Fathers Day and sleeping babies...

Here in NZ Fathers Day is celebrated on September 3rd, which for us was a Sunday. We went out in the late morning / early afternoon for a drink and a bit of lunch with some friends of ours who have left to go back to the UK (London). They had finished the rental contract on their house so had decided to spend the last couple of days before their flight in a nice hotel in town.

Daddy and Erin just chilling out.

Toby (Dad) and Ethan (14 weeks)


Natalie (Mum) and Ethan


Natalie and Erin


Toby and Erin

We've also tentatively decided to see if Erin will sleep in her Big Bed aka the Cot, and so tried her for a nap in it - seemed to go relatively well, so we will try her overnight sleep tonight it in and see what happens. Of course there are photos of this as well...

My tiny wee girl !!

This is the one I refer to as the 'Ghost Baby' photo, as the mosquito netting makes it look quite surreal !!

Anyway, that's all for now folks - take care !


Love Jax, Roland and Erin

Sunbathing Baby

So the weather here today isn't too bad, and we finally gave Erin some time without those nuisance nappies and clothes on, to kick and play in the sun. Unfortunately, the only device available with which to record such a moment, was mommy's cellphone, so the quality of the footage isn't the greatest. We did take some photos with Daddy's camera, but haven't uploaded them yet - so they'll be along in the next entry.

Anyhow, enjoy !

** EDIT**

Ok so, there *was* meant to be a video clip here - but there have been some compatiblity problems between Jax's cellphone, her computer, and the hosting service - and the mini-clip we took of Erin got severely muddled up. Oh well, next time ! We do however, have a couple of still photos for you all in the meantime...

Erin and her friend Stretch the Giraffe


Guess who fell fast asleep in her bouncer? Heehee.

Love Jax, Roland & Erin

A family first !

This morning we had our first family expedition to a grocery store !

Why is this exciting you ask ? Well, mainly because until now we haven't been going to our usual supermarket (Pak N Save), and just going to the closest one (Countdown or New World), which was costing us more money.

Anyway, Pak N Save is a 25 minute drive away (one way), and usually always quite busy. However, Erin behaved *so* well - hardly a peep out of her the whole time, and she even fell asleep for a while. I guess it helps that we fed her before we left !

Sorry about the poor quality, but here are a couple of photos that mommy managed to take with her cellphone.

Fast asleep !


Erin "holding" Daddy's hotdog that he bought from the ladies fundraising outside the front of the supermarket.

We think our little adventure this morning might have tired her out a bit too, she had a big feed at lunch, and then when we woke her up for her afternoon bottle - barely 100mls and Erin was asleep again ! Oh well, we will see what happens next and whether we have a settled evening or not.

Not much other news though, yesterday we finally got the car serviced (yes, big $$ but cars are like that I guess), and Erin's gran came over to help mommy sort out some things around the house and tidy up a bit. Tomorrow Erin's Granddad and Jo are coming over for a visit around lunchtime, which will be nice.

Anyway, that's all for now folks - take care !

Love Jax, Roland and Erin

Another week has come and gone...

How time flies...

Erin is five weeks old now, and we had our last visit from our midwife yesterday, who gave her a full checkup. After this we will be taken care of by a community nurse from Plunket. Anyway, she weighed in at 4.36kgs and measured at 54.5cms long - she was 3.49kgs when she was born, and only 52cms long - so she has definitely been doing a lot of growing !

We have also found out that mommy won't have to go back to work as soon as she thought (even though it was only to be part time), because, well... she unfortunately doesn't have any work to go back to. Getting to spend more time with Erin is definitely a silver lining to the 'redundancy cloud' we think.

On a lighter note, we have a few more photos to share (of course), so enjoy...

Nothing like the feeling of a clean bum to make a baby happy !





It was a nice day out so Erin got to have her lunch out on the back deck with Daddy.



That's all for now folks, take care!


Love Jax, Roland and Erin

Our favorite time of the day...

Love Jax, Roland & Erin

Happy One Month Birthday to Erin !

Today Erin is one month old, can you believe it ? We're very excited and proud, and can't believe how time has flown already ! She is starting to focus a lot more, and become more interested in her toys when we have play time, as well as even giving us the occasional smile.

Erin is also starting to get a lot more control over her neck and head, she made mommy and daddy very proud the other day when she was lying down on her tummy and held her head up for almost 20 seconds, by herself !

Anyway, she is also now a bottle fed baby, the only downside to which is that her nappies (diapers) REALLY stink. Oh well, at least now we know exactly when she needs to be changed, and daddy can now help out with meal times too.

And of course we can't post an update after such a long gap without photos, so here they are...

Playtime on her mat


Erin in her Baby Einstein bouncer


Erin exercising her lungs


Erin with her Gran


Erin with Aunty Stef


Erin with Gran's friend Felicity


That's all for now folks, take care !

Love Jax, Roland and Erin

Parenting 101: Nothing is sacred...

Well folks, it seems today's baby care lesson was "The True Definition of a Poo-splosion". We've had some 'incidents' before, but NOTHING compares to this afternoon.

We'd had a visit from our midwife, and everything was great - Erin had even gained 340 grams since her last weigh in two weeks ago. She'd had a good feed too, as well as a bit of a 'top up', and then decided she wanted to be awake - so mommy put her in her bouncer, which seemed to work well enough.

After a while however, she started to grizzle a bit and Daddy went to pick her up... which was when he said something like "Hey, how come her jumpsuit is all wet... wait... the bouncer is wet too... oh no !!"

I think the pictures tell the rest of the story pretty well - enjoy !

The carnage !







Super Daddy to the rescue...




