Warm winters and Wonderful William!!

Will is still rocking our world and continues to be an angel - eating, sleeping and interacting really well. We have fed him tiny amounts of fruits and mashed veggies, and will be weaning him properly soon. His amber necklace appears to have helped to reduce the hot-red cheeks he suffered with when he first began to chomp on things with his gums - we also reckon he looks pretty groovy with it on too - as do his various girly friends! He loves jigging to music and listening to stories as seen here (we read from a story book whilst he looks at picture books!) He often feeds up nicely before falling asleep on the breast with the most serene expression, which is only partially captured here:

He is getting closer to rolling on his own, and loves doing his turtle impression to look around whilst on his belly!

The climate was a small factor in us choosing NZ as a place to live, but we have been sooo spoilt over the past few months. An initially wet winter has turned into a dry and sunny one and I have recorded temperatures over 20 degrees whilst sat having lunch or a drink on our veranda overlooking the bush-clad hills of Nelson. I've been getting out into the hills on a regular basis with Bobby and my mountain bike and get spoilt to views like these:

I recently got to spend the day testing the water quality of our local rivers and streams with an ecologist from Nelson council. I have a vested interest in learning more about this topic as Bobby and I go swimming in various swimming holes through spring to autumn - fortunately all of our upstream sites are perfectly clear and good enough to drink, such as this favourite spot which is about 8 metres deep and crystal clear:

But its not long until I'm home with our little lad:

You can see Will on youtube here jabbering away and exploring my face!

Where is 2011 going to?

My, how time flies when you're having fun! The days seem to turn to weeks and months; we're already in August, and Will is 4 months old.

He is such a delight and having Chris home for 2 weeks in July was just sublime. His relationship with Will changed a lot in that time with lots of giggles and screeches, endless babbling and miles of smiles! Not sure who was making more noise - Chris or Will, but they seem to have so much fun together.

Will's favourite toy is his ball from Shirley and Paul. He reaches for it and passes it from hand to hand, sticking his tongue through it and looking at it for ages.

On Saturday 6 August we walked up to the Centre of New Zealand - a hill which is geographically the centre of NZ (halfway between the northern most and southern most points of the country and conveniently at the top of a hill overlooking Nelson!) and planted our placenta there. It is a custom of the Maori people and in the past few years the Nelson City Council have provided native trees to plant on top of the placenta. We chose a Totara which is a hardy prickly bush that should grow tall and sturdy, hopefully like our William! It was a very special and spiritual day for our Whitaker family.

Bobby would have preferred to chase sticks, but was well behaved!

Here's us with some friends who were also burying their placenta's - there were 60 families in total and we had a Maori preacher carry out a little ceremony beforehand...

Will's girlfriend Isabella is with her parents Matt and Tish (right) and Penny is with parents Kelly and David. Both families have moved to Nelson from Christchurch following all the earthquakes there. Will spends a lot of time with Issy and Penny, especially after story time at the Library each Wednesday when we go to Tish's house for tea and playtime.

Will was recently weighed and measured and continues to be in the 99th percentile for height. Bernie is still exclusively feeding him with her milk, which is obviously the perfect blend of nutrients for him. He is still a very happy and healthy boy who is interacting, laughing and jigging around more and more each day! Long may that continue...

Shake, Rattle and Roll!!

We are all doing well this winter and look forward to our mid-winter Xmas bash with a group of about 20 friends at the end of the month. It always feels a bit weird to celebrate Xmas in the middle of summer, so this is our attempt to have a proper Xmas meal and booze-up!

Will is getting bigger and stronger each week

And smiles more too
We are still both loving our showers together

And Will is starting to believe he can fly!

Will has progressed from hitting out at toys, to holding them briefly and on his 12th weekday, he held and shook his rattle for the first time!

Which made us both burst with pride!

Will has also been making progress on his tummy - click here!

