Blueberries by osmosis | A lovely sunset

The clear weather has led to some lovely sunsets this week - we had another tonight, this time featuring superweirdcloud: .

This morning Bunky had blueberries with his gourmet porridge - blueberries are kind of messy, meaning that George took every opportunity to smear it on his onesie, his cheeks, his forehead - pretty much everywhere except for his mouth.  Ok, a fair bit did actually get into his mouth, but looking at the photos, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether he actually managed to swallow any of it:

Baby Group Lunch

We had a lovely lunch with Rachel's baby group friends - this time with associated husbands. We had a great lunch out in Wan Chai at the Quarterdeck, and despite there being 6 children under 12 months old, there were no major meltdowns (George was close, with a little tearfest right at the start - but he chilled out and all was good after that).  I took a few photos of the afternoon, including a group one:

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... and one of everybody:

A morning at the beach

We had a lovely morning - we met the Binnington Clan at South Bay Beach for a spot of brunch and paddling in the water.  It's rather warm out there, and Bunky got nice and sweaty - and I believe he manage to sneak it a few rolls in the sand.  A great morning had by all, and I managed to get a few photos of our fun in the sun. Firstly, one of Bunky looking all pensive during breakfast:

Mark giving Sam some airtime in the water:

Emma at brunch:

And Eva with her daddy:

Just a few random photos of Bunky hanging out

He was in a great mood this morning, and happily sat up and played with various toys while our routine went on around him.  I suppose I'd be pretty content if someone stewed up some fresh apples and pears with vanilla pods, and then spoonfed them to me... He's got a busy weekend ahead of him - we're catching up with the Binningtons tomorrow for brunch / lunch (weather permitting it'll be at the beach), and then he's got lunch in Wan Chai with some of his baby group buddies.  Tomorrow we are dining at Chez Saunders / Williams, but the Bunkmeister is being left behind for that one.

I'm just experimenting with picture sizes on the larger website layout - please let me know via the contact page if the photos are wonky / too large / too small on your monitor.

Food on face v2.0, solicitors, H1N1 prevention

Another photo from the weekend - Bunky seems to quite enjoy smearing food on his face and saving it for later. I know it's similar to the one a few days ago, but I loved his little brow furrow in this one:

And this photo was definitely worth sharing - Jane and John found it in Leeds over the weekend:

And finally, some peculiar advice from a Malaysian government-approved healthcare provider (I'm loathe to call him a "doctor") that has been doing the rounds:

Avoiding pollution

It was a crackingly hazy day here in HK today - but we needed to get out of the house, or we'd suffer from cabin fever.  Solution was to head to one of the malls - which we kind of needed to do (grandparents arriving tomorrow, birthday presents to buy, coffee to drink, lunch to eat...) We had a really nice lunch at Isola and I managed to fire off a few photos while we were there:

If you're wondering what Bunky was eyeing up (and subsequently tried to grab), it's pizza...

Getting used to this sitting up thing

George seems to be adapting rather well to this sitting up malarky, although he does get a bit shirty if things remain out of his reach (don't we all?) Dinner with just-married-last-Saturday Vonce and Hannah tonight (both from NZ but living in London) at the always delicious Bistro Manchu (take THAT Jonathan). Tomorrow is a quiet one (I think), but on Sunday, George gets a brief morning visit from Paddy and Granny B. He is very excited and can't wait to show them how he can sit up, grab things, scream, and - with a little encouragement - throw up on them.

A few photos from this morning. One of George sitting up, one of his housemates lying down:

Sitting up, falling down, yelling

Kiddo is now sitting up by himself (although his little abs aren't quite strong enough to stabilise him for very long), and as long as he doesn't sway left, right, or backwards... he's quite happy sitting and playing by himself.  Swaying any way but forward will usually lead to him flopping onto his side or back - although he doesn't feel that bothered by it  :) He also seems to have discovered his voice and now yells randomly at things (e.g. his toys, one of us, the ground), which is quite funny really.  He's impressively loud for a little person.

Anyway - a few photos.  One of him about to head to bed (and giving Daddy the "Where is she taking me?" look) and one of him in the bath tonight:

Lineouts

For NZ$200,000+ per player per year you'd think that we might be able to scrape together a bunch of guys who could catch their own lineout throw (or at least throw the damned thing straight).  It would seem not. Hopefully the second half is better than the first half...

Find the cat

George gets into the nudey time this afternoon (look closely and you'll see Ben cruising around in the background):

Here's one of George hunting a pukeko (he's doing it naked - it's how they did it in the old days):

And for no other reason than I'm learning to use the camera on full manual mode (and I quite liked the light... and I'm trying to move away from posting nothing but photos of Bunky...), here's a completely irrelevant photo of a cup on our dining room table:

It's a lovely little Villeroy & Boch espresso cup (I got Rachel two of them for her birthday a few years ago).  I'd quite like to get the larger sizes for my morning coffee, but can't bear the thought of shopping in Causeway Bay in the summer heat...

George's new roommates

When I went to get Bunky up at 7am this morning, his door was ajar - which could only mean one thing: that someone* hadn't close the door properly last night, and two of our housemates** had decided to head into the "forbidden room" and see what was going on. When I pushed the door open a little more, Ben was sitting there looking up at me with his usual indignant  "What?" expression on his face, and Poppy was fast asleep on George's playmat.  Both of them scarpered when I came in, little chickens.

Thankfully, neither of them had thought to jump into Bunky's cot (although I have caught Poppy in there once before), and Bunky was happily snoozing away with Hiphop.

