Play date

This morning E’s little friend D came to visit.  The two kids had loads of fun, playing outside with water

and in the wendy house

and crawling through E’s fun tunnel

How cool is this!

Oh here is another Christmas present that is so cool I have to show it here.  My sister-in-law Katie is a talented artist, and she has a tattoo of a stylised cat on her ankle that E is fascinated with.  Whenever E sees Katie she breaks into a chorus of meows and insists on looking at the cat tattoo.  So for christmas Katie (oh and my brother too I suppose) gave  E the cute beanie cat shown in this post and a way cool painting that Katie did, of her tattoo cat!

Oh and Big Milestone Event:  E’s hair is now just long enough for pigtails! too cute!

Captain E!

A couple of weekends ago A and I took E out on the boat for the first time.  She loved it!  She was a good girl and never complained about wearing her lifejacket, and she was happy pottering about and watching her daddy fish.  We told her she was Captain E so she happily sat in the skippers chair and said “cappan, cappan”.

Secret Santa dress

My TNN secret santee just sent me this cute pic of her daughter wearing the shirred dress that was part of her secret santa present!

Yarn dyeing session

I hadn’t dyed any yarn in ages, so the other day I got out the vinegar and kool-aid and dyed 100g to make a soaker for E.  The yarn is some stuff I got given by a secret santa, I have no idea what it is cos the label wasn’t in English but its really lovely and soft.  I used ice blue raspberry lemonade, grape and strawberry kool-aid, just one sachet of each because I wanted fairly soft colours.  And I diluted the grape and strawberry solutions even further.  I dye yarn in the microwave, with sections of yarn in big glass jars.   This is the result – I’ve already cast it on to start the soaker.  I think it looks better knitted than it does in the ball – I’ll have to take a pic of the wip tonight.

A tiny soaker

I haven’t been doing much knitting lately because, well its summer and its hot and I’ve been busy doing summer sort of things really, but I do always like to have a little project on the go even if I only pick it up now and then.  I had a small amount of the Utiku opal left so decided to make a newborn size soaker from it, just to have on hand as a pressie for when one of my many preggie friends has a baby girl.   I used the punk knitters pattern as usual, but I cast on 64 stitches to make it midway between a small and a nb size, as I’d heard the nb size with 56 stitches is really small. 

I figured I’d have enough yarn for something that little – wrong!  I ran out with one row of the last leg cuff still to go!  So I called on my many knitting friends for help cos I didn’t want to buy another 200g of Opal just for 2m of yarn! Luckily the lovely Gabes of SweetP Designs kindly sent me some opal that she had in her stash, and she even made the i-cord up for me which I really appreciated, because I hate making i-cord!  The i-cord thing is partly why I prefer enclosed elastic waistbands (that and wanting to avoid rib!) but I do think that a ribbed waistband is nicer for a little baby than elastic.

So here is the finished nb soaker, modelled by Pete (who is something like 20 years old and made by my mum!)

Another hot hot hot day

Phew, yesterday was sooooooo hot!  Mum said she and E spent all day outside under a shade where there was a slight breeze,  because it was too hot inside.  E has one of those clamshell sandpits and on hot days Mum uses the lid as a paddling pool, so she set up the sandpit and the pool side by side and E hopped in and out of them both all day.

Her little friend D came over for a play date and stayed for a few hours.  He and Ellie played happily and shared the toys

Thank you Auntie Laura!

E received a beautiful christmas present from her  ”Auntie” Laura – a lovely wee tea set decorated with fairy and flower designs.  At 19 months, E loves to play with her dollies, putting them to bed and tucking them in, putting them in her toy high chair and feeding them, putting them on toy potties and generally fussing over them.  So she has been having fun using the pretty tea set every day to feed her dolls :o)

 Yesterday Mum gave E afternoon tea outside with her tea set.  She put water in the tea pot and E had a lovely time pouring “tea” and generally getting very wet!

A walk at Shakespear

Last Sunday, since it was my last day of my holiday, I decided to take E for a walk at Shakespear Park.  I met up with my sister and we walked up to the lookout with E in the ergo.  She hummed the whole time!

When we got to the lookout E had some morning tea while enjoying the view

Then I popped her back in the ergo and we walked down to Te Haruhi Bay, where E had a lovely time playing in the sand

It was all very pleasant.  I think next time I’ll pack a picnic and we’ll do the bigger walk from the Lookout to Pink Beach and around the coastline.

Its hot out there!

Well my holiday came to an end and I went back to work yesterday.  The one good thing about this is the air conditioning! 

Meanwhile, E has been cooling down in other ways: