Saturday, February 23, 2013

Having fun indoors

The weather has been up and down, its so unbearably hot then it rains there after for like two whole days! it reminded us of the few days before we left to visit. Munchkin is such an outdoor love that when its raining she gets bummed. She doesn't like the rain falling on her, not even the drizzles from the sprinkler but does enjoy playing in her pool. I wish I had packed it.


When it was raining, she unpacked her inflatable pool and tried blowing it. I eventually came to her rescue.

munchkin trying to inflate the pool after seeing what mommy was doing
We had it in the middle of our lounge for a couple of days and nights without and water in it. she would climb into it with her toys and play.
She is copying everything I do which is so sweet but sometimes I cant help but feel like I'm losing my baby, she is growing so fast and keep wondering where time has gone as it still feels like she was born yesterday.

We have woken up and day looks so inviting, if the weather continues like this we might go to the beach today.




Valentines Day


 

Valentines day was fabulous. Sarah and I got a surprise from daddy :). Wayne is in Kenya for three weeks! He bought me my valentines present before he left. I got spoilt with a brand new laptop. I'm loving every bit of it. So I didn't think much of the day, when it got around. We miss him terribly and after our usual phone calls in the morning, checking in on Sarah and I. We hadn't made any plans since we didn't have a car to go around. So being a gorgeous hot day we stayed in doors watched lots of tv and played in the garden.

Then in the early afternoon received a call from the gate there was a delivery for us. He surprised us and ordered the most gorgeous flowers. I love him so much and I'm  the luckiest girl ever to call him my prince charming. I cant wait for him to get home and give him the biggest smooch ever. Not only does he think of me but of munchkin too. We are very blessed spoilt girls.
And aunty Thobe came to play and spoilt us with delicious red velvet cup cakes. It was a wonderful day.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Visiting in Durban

We are in Durban visiting with the good old folks:) for a whole 10 days.
Munchkin with granddad
watching tv with granny
 We are loving it here but as usual there a trip without some kind of drama wouldn't make us the cooks. We missed our flight! We should have been here for 11 days but then it happened. And this time we weren't late for our flight we made it in time.

 Some how in my confidence, I didn't bother to check my wallet the day before or hours before our flight. Im always sure my driver's licence is in my wallet. Well 30 mins to leave for the airoit it was no where to be found. So after searching around the house and emptying the car, there was nothing. Then I decided not to stress because I could still use my passport right? Well the passport was no where to be found, I checked like a thousand times where we usually put them but all I found where Sarah"s and Wayne's passports but not mine. So I called wayne panicking, hoping he would pick up his phone as he was in training in Tanzania but he didn't pick up. He eventually called back and I explained to him my dilemma, this is now like 5 minutes to leave for the airport. He had a solution, a certified copy of my passport and also to go with my expired one just incase. well I pick the only certified copy I could get , sarah's passport and we head off to the airport. We arrived in time and when we got to check in I explained to the friendly lady what had happened, reading her facial expression, for a second it seemed like we were good to go, then she picked up her phone and called her supervisor. well my certified copy was 6 months old and they only accept three months and below. So she referred us to one of their desks saying" go there and talk to them, and they will help you" I was like if you are not able to convince them and you are part of their team how do you suppose I should go about it. Well we trotted back to the desk and the only option was to change our flight again at a fee! By this time the cost of changing tickets would have bought us another return trip!!! I even ask if we could use munchkin's passport to travel, dumb!!!! I know but the thought of going back home and going through the same process was kind of tiring. and telling Wayne we missed our flight and I had to spend more money!!! Anyway he was so calmed and said it was cool and not to worry about it. To check in some places where the passport would be.
Thanks to our chauffer Bonolo after changing the tickets to the following day same time, we headed home. When in an unpleasant situation, I usually laugh with tears streaming down my face but because we were in public and not wanting to upset munchkin, all I did was laugh. Funny thing is on our way to the airport we were talking and laughing about travel incidents/missing flights and history did repeat itself.
As soon as we got home and unloaded the car, I went to my closet and there was a plastic bag and emptied it on the bed, there was my passport smiling back at me.
So we spent the rest of the day chilling and watching tv.
Had to make the disappointing call to mom and dad.
The following morning I repacked our bags and we were good to go, until on arrival at the airport the same lady calls us through and then picks up her phone and makes a call. In my head I was thinking of how rude she was, turns out, the gates had just been closed and she was asking them to open them again. We almost missed our flight! We eventually made it. Munchkin was a trooper, we had about 15 kids on the flight, it was wailing galore! thanks to the descent. But Sarah was good, as soon as we started descending she was uncomfortable  and cried a bit tried to breast feed her but all she wanted was to play and eventually she settle breastfed and lay in my arms for the rest of the trip.
The day before she had fallen and bruised her nose, so much for a grand entrance, granny and granddad were very happy to finally have her with them.
 



 
well we made it and we are having a cool time in Durban, enjoying every bit of the complex weather.


