Quincy is really thriving. At 10 weeks he weighed 6.84kg and is 63.5cm long. He’s turned a corner with his sleeps – will now sleep in his bassinette and has slept through a few nights, from 10pm to 7am.  We’ve had a busy time with Aunty Pip and family staying and we’ve celebrated Grandfather’s 60th birthday. It was very special to have all the family together for that, including all 10 Grandchildren.

(left to right) Magnus, Jonty, Isaiah, Granny, Grandfather, Quincy, Max, Bianca, Grace and Bronson

After spending quite a few minutes working at it, Quincy rolled from his back over to his tummy at 9 weeks old, he is quite the determined little one

Little Quincy has been doing some major growing, putting on nearly 2kg in the first month of his life.  He now weighs 5.6kg and is 60cm long. He is proving to be our most high maintenance baby – he hasn’t slept in his own bed overnight and does most of his sleeping in my arms or being rocked in his bassinette during the day. As Keryn is still on parental leave, I have the time to just sit around and enjoy bubs and can pander to his demands, well who wouldn’t, he is just so precious! He doesn’t like his car seat, screams when he’s in the car until he falls asleep, but does like the buggy.

Quincy feeds 2 to 3 hourly overnight, some nights even hourly – no wonder he’s put on so much weight.  We have another active Martin boy in the house, Quincy rolled for the first time at 4 weeks old! He’s way ahead of his big brothers who both rolled at 8 weeks.  I put Quincy on his tummy and he lifted his head up so high that he just toppled over and rolled to his back.  I put him back on his tummy and he did it another 2 times, he did it the next day too, so not quite an accident. Very impressive, unheard of it seems as my midwife didn’t seem to believe me that he’d rolled so early (hee hee). We get plenty of smiles and he loves his bath.  Bronson is very interested in Quincy and always tells him ‘I love you so much Sincy’ (oh sooo cute!).  Magnus occassionally gives Quincy lots of attention, getting toys and books and singing songs to him, his favourite is Down by the Station (Magnus is still train mad!)

Quincy William Martin was born at 1.35pm on Friday 17 June 2011.  He weighs 3.75kg and is 54cm long.

The Labour

We went to the hospital at 7.30am on Friday morning for a scheduled induction.  I did have contractions on Thursday night, but nothing too intense and they went away at 6am.  So when we got to Wellington hospital I wasn’t having any contractions, so my midwife broke my waters straight away.  This didn’t have any instant effect so the midwife got things going with syntocinon at 9am.  I had an epidural at 10am which dropped my blood pressure to 80/50 and made me feel pretty awful.  It took about an hour to get all that sorted and the pain relief to the right level.  At noon my midwife checked me and I didn’t seem to be progressing and babies head was still really high, he actually moved up away from her.  So we thought we might be heading for another c-section with the baby not decending.  So the specialist came in to do her check half an hour later, and to our great surprise things had really progressed, I was 9cm and baby had come right down.  5 min later she checked again and I was 10cm and then things were all go.  Quincy was born 50 minutes later and what an amazing experience that was. It was so lovely to have him given straight to me for skin to skin, the first time I have experienced that as Magnus and Bronson were both taken away straight after their deliveries.

We got transferred out to Kenepuru hospital, or what is known as Hotel Kene. A lovely place for Mum and bubs to bond and relax, I was lucky enough to have 3 nights there.

Meeting big brothers Magnus and Bronson at 6 hours old

Meeting Dada

Meeting Granny and Grandfather

Bronson is now 2 years old, weighing in at 16.7kg and measuring 96cm (the prediction is that he will be 192cm, about 3cm shorter than Magnus, and it looks like neither of our boys will be taller than their Daddy!)

We had a really fun build up to Bronson’s birthday and he was obviously excited about the event.  He would start singing (humming) Happy Birthday To You and then pretend he was blowing out the candles.  On the big day we had a cute little birthday party with a few of his friends and family, including all of his Grandparents. We played pass the parcel, at the request of big bro as the little ones weren’t all that interested.

