It’s been a big week for the Sod’s, we had our first open home today and it’s been the focus of our lives for so long we can’t believe it’s finally happened and we’re still alive. Adrian had a rotten cold on Thursday and Friday and we had friends over on Friday night but it was all hands on deck saturday morning to finish off the little jobs but it was so incredibly hot that we took the boys to the beach for the afternoon which was great. They are getting used to the waves now although Tom still spends most of his time chasing seagulls and running along the beach after other peoples beach balls. They had lots of fun digging in the sand until they thought it would be really funny to put spades full of sand down mummy’s top (only funny once for mummy!). This morning was the big final housework day so Adrian took the boys out for the morning in the wagon and walked along the beach, into Cuba street and they all stopped for coffee at Fidels (pic left), the boys love having coffee with daddy and look very grown up I must say!

The open home went really well according to the real estate agent with 10 couples coming through of which 2 are real potentials to make an offer so finger’s crossed, another open home next week but nowhere near the preparations next time. We went to Uncle Nick and Great Aunty-Joan’s for a lovely afternoon tea while the house was being “inspected”. I thought we needed a treat after all our hard work tonight so made a vege and meat Mousakka followed by apple shortcake which came out a funny shape as I didn’t have the right size tin but tasted bloody lovely – Adrian says he has that lovely warm, cosy “just eaten apple shortcake and cream feeling” (he’s right - it really does make you feel a special cosiness after you’ve eaten it).

Tom and Jack had another great week this week, they have started making a little cubby house between the two armchairs in the lounge and love crawling in there and giggling away with each other and popping their heads out every now and then saying “hi”. They are starting to play like little boys now with their cars and trucks and like loading things into the back and driving them around with a “vvvrrrrmmm” they also play cars with their toast and “crash” then messily together - they really are quite delicious.

Well it’s all over rover, the house is finally spit spot and ready for sale. The Real Estate Agents are due to visit today as they have an afternoon where they all come at once to look at the place so it makes it a lot easier for us, and then the first open home this Sunday. It’s been a long weekend here in Wellington which was lucky as we had so many little jobs to do that we needed the extra day to do them. Adrian did a mammoth effort over the last few days and got the house painting finished, the roof painted (luckily we found some old roof paint in the basement and it was just enough) and I had all those lovely jobs like cleaning the windows and wooden blinds. So we are now officially for sale – we have a sign up and everything. We did have a few minor disasters like when I washed the curtains in the lounge and they disintegrated so it was off to buy some cheap ones to replace them and Adrian accidentally dropping a full tin of white paint on the newly water-blasted deck – thank goodness for water-based paint and water-blasters.

The boys have been very patient with us this weekend while we tag-teamed our jobs and we managed a few outings to the park so they didn’t go crazy. They are starting to get a real sense of humour, their favourite book at the moment has a picture of a cat stealing a little boys sock and running away which they both find hysterically funny (I can’t see it myself!). They do make each other laugh a lot which is great but frustrating when you’re trying to get them to take a nap and they are throwing teddy’s across the room and laughing at each other. Jack made Adrian’s day this week when he learnt how to build blocks (without wanting to knock them down) and builds huge towers which Tom then smashes.

Have a great week, we'll keep you all posted on the house selling progress.

Another busy week in the Sealy-O’Donnell household. Adrian was still on holiday this week and has made major progress with house painting and general tidying up around the gardens. He has almost completed the house painting which looks brilliant, and the plan is to put the house on the market from next week once the agents come and take photos. It’s all a bit too real now! We have had some great inside information about a house that will be on the market soon. It’s very similar to the one we lost out on that we loved, so hopefully we can get ours sold and make a good cash offer.

It was a busy work week for me too as we have a delegation from Vietnam who arrived on Saturday afternoon, so it meant lots of planning things for them to do, and people to see while they’re here. They were all very nice so it was worth the hard-work in the end.

