Lots of visitors!

We have been fortunate to be having lots of people, from far and wide coming to see our beautiful daughter and possibly share some "weekend soup" with us, which is quickly becoming a winter tradition for us. Last weekend, Trish, Sinka, Sammy and her friend Bethan came by and had a cuddle with Emily.

Today, Pam, Andrew and Andrew's dad Hugh came for a visit and it was great to see them and eat some yummy soup.

I know it seems weird to mention soup so much, but it is truly good soup. And I know soup. It might be my second favourite meal, next to sushi. We make a trip to the farmer's market every Saturday, and that usually involves a stop at the local butcher as well. He sells bacon hocks and beef bones; the essential parts of a good Saturday veggies soup. The best part of a Saturday soup, however, is eating it on Sunday. "Saturday soup: the sequel" is a highlight of our weekends these days, besides having more laughs from Emily. Amazing how having a child makes you appreciate the little things in life, eh? ........like soup.
Another visitor we had this weekend (who thankfully did not raid our soup when it was put outside to cool) was Potsy the possum. I do believe, however that Potsy had a brother hanging around too, but we only ever saw one at a time. Bryce took our green waste out into our backyard compost heap, which is kind of in a jungle area that has massive trees and big overgrown plants. (here is a pic of myself when we were making the compost bin)
When Bryce came back in the house, his eyes were pretty wide and he said a possum had interrupted his leisurely stroll into the jungle and caught him off guard a wee bit. We don't see them around our house much, although we do hear them occasionally, so to see one was a bit unique. We went out onto the deck to try to see them with Bryce's bike lights (from the safety of our deck) but couldn't see much so the brave guy that he is, Bryce went back into the jungle to try to get a photo. Unfortunately, Potsy was camera shy and we couldn't catch one, but I borrowed this photo from the Queensland government webpage to show you what we saw. (Kirstin: I apologise for using a photo that it probably not the right breed and far off from the kind of possum we have in NZ, but it looked right to me. Too funny that we took it from an OZ webpage, when they are protected in Australia but pests here. Funnily enough, when I told the neighbour about our exciting encounter with Potsy, he asked if we had a .22 to get rid of it with!!)

We decided to get out and enjoy the sunny day today, so we headed to Queen Elizabeth park to show Emily the beach. Well, actually, she mostly saw the roof of her pram/stroller, since she slept the whole time; that is, until we had a photo shoot with her. It was just too nice of a day to show all those folks back in Canada how rough the NZ winter can be. (note the sarcasm please.....) Mind you, I did feel a pang of homesickness in the morning when I got to skype with my whole family back in Toronto for the big summer birthday party with all 8 adults and 7 kids under 6, where it was nice and summer warm...even though it was raining....


But as you can see, we have it pretty good in New Zealand. When your winter walk can still be along the beach.......

Emily is doing well; talking lots. Well, when I say talking, I mean lots of "gaaaaah" and "oooooohhhhhhhh" and other noises that are hard to type. She is grabbing things with her hands now, still not with too much coordination but with real intent now. Our favourite thing to watch is to see her concentrate on trying to grab the stream of water that comes from a small jar we play with in the bath. She is mesmorized everytime she sees the water pour out of the jar and as she clamps her hand down on the water, she doesn't understand why she can't grab it....and of course, then put it in her mouth. This being the thing she does with everything else she grabs, these days. Yay for teething! She is going through at least 3 bibs everyday that attempt to keep the saliva off of her soaking through her layers of shirts, often ineffectively!