Olive the Mushroom!

She's crawling. Properly crawling! 

For Jannelle...

Morning time...sleepy eyes, sleepy curls. 

She's pulling to stand. On everything. Including people. 

And a very coy smile. 

And such big blue eyes.

Where did my baby girl go? 

      

I swear this was only yesterday...but it seems it was almost eight months ago. 

Jarvis the Cellarhand

On Saturday morning, Jarvis set off on an adventure with his Daddy. They had some secret Mother's Day operations to undertake, and had to go and check out the ferments at the winery.

Jarvis is quite handy with the hose - I imagine by next vintage he'll be quite a fabulous assistant to have around! Either that or he will have joined the volunteer fire brigade (the vineyard manager is the king of the local volunteer firemen, and he's always looking for new recruits)!

Fuzzy, but Fabulous! 

I especially love this pose! Ready for action! 

New House - Lounge!

And a lounge! Not totally buried under stuff. (only a little stuff I didn't manage to conceal!). Comfy boy on chair, baby attempting to crawl on floor, cat happily chilling on couch. Nice. 

Fabulous ancient radio, used as telly table. I couldn't get a decent photo, but on the front with the frequencies are all the towns in NZ - where to turn the dial to if you live in any particular place. Wicked cool. 

In love with the lounge suite. Our quest was a long & involved one - a new lounge suite from a regular shop just isn't our style, a super flash lounge suite from a fantastic furniture designer just isn't our budget! After trawling trade me for AGES, we found this gem. Made by Morgan Furniture (a brand I became just a little enamoured with whilst couch hunting), it's awesome. Spent many a year in the 'formal lounge' of someone's Nana, she never actually let anyone sit on it so it's still in fab condition. And it folds flat to a bed. Yeah!

I Love Lamp (and I've seen Anchorman a few too many times...lol). 

And a cute, albeit a little blurry, Jarvis. 

Lounge! 

Lunch

Oh Miss Olive, how fast you've grown!

Three weeks ago I had a 100% breastfed baby. An enormous one, but we made it to six months without having to do anything else to feed this gorgeous little person. 

Now look what we have! 

The bib had to come out once an avo entered the picture. 

Mmmm!!! 

Cake

Oh, what a cake. So much coconutty goodness. 

My cake didn't actually look ANYTHING like the photo of the cake. I took a photo of the cake in the recipe book; after realising that mine, despite tasting fab, looks like a pavlova which has collapsed then been poorly disguised with twelve litres of whipped cream. Too hideous to even consider photographing. 

Even the cream wasn't quite as I'd anticipated it...an IT man with very inopportune timing called just as I put it in the mixer, and just didn't understand 'I really have to go for a sec'. Continuing to talk is not helpful when my cream is quickly transforming into sweet & coconut laced butter. Hmmm. (and about your destruction of my wireless connection, Mister IT man, uncool. Very uncool. ) 

At least the oven proved itself - we'd been a little concerned about it, and have only just decoded the curious symbols explaining the different functions (thanks, Stacey!). Cake was cooked fabulously.

Anyway, you should buy this book & make this cake. And all of the other cakes. My super awesome husband bought it for me for my birthday, and just looking at it makes me happy (although eating the cake whilst looking at it is wayyyyy bettter). It is GORGEOUS. 

New House - New Kitchen

So, finally a picture of our new home! Photos are going to appear one at a time, the chances of more than one room being unpacked & suitable to be photographed at one time are pretty much zero. Note the fabulous pile of unpacked boxes hiding alongside the oven, and use your imagination to reveal the pantry, stacked with boxes that read 'pantry', and have their contents exploding out the top (where I've rummaged around to find a bottle of sesame oil at the precise moment I need it).

It's just a bizarre coincidence that the kitchen has a red theme. All of our red kitchen paraphernalia has been bought on special (and just happened to be red!), and the fact that the splashback happened to match it was obviously a sign that our stuff wanted to live in this kitchen!

You can't see it, but my favourite thing in the world is hiding behind the freezer...the dishwasher. Haven't had a dishwasher before, and it's my new best friend. Oh yes. Magic.

Oh My!

What have we here?

One small girl, on her hands & knees. Quickly followed by one small girl, crawling across the back lawn. Hmmm. I'm a big fan of natural infant movement (letting them do their own thing in their own time - so not putting babies into a position they can't get in & out of independently), and was comforted by the fact that Jarvis didn't sit nor crawl until he was almost ten months old. It seems Olive didn't get the memo! (she's six months & one week old!)

Thankfully this newly acquired skill only works properly on the grass - the wooden floors in our new home hinder good knee traction.  Cackle cackle cackle ;)

(excuse the dreadful photo, I have no idea what setting the camera was even on, but I'm guessing it was a failed attempt at recording a video!)