The next day, we had lunch in Bondi Junction and Joseph had a great time crawling around away from us, checking out the cigarette butts, the bikes and generally getting very dirty. We had lunch with Matty, Joseph's Godfather, and the two of them had a great time catching up.

Joseph was a star on the plane coming home and went to sleep as soon as we started taxi-ing to take off. They had allocated us three seats and we put Joseph in the middle, he woke up just before we landed in Auckland.

We got home to lots of cards and presents – thanks to everyone who sent him something. He is very spoilt but we are looking forward to reading the new books, playing with the new toys and wearing the new clothes.

Kate got Joseph this cool ride on motorbike that we gave to Joseph over the weekend – he doesn’t quite know what to do with it yet but he will get there soon enough. He looks quite proud of himself in this picture I think!!

This is a combined post for Weeks 52 and 53 as Joseph's birthday has certainly spanned two weeks! We went to Sydney for four days including Joseph's birthday and this meant he had a couple of celebrations!

First of all, a development update...Joseph LOVES to feed himself, some meals are more successful that others! I am finding that giving Joseph a fork makes things a lot easier (ie less messy!) as he is able to stab the food and actually get some on the fork and into his mouth! He becomes very determined to feed himself!


Recently, Joseph has taken to sucking on his bottle when it is empty and crawls around with it in his mouth like a dog carrying something! We're not sure where this comes from as he has never been a fan of a dummy! Another of his favourite things is lounging around on the floor. He likes to roll around on the floor or sometimes just lies there talking away. Here is a picture of Joseph combining two of his favourite things - lounging and sucking the bottle!


Ofcourse, the big event was Saturday 17th March when Joseph turned one. Mum and Dad came down to Sydney to babysit (Dan and I went to a wedding) and brought loads of presents with them.

He got a great tracksuit that will be just perfect for the trip to Bear Park.

Probably the highlight for Joseph was his first ever trip to McDonalds with Grandma and Grandad BQ, where he tucked into McNuggets and fries (no fizzy drink though).

Week 51 (I can hardly believe we've made it to this!!) was pretty much back to normal with all out guests having left. However, Joseph did do four days at Bear Park (rather than his usual three) and Dan picked him up two days in a row as I was busy at work.

Joseph has got much more familiar with his new shower and now we have to race him to the shower to get his clothes off before he climbs straight in shower!

It has been quite hot here thanks to our late arriving summer and Joseph has been a bit unsettled at night. This culminated on Wednesday night when he just wouldn't go to sleep and at 10pm he was still awake and having a great time playing downstairs. We ended up giving him an "illegal" bottle at 10pm to knock him out and then he woke at 2.30am for another little feed - what a guts! All that night time partying meant that he was very tired on Thursday morning and I had to wake him at 7.10am so that I could make my 8am pilates class! I felt a bit bad dropping him off at Bear Park not having had a breakfast bottle nor his weet bix! Here's a pic of Joseph asleep in his cot just before I woke him.

Our busy week ended with a trip to Hamilton to see my cousin, Dinah, and her daughter, Olivia. Olivia was swimming in the NZ Age Group Championships and we got to see her swim in her heat of the 200m individual medley - she came second. It was amazing to see her swim and witness the level of dedication both she and Dinah have to the sport.

Week 50 saw Joseph heading back to Bear Park after a two week holiday - his teachers were very happy to see Joseph and all his new tricks.

Kate bought Joseph a little wooden trolley which Joseph just LOVES!! It really helps his walking confidence and he almost runs around behind it. He hasn't figured out how to turn corners however and just keeps on going straight.

Denise and Rob bought Joseph a huge paddling pool for Christmas and Joseph has really enjoyed exploring the water in it. We put lots of toys in there for him but he had just as much fun standing around the edge of it (both when he was in it and out of it). We've packed it away now but I'm sure it will get loads of use next summer when Joseph is a bit older.

Finally, here's a shot of Dan and I with all the boys watching the end of a Crusaders Super 14 rugby match.

We spent half of Week 49 of Joseph's life in Onemana and then came back to Auckland. Dan, Joseph and I went to Joseph's follow-up appointment with Bill Baber, the ear/nose/throat specialist, to see if Joseph's ears had improved over four weeks or whether Joseph would become a candidate for grommets. Luckily, Joseph had shown great improvement and we won't be off for grommets unless he gets two successive bad ear infections over winter.

Our neighbours, Glen and Anja, have a pool and let us use it...here's a picture of Kate and Harry making use if it. We had such amazing weather over this time.
Joseph has been working on his climbing skills and he is determined to get as close to the television as he can!
I haven't taken a photo of Joseph on his chair for awhile...this was taken just before we went to pick up Mum from the airport...Joseph has on an outfit completely supplied by Grandma (looking a bit porky though!).

Week 48 saw Dan, Kate, Harry, Alfie, Joseph and me head down to Onemana, a little place in the Coromandel, about 2 hours south east of Auckland. We hired a house there which had great views but lots of things for inquisitive little boys to get into to!

Dan bought a backpack baby carrier on Trade Me and we took this with us. Dan and Joseph had a couple of excursions using it. Poor Dan worked up a sweat lugging the big fella around!

We went to a few beaches and Joseph loved eating the sand. Here we are at Whangamata Beach. I didn't realise how much sand he actually did consume until I changed his nappy the next day - it has great "exfoliating" properties!


I also didn't realise how hard it would be to get a picture of all three boys looking a) happy and b) at the camera the same time...so, here's another one of Harry, Joseph and Alfie all out of sorts!!

I am about five weeks behind with my posting...it has been so busy with my family here (3 kids under 3.5 years!) that I haven't had much time. So, I'm going to make up for it over the next couple of nights!

We're up to Week 47 of Joseph's busy little life. We spent this week getting ready for the exciting arrival of Kate, Harry and Alfie. This meant tidying the house and buying lots of new sheets, towels and most importantly, a gate for the stairs. Ironically, this has ended up being one of Joseph's favourite things to play with and he loves standing by it and shaking it like crazy.

Joseph is really keen to try feeding himself but his motor skills aren't quite up to it and he ends up getting very messy. I usually let him "experiment" with feeding at dinner time as the shower is not far away!

This week ended on Sat 10th Feb with the cousins' arrival. Here's a picture of the three boys getting to know each other!