SUNDAY FUNDAY

Yesterday was Sunday, and a rather fun day actually. After having had Matt sick most of the week and then myself landing an extra design job that had me working all day Saturday, I really was in desperate need of a break. So come Sunday morning, I whipped out the beater and started making a fresh batch of pancakes for brekkie. I mean, really, there aren't many better ways to start a day than with pancakes! We sat down and demolished the whole lot before toting off for a wander down our local shopping strip. After exhausting the shops (not to mention Matt and Summer!) we headed off for a spot of fun, chasing each other amongst the autumn leaves of the Kauri Grove in Cornwall Park.

It was an awesome family day, and I'm rather keen to make this 'Sunday Funday' a tradition. It's so easy to let family time slip by in these busy lives of ours, but it's really one of the most important parts OF our lives. Summer adored throwing the leaves around, 'baaaing' at the sheep and giggling as we chased her through the park. It really was a special time for all three of us and Matt and I had a lot of fun trying to capture the moment. For those of you with children, you'll know how hard it is to get a good, non-blurry photograph of a toddler, but we did our best! Here's a few shots from the day:

OUR LITTLE MUNCHKIN

Thought it was about time for a wee update on our little toddler - can you believe she's less than a week shy of 16 months?! Time really does fly! Here's a 'Top-10' snapshot of Summer today:

1. She walks now! Thank goodness. I can't remember if I ever posted the fact that Summer was a bum shuffler? Well, I'm telling you now. At around 11 months old our dear Summer chose shuffling as her mode of transport and, quite frankly, it was often a royal pain in the a**. Not only did it make it harder for her to get around (you try shuffling uphill!), I was constantly repairing or replacing her holey bottomed shorts and longs. Actually, the only items of clothing I found to be bum shuffler friendly were dresses and skirts - as at the end of the day it was only her disposable nappies to ditch. I guess I could count that as a positive, as most mothers do love to dress their little girls in pretty and feminine things and sometimes crawling can get in the way of that. Shuffling also made Summer memorable, and countless people I'd briefly meet would always remember Summer weeks or months on from the first encounter, saying, "Oh, how could I forget a little redheaded bum shuffler!" Others would stare in utter fascination, "I've heard about these bum shufflers - but I've never seen one in real life!" said one fellow. Summer was somewhat of a showstopper. Cute? Yes! Very actually, but oh so much work for me! So when she upped and walked one Sunday morning at around 14 months, I was beyond excited - screaming at Matt to get here quick to witness this glorious sight! She moved forth in leaps in bounds from that day and is now practically running. Goodbye and good ridden's holey pants!

2. She says around 12 words now. They are Mama, Dada, ball, car, nana (banana), baby, clock, bubble, Nana, dog, up and flower. Although, right now she's calling everything a 'car' - I blame Daddy!

3. She is obsessed with organising and matching things up - and you do not dare mess with her pile of neatly place items, categorised by type or shape!

4. Books, books and more books. This one has never really changed - she's always loved books and has been turning pages since 10 months old. Most days she will toddle off to here room where I find her with an array of books surrounding as she sits quietly 'reading'.

5. Blankie. Oh how she loves her blankie, a soft Peter Rabbit muslin cloth that she calls 'Bee'. Every sleepy time 'Bee' must be there and she snuggles into it like nothing else.

6. Balls and Bananas. Must be something with these 'B' words - because these are two more loves of hers.

7. Family. Summer loves her Nana's, Poppa, Uncles and Aunty's, her Daddy and her Mummy (Me, yay! I must be doing something right!). Nothing beats a snuggly cuddle with our little one. Mmm, she's so scrumptious.

8. She loves music and dance. She is even trying to sing! Whether listening intently to the singers of Hi5, the Barbie Musical or Strawberry Shortcake, I hear this quiet lilting coming from Summer as she sings along - it's actually so sweet. She's been dancing before she could walk - grooving on the spot and clinging the side of chairs to get her toes tapping whenever she heard a song she liked. She's fussy though, and wont take any-ol' artist - Rhianna will not be on her playlist, so I discovered! However, she'll go for a bit of Blur or The Black Keys - go figure.

9. Beach. Loves the sand and loves the surf. Guess she's living up to her name:)

10. Dogs/animals. Put a baby doll in front of her and she swats it away. Put anything that resembles an animal whatsoever and she hugs, nurtures and says 'ooof, ooof (woof, woof)' - at this stage of life every animal barks in her mind.

There are HEAPS more things I could share about Summer - but then, I'm not sure anyone would want to read a 10,000 word post! I love this little girl and everyday she surprises me with new skills and every morning I swear she looks more grown up. But right now, this is quite enough to give a snapshot into the life of Summer.

