Kapiti camping

Another long weekend so I decided it was time to take freya camping. A bit ashamed that it has taken this long to take her, but her dad isn't very fond of camping. So we had a girls camping trip with our friends Kareen and her 22 month old Melina. We had a plan a few days before, but that had to change because the campground was fully booked, so we made another plan.....

We set off mid morning on Saturday to Otaki forks, only to be thwarted by a road closure due to another slip on the road after heavy rain the last week. So we headed to Otaki beach for lunch and spent a couple of hours playing at the beach waiting to see if the road to Otaki forks would open. 

Freya and Melina at Otaki beach

The road was still closed at 4pm, so time for plan C, we headed to the very basic Waikawa campground North of Otaki. This was also very boggy and wet, but we found a spot that was dry enough and set up camp. 

Camp, Freya and Melina playing in the tent. 

Freya seemed to take it all in her stride and tried to help put up the tents and then enjoyed playing with Melina in the tents. They both enjoyed splashing in muddy puddles and exploring the camp....with a few meltdowns when evil mums wouldn't let them play in the really big muddy puddles. Melina did manage to dive/ trip in to one of them and cover herself in mud. There were also a few meltdowns over sharing toys, books, chairs, balls.....I guess they are at that age where sharing is hard and meltdowns are common. But in between there were moments of playing nicely together....and a few minutes peace for the mums to chat. 

Just as we were corralling the girls into bed it started to rain....freya did very well going to sleep quite easily (she was pretty tired from chasing, playing and fighting with Melina all afternoon). Unfortunately I realised that our tent leaks quite badly as it looks like the seam tape is disintergrating. Luckily the rain stopped after an hour or so... And so did the drips! So my visions of a very soggy unpleasant night didn't materialise. But I was kept awake by hedgehogs trying to get into the rubbish bag...eventually getting some watermelon rinds. Freya slept really well, with only a couple of wakes. I wish I could say the same. 

The next morning after breakfast, a few more meltdowns, and packing up some rather soggy tents we set off to check out the Raumati water park/gardens that I had heard about from our previous neighbours. We arrived around 10am just as temperatures were warming up and just a few kids playing. Freya and Melina had a quick bounce on the seesaw, but then headed on to the spray pad. They really enjoyed running in and through the water sprays, with a couple of interludes playing in the sandpit and on the swings and slide. We didn't get a chance to check out the rest of the gardens as the girls got cold and it was time for some food before heading home at lunchtime, so the girls could have their midday naps. 

Raumati water park

A fun camping adventure.....meanwhile Aaron worked hard I the garden. 

A week in Queenstown

After hanging out in wellington over Christmas we got away just before new year. Aaron drove the car down to Queenstown with most of our stuff over several days and nanna and papa, Freya and I flew down. Unfortunately for Aaron, he had to drive a few extra hours due to the main highway still being closed after the earthquakes a month or so earlier. He managed to listen to quite a few audiobooks on the way there (and back). 

We also met up with a couple of friends from Canberra, Dave and liz, who were holidaying in Queenstown at the same time. "Daze" (she could say Dave) soon became a favourite of Freya's. After all arriving on the 31st December....we didn't quite manage stay up and see in the new year. 

Colouring in with "Daze"

New Year's Day we were up bright and early as usual with freya! The weather didn't look great, but we headed up from the remarkables ski field to walk up to lake Alta. it was really windy and cold....we were slightly underdressed for the conditions. It was still very pretty, but unfortunately the clouds didn't lift off the peaks. Unfortunately the weather forecast for the whole week was pretty average. We got out for a few shortish walks on a couple of days. Nanna and papa took a coach tour to Milford sound for the day.Aaron and Dave did a few mountain bike rides (well shuttled each other, and took turns riding), and Freya got to try out a few different playgrounds around the area. She did splash in a couple of streams and dipped her toes in lake wakatipu, but no swims or kayaking in the lake this year....too windy and far too cool. Instead we ended up going to the nice warm indoor pool a couple of times. 

Arrowtown playground with the big kids "Daze" daddy and Liz

First fluffy

Family photo from the lookout above arrowtown.

We did have one great weather day when we did the first part of the Routeburn great walk track. We walked up to Routeburn falls hut and back. 6 hours of walking and one hour of stops for lunch and breaks. Freya walked 4 different times for up to 30 minutes, and tolerated being in the backpack the rest of the time, with a couple of short naps. Dave and liz (who are crazy runner people) ran the whole track in the day and we met them at the end. 

