mia's first swing

 
our first trip to the local playground on sunday was a resounding success. monday was a strange day here in auckland. a power cable came down and central auckland and surrounding suburbs came to a complete standstill. almost a state of emergency! roads chaotic, traffic lights down, hospitals going to emergency systems, schools shut, city businesses closing and sending people home, police stations closed, county courts closed.... absolute chaos. didn't really effect us on the north shore but the weather was mad. i was sat in a meeting on top floor of council building just watching things swaying... quite disconcerting! right, i am calling it a day. hope you have enjoyed all these entries. see you all very soon. really excited about introducing mia to everybody. 

 
saw these trousers and just had to buy them.... i want some for myself though i don't think i'd carry them off quite so well! i am really struggling not to go and buy every cute little outfit i see. toby rebelled the other day and bought a blue outfit for her! just wait for the "ah isn't he cute" remarks. it is now tuesday evening so we are nearly halfway through another week. it feels bitterly cold outside (must be down to around 10!) and we decided it was too cold to take mia to the park earlier. i think we have acclimatised! i have been on a customer service course just round the corner from where we live today so have had an easy day. tomorrow brings a heavy day at work though thankfully my nasty cold has eventually disappeared. 

so near yet so far

 
poor mia, we are now teasing her by placing toys out of reach to encourage her to crawl forward and reach them. no success yet but she is getting very frustrated. her newest sound is ma ma ma which, as you can imagine, brings a huge smile to my face. no da da da yet much to toby's dismay but it won't be long.... 

admiring the view

 
a complete stranger admiring the view out over auckland city from one tree hill. 

7 month mia

 
well, another month has gone by. we have seen huge changes this month, more talking and moving and more expressions. she is now in a great routine in the evenings and sleeps through every night for 11 hours. we know we are very lucky! when i think back to this time last year i can't believe how fast the last year passed. i hope future years don't pass so fast, she will be having teenage tantrums before we know it. 

tucking in

 
this has to be one of my favourite photos yet, mia enjoying carrots and rice. despite my high hopes of cooking her veggies myself, time is now at a premium and she is munching tinned baby stuff. she can't half scoff when she wants to! bit like her mum and dad i guess. we try to keep up her nursery routine at the weekend. she has a little book which they fill in every day with details of sleep, food and "other" things! 

mia and mum

 
on top of one tree hill, mia and i enjoy some sun. i know i know, her hat is a bit big but she looks very cute in it and it really protects her ears and head from the sun. we are now the proud owners of a mazda demio, a cheap run around and a surf-mobile. hopefully it will also remove some of the stress from the morning rush. we can each drive to work separately. parking is a bit of a nightmare in takapuna where i work so i plan to park in milford then walk to work - around 25 mins. 

in no particular order

 

test 
at long last, another entry. it's getting late though and toby has just helped me sort out the problems i have been having uploading photos. most of the following photos are pretty recent - taken at the weekend. having spent saturday trawling around garages searching for a second car i put my foot down and said i wanted to do something nice as a family on sunday. and what a result. the sun shone and we went to cornwall park, up one tree hill and then into the city for dim sum. mia loved being out and about and, as per usual, was good as gold.