Last night was the second night in a row that Charlie has slept through without a bottle. I figured that being woken by him two-three times a night was going to very quickly do my head in with Bern being away, so I bit the bullet and went the tough love route. Surprisingly, he hardly fussed the first night and last night he didn't wake at all. Let's hope this is the beginning of a new sleep pattern.
Today we picked up Bern's lovely Aunty Janette, who lives about 500m down the road, and drove into Invercargill to do some shopping. As usual, the drive was punctuated by Grace's running commentary on the various countryside aromas ('I think that smell is actually cow poo Mummy, not sheep wee').
We had lunch at Queens Park, Invercargill's stunning town park. Charlie divided his time between delightedly running away from us at every available opportunity, and staring up in awe at some of the largest trees I've ever seen.
Queens Park is also home to the largest live display of Tuatara, endangered reptiles that are found only in NZ. Grace has been desperate to see one since learning about these ancient animals on ABC Kid's The Wot Wots back in Australia. You can imagine her excitement then when this one popped it's head out of a hole just near where we were standing.
To say Grace was mesmerised would be an understatement. The displays included a skeleton of a young Tuatara, a model of how they lay their eggs in underground tunnels, and all sorts of interesting information. Like how Tuataras are not lizards; the lump on the top of their head is actually a third eye; they sometimes eat their own young; and it takes 12 months for the eggs to hatch.
In the end, the only way I could extract her from the display was by bribing her with a toy Tuatara and a booklet about Tutataras from the gift shop. Oh, and a ride on a giant Tuatara.
And just in case you were wondering...yes, I am just a little Tuatara-ed out...
While we were in town we finally managed to find a pair of gumboots to fit Charlie. His first gumboots. Very practical. And just a wee bit cute.
