Grizzles, tiredness, and wonderful guests

"Just try and look like we have it all figured out!"

Thank you cupcakes for the midwives

Denali's Mum Betty returned to Christchurch last night. Her help over the last few weeks was absolutely tremendous. After dropping her off at the airport I waited for 10mins for Denali's sister Carys to land. Carys will stay until Tuesday night, after which Denali's Dad Colin will visit for two nights. This Friday evening my brother Mike will fly up too and leave on Monday. WE LOVE GUESTS!!! Please come and visit if you can.

Carys' first cuddle - smitten already.

We have Belinda Cornish (from Christchurch) visiting as I write. She is the first non-family Christchurch visitor. Maybe I should make up a badge for that kind of privilage. Thank you for all the gifts people have sent up from Spreydon too.

Since Tuesday we have had a fairly mixed bag this week. Sophie has taken a little longer to settle at night and has had a few grumpy, scratchy screaming-her-lungs-out periods too. Not too bad really in the wider scheme of things and she is doing much better today thanks to lots of cuddles and lots and lots of milk. We find that Sophie really loves black and white patterns... so we thought it best that she have some super-interesting black and white "patterns" to look at when she wakes up and while She is getting changed. The photos help to quickly calm her down... although I wouldn't like to wake to them.

Denali's scar is healing ok, but she is still in a bit of pain. She says that this week has been particularly tiring and finds that the days disappear and blend into one another and She doesn't seem to get much done. Although, for Denali that means, she hasn't been able to design an extravagant baby scrap book, nor has She been able to make a lot of progress on the crochet blanket she is finishing. On the upside though, She has also lost quite a bit of weight since the birth and as Belinda commented when she entered our house "Oh my gosh! You're skinny!"

Our producer Dave Harrey is over in the Isle of Man for two weeks on a motorbike tour with his brother, so I have picked up some of his directing jobs until he returns. On Friday we shot a National Bank video, with the second part of the shoot happening on Monday morning. We hire the team at Rocket Video to do most of our filming and sound work, so the whole thing went pretty well really. The sound man looked and sounded like Gene Wilder or Eric Idle.

To Aunty Bobbi and Uncle Andy, thanks so much for all the knitting. Sophie looks really cute in the yellow and white jersey and hat. Also, Grandma's cushion cover is really special.