It's a long way to "Aberdeen".....it's a long way to go.....

I really didn't think I would get funding from work to go to my favourite triennial conference in holland this year. So when I did I was surprised and also very nervous about flying all that way with a 15 month old on my own as Aaron couldn't get enough holiday to come with us the whole time. Unfortunately freya is too big for a bassinet on the plane....so we had to buy her a seat.....or I would go insane with a wriggly girl sitting on me the whole way. With very low expectations of how well the trip would go....we set off. Fortunately freya did great and slept more than I thought. Delayed flights meant she didn't get much chance to run around at the airports where we had to change planes...so we did have to run up and down the aisles a few times. Freya turned on the smiles and got lots of attention from surrounding passengers and crew, and only screamed a couple of times and only briefly. I managed to keep it together until Heathrow when I almost lost it, when going through security for the 4th time on the trip, they confiscated the baby paracetamol...then I had to carry all my bags between 2 terminals as trolleys were not allowed to go on the train...and no one offered to help. Anyway we made it from wellington to Aberdeen ...very tired and jet lagged.

We had 6 days in Aberdeen catching up with Freya's cousins...and for Freya to become familiar with her grandparents who had volunteered to look after her the following week during the conference. Unfortunately the trip seemed to coincide with a new clingy phase for Freya....very unlike her normal adventurous and happy self...so this made it a little harder and frustrating. 

 At the playground with her cousins....

Making music together ;)

I shouldn't have been surprised, but the summer weather in Aberdeen was rather disappointing...but Freya had fun playing with her cousins toys and going to the winter gardens at the park, playing in her nagymamas garden, seeing real pigs, cows and sheep at the petting farm...although she was pretty scared of them all except the chickens. 

 Nagymama feeding the sheep....

 Playing in Nagymama's garden

Learning how to be a monkey from her cousins!

 

Great to catch up with the family and over the space of a week we were mostly over the jet lag. 

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. 

Weekend in Christchurch

We haven't been away for ages....so time for an adventure. We headed down to Christchurch for the weekend to see Dan and Charlotte. Time to test out how Freya would go on a flight now she is a little older. We had thought we might go to the snow....but there hasn't been much and it involved taking even more stuff with us. So instead we went to check out the new playground they have just finished - the Margaret Mahy playground. 

There were lots of really cool slides....which Freya loved. She also enjoyed the trampolines and she would have enjoyed the water park if it hadn't been so cold and she had been allowed to get wet....As Always she enjoyed the swings.....but wasn't such a fan of the flying fox. Unfortunately the tower and the cargo nets were a bit advanced for her....maybe in a couple of years time. 

Bouncing on the trampoline

Playing with the water

View of the playground from the top of the big slide

We also went to the beach and for a couple of nice walks in the port hills, and around the suburbs to visit several other playgrounds and to fly Dan's drone. We also got to meet dan's nephew Max, who is 6 months younger than Freya, she didn't know quite what to make of the younger baby and was not impressed that he was getting more attention than her, or playing with the toys. 

Aaron flying the big kids toy.....drone.

The drone hovering 

It was great to get away and to catch up with friends.  Thanks for having us Dan and Charlotte.