Hi Everyone,

After much sitting around with camera aimed at Isla’s face, we managed to catch a bit of smile on camera. Of course, she decides to do her most extended, cute smiles when the camera is nowhere close, and I don’t want to miss them going to get it!

We have just had our first day with Angus and Janet in Seward. The boys enjoyed a few (very cold) hours snow machining this morning, while we three girls went for a walk and coffee. Isla is enjoying plenty of cuddles from her new uncle and aunt. Angus and Janet are having fun practicing on our baby, getting ready for their turn! Isla is keeping us busy now that she has decided she doesn’t want to sleep during the day (unless she is being cuddled to sleep). It is taking some convincing that her bed is the place for sleeping. Luckily (touch wood) she is still sleeping at night. As you can see from the photos she is getting very spoiled by her family members. These photos were all taken today, she will be five weeks old tomorrow. We still haven’t managed to catch a smile on camera, but Angus and Janet both agree that we are definitely seeing smiles!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. We enjoyed a nice day at the Tougas home with Paul’s family. On Christmas Eve, Paul, Isla and I went to the Christmas service and we were very pleased when Isla managed to sleep right through it despite all the carols, bell ringing and noise of people chatting after the service. I have put up a few photos from Christmas day- including one of Isla sleeping in the middle of all the present opening chaos! She was awake for quite a while on Christmas day and spent quite a long time lying on her back waving and gurgling at her Great Grandpa Howie.

We are looking forward to Angus and Janet arriving tomorrow night, Paul is away snowboarding for the day with his brother Joe and will pick them up that night. Isla and I won’t see them until they arrive in Seward the following morning so we will be impatiently waiting for them Sunday morning. Hopefully flights will be all running and on time on Saturday!

Thanks for all the comments, we are enjoying reading them and seeing who is viewing the website.

Love April, Paul and Isla

Hard to believe that this time four weeks ago Isla was just minutes old! I can’t imagine not having her now. At the moment she is baby snoring in her swing.  A friend of mine lent me theirs that her daughter has grown out of. It is the best thing for a cranky, tired baby- it puts her straight to sleep!

Here are a couple of photos from today (posting photos on here has become a little addictive!). One is of Rachel giving Isla her bath this morning and the other is of Isla in one of her new outfits.

We hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Love April, Paul and Isla

Isla will be four weeks old tomorrow! This photo was taken last night, as you can see she has been working really hard on her head lifting. Her little muscles are getting very strong. She especially likes when she is lying on our chests like this and is very motivated to lift her head so that she can gaze at our faces. It can be nearly unnerving to have such curious eyes staring at your face from such close proximity!

Love April, Paul and Isla.

Angus and Janet’s flight to Alaska was canceled due to bad weather. This is the third day of cancellations and so the earliest flight they could get was for the 27th! So they will be spending Christmas in New York and we will miss having them here for Christmas. The three of us had come up to Anchorage to meet them off the plane so we are very disappointed. Isla was all ready, and dressed up to meet her Uncle and Aunt. Hopefully they might be able to sneak on an earlier flight but it looks unlikely at this stage.

Isla is three weeks plus and is now 11.7 lbs up from 10 at the beginning. April took her into get weighed because she though she might not be eating enough! She is still in the 97% of weight gain for babies. Our cute little truffle pig.

This is not our greatest video yet but better the footage you have they say…

Babys not always cute from AlaskaNewZealand.com on Vimeo.

Hi Everyone,

Here are some recent photos, taken yesterday (the Santa photo was from when she was 10 days old). Isla is working hard at lifting her head, she is getting very ambitious and can lift it off the mat (with a lot of grunting and effort!) when she is lying on her tummy.  Paul and I are also convinced we have both seen smiles. According to the experts babies don’t do proper social smiles till they are around 8 weeks old, but when it looks like a smile and it seems like a smile we are counting it! She is growing heaps and has outgrown some of her newborn outfits already, we tried one on her yesterday but it looked like a ski racing suit it was that tight so we had to try something else!

We hope everyone is well and looking forward to Christmas!

Love April, Paul and Isla