Winter joy in Wellington

Joy comes with a little man called James

Gratitude for:

Crawling on the floor and seeing the world with a nine month old,

The slow and gentle settling process with James and the team at Daisies,

Reading the New Zealand iconic children book, “The Little Yellow Digger”,

A morning at the Wellington Zoo, James noticing the size of a giraffe, and I, completely taken with the Red Pandas,
Playing with James in the park, a swing and a slide and a huge smile,

The ritual of Saturday morning brunches,

The daily flat white,

Calls to Fred,

Getting to grips with the modern nappy and of course James’ poonami moments,

Nipping into the CBD with Craig to see the final night of the Lux Light Festival, we loved the ‘cats’ on walkabout,

Making Johnsville my ‘hood walk while waiting for James,

Watching the pleasure of a crispy baguette in a baby’s mouth and the memory of Shawni and Barry in France,

A baby’s smile,
Noticing my aging hand holding a baby's hand,

Crying to leave a baby,

Snuggling down with the Dominion Post Puzzles page,

Arriving in time for James’ Plunket visit and weigh in, not quite 10kg at that point,

Reaquainting with a knowing aware baby,
Working hard to get a giggle,

Finding new bowls to enjoy our evening ice cream treats,

Genuis, Versailles and the new Masterchef, three of us under a blanket with tea and chocolate,

Having the table set and an evening meal ready for the family,

Thoughtful welcome to Ngaio gifts, looking forward to reading the award winning ‘The Wish Child’ by New Zealand author Catherine Chidgey,

Dipping into magazines,
Meeting Shawni for lunch in town,

Watching a New York photographer at work using a World of Wearable art costume made of glass and plastic,

Feeding a baby who enjoys his food, mostly,

Peeping into Shawni’s routine and joining her at Space, a playgroup in Tawa,

Shawni’s date scones with her antenatal group,

A quiet moment together while he drinks his bottle,

A walk among the vines of Martinborough and a quite perfect sharing platter at Poppies,

Excitement of a new tooth,

James wearing his new trendy clothes that Nan and Pops bought,

Getting through winter’s a ‘little of this and a little of that’,

An electric blanket,

Prepping compotes for the deep freeze,

Buying yummy Fig and Fogg peanut butter,

Shawni’s readiness to re-enter the world of work,

Perfection of a sleeping baby,

Family walk along the Kapiti Coast on a fine day.

A baby’s laugh,

A good baby through teething and getting croup,

Crisp blue winter days of walking the Petone Esplanade and Oriental Bay,

Visits to the Toy Library in Khandallah,

Watching James learn to crawl, pull himself up and travelling along surfaces with so much purpose and energy,

Mother Day gift from Craig, lunch with Shawni at The Salty Pigeon and a return for breakfast pides,

Shopping for gifting, a fitbit for Fred, a cycling jersey for Barry, for Circle and Quilting,

Finishing the alpaca wool hoodie for James,

Putting a tired James down for his morning nap and starting my day,

Joining the World Wide Knit in Public Day at the Wellington Library,

Singing along with mom’s and tot’s at the Wellington Library ‘Rock and Rhyme’,

Organising the plastic drawer for the kitchen,

Parcels arriving from Australia from Nicky for the quilting gang,

Popping into the Settlers Museum and to a fibre artist at The Dowse,

Seeing James love being in the swimming pool during his lessons with Craig,

Impressed with the viewing of the New Zealand documentary called Meat at the Lighthouse in Petone,

Invitations to walk with Christine and have a flat white en route,

Leaning in to lift James up and his responsiveness,

Dedicated and spacious time with my grandchild