Good Morning!

Unlike his mom, Richie is definitely a morning person. In the first few moments after waking from sleep, Richie is at his most charming. It's enough to almost make you forget about how little sleep mom and dad are operating on.

Win a trip to NZ!

Yep, it's strange but true. For all those who have wanted to visit but haven't yet had the chance, this is for you. By clicking on the below You Tube link, you could win an expenses paid trip for two to New Zealand!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB24JazI7JQ

And if that weren't motivation enough, you'll get to see a clip of Paul and me with our new baby Richie when he was just 3 weeks old in August.

As you know, we liked Napier, NZ so much we decided to live here, and the folks here have asked us to help promote what a great place it is to live back in our homeland. So they put us in front of a camera with bright lights that scared the heck out of little Richie, who had been a cutie pie right up until the camera started rolling. The end result is a video intro with a crying baby and two sleep-deprived looking parents, which if you ask me isn't all that enticing for their campaign, but it's worth a laugh and the video in between shows you what you're missing here in NZ and why we stayed.

To win the free trip for two of our friends, we have to have the most views of our clip on You Tube from our home country. That's where you come in. Forward this link to all your friends, post it on your web site, circulate it around your office, put it on your Facebook page, whatever will get it the most clicks possible. It looks like we're up against some stiff competition from a Russian family who already has nearly 10,000 page views, so start clicking!

Thanks and enjoy the video.
Cheers,
Jen, Paul and Richie

Smiles 'R Us

Since you've seen "Prelude to a smile," I figured I better post some of the real thing, or at least as close as I could capture on film. He's what the Kiwis would call a "cheeky wee fellow."

Back at the clubhouse

This weekend Paul competed in the final round of his club championship. He made it there after winning many rounds against seasoned golfers with much lower handicaps. We think Richie was his good luck charm so he caught up with Daddy at the clubhouse on Sunday afternoon. Of course it won't be long before Richie will be caddying for Dad but in the meantime, I think he's already starting to look more and more like Dad every day.

Lest we forget...

There was another cute little boy before Richie showed up, the cat Banderas. Since Richie arrived, he's gone through various phases: exiling himself to his chair by the fire and refusing to join us upstairs in the living room, cautiously checking out Richie in his bassinet, trying to impress us with his hunting prowess by bringing in all manner of wildlife (both dead and alive), staring blanking at us while Richie cries with a "and he gets cuddles for that?!" expression on his face, waking us up at 4am on the first night Richie slept through his usual 3am feed, etc.

Now he appears to be trying to remind us that he can be cute and cuddly to. Not to mention helpful around the house. Just look at him helping me with the dishes yesterday. Later that same day I caught him lapping water out of Richie's bath. I wonder what's next. I'll keep the diaper bucket under lock and key in the meantime!

The waiting game

In the last few days, Richie's repertoire of expressions has really expanded. Tonight he assumed a particularly Rodin-like pose while waiting for Dad to get his bath ready.

Got Thumb?

After weeks of ferociously putting his entire hand or at least a few fingers in his mouth, today Richie finally found his thumb and gave it a good suck. He's actually beginning to prefer it over his pacifier or one of our fingers now.

Genius in training

Couldn't resist snapping a picture of Richie studying his "Genuis Babies" mobile. He's really drawn to the graphic images on the underside of the mobile, which are a lot like the checkered patterns on the top of the mobile that you see in the pic. It's a great item because you can switch out the images he sees to keep them interesting. We also prop up some of the image cards next to the changing table for him to look at during diaper changes. You can't be too overzealous about stimulating those young brains! Well, ok you probably can but I don't think we've reached that point yet.

Prelude to a smile

Richie's been practicing his smiling skills. They say many parents think very young infants are smiling at them when they're actually passing gas (or wind as they say here) but I'm pretty sure my happy little camper is actually trying to smile at us. Just look at those happy eyes!

And for those of you not from NZ, I should point out that Richie is wearing an All Blacks outfit, which is the national rugby team AKA national heroes of NZ. It also just so happens that the current captain of the All Blacks is a handsome fellow named Richie McCaw who bears more than a passing resemblance to our little Richie, mostly due to the elder Richie's spiky hairdo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_McCaw

Boo hoo for bath time

"Bath time is such a wonderful, bonding time for parent and child." "Babies LOVE bath time." "We would bathe our baby twice a day if we had the time, he loves it so much." "It's Dad's special time to spend with baby."

These are the sorts of things expectant parents hear about bath time. So you buy the baby bath, you get the cute little hooded cartoon character towels and organic, lavender scented bath wash sure to send your little one off to la la land.

Yeah right.

We weren't so lucky. Our little Richie screamed his way through his first bath in hospital and continued to scream through his first few baths at home, despite Dad's valiant attempts to soothe him with serenades, swishing in the water and general cooing. But with persistence we've now got Richie to the point where he actually seems to enjoy being in the bath with dad and doesn't scream (he does pee and occasionally spit up though, which to my mind defeats the whole purpose of bathing him to get the pee and spit up off him). Getting in and out of the bath, however is another story. He screams when we take his clothes off and then screams when we put his adorable nightgown and cap on. His screaming face in that outfit reminds us of several possible movie and cartoon lines like, "Dad, but I don't want to be an elf!"

Hopefully his tune will change once the weather warms up and the cold pre and post-bath air isn't such a shock to his system. Props to Dad for his persistence though. BTW, today is Father's Day in New Zealand, which is celebrated on the first Sunday in September, although Mother's Day is celebrated in May as in the U.S.

One for Grandma

Grandma gets the prize for the funniest saying on a onesie so far with the "Face it, it's time to call Grandma" onesie she sent Richie. He's already getting a bit long for it, but I thought these pics of Paul handling a diaper issue with Richie in the shirt were worth a few thousand words.