I could say its primary purpose is for Marcus’ family in the UK  but, if I am honest, I had an overwhelming desire to string his year together and take a look at it myself. Its been quite the year and I am so, so proud of  us getting here.

Albie is awesome, and so is turning one year old.  Here’s some of his year for you to enjoy in all its Microsoft pan, zoom and fade glory.

Its ridiculously indulgent, running at 6:44, but it seems there are no taste police in Doting Motherville, not one. Sigh.

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It was like, totally awesome. We arrived in time for the opening acts, Albie ate a great big dinner and then  had a huge feed and slept on me in the sling for a couple of hours while I swayed from side to side to the tunes. Then, just in time for all their marvellous hits, Albie woke up and thought life was very exciting indeed – disco lights, people, dancing, muffled music – Wow! This is cool Mum!

And so I danced about on the grass with a very starry-eyed baby in blue earmuffs for their encores.  I must say when I was boogie-ing about to You  Make My Dreams Come True with Albie and Marcus, Jason, Megan, Hels and companies under the warm summer night sky it really did ring true. What a lucky lady I am!

So yeah, Hall and Oates are still brilliant after all these years, even with the moustache gone.

Shed a tear for that one – I LOVED that moustache. Megan, you are a diamond. What a present indeed.

In other news, Albie is continuing to do a whole lot better than he was before Christmas. Gone are the sweats, and the overtired boy needing loads of naps. Instead Albie is all bright-eyed and perky and putting on weight again. He is reflecting the massive change in his oxygen saturation levels – which have seriously increased. His latest reading was 92%. It hasn’t been that high for a really long time and its lovely to having our energetic boy back. Hopefully get some more answers as to why this has happened at the next Starship Clinic. In the meantime you won’t see me complaining!

Pure Gold. I am sure they will stretch?

This moment happened just after he had eaten his dinner, hence the super dirty cheeks. I promise I keep him better washed than this normally.

Here are Nana Keylock and Albie hanging out. I love seeing these two together.  With my Mum passed on and Marcus’ mum in England, she gives him some all important intergenerational love , and it makes my heart soar!

They were watching the EarthShip progress together. Its going to be the new sleepout made of hundreds of used car tyres, rammed earth, glass bottles, and buckets, and buckets, and buckets of Timmy sweat. Its going to be so beautiful! After seeing the Garbage Warrior  documentary a while ago  (which I highly recommend), it was so exciting to see a real life EarthShip happening right in front of our eyes.

It was amazing weather – so hot, so we did a lot of sitting in the shade, drank White Ginger Tea and bugged out about how cool Albie is. And in the evenings – insect repellant, a fire and Cinzano. Which Judy reckons is from the seventies, but if you ask me, that drink should be BACK. Talk about delicious!

It was wonderful. And it was great to come away with my head full of ideas for fattie boombah recipes for Albie, a way to keep his NG tube out of the way as he learns to crawl AND a bubble gun. I know. A bubble gun. What can I say? We are very, very lucky to know these guys.

One day, one day we would like to live like this too. With garlic drying,

and the wood stacked,

the pizza oven hot,

48,000 bees a-buzzing,

Sheep shorn by hand,

Earth providing bounty,

and most importantly, the table always filled with love, laughter and splendid food,

Here ends my ode to Mike and Judy and the magical place they have created together. I think I must be Lud-sick – can’t wait to be back.

stunning sight on the scales last week – finally over 7kgs. He has the most delightfully decadent diet – avocado, coconut cream, nuts, nuts, nuts, pastry, olive oil, mayonnaise – ridiculously delicious things full of fat and calories are spread upon everything. Its a daily obsession getting food into him and I seem to be amassing a mighty fine collection of photos of him eating it all.

He is an independent, focused wee man and MUST feed himself. His lips seal tight shut if I try to get a spoon in there, so three times a day he makes an unholy mess and I appreciate our wooden floors. That last photo there is Albie all over. He was eating pasta and fresh veges slathered in free-range mayonnaise. Well, actually he was eating just the mayonnaise, gingerly extracting each pasta piece or vegetable from his dish, sucking it dry of mayo and then popping it out carefully on his tray before going in for another. I marvel at this little man emerging.

Yeah so, I saw Mia’s outfit for the day and squealed at how similar I could get Albie, promptly re-dressing the poor guy. I am not sure why making my child match someone else’s pleases me so much, but it does. Mia and Albie are so cute together. She’s just a couple of weeks younger than Albie and they are both thinking about crawling. Well, actually Mia is mastering crawling backwards currently and Albie is teetering forwards regularly onto his nose.  Cute as buttons.

And then after a couple of days with them we were off to Northland – to Seth and Rachael’s wedding, some dear friends of ours. We had thought we weren’t going to make it because of everything that was happening before Christmas so we were pretty delighted that we could. And we got re-accommodated in such style too! They housed us in the loveliest of safari tents complete with power and linen and a deck out over the river. It was Glamping, good and proper, and I am sold. It was such a tonic.  So now for some inexcusable Tent Porn.





It was just such a lovely spot to unwind in for a few days. That’s me and Albie having a drink together on my birthday .  The next day was Rachael and Seth’s. It was a great wedding filled to the brim with love and laughter.

And then in the following days we explored some of the Bay of Islands – the colonial history in Kerikeri, Waitangi, Hundertwasser in Kawakawa and beaches wherever we chanced upon one. Albie had his first sea dip in the evening sun in Paihia. The water was like a bath and he likes baths so I was sure it would be a winner. Albie was a bit ho-hum by the whole waves idea, and really wasn’t quite as keen to splash as I thought he would be. And as he was sans nappy,  I was slightly nervous about the possibility of a poop misdemeanour in a public place, so the whole epsiode was pretty short and sweet.




Albie continues to be the smiliest of guys – and is taking it to a whole new level with strangers that he meets. He tracks strangers wherever we go, dying for them to look at him, and if they do, he gives the largest most adoring grin. Its amazing. I have been trying to capture it because sometimes its big enough to close his eyes. I got the tail end of this one directed at an unsuspecting passerby at Waitangi.


And then we went down to Tutukaka so Marcus could dive Poor Knights Island, but it was stink weather and we ended up staying in a motel that had fleas. Thankfully only my legs suffered. And the rain poured down some more so we went to Waiwera Thermal Pools and took turns soaking in the hot pools. Lovely enough but it was no tent. And then we came home.

Marcus was right to take us away for a break after our time in hospital. A big part of me just wanted to retreat straight back home. But it was good to return home high from a holiday rather than the low we were feeling from not getting his heart fixed.

Thanks again for all the love and support we received. It was awesome we are so, so lucky to have you all.

Two photos to close – one of me and Albie on the deck outside the tent, and one of Marcus doing his best Blue Steel.