New House - Lounge!

And a lounge! Not totally buried under stuff. (only a little stuff I didn't manage to conceal!). Comfy boy on chair, baby attempting to crawl on floor, cat happily chilling on couch. Nice. 

Fabulous ancient radio, used as telly table. I couldn't get a decent photo, but on the front with the frequencies are all the towns in NZ - where to turn the dial to if you live in any particular place. Wicked cool. 

In love with the lounge suite. Our quest was a long & involved one - a new lounge suite from a regular shop just isn't our style, a super flash lounge suite from a fantastic furniture designer just isn't our budget! After trawling trade me for AGES, we found this gem. Made by Morgan Furniture (a brand I became just a little enamoured with whilst couch hunting), it's awesome. Spent many a year in the 'formal lounge' of someone's Nana, she never actually let anyone sit on it so it's still in fab condition. And it folds flat to a bed. Yeah!

I Love Lamp (and I've seen Anchorman a few too many times...lol). 

And a cute, albeit a little blurry, Jarvis. 

Lounge! 

Lunch

Oh Miss Olive, how fast you've grown!

Three weeks ago I had a 100% breastfed baby. An enormous one, but we made it to six months without having to do anything else to feed this gorgeous little person. 

Now look what we have! 

The bib had to come out once an avo entered the picture. 

Mmmm!!! 

Cake

Oh, what a cake. So much coconutty goodness. 

My cake didn't actually look ANYTHING like the photo of the cake. I took a photo of the cake in the recipe book; after realising that mine, despite tasting fab, looks like a pavlova which has collapsed then been poorly disguised with twelve litres of whipped cream. Too hideous to even consider photographing. 

Even the cream wasn't quite as I'd anticipated it...an IT man with very inopportune timing called just as I put it in the mixer, and just didn't understand 'I really have to go for a sec'. Continuing to talk is not helpful when my cream is quickly transforming into sweet & coconut laced butter. Hmmm. (and about your destruction of my wireless connection, Mister IT man, uncool. Very uncool. ) 

At least the oven proved itself - we'd been a little concerned about it, and have only just decoded the curious symbols explaining the different functions (thanks, Stacey!). Cake was cooked fabulously.

Anyway, you should buy this book & make this cake. And all of the other cakes. My super awesome husband bought it for me for my birthday, and just looking at it makes me happy (although eating the cake whilst looking at it is wayyyyy bettter). It is GORGEOUS. 

New House - New Kitchen

So, finally a picture of our new home! Photos are going to appear one at a time, the chances of more than one room being unpacked & suitable to be photographed at one time are pretty much zero. Note the fabulous pile of unpacked boxes hiding alongside the oven, and use your imagination to reveal the pantry, stacked with boxes that read 'pantry', and have their contents exploding out the top (where I've rummaged around to find a bottle of sesame oil at the precise moment I need it).

It's just a bizarre coincidence that the kitchen has a red theme. All of our red kitchen paraphernalia has been bought on special (and just happened to be red!), and the fact that the splashback happened to match it was obviously a sign that our stuff wanted to live in this kitchen!

You can't see it, but my favourite thing in the world is hiding behind the freezer...the dishwasher. Haven't had a dishwasher before, and it's my new best friend. Oh yes. Magic.

Oh My!

What have we here?

One small girl, on her hands & knees. Quickly followed by one small girl, crawling across the back lawn. Hmmm. I'm a big fan of natural infant movement (letting them do their own thing in their own time - so not putting babies into a position they can't get in & out of independently), and was comforted by the fact that Jarvis didn't sit nor crawl until he was almost ten months old. It seems Olive didn't get the memo! (she's six months & one week old!)

Thankfully this newly acquired skill only works properly on the grass - the wooden floors in our new home hinder good knee traction.  Cackle cackle cackle ;)

(excuse the dreadful photo, I have no idea what setting the camera was even on, but I'm guessing it was a failed attempt at recording a video!)

Tea Party

Apologies for the explosion of posts! I promise I'll slow down once the novelty wears off...this fast & plentiful internet is a crazy thing. 

We had a little tea party this morning. A couple of friends from town & their lovely wee girls popped out to our new home for tea & muffins. I even brought out my special little cow milk jug. Oh yeah. 

Tea set enthusiast here ;) 

And Just Because

...I have real internet again (yeah!!!), one more photo.

Treasure!

That's all, just treasure. Jarvis isn't the only one growing up fast. 

xx

Jarvis turns Three!

Three? How on earth did I wind up the mother of a three year old!?

One fabulous cake, care of Nana Anne (awesome cake maker to the stars). Lightning McQueen & friends. 

One gorgeous party with a few lovely friends. 

Then, a week later, my favourite little dude started pre school. 

He loves it. Loves every single minute. Sigh...In three years, Jarvis has probably spent ten days in total not with me 24/7 (not all at once!). I was a little worried that he might not be so impressed about staying at pre school without me, even though we'd been visiting for a few months & it's a fabulous place.

Silly Mama...

'Okay, Olive & I are going to head to town & do a few jobs, is that okay?' 

'Yip, see you later! I'm just going to play with this truck now'. 

He stayed all day. 9 til 3. 

They even called me a couple of times to tell me how much of a wonderful time he was having! 

Wow. A big boy. I feel so lucky that I got to spend almost every day with him for three years - it's been a whirlwind, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. 

And I honestly think that part of the reason he was so happy to leap into his new adventure came from his experiences over the past three years. Jarvis is the most confident, adventurous little guy I've ever come across! He's had the freedom to investigate how the world works, with me loitering about in the background as a safety net. If he's ever needed me, I've been there (or not terribly far away!). He solves his own problems unless he asks for help, He sorts out disagreements with his friends himself so long as there's no chance of hospitalisation occurring! He has the ability and enthusiasm to check out new things, and make new friends. 

People have asked over the years why we haven't chosen to send him to daycare, so he could 'learn socialisation' and that sort of business...I chose to stay at home with him, so there was no need (there's only so long you can sit around for drinking tea!) - and honestly, he's certainly not lacking in social skills!! I'm not entirely sure of the origins of the myth that little guys need daycare to improve their socialisation - daycare is a super valuable asset for families who need it for any reason, but it sure wasn't on my radar when thinking about the first few years of Jarvis' life, except in case of catastrophe which led to me needing to go into full time work. 

Anyway. Ramble ramble ramble. My fabulous little guy is now three, and a pre schooler. Wow. 

Back at Last!!!!!

Hooray!! At long last, I have real internet. Not just horribly expensive, 2GB a month mobile broadband - a real fixed line connection with loads of bandwidth.

It's been a crazy six months - shifting down here, having Olive join our family, my lovely husband taking on a fab new job, buying a house - now we can get started on living this exciting new life!

So, lovely blog, you will be neglected no more. Yay!