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

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

What a week………. just don’t ask.

OK – so ask, but I don’t want to put it on here so email me if you’re curious.

Strange trip to work this morning….. I saw the aftermath of two accidents involving motorcycles and the remnants of an accident at a major intersection involving a car and half the traffic lights in the area.

The motorcyclists were both OK (I saw them talking to the paramedics) and about 10 police were controlling the traffic using the affected intersection so the net effect of my trip was minimal.  This was just as well as I was 30 minutes late leaving home today. Vic had called me through at 5 this morning very distressed that Max had only fed for 10 minutes and was being all grumbly. Maybe she thought that the fact that he wouldn’t feed was some sort of slight on her/us. The way that I figured it was that if he didn’t want to feed then there was not a lot we could do so I sent Vic off to bed. After changing Max and walking around with him for half an hour he seemed sleepy enough to put to bed so I did and we got 90 minutes sleep before he woke up again (after turning my alarm off – hee hee) and when I left home he was feeding well.

Funny things babies You just get the into what you think is a routine and they throw you a curve ball

On the way home my car must have had a big neon sign above it flashing “Oi dickheads – drive like idiots and piss me off – please!”

grrrr…..

I took today off work and was glad I did. I left work in the middle of the afternoon yesterday after everyone telling me how pale and spaced out I looked!  After a relatively good nights sleep last night I was up at 07:30 this morning and then fell asleep on the couch from 09:00 until 11:00 this morning! The antibiotics are dehydrating the hell outta me and I think my body’s knackered fighting off the infection. Given how shattered I was today I think I might take another day off tomorrow… yawn 🙁

Thanks for your thoughts, comments and emails everyone