Poppy is cold | Every photo needs a cat

It got a bit cold today - there's a cold snap that will apparently last until early next week.  Just how cold was it? You should have asked Poppycat this morning: .

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And on a completely different subject (one that annoys Rachel), I discovered an application for my phone that does something absolutely unique and awesome to photos. It adds cats.

Seriously, I can't count the number of times I've looked at a photo and thought to myself "That photo really needs a cat".  Now, thanks to the folks at CatPaint, I can add cats to any photo on my phone.  Seriously, it's the best cat-based photo editing program I've ever seen. Some examples of my work this evening:

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I know what you're thinking: "Awesome."

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He waves

Not particularly well, but he does wave.  It's a bit random - sometimes he copies whoever is holding him, sometimes he waves in corridors, and when we got home this evening he waved rather energetically at May. This morning I shot this incredibly short and shaky video (I was waving too):

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Visit from Aunty Ros

Aunty Ros popped in for a quick visit this afternoon (en route to NZ from London), and after an initial bout of shyness from the Bunky, he warmed up considerably and even let her read his favourite Schnitzel Von Krumm story to him... .

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...and a few cellphone photos to finish the weekend

This afternoon we headed up to Tai Tam Reservoir for a short walk - partly to get Bunky out and about, and partly to test drive one of those baby backpacks that someone had kindly given us. We discovered two things on our walk.  Firstly (apparently not a real word, but I'm using it anyway), it appears to be rather comfortable in the backpack:

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Secondly (also not a real word but I'm using it anyway) and probably more importantly... Bunky seems to have taken a shining to ice cream:

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Sunday fun at the park

This morning we took the Bunky down to Cyberport to eat grass play in the sun. No need to really say anything else - the photos speak for themselves.  Kiddo had a lovely time (except when his chin met the concrete step during his ascent of said step...) .

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Saturday: Tears and Beers

Saturday was a funny day - we went to gorgeous little Ava's first birthday party in Kennedy Town, where Bunky proceeded to burst into tears every 15-20 seconds.  Someone nudged him - tears and wailing.  Dropped a toy - tears and wailing.  Someone looked at him in a funny way - tears and wailing.  It was most uncharacteristic of the little munchkin, and we can only really put it down to it being a little bit loud for him.  Or he's a bit of a wuss.  Probably too early to definitively tell on that front. Anyway, a few photos of the beautiful little birthday girl (oh - that's George's curly hair on the left in the first photo...the only photo of him not crying):

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In the evening we went to Sam and Mary's for pre-Christmas drinks. Had a lovely time and a great meal - and Sam and Mary had even organised a secret santa for everyone as well.  They're about to take Christmas Holidays closely followed by a short sabbatical holiday, so we won't see them again until around April next year.  We met some lovely people, including a Canadian vet whose cousin I worked with in Canada in 1997.  It's a small, small world...

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The many, many faces of George at breakfast

Ok, so there seems to be a common theme.

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Looking innocent

He's not fooling anyone. .

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Special guest photographer: Mummy

A few photos that Rachel sent me from her phone during her day with Bunky. Scribbles on the photos are obviously mine: .

Lunch at Chez Bunky

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Helpfully rearranging things in the lounge

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A few more weekend photos

This one from Central - I took it looking down the road where the wet markets begin: .

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A friend of Shay (in Emma's baby group) was looking for someone to take a few photos of her children, so after a few back and forth emails, we met at Cyberport on Saturday afternoon to see if we could get a few photos done.  After the boys had a quick rock-throwing session in the Cyberport fake-creek, we ended up having a great time and getting some lovely photos out of the session (they even managed to sit still long enough for me to get a few photos of them with their little sister, who at the tender age of 9 months old obviously couldn't keep up with her big brothers):

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An afternoon in the sun

A few from this afternoon down at Cyberport - towards the end of the afternoon the lawns looked a little less green.  Mainly because Bunky ate most of the grass. .

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Photos from my phone yesterday

May and Bunky came to play on the grass outside my work yesterday, so I got to spend 10 minutes hanging out with him on the grass in the sun on a Friday afternoon - just lovely.  I took a few photos on my phone.  Aren't his cheeks looking... "healthy"? .