However, Erin is not too impressed by all the fuss.




Ultimately, it was easier to just strip her and put her in the tub - we were going to bathe her tonight anyway !



As you can see, Miss Erin quite enjoys bathtime.






All clean and tidy !


That's all for now folks, take care.

Love Jax, Roland & Erin

The Littlest Leafs Fan !

Nice hat eh? ;-)

Love Jax, Roland & Erin

Still more photos, and even a little news !

Things are going pretty well in the Bird household, so I thought it best to give you all a bit of an update as well as more photos ;)

Erin is still feeding really well, and growing quite a bit already - she lost a bit of weight while she was in hospital (as most babies do), but then before her next checkup had gained it back and then some ! She's also still sleeping pretty well, although we had a growth spurt recently, and now she has decided to just be awake a bit more. Believe it or not, we have already had a couple of nights where she has gone down around 10:30pm or so and slept right through until 5:30-6am ! Lucky us.

We're also hopeful that she'll be a bit of a water baby, she seems to really enjoy her baths and showers with Daddy (Mummy does help, but Daddy is better at it!).

We've also been enjoying a few visitors, including some very clucky grandparents, cousins, friends and other family members - not to mention all the wonderful gifts that have been arriving as well !

The household cats seem to be coping well enough, they have been a bit put out about being shut in one end of the house at night though - they were used to being able to sleep on our bed at night, but that had to change once Erin came home.

Tomorrow we have our second outing, a drive up to Granddad's for a bit of a visit, and maybe even a walk on the beach - there will definitely be a few photos taken there.

Speaking of photos, here are a few that have been taken over the last few days for you all to enjoy (they're not in chronological order though, sorry!):

Meeting great auntie Caroline



Fast asleep !



Wide awake !



Meeting cousin Teri (Caroline's daughter)

Tummy time !



That's all for now folks, take care :)


Love Jax, Roland & Erin

Even MORE photos !

First bath at home, with Daddy at the helm - although Erin quite likes showers now too.

Mummy and Erin trying out our new sling.




Erin having a wriggle on the spare bed.




And last but not least, Erin fast asleep in her stroller on our first outing - up the road to a local cafe for lunch (about 15 minutes walk each way). She did really well, and it was nice to get some fresh air, although it did rain a little on the way home.

That's all for now folks, take care !


Love Jax, Roland and Erin

More photos !

Not a lot of "news" to catch you up on, but hopefully soon - Erin has a visit from our midwife due tomorrow, just to make sure everything is as it should be and see how much she weighs etc.

Anyway, we've managed to sort out a few more photos, so here they are !

Catching up on a few zzz's with daddy.

Erin's first bath, as demonstrated by one of the lovely hospital midwives.

Fast asleep in her car seat the day we came home from hospital.

Being checked out by one of the furry members of our household, Nina.

That's all for now folks, take care !

Love Jax, Roland and Erin

She's here !

Hi Everybody,

As you may have guessed, our little girl has finally arrived - we got home from hospital yesterday and figured we'd better post a few photos for everyone to see.

The labour and delivery went really well, and although there were some complications afterwards, we were all very well taken care of.

Officially, she was born at 3:13am on Thursday 13th July, 2006 - and weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz.

Without further ado, here are some photos !

Proud daddy Roland, just a few minutes after she was born.

Proud (but exhausted) mummy !

The Birds !

And the star of the show, our gorgeous little girl Erin.

That's about it for now folks, things around here are still a little topsy-turvy and we are all still learning to adjust - but there will be more photos and an update in a few days.

Love Jax, Roland & Erin

Still here !

Don't panic folks, we're still in one piece. As you may have guessed though, our baby girl is running a bit behind schedule - mind you, not like there is much of a choice !

Life has been ticking along as per usual, meals to be cooked and chores to be done. Roland is still at work, but if things take *too* long he will probably go on leave from the 17th or so - since we may need a helping hand in the birth department (yay for hospitals, not).

We're sorry that there isn't anything more exciting to report, things are pretty relaxed at the moment.

Take care everyone, and we promise to update again if anything exciting *does* happen !

Love J, R & Baby Girl Bird

Happy (belated) Canada Day !!

Alrighty boys and girls, here's the weekend round-up - and what a weekend it was !

Friday night was a quiet one at home for Jax with the fireplace, TV, and a pizza - while Roland had a work drinks thing and came home later on (in a taxi).

Saturday was pretty quiet, Jax had some shopping to do (food) and then a friend visited later that afternoon to discuss a few things around labour and birth, as she is a massage therapist and likely to also be a support person for us.

Saturday night we went to a pub quiz organised by the Canadian Club of Auckland, to celebrate Canada Day. We had a very good time, met some new people, re-connected with some people we had met before - and even won a prize in the raffle draw (3 tickets for $5). However, it was one of life's true ironies that the prize (2nd place) happened to be a six pack of this:

We are going to try and save it for after the baby is born so at least Jax can partake in a couple !!

Sunday (today) just flew by, the morning was spent cleaning house in preparation for our Tupperware party, and then between lunch and 2pm getting all the snacks and furniture arranged. A good time was had by all, and the baking from the demo that the Tupperware lady (Sandy) did was *delicious* - the recipe was for Vanilla Custard Puffs. The sales weren't too shabby either, and we had a good time choosing some new things for ourselves as well.

Just a few things happening here and there this week, work as usual for Roland at least. Physio on Monday for Jax, midwife appointment on Tuesday - and there is also a very special birthday coming up on Tuesday too *cough* mum's !! *cough*...

And that, loved ones, is about all there is... take care of yourselves !!

Love J, R & Baby Girl Bird
(Only five days to go !)