Man oh man did we make a cute baby!

Here she is!

Hi there, time for a bit of catching up!

I must say I’m thrilled to have the pregnancy behind me, not all the blossoming womanhood in cute maturity clothes that I had pictured…9 months of feeling sick, fat and moody with everybody giving baby tips and commenting on my size....fun! This is why there have been no blog entries and certainly no photos!

But, it has all been worth it as now we have our very own baby girl. Amber Elise Little is her (long awaited) full name and she arrived weighing 8.4 pounds after a 9 hour labour at 5am on the 1^st of December. I was thrilled to achieve the natural birth that I had hoped for with the help of a birthing pool, fantastic midwife and Jon and Heidi cheering me on.

Now I must admit that I had ignorantly and arrogantly thought that with all my childcare experience that motherhood was going to be a piece of cake…ha! Wow, was I wrong, I have new found respect for all mothers in the world – 9 months of incubating, then labour and then non stop running around after a little being that vomits on every outfit and screams at you when you’re not fast enough with their milk order. It’s taken us a while to get into the swing of things because we had to move flats when Amber was only 2 weeks old (If any one knows black magic our old land ladies name is Celia Spencer…evil women) so between house hunting, packing, cleaning and unpacking Amber has been a little star and incredibly chilled. We now have in a sunny wee home in Mt Victoria with a view of the harbor, a garden and only 5 minutes walk to the beach or city centre…lovely! Now all we need is some other mums and babies and then we’ll be sitting by the seaside sipping our lattes…ahhh my ever elusive picture of motherhood!

I’ll leave you with a load of photos

This is Amber just a few days old....there were just 3 modes..sleeping, crying for food and eating.

Our dear friend Katie came to stay with us in the first week to help out...thank you, thank you, thank you!

Glowing Grandparents, my dad and step mum Janie.

And this Jon's dad Pete who is the proud holder of two new grandchildren. That's Amber's cousin Erin on the right, there is only 2 weeks between them.

This is their first Christmas...as you can see they were pretty bloody excited!

Christmas day, Amber's great grandparents.

Bath time. How cute is she!

Nap time for Ambie Pants and Suzie Poos

Beach by our new home..lovely jovely

And here's a nice family shot from when Jon's sister Katie was over from oz. Lisa, Jayden, Katie, Matt, Jeremy, Jon and I...pre baby.

Thats all for now but being new parents I'm sure there will be more soon.

Loads of love Sarah, Jon and Amber!
xxx

Tahi Aroha Little

Today, the 21st of November 2006, Tahi our absolutely adored cat died - you will always be part of us.


Tahi you gave Sarah and I a sense of Whanau in the desert city of Las Vegas. A city that was filled with people searching for a better life - a life that was not in Las Vegas! This dichotomy made Vegas lonely and you filled our lives with a sense of "home".

There are SO many warm memories that you conjure up:

• Meeting you in Stephanie St PetsMart - where no other puss wanted to know me and yet you where all over the cage grill saying "Hi Guys. I'll let you be mine" - whereas your fellow cell-mates where scared of me.
• I use to leave my Las Vegas office and started to call your name - even though it was a 45 minute bike ride.
• Your head butts.
• Biting my feet when I got out of bed because you were hungry.
  
• Leading me to the bathroom taps so I could turn them on for you.
  
• Catching desert bugs and bringing in big green grasshoppers.
  
• Scaling the outsides of our stucco apartment.
• Drinking from our bed side cups in the middle of the desert nights.
  
• Watching you in Mum's arms passing through the metal detectors in Las Vegas airport.
• A week in some tiny San Francisco motel room.
• Our San Fran apartment that was too hot, Mum wouldn't let you sit on the open fifth floor window sill, Dad use to entice you around those "strange noise" hallways and your electronic cat litter box.... Oh! Don't forget your magic cat tower!!!
• You spent "six weeks on a leaky boat" to join us in New Zealand.
• Taking me across the road to your new found Toi Toi or the grass where you pee. :)
  
• You maintaining your nails on Grandma's couches, the landlord's car tires, The beam that Mum put out front for you and the letterbox post.
• Needing me to feed you with my toes.
• Leaving muddy foot prints on the bathroom vanity - much to Mum's horror!
  

Tahi Aroha we miss you very much and you will always be in our hearts and memories.

Love

Dad

SUMMER from FELL ST, SF

Hey Summer

You were my SP in San Francisco, I don't have your email address ... Please email me at: jon(AT)comupdigm(DOT)com ... [Change the AT and DOT ;) ]

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers

Jon

A boy or a girl?