Bronson’s language has developed greatly over the past few months.  We have finally moved out of the NO phase and now Bronson’s favourite word is ’dup’ (yup) and ’Mummy’ is his second most used word.  He has taken a very different vocab path to his big brother which is fascinating.  Bronson  has taken more of a ‘phrases’ approach to talking – rather than learning lots of single words, he attempts to say phrases or strings of words, such as:

• I did it!
• I got you!
• I want a drink
• I want that
• I want that side (is the new phrase which means he wants to sleep in Mum’s bed and not his own!)
• Mummy have bath with me (is the longest to date)

Some of Bronson’s favourite things at the moment:

• tractors and diggers
• animals – especially giraffes and cows
• stickers – I bought a book for Magnus to do on the plane, but he wasn’t that interested in it and Bronson loves it, he has worked on it every day for the past 2 months. It is’ Things That Go’ with over 1,000 stickers that you create scenes with throughout the book, Bronson also loves to stick the stickers on his face! The best $10 I’ve ever spent

Finally a boy in the house shares Mum’s love for pop music and dancing! …after a year without a car stereo, we now have one that Bronson and I love to crank up nice and loud (but only when Magnus isn’t in the car otherwise all we hear is ‘toooo loud, turn it down!’). Bronson’s little head and shoulders bop around to the beat, non-stop! He’ll even be bopping as he drifts off to sleep in the car. Bronson loves to go into the lounge and dance around to any music, kids music or Mum’s music…esp Lady Gaga (lol)   If the music isn’t on in the car Bronson will sing or humm away, usually Baa Baa Black Sheep or the Wheels on the Bus.

Bronson is definitely a typical fiesty second son, who knows how to hold his own, learnt through survival around the house with Magnus, but also put into practice while dropping Magnus off at kindy – I’ve seen a 3 year old trying to take a toy off Bronson and kicked him, Bronson held on tight to the toy and said NO very firmly.  This morning our friends were here for a playdate and Bronson quite happily hit a 4 year old boy, who quite happily hit him back and then got on with playing!  I am surprised at how strong willed he is. I guess to his advantage he isn’t too much smaller than the 4 year olds either!

It’s been about 3 months since Bronson dropped his daytime sleep, much to my dismay! He just refuses to go to sleep, playing, singing and jumping in his cot until I get him up.  He might fall asleep in the car every now and then, but generally does not nap.  Magnus is still having a nap a couple of times a week! But Bronson just doesn’t seem to need it, he just goes about his day happily playing and doesn’t seem to get over tired, cranky or lose the plot (like big bro might if he hasn’t had enough sleep!).  Just another difference between our 2 boys.

Bronson has grown out of his egg allergy!  He now has no reaction to eggs and loves eating egg in a cup, great news

Ok, that’s enough of an essay about little Bronson, and should happily keep you up to date with the life of our cute as can be 2 year old

Drinking juice with bubbles and eating chocolate, my favourites!

Playing pass the parcel with friends

I needed Grandfather’s help to blow out my candle

After the birthday party we went to the Lagoon to feed the ducks with cousin Riley and Aunty Nic.

Here is the latest family shot

Magnus is 3!     He is 106cm tall and weighs about 20.5kg

Magnus had a super fun third birthday party on the third of the third! The build up to the party was interesting as Magnus was saying for weeks that he only wanted Mummy, Daddy and Bronson at his birthday and didn’t want to invite any friends, I’m not sure what that was about as he loves birthday parties!?!  He came round, and was very excited to have 12 friends for a party in the morning.  We had a bouncy castle in the backyard and had a fun little treasure hunt in the sandpit. The cake was a train cake (of course!) which I impressed myself with, after 5 hours of production it turned out pretty good.  Magnus was most thrilled with his new scooter from Granny and Grandfather, and he loves that it is just like Max and Jonty’s.  We had a wee picnic that evening with Turkish takeaways down by the inlet with Granny and Grandfather and we were very lucky to have Auntie Pip and Bianca with us for the day too.  After so much anticipation the day was over all too quickly.  Every now and then Magnus will saddly say, “I already had my birthday”…another long year to wait for the next one!

Magnus now goes to Kindy 2 afternoons a week.  I think Magnus’s favourtie part about going to kindy is that we take his friend Katie (who lives across the rd) with us, and he gets picked up by Jane (Katie’s Mum), or even cooler… Katie’s Dad…Paul B!  The first 2 weeks Magnus seemed to settle in really quickly and easily, then the tantrums started. He would cry when we were getting ready for kindy and say I don’t want to go to kindy, I struggled to get him in the car, and out of the car once at kindy, and would have to leave him kicking and screaming with one of the teachers.  It was pretty awful for both of us, but once I left he was quickly over it and happy for the entire kindy session. So that told me he did enjoy kindy, he was just a bit distraught about Mummy leaving him!  So we perservered and after a few weeks the tantys stopped and now he gives me a kiss and says “Mum you go now”! He loves playing in the outside play fort/pirate ship, that he has seen across the fence for the last year and dreamed about playing on! 

Mama was here to take me to my first day at kindy

Icecream to celebrate the first day of kindy!

Magnus is still at Pukerua Bay preschool on a Tue morning and really enjoys Mainly Music on Monday mornings.  Bronson goes to preschool on Wed mornings so Magnus and Mum have some nice one on one time that morning. Thu and Fri mornings are generally free for us to catch up with friends, go to the park, ride trikes/scooters around the lagoon or just play at home.  So life is good

Bronson at 18 Months Old is 90cm tall and 14.5kg.  He has amazing comprehension but still doesn’t have many words, but has a lot to say.  He points to things in books and tells us all about it, but we’re not quite sure what he is saying yet! We can recognise some words/sounds to be:

digger, tractor, dark, all done, my turn, kiss kiss, dance, jump, shoes, sit sit and the new favourite word is ‘NAH’!

Bronson is an excellent swimmer after spending heaps of time in the pool over the summer.  Bronson was in the pool teaching himself how to swim while Magnus was absolutely performing and refusing to do his swimming lessons –  ironic isn’t it!  Keryn and I can put Bronson on his tummy under the water and he will kick and flap his arms to get from one of us to the other, or he can reach out for the side of the pool and pull his head out of the water.  He loves to hold the bar at the side of the pool and push himself under the water and then pull himself up again.  We are rather impressed!

Bronson is running really fast everywhere and has just learnt how to jump, demonstrated by about 5 jumps in a row while saying ‘jump jump jump’.  He can do perfect roly polys and his favourite thing to do is wave and everyone and everything. He is much better at sitting and listening to stories, but they have to have animals in the book, cats, dogs and farm animals are his favourite things. He can’t go past a dog without giving it a pat and just loved having our friends’ little dog Oscar stay with us for a couple of weeks.

Bronson is getting into the train thing and plays nicely alongside Magnus, which is a much calmer alternative to just pulling apart Magnus’ train tracks. Big bro has taken to playing a lot of rough and tumble and poor wee Bronson often gets pushed to the ground and jumped on. But he has definitely learnt to scream loudly and will perform even before he’s hurt.

We have had a couple of trips away and had lots of fun outings over the summer hols. Bronson loves the beach and digging in the sand (or mum’s garden) is a favourite. He is still really happy to sit in the buggy for walks or at the mall, so that makes life a bit easier, Magnus was well over the buggy by this age.

Keryn and I often say that Bronson seems to be much easier at this age than Magnus was, or maybe it’s just that we are more relaxed second time around. We really are enjoying this stage and think Bronson is just the cutest little thing! xxxx

Check out my running style at 14 months!

The first good bump on the head from running into the door

Check out the bird on my head at the Lamb and Calf day

My first day at Creche (Sept 09), dressed up as a Lion

At the Dorothy Show with Dada and Magnus

 At the Zoo

Brothers in their new wetsuits to brave the cold water at Karehana Bay

A quick stop at Rangatiki River on our way to Taupo – Throwing stones into the water, one of my favourite things to do!

Some shots from our short holiday in Taupo:

With Leanne, Shane and Summer

Bronson and Summer

The Damn release in Taupo

Family shot at Huka Falls

How fun is Christmas with TWO toddlers!?! December was spent anticipating the arrival of Santa and enjoying many Christmas parties/end of year celebrations at creche, preschool and playgroups.  Magnus and Bronson had no problem talking to santa and loved all the yummy food at the parties.

Christmas morning didn’t start until 8am when we actually woke Magnus up! Magnus was very excited and Bronson just followed his big brother’s lead. The first thing Magnus did was check out if Santa had eaten his milk and cookies.  Then they calmly opened their presents. Magnus got a huge train collection of tracks, bridges, crossings, engines, wagons, carriages etc, which he loved! But apparently all he wanted was an engine called Emily…Santa somehow missed that bit of information! And Magnus just kept saying “Santa didn’t bring me Emily”.  Whoops! He also got Thomas Snakes and Ladders and Wiff, his first motorised engine.

Bronson got a ride on toy that converts to a first scooter and lots of Little People toys and animals, books and sand toys.

We went to Church for a lovely Christmas service and then on to my parents to spend the day with my entire family which now consists of 7 grandkids.  So it was a full house and so much fun. There was more fun opening presents and watching others open their presents. We had a delicious lunch and just hung out for the rest of the day, with Magnus and Bronson having fun playing with cousins Max and Jonty.

So that’s Christmas for another year and here is just a selection of the hundreds of Christmas photos! …

Two weeks after Magnus’ had cleared Bronson got the chickenpox.  I think he got them worse than Magnus, with a huge cluster of spots around his bottom.  The poor guy was itchy as! He also had a couple of miserable days and then wa quickly over it.  The worst part was having about a month in isolation where we couldn’t go to playgroups, creche and music etc.

But all in all it wasn’t so bad and we are glad to have the Chickenpox over and done with!

Weight - 11.6kg and Height 84cm (in comparison: Magnus weighed 12.5kg and was 83cm at 1, so Bronson might be a slighter build)

We had a lovely, low key birthday celebration on the 1st of July with family.  We enjoyed the morning opening presents, well big brother Magnus opened the presents and Bronson played with them. His favourite pressie was a simple dump truck (with no bells and whistles) from Mum and Dad that he pushed around the lounge for about half an hour. We had afternoon tea and birthday cake with Mama, Granny, Aunty Nic and Riley, G. Aunty Diana and Cathy.  Bronson was just the cutest when we sang “Happy Birthday”; he was very coy and obviously knew it was all about him and almost fell off his chair (Mum caught him )  Bronson also managed to blow the candle out all on his own – what a clever boy! He then preceded to very delicately poke his finger into the cake to try it out. Of course he then was loaded up with chocolate and cake to hoe into and make a royal mess out of (pics below).

So, at one year, what can Bronson do???…

• Words – da da (for Dad and Dada for Denis), mum-mum-mum (for Mum), yum (when he likes something he’s eating)
• Favourite things – bedtime doggie, playing with anything in the kitchen cupboards and drawers, throwing clothes into the washing machine or out the catflap, swings, singing Old MacDonald has a farm
• Favourite books - Bronson seems to prefer to get the books rather than read the book! He brings a book over, sits up on our lap, stays for one page and then gets down again and goes to get another book, and does it all over again! But if he does stay to read, he loves Farmer Jones and Old MacDonald has a farm and a BabyTouch Playbook.
• Favourite food – watermelon, mandarins, hot chips and icecream in a cone

Bronson’s special ways and tricks:

• Walks amazingly well, very steady and cautious, he’s walking all the time now. Bronson is an expert at going down stairs backwards (thanks to Dada’s patience and teaching), and he can now reach right up and open internal doors in our house so loves being able to follow me around
• Kisses – he walks from Mum to Dad and back to Mum and back to Dad giving kisses, blows kisses, especially to doggie when we get him up from a sleep
• Dancing – walks around with his hands in the air when there’s music on
• Gives ‘high fives’

So that’s our Bronson at one!

Bronson happily having water dumped on him by big bro on the eve of his birthday