Whitaker update

11-week old Will has been jibber-jabbering to himself more and more recently as can be seen here He is still lavishing us with miles of smiles (more footage here)and continues to eat and sleep well too.

Bernie is still an awesome Mum, making time to take Will on walks with the dog and a weekly session at the library where there are stories and songs for toddlers - Will is by far the youngest, but loves stories already - we read to him regularly - more smiles!

I have damaged a ligament in my knee playing football (boo!) and have a week off school with my wife and son (yeah!). I have a follow-up appointment at the hospital on Thursday and will hopefully be told it's not ruptured... fingers crossed!

Miles of smiles!

The smiles keep on coming in the Whitaker house down-under. Will can often be seen smiling mid-feed, which always brings about the same effect upon us!

For those of you who enjoyed the previous video there is another of Will playing on his play mat here

Mum had her first night out last night and I had immense pleasure in giving him a bed-time bottle whilst Bernie enjoyed a chick-flick at the movies.

We have started reading to Will... do you think he enjoys it?!

So all is well here. Bernie enjoyed a lazy day with Will today, which was a rarity, but something I keep encouraging her to do... I'm off for a shower with my boy - living the dream!

Wonderful William!

Will continues to delight and develop beyond our expectations!

Here he is with his girlfriend - born two days before Will...

William weigh's a shade under 6kg and showers us with smiles - you can see for yourself here



Whilst Will takes up a lot of our time, we have been so lucky (so far!), he even slept until gone 6am this morning!

Living the dream,

CBW(and Bobby!)

Family Fun!

We have been fortunate enough to have both sets of Grandparents jet in from different continents to share our gorgeous William with us! The Whitakers arrived two weeks after Will was born, and enjoyed a mostly wet and windy 3 weeks (its not like that very often - honest!).

Will's first West Ham strip arrived in time for him to enjoy his first relegation experience - he has been randomly crying ever since!

The Whitaker's and Dupont's overlapped by a couple of days, which enabled us to be together for the only time other than our wedding. We had an excellent time, and managed to enjoy a glass of wine or two to celebrate! Bobby made sure we all had a full glass!

William soon worked out how to smile and regularly puts relegation behind him for a few moments, in order to make hearts melt!

We took both sets of Grandparents to the Marlborough Sounds - my favourite place in the whole world - yes, even more than Southwold I'm afraid (that's more about the people isn't it?!). We enjoyed walks, mussels and oysters (me mostly!) and gorgeous skies like this:

And this - do you see why I love it so much?!

We made advantage of the presence of Grandparent's and had an informal naming ceremony for young William. Bernie chose a lovely wooded area with giant Redwood trees dominating the area surrounding a quiet clearing. We each said a few words and even sang a song for the little man!

A few tears were shed - relegation still fresh on our minds!


William is growing really well. We have a Maori-focussed parenting group who work with us to monitor William and give us advice now the midwife's responsibility has finished. He was measured and weighed and finds himself in the 75th centile for weight and 91st centile for height. His legs in particular are growing really strong and he can push himself along the floor already using just these powerhouses! He held up his head (breifly of course) from just a few days old and is getting stronger by the day.

Bernie is feeding him home-made milk only still and doing a fantastic job. It amazes me that every molecule of his body has been provided by her... sorry, I'm a geeky science teacher!

Smiles are the best part of every day and I cant wait to return home for a few after a busy day at school. The Whitakers enjoyed a few, but the Duponts were spoilt to his first mini laugh on their final night here - I think I'll explode when he first talks!

Will has been lucky enough to have two holidays in his first 6 weeks of life. We cannot wait to be able to take him to more and more fantastic places here - particularly when the weather warms up and we can throw him in the sea!

So farewell from sunny Nelson (yes, the sun has returned!), we are so incredibly grateful for the endless thoughts, presents and cards we recieved from so many people. Will's room (now looking even cooler!) is packed full of clothes, toys and love - let the smiles roll on!!