Photos to come

Not the most exciting week in Queenstown, but pretty relaxing and Freya enjoyed a lot of attention from 6 admirers! 

Christmas

Well after years of Christmas being a non-event in our house, we finally had one that vaguely followed some of the expected festivities. We even had a Christmas tree....although it was very tiny and probably should have been called a Christmas shrub. The stack of presents for freya was larger than the shrub, but after seeing freya attempt to destroy one at a friends house I thought it best not to have one in Freya's reach until she is a little older. The Christmas shrub is now a pot plant and should grow over the next few years to something more like a tree. 

Our Christmas shrub

Having missed thanksgiving this year due to conferences and being too disorganised, we had our thanksgiving turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, with nana and papa and another family (Dee, Andrew, olive and Leo, who hosted us for Christmas last year). Aaron finally got his Turkey fix for the year....and there was enough leftovers, despite the extra people, to keep him going for another 5 days. 

We had hoped that freya would give us a Christmas present of a lie in...but no such luck....a normal 6:30am start. Despite having been intrigued by the pile of presents just out of her reach for the few days before Christmas....she was rather slow at getting them unwrapped. In fact after opening the first one, which was a kitchen and food set she spent a while playing with that. We finally convinced her to open a few more when her grandma Oregon was watching over Skype. 

Opening Christmas presents

After a bit more playing and finally convincing freya to wear a pretty dress....we headed over to our neighbours for Christmas brunch, as has been tradition for the last few years. Freya had great fun playing with the green Christmas Santa, and Aaron, nana and I attempted to get the hang of jacks hoverboard thing....with varying degrees of success. 

Trying to ride the hoverboard

Playing with Tom and a very large bear

In the late afternoon we headed down to the worser bay beach with some other friends who have a daughter Freya's age. Not the most successful beach trip as it turned out to be a little windy....but the girls seemed to enjoy themselves. 

I think Freya had fun. It certainly was a bit more Christmas like for us and nice to have nana and papa there to share it with. 

Nanna and papa's visit

Also known as Freya's maternal grandparents, or Helen's parents. But Freya can only say na na and papa at the moment. They were planning to come for Christmas this year, but we asked them to come a few weeks earlier to help Aaron out while Helen went to a conference in Auckland in early December. It was Aaron's first time solo parenting for more than a few hours, so great to have a couple of extra hands to make dinner and look after freya the days she doesn't go to crèche. 

Making cookies with nanna

Riding the purple dinosaur with papa

The following weeks before Christmas they took a short trip to the wairarapa to do some walking and wine tasting, explored wellington a little more and did a lot of work on the kitchen and garden, especially the neglected compost heap (it might now actually compost). Dad also got out for quite a few windy rides around the waterfront. Mum came swimming with freya and I and baked lots of yummy Christmas treats with occasional "help" from Freya. With the extra hands around to wrangle Freya, Aaron and I took the chance to wash the outside of the house and garage, and windows, and clean out the gutters, and snuck in a mountain bike ride together..... 

Great to get a bit of spring cleaning done to get the house back in order. Thanks mum and dad for all your help. 

 

18 months

Well our little baby is now a full blown toddler. She certainly has a mind of her own. Knows what clothes or shoes she does or doesn't want to wear. Having little melt downs when she doesn't get her way or another kid has the swing or toy she wants. Hopefully she will learn how to share at crèche! 

Her climbing has improved significantly, she can now climb up the ladder at the playground all by herself.  Freya has started a gym class for "tumbling tots" which she seems to enjoy. But this may have encouraged her climbing on to the chairs and dining table and she has tried to climb out of her cot..... She is walking much more, walking about half way back from the playground one time. All this activity has resulted in her slimming down slightly. 

Climbing the ladder at gym class

Her language is also coming along. Her understanding is really good and we now have "no" and nods for yes. This makes a big difference to the frustration levels. She is very vocal and loud, but doesn't have many words yet. The latest words are bubbles and turtle....but Freya can also make most of the farm animal noises now. She still loves books, her teddies, and her drawing has changed from lines to circles and squiggles. She is also now enjoying puzzles and shapes and can spend ages playing with balls. She loves to help with cleaning with her own brush and does some mixing of food in the kitchen. She can spend quite a while entertaining herself now....

Shapes and books..

Puzzles...this one was a bit easy. 

We did try to measure her height and weight the other day...but it looks like she hasn't grown much, and may have even lost some weight...hard to tell when she was wriggling so much. She feeds herself and is eating pretty well, trying new things. She loves weetbix, pizza, sausages, mashed potatoes, but also oranges and yoghurt and fruit smoothies. Lately she has also been eating tomatoes and asparagus....so hopefully she will eat everything, unlike her fussy parents. She has also decided that she wants to drink from a normal cup....no more sippy cup....except for milk at bedtime. 

Drinking from a glass

She loves not wearing a nappy and now that we are going into summer she is having a lot of nappy-free time around the house and garden. She has used the potty a couple of times....but the novelty has kind of worn off and we haven't had much luck lately. But it is early days. 

She loves being outside...so bring on summer and the better weather. It has been a very wet and windy October/November. 

Tararuas tramping

I thought we would have taken freya for an overnight tramp before now....but time has just slipped by and there has always been something else going on, or we were too tired, or we thought she would keep everyone else in the hut awake. So an easy ranger tramp was a good excuse to go....and now freya generally only wakes a couple of times a night it was time to give it a try. We also went to a hut where there were a couple of bunk rooms, so less chance of waking others.

It was also great to have a couple of other adults who could carry some extra stuff for us as it turns out that you can just about carry freya and her clothes...but not much else in the baby backpack. And Aaron couldn't carry everything else. So others carried Freya's sleeping bag, some food, and a stove and fuel. 

We were headed in to Atiwhakatu hut in the Tararuas. A 2-3 hour, undulating walk....no big hills. The Rangers and rest of the group were much faster and headed off...and we trundled along behind, catching up with them when they stopped for a snack or break. Freya loved the bush and there were lots of shrieks with delight.....especially when she spied a dog and other people. She was pretty happy most of the time in the pack and even had a 30 minute snooze...although she woke when we stopped. She loved to play on the bridges and walked for about 20-30 minutes....with lots of stops to pick up and throw rocks.

Freya loved playing on the bridges

Tramping and tripping.... focussing on her feet.

 

She enjoyed the hut. Watching the girls try to start the fire and all the different things to explore. As luck would have it another toddler turned up who was a little older than freya...and they enjoyed racing each other and playing with Freya's ball. 

Despite quite a few people at the hut (17), we got a bunk room to ourselves, and freya slept okay. She was very tired after lots of exercise and not much sleep that day. 

Sunday morning we woke up to rain. So we got to test out our rain cover for the baby backpack in anger. It seemed to work just fine. Freya wasn't too fussed by the rain, especially dressed in her galoshes and coat. In fact I think she enjoyed the whole experience. Hopefully we can find other excuses and people to act as Sherpas over the summer. Although at 12 kg Freya is getting a little heavy.....

Testing out the rain cover for the baby backpack - you can see little ted sticking out - Freya is fast asleep warm and dry.

 

15 months

Well we have reached another milestone. Freya had a check up and another lot of her vaccinations. In fact we ended up having the measles and chicken pox ones early as there are several cases in wellington at the moment. Freya continues to thrive and is following the 91st percentile curve for weight...a very healthy 11.22 kg, and the 75th percentile for height....78cm. She is certainly getting very good at eating. A month ago she was eating more than me at each meal....must have been going through a growth spurt. She seems to have gone back to a more reasonable amount of food now. 

Unbelievably we have continued to teethe....she now has 16 teeth and it appears she is still teething....at least there is plenty of drool and lots of chewing on her fingers. I can't believe she is getting her last 4 molars already....surely not! Please can we have a break from the teething for a few months. 

Freya can now walk really well and having mastered going up stairs a while ago she is now learning to climb up ladders now. She loves the playground, but I think it is as much about watching the other kids as it is about playing on the swings and slide. She now wants to play with the big kids and on the big kids stuff..... She is enjoying her tricycles...but doesn't last very long on them yet. Her favourite game that she doesn't seem to get bored of is dressing and undressing teddies and dolls (the latter they have at crèche). Aaron's comment the other day was "never in a million years did he expect to be putting a dress on a teddy bear!". She also loves to help around the house brushing the floor....helping with the washing....packing (and unpacking) bags. 

Please can I go on the big swing! 

Helping? With the washing by destroying the drying rack.

Helping to wash the windows...well playing with the bubbles anyway! 

She also is a big fan of books. She loves to make the animal noises of the creatures in the books. She has got a pretty good tiger growl, and lion roar, monkey noises and dog woofs! She understands a lot, but isn't talking, and although she uses dada and mumma...they aren't always in context. This last weekend she started to say "uh oh". So I'm sure a few more words will be coming soon. 

1 year

Well we made it to the 1 year milestone. 366 days, 2 mothers days and 2 Christmases and a round the world tour. So Freya has crammed a lot in to her 1st year. She also took her first independent steps a week before her birthday. Since then she has been practising, but mostly takes a couple of steps and then dives for mum or dad or a piece of furniture. She unfortunately missed the side of the doorframe with her hand and hit it with her head, so is currently sporting a massive lump and scar on her forehead. Learning to fall😢 she has also now got the hang of both her tricycles, the indoor plastic one and the outdoor one. So she scoots around the house to get places, or uses her trolley, which she can now steer where she wants to go. She is in to everything....so some serious baby proofing has been needed. 

Climbing into and pulling everything out of cupboards! 

We had a nice little afternoon tea for Freya on Sunday before her birthday (Mother's Day). She didn't quite know what to make of it. But she cruised around and enjoyed herself. Between us we made her a pretty cool bear cake...I baked the cake and Aaron made the vanilla cloud frosting and built and decorated it. A pretty impressive effort for our first attempt at a children's birthday cake. 

Bear cake 

Family Birthday photo

She got lots of lovely birthday gifts from family and friends.  Books, clothes, a couple of sets of crockery and cutlery, and a few toys, including a digger and an 80litre tub of duplo, on loan from our neighbours for the next few years. So we are looking forward to lots of hours of fun reading books and playing with diggers and duplo!  Thankyou for all the gifts! 

Birthday girl in her party dress with a balloon.

9 months

Freya is 9 months....and changing so fast. It seems like every week she has a new trick. She has finally learnt her name and can clap and give high fives and she is starting to pull up and let go - balancing for a few seconds, and has been taking a few steps with her trolley. Still a little way off walking...but not too far. She is certainly getting around and exploring everything and is very social, getting very excited when she sees a group of kids at the swimming pool or the park. Her favourite game is peekaboo...which she plays herself now. 

We are also getting a few new sounds too. However the biggest challenge has been teething the last month and a bit. Freya now has 7 teeth....just waiting for one more on the bottom left to appear. Possibly related to the teething (or not), but Freya has been struggling eat. We have finally got the hang of eating finger foods without gagging all the time. So Freya is starting to eat a little more. Her favourite foods are yogurt, and she really enjoyed cherries, although she looked like a little vampire after. She also likes the pancakes her dad makes on the weekend. 

Breakfast time....yogurt....yum

We just had her 9 month check up and she is now 10.06kg and 71.5cm tall. So continuing to grow fast and following the same 95th and 75th percentiles on the charts. We are now in 12-18 month clothes....although over the summer she often doesn't wear much at all. She especially enjoys playing with water on the back deck to cool off. 

Bathing on the back deck. 

Freya's first Christmas's

Our first family Christmas...Freya's present to her parents was to let them have a lie in until 7:30am. Freya got some lovely Christmas presents of books, a picture, and a music set with maracas, castanets, Tamborine, triangle etc...so lots of noise was had. After opening her presents we skyped with nagymama, nagypapa, uncle Andy, cousins Andrea and Annabel in Scotland, who were still having Christmas Eve. 

Freya opening her presents

We headed over to our neighbours for a delicious brunch, then in the afternoon we headed around to some friends for a bbq. We had perfect wellington weather. 

Brunch...yum

Family Christmas photo

Freya in her summer dress

Then at 6pm we headed to the airport to fly to the US. Freya did really well and managed to get some sleep in the bassinet on the plane, and mum and dad got a few hours as well. After a night on the plane we arrived in the US on Christmas Day....so at 7 and a half months Freya has had 2 Christmases due to time differences and datelines....

We are looking forward to catching up with the Lymans over the next week in Phoenix. 

Freya-proofing the house

As Freya starts to pull up on everything it is time to get our act together and start to baby-proof the house. Aaron, with the help of his dad Ralph, have built us a set of cupboards for the book shelves to sit on top. Today we finally carried it up to the house and assembled it.

Aaron and Ralph cutting up the wood

The finished cupboards with the bookshelves on top.

Freya checking out the cupboard

First step....now we have to put locks on the cupboards....

7 months

Summer is here and we are spending lots of time outdoors. Freya is enjoying exploring the garden, with regular visits to the playground, a few walks, bike rides and we finally took her to the beach and played in the sand and dangled her toes in the cold sea.

At scorching bay....

Despite a couple of colds and a vomiting episode, Freya continues to thrive and she was 9.24kg at her weigh in this week, 69 cm long, 45 cm head circumference. Physically she is getting stronger and better at crawling, still mostly commando crawling...but occasional knee crawling. Sh can sit up very well now. She is also starting to pull herself up on people and a few objects. Today she learnt to climb up the stairs in the back yard. Aaron and Ralph are busy building a cupboard to start the baby proofing process in the living room, to put some stuff away behind doors. Judy and Ralph are here for a few more days. Freya is enjoying playing with her granny. 

The Lymans 

Freya sitting in her toy basket

Thanksgiving with the Lymans

Grandma and grandpa Oregon have come over to meet Freya and celebrate her first thanksgiving. We had a traditional Turkey, stuffing, potato and sweet potato, but we added a kiwi twist of pavlova for desert. Freya didn't partake in dinner, but she did sit with us while we ate, before heading off to bed. She tried a bit of Turkey and mashed potato the next day.

Judy and Ralph have come over to New Zealand for a couple of weeks to get to know Freya and to see a bit more of the country that they didn't see last time. Freya has been enjoying playing with grandma. Freya has been learning to do a few new tricks, sitting up and transitioning from crawling to sitting and back again....we have had a few face plants as she got the hang of it. She has also pulled herself up a couple of times...but is still very wobbly on her feet, mainly because she tries to stand on one leg, or cross her legs. 

Playing with grandma Oregon 

Dancing with grandpa

We have had a couple of colds lately, but other than struggling to breathe at night she has been pretty happy during the day and continues to play hard as usual. 

6 months

Can't believe Freya is half a year old! It has been a quite a ride....but we have definitely reached a fun part. Summer has also arrived with some great weather (some days). We have been spending a bit of time in the garden and also the local playground. As well as daily walks, Aaron has started to take Freya for short bike rides in the trailer.

Walk In the backpack

She is loving her swimming lessons and went underwater the other day. Freya is very active and her crawling is changing, as she gets up on her knees and is trying to pull herself up. She loves chasing Mifi and climbing on and wrestling with her dad. She will be getting to spend more time with her dad now as last week he finished his uni course. Yay! 

Up on her knees, rocking back and forth.

She is full of surprises, managing to unscrew the lid of a water bottle that she was chasing across the floor the other day. She ended up lying in a puddle of water. She is certainly keeping us on our toes! 

Crawling, rolling and chitter-chatter

Freya is on a mission. She rarely stays still (which to be honest started in utero when I developed a large bruise from all her kicking). She has been attempting to crawl or at least inch-worming forward for about a month, but she now has a pretty good commando crawl. The only problem is that she can't turn (or turn around) so the walls and furniture keep getting in her way and has had a few marks on her forehead from bashing in to things.

The wall got in the way...

Trying to roll over, but in this case the pole got in the way

She rolled over from front to back quite a while ago, initially by accident, today however she finally mastered the back to front roll. So now we are really in trouble. Up until yesterday we could at least put her down on her back and she wouldn't move.

She is also chatting away, especially when she is playing with her dad in the morning. The sounds are getting more complex and louder. Aaron is convinced she said "dada" the other day. It is great to see her changing and learning new tricks all the time...

4 months....

Freya is 4 months old. She is a very busy little lady....busy inch worming/commando crawling across her activity mat and the floor chasing after her toys. When she isn't shimmying forwards on her tummy she loves to stand up and do a little dance/jig. She has strong legs, but her balance isn't quite there yet. She is getting better at sitting.

She still loves going for walks in both the sling and her bike trailer buggy, in fact it is the only way to get her to nap during the day. Fortunately the weather has been improving, with some nice sunny days.  She is also very social...with several catch ups with friends most weeks, and she regularly comes in to work with me to check on the students in the lab.

Today she had her 4 month check. Despite her recent bugs and illnesses she is still growing well. She is now 7.7kg and 63.5cm long, 43cm head circumference. Soon she will have grown out of her 6 month clothes....crazy! 

Off the mat chasing toys. She started at this side of the mat.

Practicing sitting in my chair

Looking cool in my new sunglasses and a sun hat