Of namesakes and lineage (a special post for Granny B and Aunty Jacq)

 Although most people know that little George was named after his great grandfather, not so many know that his great grandfather George was actually an All Black back in the day.  This photo of Great Granddad George is taken from the NZRU website.  An excerpt from his website bio at www.allblacks.com:  "George Adkins was a stocky front row player whose height of 1.80m (5ft 11in) and weight of 93kg (14 and a half stones) made him ideal for the prop when that position became the vogue following the switch in the early 1930s to the 3-4-1 scrum.  Timaru born and a product of Timaru Boys High, Adkins appeared for the South Canterbury union in 51 matches in the decade covering 1929-39. Excellent form in the 1934 and 1935 trials and for the South in the 1934 inter-island match won him a place on the 1935 tour of Britain."

Little George has big shoes to fill if he decides to play rugby...

Much to his mother's disgust, little George arrived in bed this morning dressed in an All Blacks onesie (thanks Aunty Momo) that is about 3 sizes too big.  Daddy couldn't resist, having been given free reign on clothing choices this morning.  I mean, really - how awesome is this?

Another morning with Daddy

spacespacespace Quite possibly against her better judgment (which is questionable, given her choice of husband), Rachel left Little One with Daddy for the morning. A more extended babysitting gig than last time, this time so Mummy could hit the hairdresser for the pre-New Zealand touch up (her hair looks lovely, of course).

We ended up at FUEL coffee, meeting my photography junkie friend Angelo - who was about to hop on a flight back to San Francisco. Handy location, as FUEL is about three floors up from the Airport train station.  

Everything went well - Angelo took loads of photos of George (with a camera I would kill for) and even had a cuddle. The little punk (George, not Angelo) had the nerve to give Angelo nothing but smiles and giggles. False advertising, little one...

He snoozed and snoozed a bit more, and then I took him home.  Where he snoozed. And snoozed a bit more.  And at 1pm I had to physically wake him for his lunchtime feed of pureed steak and mashed potatoes.  Ha, just kidding. He got milk.

Despite his voice sounding a tad hoarse (hey - it's not like he has any actual words for us), the new sleeping routine seems to be working well. I still hate watching / hearing him cry, but he really is getting to sleep in a much more predictable way.  It's 11pm as I'm typing this, and he just went down again - four hours since his last feed, and with minimal fuss.  All good.

Anyway, here are a few photos from Chez Narly today. Oh yes - that is indeed baby vomit on my t-shirt. I didn't spot it until Rachel pointed it out after I had taken the photo. Little sod puked all the way down Wellington, down to Picton and possibly down to Kaikoura.

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...and just in case you didn't already know, Ben still has no shame whatsoever:

Daddy stayed home

Daddy took annual leave today, mainly to take the Poppy the cat to and from the vet (general anesthetic - dental work - all is fine), but also to hang with George and Mummy. We had a lovely day, most of which George slept through - and Mummy and Daddy even managed to go out for a civilised lunch at the Marriot (which George slept through).  now all is quiet in the house and I'm watching the ratbags sleeping next to the heater - I'm leaving it on all night so that Poppy can "recuperate" on a nice warm cushion (if the heater is on, it also means that they don't sprint around the house all night...) A few of the sleepymonster from this morning.  Or was it this afternoon?  I forget.

From playtime this morning with Daddy

A better day

spacespacespace Well to be honest, beating yesterday wouldn't have been too difficult.  Today George got a new sleeping technique sampled on him - no more gentle cuddling and rocking for him.  Military school stuff now - in the bassinet, on his side, rocked and patted until he passes out. No more cuddles and lovey dovey crap.  I must say, I was a bit hesitant when I saw Rachel wobbling him like she was making a smoothie, but... he was out cold in well under half the time it usually takes to conk him out.  Not too shabby.

Also - little man did tummy time today, and mummy assures me that he pushed himself up quite happily. He's so clever.

Right - Georgemonster had a great morning on his playmat. And surprise, surprise - I had the camera handy.

A pictorial summary of today

Modelling my jacket knitted by Granny B

Daddy in charge

Little man was left in the sole care of his Daddy today, while his Mummy shot out and did beautiful girly things to her toenails.  Things went smoothly, with the highlight being a duet (starring Daddy and George) of "London Bridge is Falling Down", with the words all change to "Joooooo".  George pitched in with the occasional "Jooooo", of course.  I guess you had to be there. Fourteen days until New Zealand.   Can't wait - have booked domestic flights now; will be in Wellington from 2 April the following Thursday (which is the 7th I think) - in Auckland all other times, including Easter.

A few quick photos of the munchkin today - first was during an iChat (which he rather uncharacteristically slept through) and the second is during a post-bath freakout.

A day of firsts

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That's right - a fist bump from little George for a couple of awesome achievements today.

Firstly - he threw back his first full feed from a bottle.  Took him a few seconds to figure out what to do with the teat, but once he worked it out, he chugged it like a baby possessed.  Well, at least until there was a quarter of the feed left to go, at which point he promptly fell asleep.  Not to worry - a few jiggles and prods, and he woke up and downed the rest of it.  His mummy is shooting out for a few hours tomorrow, and daddy is going to be taking care of the little fella in her absence.  Emergency services have been added to my speed dial numbers.

Second - he laughed.  Not just giggled, not just smiled - but he laughed.  And laughed. And laughed.

It happened in the bath - we were almost done, and I was putting a little bit of soap in his neck folds where his milky vomit usually hides during the day.  I rubbed his neck with my finger, and he started laughing. So I did it some more and he just chortled, and kept laughing. The more I rubbed it, the more he laughed - his face was hilarious, and he was literally going "heh! haaaaa! haaaaaaaaaa!"  It was utterly adorable.  Can't wait for it to become a regular occurence...

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Tonight we have video chats with Aunty Anna, Uncle Kieran and future-girlfriend Bella, and then we saw Aunty Katy and Uncle Sam.  George was ever the performing monkey and was good enough to give Katy and Sam a lovely big smile before totally flipping out due to overtiredness.

And finally, Happy Birthday to ANG! Hope you had an awesome day - here are some family portraits for you (in the middle one we are in fact mocking George's habit of raising his fist for no reason at all):

Special guest photographer, Mummy

With special guest shoulder, Daddy.  And special guest Grumpyface, George: