Family days

A note to you all out there in Blogland! I am having a wonderful time,such special family days, which are running out too fast. Our little Ruby arrived a week early, such a pretty baby and so contented. It has been amazing to see Liane and Dave with their little family. They are doing well and into a routine now.
Jasper is a great little guy, funny and bright and keeps us laughing.
Autumn in Central Otago is spectacular, as always, it's been mild too.We've had Jaspers 1st birthday party andthis Sunday is Ruby's Christening in the 125 year old stone church in Cromwell. It is the last service in this church as they are moving into the new one, so it makes the day even more special. How lucky I am to be part of these special events.
Big changes all round with Gerard and Jess on the move soon to Hawkes Bay. Well done to Jess to secure a job, they have done so well since leaving the U.K. Their dream is to become a reality and we all wish them success in what lies ahead.
I connected with Baxter and Izabella again really quickly. How beautiful they are, happy and gorgeous. I always seem to have a camera in these kids faces.
Have spoken a lot to my Aussie grankids. I have been sent wonderful photos. They have grown up so much, we all look forward to the family reunion which is just not happening this year, but we are working on it. Andrew and Rose seem very settled over there and we are hearing more from them so it's all good.
I feel very blessed with all my healthy grandchildren in my life. My thanks to my children for making me feel so proud.
I've spent some special time with Sheyrell and will miss our cafe catch-ups. She is in Queenstown for an extended time and my love and support are with her as she walks a new path. I cant think of a more beautiful, spiritual place to have a chill out time.
I will close now, what an amazing trip home, my love and thanks to my family.
Granny

Day 5

Day 5 and Ruby has already been to her first birthday party!.We didnt stay long,funny how the second child just sort of slips in quietly,it is nowhere as daunting as taking your first child out and about..speaking of first child,Jasper is slowly taking more notice of his sister.Today he patted her head(with supervision!),and seemed really interested-it was very sweet.He is doing well,unfortunately he has a sniffle...which i hope does not develop into anything furthur.
Here are some more photos...

Ruby Elizabeth

RUBY,
language/cultural Origin:FRENCH
Inherent meaning:BEAUTIFUL JEWEL
Spiritual connotation:FULL OF GRACE

Yes,our little jewel is here,all 71b 14oz of her.Born on the 20th April at 9:45 p.m,and in quite a hurry might i add.We brought her home the day after her birth as i missed Jasper terribly,but also i just wanted to climb into a hot bath and sleep...well,atleast i got the bath part!
Ruby Elizabeth is a surprise,she is way tinier than jasper ever was,with a mop of black hair(that has already lightened,with flecks of golden highlights..).We all can't stop stroking her soft hair and skin..she came out all round and pink,and is still.This morning she opened her eyes for the first time properly,they will be big and blue,like her brothers,but,oh,she is a poppet!...I can't get enough of her.
Her daddy is smitten with his little girl and,he is so careful with her..It is gorgeous to watch him with her.Jasper isn't so smitten,but he is slowly coming around to the idea...just aswell!.He is such a daddy's boy at the moment,actually he always is.We have to watch him like a hawk around Ruby tho.
So,we hope you all get to meet our Ruby before too long?,she is a delight,and a wonder.Enjoy the photo...

Birth from a daddy's perspective

Wow, what can I say? Liane was absolutely awesome, never have I been more proud of her. It was a lot quicker this time around than it was for Jasper, Lee phoned me at work to say that her contractions were getting bad, this was around 4:00pm, I got back half an hour later, by 6:00 we were at the Maternity Unit, her contractions were really intense and 5 minutes apart by then. They came regularly and painfully, lasting about a minute at a time, by 7:00pm she was puffing away on the gas, by 8:00 pm the midwife was sitting with us the whole time, she new it would not be far off. Lee started pushing her little heart out at 8:35, she did really well, the contractions came steadily every 2 minutes, and 10 minutes later Ruby's head popped out, a mass of matty black hair! She was quiet for a while, I was still staring dumbly at her purplish features, then she gave a squawk, which turned into a full hearted cry, the most wonderful sound in the world. She has a good set of lungs on her, our Ruby, the crying continued for the next few hours( now maybe a less wonderful sound),in between sucking greedily, she had no problems latching onto the breast, something we were both really glad about after the problems with Jas. She settled down in the early hours of the morning, falling into a deep sleep around 6:00am. By this time she was a lovely rosy colour and most of the vernix has been re-absorbed. She slept really well until mid-morning, woke up, now not too keen to latch on, I think she was still really tired. Lee battled on to get her to suck, with limited success until we gave her a bath to clean her up and wake her a little, after that she was ready to suck properly again. We both felt ready to leave in the afternoon, having spent a good part of the morning with Granny Walker and big brother Jasper, who was tearing into everything.Got home about 3:30pm, am feeling terribly proud Ruby is absolutlely beautiful... so far, so good...

