A Week in the Mount

After the trip to Lake Rotoma the kids and I spent the week in Mt Maunganui as Dean was heading to Sydney later in the week. We made the most of the good weather, and when the weather packed it in we packed up and headed home.

Monday - Mum's actual birthday day, we grabbed some sushi and found a tree to sit under at Main Beach, at the foot of Mauao (the mountain)

Tuesday - Nathan and I spent a lovely couple of hours together at the beach. We walked out to th end of Leisure Island and then had a swim, the water was so warm Nathan swam for ages, and the waves were small and just right for him to play in, and he also found a nice little pool to relax in. These pics are off my phone so quality a little dodgy

Wednesday I was real tired and we had Lillian come and visit for the afternoon so no outings that day

Thursday - after enjoying our time just Nathan and I (which doesn't happen to often these days) We set off again Thursday afternoon to have a ride on the trike at the beach. This trike I got out of the Toy library as it is a bit lighter than his one and a good one to practice on.

Yay she is finally taking a bottle, she has had one every evening for the last couple of weeks now, With her allergy to dairy, I try get the milk machine (breast pump) going most days but when I don't get round to it she doesn't mind her soy formula too much. Here she is with Poppa before going to bed.

Friday - We headed over to the Flemings to visit Erin and Luca, Nathan loves going there and playing with Luca's toys, he especially loves the 'little house' with all its goodies inside. He was most upset last time we visited and the key was missing, so was delighted when he could get in this time and celebrated with a bit of a hula dance, he he.

Luca is a year older than Maia, and while Luca is definately the taller of the two, Miss Maia is definately more solid in every other way, he he.

Avanti go Rafting

On Saturday Deans work went white water rafting in Rotorua. This waterfall is the biggest commercial rafting drop in the world apparantly. Looks like they had fun.

The Twins turn 55

We headed to Lake Rotoma for a day of family, friends and fun to celebrate Mum and Aunty Louies birthdays. We had the boat and a wakeboard, kayaks, water buscuit and a BBQ lunch. The weather was mostly good although the wind could be a little cool at times.

Cool Dude!

Although the weather was cool at times the water was really warm

Aunty Lou and Briar


Had to take a picture of the outfit, she started out in a summer dress but when the wind picked up on went the jeans and a jumper, then the sun came out again so on went the sunhat.

Louie and Bainbridge

Ruka trying on Leonies Harley for size. He's mastered his two wheeler with training wheels so might be looking to upgrade.

Paddling in the shallows with dad

How cool is Hollie

On Saturday my brother and I went to see Hollie Smith perform at Zoo Music. Once again the Zoo has put on a great series of concerts which are pretty cheap and being in the middle of the zoo, makes for a great venue. Katchafire is coming up, not sure if we'll get to that but it would be cool! After last years experience of The Black Seeds being so packed out we went quite early and waited in line to get a good spot, in which we did. She is an awesome Kiwi singer and it was great to check her out live after listening to her album heaps. It was also cool just to hang with my bro, who also appreciates her music but was mostly checking her out i think :) We had a nice set up of snacks to enjoy, so laxed back in our chairs, ate, chatted, and generally enjoyed the evening. After a great time we decided we would do more bro/sis outings as thats part of the reason he moved up the road, to spend time with the fam.

A day at home

Sometimes I really feel like we need to get out and do something and was thinking we should get back to our Thursday playgroup today. But I had heaps of housework to do so we stayed home. We actually had a neat day. Nathan played with his cars on the road mat that I scored from the Toy Library (love that place) then he helped me wash the car. So the house got cleaned and we played and we had our lunch outside and the sun was shining. Basically it was a simple but enjoyable day.

Hanging out

Maia with her Coolio hairdo hanging in the play thingy ma jiggy I got for her from toy library. She was excercising her legs in there by standing up.

From Coolio to Tina Turner

Bye Big Cuzzy

Yesterday on Waitangi Day, we went and had a bbq to farewell Alicia. She is moving to Aussie next week after enjoying her holiday there so much. She has family there and will be starting school as soon as she arrives. We will miss her heaps. She is so good with the kids, they love their big cousin. Bummer, there goes our babysitter he he. Just when she gets old enough to babysit she leaves us :) Well we'll have to send the kids over when they're older and she can take them to Dreamworld.

