George finally accepts that bathtime is not the same as "waterboarding"

Little fella had a pretty good day, from all accounts.  He came to work with me in the morning and then went to the supermarket with his Mummy.  He was awake when we left here, but by the time we hit the supermarket he was out cold - he does love his stroller. Good thing too - it was pretty damn expensive...! I got home in time for bathtime - it would appear that bathtime is no longer his idea of medieval torture time, and he actually seems to enjoy his little evening dunk in the big green tub.  We still haven't had a "poop in the bathtub" moment, but given how much more relaxed he is in there, I suspect it's only a matter of time.

Final note for today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOMMY! Some special photos for you (including one of your favourite cats cuddling up to each other):

Sleepless in Hong Kong

Poor little fella (and poor mummy by association) didn't sleep so well last night. Perhaps the day out followed by lunch in Stanley was a big much for him. After his 6am feed (preceded by midnight, 2am and 3am feeds), his mummy practically threw him at me as she went back to bed... He seems ok now, but we suspect he's still quite tired, and needs a really long conk out to get back to normal.  Took some more photos of him this morning, but it's becoming more and more evident that my 50mm f1.4 lens needs calibration - the focus is way out.  Stupid Canon.

Happy Valentine's Day George!

Today is: - George's first Valentine's Day

- Patrick and Barbara's anniversary (not that they remembered...!)

- Matt and Kat's wedding day (which sadly, we could not make). Have a great day guys!

To celebrate his first Valentine's Day, George is going out for a walk with his mate Sam and Sam's mum Carolin (weather permitting). Failing that, he's going to see if Aunty Carolin wants to come over for a romantic Valentine's dinner with mummy and daddy (Sam's dad Cam is currently in Dubai).

George obliged and posed for a few Valentine's Day special edition photos this morning:

The narrow photo window

spacespacespace Now that I'm back at work, it's actually quite tough to get decent photos of the little fella. In the morning I only really see him for an hour or so while I'm getting ready - and that's when Rachel is having a shower and getting her breakfast (and when that's not happening, I'm in the shower, having breakfast or getting ready for work). I get home around 6:30pm, which is bath time - and then he has a bit of dinner (in his very quiet room) and sleeps. So, during the week I don't get too much of a chance to hang out with the little chap, let alone take photos of him. Still, we usually get a bit of daddy cuddle time before bath time, and it really doesn't matter whether I get 5 minutes with him or 50 minutes with him - it's all good.

Tonight he was a bit grizzly - Rachel thinks that he slept and settled a bit early today and as a result was fairly reluctant to go down after his bath and dinner.  Still - he's asleep and we suspect he'll be out for quite a while.  He had a big day - he went into town today and met Aunty Sue and Aunty Helen at the China Tee Club (both of whom I am assured are most impressed with him!)

A few photos that I snuck in this morning:

It was almost an uneventful day until...

...George erupted a torrent of brown sludge on Mummy's hand about half an hour ago  :)  The best thing was that I had offered to change him tonight and Rachel said not to worry, that she'd do it.  About 5 minutes later I heard her yelling for me, and went into George's room to see (and hear) his little bottom in full swing.  There was crap flying out of him (all over Rachel's hand) and his little butt trumpet was playing quite a violent symphony.  That's my boy. A few photos from tonight and one in colour to show off one of the onesies that Aunty Katy and Uncle Sam sent him.

Saturday at Stanley

Spent midmorning and lunch out at Stanley on the South of the island to do a bit of shopping and have a final lunch with Grandma Barbara.  Little guy was extremely well behaved, although we timed the trip home about 10 minutes too late - and the hunger crying kicked in just as we were hitting rather slow moving roadworks traffic. Not to worry, we all survived and George got more than his fill of lunch when we made it back to the apartment. We've just had bathtime (which was surprisingly peaceful) and now we're sitting down with the little man and teaching him about Grey's Anatomy. Oh what an education he's got in store for him.

Of course, a few photos from this morning:

Friday I'm in love

spacespacespace Or something like that (I'm running out of interesting titles for each day).

