and I had to go behind his back and arrange one much to his dismay...

Excitement at 4am

4am on Tuesday morning... and there is a noise outside the bedroom window...

Eeee-eee-eeeeeee-e-ee-ee-eeeee-e-eeeeeee-ee-e-eee-ee-eeee

What on Earth is that??!!

Eeee-e-e-eee-ee-eeeee-e-eee-eee...

Sounds like somebody is trying to cut the glass in the window to break in!!

Eeeee-ee-eeee-eee-e-ee-eeee-ee-eeeeee-ee-eee...

Is there somebody down our driveway keying the cars??

Eeee-ee-eeee-ee-eeeee-ee-ee-eeee-ee-e......

Is it a possum? Or a bat? OR RATS?!

I wake Rogie up as I'm pinned to the bed by little miss sleeping beauty, and he goes to look out the window.

Looking, looking, looking...

Eee-ee-eeeee-ee-eeee-eee-e-eeeee-eee...

What is it?? Looking, looking, still looking, the noise is there but he cant see anything...

And then he starts to laugh.

What was causing the awful squealing noise? What caused us to get up at 4 am?

A SNAIL sucking its way across the bedroom window!!!!!! It was dead quiet outside, and the window must have been bone dry, because his slippery little underbelly was creating an awful squeak across the window!! We fell about laughing!!

So I popped Rio in her bassinet, as I didnt want to wake her up with our giggling (and so I could actually get comfortable in the bed!!)... and of course, she woke up... with an almighty, and incredibly LOUD poop.

Two installments of audible crapping, and more laughter from us, I get her out to change her nappy (and we'd run out of baby wipes so I have to use wet flannels)... and, my dear, darling daughter...

She pooped on me.





So, hows that for a bit of excitement at 4am?!?! ^_^

Water slide - take 2!

Firstly, sorry for not updating sooner, but life has proved very normal this past week, nothing really to report!!

It has been scorching hot again, yesterday (Saturday) the digital thermometer in Rangiora High Street read 32 degrees when we went past at about 4pm. Phew! It was sweltering! The water slide came out again, and we had great fun... though Mummy had a bit of a disasterous wardrobe malfunction!! Got some great pics this time. Rune and Daddy had so much fun playing silly buggers, and Rio was hooting away as she watched all the shenanigans from her bouncer in the shade! :)

WATER SLIDE!

So the weather has been REALLY hot lately, so humid, it's hard to function in this heat! Sunday was another beautiful day, so we decided to buy a water slide (a length of plastic sheeting with a hose pipe attatchment - so it sprinkles water on the plastic sheeting and you slide along it..) ..Rune was very excited by the idea of a water slide, but I think he imagined an actual slide that you climb up steps and slide down, just with a bit of water! We didnt get home until about 6pm, by which time it had cooled down and was starting to spit with rain. Rune was soooo excited about the water slide, we set it up anyway and all had a go on it! It was really cold water, and Rune was a bit hesitant to go on it (Mummy and Daddy showed him how it was done!!) ...and with a bit of encouragement he started to play on it... and LOVED IT! My camera had run out of batteries so I didnt get any pictures, but next time I will be snap-happy and get heaps of pictures to put on here! It was great fun, we were out in the garden for about an hour, soaking wet and covered in bits of grass, but it was fantastic! Rune thought it was hilarious to slide along the plastic and crash at the end, and to splash water everywhere... and he loved pressing on the sprinkler bit to make the water shoot up really high in the air! The neighbours must have wondered what was going on - there was lots of hooting and laughter coming from our back garden!! Rio was enjoying watching all the dramas in her little bouncer chair... how much fun are we going to have when she's old enough to go on it too?! :D

In other news, we sold our Bluebird and have bought a 7-seater people mover (a Mazda MPV to be exact)... we got such a bargain with the people mover, we're absolutely stoked! Rogie is picking it up after work tonight, so we are very excited to take it for a spin and look at the empty seats and plan more babies to fill them!!!! ;) xxxx

Lotties Star

(Nanny Ali, this will make you cry... just a warning!)

We had a lovely BBQ at Nanny and Koro's house on Saturday, after Rogie and Koro spent the afternoon watching Casino Royale, and me (Sam), Rune, Rio, and Nanny Ali all went SHOPPING! It was a beautiful day, really hot, so we spent most of the evening in the garden, running around with Rune and the football that found its way into the garden! Rune went round the side of the house, down near Lotties little wee-wee pound, and asked where Lottie was.. stifling the tears and trying to sound as casual as possible, I told him that Lottie fell asleep, grew wings, and went to live in the sky. He was a bit confused by that, but was happy to blow kisses into the sky with me and say "Love you Lottie". He soon busied himself with the football again after that.

