Back in the North Island

Hurrah for holidays. We are now back at home after a busy fun-filled trip to Christchurch. It was lovely to see family, especially my two extremely cute nephews, and Christchurch is very pretty in Autumn. Lots of stunning trees with leaves in various shades of red, yellow or brown. There were way too many cool things for me to go into detailed descriptions so I'll go for bullet-point highlights.

-Dominic was awesome on the plane both ways. It's a little daunting taking a little one on a flight (especially remebering one nightmare flight we had on the way to Japan with a toddler in front of us crying for the _whole_ flight. Fortunately, we had Pooh and Grover movies on the iPod touch with portable speakers so Dom was either happily eating or watching these for the flight. On the way back, we had a wndow seat and he loved looking out the window after take off. He even started flapping his arms around, so I think he grasped the concept that we were in the air although he later realised he didn't actually need to 'fly' himself :-)

- Seeing Dom hanging out with his two cousins was awesome, and his other relatives too. He was always super excited to see everyone and had no hesitation in fully taking over his uncle's home (especially the Darth Tater potato head).

- Going through Christchurch Muesum was very cool - lots of romping room and interesting things to look at. Dom particularly liked the Discovery area with drawers full of shells, insects and other things.

- Dom loved the massive play area at McDonalds and I discovered that McCafe actually do a quite reasonable muffin.

- The Christchurch Aquarium is awesome. Sharks, sting rays, pretty fish, turtles and an obliging show-off octopus. Dom really liked the swing bridge over the waterfall and the touch pool (or splash pool for him really).

- Cathedral Square - Dominic dragged me in and around several shops.

- Taking the Tram.

- Romping around the Arts centre in the sun. Lots of live music, markets, delicious hazelnut lattes and heaps of dried autumn leaves for Dom to play in.

- I got to squeeze in some shopping but the highlight of that day's excursion for Dom was riding in the Wriggles ride with his cousins.

- On the last day we went for breakfast with the whole tribe to Denny's which is an excellent place for little ones. Dom liked the food but exploring was even more fun.

Denny's photos



Dom becomes aquainted with the penguin using the traditional hand-to-beak greeting.



The boys gather around the jukebox.



Waving to Daddy (who is outside with a camera as the reflection shows).

Off on holiday!

We're off to Christchurch early tomorrow morning. Dominic has been very interested and helpful in the packing process.



He enjoyed climbing into the suitcase. We had to convince him that he was actually allowed to ride with us in the plane and didn't need to stowaway in the case.

Happy Easter!

Dominic seems to be enjoying the Easter holidays so far. There was a giant bunny (OK, man wearing a rabbit suit but Dom's brain melted with joy and excitement when he met the talking adult-sized bunny so I don't think he realised it was fake) outside the supermarket yesterday handing out free Easter eggs so that was a good start to the chocolate-filled holidays.

We then gave him an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Given that he's small and only just learning that tin-foil wrapped ovals tend to be chocolate (although he has caught onto this fact very quickly), we decided to have plush bunnies to act as guides to where the eggs were.



The intrepid Easter hunter spots the first sign of Easter goodies in the distance.



With a tremendous amount of glee, Dom sees that Peter Rabbit has some Easter eggs waiting for him.



Instinctively, the Easter egg hunter knows to strike quickly and grab the egg before the bunny changes its mind.



Dom enjoys the rewards of a successful hunt before moving onto the next clue.



Oh joy! Dom spots another chocolate-bearing bunny!



Hmm, a bunny in a basket? The now-expert hunter knows to examine this carefully.



His suspicions were correct. The bunny had the chocolate goods!



Dominic then zaps off to the final and biggest bunny of them all!



"I've got him!" Dom holds the big bunny in place by the ears while the camera crew catches up.



Dominic succssfully seizes the last egg.



Although he soon discovers that this particular egg was not up to his chocy standards and decides to give it back to the bunny.



The hunter leaves the backyard triumphantly!

Pegs

At the last gym class of the term last week, they added some new 'delux manual dexterity building' equipment. A bunch of old wooden pegs and an empty tin can with a small hole to post the pegs through.

Dom loved this game.



It didn't take much encouragement from Mum at all before he was into the peg posting groove.



His intense concentration on posting every single peg wasn't even broken when a girl came over and started staring at him. (I've cropped the photo because a little girl staring at your young son while she has her hand down the front of her pants doesn't not make for a cute Kodak moment in my books).



At the end of the class when they were supposed to be getting certificates and stamps and so forth, a bunch of the kids wandered back to the tin to form an obsessive group peg posting session.

If you want to start a freaky little blonde 'Midwich cuckoos' style kids cult, obviously all you need is a tin can and a bunch of wooden pegs.

Park photos

Alas poor Dominic is not feeling too great at the moment. He has the wretched teething plus blocked/runny nose combo which led to a rough night's sleep last night. He's never really has a cold before so I'm finding it quite stressful as he seemed to think it's my fault for not fixing his leaky nose problem.

I have learnt a few things about toddlers with blocked noses.

1. Small children do not like having their noses wiped no matter how gentle you are or how soft the tissue. Dom now runs away if he sees me coming towards him with a tissue so I have to hide it and sneakily pounce on him to get any wiping done. He also decided to try to sabotage the tissue supply by grabbing the box and shredding as many tissues as possible when I foolishly left the box lying around in the lounge.

2. The Plunket recommended solution of using nose drops to clearout their nostrils is about as easily executed as giving a tablet to a stroppy cat. You don't realise how strong something relatively small can be until you try holding them went they really want to break free.

3. The preferred position to fall asleep in when a a young boy has a snuffly nose is slightly upright lying in the arms of Mum or Dad. This becomes very uncomfortable the parent after a while because a toddler is substanially heavier than a little baby.

4. There is a range of tastes and flavours in Pamol medicine. The last bottle we had was tasty, the current one, not so much.

5. Dom can quite effectively cover his mother in a sticky mess by spitting out yucky tasting medicine.

On a happier note, here are some photos of Dom at the nearby Kotuku Park playground:



Dominic enjoys a turn on the spinner.



Cruising in the driver's seat.



Poop! Poop! Forget about Toad. It's Dom, the terror of the highway!



A suspicious game of peekaboo.



Swings are a lot of fun.



Wheeee! Down the slide.



Of course, climbing back up the slide is even more fun.



Dom makes his way up onto the tower.



'I bet I could climb up this ladder...'



'Hmm, I wonder if Mum would approve of my climbing attempts. I have this strange feeling she might not somehow...'