Monday, February 11, 2013

Hanging out at the park

Often when Wayne leaves for work to another country, I get so emotional especially on the day he leaves. So after saying our good byes, we had lunch and Sarah had her afternoon nap. We packed up our bag with Sarah's favourite park friendly toy; her ball and had fudge in tow. To kill time till as she loves the outdoors and also to tire munchkin out, as the first three nights are horrible. She wakes up literally every 15 minutes looking for her daddy. So when she is tired she sleeps better but not perfect. And I will take anything I can get besides the fifteen minute alarm clock!
 
 It was lovely to be out. Unfortunate for us the park had quite a number of other animals and fudge is not very friendly with other dogs. So we couldn't let him roam around the park without his leash. He kept close by Sarah and every time someone came close by his back hairs stood up. He is so protective over his little sister. Even when she is moaning or crying, he gets up and walks to the room to check and make sure she is ok and will sometimes hang around till she keeps quiet. Fudge is a very laid back!!!   He is excited to get out of the house but wont run after a ball or any toys for that matter whether at the park or home. And this counts as exercise too for him.


He just walks about sniffing and peeing on everything. Well he loves it and Sarah loves it too. It was great taking a stroll around and playing ball with Sarah and fudge. And nothing beats having some fresh air outdoors.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

We miss him

Wayne left on Sunday for East Africa. Basically he is doing work in all the three countries and will be back in three weeks. Yikes!!! It doesn't feel right at home, we miss him dearly and the impact is clearly taking a toll on fudge, Sarah and I. I miss having him next to me the cuddles and watching him play his part with fudge and Sarah.
with daddy just before he left for the airport. we always take pics of her with daddy before he leaves for  his trips
It gets particularly difficult in the evenings after she has had her dinner and bath , then bed time. Wayne's usual time to get home is between 6 and 6.30pm so before her dinner she runs to the gate yelling "dada". And it breaks my heart because I can see the confusion going on of him not being around.
And after she is dressed up and ready for bed, we usually sit on the carpet in her room. She then chooses a book for him to read and she sits on my lap listening to him as I breastfeed her. We then say our family prayers and the good night kisses are exchange, then daddy leaves the room for me to settle her into bed. Hearing their giggles and hearty laughs when I leave the room, as I prepare her drinking water and allergy medicines before we settle down is music to my ears. I love these two to bits.
Yup , she does love brushing her teeth and after her bath she grabs onto the tooth brush.
See my teeth all sparkly and white
Daddy will you share my tooth brush too. Its yummy!!
I look forward to this time of day and its quite difficult when he is not around because Sarah keeps looking at the door for him to come through.
Having fun before being tucked in
And with fudge, he does not eat for the first two days after he is gone and wont sleep in his bed instead he sleeps by the door waiting for him to return. I end up taking his bed to the door way.
The first three days have been horrible because the Internet connection in Uganda is slow that we cant Skype, but tonight we were able to Skype thanks to the Internet connection in Tanzania which is faster than Uganda. We can't wait for him to get to Kenya because its even better than the connection we have at home. We were able to chat to him and Sarah and fudge were so happy. Fudge kept on wagging his tail and Sarah couldn't stop kissing his face on the ipad, she kept on carrying close to her chest.
So I'm glad she got to say night nightie to daddy and he read to her a story.
THANKS TO TECHNOLOGY!!! our darling princess went to bed happy. And when baby is happy , mommy is happy too.
Story time- I love these two. They are so adorable together
As I type this out there is one huge storm that has started, I hope the thunder doesn't wake her up. As she needs some rest. We fly to urban tomorrow for 11 days to spend time with the folks while Wayne is out of town. So I'm kind of anxious flying just the two of us. She is always good when we fly but we have done it as a family with daddy around. so we shall see how that goes. And as usual I haven't packed. So much to do, I need to sleep now and wake up early to sort every thing out before munchkin wakes up.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Sarah at 14 months

