While mummy prepared the roast chicken, George and daddy hung out on the window seat in the lounge, enjoying the late afternoon sun:
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Damon's bravery commendation
Fantastic effort big boy - we are all very proud of you! If you don't remember Damon, there are photos from his wedding in Edinburgh here and here
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Brave Kiwi Fights off Robbers
(cut and pasted from Stuff.co.nz 11 May 2009)
A Wellington physiotherapist has received a bravery commendation after rescuing a woman being strangled and robbed of her jewellery during a gang attack in London.
Damon Newrick, 32, was having dinner when he heard "a blood-curdling scream" from downstairs outside his flat in Highgate, north London. He described it as one of "those screams which are just `someone's in trouble'. It was awful".
He rushed down two floors to the lobby, passing other tenants who stood by, to find three "quite large" men strangling a woman and ripping jewellery from her ears. The woman was covered in blood from where her attackers responsible for about 25 similar attacks tore out her £10,000 (NZ$25,000) earrings.
"I yelled at them and told them to get the eff off her," the St Patrick's College Silverstream old boy said from London yesterday.
"Two of them scarpered, one hung around. I hit him a couple of times in the head. I thought, `Hit first, ask questions second'. I chucked him out the door. He was yelling for his mates. Two of them came back.
"I've always been quite good at maths I thought, `There's three of you and one of me. It's not very good odds.'
"I jumped back behind the [lobby] door, which is reinforced glass, and shut the door on them. They started trying to kick it in.
"She [the victim] was still on the ground, quite dazed, so I couldn't run. I held the door for probably 20 seconds or so while they kicked it in and the glass started to give way." He grabbed the woman and "chucked her up the stairs".
One of the attackers had dropped his car keys inside the building. "He dropped them when I hit him. I thought they were after me: `Man, they are going to give me a hiding."' The men grabbed the keys and fled.
Mr Newrick will be a witness this month when two of the men stand trial for about 25 similar attacks. In each case women were strangled unconscious and their jewellery taken.
The attack happened in May last year but Mr Newrick received his commendation from police in the past fortnight.
Mr Newrick was a physiotherapist in Wellington until moving to London 4 1/2 years ago.
The woman, who was comforted by his wife, Lynn, after the attack, later moved out of the block.
His commendation states it is for "exceptional bravery and courage in tackling three extremely violent criminals in the process of committing a horrific crime".
Mr Newrick said one reason he immediately stepped in was because of his upbringing. His father, Paul Newrick, was a Hutt Valley police officer and detective for 21 years.
"That's just what we got taught you help where you can. The one thing that went through my mind was, `I can't ring up Dad and say I saw this thing happen but didn't really help."'
Paul Newrick said the family was rapt. "I'm not surprised at his reaction and I'm extremely proud of the fact he acted single-handedly in a dangerous situation."
Monday morning
A quick shot of George as he watched his mummy making coffee and his daddy putting the dishes away. His hair looks a little less freaky than his usual morning hair because he had a bath this morning instead of last night. We went out for dinner at the Football Club with Cam and little Sam, and by the time we got back it was too late for G to have a bath, so he went straight to sleep. A few yells between 5am and 6am, but apart from that he was pretty good last night.
A quiet moment on the change table
Obscured parental faces
Sleep in
Whoops. We slept in by half an hour this morning, and when I went in to get George from his bedroom he was lying on his side with his eyes open, happily sucking his finger. Bless. Had a lovely morning, during which I read him "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" for the first time. I think he took most of it in (before proceeding to cover the pages in freshly manufactured drool).
Also took a few photos of the furry ones last night (with the borrowed lens I've been experimenting with). Here's one of Ben. Clearly he's starving and weak and has been deprived the necessities of life. Or... he had just hoovered up a small dish of tuna and whitebait and was feeling a tad lethargic.
Bumbo time!
Kylie very kindly lent George a little Bumbo seat - it's a foamy seat which supports small people and gives them a chance to strengthen their little (puke covered) necks. Here's BIg G enjoying some Bumbo time this morning:
And here's one of the munchkin just hanging out:
A few random photos
Have been testing Philip's 80-200mm f2.8 lens (I want to get something similar for facey* photos, so he's kindly letting me use his for the week), so here are a few of the test shots. I've also been going a bit potty with Photoshop, so these are quite experimental.
*facey = face photos. I refuse to say "portraits" in the same way I refuse to call lenses "glass" and flashes "guns
A typical George morning: another workout at his gym
Back to work
Honestly, the older George gets, the more delightful he is during waking hours... and the faster the weekends go. We had a great long weekend, topped off with a lovely lunch with Emma, Mark and Sam B, who came over to Chez Narly for a long lunch. I got to smack the BBQ up again, and we had some delicious lamb chops which clever old Rachel prepared. This photo of George was taken this morning (I think). Now that his sleep routine has settled, he gets up at 7am in the mornings. While Rachel feeds him, I have a quick shower, and then I get about 45 minutes with him before he goes back to sleep at 8am. I can then get ready for work and take off while he's asleep. I love that bit of time with him in the mornings, and he's usually in a fantastic little mood after a nice long 8 1/2 hour snooze*. This morning we read "A Lion in the Meadow" by Margaret Mahy together. If I'm being honest, I don't think George was really into it - but he did sit there quietly on my lap and look at the pages as I turned them.
As for the second photo - Rachel took that tonight. I don't usually like photos of myself, and this is certainly no exception - but I think George looks really sweet here, and so for once I'll post a photo of my face without a camera obscuring it.
It's actually quite a useful photo for seeing just how pale our little Gmonster is. He got his colour from his mummy, obviously.
The hair is mine though. Of that we can be sure.
* George's mummy is insisting that George got 12 hours of sleep rather than 8 1/2 hours of sleep. She's partially correct - George did go to sleep at 7pm, but in fairness, he was woken up for a 10:30pm feed. Without that feed, he would probably be up at 4ish for another one. And George's mummy would be all grumpy due to a lack of sleep.
I am a pirate. Gaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr me hearties. Or something like that.
A few Saturday photos
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):
