We've had a great week with our friends Kirsten and Peter, who live in Brisbane and have been staying with us for a few days. It's been fabulous catching up as we haven't seen them since I was pregnant with Connor in the uk. Bruce had a few days off and we've been hanging out, going for walks and staying up far too late drinking far too much wine for people who have to wake up at children's hour in the morning!

Some recent photos from a rainy afternoon...




















I set up an obstacle course in the hallway. Connor had to climb over the chairs then dive into the giant beanbag at the end.
















Byron having 'tummy time'
















Jumping off the bed into the beanbag kept Connor amused for hours!

It's been great having Bruce around for the past two weeks. We've enjoyed hanging out with the boys as well as getting a lot of bits and pieces done around the house. Dad and Paul have been fantastic and taken Connor out a lot so we could get things like painting etc done. They had him for the whole day last Thursday and Connor had a brilliant time. I think he's going to be rather disappointed once Paul is working non stop again! Just as well Dad is 'semi-retired'.

I took Byron for his five month Plunket check today and he's doing really well. He's loving his food so I need to keep on with that. You wouldn't think from looking at his cheeks that he's only in the bottom 25 percent for weight! I think he's going to be long and lean like Connor.
















Byron and Hippo (Hippo's the one with the yellow ring around his middle)

The garden's starting to take off with the humid damp weather, we're really pleased with the red Canna lillies

A belated happy new year! We didn't quite make it til midnight, just had a quiet evening watching some old family movies with Dad and Paul. It was great as we hadn't seen them for ages, quite weird seeing Paul and I as babies and toddlers, and even stranger watching film of mum and dad when they were eighteen! It's so incredible to have that footage, and Bruce and I are definitely going to buy a camcorder to keep such priceless moments of our little ones.
Bruce has got a couple of weeks off work, so we decided we'd try and get some things around the house and garden sorted and it's going pretty well. Today got lots done thanks to Dad and Paul looking after Connor, and tomorrow Connor is spending the whole day with them.

Byron has started having solids (he's five months old today!). He was waking up quite a lot and didn't seem satisfied, so I tried him on some baby rice and pear a few days ago, and he hoovered it down, so definitely seems ready. Here are a couple of pics from today...















Bruce taking it in turns to 'eat' Connor and Byron's noses




































Connor thought he'd use me to vault over while I was talking to Byron, and Byron decided my hair looked like something fun to grab hold of and yank while I was trying to see what Connor was doing!