ONE

I can't believe my little one is 1. The year has flown by and I can honestly say it's been the best year yet! Summer brings so much joy into our life and we look forward to many more years watching her grown into a little lady.

Here are a few snaps from her 1st birthday, 'Summer-themed' celebrations. It was a heap of fun making fan-circles and tissue pom-pom decorations and fruit filled cones, but my favourite of all was the vanilla flavoured sandcastle cake I made, with vanilla glaze and vanilla biscuit crumbles... mmm vanillary!

A NEW SUMMER WARDROBE?

Time to start buying Summer's 'summer' wardrobe!? I've just discovered these super gorgeous clothes in Cotton On Kids and she'll be the perfect size to wear them come summer time. I'm sure they weren't in there last time I visited and I fear I won't be able to get them in the right size or colour if I leave it too late. I particularly love the grey shortie jumpsuit, mint shorts and coral sundress. Super duper cute!

6 MONTHS TODAY!

My darling little girl is 6 months old today... wow how time flies! I decided to do a nice winter's day photoshoot to remember this moment. Happy 6 months bubble, you are the love of our lives. xxoo

EVER CHANGING

Well, my little girl is changing so much. At 5.5 months old, she now weighs 8kg and is classed as tall and slender on the Plunket percentile graphs… however, she's definitely still a chub, chub! She is getting closer to sitting unsupported, loves to grab everything insight, laughs regularly, is eating two servings of solids a day and developing an array of funny, quirky and adorable expressions every week.

Another thing I've noticed changing over the past couple of weeks is her hair. At 6 weeks I posted a pic of Summer and her striking reddish hair. She was born a redhead, and over the weeks following her birth, her red hair only became more pronounced. You can read that post here. Over the months I have been certain she is going to be a beautiful redhead. I imagine her with long, flowing, red locks and, in my mind I plan the pretty outfits I'm going to dress her in to compliment her hair as a grown up little girl… yes, I get a wee bit carried away! But gosh, isn't that what mother's do when they have little girls? It's fun! Anyway, over the last couple of weeks I thought I noticed her hair getting lighter. Maybe it's changing, or maybe it's just the light. Sometimes it's so hard to tell. Usually Summer's hair looks it's reddest when the sun shine on it, especially in photos. So, I was quite surprised to see it looking a lot lighter in these pics that I took today. I'm not saying there's no red in there, there definitely is, it just seems to be getting quite a bit lighter as the days go by. I'd say it's probably more a strawberry blonde at the moment, with a bit of dark red baby hair at the back. It will be interesting to see what's actually going to happen… I love watching, it's so interesting.

She's also still teething, and has recently developed bronchilitis. Ah, so hard to take care of a teething and sick child. Poor thing has been so miserable over the past week, and we've become rather accustomed to the sleepless nights. However, she seems to be on the up after being prescribed some antibiotics. Here's hoping for a quick recovery.

It's hard to believe 5 and a half months ago I hadn't met Summer. I just can't imagine ever not knowing her. So much has changed in our lives since she arrived and we wouldn't change a thing! She is nearly 6 months now and the time has flown. Before I know it, she'll be 1. Roll on the next 6 months… I can only imagine they'll be even better than the first 6.

UPDATE

Oh dear. I really haven't posted for a while. Life has been super busy, but busyness mostly brought upon ourselves!

A few weeks back we were invited to a friends 30th cartoon-themed dress up party. Already coping with a teething 4.5 month old, you'd think hiring a costume would be the way to go… but alas, we decided it would be fun to start from scratch and create our own. So over the past few weeks Matt and I have spent our evenings manipulating fabric, cardboard and various other materials into the shape of Optimus Prime and Tinkerbell. Optimus took a total of 30 hours to complete (split up of course!). Although it was a lot of work, it was totally worth it. I loved working with Matt, being creative, figuring things out and laughing so hard when the clock struck 11pm and we were overtired (yes, 11 is late for us now!). It was also really rewarding getting compliments on the night and even better when Matt won best dressed… Prize? A bottle of Champagne, yum!

The other big (on-going) event of the last few weeks has been Summer's teething. Poor wee thing hasn't been 100% herself lately. Gnawing at everything in sight with a terrible look of frustration. Drooling like there's no tomorrow. And looking at me with her big blue eyes as if to say, "Mummy, make it stop.' It completely breaks my heart to know there's not a lot I can do. I can see the little white culprit sitting smugly just below the surface of her gum. Come on tooth! Make your appearance and give me back my chilled out baby girl! It's not all bad though. Some days are better than others, when the pain must subside. Those are the days I get to play with Summer, hear her giggles and watch her cute wee smile. And those are the days I hope for every day!

