





Before the haircut:

And after!









Mostly he's just loved spending quality time with his grandparents. Baby and grandparents alike are very much in love.
News in the meantime is that I have learned how to knit. My mum taught me during our stay in the cottage. I'm knitting Elmer a scarf that will go with a cute new coat we bought him. It's all going to look very Harry Potter (not deliberate), with red and blue stripes.
Elmer is walking along using the furniture loads, but still not branching out to take his first steps. Oh and I cut his hair! First time. Today whilst he played with his toy garage. It's a pretty good hair cut since he didn't exactly sit still. He looks YEARS older, which is cute but also a little heartbreaking. I must post a photograph.
Once he's walking he won't be a baby anymore, but I've had a good baby-innings since he's now almost 19 months. He's babbling lots, and every second word is 'tractor' - an obsession.
Here are his fat little toes on the beach in Taranaki. Black sand!







The best part was, Elmer slept right through our long lunch, so it was ultra civilised!
Elmer is now a big boy. He bum-shuffs, he says things, he climbs the stairs, he gets illegal chocolate out of the fridge. He cuddles only those that meet his high expectations. Luckily Mum and Dad made friends with him in the car on the way back from the airport and now Elmer has them in his exclusive cuddle-circle.
It's so amazing having them here. Tomorrow we are up early to head to Queenstown, but I've had a few people on my back about the lack of Elmer photographs on the blog recently so I thought I'd better blog these tonight.




I'm sure part of him remembers them. In Cardiff last year he used to have this habit of pulling silly faces at the dinner table. Mainly to my Mum. And all of a sudden he's doing that again after a break of about half a year. The same silly faces!
See that top picture? I was hoping that with all the walking practice Elmer will get over the next 4 weeks he might take his first few steps whilst my parents are here. We'll see!
Aww lovely photos Shun! Enjoy your time together x
Mum was convinced that Elmer had learned to walk and talk in the time it took them to cross Siberia and that you were hiding it from them until their arrival!
On the plus side, he does look a lot like me...
(03.27.11 @ 12:56 PM)He is the spitting image of Ciaran haha! I love these photos! Such proud grandparents! I remember that playground as well. xxx
(03.29.11 @ 04:22 PM)a) It was sunny and dry
b) It was not blowing a gale
c) Steven wasn't called away to do electrical work
d) I was at home to look after Elmer
e) Reece from next door was available to help lift beams
A day to rejoice! Some of the roof beams could be lifted up into position! Nobody would get blown off the roof in strong winds!
The house probably looks a little different to the last time I blogged. The roof is slowly being built, and once all the framing is done we will get roofers to come in and do the steel work. Otherwise everything you see has been crafted by Steven. On his own! I wonder when the roof will be finished? Soon I hope. But then today was meant to be a building day and of course the weather is disgusting. Nice to see blue skies now and again.




I tell you what, those beams are HEAVY. There's also a lot of detail work involved in building a post and beam house. Whole days can be spent chiselling out bits of wood that will dovetail together with precision.
When we watch Grand Designs and see someone whinging that the contractor they hired to build their 'self-build house' in it's entirety has taken 3 weeks longer than suggested, I want to travel over to the stylish cottage they are renting, with one of these large beams, and knock some sense into them. This is one of the most stressful and frustrating things we have ever undertaken, given the circumstances. I am so proud of Steven though, and aware that we are lucky to be here in New Zealand, able to enjoy such an incredible project.
Woot woot! That's so great to see!!! What a shame you didn't set up your tripod though so we could see you dancing underneath the glory hehehe
(03.13.11 @ 06:38 PM)I'll save my glory-dancing for a bit later on I think :)
(03.13.11 @ 10:52 PM)Well done Steven! Mike can't wait to lift some of those heavy beams. He's been bumming around Asia feeling useless. Six more days....M x
(03.15.11 @ 01:34 AM)Tell Mike they are all in. Me, Lawrence and Reece lifted them all in last Sunday. We all lost parts of our fingers doing it too. Just little parts that will grow back. Tell him not too worry he didn't miss anything.
(03.15.11 @ 08:46 PM)




oooh Elmer what a nice time you have had. It all looks so relaxing ahhhh. I get the haircut now, needed to see the before and after...no more comb over ha!
(04.18.11 @ 03:53 PM)No more comb over! He's too trendy for that.
(04.18.11 @ 09:37 PM)Amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing photos!!!
(04.19.11 @ 12:16 AM)As always, incredible photo's. But as I'm a geek and huge Apple fan, the photo with the laptop is incredible.
On a side note, we got our photo's in the mail today. Thank you so much. We really enjoyed our day and you have captured our memories.
All the best.
(04.19.11 @ 01:18 AM)