A Beachin' Break

Fun fun fun in the sun sun sun

The Summer holidays are here; or, as I like to think of them, the Oli-days. The sun is out and I have three weeks away from daycare, so what better time than to stay indoors snacking while watching Paw Patrol and PJ Masks for hours on my iPad? Unfortunately Mum had other ideas, so we headed out to some places instead.

One of our first day trips was to the beach at Rothesay Bay. The water was lovely and warm, plus we found some cool rockpools with starfishes in them. There was even a cave around the corner from the beach; Daddy and I explored right to the back when we first saw it, and then a few hours later when we went back the water was rushing in and I had to cling to his shoulders. It felt like the sort of place a dinosaur or monster could be living in.

Only a couple of days after we visited that beach, there was a big storm that lasted for days. When we went back to the beach a week later, all the sand where we had been sitting last time had been washed away by the tides, leaving only big rocks where we'd been; needless to say, we sat somewhere else for our return visit!

Another day we did a coastal walk from Milford to Takapuna. This was sold to me as a walk along the beach with ice cream treats halfway, but actually meant we all had to scramble over rocks like some sort of mountain goat just to follow the path. Not so hard for Mum and Dad, but harder for me with my little legs. Lucky William was carried all the way, so all he had to do was look around and hold his hand out for ice cream.

It was cool learning about the Rangitoto volcano though, even if I didn't quite understand the timescales involved. I get that the volcano didn't erupt when I was a baby, but doesn't that mean that it must have happened when Mum and Dad were babies instead?

One day we visited Grandpa and Nana to go to Orewa beach together. As well as having a fun swim, Grandpa showed me how to ride a boogie board in the waves. The first attempt wasn't a big success - I was barely on it before I immediately came off it and face-planted in the water. But I got the hang of it; I reckon I'm a natural!

It's been a great beachy summer; lots of swims at cool different beaches, and at Grandma and Grandad's pool. Maybe it would have been good to have a few less stormy days, but at least then I was able to do my snacking and iPad watching!

A Cracker of a Day

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Because Christmas is such a great day, I wanted to really get into the spirit this year. So a couple of days before Christmas I was allowed to stay up late until it got dark, then we went out to look at some houses decorated with colourful Christmas lights. One house had a great snow machine, and I danced around as the snow fell all around me.

Another house had thousands of lights; we walked down to it through a tunnel of sparkly lights, and at the end were glowing reindeers, a huge Santa, and a strange black car that Daddy was especially interested in. Maybe it's the car he wishes he drives.

If you've seen my video, you already know that Santa did a good job with my Christmas present wishlist. This year was the year of Paw Patrol - I got lots of awesome toys, including a big Lookout for the pups to play in, plus most of the Paw Patrol pups as well. So far, every day after Christmas when the sun comes up on my clock, I get straight up and start playing with it.

Christmas Day was at Grandma and Grandad's house, with my cousins as well. Grandma had set up her garage as a kids' room with toys, balloons and a special kids' table for us to have our Christmas lunch on. Pretty soon the garage looked like a delivery of toys had crashed and spilled toys everywhere.

The weather was so good we also went swimming in Grandma's pool. I was so excited about it that as soon as we got to the pool area I jumped straight in - right on top of the big mat that covered the whole pool! Well, if they didn't want people jumping on it by mistake they shouldn't make it blue like the water!

Thanks to my swimming lessons I'm super confident now, and loved jumping off the edge. Daddy kept hanging around trying to catch me, but I told him I didn't need it - I'm a big boy now.

It was a great end to a great Christmas Day. Just a few days later it was New Year's Day, but this isn't an occasion I'm quite as interested in. First thing that morning when I went into Mummy's room she said "Happy New Year Oliver", but all I said back was "Yep, but can you wipe my bum please.".