Hubster, Miss A, Miss K and I have just moved from the other side of the world to Auckland, New Zealand!

It has been nonstop, especially with 2 small kiddiwinks, but it is all good and we are now beginning to settle into life in NZ.

This is just a little post, just to let y’all know that we are ok – I have big plans to update you all with details of our adventure very soon!

Suki-Lou x

Well I said it would be a while, and it sure has – though for me the past couple of months have just flown by!

We had a beautiful baby girl at the end of May, who will be known as Miss K.  She is wonderful, gorgeous and the spitting image of her big sister, Miss A. The first month was incredibly trying as we realised she was suffering from the mysterious colic, but we cracked out the infacol, Dr Brown bottles, soothers and burping techniques and found it was manageable and once we got her into a routine (no mean feat when fitting around Miss A as well) life has definitely improved.   No the colic has been replaced with a mild form of reflux, which, on balance, is a million billion trillion times better than colic – to hear that painful cry for hours on end was super hard to bear.  Hubby & I do still resemble zombies due to the lack of sleep – I would pay good money for 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep!

As you know we are moving to NZ in about a month’s time and preparing for the move has become a never ending To Do List.  It has been interesting trying to tackle all of this with a screaming baby and I cant say I would do it again in a hurry, but as the days draw nearer to our leaving date, I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  After all of this moving malarky though, we are definitely well deserved of a long holiday, which is how we plan to start our adventure in NZ!

We have started saying our goodbyes to friends and family which we knew would be the hardest part of all of this, but everyone is being really supportive of our decision to move and they also know that they can come and visit us anytime – what a great destination for a holiday

Shall be posting again soon but for now – take care y’all

Suki-Lou x

Little Miss – LM has changed so much since my last post, she is now potty trained (what a difference it makes with no daytime nappies!), she even takes herself off to the potty without needing any help!  Score!  LM has suddenly become very active (before she was a quiet child, happy to just to potter about), now she runs about, jumping and bouncing off everything!  It is exhausting! Always the bookworm, LM is now into learning words, which is great, and we have been doing our best to teach her simple words like cat, dog etc without pushing it too hard!  We are also in the ‘why?’ phase, which is blooming hard work – when I run out of answers to her endless questions, I now use the age old trick of turning the question on her, which seems to be working … at the moment!

Baby No.2 – I am due to have this baby next week!  Eek!  I can hardly believe it!  Am so ready to have her though (yes, its another girl!), as it has been one thing after the other from borderline anemia through to ongoing viruses.   My poor teeth have really suffered this time round and I have had to have 2 root canal treatments, both of which have been agony – there is no pain like it…I would have labour pains over tooth pain any day!!!

NZ Project – we have now sold the house and have booked our flights to NZ!  It is really happening!  We are out of here in only a couple of months!  It is surreal, as it has taken so long to plan & save for – about 3 long years!  We are now on the hunt for accomodation for when we arrive in NZ, sorting out shipping our furniture and figuring all sorts of other things out.  There is so much to think about – I am trying hard not to freak out & am just taking it one step at a time! We have to yet to arrange our leaving party for our friends, admittedly, I am dreading it as it will be really sad saying goodbye to everyone!

Well my next post will be a little while, but shall definitely check in to let you know how I get on with Baby No.2!!

Suki-Lou x

The big news is that we are expecting Baby No.2!!  We found out in September, just after Hubster’s big boxing match and just after I had gone back to work on a part time basis, since then it has been a whirlwind!

The first trimester was incredibly tiring, full of sickness and a horrible week with scares of a blood clot on my lungs (turned out to be a false alarm – phew!).  It took me a couple of weeks to realise that being preggers again meant I had to slow right down and give up a few of the things I had committed to, like volunteering at playgroup, walking the dog (duty now falls to Hubster) and basically rushing around like a headless chicken!

I am now well and truly in the second trimester, and after fighting off a horrible cold over Christmas and sorting out a nasty tooth with a bit of root canal work, I am feeling much better and can enjoy being pregnant!

Little Miss is very excited to be having a Baby Sister, though has yet to realise that she will have to share Mummy & Daddy!  Violet Posy shared this great post by Bambino Goodies about Preparing Children for a New Baby listing some great hints & tips, which I am definitely going to take on board.

Luckily for me, work were really good about my news (especially as I had just started, it was hard to go back into the meeting room & fess up about the new addition), so instead of working up to the time we plan to leave for NZ, I shall be working up until Baby 2 is ready to pop out in June.

The NZ move is still on and we shall definitely be packing up and leaving August/September time.  Hubster has now handed his notice in, which was a huge step for us as it made it all so REAL!!!  The months are beginning to fly by now, and I know that our final 7-8 months left in the UK are going to go quicker then a quick thing!

We have also been busy with Little Miss and the joys of potty training since Christmas time and even though we still have our good days and our bad days, she pretty much has it nailed…this was one of those big steps we wanted to get sorted before Baby 2 arrives on the scene!  One set of nappies is more than enough to have to deal with!

So that’s it in a nutshell!  I think you can agree, life has been full on for us, hence the lack of blogging.  No fear though, I have been keeping up with everyone with good old Google Reader, even if there hasnt been time to comment!

I shall try my best to keep on blogging about how we are getting on, especially with the move to NZ!

Take care y’all

Suki-Lou x

So Hubster has been doing a spot of boxing on the side in order to keep himself in shape (he also loves competitive sports!) and now a year of training has passed, so it was time to get in the ring and have a proper bona fide fight.

The gym hosted a White Collar Boxing night at T47 in London on Saturday night, which is a sports venue in the vaults beneath London Bridge Station, and it was really well organised, there were 8 fights in total (one was girls boxing!! eeks, it was the scariest fight of the night), and Hubster was 4th on the billing.

In The Ring - Hubster is in the Blue Corner

Hubster and his opponent were well matched, but Hubster was calm, confident and had a much better fighting technique….and…… HE WON!!!  HOORAY!!

I am so proud of him!  From something that started out as just a hobby to keep fit, has turned into a real achievement, something that he can really look back on as say ‘Yeah, I did that!!’….

Well Done Hubster!

Winner! Hubster's Trophy