Wow another weekend

Can you believe it's February already?? I'm loving this summer, I love being busy and getting out and about and having fun in the sun, and all that hoo haa. Here's what we got up to this weekend...

We took Maia with us to Dean's workmate, Matt's 30th birthday (because we couldn't leave her with anyone as she still won't take the bottle!!). Everyone had to wear white... There were loads of kids and Nathan would have had fun but he hung out with Ayla for a while and stayed at his Nana's, so he also had lots of fun.

The Birthday boy

Maia making friends

Heading home as the sun was going down

We picked Nathan up on Sunday and he was all pooped out, I couldn't resist taking a picture of them holding hands which they often do while chillin in their car seats.

Can't stay away

With the hot weather a long weekend and knowing the whanau were heading back, the lure of the East Coast was too strong to resist.
We did the long haul and headed straight down to Te Kaha on Friday afternoon, arriving around 9pm with a stop off for dinner along the way. The kids travel so well, we think it's because they do the 3hour trip to the Mount regularly from about 1 week old?

We got to stay in the caravan so didn't have to put up our tent which was nice.
It was a great weekend with a good smallish crowd, the weather was awesome the fishing and diving not so hot but still enjoyed by those involved (the men).

Caleb and Ethan feeding a MASSIVE eel

Maia Rhymes with Briar - Thats why they got along so well :)

Some Maoris down at the river

Reid and some random horses

Briar and Aunty Lou

Some shady Maori

My cousin Dani and her whanau

Some Maoris having another mean TK feed

Homemade See-Saw

Whanarua Waterfall

Some maoris sitting on a rock

2 Maori boys going for a snorkel

Nathan and Maia's Milestones

My big boy is finally going to the toilet. He has been getting there over the last few months, but we're pretty confident going out in public without a nappy now. He started out on a potty which was good because he was comfy on it and it was easy for him. But it caused trouble with going out as he wasn't into going on a big toilet. We had his potty on holiday which was handy as I think the BioLoo at Te Kaha would have been nightmare material for him. But as soon as we got home potty got the cold shoulder and he started using the big toilet, yay. And even with a little bribery he got over his fear of public toilets, when the zoo loo's proved a bit scary for him he did a quick change of heart once an iceblock was mentioned. So now it's pretty plain sailing, he alternates quite happily betweent the stand up and sit down pee.

He is learning to ride his trike he got for Christmas. He has to get a little momentum to get going, and he would rather look around than concentrate on where he's going, but he still enjoys it :)

Maia is 6 days off six months old. I started her on solids a couple of weeks ago, she is still on only 1 feed a day, just easing her in. She likes her baby rice and has just branched out into watties peach & apple which she enjoys. I made most of Nathans food when he started eating real food, so hopefully I will be able to do that with Maia too, although the tins aren't too bad, they can't be the same as giving them good ol homemade.

She has just moved into her big car seat as I had to return the rented capsule. It was handy having her in that, but carrying her in it was a mission, she is so heavy!

Once she hit 5 months she decided she wouldn't take the bottle!!! I had been expressing most days to give her one so she would be used to it, but took a break from the milking machine over our holiday. She did have a bottle of formula once over the holiday and drank it no problems, but there was a problem afterwards when she kept vomiting the rest of the afternoon and in the night. I thought she may have just drank it too fast? But on trying her again once we returned home it seemed she had decided she didn't like the bottle and kept her mouth shut the whole time. The formula was all around her mouth and caused a rash. So it seems she may have an allergy to milk formula. I have been advised I could try soy formula. I have tried that and expressed milk and she continues to stubbornly refuse the bottle no matter what's inside it!!!
It is frustrating as it is nice to be able to leave her with Dean while I pop out and do stuff, or have her babysat as we have lots of weddings/birthdays etc coming up. I am going to keep trying so we'll see. I know Nathan did the same thing but he caved after only a few days I think.

Are you my Uncle?

With Nana and Cousin Kael

Zooming on the Trike

Maia is sitting on her own in short bursts, he she is at the zoo practising

One large lellow lizard

Taking advantage of our hot hot days

Maia and her buddy Tipene, she is about 3 weeks older and like her he is one solid baby. They will spend their summers growing up together at Te Kaha

They like to hold hands, already. We'll be keeping an eye on those two