One with mummy:
...and one in his new doggie t-shirt. Which in hindsight, Daddy probably should have used a different background for:
George's new hat
He needs to grow into it a little bit.
Don't try this at home...
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And a special photo for Team Davies (who provided the shoes) and Team Landells (who provided the cute little pirate bib):
Labour Day
Aaaah, a three day weekend. George has already been up and is now back asleep - not a peep last night, and when I went in to wake him this morning, he was happily sucking on his finger and rolling around in his little sleep sack. I don't think we have much planned today, but given that Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be "hazy" (read: "Smoggy and Polluted"), it might be nice to go out to town for a few hours later on if the little fella gets a good sleep this morning.
Here are a few photos from the morning. Nothing too exciting - just a few of him hamming it up for the camera in his "gym", and one of his mummy reading him a story (Hairy Maclary from Donaldsons' Dairy).
He knows that he has to smile for the camera
After cropping this one, I quite liked the expression on George's face. He's such a ham when he sees a camera:
George of the Jungle (Gym)
After another pretty good night of sleep, the little man decided to hit the gym this morning, and then posed for a photo with his Daddy:
Holiday tomorrow - it's officially Labour Day, which means Daddy gets to hang with the monster tomorrow. And also with George.
A good night's sleep
George had a pretty good night's sleep last night - went from 6:45ish to his 10:30 topup, then until 5:15am. He grizzled for a little bit, and then after about 10 minutes of "George talk" (to himself), he went back to sleep until 7am when I woke him. All very civilised. In the way of photos, I got one of him supervising Rachel as she made the coffee and one of him doing his "coy but cute" look, which he seems to have perfected at the ripe old age of not-quite-14-weeks
Does my butt look big in this?
It sure does, little fella. One downside of George's cloth nappies is that they are absolutely massive compared to the size of his relatively puny torso. Which means that tummy time often turns into a bit of a farce, and he rolls around like someone dressed in either a novelty sumo costume or a fully inflated Swiss Ball. I mean, seriously - look at him:
Rattle and jump tiiiiime
Little dude has started to grip stuff and is now quite friendly with his cane rattle. Check out his mad skills and his opposable thumbs:
Then mummy discovered that some anti-gravity action makes the little dude giggle like a loon (not recommended immediately after feeding - Mr Milk Volcano is bad enough without random G-forces acting on him):
Wedding photos
I had a very quick edit of a few photos that I took at the wedding on Saturday. I don't really want to upload any more [edited for pedantic Aunty Jane***] until I get the ok from the person I was helping out, but here are a few early photos that I had a quick go at editing. Nowhere near the final product, but I wanted to upload a few after having a look through them tonight. The bottom one especially needs work, methimks. I could never be a wedding photographer. Waaaaay too much stress...
Monday morning with Aunty Kirstie
Short week this week - for some reason we get a holiday on Friday, solely due to it being the first of May. No complaints from me. Only one photo this morning (and I think it's a tad out of focus to be honest). Little dude had a lovely cuddle with Aunty Kirstie before she and Uncle Robin went out this morning:
The couch. It does not fit me yet.
Saturday, Saturday
Even as we frantically clean the house in anticipation of the Challis Delegation from Singapore, I managed to get a few photos of Chez Narly on this delightful Saturday morning. After his breakfast, the little man visited our bed this morning and had a fine old time, gurgling and smiling and vomiting on himself. Delightful.
Then the little man had his first nap in his cot (he's been in his laundry hamper bassinet. I managed to take a little photo of him snoozing and showing off his forehead's "blue vein of discontent")
Also - a photo for my sister... with the Challis family arriving, Rachel just made up the spare room, and used the gorgeous pillowcases that you and E gave us at Christmas:
You can see two pictures behind the bed - the top one is Eliot's wedding present to us and the bottom one was a wedding present from Simon (Pope) and Kate (Pope-Barker? Naaaah that sounds a bit strange).
Anyway, I leave you with a photo (taken from our lounge) of the delightful weather we get to experience today. Aaaah delicious Hong Kong smog. How I love the way you invade my lungs and make me hack and cough. Never fear, the government (no capital 'G' necessary there) is holding lots of meetings and writing lots of initiatives for fixing the air quality. They aren't actually doing anything, but just knowing that they are talking about it makes me feel all warm inside (although that warm feeling could actually be my lungs pleading for mercy).
Edit: While I'm having a mini-rant, this is from the HK Government website: "Hong Kong's air pollution is mainly contributed by motor vehicles and power plants".
It's worth pointing out that to combat motor vehicle emissions, the government is building more road, refusing to allow cars to convert to LPG, and refusing to allow electric cars on roads (the word "baffling" doesn't even come close...) and to "punish" the power plants (conveniently owned by HK's richest man), the government contributed HK$300 towards every household's monthly power bill for a year. I guess putting the money directly into the power company's account would have been a little suspicious.
Am I a bad person for sharing?
Because sometimes you come across a name so awesome, it would be a crime not to share it:
Friday at last
Team Challi arrive tomorrow (only the two team captains are coming though - Lieutenant Robin and First Mate Kirstie). Here for 4 or 5 days and then awaaaaaaay to hot and muggy Singapore again. Birthday drinks for Jim on Sat night in Shek-O, and then on Sunday we're hooking up with Sam and Mary for lunch (starring the Challi family again). Oh, and on Sunday morning I'm helping a photographer friend to shoot a wedding ceremony, which will be a fantastic experience. Anyway - a nice and busy weekend, which is useful for helping us forget that we're not in NZ anymore...
Wonky
In my quest to find a way to show bigger photos, I'm tweaking the templates for this site. Hence, a whole lot of stuff might seem a bit wonky (or, as it is at the moment - completely different) over the next few days. Forgive me while I iron out some kinks... No new photos of the little man (I was too busy playing with him to take photos), but here is one I took of Ben that cracks me up (I like to call it "Alien Abduction"), and a repeat of a photo of a coffee machine that I posted a few days ago (because I needed a lengthways image and that was the first I found in my iPhoto library).
Happy Birthday Ross!
Happy Birthday Ross! You are now officially closer to 40 than you are to 30. Sorry, dude. A few photos after George's first night back in Hong Kong. After a touch of grumpiness triggered by his desire to start his night sleep earlier than usual and his mummy's desire for him not to sleep too early, a Mexican standoff was avoided, and little man had a good night of dozing - with only a few grizzles before morning arrived. Not bad, given that he ought to have a touch of jetlag. A bit of tummy time this morning led to an inadvertent roll - which we would like to put down to his immense strength, but sadly have to accept that it was more due to the size of his cloth nappy relative to the rest of his scrawny torso. Poor kiddo rolls around like a spinning top if unsupervised.
As you can see, his afro is really coming along. I'm struggling to tell whether it's morning hair or a true afro. I'll let you know after bathtime tonight.
Home again
A few photos that I fiddled with tonight
Seriously - I'm not sure what to photograph when George isn't here. So I played with some old ones (sorry Amanda, sorry Chipper):
Too much coffee
spacespacespace Had far too much coffee this afternoon - a hazard of knowing the owner of my favourite Hong Kong coffee shop. Still, a great afternoon catching up with Sanjay and I met Jacqui and Zadie for the first time (cousin of Craig, who is an old friend of the Singapore Challis clan). Spent much of the afternoon wandering around Central and looking at camera lenses, and just checking out the shops (a bit of a treat given that I work just around the corner from our apartment!)
No George photos until Wednesday when he and his mummy touch down in Hong Kong. So here's a coffee machine instead:
