marc.vic.max.elliot

Today we have the first rain since we arrived. Two weeks of sun have given way to an overcast, drizzly and humid day. The rain has been welcomed in this part of the country though as we are in the grip of a water shortage and I just hope that it rains properly and for long enough to have an effect.

In Max news he slept for the longest spell yet – 9 hours! It would have been even better if he hadn’t started at 8pm and been up at five in the morning but as we ourselves entered the land of nod at 9:30pm it didn’t work out too badly Even after that long sleep he still went down for another two and half hours! In saying that, he’s been a little bugger so far today though……..

Not much more news from here at the moment. Max has his good and bad times and therefore Vic and I do to but whenever he looks you straight in the eye and gives a huge toothless grin everything is forgiven

It’s our third evening house-sitting for Jay and Larry while they are on honeymoon in Melbourne, Australia and it feels really strange!  After 5 years of living either in single rooms or very small flats in London we now have this massive (relatively) 3 bedroom house and we’re not quite sure what to do with all the space!

The house was built at the turn of the century and has lovely 12’ ceilings and hardwood floors. One side effect of the floors is that when Max cries it really echoes! At 03:30 this morning we were in absolutely no doubt that he was awake and only a couple of rooms away!

We are also looking after their cat Trinity while they are away.  Trin is not exactly the most relaxed cat I’ve ever met (although she’s sitting on top of the monitor as I type this) and besides having to put up with two strange people in the house she also has to figure out what this screaming, cat sized, smelly animal is.  She hasn’t quite figured it out yet and gets a hell of a fright whenever Max starts wailing like a banshee, which he does quite often at the moment 🙁

Luckily Jay has a very nice new PC (based on this system unit) with broadband internet access so I can check emails and surf to my hearts content – thanks Jay!

Damn – we slept through our first earthquake after getting back to NZ 🙁

Vic’s Mum asked us this morning if we had felt it.  We said no but it’s not surprising as it wasn’t very big (but it was quite shallow)

Here’s the details

I had a morning out taking photos around town on Saturday and have put 5 of the half way decent ones in this album.

Here’s an example

It’s 06:30 and Max has just slept though the night for the first time! Seven and a half hours of uninterupted sleep – bliss

We had a good night with him the night before but we thought it was an abberation. He had slept from 17:00 to 22:00, 23:00 to 04:00 and 04:30 until 08:00 and we thought that Christmas had come!

At least it’s nice to know that he can sleep through the night even if this might be a one off for the moment…………. 

Phew, the weather here in Wellington has been fantastic since we got home – 23/74 and clear everyday. Poor wee Max gets so hot and sweaty when he gets wound up (as do his parents!)

We had Jason and Laraine’s wedding on Saturday and had a great time. They both looked great and the service was lovely, unfortunately I missed half of it as I was outside trying to keep Max quiet I was also the MC for the night and managed to get through it without screwing up anything too major………

Staying with Vic’s mother hasn’t been too painful (not painful at all in fact!) We’ve had 9 days here and she has spoilt us rotten She’s been like a little elf – dirty dishes and laundry magically disappear and return clean and fresh! Tomorrow we are off to housesit for Jay and Larry while they are in Melbourne for their honeymoon and whilst it’ll be great to be on our own it will also be strange having to look after ourselves again. I get lazy really quickly

It’s almost a week since we got home and it seems to have both flown by and dragged on.

Max has entered a new phase in his very short life. In the last few days he has really started to react to people taking to him with his own gurgles and smiles and of course this brings coos of joy from both parents and grandparents Being a dad is THE coolest thing in my life!

On a grown up note we have the wedding of our friends Jason and Larraine tomorrow. The weather here has been fantastic since we arrived (clear, calm and about 23C everyday) and that looks like continuing for the wedding – yay. I’m also the MC for the day so that should be fun………….

I don’t seem to have stopped for a breath in the last six days and there is no sign of it slowing down for the foreseeable future