Smiling C.J.

Our wee man sure smiles a lot. It's just hard to catch it on camera. Emily is great at making him smile. He enjoys watching her and when she gets close to him, he always gives her a pearler smile. Mind you, his "pearly" smile is all gums.



Emily likes to get in on the action too. Here's her "normal" camera smile.

To get a nice smile from her (like the one in the photo with my mother and her below), we have to ask her to do her "teeth-smile".

Some more photos from Mom and Dad's visit

Rainy days, here we come...

Nana, sewer-extraordinaire, made Emily a tablecloth tent, for rainy days. We saw the idea in a magazine once, but it took Nana's ingenuity to make what she calls "Emily's bach." Here is a picture of Emily and Nana playing in the tent; Emily peeking out the plastic window that is sewn in and Nana smiling her beautiful smile out the door.

Mom and Dad have definitely had some good exercise while in NZ, what with chasing after grandchildren and doing 7k races!

Emily the Mommy and the Zoo trip

Emily in her new outfit from Aunty Amy:
Emily has been very attentive to her babies since Cameron has been born. She always says "Cam-run milk" when I am feeding him. The other day, she decided she was going to feed her baby milk just like Mommy feeds Cameron. She was a very loving and patient mother too. once her baby was done feeding, she kissed it, cuddled it and then tickled it. All the while, narrating what she was doing, "kiss", "cuddo" and "tikko". At that point she decided to show it some tough love though, and threw the baby off the chair, saying "throw" at the same time. She often narrates what she is doing. It's always funny, yet sad at the same time, when she comes up to us and says, "Emily crying", when she is hurt or upset about something and feels like she wants to cry.
When I was at volleyball practice the other day, Nana and Poppa were outside with Emily and Cameron and Cameron started crying. Emily said "Cam-run crying?" Nana said, "yes, he's hungry and needs milk." Emily said, "Mommy gone", and Nana said "yes", so Emily lifted up her top and was prepared to feed Cameron herself. That's commitment to big sisterhood!

Poppa, Nana and I took the kids to the Wellington Zoo on Tuesday and we were joined by Kate and Mia as well. It was a great day and the girls were champs by walking the whole day up and down the steep hills. They especially liked the chimpanzees and the jaguar. Wellington Zoo doesn't have a jaguar, but Emily kept calling the cheetah "jaguar" and was very taken with it.



"Monkey see, Monkey Do"
Poppa acting like the chimps reaching out for food. Note the chimp he is imitating in the background.




Emily at the zoo. I think the excitement in this photo is from getting ready to see the porcupine, or in Emily-speak "pok-you-peen".

Nana and Poppa's visit continues...

It has been so wonderful to spend some time with Mom and Dad during their visit to NZ. They are becoming seasoned travellers and Mom even said she didn't mind the long flight as much this time! We have kept them pretty busy though, so it hasn't been much of a restful time for them; what with all the baking, meal making, sewing, baby sitting and long hours of cuddling Cameron while he sleeps. Not hearing any complaining though, especially about the last two chores! Emily is really loving her Poppa and Nana too, and has a lot of fun playing "CRASH" with Poppa, which is a game they made up. The rules seem to be mostly along the lines of Poppa pretending to sleep and then Emily comes along and piledrives him by jumping on top of him and yelling Crash or Wake Up!! It always includes much laughter as well.

Poppa and Cameron - Grandchild number 9

Nana and Cameron

Rendez-vous at the airport - or as Emily says, the place with the "big pah-waynes"

And this is a pic from our visit to the beach; an essential component of Nana Knight's trips to NZ. Unfortunately, it has been pretty windy and cool during this holiday and beach visits have not been as frequent as any of us had hoped for.

Cameron is one month old

The little guy has made it through the first month gaining lots of weight along the way.

Emily and Cameron have numbers

With Candace's folks flying in from the depths of a Canadian winter we decided we needed to get some numbers! Wellington's round the bays fun run/walk regularly attracts over 10,000 entrants, and was only a couple of days after Ian and Lesley's arrival, perfect.

It wasn't going to work driving down as there was going to be no parking in Wellingtown, so on to the train. Problem with that was that the trains didn't quite match the event start; it was either be there an hour too early, or "right on time" An hour early wasn't going to cut it with two kids, plus the train would be departing at ridiculous o'clock.

We picked the "right on time" train and arrived late, got semi organised at the train station and arrived near(ish) the start to hear the start gun going off, and found ourselves at the back of the crowd below.

Time for a pre-start photo.

We were on our way jostling for position will all the other strollers at the back, however Cameron had other ideas and was super ready for breakfast number five. We parked up at a convenient beach side spot, with seating for the Cameron feed and a park for Emily to do some climbing and sliding.

Watching the tail end charlie ambulance roll by gave us a reference on our position within the race.

Back on the road the goal became to chase down the tail end charlie.

Nearing the goal.

Then finish line fever before the line up to get a bus back to town, then the train, then the car, then home. Long day out.

Relationship surprises...

It's funny how you can be with someone for 10 years and think you know them pretty well, and then they do something totally foreign to what you'd think they would do. Bryce was singing to Emily this morning while changing her diaper, and I heard him saying, "your my butterfly, sugar, baby." Not the kind of song Bryce listens to normally, much less one I ever thought I would hear him sing.
Nice moment.
Although, now I can't get that song out of my head either....

Cameron sleeps alot...

I don't know why I seem to be so tired, because the evidence from these pictures appear to show that Cameron is asleep often. Which is true.

However, the "often" is not 'often' at night. Truly, he has adapted to being outside the womb much better than Emily did, but he also has the benefit of experienced parents who aren't as stressed out with a crying baby as they were with his sibling.

Tea time

Emily and Bryce enjoying their cuppa together.

Week 2

We are into the new world order, lack of sleep is harder second time around with Emily taking up precious awake time.

6pm action.

8pm action.

Early hug practice goes wrong...


Note the wide eyes on the children and the slits where 'energetic eyes' used to be on the parents.

We are home

Candace and Cameron came home from the maternity unit today to fill up the house. Bryce has already walked into the bassinet in our room a couple of times, better adapt before falling in I guess. Emily seems OK with Cameron's arrival except when Candace was feeding, then there was some solid "No" comments from Emily. All good though.

The One Day Old Youngster

Everything appears to be going well, with Candace and Cameron likely to head home tomorrow.

Emily was happy to meet Cameron after all this baby talk...

...but was far happier about her box of raisins!

More to follow when time permits!

It's a boy!

Cameron James Lorcet
4.1kg, 9.1lb

Counting down the days

Due date minus 6 days.


Emily is getting used to midwife visits, and is pretty keen on getting her baby checked out.


Chopsticks, sushi race, sausage and mustard, yummy.



Go my little girl, and look at that shadow.