Playtime with Granny

A chocolatey surprise

You call this CHOCOLATE?!!
Well,it was a lovely easter.Jasper sure enjoyed having both Dads' and mums' full attention for 5 days.We brought him a little lucky dip parcel from the church fair,inside was a chocolate muffin,while he kind of liked this,the bonus find was actually today...jasper accidently stumbled upon some of my chocolate stash!!Well,needless to say,his eyes just about bulged out of his head as he stuffed the sweet morsel into his mouth,a look of complete satisfaction..it was his first taste of chocolate,and now he KNOWS the truth!-sugar is GOOD!
Jaspers every word at the moment is "DUBBA-DUB",no-one knows why,but it is very funny,he uses it ALL the time,he has his own secret language and is a real chatter box,he never stops...his walking is coming along nicely,he is on his feet alot of the time now.About 15 steps a time.He particulay likes walking to his gran.
Well,the autumn colours are at their grandest now in central otago,my favorite season.Quite a warm april so far.
Jaspers' meeting some more family members soon,as his second cousins have all arrived from auckland.My cousin,Aaron and his wife will be staying in Queenstown for the next 12 weeks,with their 3 kids-Jamie(5) Isaac(2) and Asha(6-months).My cousin Jodies' little boy,Finn,turns two in June,and they live in arrowtown,so no doubt it will be a good gathering of family at that b'day party.

My 1st birthday

I had the best birthday a kid could have!.All my little mates turned up with their mums and dads,and we had a cool noahs ark cake,that mum and granny made.plus yummy fairy bread,iceblocks,cupcakes.I made a real mess eating the cake and ended up with it all over me,but i'm little and cute enough to pull the look off!.I also loved the tuna sandwiches that the grownups ate.Those silly grownups,they were drinking bubbly stuff and mummys friends were acting alittle bit giggly!?...
I found it all abit much at one point and had a little cry-but i was put in my highchair and was then much happier.I was like a little king surveying my kingdom...and then all the peasants came forth and the presents were opened...their were trucks and diggers and buses' and blocks,shape-sorters,books,clothes and things.It was quite exhausting but i had some more cake and that perked me up.
I was very tired afterwards and had a big sleep.
Now i'm a big one-year old and i do feel abit taller.

3 weeks!!

3 weeks!,thats all untill miss Ruby makes her entrance into the world.Poor kid-I mean,its got to be abit of a shock.Ah well,she's had a good run and now it's TIME TO COME OUT!!.Fortunately it has been a good pregnancy,Lets just hope the birth is as straight forward?.I feel like the most blessed person in the world right now...anyway,here's the latest preggie shot,taken in wanaka.
My mum arrives today,so we will go and pick her up this afternoon.

Archery?Me?...

On sunday we went to Wanaka.We spent a fair bit of time at Have a shot,which for fifty bucks you can do clay pigeon shooting,rifle range,archery,driving range and mini-golf-phew!.Alas,what with a young child and not much moola,we stuck to archery and mini-golf...what fun.Quite an experience doing the archery(I am not a natural!),Dave and Fi had it mastered-show offs!.We then did the mini-golf(which was not so mini!),the guy had the front desk said it was quite a tricky course and he was not wrong(and i've played a fair bit of mini-golf in my time..),but we got to the end-eventually.Jas was amazingly good,right up untill the 17th hole and then he decided he was sick of sitting(plus he had managed to spill my entire water bottle over himself!),so off came his pants and,in just his nappy he happily crawled up the fairways,pulling up every pebble and clump of dirt along the way.
End score:Dave;65 Liane;82 Fiona;82.
We had a quick lunch on the wanaka lake front,and then a play in the very cool playground there.Jasper was not the only one that was absoulutely nackered on the way home.I love doing this family stuff.

Birthday presents.

Jasper's birthday presents...only a week to go.We are going to have a little party,and a farm-animal-theme!.It should be a lot of fun.

The playground

With Dave working 6 days at the moment,any simple family time is precious.So,on sunday we all went to the playground.It was one of those lovely autumn days.Jasper loved the swing-it was his second time,and he definately enjoyed it better this time.He also had fun going down the slide with daddy-they had about 5 goes at it.The see-saw might have been abit ambitious on our part,because Jas started crying!Ah well,it was a nice little outing...

A busy life.

Jasper is a very busy wee soul these days,so i thought i would post these photos,to show you a day in the life of Jasper D-only 2-weeks until Jassies' ist birthday!!We recieved a big package by courier,yesterday.Inside were 5 parcels!.So big thankyou's to Granny and Grandpa D...He is going to have fun opening those.

Spot the simularity?-The Doyle boys ,just taking it easy..

All the big and little things..

Gosh,Jasper is such a little sponge at the moment!He is sucking everything up,we can only just keep up!.Today he sussed out how to climb backwards down the steps...yesterday he learnt how to throw a ball to his dad or whoever is willing to catch it...he is trying to copy our words...and on and on it goes.It really is such a facinating age.I'm glad i am recording all his milestones-big or small-because it is going so quickly and it is so easy to forget dates,ages etc...
Thankyou to Jaspers' auntie H and uncle C,for the lovely gifts you sent us.Much love to you and we can't wait for you to meet our boy,one day?

Mum forgot to show you the after-shot of my 'weeding'.As you can see,I was none too pleased about stopping.Cute photo tho,aye?

I love dirt

Today i did a spot of weeding for my mum,I had the best fun.I took all the dead flowers out,(I guess mum forgot to water them?),then i put them all back in again!.I did this for ages,Mummy only stopped me when i began to eat the dirt...I guess i have more of a green thumb than my mum.

me and my buddies..

Today I hung out with my buddies,Brooke and Olly,who my mummy looks after 2 days a week.I had alot of fun...

Mar-mity Good.

Yummy-I love marmite toast for my breakfast-as you can see.It's good for the complexion I've heard.