from bruthen to the big apple via a little place called... tahiti

 Our 2 day stopover in tahiti was a great success. We laid low at our lovely little beachside shack - swimming, eating baguettes and drinking fresh coconut milk and generally resting up in readiness for our big flight to the states (which went just fine by the way!)

Et 'oui' I practiced my rusty french on some unsuspecting tahitians. 

Rakaia had her first birthday on 16.06 - and since we crossed the dateline she actually had 2 birth-days... one in auckland and one in tahiti. Lucky lucky girl!

The US of A

Joel's Great Aunt Ada and Uncle Seymour... We stayed with them at their retirement village in New Jersey for two days. "You wanna klondyke bar??" is my new favorite quote. What an experience to be looked after by a real jewish american granma from the joisey shore....

With Joel's Fabulous and Formidable Great Aunt Sylvia... 

Spending the afternoon at Coney Island with my oldest friend Paul (pickle dog) Williams and his partner Suzanne for the Annual Mermaid Parade... where a bunch of alternative/semi-subversive types (ie people we'd most prob be friends with) dress up as mermaids or sea-dwelling creatures of some description. Kooky and cool!!!

.....(more to come)

Field Mouse

photographic evidence!!

And here they are ladies and gentleman... FINALLY caught on film... !

time flies when your baby is having fun!

RR in disguise. what baby??

Well, I think this must surely be the longest we've gone without a blog update and I apologise to our millions of loyal fans (or at least Herbert, Lavinia and Linda) for keeping you in the cyberspatial dark. So what's news?

*RR has popped her first 2 teeth.... centre bottom. Haven't completely risen yet but definitely functional. They've taken a long time and cost lots of tears and difficult nights. They're also still to be captured on film -so watch this space-

* We've taken our first trip on the plane together to Jess and Harry's wedding in Newcastle. All went well but we did wonder how much fun a longer trip might be (ie 90 min was quite enough time to keep RR seated and entertained!!)

Dad and Daughter in their wedding splendour

RR inspecting Jess' bouquet

The wedding was at Catherine Bay (Catho to locals) just south of Newie. We stayed with Jess and Harry and some other mates at the great reception venue: the old local RSL that's been converted into a private house... which was a mixed blessing.... We got to party until our bedtime - and then we got to listen to everyone else party for a few more hours!!! (correction: joel had earplugs and RR slept like a baby - it was just kate lying awake and listening to the techno!)

on the catho beach at dusk

movin' on up...

LOOK OUT: Rakaia Rose is now officially mobile. She had been threatening to crawl for some time and then about 3 weeks ago it happened.
Sorry for the old news - but it's been a little harder to get on the computer ever since!!!
Mobility means curiosity... (wow look at those interesting piles of cds/electrical cords etc)
It means more accidents and tears...
It seems to mean more time spent awake in the daytime.
>> And all of this adds up to less lounging around for Mummy and Daddy.

Oh and did I mention that just plain crawling got pretty boring pretty quickly so RR added pulling herself up to standing to her repertoire. This is basically her fave pastime now and she'll try it on anything that will support her....

Visit from Nana

Rakaia loved having her Nana Lavinia over from NZ to stay with us in early January...

They shared lots of fun and games together

(especially of the early morning variety so Mum could get some more sleep!!)

Nana was a great help in getting us started on Rakaia's 'solid' diet...

("open wiiiiide")

We went for a sunday drive up the Great Alpine Road to Omeo - and had an average pub lunch at the original fabulously Art Deco "Golden Age Hotel"

Kate and Rakaia drove Nana back to Melbourne and the 3 girls spent a few days shopping and hanging out in the big smoke before Nana went home on the plane. Pictured here in front of 'Lavinia House' on Nicholson Street, North Carlton.