Fun with the Cuzzies

My cousin's children Hannah and Seamus visited from Australia last week. Hannah and Stella met a long time ago but Stella had never met Seamus before. True to form, Stella took an immediate liking to Seamus (her boy craziness continues) but also enjoyed playing with Hannah, drinking her chocolate milk and generally being entertained by them both.

Next up are some pics of Stella and Reuben from my belated birthday party. Again, Stella was very taken with Reuben. When she woke up from her afternoon nap, she stood at the top of the stairs and said 'Boy, Boy' and looked quite hurt when I told her that Reuben had gone home with the Aunties.

Stella is proving to be a non-stop chatterbox most of the time. She's stringing words together 'Stella hiding in curtains' and the like. She is very definite about what she does and doesn't want... 'Stella want some' is commonly heard when she sees you with something she wants. She invented her own game called Falling Down whereby she piles all of her stuffed toys onto her mini couch, goes around to the back and counts 1.. 2.. 3.. the falls into them and comes up saying 'Stella falling down!' Highly entertaining! I'll try adding a video of it here...

Whangamata

After almost a week at Opito Bay we headed over to Whangamata. Stella loved 'Poppa's house', taking an instant liking to the cars he has around the place. (Note to Poppa - they were always played with under strict supervision!) We spent five days there and got into a lovely routine. .. breakfast then a walk to the beach to make a few castles and tunnels. Home again then up to town for a fluffy and play at the playground. After nap time we headed to the lagoon, great when the tide is out. Stella got very confident in the water and made new friends each day, she was particularly taken with a little girl called Summer - perhaps because she had a Dora boogie board.

Opito Bay

Our beach holiday started after New Years when we headed down to Opito. Stella had fun playing with the other kids, first up here she is showing her Dora book to Caitlin. Stella fell in love with a boy called Andrew who she is gazing at while on the swing (cousin Nicky is also in the pic). Whenever Andrew was around, Stella did all her tricks to get his attention and had to stand very close to him. Fortunately he has little cousins Stella's age so was very good at playing with her. The next shot is of Stella brushing her teeth in her inflatable bath on the deck. We played down on the beach each day, in the shallows away from the scary ocean. Here is Stella modelling her rashie and bikini pants from Nana. Finally a shot from our one drizzly day. We took Stella for a walk in her wet weather gear then Uncle Cam got the tractor out to tow the boat down to the beach and Stella just had to get in and have a go.