George had a good day, and survived a day of shopping with Mummy and Grandma - he was apparently a little angel (of course... he is my son).  Nothing else really happened today, although we're having a delicious roast leg of lamb tonight (with all of the trimmings - omnomnom).

The only other thing worth mentioning about today is... that it's Jacq's birthday!  Happy Birthday Jacq! (If you don't know Jacq, check out the link with her name on it on the left side of the page).  Anyway. here are some photos of George just for Jacq - I was going to pop him in an All Blacks jersey, but he has somewhat selfishly gone to bed. Tomorrow perhaps...

Bathtime - tantamount to child torture, it would seem

Bathtime appears to suck in the eyes of little George.  Any peace and tranquility that may have been present pre-bath is abruptly ended and once dunked into the tub-o-death, the screaming begins. Stage 1 is the yelling - which is usually the first dunk, the tummy wash and the start of Daddy washing his hair.

Stage 2 is the bottom chin quivering while the yelling continues, and you really know that he wants to harm you by then. This is usually the end of the tummy clean and the flip over for the back clean.

Stage 3 (the final phase) is when the chin quivering magnifies and the little high pitched squeaks of resignation start.  Unfortunately for poor George, this is also the Stage that Rachel and I find most hilarious, and his squeaks and grunts are highly amusing to us. Not so much to him.

Stage 4 is the good bit - he loves getting placed in his little towel and wrapped up. The Earth returns to normal at this stage and life on Planet George is once again bearable.  He also looks ridiculously cute wrapped up in his towel. The photos I got today were a bit crappy, but I'll post them anyway. Two of bathtime with Mummy (featuring guest hair washer, Grandma) and one of him just chilling out on Rachel's lap after "dinner". I may have cropped the bathtime ones to hide the fact that he gets bathed directly over the toilet (so we can pull the plug in the bath out and the water drains away down the loo - handy!)

The Daily George

spacespacespace A short one today, I'm going to be late for work...

I just had a lovely cuddle with the little fella while his mummy had a shower. He has this hilarious little face he makes when you take him down the dark corridor - a face you'd expect from someone telling a scary story.  Cuuuuuuuute...

A quiet day planned - Rachel is coming to work to get some Citizenship papers witnessed, and then I think it'll be a lazy afternoon at home for them.

He's officially "George" now...

...because he has a birth certificate.  Apparently Rachel, Barbara and George encountered the slowest Births Registry Customer Service guy in the world, and spend almost an hour completing what should have been a 15 minute task. Not to worry - George only needs one birth certificate (ever), so now it's done, it's another one-off task crossed off the list. The trip to get his passport photo taken was slightly less of a success, as despite him wearing a nappy, nappy cover, onesie and trousers, he managed to wee all over the photograph shop's grey backdrop that they use for passport photo backgrounds - destroying it in the process. Ooops.  Other than that, he behaved impeccably (so his mummy says).

Unfortunately, since he wasn't born in New Zealand, we need to have his citizenship sorted by the NZ citizenship office before he can get a passport, which means his passport application form may have to be done using the express service (which doubles the cost - ouch).  We'll find out tomorrow how easy it will be when Rachel calls the NZ citizenship people tomorrow. Best case scenario is that we can get both the citizenship thing and the passport sorted out at the same time.

Nothing else to report really - yesterday's peaceful bath was indeed an anomaly; today he completely popped a fufu valve at bathtime.

Milk Volcano

Little chap has turned into quite the milk volcano over the last few days (in fairness, he's also turned into a mustard / chocolate hybrid volcano, but I won't go there).  He did an awesome powerchuck right past Rachel's shoulder yesterday, and all she heard was the splatter as it hit the deck in the lounge.  Too awesome. His night feeds are actually getting quite good - he was only awake for 30 mins and 60 mins in last night's feeds, and he tends to stir at about 6:45am for his breakfast.  Evenings are a tad grizzly, as he sleeps a lot during the day and then wants to hang out with us in the evening after dinner.  I'm cool with that, as I don't get to see him during the day...