We have now hit the halfway mark with our pregnancy (20 weeks!) and are deciding whether or not to find out the sex. Most people don't want us to except for my mother - who I suspect would promptly go out to buy frilly blue or pink outfits which just strengthen my resolve not to! I have started feeling the baby's movements now so can finally say that I feel pregnant, pretty cool. If you have any name suggestions we'd love to hear them, even if you are just taking the piss ;)

Here's what a 20 week baba looks like and about 10 inches long!

We have moved from our temporary apartment in central Wellington to a 3 bedroom house in Kelburn. We were feeling quite pleased with our new found domestic bliss until only weeks after moving in the house has been put on the market! Jon has been swimming home in the rain each night so I think he's looking forward to the prospect of moving more central so now we are back to house hunting. ([JL]: Actually I have secret hankerings for Vegas' huge blue sky, bright lights and fan-heater winds)

We have Tahi back with us which is fannnnnntastic! He is loving it here and is off exploring all the time - comes back inside to see us all puffed up and proud of being such an incredibly brave puss. And to any of you that don't have a cuddly cat all you have to do is send them halfway across the world and then into quarantine for a month and they will turn in the the most affectionate cat ever, though then you have to deal with them purring in your ear all night!

Jon is doing well in his new Managerial role. He is in the process of hiring more software developers as Compudigm is growing bigger and the years of hard work look like they are paying off. I'm not working at present which is rather lovely and now that we are back in New Zealand Jon has support people again so my time during the days is allll mine. It's been a positive change for both of us - we were starting to get slight cabin fever in the states so it's good to be out of each others pockets and starting to have our own lives again.

The weather here has turned completely rat's ass - horizontal rain, freezing winds and crazy storms. We have a great view but I'm starting to think that this is a down fall as looking out at this crappy weather means that I certainly don't feel enticed to go out - all the same it is good to be back home.

Let us know what you are up to.

Love Sarah and Jon

Some San Francisco shots

Big news from the Little's!

Firstly we now both have cell phones, which is very exciting!

Jon - 021 478 326
Sarah - 021 478 549

Secondly and by far the more exciting news - we are 3 months pregnant!!!

We went for our first ultrasound the other day which was AMAZING, little fingers and toes wiggling, heart beating and little fellow moving all around the place. Even though we were ready for having a baby it still seems to be taking a while to sink in so it was good to see the ultrasound to make it feel more real. We are due mid - late November so we have a bit of time to get ready and for your knitted booties to arrive.


We were thinking of buying a house straight away but have decided that we will take our time and enjoy the arrival of the baby without adding to much extra stress. So now we are looking for a home to rent for the next couple of years - walking distance to the city, family friendly and with plenty of room for all the surrogate aunt's and uncles to come and stay!

Tahi is still in quarantine for 25 more days. We visited him and he is doing very well besides his sad pussy cat eyes as we walked away :(

It is fantastic to be home, we are having a great time catching up with friends and family and keep having gushy moments where we say "This is exactly why we came home". After not making many friends during our time away it is lovely to have so many great people to spend time with - yay for not being losers any more!

Catch you soon

Love Sarah and Jon

If this were at the top of a flight of stairs you could call it a landing

Hi

This is to let you all know that Sarah and I (with half a tonne of crap) will be landing at Wellington airport on the 2nd of May at 12:45pm. (AirNZ 427)

Looking forward to to catching up with all you Welly folk in one way/time or another.

We will be living at: Apt 11m, 8 Leeds St (off Ghuznee St), Te Aro, Wellington.

Arohanui

Jon

Apartment for rent, from the 1st of May

Welcome to our apartment,
have a look around and let us know if you have any questions.


Entrance Hallway (mirrored door is a storage room)

Bathroom, nice tiles and built-in storage cupboards

View out of the apartment - Alamo Square

Little room by the kitchen, could be used as a dining room

Kitchen has insinkerator, large fridge/freezer, dishwasher and loads of cupboards

and a really cute stove!

Hardwood floors and loads of sunshine.

This door also goes into the large storage room,
we used to have this door open and use it as an office

This is the Murphy bed that we wish to sell.
This is it folded up (all the blankets and pillows fold up inside with it).

In the corner behind the bed is another storage room with loads of built-in shelves.

This is it folded down! It saves you a huge amount of space.

Homeward bound

Just letting you know we are heading back to Wellington, New Zealand and this time we're staying put....bring on the house and babies!

A huge congratulations to Jon who has been promoted to the Product Development Manager of Compudigm!!! This is fantastic news and although it means packing up our lives again, we are both really excited and can't wait to see everyone at home and swing back into Wellington life.

We will be staying at a furnished apartment on leeds st for the first month or so while we flat/house hunt.

And yes, our cat Tahi is coming too. We've been telling him about all the bugs he'll get to eat, so he's rather excited too!

Can't wait to see those of you in NZ!

Love Sarah and Jon

Big hugs and kisses go out to Paul and Nini who have just had a wee baby boy called Manix! Can't wait to meet him :)