Almost everyone said wait till she starts walking then everything will be worse, it's a lot of work! I'm yet to experience it. I'm loving every bit of her.
Our little angel turned 14 months at the end of January, and she is continuing to grow.we are happy with her development and so is the paediatrician.
She weighs 9.92kgs, I was concerned that she is tiny but the doctor is very happy with her growth. She is 75cm long and her head circumference is still the same 46cm. Prior to taking her to the doctor we took her for her shots and this child of ours didn't cry or flinch. I on the other hand cried till we left the clinic. Sometimes I wonder who she is lol. She definitely takes after her daddy when it come to handling pain.
She is sleeping through most nights from 8pm to 6.30 am. I know it's early but we aren't complaining because we have had sleepless nights so this for us is bliss.
She is saying a few words but talks a lot of baby talk. I think she thinks fudge is her sibling as sometimes we find her trying to feed him using her spoon or trying to brush his teeth using her tooth brush which is gross but we have managed to explain to her that fudge uses his own and when she wants to brush his teeth she collects his tooth brush.
She has developed a love for shoes!!!! Trying to explain to her that you cant wear two shoes on one foot!!!! eventually after an hour I gave up and just wore two different shoes. She walked all day in one pink and one white shoe very contented.
 She has 8 teeth, four at the bottom and at the top , although tonight as I was applying teething gel I felt another tooth probably a molar. Part of it has cut through. we are so blessed that she doesn't get fussy or sick when she is teething.
Loves the out doors, and will literally bolt as soon as the door is opened.
She is a fussy eater and we are still feeding her baby food stage four though. Loves anything with chicken, lamb and pringle chips.
She still wont have any cereal for breakfast, instead loves her fruit. I'm not complaining about that.
Is such a daddy's girl.
Loves her bed time story time, she even gets up after getting dressed after her bath and picks up her favourite book and hands it over to either daddy or me to read.
She is absorbing a lot of what we do, like laying the bed- I always flip  the sheets and its so cute finding her doing the same. This morning after I changed her diaper and placed it in the disposable bag, she got up picked it up and walked out of her room with it. I eventually followed her and found her putting it in the bin in our bathroom.
Loves to share her toys and food.
Is still afraid of people and will run and hide behind me when someone approaches up.
Still has separation anxiety big time, and thanks to that we cant have anyone baby sit he besides Wayne and I.
Loves her bath time, and has learnt how to unplug the bath so after I have bathed her I leave her in the bath until all the water is drained, then she calls out to be picked up.
She is wearing 12 to 18 months clothes and some 18 months depending on the cut.
She is still on breast milk. She wont drink any juice but loves water.
She is able to climb up an down the couch.
She is a busy body and I'm  thankful for that because we do things together all day.
Sarah loves to unpack the dish washer, especially the cutlery, she picks them one at a time and hands it over to me to put in the drawer. She is such a little helper.
She has also developed a love for writing, the other day I found she had scribble on the duvet in black ink, not looking forward to washing it as I'm the one who hand washes it, So we got her come coloured pencils and she is having a ball with them. I hope he doesn't start writing on the walls.
All in all she is doing great and we cant complain. We love her to bits. its strange how we were talking that we actually miss her when she is sleeping. Sometimes I'm so tempted to wake her up but I wouldn't do that. I cant thank Wayne enough for giving me the opportunity to stay at home with Sarah and get to se all these lovely things she does and watch her grow into the lovely child she is.

Baby sitting/ play date

On Friday morning I received a call from our friends Daniel and Camilla, they were asking if I had received their message. Thanks to Sarah, I hadn't seen the message. They asked if I could baby sit their adorable baby Thomas, so they could go to the temple.
 I gladly accepted the opportunity to spend time with their little one and knowing Sarah would be over the moon to have him around. It had been a while since we had him over. The first time I baby sat him he was just 7 days old. She loves him and he loves her too, how can I tell? Every time she stands in front of him and bends over to look at him he smiles and chuckles and when I do the same I receive nothing no smile.
He is so laid back and just having two babies in the house does something to my heart. I vision us in the future with Sarah having another sibling and getting on well. She loves sharing generally with every one and when he is around she wants to share all her toys and food with him. Then I try to explain to her in a way she can understand that he is too young to eat but they can share her toys. She sits next to him most of the time and even when he is on the swing, she pushes it gently while cooing over him. Its so cute. She isn't jealous of the attention he gets from me, when he is being tended to.
I love more each day, never thought I could this kind of love.



It was wonderful to experience this stage of babyhood again if I may say.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

13 months old

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that our baby girl has grown this much and is now a toddler. sob sob. Sarah turned 13 months and time has flown it feels like she was born yesterday.
She is such a strong and active child. sometimes when she gets hold of something that she isn't allowed to have, to get it from her I have to use two hands.
she has such a charming personality though is scared of people.
 That is anyone besides mommy and daddy. when we are out and someone walks towards us she will run behind me while clinging onto me.
she is very talkative, says the same words, come, dada, jiji and udgy for fudgey our dog which sometimes gets fudge so confused. when he is being naughty and asked to go to his bed, as we tell him go to bed, Sarah shouts come so fudge just stands confused not knowing what whether to go or stay.

she has eight teeth, still eating mostly bottled food, though has a love affair with pringles and french fries. she does love chicken as well.
she is wearing size 12 to 18 months dresses and some 18 to 24 months. I think this all depends on the make. the last time we took her for a weigh in was in December and she weighed about 9.9kg head circumference was 46cm and she was 74cm long. she has  now moved to her room and is sleeping through the night woohoo. Loves story time before before bed, she always picks the same book- guess how much I love you.
 She loves to dance and her favourite song is lights by Ellie goulding. she always brings the ipad to me asking me to play the song. And loves to sing especially the hive song. she loves to watch the Disney channel and her favorite is mouk and she also enjoys Jake and the neverland pirates. Although I think I enjoy all the Disney junior shows way more than she does.
she is still breast feeding and will not drink juice but loves water. I'm not complaining about that .
how could I forget, she started walking at 12 months, it was such a bad day for us as a family, I will blog about that when i have the courage. but Sarah just got up and walked across the room.
 
she is still daddy's little girl. Last week she was fussy before bath time so when I put her in the bath she screamed pushing her head out towards Wayne's direction for him to come and when he came into the  the bathroom she stopped crying.
loves to bath, and loves the outdoors, waling about bare feet on the grass or pushing her doll pram and walker around.
Still has separation anxiety and is overwhelmed on Sundays at church as lots of people want to carry her but instead she slaps me. It's like she is mad at  me for allowing people to touch her.
Im just so gratefult to wayne, for giving me the opportunity to stay at home with her because there is nothing in the world that I could compare to the time we spend together, of watching her grow and have her firsts. Which we have been so blessed to be there when all her first happened. Daddy has been there with it too.
Sarah words can't express how much we love you and what you mean to us. Thank you for making our world perfect. That been said, this is a rare side of Sarah that we see.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Nursery Transition

 Two months before Sarah was born I moved to Durban and lived with mom and dad because my gynae is based  there. When I left joburg for Durban I didn't take time off to work on the nursery. I think Friday was my last day and we drove down that very night. So when Sarah was born, for the first three weeks of her being around we stayed in Durban with mom and dad. When we got home her nursery was no where in condition for her to sleep in. We decided she would sleep in the  bassinet and when she outgrew it, we would move her into the camp cot in our bedroom. 13 months later she was still sleeping in our room and had even graduated from sleeping in her bed to sleeping in our bed! I would put her in the cot and when she woke up in the middle of the night, mama was too tired to feed her and put her back so I would just bring her into bed with us.
 
she was on a routine so when she went to bed at 7pm, we would have to be so careful, shower in the dark, look for stuff in the dark , had to whisper and most of all no watching TV in bed so we wouldn't wake her up. and instead of sleepingnthrough thennight like she was doing before we went to kenya, she would wake up about 6 times to feed and go back to sleep. we werent getting enough sleep, it was ok during the holidays as Wayne was on leave but when he returned to work it was a different story because of breast feeding I was basically sleeping on one side as sarah only nurses from one breast, I woke up sore every morning and I decided enough was enough we were evicting her from our room. she plays in her room everyday goes and unpacks the drawers and toys so I didnt think she would freak out sleeping there without doing it gradually. At 9 months I had decided it was time for us to move her to her room but Wayne was like its too soon, lets wait.

It's now a week today and we are having the time of our lives! Sarah is sleeping much better waking up once a night and I have cut out the breast feeding at night. The first night was scary, she literally was looking for my boob in her sleep and slapping and pulling, I felt so guilty but I had to persevere. She woke up about 5 times and at some point I ended up sleeping on the carpet in her room while saying mommy is here. But it has since gone down, although I'm not getting enough sleep. I keep on waking up thinking I didn't hear her cry.
she has come to accept that its her room and well she seems pretty happy. There is positive progress.