I took this photo a few days ago on my phone. Pretty sure I haven't't uploaded it before - it's not the greatest quality, but I like it anyway:

Lazy Sunday

Sadly, the weekend is almost over (well, for Daddy - Mummy's weekend ends in July). George had a pretty cool night last night, with a couple of feeds and then some good sleep stretches.  I sat with him for the last one, from 6:45am until about 9:30ish. Was rather nice - I just sat in his room reading, and gave him a gentle rock and a "ssshhhh" when he grizzled.  He's currently passed out on Rachel's lap after another feed. We're doing nothing today - we're literally sitting around the house just doing chores and having a quiet one. As good as George was yesterday, not every shop or location is going to be "feeding friendly", so an outing every couple of days is quite enough at this early stage.  He's a good little fella, but when he's hungry he lets us know - and the words "Can you hang on for a few minutes?" don't really go down so well.

I took a few photos of the little chap this morning - there was some nice light coming through the main window.

End of week 2 (well, almost)

Well, although George isn't quite two weeks old, we've managed to get him this far without any real damage (the little face scratches are self-inflicted - little dude needs fingernail trimming). He came down to Daddy's work again, and once again was practically comatose until the final stretch home, at which point he rather vocally reminded Rachel that it was his lunchtime.  There are some lunches you just can't have in an elevator, if you know what I mean. Ned is popping over tonight for a drink and hopefully he has time for a spot of dinner too (Grandma Barbara is cooking!).  Ned and his wife Thais used to live in Hong Kong, and although they now live in London, we've managed to catch them a few times since their departure - both in London and in Hong Kong.

Tomorrow we're heading to Kowloon for a spot of shopping for Barbara's belated 60th birthday present, and then we might have a few people coming to visit the little chap.

Naturally, a few shots of the little pooping and burping angel before I sign off.

Weight gains, heel pricks and sleep

Little dude has been sleeping up a storm - went to the doctor's today (apparently he's regained his birthweight), hit Pacific Place to do some shopping, and then came home - and pretty much slept through the whole experience.  This could explain the reluctance to sleep at night. Oh dear. He had his heel prick test today, and Rachel said he was a little miffed at that. Other than the odd needle-induced flipout, he's a pretty cool kid. Mummy uttered a few choice words under her breath at around midnight when the little fella wouldn't go to sleep, but he made up for it with an impressive four hour sleepfest in the night somewhere.  Rachel says she woke up and found herself patting my chest in her sleep (she was burping me).  Crikey.  I wonder if it worked.

A few photos of the little boy and the big boy:

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year as they say!  George narrowly avoided being an Ox and was born in the last week of the Year of the Rat.  I wouldn't have a clue what characteristics a Rat is supposed to exhibit, but I'm imagining "hairy" is one of them.  The little tyke's hair is as bushy as it was on Day 1 and I'm quite enjoying trying to part it when it's wet... We had a pretty lazy day, although George has his first official house visitor today - Alice came over for a bit to say hi and to gift George several awesome and cute presents (including a little Lion from South Africa, now christened "Harrice" (Harry + Alice). It's gorgeous and Daddy is considering stealing it.  Harry and Alice also gave George some lovely bibs and accessories and some cute little foot and hand animals so that he can locate his feet (you have to see it to understand what I'm talking about - but they are seriously cool).

We're heading upstairs for dinner tonight at Cam and Carolin's - technically George's first dinner outing.  Babysteps, babysteps - it's in the same apartment building as us.  If George pops a valve we're close to home!

Naturally, a few photos of the little fella to finish up - both with his Mummy:

The Daily George - Tuesday

We're in the middle of Chinese New Year, and it's pretty cold outside - although on the plus side, I have most of the week off and it's lovely and warm inside the apartment. The little chap is coming along nicely, and has learned to simultaneously burp and fart at the same time (I'm so proud). Sometimes when he really wants to impress me, he burps, vomits, farts and poops himself in quick succession.  His mum is slightly put out by the four-for-the-price-of-one performances, but only until she realises that he really is quite a happy and content little chap after one of his legendary pants explosions.

