happy birthday ian

We had a lovely birthday lunch for Ian on Saturday at Tin Hill - a (very) new restaurant which has Mae's good friend as the head chef. Food was amazing (especially the deserts!).

photos, photos.

It's a little too late for a lengthy post today, Instead, I hope these photos will suffice.

Mei, Ian, Elliot and Aiden.

Elliot has started solids, and knows more-or-less what to do. We'v forgotten how messy it got with Aiden when he was learning to eat. Elliot seems a little more distracted when he eats, making feeding a frustrating affair.

A quiet read is always a pleasure.

i am so leetle.

Elliot's tiny fingers with perfect wee fingernails. They won't stay this size for long, so we're enjoying every moment marvelling at this little miracle. His umbilical cord stump fell off on Saturday - that's right - Elliot Unplugged.

We're enjoying every minute of Elliot as a newborn while it lasts - we sometimes just stare at him as you would TV; we call this the BabyChannel. We know that it will only be too soon before he'll be too big to hold.

He's quite a bit different from Aiden already. I know that's stating the obvious, but for some (misguided) reason, we expected that the newborn experience will be similar to Aiden. Feeding and sleeping are quite dissimilar - Elliot sleeps more than Aiden did, and waking him up to feed is close to impossible. Waking techniques we've tried: changing diapers, wet towels on the face, tickles on the cheek, little arm & leg aerobics - all methods are to no avail. This means that feeds are at his leisure - he slept through last night (we're not complaining - 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep was great.)

But it also means irregular feeds, although we noticed that this only happens in the late afternoon/evenings where he falls asleep mid-feed and wakes up an hour (or 2) for his next feed. Morning & afternoon feeds are slightly more predictable, at 3.5-4hrs apart.

Elliot isn't latching on as easily as Aiden did, so it requires more patience. We took for granted that it would be as easy (if not easier) than Aiden.

We're hoping his things might change as Elliot grows a little older - Elliot is after all just over a week old.


The romper Paul and Kim gave us for Aiden is back in service. It was only worn a handful of times before it was outgrown, and so it's nice to see it again. Given the amount that Elliot is feeding, it's likely, should he ever make the All Blacks, he'll be in the front row.

Elliot spending some quality time with his Grandpa Ian.