finally some photos of Andrew

We have been struggling to get photos of Andrew. Most of them come out like the one below. Or else Andrew see the camera and stops doing what he is doing.

We think Andrew might be a budding cook. One of his favourite activities at present is to play at cooking. He has some toy kitchen utensils but if we can get out hands on something from the kitchen it will join the mix. These two photos show him practicing his cutting skills. He will also when Mummy is kitchen get the step stool to stand up at the bench to watch mummy. Mummy will often distract him by getting him to put the cutlery away.

Below Andrew is practising his rolling skills with play dough.

(I thought we had posted these photos from about a month ago)

Five Months Today

Rachel is five months old today. What is she up to?
She loves lying on the floor (often on a blanket to give Andrew somewhere to avoid). She is practicing really hard at rolling. She can roll from her front to back and if she relaxed then she would be able to roll from her back to tummy. She also likes to sit up with support.

She went to plunket yesterday, so we can tell you she is 6.9kgs and 66cms long.

She also is quite noisy. Fortunately for mummy's nerves she has moved on from the squeal she was practicing a few weeks ago. She likes to interact with people, like she is doing in these photos below with mummy and daddy.

Mummy is feeling really exhausted at present because Rachel still wakes at least once between 10pm and 6am. Mummy tried not dream feeding (feeding before mummy goes to bed) for a week and a half but then she was awake more often.

Rachel's sleeping goes something like this. Wakes between 6.30 and 7.30am. She has a feed and goes straight back to bed and often sleeps for another 2-3 hours. She is then up until after her lunchtime feed. She then has another sleep. She will often sleep all afternoon. Mummy likes this as Andrew is also in bed for 2-3 hours at the same time. She is then up until bed time between 6;30 and 7pm.

Today she had her first taste of something other than mummy's milk. She had some banana. Once she worked out about actually keeping it in her mouth she seemed to quite enjoy it.

Relaxing in the Lounge

On Tuesday afternoon we spent more time with Carolyn, Sophie and Ethan.

Sophie perfected her smile.

It was occasionally possible to get all the cousins in the one photo.

Rachel chewed on Aunty Carolyn's thumb.

While Andrew investigated how the buckle on the baby capsule worked.

Jumping Bonis's

At the park, Ethan and Sophie were jumping off the ledges in the empty paddling pools.

Sometimes Ethan didn't quite jump high enough!

Rachel had her first swing at the park.

We didn't get a photo of that though, so we've included this one instead:

At the park with the Bonis family

We spent Sunday with the Bonis family, and went to the park.

Here's Ethan on a slide.

Rachel stayed wrapped up warm in the mini-stroller, while the other three kids ran around. The only photo we got of the three of them has Andrew blending in to the big beastie.

Sophie and Ethan posed for us.

Daddy's Birthday

While we were in Chch Daddy had his birthday. We had a relaxed day. We went out for brunch and spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out with the Sandes family. Here Daddy is blowing out his candles on his birthday cake.

With Sandes Cousins

We have just had four days in Christchurch. It was great to catch up with both the Sandes and Bonis families. Andrew had fun playing with his cousins and his Aunts and Uncles. He can say most of their names. Mummy enjoyed listening to him talk with them. We went on a big plane. This was Rachel's first trip on a plane and Andrew's first time when he had a seat of his own. Here are some photos of Andrew and Rachel with Tom and Olivia. Andrew was not very keen on having his photo taken.