Hi All. Tiff here.

So, Ben tells me that in New Zealand it's a tradition that on a person's twenty-first birthday an embarassing childhood photo is published in the newspaper for all to enjoy (a tradition I highly approve of).

Ladies and Gentlemen, we may have a contender.



I snuck into Rose's room to check on her in the wee hours yesterday, and I haven't stopped laughing yet!

Hi everybody. It's Tiff. Now that we finally got some photos posted, I thought it might be time for an update on Rose's goings-on.

Lately, Rose's big love is going out. What can I say? The girl loves shopping. After all this time she can still stop people in their tracks, and she LOVES the attention. She loves to go out and flirt with people. She also loves to look at stuff in stores, especially the signs that hang from the ceiling in some shops. She loves the colors and sparkle in stores.

Yesterday, Rose and I went out to lunch with Auntie Kehau and Kaleinani, who is almost old enough to babysit. We sat and gabbed for hours, and Rose played with Kaleinani virtually the entire time! She had NO interest in Mum, and I don't think she took her eyes off of her young friend for a second. It was really adorable (and really nice for me to get to eat a meal with the use of BOTH hands!). I think we may have found a good future babysitter!

Ben and I have decided that Rose must be on the front end of a HUGE growth spurt because for the last four days she has been eating nearly double the amount that she usually eats. Yes, DOUBLE! She normally sleeps right through the night, but she's been waking up two or three times for a bottle, and having big ones at that. She might finally start outgrowing a few things. If she's anything like her big brother was, she's going to wake up one morning and suddenly be three sizes bigger. I'm looking forward to her fitting into some of the beautiful clothes she's been given that have been just hanging there, waiting for her to grow. She mostly still wears the three month size, and she's nearly seven months. I guess that really isn't too bad, considering she started out in doll's clothes.

Speaking of the beautiful gifts that Rose has recieved.... I want to deeply thank each of you who have given her such amazing gifts. Never has a baby been given so many incredible things, and we appreciate each and every one of them, and each and every one of YOU. But... she has enough now! We gave her the middle name Providence because we felt like the universe provided for her needs (and ours) through the very difficult pregnancy. Well, Rose has still got it. Money is incredibly tight, and it HAS to be to stay qualified for the medical coverage to get her cochlear implant, and that's OK. It's a choice we knowingly made. But this week alone Rose has recieved the following; two crib sheets, four pretty baby washcloths, a lovely pink cover for the pad on the changing table, an incredibly cool handmade quilt with all kinds of Kiwiana on it, a cute pair of buckskin shoes that she just loves, a T-shirt with an otter on it, a coloring book, three story books, an adorable sun dress from Hawaii, and a jade bracelet! She's SO SPOILED! Everything is just lovely, but truly, she has enough! She has a bicycle, for pete's sake, and she just learned to sit up on her own! Please know that we cherish each gift, and we know that she will, too, but that she is well set and has want for nothing.

We love you all so very much. Will post again soon, I promise

I found a few more pics that I thought I might share. Everyone wants pictures!


Cool trick, huh? I bet you can't do this!



Nothing in the world better than baby toes.



So cute on such a HOT day.

Hi all! It's Tiff. I'm going to let Rose take over the keyboard while Ben gets some photos ready.

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OK. That was fun. Now... new pictures. Most of them involve some sort of mealtime fiasco because that is currently Rosie's forte.




We have a very frustrating fruit puff situation (It was so hard for her to pick it up, and when, after great concentration, she managed to get one, it just ended up stuck to her lip! She was exhausted from the effort.




We have a lovely, oh-so-dainty banana custard smile! She was perfectly clean until Ben walked up and made her grin. It all came gushing out. Eeeeww! Hehe.




Then, we have Rose's try at feeding herself. Not bad for a start, but she could do with a bit more practice before she dines with the Queen. Which fork to use and all that, you know.

And... a couple of non-food pics.







Enjoy!

Hello, everyone.

I'm afraid that I have no new pictures yet, but, I wanted to let everyone know that Rose is all better. It turned out that she had roseola. She was getting so much better, and all of a sudden she was covered in a funky rash. But it's gone, and she's acting like our little Rosie again. Thank God!

Rose saw Ranae, her audiologist again. This time I went in to the testing booth with her. Ben did it last time, and he said it was just unbelieveably loud. MAN! He wasn't kidding! But... no response from Rose, of course. I, on the other hand, was near cringing in the corner! Aww, but it's a good thing in a way, because it puts her that much closer to the cochlear implant. The hearing aids really don't do any good.

That's all that is new with Rose. As they keep saying on TV, "more news as it breaks". TTFN

Hi all, Tiff here.
It's been longer than usual since we've posted, but Rose has been ill. She's gotten a nasty little bug that has had her miserable (and thus Ben and I have been miserable as well). She got her vaccinations last week, so we assumed that her fever and stuff was due to that, but it wouldn't go away. Now the docs think it's a little virus. Whatever it is, Rosie has been just patheticly miserable, but she seems to be on the up-swing, now, thank god! She's had such high fever and a nasty weird rash on her belly and chest. Poor baby can't do anything but whine. But today it seems the fever has broken. I think that in about 2 days she'll be back to normal. The heat wave has lifted, and that alone has surely helped.
I'm afraid no pics this time. She's just not in the mood, or as her big brother was known to say, "No picture time!". Sorry.
We will post more when she's feeling a bit better.