Dou-

In New Zealand Rose was pretty reliably saying, “Dou-” every time she saw a dog. One day Granny Anne, Chris and I were out for a walk and saw two dogs – one very small one and one very large one – and she said “Dou-” both times.

This afternoon Chris took Rose on a walk, and they saw our favorite neighbourhood moggy, “Tom”. Tom is incredibly large, ginger and lazy. He hangs out on the footpath outside his house like the king of the road. He’s very gentle and sweet, and loves to have his back scratched. Rose pointed at him and said, “Dou-”

Not quite, Rose.

The keys to her heart

On the last day we were in New Zealand my Dad came over with a special gift for Rose. He’d noticed that she loves playing with key rings. She loves carrying them around, jingling them, and examining each and every key on the ring. So Dad went to a local key shop and asked them if they had any keys that they were going to throw away. When the proprieter heard what Dad had in mind, he dug around looking for brightly coloured keys. He even managed to find one with happy faces all over it. Dad got all the keys and put them together with a key chain, and presented this small but meaningful gift to Rose.

Dad, this is one small gesture of the love and care you show to your family. Thanks so much for being such a wonderful father and grandfather – we love you so much.

It’s good to be home

Yesterday’s flight was a lot better than the previous one. Rose had a long sleep in the morning before we left, and consequently, she coped a lot better on the flight. A woman sitting next to us volunteered to move seats, and we gratefully accepted her offer so that we would have more space. The spare seat was a godsend – Rose could crawl around our feet or sit in the chair.

But don’t get me wrong, travelling with a one-year old is still one of the least fun things you can do. We had to entertain her in a confined space for four hours with a paper cup, an inflight magazine, and a set of laminated emergency instructions. The hardest thing to cope with was that she kept squealing. Her shrieks are really ear piercing and it’s one recent habit I hope she’ll drop. Here’s a picture of her on the flight, enjoying her first taste of icecream:

We got her home and to bed by her usual bedtime (7pm local time, 9pm NZ time), hoping that she’d sleep through until 7am the next morning. No dice, she woke up at 6am. Still, that’s not too bad. We’ll work on getting her back into her routine over the next few days.

We had a great time in New Zealand seeing family and dear friends. Watching Rose zoom around the apartment this morning reminds me of everything she learned while she was away. She’s much more adept at standing and cruising around furniture a lot better. We’re also seeing the start of some toddler behaviour – she has just started to throw tantrums when you take toys of her. She’s also more single-minded than ever.