Tomorrow is the last day of Chinese New Year, and on Thursday I'll head back to work for perhaps half a day, and then half a day on Friday.  The day after CNY is "lai see" day where people give "red packets" (of cash) to people who either work for them or to unmarried friends. It's a bit strange, but hey - when in China... Anyway, I usually give cash packets to my secretary, the IT guy and girl who do a bit of work for me, and the building staff in the apartment building we live in. Plus, I'm supposed to give little cash packets to the unmarried people at work, but I wouldn't have the foggiest who is married and who isn't.  Oh well.

Naturally, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the little guy:

Nope, still no baby.

Spacespacespace We even indulged in a bit of curry last night.  Nada, nothing, not a bean.  Oh well. It's only a day or two late, and according to our doctor, the due date is today going by his calculations.

The boys are showing solidarity in these cold winter months:

American Idol

Spacespacespace I wonder if American Idol would be as popular as it is now if its name described the show a bit more accurately.  For example, would a bunch of judges and auditioning singers be as famous if the series was sold as "The American under 35 Karaoke Championships"?  I think not.  Oh marketing types, how ye mocketh me.

That said, despite my annual promise not to watch this crap, I found myself glued in front of the tv watching the endless stream of car crash contestants making international dorks out of themselves.

Highlights of last night's episode were surely the contestant with no shame who auditioned in a bikini (at least it wasn't an overweight hairy man), and this gem of a scene...

Spacespacespace

...where the host Ryan Seacrest attempted to high five a blind contestant.  Unsurprisingly, the blind guy didn't respond to the high five.

Our last weekend as a two person, two kitten family?

SPACESPACESPACE If the doctor's estimation of Rachel's due date is correct, then this time next weekend we could be up at the hospital with a brand new baby.  How utterly freaky.  And a little bit scary.  Gone are the days of our lazy Saturday morning lie ins, hours with the newspaper and a coffee (well, ok - the newspaper is pretty crappy, so make that "minutes"), and lovely toasted croissants.  Hello to poop, vomit and screaming. Everything is going well, little Cracker has a new trick of kicking Rachel's ribs (or something around that region) and it's quite fun having a play with his/her foot when the game is on...

We had a lovely evening last night - Mark (my boss) is leaving Hong Kong, so we all hopped on a boat (well, three boats) and went to Middle Island on the South Side of HK Island and had a BBQ and dinner. It was frigging cold, but was actually ok in the end - there were plenty of gas heaters and there was also an inside area where we gathered for speeches and whatnot afterwards.

Today we're off to Discovery Bay for afternoon tea at Sue and Steve's (parents of the gorgeous Hermione and Phoebe) and we'll also get to meet their brand new puppy - woohoo!

Not sure what else the weekend holds - perhaps some trampolining... (apparently it induces labour)

I leave you with a few photos from last night's trip out to Middle Island:

Lazy Sunday (again)

We actually managed to get out of the house today, believe it or not. Admittedly we had a lazy breakfast of toast, hashbrowns, bacon (narly) and baked beans (Rachel) first - but then we took a nice walk down to Kennedy Town just a few kilometres away.  Ok, so maybe we watched another episode of Mad Men before we left. Bought a big silver bin which appears to have the sole purpose of storing dirty nappies pre-washing (yup - it's cloth diapers for these not-yet-parents) and not a lot else.  Ok, maybe we had a Snickers bar too. Was digging through some old photos that I found on some old CDs - here's a self-timer one of Rachel and I in our old HK apartment, and one of the dearly departed Chloe at Christmas about 5 years ago:

SPACESPACESPACE

Oh - and for Aunty Momo... here's a picture of the baby bag that you bought for Evilspawnofnarly.  It looks full because it's already packed and ready for an emergency trip to the hospital... only 12 days until the official due date - can't be too careful: