love, liam: december-- oh yeah, what was it that happens in december?

Summer is back!!!

and dino's are still the fierce favorite

time for beach fun

playground redevelopment and of course.... CHRISTMAS! oh and moving house. busy month.

best friend beach and zoo visit

a while back i took a very inspiring 2 day playground planning seminar with some really knowledgeable folks at childspace- really lovely, very child and nature focused early educators- http://childspace.co.nz/.
This was organized by the creche and paid for by the ministry of education (woot) and i was someone at the creche who had the time and excitement to take the course. i was the only one there in the course who was not starting her own ECE, and even though i have no experience or background in such things i loved it! a great 2 days. the creche teachers looked after liam after the creche sessions so that i could do the full 9-5. and out of this experience i created a long term master playground redevelopment plan. super cool stuff. so we got our grant money - 17k- to replace the blk safety matting with new surfacing ( this is what the benefit had been for as well) and we are doing a lot more than that :) the plan would require some parent help to prep the site and i had to get everyone on board for that and schedule the work across the christmas break so that it would be done in time for re-opening in january. matthew was my always helpful support and foreman helping me to arrange and get done a lot of the work. we all got into it including liam! first the sandpit had to be taken apart and moved. all of the old black mats had to be removed and the bricks underneath too (the house had been residential when bought by the creche a year ago and the play area was the carpark). oh, and the old rock retaining wall (covered there behind liam) needed to be taken apart (hello jackhammer!) and a new one built. ya. some work.
the new wall design came from the head of childspace, robin, who kindly helped us pro bono :)

it was a heap of work and continued on into january.... across our move and new years and beyond our departure to AU for our xmas holiday! we would have to wait until our return to see the handiwork of the mating company who put in the new surfaces while we were away. matthew and i were both pretty stressed to leave the job before seeing it through to completion! you'll also have to wait until next month's installment to hear how it went ;)

creche had a little xmas celebration. we all brought a plate and santa clause (a dad) came by with treats! this was liam's first "santa"experience. he dug it, no questions asked.

christmas!! this would be first year liam really knows what is going on and i was excited. i made him an advent calendar

it was mainly festive things to do with a wee chocolate thrown in here and there for good measure. i knew enough to put it up out of reach ( over the tv) but eventually even that didn't work. he got up onto the sideboard and got it down and this is how it all ended.

we made it pretty far and i couldn't really be mad. too young. lesson learned. but next year! ha.

weta organized a holiday family photo shoot and we were excited to have some pro photos.
hahah. i give you a sampling of some real winners. in the end matthew photoshoped 3 different images together to make our christmas card. hey! we gotta all be lookin our best ;)

the waiting room- felt like the talent!

a bit more summer fun and some notes:

liam has been doing a lot of word play, esp with song lyrics and is singing on his own a lot more. such a joy to hear! he has become more demonstratively affectionate giving me kisses and even compliments! " that's a pretty shirt mama" or " i like your earrings" he's also engaging in more purposely naughty behavior!

we had a whole conversation about fabric and how it is made.... there is an interest in what things are made of... and he said , no mama, kit makes fabric-- she's a knitter so he is right!

he says "ay mama, " a lot in the kiwi way that i cannot even properly imitate and i love it :) also "and stuff like that" tacked on to sentences.... ha.

at the end of the month i whispered i love you and he whispered i love you back... heart melted. he also told me :
"mama when you get angry i just give you a cuddle to calm you down" omg. wise boy. teaching me things all of the time.

these little guys were really fascinated with liam's dino!

apparently this is a very dangerous thing to do.
whoops! made a nice photo

ramen shop date dinner w/ mom. our fave spot :)

We wish you a merry
Christmas.....

all of the traditional christmas trappings feel a bit odd here in summery NZ where bach cristmases in jandles are the norm but we did it up. complete with saggy xmas fir ;)