A hairy situation

Richie was born with a great head of dark hair and since then it's morphed into a shaggy blonde mop. In fact, he's got much more hair than his dad now (as Paul says "Live now, Richie live now!"). 

I tried to give him a little trim before we went to Fiji, b

ut it was less than successful and ended with me chasing him around a coffee table with a dull pair of scissors. My mom and sister begged me not to cut his hair, but the hairs in his eyes and down his neck were just too much. So I took him to a professional (and mother of a 14 month old herself) to get a proper haircut.

He sat contentedly on my lap while she clipped aw

ay and 10 minutes later, my baby was gone and a chubby little boy's face was looking up at me. While I'm glad the hair is out of his eyes, he's changed now into a much older looking little man. I have to say the short hair also makes his already jowly cheeks look even wider too. I guess he doesn't really need to worry about flattering haircuts just yet anyway. With the speed that he's moving lately, that baby fat will be short lived.

Above is the before, and here is the after shot.

Happy Father's Day 2.0

Yes, Paul gets TWO Father's Days since it falls on a different day here in NZ (Sept 5) than in the US. We're still debating how we'll sort this out in the future. I say we should only celebrate the NZ one since it'd be too hard for Richie to know about the one in June, but Paul says since he celebrates that day with his Dad, he wants to celebrate it with Richie too. So the bugger somehow gets away with 2 Father's Days while Mommy here is robbed with just one. Oh well, it was a good excuse to have a good meal and go to the park.

I love this pic of Paul and Richie checking out the spring blooms at the Botanical Garden.

Later we went to a friends' place for dinner with their two adorable little boys. They asked if Richie could join them in the bath, and well the results speak for themselves. Cuteness 3.0!

Ode to a sand pit

Or sand box as they're known on the other side of the world. Despite my aversion to large plastic toys, I caved in and got Richie a "clam shell," which is an NZ-made blue plastic shell (yes, they only come in one color) that you can fill with sand and then buy another one to use as a lid or paddling pool. We were going to build a wooden sandbox, but since our garden is so overgrown with plants, it's very hard to dig through all those roots. And the advantage of the clam shell is that I can move it around according to where it's shady and use the lid as a pool when it gets hot.

Richie loved playing in the sand in Fiji and has played in the sand box at Parent and Child before, but when I showed him his very own sandbox in the side yard, his eyes absolutely lit up! Soon afterwards, his friend Chiara came over and the Mommies were able to have a nice cup of coffee on the front deck while they played away in the sandbox. Mommy likes this very much and is looking forward to getting lots of gardening done and peaceful cuppas on the deck this summer with Richie in the box.

Where do I start?

Since we got back from Fiji, Richie has been amazing us on a daily basis.
First, the day we got back he decided to master his little wooden wagon and take it all over the house without any assistance. He even would back it up and do a three-point turn in the hallway to turn around.
Second, on day two he decided he wasn't going to wait for us to take him upstairs, he was going to do it himself and climbed up the entire staircase (and part of the way back down before we had to stop him from trying to go down head first) on his own on HIS VERY FIRST ATTEMPT! He had never even shown an interest in the stairs until then. We learned something very important about his personality then. He isn't a reckless daredevil type, he observes, analyzes and then when he's got the problem solved completely in his mind, he does it. Nothing half-ass.

Third, last weekend he took his first 3 solo steps for Dad as Mom was out at the garden center (drat). He was playing with my big pilates ball and he let pushed it away and then step, step, stepped back to it. We tried to get him to do it again for mom but he'd just stand there and bounce up and down to taunt us. The next day he took another three steps for the babysitter (are you kidding me??? I am with him 95% of the time and he does this to me?!). But when he got home Mommy tricked him into taking a few shuffle steps for her too. Now he's up to about 5-6 in a row and gaining confidence every second. He's also picked up dancing along the way and likes to stand and giggle up and down. Very amusing to watch.