A BUSY 7 weeks

 

Alfred is now almost 8 weeks old and a LOT has happened.

Stephen's parents - Grammie and PaPa to our children - stayed for 3 weeks soon after Alfred was born. They were very helpful with cooking and cleaning and Ralph loved having so much attention and being loved on. It was also precious that they could enjoy time with baby Alfie :) Stephen only got 6 days paternity leave but then he took a few days of annual leave as well, which meant we were able to get out for a few adventures. Sometimes Alfie and I just stayed home while the rest went on adventures, which suited me just fine to rest. 

Some outings they all did without me and Alfie: The Hamilton Gardens and hiking and bird watching at Maungatautari mountain bird sanctuary. Ralph and Grammie and PaPa also went on LOTS of walks/bike rides together :) Some activities we did all together: an indoor trampoline place, Orakei Karako (a geothermal site), an international dinner with our church, a morning and fish&chip lunch at Raglan beach, a morning tea at Stephen's work to celebrate Alfred's birth, and we got to go to the Auckland Zoo before we dropped Grammie and PaPa at the airport. 

A week after Alfred was born it was Ralph's 2nd birthday. We had a lovely day going to a digger museum, having sushi lunch (one of Ralph's favourites), a special bus ride with his Daddy, and a pizza dinner with cake and ice cream for dessert. And the day after his birthday we went to the park for morning tea with some friends :)

After dropping Grammie and PaPa at the airport, we had a little less than a week of breathing space before our next international visitors came. My brother Allen, sister-in-law Eleni, and their three kids, Henry, Marion and Gemma, came to visit us. They were in Melbourne for 8 weeks total and came to visit us for a week during their trip. Probably the highlight of our time with them was the 2nd day- we celebrated Henry's 7th birthday and visited Hobbiton. It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed it! Over the week we also went to the Hamilton Gardens, dinner with friends, celebrated Alfred's baptism, went to Raglan beach for Fish and Chips, and went to the Auckland museum before we had to drop them off at the airport. It was lovely to have them!

We only had 4 days to get our house back in order and pack before we left for Queenstown to have a little family holiday. We went to Queenstown mainly because one of my good friends from uni in Melbourne was there snowboarding for 3 days. It was the first time we'd been on a plane since moving to New Zealand last year and was pretty fun- especially for Ralph to go on a "big plane"! It has been nice not doing so much air travel- I think 13.5 months is probably the longest I've gone without flying since I was 13 years old. But Queenstown was gorgeous- my first time but Stephen's second. He had come to the South Island of NZ in 2014 for a week when he was studying abroad in Melbourne, so it was fun for him to go back. 

The first thing Ralph said when we got there was "Look Daddy, MOUNTAINS!!" and he was right. We spent one day at the snow- tobogganing in the morning (Ralph sadly didn't love it, but he liked the snow itself) and my sweet husband looked after the boys for two hours so I could snowboard with my friend Paul. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and I had an amazing time and was quite impressed by my ability and stamina, especially being only 6 weeks postpartum. We also enjoyed a few nice walks, Ralph and Stephen had a lovely bike ride, we found an AMAZING playground, and enjoyed some yummy food :) It was a bit crazy going after all our visitors and with a 6 week old, but we did have a good time and Alfie did well :) The hardest thing was Ralph getting an ear infection and sleeping pretty terribly 3 of the nights, which made for some grumpy days during our trip. 

This has been an especially bad winter for bugs and Ralph has been sick almost constantly. Just in the past 8 weeks he's had two bad colds, a bad cough, croup, an ear infection, and currently has had a high fever for 36 hrs and lots of ulcers in his mouth (not Hand Foot and Mouth, he had that about 3 months ago). And poor Alfie had a cold and bad cough that lasted about 6 weeks, but thankfully he's mostly better. I have had multiple bad colds and coughs this winter and Stephen has had a few. I tell people "it's the cold that never ends." Basically everyone around us has been the same this winter with bug after bug. We are ready for summer! 

We have been very thankful to God for some beautiful warm sunny days the last week and seeing the starting of spring! It has helped us in our transition to normal life as a family of 4. 

Peace to you, friends. 
Love, Tamara

P.S. There were way too many photos to put on here so you can click here to see photos from the past 7 weeks