On the way home, dusk was closing in, and there was one star shining bright. Rune spotted it and said "Look Mummy, Look Daddy, a star!" ...so we both looked for it, and Rune started blowing it kisses and saying "love you Lottie, love you mwah mwah" ...so we have named that Lottie's star. Every evening, the first star that comes out - the one that shines really bright - thats Lotties star, and we blow it kisses.

We love you, Lottie! :)

...and to end on a different subject, the Plunket nurse visited us on Monday, Rio wouldnt stop smiling at her, even though I had to wake her up for her check! She's such a little show off! She weighs 11lb 10oz, and is on the 70th percentile. At this age, Rune was on the 20th percentile because my breast milk was failing him miserably. So I think it is safe to say that everything is going absolutely swimmingly with little madam! She's such an easy little baby :)

xxxxx

Related?

Rune and Rio at 2 months old... WOW. Rio is just a chubbier, darker version of Rune at this age. Absolutely amazing! Click on the picture to enlarge it :) xxx

Paw Prints on our Hearts

If it should be that I grow frail and weak,

and pain should keep me from my sleep,

then you must do what must be done,

for we know this last battle can't be won.

You will be sad, I understand,

but don't let grief then stay your hand,

for this day, more than the rest,

your love and friendship must stand the test.

We've had so many happy years,

what is to come can hold no fears.

Would you want me to suffer? So,

when the time comes, please let me go.

Take me where my needs they'll tend,

only stay with me until the end,

and hold me firm and speak to me,

until my eyes no longer see.

It is a kindness that you do to me,

although my tail it's last has waved,

from pain and suffering I have been saved.

Do not grieve, it should be you,

who must decide this thing to do.

We've been so close, we two these years,

Don't let your heart hold any tears.

Good night Lottie, sleep tight. We'll always love you, you'll never be forgotten. One day we'll meet again xxxxxx

Fat Lip :(

Poor Rune came home with a wicked war wound from pre-school on Wednesday, the kids were jumping from a beam onto a crash mat... Rune was having great fun doing this with the other children, but on one jump he totally missed the crash mat and smacked his face on the floor :( He has a scraped nose and mouth, a great big chunk out of the inside of his mouth, and a lovely big fat lip. The poor thing! He was very brave at the time, the teachers said it took him all of about 2 minutes to get over it, have a cuddle, and get right back to playing! He has been enjoying taking advantage of ice-block treatment too... I dont think he's ever had so many ice lollies in one day!!!!! He is a very brave little boy and looks like a proper little thug now...

Two hours after it happened.

A day and a half later!

Girl genius

Rio blew me away last night, not only has she rolled over three times in a row at 6 weeks old, but yesterday evening she was COPYING me! I would stick my tongue out, and she would copy, I would say "oooh" and she would copy... this girl is going to be our next Prime Minister at the age of 7!!!! She is soooo advanced, so clever, I think I must have been about 5 months overdue when I gave birth to her... lord help us, the next one will be a toddler when its born!! :S

Rune thinks its sooooo funny when Rio coos or sneezes or makes any sort of noise, he giggles so hard it makes Rio laugh too! This morning Ru was trying to drink his milk but Rio had a fit of the sneezes, and poor Ru almost choked himself half to death on his milk because he couldnt stop laughing - it was a right old sight, which in turn made me laugh so hard I was of no help to either of them, with Rio sneezing and Rune coughing and spluttering between giggles!

Here are a couple of pictures from this morning (after the afore mentioned dramas, that is!) - Rune is always asking to cuddle, hold, or kiss Rio - he is a VERY proud big brother :)

Our Picnic

We had a lovely picnic on Sunday, with our friends from the Canterbury Kids forum. The weather was perfect, quite humid but overcast so no risk of sunburn! All the kids had an awesome time running round and playing together. It was such a great afternoon! Rune was being a bit naughty and throwing his weight around - he even beat up some poor Maori boy who was twice his size, and he wasnt even with our party, he was a total stranger minding his own business!! Rune is a little bruiser and loves to play rough, he's having a bit of trouble realising that its okay to play rough with Daddy and Koro, but not with other children... it doesnt help that Rune is built like a brick shithouse and has no feeling in his big Beeney-bonce head!!! Rune will be moving over to the big boys side of pre-school next week, he is very ready for it - the big boys over there will soon put him in his place!! Its funny though because is is sooooo gentle with babies, and REALLY protective of Rio. He loves cuddling wee bubbas, and giving them kisses. He's a lovely little boy.... just an All-Black in training! ;)

Anyway, here are a few pics from the picnic: