Half a year old.

Our boy is 6 months old now. He has grown soooo much since we have been in New Zealand--as in gained 5 pounds. He has chub everywhere: fingers, feet, hands, cheeks and thighs. Our lean machine is gone and a little chubba bubba has arrived.

He usually wakes up content in the mornings with lots of smiles and even little laughs some days. I love his mornings. He usually takes a good morning nap and if you want him to sleep just put him in his buggy for a walk. He has been lucky to have many many walks with his grandparents while here. He has a really tight grip and if he gets a hold of the spoon when I am feeding him, I have to pull to pry it out of his little grasp. He isn't sitting up alone just yet but is well on his way. His hair isn't as dark it was but it is a lighter brown. He is rolling over and over these days. He has rolled across the room and sometimes I see his legs looking like they are headed towards a crawl. He has recently started doing this little spaz out in the bath that is pretty funny too. He seems to enjoy the bath--see the video below.

He is eating several "real" meals a day--Kumara (sweet potato), Carrot, Avocado, Banana, have all gone down well. Our little baby is on an unstoppable path to becoming a toddler-- these 6 months have sped by so fast that it is just hard to believe. Some days I like to pretend that we are out of the haze, but that's a lie -although, it all feels normal and fine and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Our overnight trip.

Kaikoura

6 really great years together

Spectacular Ocean skies

Really good fish n' chips

Love the color and shapes of these Ocean bits

Mike and the sleepy seals

Interesting signage in Kaikoura

A little watefall walk we found

Mike and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary by leaving the boy and heading up the eastcoast towards a seaside town called Kaikoura. It was fun to drive and chat and lazily drive up the coast. We saw some seals and ate some really good fish n' chips.

We were planning to stay there the night (Mike had padded up the back of the Fiat with mats and sleeping bags so we could sleep in the car) but we opted to keep heading North. Within the hour we hit rain--hard rain. Sleeping in the car in the rain didn't sound really enjoyable so we headed east when the road forked.

For the next couple hours it was heavy rain but beautiful and misty and moody. By 8:30 (luckily, the nights are long and light) we made it to Nelson where the skies were clear and found a Turkish restaurant still open and had some really good meals. We had seen a place to park for the night but on the way Mike popped into a little motel to check on room rates and it was good deal (like a Backpackers-basic room and shared bathroom) but we figured that our first night away from the boy, it would be nice to get as much sleep as possible.

The next morning, we checked out the beach and begun the journey back to Christchurch. We hit more rain so we mainly stayed in the car but were content to simply drive and make our way home to the boy. All up our little overnight a couple hours north, turned into an 1000 kilometer roadtrip around the the island.

Good fun.

Controlling the eating monster.

He likes to be in control when eating and this is what happens when I let him go for it.

Godley Heads Walk.

Last week after the Molesworth trip we took a lovely day walk to Godley's head with Carly (Mike's cousin), Dean and their lil man. You drive out towards the beach and around the peninsula to a beach called Tailor's Mistake and walk from there up the golden grassy hills above the ocean. The deep blue ocean was striking against the dry golden hills. Another lovely day with good company and beautiful NZ vistas.

Oh, uninterrupted sleep.

Mike and I just returned from a lovely overnight sans the boy. Last night I got the first uninterrupted 8 hour stretch of sleep in six months. I feel like a new person. We found ourselves mentioning to one another every hour or so, "Man, isn't he soooo cute" or "How did we make such a cute kid?". It was a treat to go away but also to come home to him and I think a treat for Grandma and Grandad to spend time with him too--win/win. He is officially 6 months as of yesterday so I have got to get onto those pix--he has seriously filled out.

I also have pictures from a cool walk we took with Dean, Carly and Asher last week, a tramp Mike took with the boys as well as pix from our little solo roadtrip. Time is flying by. We have has such a good time here with family and re-remembering what an absolutely beautiful country this is.

Glowing ears.

6 years we've been married now--well today is the 9th in New Zealand.
I can't think of a better way to celebrate the day than by playing with this gorgeous boy.

Molesworth Day 2.

After we got going, we packed up and got back on the road to drive further into the Molesworth Station.

The Fiat stopped working as we were going up a hill. Mack fixed it.

Sleeping boy

More sleeping boys

Then the Van got a flat tire.Mack fixed it

Rob, Mike, and our boy

The Molesworth Station House

Lovely River Valley

Off the gravel roads and back in Hanmer, taking a break before the drive back to ChCh

First a stop at Brown Stream--an old favorite swimming hole

Mack was the first to head down the slide--everyone else followed.