Baby waiting...

I don't have a recent picture of my massive tummy but will try to get one before Newbee arrives. We have one week to go until the due date but there are no signs that this one will make its appearance early. And since only 5% of women actually deliver ON their due date, I expect at least 10 days from now still. Which isn't too bad as there are lots of things to get done around here while we still have 'free time'.

Bryce has been a mad man with his deck; cleaning, scrubbing, waterblasting and oiling the back and front decks to give them a much needed spruce up. This has made for some good laughs as his kiwi accent tends to tweak the word "deck" to sound a bit more personal but inappropriate. Especially when he says, "come here and marvel at my deck", or him saying that "there is way too much mold that has grown on my deck, I need to water blast it off" and so on. You can imagine the laughs.

Emily has been enjoying her life as a single child and getting all the attention from both parents, which is soon to change. She is talking more and more every day and we are having a lot of fun teaching her how to say new things. I personally love it when she says 'sup' [whats up?] to her friend in the mirror.

Wild Child

Here is a video of baby #2 - nicknamed Newbee for now. This is normal Newbee behaviour after my dinner. However, I must say, this video was taken after a curry and Newbee was particularly active. The video is taken of my tummy from my viewpoint. Enjoy, and men, try not to cringe too much. It doesn't hurt.

Newbee - in utero from Candace K on Vimeo.

Christmas

You'd think that Emily was excited for Christmas morning by waking up at 5:50am, but she didn't have a clue; she just didn't want to be asleep anymore. As you can see, Bryce's eyes can indicate that it was an early morning.

Em wasn't really into all the unwrapping of gifts without being able to play with what ever it was that she had just unwrapped. Until she unwrapped the Dora chair. Now THAT she loved!


Off to Christmas lunch and the Dora chair had to come along with us.

Post lunch energy-burning adventure to the park.

I may have been working off a couple of beers and a big lunch.


36 weeks and growing.

A more relaxed start to boxing day with Nanny.

Lining up a photo of Candace in her new Puku ('stomach' in Maori) shirt when Emily shuffles sideways into the scene with her best smile...

Then off to the park with Nanny and GG to feed the ducks.

Emily likes chops

Ah summer bbq's. Looks like Emily likes chops.

Post bike ride picnic

CK convinced a friend of Bryce's to take him for a birthday ride (not a hard task convincing Bryce to ride) under the guise of setting up a picnic lunch date with Candace and Emily.

Damn fine ride topped off by meeting up with a waving Emily in the middle of a park at the end of the ride.

Good times.

Zoo time.

Emily is pretty good at using a mix of sign language and words to name animals, and is a huge fan of her plastic "ammils" so we decided a zoo visit was in order.

First up feeding time with the Giraffe's


We think she liked that.


Wandered over to see Chimpanzees. Em was crouching down to admire the platform decking then spied some Chimps and just sat there pointing saying "Oooh".



Back to #1 favorite Giraffe's.



Plenty of other cool stuff there, and we now have a daughter who is big fan of big cats.




There is certainly something to be said about crouching on the other side of a (bullet proof) glass window and looking directly into the eyes of a lion and seeing his pupils adjust, you note that all you are is a meal.

Big Girl Bed saga continues....

Day #3. After the debacle of the cot/bed naptime confusion, we decided that maybe because some of Emily's things were still hanging around in her old room, she was getting mixed messages about where "her place" was. So that night we decided to put her to sleep over night in the big girl bed. We were both a bit apprehensive about making the full switch to the bed, as it gives Emily more freedom to wake and come and see us whenever she wants, including in the early morning hours! Anyway, it was a cold night so we put her in her blue pajama suit which is nice and warm and makes her feel like a teddy bear when you cuddle her. She fell asleep pretty well and cried out around 1am but didn't continue so we left her alone. I woke up at 3:30 and went and checked on her. As I walked beside the bed, I felt a teddy bear on the floor and wondered which teddy it was and whether Bryce had put it there or she had. Just as I was about to pick up the teddy, the teddy took a big breath and sighed sleepily. It was then I realised it was my lil girl, dressed as a teddy, who had fallen out of bed (probably at 1 am, when she cried) but decided to continue to sleep on the floor, head down, bum straight up. Too cute. I was able to pick her up and put her back in bed without waking her and sneak out of the room easily. She woke up an hour earlier than normal but we figured that was going to happen with all the changes. Last night, she slept even better and I think that was partially due to moving all of her stuff into the new room and her really feeling like she has her own place now. She even slept through till 7am this morning and gave us both our sleep in again! We shall see how night #3 goes, but I can almost say that our little baby has indeed transitioned into big girl now!

