a mouthful

In this picture Richie is:
a) attempting to ease his teething pain
b) whistling at the hot babe taking the picture
c) using his tongue to count his fingers
d) all of the above

If you answered a, you are correct and win this week's bonus prize: no sleep.

(hopefully the blog entries will pick up when this new and exciting phase of infant development is over)

World's Sexiest Man

I saw this morning that Aussie actor Hugh Jackman was named People's Sexiest Man of the year. In honor of handsome men from down under, here's a photo of our little charmer, looking dashing in a laid-back pose with his favorite rattle of the moment. Or maybe it's half a tamborine.

He's a one-woman man

Ah, sometimes there are moments when you know as a parent you're doing something that will come back to haunt your young child, and yet you do it anyway for the fun of it. Yesterday was one of those moments.

We took Richie out for his first official picnic at a local winery on the coast with some friends from my pregnancy pilates class. It was the hottest day of spring so far at 25 degrees celsius (about 77 F), so we decked him out in his super cute Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts that Aunt Susie brought for him. Well, he turned out to be quite the ladies' magnet. But I'm not quite sure he's up to the task yet. Here Richie finds the presence of young Naomi slightly perplexing. But add the slightly older and more worldly Chiara and poor Richie is simply miserable.





Ok, to be fair, maybe the "I heart Grandma" bib killed his mojo. Maybe next time minus the bib he'll have better luck. 'Til then he'll have to be content with mom.

I'm a big kid now

We had our first mini-vacation as a family over the weekend in Lake Taupo (about 2 hours from our home here in Napier). It went much better than we dreamed to hope for, which hopefully means Richie will do well on his big trip to the US soon. I'll post more pics from the trip soon but I wanted to share this one as a preview with Richie looking quite grown up in the hotel chair. He was in a very good mood in that chair. I think he likes being on the same level as us.

The Grabber

Richie's finally discovered that his hands are good for more than sticking in his mouth. Now he uses them to grab more things that he can stick in his mouth! He's quite proud of himself actually.

We interrupt this baby blog

...to bring you a sure sign of Kiwi spring: strawberries! This is truly one of the great things about where we live in NZ. Hawke's Bay is known as the fruit bowl of NZ and starting in October we'll be in strawberry season through April! I got these two big crates of strawberries for $10NZ. That's about $6US and is equivalent to about 8 pints! I could have gotten them even cheaper if I picked them myself from one of the many pick your own places here but I was pressed for time.

Next will be raspberries, then blueberries, boysenberries, blackberries... and that's just the summer berries. We should be seeing the first apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums and other stone fruit soon.

Did someone say crumble? I have become the master of the fruit crumble since moving here. A good portion of these were soon mixed with some rhubarb that one of Paul's patients gave him for a yummy strawberry-rhubarb crumble.

The legend of Richie One Sock

Our little guy is long and lean from head to toe. So lean in fact that we have a heck of a time finding anything that will stay on his long and narrow little feet.

Forget booties, those fly off with nary a kick. Socks don't fare much better, even a pair of socks sent by Grandma labelled "wiggleproof" failed to live up to their name. One particular set of the smallest tube socks ever sent from the US have worked the best and usually last at least a few minutes on his feet. But sooner or later the inevitable happens and Richie wiggles his way out, one foot at a time (and always left foot first for some reason). Hence, he's earned the mobster nickname "Richie One Sock" in this house.

Here's proof.