On Monday our littlest Hobbit will be five months old. It went fast, but it also feels like it dragged on and on as the sleeplessness, diapers, baby chattering, reflux, spills, car seat crying, 4:00am playfulness, and other quirks have really taken their toll.
We adore our wee man. He’s very much and individual and very sweet and gentle.
We have been happily handing him over to family, friends and even strangers who obviously adore babies. Some people are horrified by this. My feeling is this: we all parent in our own way. I choose to expose my kids to as many experiences as possible. So long as I feel they are safe, and I get a good feeling about the people in question, I will let anyone who wants a cuddle with our very wee children have one. They are immunised and breast-fed and people have kindly said they won’t hold them because they have a sniffle or recently were sick and wouldn’t want to get him sick.
The upshot of raising our kids the way we do, is that they seem to be fairly well adjusted, robust, resilient, curious, engaging kids. They have just enough stranger danger to keep them close to us when we venture around the corner or around the world, and they also have enough trust of people of every colour, creed and religion that they face the world without a great deal of fear or trepidation. We do things our way, and you do things yours, but this is just a snippet of James’ story so far.
Ten days after he was born, I had successfully filled the freezer with breast milk and left James with his dad so I could go out and have a few drinks with some girlfriends. He came to pick me up at our friend’s 40th birthday party at this local pub, and James wove his magic on many people and got a lot of smiles that evening! Again, not everyone’s parenting strategy, but this is how we roll.
The Birthday Amanda girl having a cuddle
This lovely Scottish lad was expecting a baby in a few short months (well his partner was) and this was the first time he had ever held a newborn. I thought that was pretty cool that he could get in a bit of practice before his own baby arrive 🙂
This is James with Rebekah. She will be sharing Godmother duties with another Bestie Petra. We popped over to visit when he was about three days old.
Kat, Dom and Rebekah. I adore this family… True story 🙂
Brother in Law holding wee man. He’s a fellow Caniwi.
My baby sister Sarah-Kate holding her wee nephew. He was only a few hours old! These guys would make such beautiful babies should they ever decide to breed. Just saying.
Some very VERY grateful South African ladies having a cuddle at the Coffee Club in Albany mall. He was two days old and my gosh were they glad to have a snuggle!
Meeting Pauline. He puked on her shortly after this picture was taken and she hasn’t held him since.
Bree doing a wonderful job of holding him.
The gorgeous and calming influence of the Midwife and founder of Placenta Tree: Wendy Lee. They make placenta pills for new mums. I took a few of the caplets and planted some in our orchard as an observation of the beautiful Maori tradition of burying they placenta in a special place in honour of Rangi (sky father), Papa (earth mother), and all the Maori Gods and ancestors. Have a look at the placenta tree website here if you’re interested! http://placentatree.co.nz
James and Adam. He is a very good big brother (when he chooses to be)
My sister Leigh with her Godaughter Steph and her new nephew James… My niece Amara is there too but still in her belly 🙂
Daniel is an amazing big brother. He is so great with babies. It makes me prouder than I can every express.
Steph’s first cuddle… He was about 7 hours old give or take…
My midwife and Bestie Anna and Grumpy holding the latest (and LAST) Hobbit baby who arrived drug free after a 1 hour 40 minute established labour.
Meeting some ladies at my Great Aunt’s retirement village in downtown Edmonton.
Some guests at the Hotel MacDonald who adored the baby. I think one of these ladies had just gotten married the night before. The lady holding the baby just adored him… I thought she may steal him 😉
Shantell and her gogeous family!
Aunty Lara having a snuggle while he sleeps.
Uncle patrick holding his sleeping great nephew. They are so great with the kids… We’re the only breeders in the entire generation of our family tree, so they get plenty of attention which is nice.
Jilly Bean. We’ve been friends since we were five years old and now have broods of our own. Crazy.
The Lovely lady on the ferry to Victoria. Her dad was an international diplomat and she resides in the Bahamas. Very cool woman. Shame I lost her details as it would have been nice to keep in touch.
James resting comfortably on Ginell on our week long road trip down the West coast of BC and Washington.
This little girl was absolutely FASCINATED by him. So we stopped and let them have a cuddle.
And here she is having a safe and supervised snuggle with James.
JT when we bumped into him at a new restaurant on the North Shore.
Chris and Lesley at Chris’s birthday. They are WONDERFUL people and it was so nice to pop down to Wellington to see them!
