What goes up must come down

Someone rather famous once said that any idiot could get up Mount Everest - but it took real skill to get back down again. George can now pull himself to standing, as you can see in the photo sequence below.  Unfortunately, getting back down to his backside is the real challenge.  At the moment he just pulls himself up and then wails until someone helps him back onto his bum.

Unsurprisingly, this approach does seem to be working for the little tyrant...

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Not much else going on really - here are a few shots I took this morning of the little man playing on his birthday car from Suki and Queenie.  He's not quite self-powered yet; he can go backwards with no problem, but moving forward is a bit of a challenge at the moment.  He does love riding it though:

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Bath shenanigans

George's latest bathtime game is taking whatever he's playing with and helpfully passing throwing it over the edge to me or Rachel (it gets a bit messy when the plaything is a half full plastic cup of water...) .

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Post-bathtime snap | G's birthday drinks | Puppy love

This one was from an hour ago, just after G's bath. He's giving me the "Am I about to get a Hairy Maclary story soon?" look (yes - he got one about 5 minutes later) .

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And here's a photo (for posterity) of the Chateauneuf Du Pape before we demolished it.  Richard B gave it (with two gorgeous red wine glasses) to us on our wedding day in 2007, and we were saving it for a special occasion.  I decanted it yesterday afternoon, and at 7pm last night - exactly one year after George was born - we toasted the little man.  Yup - that's Ben in the background.

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And here's a sequence taken this afternoon, as George flirted with one of his Hong Kong girlfriends, Sophia:

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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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Bathtime, screaming time, posing time

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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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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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A few more photos from New Zealand

As much as I miss using Photoshop, I couldn't resist uploading a few photos from our last few weeks of touring.  We hit both Wellington and Hawkes Bay (both very briefly) and we're now back in Auckland, dreading our return to Hong Kong on Monday night. Eeeek. iPhoto has seemed to have done a pretty decent job of tweaking the RAW images and exporting them to jpeg - I may have another go when back in Hong Kong, but for the time being... here you go:

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Taken from the Koru Lounge at Auckland Airport, waiting for our Wellington flight

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A (fairly rotten quality) photo of George being stalked by his grandmother

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A dog named "Dog"

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George in a pool with (one of) his Godfather(s) and Lucy

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Enjoying a swing push from his mate Ella

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Uncle Godfather Ross

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Dinnertime with Lucy

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Jump time with Ella

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Watching an outdoor movie at the Blackbarn Vineyard Amphitheatre

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Lucy braving the sprinkler

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Ella taking on the sprinkler

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Low humidity = Floppy hair

Despite Uncle Sam's assertions to the contrary, it is rather cold here (maybe our blood has thinned over the years).  With the cold comes an extreme drop in humidity, and with the drop in humidity, the hair of certain household members becomes a little... "floppy": .

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Ok, so the middle one wasn't so floppy, but I threw that in there to show you how he can make plastic objects levitate.  He's clever like that.

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Sunday fun at the park

This morning we took the Bunky down to Cyberport to eat grass play in the sun. No need to really say anything else - the photos speak for themselves.  Kiddo had a lovely time (except when his chin met the concrete step during his ascent of said step...) .

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