The Birthday Boy!

One year old today! The little man has had a ball playing with his new toys this morning: .

Playing with the trolley and blocks from Godparents Ross and Ang

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Playing on the toolman's truck (from Aunty Suki and Aunty Queenie at Daddy's work)

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Mummy insisted on a family photo. Yes, we're in pyjamas.

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Cruisin' in his new wheels

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Cabinets, Visitors, Blurry photos

The poor little fellow is still a bit sick at the moment, but when he's awake he's still pretty much his happy old self (well, a snottier, raspier version of himself).  He's started to crawl with purpose now, and has discovered that by plonking himself on his knees, there is a whole new world of stuff to play with.  This particular cabinet is full of our good wine glasses, and has now been secured with a rather ugly set of plastic cable ties: .

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On Saturday, Jacq and Tristan came through for a day's stopover en route to London - George had a lovely day with his new friends. Here's one of Jacq reading George one of his favourite Hairy MacLary books:

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Here's one that was sitting on the memory card - Granny B and George playing on the grass.  Granny B was plucking little flowers and blowing them through the air at George (look just in front of his nose):

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And finally this one - we had a game of Chase around the lounge yesterday. When he's at full speed, it's pretty much impossible to focus the camera on him.  So here's his slightly blurry manic face:

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A few leftover phone photos

The first was taken yesterday when Bunky came to visit me at work, and the rest are randoms from New Zealand: .

Playing on the grass outside my work

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A random church that we walked past (in Havelock North)

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In the plane from Napier to Auckland (that's George's hair on the left...)

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Aunty Momo and Rachel talking in the kitchen while G busies himself with Lego

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Reading time with Paddy

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Cellphone photos

This year I'm trying to take more photos on my phone - the image quality is pretty crappy, but there are plenty of programs available that allow me to do a bit of creative editing on the camera (I have to confess that I have a soft spot for the fake polaroid, having owned a real one once upon a time).  Anyway, it's forcing me to think a bit more about getting a photo right first time, rather than trying to salvage something on the computer afterwards. I just pulled a bunch of photos off the phone from our New Zealand trip, so here you go:

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Paddy and George enjoying story time

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Playing a George-created game (play with the speaker base, sit up, get tickled, then start again) with Granny B

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Pulling himself up to standing, cheered on by Aunty Jane

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Paddy pouring bubbly for the Keane ladies

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Swing time at the park

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Sneaking out from under a chair

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And finally, one for his London-based godparents:

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How's the weather out there this week?

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A few more random weekend shots

Bunky had a pretty rough flight last night, and I'm too knackered to pretty-ify any of these photos from the weekend (I just dragged them off my memory card).  Normal service will resume soon.  Oh, and I took a crapload of photos on my phone too - I quite like going through photos on there.  The camera on the phone is a bit crap, but that does lead to some cool (inadvertent) effects. Anyway, here are some from the big camera:

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Aunty Momo trying to distract George from important tasks on the grass with Paddy and Rachel

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George with his Aunty Jane, who is definitely in his top two favourite aunties list

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Granny B, Rachel and Jane enjoying some bubbly on our last night in Auckland

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Just before George's mini-party on Sunday afternoon. L to R: Aunty Momo, Aunty Jane, Uncle Eugene, George and Granny B

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He wanted the sunglasses but ended up with a kiss on the forehead.  He was unimpressed.

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Explaining the nuances of squeaky hammers to Paddy

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Defying gravity in the back yard with Aunty Jane

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Early birthday drinks

Although Bunky doesn't turn one for another nine days, we decided to have a few early birthday drinks (and cake) for him today in Auckland.  The little piglet managed to scoff cake, part of a sausage roll, some rice cracker, more cake (with cream) and he washed that all down with some delicious leaves from the back yard. Here are a few from the day - once again without the benefit of any Photoshop magic...

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Happy Birthday Granny B!

A few quick photos of the little man, who had a tough day yesterday (a slightly elevated temperature combined with a massive sense of humour failure...) .

DSC_2497Posing on the window seat.  Daddy's mental note - taking a photo of George in white pyjamas sitting on a white cushion with a white backdrop is a pretty stupid idea

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DSC_2486On the phone to Granny B for her morning birthday telephone call

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Might not be much going on here over the next few days, as we're off to Singapore for a long weekend (flying out tomorrow morning).  Hopefully George is ok on the four hour day flight, but I guess we have the overhead lockers as a fallback position.

Just kidding.  Sort of.

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A load of photos

Patrick and Barbara have now left for New Zealand (they'll be close to halfway by now), and so I have a bit of time to crank out a few photos from the past week with them. Firstly, one of Bunky from yesterday morning.  You know, just looking cute and stuff. Note his two favourite toys by his side - a little yellow ball and a chewed up cardboard tube:

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Moving right along - we took Rachel's employer's boat out for the day on Wednesday. We headed out to Clearwater Bay for a spot of lunch (on the boat) and a swim (which for Bunky also occurred on the boat thanks to an inflatable paddling pool):

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That's windswept hair, not baby baldness...

Anyway, someone really enjoyed his own paddling pool.  Note the furrowed brow:

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Also note that he's inherited - from his mother - the ability to blink during the 1/200th of a second that the camera shutter is open:

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And here's the little monkey being entertained by his Granny B. You may have noticed by now that someone seems to have developed a little tummy:

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And then a few from the trip home:

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For P&B's last night in Hong Kong, we went to a little outdoor Thai restaurant in Deepwater Bay that Rachel had been to a few times (once with Aunty Jane).  It was pretty dark, but I clicked off a few photos anyway - one of Barbara, one of Patrick, and one of the table of ladies that was set up on the beach (we have to try that table next time).  I had to take a stealthy photo of them, but I think I got sprung.

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