Big Girl Bed

Last week we began the "Big Girl Room" transition in preparation for the new baby to arrive. We emptied the "Palatial Manor" (the name our good friend Robyn named our spare room, even when it was only a small piece of floor in the kitchen of our old apartment). Then we put in a bunch of kid furniture, all of Em's toys and her new single bed, fitted with Pooh Bear sheets to sweeten the deal. Emily was thrilled and has really enjoyed playing in there for the last week. Also, for the first three or four days, she was very keen to sleep in her "big girl bed" for naptime during the day. Selfishly, we have kept her in her cot in the other room at night to ensure a long sleep and no early morning wake-ups for us!
However, for the past 2 days, Emily has chosen to have her nap in the crib/cot instead and does not want to be in the big bed anymore. Today, she was all excited to sleep in the single bed until just before she laid down and then she was sure she wanted to sleep elsewhere. However, when taken to her cot, she refused to lie down there also.
When given the option again as to where she would like to sleep, she just kind of stood in between the two rooms, unsure. I suggested we read another book before we decide. Instead of going to her bookshelf, she quickly went to the lounge and grabbed Bryce's industrial sized "The History of New Zealand" and pulled it off the shelf. With all its 562 pages and no pictures, it is not the ideal pre-nap time story. I think she knew what she was doing though. We better keep an eye on her!

Wellington Christmas Parade

We adventured down to Wellington last weekend for the Xmas parade. Em stood pretty much transfixed watching the procession, saving extra special waving for the floats carrying cartoon characters despite having never seen many of them. Good times.




Then there was this guy getting a better vantage point.

Newbee continues to grow...

I am at 28 weeks but measuring a belly that should be at 34 weeks! Our midwife is confident it does not mean an earlier baby arrival; it's just that there is an excess of amniotic fluid that is present and pushing my navel out towards the free world. So essentially, I am carrying around a baby paddling pool, which is conveniently attached to my front, so that I am now bumping into people and things more often. It is difficult to squeeze past students in the hallway when it is really busy and more of them are starting to stare now; as I am a bit of an oddity to look at! You know you have a big belly when even close friends laugh at you when they first see you. This is becoming more common, but I am getting used to it. I am pleased, at least, to have the "big belly paddling pool" excuse for being massive, instead of just having to succumb to the fact that I have eaten too many cookies.

Guy Fawkes night

Emily experienced her first Guy Fawkes Night along with her first exposure to fireworks and sparklers. She didn't really get a chance to enjoy the sparklers too much as she didn't get that it needed to be held away from the face. However, she loved the actual noisy fireworks that were going off in front of her on the beach. What a fun night! We were pretty sure she wouldn't stay awake long enough, but having other kids to hang around that were super excited made Emily go the distance.
Once on the beach, we settled down onto a beach blanket and Emily was all cozy and tucked into Daddy's lap. Only removing her hands from Daddy's cupped hands to clap and ask for "more" every time the fireworks stopped going "BANG!"
She was a champ and super cute, despite the cold wind and late night.

Rugby World Cup Parade

The ALL BLACKS won the World Cup and the country has gone mental. The number of flags that we have seen adorning cars and houses for the past 6 weeks has been huge and we have seen very few taken down even a few days after the final was played. It is nice to see the patriotism from the kiwis, even though it has to be surrounding a sport and not just about being a New Zealander. However, since there is no day of celebration here, equivalent to Independence Day or Canada Day, the kiwis only get so many chances to embrace being a citizen and showing their pride. We decided to join in the fun on Wednesday when we went and cheered for the ALL BLACKS as they paraded through the streets of Wellington, in the rain. Thank goodness they were on trucks, or it would have been too hard to see them from where most people were standing. The forecast was shite, but luckily the rain mostly held off during the parade and the torrential downpour started once we were back on the train. Kim and I braved the elements with four kids ranging in age from 18 months to 7 years old. Easy peasy.

Rugby World Cup

Here are some of the pics from CANADA DAY at the Rugby World Cup last weekend. We didn't actually get to any of the games as they were pretty expensive but it sure was fun to be a part of the action in town before the games.

First haircut

We took Emily to get the hair out of her eyes last weekend. She was a good sport, considering she was sitting on Dad's knee and it took all of 5 minutes. We didn't dare cut any of her curls but needed to fix the fringe/bangs. As you can see, she is pretty careful to watch Mommy and make sure that Mom is okay with all of this scissor action.