- SUMMER'S DAY -

A wee video Matt and I put together to celebrate and capture Summer at 3 month. We hope to do these regularly to record her growing up... plus, they're so fun to do!

Blogger has compressed it so much. But you can view a better version here

- BECAUSE I CAN -

I love taking photos of Summer... I have billions of them and she's only 3 months old! Here are some recent ones. She gets so fascinated by the camera that she stops smiling... one day I'll decently capture one of her big grins!

- I SEE RED -

Our gorgeous wee bubba was born with red/ginger hair. I must say it was rather a surprise, as Matt and I are both blonde and aren't aware of any redheads in the family… but it must be in there somewhere. We have put it down to our Scottish heritage, and just recently my Nana told me there was Irish in the mix as well… that'll do it! However, since Sum Sum's birth her hair is slowly falling out (from the front to the back, and now the sides!) and the new little sprouts look a lot lighter and more blonde, or maybe strawberry blonde. Anyhow, her eyebrows and eyelashes are blonde, so we are now wondering if it's going to grow back blonde or red?  I have heard that either can happen, but I'm so impatient to see what her real hair colour will be! It's fun watching her grow, but why must it take so long? Patience is a virtue and I must work on achieving it!

See Summer's hair progress below:

- SUMMER IS 6 WEEKS OLD! -

Tomorrow, Summer is 6 weeks old, and boy has she changed in that short amount of time! Once a very sleepy baby, she has now decided she does not like to nap during the day and instead insists on getting herself overtired and grumpy. When we first brought her home she would fall asleep easily without any coercing. Now she is exercising her free will and does not want to nap when she could be playing with Mummy, Daddy or hanging out with guests! Matt and I have come to the conclusion she is a social little girl, as she doesn't have any problem sleeping at night. In that respect we can count our blessings and hope that it continues that way. We put her down at 8pm (after her feed, bath and cuddles), she then sleeps through till 3am for a feed and after that doesn't wake again until 6.30am. What an angel!!! Please, please let this continue.

Summer is also a lot bigger now too. At her last Plunket visit  at 5 weeks she weighed 4.9kg... 1.1kg larger than her birth weight. She is now sporting a cute, little double chin and scrumptious, chubby little legs.

Her hair is also changing... or should I say, falling out! Her current hairdo now resembles that of a balding old man, but she rocks it all the same. We are interested to see what colour her new hair will be. She was born with a very coppery tone, but I think the small new sprouts are looking a bit more blonde. We will have to wait and see.

Smiles. These are more and more frequent now with Summer averaging about 8 big smiles a day. She has the most adorable smiles and expressions and she makes my heart melt with each and every one of them.

These past 6 weeks have been a wonderful and precious time for Matt and I, and we continue to enjoy watching our little pumpkin grow before our very eyes. Roll on the next 6 weeks, can't wait to see what's in store!

- A MOMENTO -

3 days after Summer was born my wonderful husband surprised me with this gorgeous Karen Walker anchor necklace as a 'birth gift'. A beautiful reminder of our precious wee girl and her birth. It was such a sweet and thoughtful gesture and not a day has passed since that I haven't worn it. I love it! Thanks honey.

- SUMMER HAS ARRIVED! -

Introducing our beautiful wee girl, Summer Renée, born on 28 December and we couldn't be more delighted or in love! She is such a joy and I'm loving motherhood more than I could have imagined. I can not believe how instantly, crazy-in-love, I became when I first laid eyes on her. Every day she grows and changes, and it's the most special thing to watch her unfold and develop into this new, unique little person.

I can not express how much I love this little girl - she truly makes my heart melt!

These are some photos I managed to take after a good and satisfying feeding. It wasn't easy to get these shots, and I had several attempts after each feeding until she opened her eyes wide and got her pose on!

- BOLD AND BRIGHT -

You only have to walk down the fashion strip at Sylvia Park to be bombarded with a rainbow of psychedelic colours beaming from their shop front windows… and I'm loving it! I love this new seasons fashion colour palette! It's so pretty and bright and I can not wait to be able to buy some of these new styles once baby is born.

I've been tempted on several occasions to buy maternity sized clothes in these hues, but with a little under 3 weeks till EDD, I figure it a waste of time and money. I'm well aware I will not be my pre-pregnancy weight immediately, but I do know I wont be exactly 40 weeks preggo either! I figure I'll need a few additions to my wardrobe for the 'interim' phase - and what better time to splash out on a few new bits and pieces (that is if baby gives me any time to shop!)

I particularly love these pieces (above) from Cotton On, Glassons and Factorie.

Roll on summer!