* Mummy

** Of the feline variety

Sai Kung

If our trip to Sai Kung is anything to go by, Hong Kong road planners throw cooked spaghetti on a piece of paper, and then ask the road construction companies to "do the roads like that." Honestly - it was like driving through a spaghetti-themed maze complete with toll tunnels and psychotic taxi and minibus drivers.  Thankfully we had been given awesome directions and got to lunch without a hitch. Anyway, we had a lovely barbeque with friends Susannah and Sam (along with toddler Max and baby Matilda), and also saw the Hoffpeople there.  Although the weather went a bit poopy on us as soon as lunch was served, we still managed to eat outside and have a great time.  I took a few photos of various little people running around in the rain playing by the paddling pool:

We managed to get back from Sai Kung without getting lost, and after we got home, Bunky had a little swim and a teeny tiny photo session:

In other matters, Bunky's late feed is slowly being moved forward.  It's usually 10:30pm, but for the last week or so Rachel has been bringing it forward.  Tonight it comes to 9:40pm, and the aim is of course to eventually eliminate it altogether. So far he hasn't woken up any earlier in the morning, but time will tell whether he can eventually hit the 12 hour holy grail sleep.

Righto - off to watch a spot of tv and then hit the pillow.

The Nanny Diaries

Day 1 of George's Nanny Chronicles couldn't have gone better. He slept all night without a peep (as was the case last night as well), and behaved like a little angel all day (well, an angel that poops itself at regular intervals, but an angel nonetheless).  I managed to get home at 6:10pm and Rachel wasn't far behind at 6:25pm, so we got to do bathtime and bedtime, which was rather nice. Here's a photo of the little munchkin in his blue onesie - I must say, blue sits him. He looks all sophisticated...

Six months old today!

Bunky turned six months old today!  He celebrated it by waking up repeatedly during the night (to be fair he did have an excuse - there was a typhoon in Hong Kong last night), but behaved impeccably during our 4 1/2 hour first aid course this afternoon.  Tomorrow is his first day with our nanny - although it will be hard for us to leave him, he'll be fine - and we'll make sure that one of us does bath time and feeding time every night. Shouldn't be hard with me working around the corner. Here are a few photos from this afternoon:

Muscle T-shirt Saturday

A few of Bunky hanging out in his muscle t-shirt (although you can't actually see it, he's not wearing any pants in these photos...) It was pretty gross outside, and apparently there is a typhoon about to cruise over Hong Kong. A T8 warning might be raised (T8 = get off the roads and everyone go home), which would be awesome if it didn't fall on a Sunday.  Bah.

And here's one of the predicted typhoon path (looks like we'll get the worst of it overnight).  Hopefully the roads are ok to drive on tomorrow, as we have a first aid course to go to in the afternoon.

Mushy pears with rice - the breakfast of champions

One from before the pear and rice mush festival:

...and then a few from after the festival of mush:

And finally - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY KATY! (Who may or may not see this, depending on internet access in Greece...)

The weekend has begun

It's miserable outside (so much for telling Jane to bring summer clothes), and we're off to get the car registration done in Tin Hau, and will probably get a teeny amount of shopping done on the way back. Bunky woke at around 5ish this morning (evil little critter...) but after a quick feed he conked himself out again until around 7.15am when I went to wake him up. He's now back asleep and was in a lovely mood this morning. He spent much of it in bed with his mummy and daddy, alternating between playing with his BlaBla doll and playing with his toes.  A few photos of him below - I had to open the blinds a bit to let some light in, but it was pretty harsh and flat light, meaning that the photos turned out a little glarey (is glarey a word?):

Wide Angle G E O R G E

I'm taking some photos of a friend's coffee shop this weekend, and I borrowed a wide angle lens from my neighbour at work.  It's rather cool - I'll get a slightly cheaper one someday (his one is a professional grade one - overkill for me), but it's fun to play with. Took a few photos of George with it tonight during nudey rudey time.  Here's one of them:

Aunty Jane arrives tomorrow night.  My dastardly plan for "Operation Sunday with Aunty Jane" has already failed miserably - George took his weekly constitutional a few days early, and his mummy informs me that he unleashed his weapon of mass destruction this afternoon in his cot.  I understand that a fairly decent amount of laundry was required shortly afterwards. Oh well - she's here for a week, so with a bit of luck the WMD will blow again before she flies out...

Daddy "Sonday"

Mummy went out to check out some shops and get a pedicure (oh the tough life of an expat), and so Daddy and kiddo had some time together. It was of course just my luck that his weekly poo occurred in the 4 hour window when I was taking care of him - and anyone who says that baby poo doesn't smell is a lying bastard. I got a few photos of the munchkin - this one from bouncy chair time (I am clearly very amusing):

Later in the afternoon, Rachel made me do nudey rudey time with George (I was fully clothed - he was in the buff).  He's almost rolling over now - he lies on his back, twists his torso... and then *just* misses out on rolling over thanks to his left arm. Sooooo close.  His tummy time isn't as crash hot - today he hoisted himself up with his arms for a few minutes, then put his head down on the ground and let out a heavy sigh.  And stopped trying to get up again... bless.

Happy 5-month birthday to me!

The little monkey turned 5 months old today!  We had to take a few photos of him to celebrate this landmark:

In other news - Daddy took over all pre-bedtime duties tonight, just to make sure that George wouldn't flip out when the time came to leave him with his nanny.  So, I got his bottle ready, ran his bath, stripped him of his (verrrrry cute) clothes, gave him a bit of a wipe down, bathed him (including shampoo time), then dried him off, moisturised him, tolerated a few very potent baby farts, dressed him for bed, and then gave him a bottle.  All went completely according to plan, and after a nice big man-burp, he quickly nodded off to sleep. And is still sleeping.

Mission successful.