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...