Our old neighbour came round to babysit one night, he was just a little kid in Primary school when we moved here to the Shore! Time, it flies.
Mumsy and her fourth Grandchild. She is great with newborns. Unflappable.
Dear friends Chanty and Ya and their beautiful daughter Vera.
Youngest Kiwi baby sister and her second beautiful boy! He’s like a week younger than James.
I put this in here because he looks like Jean Luc Picard here and that is what we called him for the first three months of his life.
Ness having a cuddle
Sarah and Lee. I adore these gorgeous women and can’t wait to catch up with them again soon! I feel a dinner party coming on!
Everyone was super grumpy because our flight was delayed by over an hour, but having a cuddle with James put a smile on this lovely lady’s face.
Nana Margie. One of the most maternal people on earth. I’m so grateful to her and Ken for being there all these years since I arrived here in NZ. And very thankful for her two beautiful daughters and the men in their lives as well.
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Checking in at the Marriott in Culver City. The lady holding him was so awesome, she swooped in and grabbed him for a snuggle and every time we saw her and he LOVED it!
Sweet snuggles in Vatican City with one of the families from the cruise. They didn’t speak English, we didn’t speak Spanish. Lucky snuggling babies is universally understood.
Indian Family who now live in Germany. They were lovely and spoke like ALL the languages and were so sweet with James. They held him while we took the cheesy pictures of holding up the tower. Very nice of them indeed 🙂
First picture of mom holding James, taken in Barcelona the night before she went exploring in the South of Spain and we got on our Disney cruise with the kids.
Lovely waiter at the excellent Tapas restaurant up the street from Las Ramblas (not IN Las Ramblas, cause the food around there is pretty universally terrible and overpriced)
Charming some locals in Spain
Mike May at Rock and Soul near Times Square in Manhattan
The absolutely AMAZING Crystal at a lovely restaurant in Boston. It was her Birthday this night too and she came out to see us! So honoured, and we just adore her fair trade, organic cotton socks! I didn’t get a picture of Michelle and the baby in Boston, but I didn’t get like heaps of pictures actually…
Sharon at Rock and Soul with James
Lovely waitress at a Japanese restaurant near the Natural History Museum by Central Park.
Heather! She is amazing with babies and a wonderful friend. Glad to have had the chance to hang out chatting till the wee small hours of morning!
Georgia and James. Nice to finally hang out IRL as we’ve gotten pretty close online over the years 🙂
My absolutely gorgeous cousin Jocelyn holding him. She’s rad. Like seriously. Chilled out, kind, funny, witty, interesting, active. Just awesome. It is nice to be reminded of this when I get to see her!
Grammy Karen!!!!
Amanda and Kaspyr and Derek and James. Four fabulous humans who all have a very big and permanent place in my heart!
Derek and one of his oldest and dearest friends at some very large mall outside of Calgary… like seriously, that place was MASSIVE!
Daniel holding James when we had lunch and met our beautiful baby cousin Lanae at Boston Pizza! Christy and Rex are like amazing and baby is perfect and I am looking forward to hanging out with them all a lot more in the future!
My great great Aunt Esther (My grandmother’s twin sister) and her gorgeous boyfriend holding James. They are soooo loved up and there is something so beautiful about old people and young people together. They have an affinity that is magic!
Dee I absolutely ADORE reading your Hobbit posts…
Thank you for such delightful reads and gorgeous pictures!
Jan Saussey
I am so glad you take the time to read them!!! I really enjoyed following your travels lately 🙂 What a magic trip. I keep meaning to get Steph to try out for an agent as well, but with everything else going on I can’t until we get a permanent nanny. I’d love to catch up IRL one of these days for some advice on juggling kids who want to perform with a busy life. Steph is desperate to get in front of a camera and audience and I don’t want to stifle her enthusiasm or hold her back from trying. Sigh. Guess I can keep making excuses or I can just go ahead and do it… Hope you are well! XXOO
Thank you Dee for sharing a small part of wee James’s life with us. He is adorable and I can see why all these lucky people wanted to cuddle him.
I am glad you included a picture of my Mom with James. I will show it to her the next time I visit (the little look on his face as he stares at this blue haired lady is priceless).
Obviously your way of sharing him does not appear to have caused him any problems. He always looks happy and quite content. He is a precious little star and with all the love given to him from so many people I think he knows this. I am glad you are all home safe and sound.
Love Diane