february is high summer here and in appropriate appreciation of the short salad days there are tons of summer fests around the neighborhoods of wellington. liam and i made it to 3 of them and a couple of school fairs. somehow liam got fair and fairey confused and i haven't been able to correct him. it's just too cute. he went on his first st ride by himself at the petone st fair.
we joined our friends mum ruth and kids isaac and lois at the island bay fairey where liam went on his first farris wheel- with a girl!
he and lois were having a conversation as they took in the
view. it has only been in the past month or so that i have seen liam
really chatting with kids his age :) 
and had his first ice cream cone- strawberry. he still remembers and
tells me what flavors the others had as well. it made quite an
impression!
some kind of steam punk busker act began and as tom wait's voice came over the speakers, liam turned to me and exclaimed with glee, "it's sugogolupagus singing!" amazingly accurate if you ask me. then he danced a bit. i also found him some $5 sunnnies and a $5 used baby stroller. he loves that thing and often takes "kira" - his favorite doll like stuffy, from kira- for rides. pretty sure he's saying come? here as he reaches out to me. he always poses at as a question with an endearing little lilt at the end. kid's smart.
cool dude at the zoo with mama and papa one weekend. gotta say the american apparel clothes are especially cute on kiddies and really stands out here at the end of the earth where they don't have that stuff.
and another trip with mama-- liam is really into animals- especially the wild animals who live in africa. he told me he wants to go to africa and i hope we can someday! our wild animal is now about 3 feet tall.
this shot is of liam on his way to his first solo day at the crossways creche! it is a parent participation creche in town that is really cool.
http://crosswayscreche.org.nz/
we had 2 settling in sessions and by this day, his first day on his own ( 8:30-12:30!) he was totally ready and excited! he kept talking about it since the first visit- everywhere we were going was "crossways creche" and is excited to go every time. it might just be that they have some toy giraffes there. liam is passionate about giraffes.
next came the worser bay summer fest and this is the totally adorable main hall of the worser bay boating hall. what a great party space!
live music, local food and good times with one of liam's favorite new friends jenn ( well, they have shared la time since he was a babe but now he really knows her- i can use her as a bribe to get him moving anytime ;) she took this lovely shot of us on the beach at sunset. liam found a troupe of kids to play with in the tide pools and we stayed until the sun was sinking behind the hills and bedtime beckoned.
we continue to enjoy the lovely steiner playgroup once a week. we've been watching the monarchs transformation and this week actually saw one emerge from it's cocoon!
here's liam in the sweet little back yard last oct
so i've become involved in the community and am doing a little giving back with the plunket organization. it is a great national resource for families here in NZ. free support of all kinds for kids- nothing like it exists in north america.
https://www.plunket.org.nz/
ruth and i had the idea to start a french immersion playgroup last fall and i've been working on it since. i got sort of roped into helping with the plunket annual appeal so that i could talk to them about using the lovely strathmore plunket playroom for our group. in januarry we got approval and we had our first session mid feb! it has been very successful so far with a healthy turn out each week. it is also quite a bit of work for yours truly ;) i am a little less terrified to practice my rusty french each time ;)
here is our facebook page!
anyways-- we held a teddy bear's picnic to raise awareness of our appeal- to get local paper coverage- i did some face painting and there were plenty of treats on hand. i had a real proud mama moment when liam, after having had a mini cupcake- of course it was the first thing he went for- went back for seconds straight to the vege skewers. i had to take picts to document ;)
one of the moms came out as "big blue," the plunket mascot, and after a bit i had to forcibly keep liam off of her. he was very excited and wanted all of big blues hugs and handshakes!
liam is not shy. he will start up a conversation with anyone young or old and seems to be very confident and comfortable in his skin. he's usually pretty chill still and usually pretty happy and with mama getting more free time and liam getting more socialization time with other kids and guidance from other "teachers," we are both really enjoying life in beautiful new ziland.
a few favorite quotes from the month:
spiders don't eat flies. her don't eat flies. i do. i eat flies. i eat lions ( with a big belly laugh)
let's draw on the chocolate board!
while eating outside: i hear the kayaks! (cicadas)
