#anettingnewzealandadventure: The Nettings Do NZ

This was Poppa’s first full week in Christchurch. Unfortunately, the weather has been pretty poor, like the worst weather we’ve had since we’ve been here! Grey and rainy! Dad and I heard someone say that this is the worst weather Christchurch has had in 40 years and I was also told this by someone else. The weather didn’t stop us from showing Poppa our typical weekly routine, walks in the gardens, runs, and coffee at The Boat Shed. Poppa is already a regular at the coffee shop; our favorite employees know him by name and he knows them by name and takes part in our daily visits. I’ve been able to get my run in a little later in the morning instead of going before Caleb heads to work and Poppa has cooked us some meals. Poppa is getting to know our neighbourhood pretty well and can navigate through runs, walks with Kensley, and to the various stores! He is pretty happy that he is still able to watch Leaf games via the internet.

On Wednesday evening I was able to head out to a girls night fundraiser at Tania’s. Mary joined and we had a really nice time! On Thursday, Poppa hung out with Kensley for the morning and I went to my mom and baby class without my baby :P then grabbed lunch with Jacqui after. On Friday, we had homemade pizza night and invited Mary, Michaela and Veronika. Michaela is Caleb’s buddy’s (Ryan) wife who was visiting from Revelstoke. Her and her sister, Veronika were doing a road trip around New Zealand and were ending in Christchurch. Unfortunately, we didn’t have room for them to crash with us but thankfully, our amazing friend Mary, was willing to host them! We had a great visit with them Friday night and it continued on Saturday. Saturday morning, we headed to Waikuku beach for photos with Santa! I thought this was absolutely necessary for our first summertime Christmas and bought us all (Caleb, Kenz, Poppa and I) matching PJ’s for it. Jacqui and her family had photos shortly after and she brought us all ice cream to celebrate our beach Christmas photos which was super cute! We haven’t yet received the photos but stay tuned. Then we rushed home and I got sorted out to meet Mary, Michaela and Veronika at The South Island Wine Festival at Hagley Park. It was a super fun scene with DECLICIOUS wine! Afterwards, Caleb was able to join us for dinner and drinks. Unfortunately, Poppa was hit hard by a NZ bug and had a fever all weekend. Saturday night we put Kensley down and he manned the monitor while he was sick in bed. Thankfully, she didn’t wake! Sunday was pretty low key as this momma had to recover from busy and wine-filled weekend. Caleb biked out to Lyttleton (Christchurch port) to meet Michaela and Veronika for coffee before Michaela flew back and then later in the afternoon, Caleb, Kenz and I got out for some Christmas shopping!

Kensley loves having her Poppa around! He makes her laugh quite a bit and he has a lot of energy for her. She is continuing to try to crawl and seems to be getting closer and closer each day. At this point, she’s only able to push herself backwards and get on her hands and knees and rock. She is pointing at everything and has been saying a lot of “dada dada dada dada’s”; a few times pointing at Caleb but I’m not convinced that she associates the two because she points at a lot of things and says “dada dada dada dada”. Oh and Kensley turned 8 months this week! She also has started dancing and loves to mimic dance moves!