Family update

Both Andrew and Rachel went to plunket on Friday, so we know their vital stats.
Andrew is 15.5kgs and 93 cms and Rachel is 9.75kgs and 73cm. This makes them both about average on weight and slightly below average for height. So they must have their mummy's height.

I thought this was a good time to do a little update on what we are doing.

Andrew now goes to Kindy four mornings a week. Not Wednesday. He has settled in really well, much quicker than mummy was expecting. I am not quite sure exactly what he does, but this morning he was drawing on a blackboard, and the other day he was playing with cars. He enjoys the story and singing time. He seems to have lost his clinginess since starting Kindy. He has also started to go to the 3 and 4 yrs old group at church and while he doesn't know the people he is happy to stay be himself.

At home he enjoys playing trains, blocks and digging in the garden outside. It is quite amusing at times listening to him play with his toys and talk away. On Tuesday afternoon he goes to Aunty Margaret's.

Rachel is most days just having one afternoon sleep. This is normally at least two hours. She sometimes has a little nap in the car. She has decided to be clingy to mummy. This is the first time she has been like this. She doesn't like mummy to leave the room. We have managed to cut out the lunch time mummy feed so she is just having breakfast and dinner. She eats most things and lots. At dinner time probably more than her brother. On Tuesdays we go to music in the morning. She really gets into this, especially the instruments part. On Thursday mornings she goes to creche at craft group while mummy gets some time to be creative.

She still isn't walking but does lots of standing by herself. She likes playing with lots of different toys. She doesn't have many recognisable words but she does say da for daddy and makes lots of noise.

Mummy and Daddy are looking forwarded to getting into our new house although we are not looking forward to actually moving. We get possession in three weeks and will probably move in in four weeks.

Below are some recent photos.

Fun in the snow

Today we decided to go out for the day. Based on the weather forecast we thought we would head towards Hanmer. We stopped in Waipara to visit a winery. When we got to Hanmer we discovered it was grey and cold with snow on the ground in places. We had lunch at a cafe and then we decided to go for a walk in the forest. The photos below were taken at the car park where we went for a walk. This was Andrew's first real experience of snow.

We had a pleasant walk in the forest. There were patches of snow around. We were able to find a buggy friendly track. Stephen says it felt like it was minus 3 degrees.

Daddy and Andrew

Andrew gets to touch the snow. He said that when you squashed it it went pop. He also told me it was cold.

Granny and Grandma, Don't worry he did have mittens and a hat. We were going to give Rachel the opportunity to also play with snow but she was asleep when we got back to the car.

Although it was cold we had a fun day out. We did find some sun on our way back to Christchurch.

Some "new" clothes

Rachel and Andrew both have some "new" clothes to wear. Aunty Margaret has found the Thomas Jersey that Grandma Harris knitted for Tom. As you can imagine Andrew was really excited to wear it this morning.

Aunty Margaret has made Rachel a lovely new smocked dress. Here she is showing it off on Sunday when she wore it for the first time. Rachel has been doing lots of standing in the past few days but in this photo she wanted to hold Daddy's hand.

Rachel at 13 months

Having not written a what is Rachel up to blog post at 1 year I thought I should aim for a 13month one.

Rachel has only in the past couple of days started to stand on her own. When she does she she is really pleased with herself. Although she is not walking she can manage to move rather quickly and at times very silently. She loves to get out of any door that is open especially those that lead to the great outdoors. She likes to walk around the furniture and to explore places.


She is more social than Andrew. This is really obvious at music where she likes to go and say hello to people where as Andrew will cling to me. She also is generous with her hugs and loves to snuggle with people.

Until this last week most days she has a sleep first thing in the morning as well as a 2-3 hour sleep in the afternoon. With our change in routine with Andrew starting Kindy she isn't always having a morning sleep. She has finally in the last month or so has finally started sleeping 11 hour stretches at night. Both her and Andrew wake around six.

She eats lots of solid food but still has three feeds from mummy most days. she had little traumatic time earlier this month as Mummy and Daddy went away overnight for a wedding. She (and Andrew) stayed with the Sandes. Rachel was fine but was really glad to see mummy on her return.

Here are a few photos mummy liked.

Andrew's third birthday party

On Saturday 16 May we had a birthday party for Andrew with his cousins and aunty's and Uncles.


Here is Andrew's train birthday cake. Andrew's one request for the last few months is to have a train birthday cake. Mummy thinks she did an okay job. It took about an hour to ice. Andrew says that it was yummy and we are still enjoying it.

We had a train treasure hunt in our back yard.

Andrew got to open some presents. I have asked him to tell me what they are.

"A pooh bear DVD and cat book from Sophie, Ethan, Aunty Carolyn and Uncle Matt."

Andrew's "bunny table" that he got from the Sandes family. Andrew just asked if he could sit at and eat chips. He accepted mummy saying no surprisingly.