Jack and Katrina's Place

Here is Guy enjoying his presents on his 1st Birthday.

On January the 8th 2007 Guy was one year old, he has completed his 1st orbit around the Sun! He celebrated by taking his first steps on the day before his first Birthday. We celebrated his birthday a day early (because it was a Sunday) with a very small party, just us three and Guys Granny (Margaret). Katrina made him a birthday hat, (which he tried to eat) and we got him his own boston bun (baby police approved cake) and packet of pink biscuits (which are probably not approved by the baby police but tasted better than hats) Here is the little man on his big day. It was just a small party becuase we had a big party in December with all the babies from our antenatal class (of which Guy was the youngest) For the 10 ante-natal babies Katrina made a huge snake cake, covered in scales made from pieces of white chocolate coloured lurid green and yellow, it was a great success.

On the 2nd of January 2007 Guy's great grandmother Phyllis Elder had her 90th birthday. Guy and all the family came to celebrate the occasion. Guy was his cheerful and affectionate self. He especially liked the goldfish and long suffering cat at the rest home.

Back in Kaiapoi, Uncle Ian dropped in to see Guy. Ian took Guy to buy his first surfboard (OK boogie board) We pulled several different ones out of the rack until we came to the 'Bob the Builder board'. Guy shrieked with delight and wouldn't look at any of the other boards so we guessed he liked that one. All the more appropriate as Ian is a builder (and a surfer). We carried the board around the Warehouse with Guy riding it on all fours, until Katrina saw us and made us carry the board and the baby separately and properly to the check out.

Katrina's Dad has a bach at Rakaia Huts, a settlement at the mouth of the Rakaia river where he goes to catch Salmon and trout. Unfortunatley the weather over the Christmas-New Year week was unbeliveably bad, ( 6-7 deg C and stiff southerly blowing in off the sea). The grey skies cleared briefly and we all got outside. Guy wasn't sure about his Grandads big 4wd fishing-mobile but he was very happy to be pushed around on the little one that Verna bought for her visiting Grandsons. He was too little for us to start the motor, but no problem, he does all his own 'brmmm brmmm' sound effects.

We had to leave Nelson and get down to Christchurch through the mountains around Maruia and over the Lewis Pass. Here is Guy saying Goodbye to Uncle Edward and his 'baby' Pepe (the wonder dog, I wonder if it's a dog or a very small skunk)

Guy slept on the drive as far as Murchison, where he got distracted from his breast feeding by an elderly lady arriving on her Harley Sportster. (Bikes or Boobies? it's hard to know where to look sometimes)

From Murchison we had a lovely drive through the beech forests of the Shenadoah saddle, by which time Guy started to protest. Just as things were getting desperate we came across a lovely cafe at Maruia a few kms north of Springs Junction. There after a nice lunch, Guy found a rock to climb and a tyre to swing on, so we were all happy.

Here he is, the little surf baby!

We got down to Tahunanui beach in Nelson on the one half nice day of the Christmas break. We were keen to see if Guy would like the beach, as he loves the bath, shower, pool and every other body of water he has yet encountered. And of course he loved it. First he dug his fingers into the sand and filled and emptied buckets with sand before he took Katrina's hand and marched off to where the waves were breaking. We put him down in the shallows to let him explore at his own pace and he responded by crawling straight out to sea as if he was heading for Australia. I held him up while the waves splashed around his tummy to which he squealed with delight. We finished off (he was turning as blue as his swimsuit) with a couple of little 'body surfs' amongst the tumbling white water. A very good day and we can't wait to try it again.

On Boxing Day we hit the road immediately after Guy's morning feed, and joined the masses to get onto the ferry to Picton. We sailed on the big Kaitaki ferry and were very impressed with the superb service from all the Interislander staff who went that extra mile to ensure travelling with a baby on one of the busiest days of the year was a positive experience.

Guy was a little star and had a great play before having a nice sleep in his buggy, tucked away in a corner. We drove to Blenheim for lunch before heading to Nelson to stay with Uncle Ed, Lisa and little Pepe.

We had an absolutely fantastic time in Nelson, with good weather and lots of relaxing (something often missing from our lives!). We visited Katrina's Auntie Roberta, Uncle Graeme and cousins Amy and Danielle several times, and Guy made a new friend Flynn, who is soon to turn 2 and become a big brother.

Many apologies for not much action on the blog front recently. We are still using the old blog site and have had lots of trouble loading photos and often can't load any, so we have blog entries written and queued up and try to load the photos every day, lately to no avail.

I have decided to go ahead and post the text for the blog entries and the photos will follow (if we can ever get it to work reliably)! There has been so much happening, so standby for the next thrilling installment of life in the Curry Stanton household!

We had our first Christmas as a family and what a wonderful day it was. After Guy's first Christmas stocking (see blog post on 25 December 2006), we had breakfast before letting Guy loose on his mountain of presents.

There were so many presents he was a bit overwhelmed about where to look first, but he was very excited with all of them, he particularly liked his collection of Thomas the Tank Engine trains that his Uncle Rob and Aunty Krista gave him and played with them all morning.

We had a lovely Christmas lunch with our friends Gail and David and little Emma (6mths) and their friends Alison and Finchy. Guy ate a huge lunch including some turkey and roasted veges on top of his baby lunch, and had a wonderful time tipping out most of a pot of yoghurt all over his high-chair when Mummy looked away for a few seconds!

The littlest Santa made an appearance on one of Wellington's few hot summer days and was so worn out by all the excitement that he went off to sleep the minute his head hit the pillow!

Guy has one day a week at creche and he loves it! This year's Christmas party was on Guy's creche day and Katrina and Danielle went along to join in the fun. The children sang songs, then Santa came to visit with a little gift for all good children before the feeding frenzy with all manner of goodies guaranteed to send them into sugar-induced hyperactivity!

Guy must have been a good boy because he got a fancy windmill from Santa, perfect for the flowerpots out on the deck! Here he is with Danielle watching the older children singing, getting his present from Santa and then the rapt expression on his little face as he examines his windmill.

Little Guy is so funny, he has a real sense of humour and loves to entertain us. One of his latest tricks is when we say to him “Show us your muscles” and he flexes his arms to show us his tiny little biceps and a huge smile!

He also has a fascination with the washing machine, watching the clothes tumbling around inside. When it stops he had to check it out. Doesn't he look like the worlds smallest repairman?

As you know, Guy just loves water and we took him to the pool again, this time with big cousins Amy and Danielle in tow. Unfortunately just as Jack and Guy were about to step into the water in the toddlers pool, they were ushered out, the scene evacuated and the guards getting busy with their catching net due to a ‘faecal accident’ (not kidding, see the sign!). So Guy went for his first paddle in the big pool and had a lovely time playing with Amy. Quite a bit colder, but a good opportunity to try out his new water wings and have another ‘surf’. When his lips turned blue, it was time to warm up in the spa.

Happy New Year!

It is, in fact, a week into 2007 but we thought we'd finish off posting what we've been up to in 2006 for you before we move on to the new adventures in 2007. So standby for more!