Happy New Year everybody!
Its Alby here. I wanted to share with you all some special news. Mumma and Dadda have made me a brother or sister and he or she is growing in Mumma's tummy. We are all pretty excited and we expect the baby to arrive on or around the 8th of July, just in time for the Olympics.
I wanted to send my friends back in the UK a letter to tell them what I've been up too over here on the other side of the world... Here it is.
Dear Noah, Charlotte, Hazel, Gabe, Chloe, Amelia, Cerys and James,
How are you guys? I miss you all lots but I am having a lot of fun in this strange country.
I have been quite busy over the last month. There have been so many people to meet and of course it was Christmas. Luckily Father Christmas managed to find me all the way over here!
We have just come back from 11 sleeps at the beach which was so much fun. Here are some photos from our time there.
This is the street our beach house was on.
And this was our house.
We had some very lovely weather there when we first arrived. Here are some early morning photos.
I did lots of eating...
And then it was Christmas! I helped Mumma open some presents...
And I got this really cool bucket and spade for the beach...
And an iconic New Zealand toy. A buzzy bee.
Grandpa Tim put this netting up so I didn't fall off the deck.
On Christmas Day my step cousins arrived. It was really fun and so good to see them all.
Here they are. Ruby, Rosa, Skye, me and Tui.
It was a beautiful day so we had our Christmas dinner on the front lawn.
And then the next day we did lots of swimming in the paddling pools casue it was a bit too windy to go to the beach.
Then my step cousins went home and my other cousins arrived. Aunty Asha, Uncle Joe, Cousin Otis and Cousin Ted. My Poppa Chuff, Granny Mary, Uncle Will and Aunty Molly arrived then too.
We listened to lots of stories.
Here is Granny Mary reading to Oti and Ted Ted.
And Uncle Will.
We had some people over for a New Year Eve celebration. They played charades, which I'm told was very funny.
The weather turned a bit yucky so we had to spend a few days inside. Here's Poppa Chuff telling me about the Little Yellow Digger.
And Ted Ted practising his acrobatics.
We did a spot of fishing.
But didn't catch a single thing!
Otis was there. He didn't catch anything either.
Uncle Joe took us home on the motorbike.
And we went next door to visit our friends Kristin and Dick.
I showed everyone how clever I was at standing by myself.
It was a wee bit scary!
Much easier to stand when you have a vacuum cleaner to push around.
We had lots of bucket baths.
And watched a bit of telly.
It's quite hard work...
And then it was time for the Payton's to go home. We had such a lovely special time with them and I can't wait to see them next week for Joe and Asha's wedding. Yipee!
Today was our last day at the beach and the sun finally decided to come and say hello and the wind said goodbye. We had a lot of fun on the beach!
I can highly recommend sand as a snack - I sure ate a lot of it.
I loved jumping in the waves with Dadda.
And Poppa Chuff came to play as well.
Mumma flew me like plane which I quite liked too!
And then it was time to go.
We are now back at Topsy's place for the night.
Tomorrow we are heading to Taupo to see my friends Hannah, Jon, Orla and Sylvie for a few days. We are borrowing Topsy and Tim's camper van. It's going to be fun!
After that we are going to see some of my Rutherford Cousins which we can't wait for. Then the wedding and then we are going all the way to the bottom of the country to stay with Grandma and Grandad Rutherford. Yay!
Dad's just filled the paddling pool with water for my bath cause it's so hot outside so I'd better go.
I hope you guys are all good and doing lots of fun and exciting things. Mumma sends you all a big hug and one for your Mummy's too (she misses them I think).
I'll talk to you again soon.
Lots of love, Alby.
