Weekending

Mother's Day

Yesterday was a lovely day. The boy that gave me Mother's Day gifted me these creations.



The card was made at after school care. He told me he made rock heart by rubbing it on concrete to create the shape. So fabulous! I love it.

Play date in the sky

On Saturday afternoon Kien went up to the Skytower will his friend, Arlene, and her parents. How lucky he is to have such a cool play date. Thanks, Manon, a.k.a. waldokiwi, for taking these awesome pics.

Te Arai beach

The previous weekend the weather forecast looked so good, and I really wanted to head north as a result. Jef had a number of things to work on, and Kien needed to get back early Sunday for a long overdue play date with 2 of his best buddies from school. So we took both cars and zoomed up to Mangawhai.

On Saturday afternoon I took Kien to our local beach while Jef worked on the tractor. Initially Kien could not understand why I brought his wetsuit, let alone make him get into it. I told him I know him well and left it at that. We got onto the sand and he played around for a bit.



Then, of course, he just couldn't help himself. It went from testing the water, then jumping waves. He spent ages building a pool and testing whether he could build a barrier so the water couldn't get in - just like we did at Hot Water Beach.



















I regretted not bringing my wetsuit as well!

Somewhere wild with my wildling

That's about the size of it...the boy that made me a mother is a wild child and is giving me a run for my money. He's dirty and smelly with his bare foot ways and unkempt hair, a face always marked with berry juice and clothes I'd be embarrassed to donate even without the holes. Yes. That boy. He calls for me every morning. "Mummy" is the first word he utters. The next are usually "I love you, can I have the iPad?". Yes, this is my life with the Kien. So when Jef asked me what I wanted to do on Sunday for Mother's Day all I knew was that I wanted to be somewhere wild with my wildling.

We decided to go to Mangawhai to see how the driveway was getting on at the property. After that we went to Te Arai Point. What a fabulous beach! Especially if you walk around the rocks for a while and discover a secluded bay that no one has ventured to on that day. Our footsteps were the first to mark the shelly sand on that beach.

Flow and glide

I've been meaning to write something witty, contemplative and anecdotal about motherhood, Mother's Day, mothering - and I've even got a blog post a third of the way through to completion but I just don't feel like finishing it. I could go on to explain why I don't want to finish writing it but I don't have the energy for explaining it either. So instead I'm just going to flow and glide my way through to the end of this month and hopefully when June is upon us all the dust will have settled.

Here are some pictures to compensate for my lack of words.






















The last 2 photos were actually taken on Mother's Day. We went for lunch at Limon on Princes Wharf. Kien slobbered all over my face thinking it was a fun way of giving me a kiss.

My third mother's day - in motion

My third mother's day experience - ever.

For as long as I can remember I've either not acknowledged it or spent the day feeling sorry for myself for not having a mother to celebrate. I never realised how fulfilled I could feel until I became a mother, and how much I would love the experience.

Here's a little movie I put together of my third mother's day.

If you are receiving this post via e-mail please see the movie by clicking here to go online and view, or if all else fails here is the link to it on youtube.

I've yet to sort through the photos I took on Sunday so I'll probably have an addendum.

Mum's the word

I've had my second mother's day of my entire life...and so did Kien, as a matter of fact! He fills my heart to the point of overflowing every time he smiles, or says "Mummy", or "Mama", or "Mum" - he says these words often, and shares his smiles readily. He makes me happy, and now that he understands when I ask for kisses he does the whole lean-in-and-pucker thing (and slobbers me with an open mouth wet kiss) I can't help but love him even more (I never realised that is even possible!). I also never thought I would gush as much as I do over my kid! Hey, it's a biological thing.

Coyle Park was the place to be on Sunday morning judging by the amount of people there. Kien of course knocked himself out (figuratively, not literally) with the amount of fun he had.

We headed to Mum's for a lovely visit in the afternoon. We sipped tea and ate bakery delights whilst Kien played with his new pre-loved $8 Trademe tunnel - fabulous!

And we sat and watched the guys plugging in the Apple TV; we then proceeded to spend the next 30-60 minutes loading apps and activating home sharing and entering in passwords a gazillion times.

Mother's day is awesome - I can finally attest to that!

~~~~~

On Saturday night we were very lucky to have Sandra babysit Kien while we gallivanted to a birthday party in Greenhithe.

Jason made some dangerously delicious mojitos.

I had some fun with the camera trying to practice my low lighting photography skills (or rather lack of). But I do like this one - paparazzi on the loose.

My first Mothers' day

I've slept maybe 7 hours (give and take a few awakenings from hearing Kien cry) and feel pretty good. I've been very productive, and my son has managed a 1h23 nap all by himself - this makes me very happy! I am so grateful that Jef looked after Kien last night to give me some sleep. Kien had his second lot of vaccinations on Friday, and he has been grizzly. He woke up a few times during the night and needed help to resettle.

Today Kien is back to being the happy smiling little boy. He must have known it was Mothers day :-) His dad is now at the Viaduct for the NZ rally celebrations.

Mum and Rod came over on Friday, and we all went up the road to Ponsonby for lunch - a little Japanese place called Zipangu. It was very nice to have them over and for all of us to go out somewhere. This will definitely be a more regular occurrence.

Kien can now roll back and forth from his back onto his tummy very well. We also discovered that he doesn't like looking at himself in the mirror when he is grumpy.