We’ve had a great weekend (even with Adrian spending lots of time with a paintbrush in his hand). He had a lovely Saturday afternoon with the boys in Cuba Street while I was working, at their favourite slide and coffee joint, the boys spend hours going up and down the slide while Adrian manages a coffee and attempting to keep them out of the bucket fountain. We had a great Sunday today, I took the boys for a long walk to the shop and back in the brilliant wagon that they loved, and everyone who passed us couldn’t help but smile, especially with the boy’s regal wave and polite “Haahwoow” and “bye, bye”. We went to a 2nd birthday party in the afternoon for the boys friend from Crèche which was great but exhausting! They had great fun and ate lots of cake before we headed over to Uncle Chris and Aunty Sue’s house for a cuppa (and “naanaa’s”) in the afternoon.

The boys are both good although Tom has a terrible cold and was in bed very early this evening after such a busy day he developed a high temperature and exhausted himself. They are getting very grown up and clever these days, their vocabulary is getting better and better we have to be very careful what we say which isn’t always easy like earlier this week when Adrian was bitten by a red ant and a lots of bad words came out very loudly (he reckons it would have killed a lesser man)!

My three favourite men in the world below (note the paint on Adrian's arm!).

Well that was a quick week! It was back to work for me on Wednesday and it was lovely and quiet since so many people are still on holiday and my phone hardly rang - it was great. The boys started back at crèche again on Wednesday too and they loved to be back with their friends and being fussed over by the staff. Adrian is still on holiday until next week and is spending it painting the house and tidying up the garden, he’s done a great job of the pathway down to the house (pic below) which we finished planting today and we’re now officially half-way with the painting so it better not rain next week. Adrian and I even managed to have an afternoon off together on Friday to get some painting done and had a lovely lunch at the new café in Karori which is joined onto the new library complex which is great (pic below).










The boys are having a great week as usual. Adrian taught them how to run a circuit of the house by going out the lounge, down the hall and back into the kitchen. They spend hours running flat out around and around occasionally saying “hello” or “bye, bye” as they speed past. Tom has started putting lots of words together (sometime it seems randomly), like yesterday when he said “Daddy, all-gone, poo, nigh nighs?” which I managed to translate to “Daddy’s not here, is he in toilet or asleep?” (pretty astute really). They’ve also started saying “naughty” while doing something they shouldn’t - but knowing that it’s naughty doesn’t stop them doing whatever it is of course.

Well have a great week everyone.

I’m sure you noticed we’re late with the blog this week but we’ve been off on a lovely little holiday in Paraparaumu (about 1.5 hours from Wellington) for the New Year. With all the fabulous weather we had a busy few days after Christmas. We had some lovely days at the beach, the boys love the water and run into the waves shouting “splash” and eat mouthfuls of sand along with their lunch. The boys love their new swimming pool they got for Xmas from Jeremy and Anna (picture below) and it even traveling with us on holiday so helped cool the boys down on hot days. We also went to the zoo (yes even I who is so against them put my objections aside for the boys), the boys enjoyed it but we might have to take them back when they are a little older and can see a bit more.

Then we set off on New Year’s eve to Paraparaumu to stay with Jeremy and Anna. The weather was so hot that the first night was a bit of a nightmare as the boys couldn’t sleep being in a funny house, funny bed and so hot that we considered putting the port-a-cots outside for the night. They did settle in though and we had a great few days relaxing in the sun having bbq’s with family and a few drinks on New Year’s eve with the Burrows’.

We took the boys to Lindale on New Year’s day which was brilliant (Ben and John will remember the place we took them with the farm animal petting zoo and the lovely cheese and ice-cream factory). The boys absolutely loved it and ran around making all the “baa baa, neigh and moo” noises and chased the poor ducks to exhaustion. We then had a lovely ice-cream from the Kapiti shop then it was off home to clean sticky ice-cream off all of us.

The boys are getting so grown up, they are really quick to pick up new words and are mimicking everything. The play “nigh, nigh’s” where they lie down and pretend to go to sleep and Tom had us in hysterics last night when he was pretending to be daddy asleep and was snoring his heart out. They are getting very clever physically too and today Jack walked up all the steps of civic square on his own and both boys can both now climb up the steps to the slides in the park by themselves so they can so they can slide saying “weeeeee” all the way down.