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George's first word

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Much to his mother's disappointment, George knocked out his first word this morning.  Never mind that he didn't know what it meant (heck - I do that all of the time), he repeated it back to me, and when I made a different noise, then said "dada" again, he repeated the other noise back to me, and then followed it up with "dada" (much to Rachel's disgust).

The conversation went a bit like this:

Daddy: "Dada?"

Bunky: "Dada."

Daddy: "Hssssssch!"

Bunky: "Hssssssch!"

Daddy: "Dada?"

Bunky: "Dada."

Daddy: "Hahaaaa! First word! Dada!"

Rachel: (Picking up Bunky and walking away) "Rubbish.  George, say Mama?"

Bunky: "Dada!"

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Today is a good day...

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Photo taken on Rachel's phone (Wednesday)

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Random photos from Chez Bunky this morning

A few photos from the morning routine of the Bunkmeister.  Firstly, his mummy decided that his eating was getting a little bit... how do we say... "animated", and his clothes were coming off pretty badly after mealtimes (especially mealtimes involving sauces).  An afternoon trip to Ikea yielded a number of new mass-produced and flatpacked Swedish goods, one of which was some sort of overcoat which was bound to make Bunky look like either an air traffic controller or a construction worker.  The aim of the bright green jacket was of course to protect his blessed-by-Nepalese-monks-pure-merino clothing underneath. I guess it worked, but someone was less than impressed with its first outing: .

Ok, looking a bit too much like a Grandpa Paddy cycling jacket, but so far so good...

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...and not enjoying it as much.

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And here are a few random ones from crawling time - he's just discovered the gate between the lounge and the kitchen (we have an open pantry in there, so to minimise the risk of him ending up under a pile of tinned tomatoes and blending appliances, he's not allowed in the kichen.  Like his Daddy.)

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Note the puppy dog eyes on the bottom right. It didn't work (it was a close one though)

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And I leave you with one of Osama Ben-Jamin.  Discovered this week that despite him treating May like his mortal enemy, whenever George cries, Ben comes running and miaowing. It's quite sweet (but he's still a little brat).

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Random morning photo

Just a little one of Bunky crawling about by the coffee table this morning.  His margin of error (from the top of his head to the underside of the coffee table) is about 0.003mm, which led to a few scary moments. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to understand "BE CAREFUL!", so he 'll no doubt learn the hard way in the near future... (I'll take photos, don't worry) .

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Oh no, I dropped my toast. I'll just try and get it and... HEY, A PIECE OF PLASTIC, AWESOME!

Someone has a rather short attention span at breakfast: .

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The Dolphin Boy

Listen to this. I think he's trying to communicate with dolphins: .

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Backseat Bunky

I took a load of photos today - we went out for a walk with the Binningtons. We did the Deepwater Bay to Repulse Day walk again. It was lovely and warm, but not too hot - and we finished it off with yet another great meal at Coco Thai.  I haven't pulled any photos off the camera yet, but I'll see what I've got on there later in the week.  In the meantime, you get a few of the little man sitting in his throne in the backseat.  These were taken at some traffic lights before Aberdeen, about 5 minutes drive from our house (I took them on my phone, so the quality isn't crash hot). .

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Tears, coffee

A good day of play and shopping for the little Bunkster, although during his lunchtime nap, his butt trumpet ejected some of the most evil sludge I have ever seen. Gross, little dude, gross. Shot into town to pick up some bits and pieces, got our car washed at the underground carpark (pretty clever service offered there - and it seemed that they had no shortage of takers either), and then stopped at Fuel (the HK branch of the Wellington cafe) to say hi to Sanjay and have a rather magnificent coffee. Note they're already doing rather well - check this out.

Right - a few photos from the day:

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Some random dude at Fuel this afternoon

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A few more of Fuel (I took these for Sanjay a while ago - but I don't think I've uploaded them here before)

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The photograph that will be accompanying my "Father of the Year" entry form

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Toast: Just shovel it in

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