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Christmas Party at a friend's house

Kate and Oma

james and the giant umbrella :) not really.

James reading to Kate while she sits in a plastic box

Kidlets and other interesting inanimate objects..

Our Christmas Tree

James with Santa hat. These were taken by a professional photographer and both James and Kate were very unsure.

Kate with tinsel

Very first 'South African' haircut - ie very short! :)

Kate on the duck at the hair salon

Kate and her watermelon

Christmas, New Year and everything in betwixt...

Happy New Year! 2007 - a year with no new babies for me. Hee hee...we hope!
I feel totally cooked-, cleaned-, washed- and entertained- out. I'm sure many of you feel the same way. I'm starting work at the office tomorrow morning. I will be going in for 4 hours for a few weeks to accustom myself to working procedures etc etc and then will be able to write from home after that. Sooo anxious - it's been 6 years + since I started work in an office environment. Anyway, do not feel particularly ready, since things have been so crazy here of late. I had a huge to do list with things like organizing Katie's old clothes, sort out James's toys after Christmas and I have done NOTHING! Anyway, have also been without darling Siza for past 3 weeks and realise how disgustingly spoilt we are here once again. Washing has piled up - because ironing is particularly detrimental to my health - (hee hee) and dust bunnies are running rampant.

Rein's birthday yesterday, so we have had guests or gone to guests for 3 full days now. Yesterday, we had guests arrive unexpectedly for breakfast, more for lunch with more unexpected hangers-on, more for tea and then Rein's folks arrived at 6pm for birthday cake and a ride to the airport! Crazy crazy!

Christmas was fun! We hosted it here for the first time and after all the food prep was over, it turned into a fabulously entertaining day. We played DDR (Dance dance revolution) on Xbox and everyone, including all the grannies and grandads got involved. James came out of his little shell and danced madly for everyone, even doing headstands and funny acrobatic movements. Me thinks he had a bit of the gin & tonic that was floating around. :) After kids were in bed, all the adults settled down to a respectable (ha!) game of poker. Both Rein and Ian (my brother) got a set for Christmas and were very excited to show their expertise. However, it's often the tortoise that wins - and yours truly took home a huge pile of chips by the end of the night. Pity we weren't playing for real money that night!

Things I'm looking forward to in 2007:

• Laura Rudman visiting from London for her sister's wedding in 3 weeks
  
• Kathy, Craig and kids visiting in Feb from Seattle for a MASSIVE catch-up feast of yakking. Not long now, hey Kath
• Karen - are you also coming in Feb? Would LOVE to squeeze in a visit too!
• Visiting SEATTLE in JULY!! Yippppeeee! Can't wait!
• And related to the visit to Seattle: I can't wait to meet
• Alex (Anna's brother)
• Anja (Heide and Maria's sister)
• Marie (Jake's sister)
• Rose and Pat Miller's new addition arriving in June
  
• Laura and Jeff's first little baby! (s0 excited to hear about this, Laura!)

You guys have been busy out there.

Will leave you with some piccies of the monsters.

Love to everyone. May your 2007 be beautiful, exciting, romantic, brilliant and especially happy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all of my friends in the US,


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


Lots of love,
US

PS. Made my pumpkin pie today from scratch. Quite proud, actually. Will report back on taste tomorrow. :)

First mouthfuls and spiders!

Getting ready for the first mouthful

Yeeeuuuggghhhh. What is that Mommy? Are you crazy?

Barbara, Barry and little Arwen came to visit on their way to Windhoek from Seattle. We had a brunch under the big tree in our garden. Lovely!

Goodbye hugs

Such fun on my tummy!

The absolutely MASSIVE spider I found in our passage when Rein was away on business! Am determined not to make James scared of insects so very calmly called my Dad who loves all creatures big and small and helped us put Mr Baboon Spider in the garden.

Away for an Age

Can you believe that we've been here for more than 11 months now? December 17th will be the 1 yr anniversary of our arrival. So much has happened. I suppose I've been living in a bit of a rosy world for a while now. I have been loving the close contact with my family and the great 'outdoorsy' life (in the garden) with lots of entertaining (and space to do it). I love seeing the relationship between my folks and the kids - especially James.

On the other hand though, we've had 2 incidents this past week that have shaken my resolve to be completely content with our decision. Our neighbour's dogs were poisoned on Wednesday night. All 6 of them, including a 10 week old maltese poodle. Only 2 survived the attack. Apparently it's a whole crime syndicate that poison all the dogs in a certain street/ area and then target that neighbourhood for holiday robberies while they know that people are away for a while. Isn't that totally disgusting? I was shaken to my core when I found out about it - not only in sympathy for the poor dogs, but also for my family that has now been put in jeopardy. Then today, we were shopping at the mall and my cell phone (my bright pink one, remember) was stolen from my stroller. Damnit! I am just so angry!

We have also recently returned from a rather abysmal vacation. We went to the coast for a week and I had been looking forward to it LIKE MAD! On the 5 hour trip down, James began vomiting violently and this heralded the start to our sad week. James was sick as a dog with gastro and then Rein came down with it (and everyone knows what men are like when they're sick). We basically stayed indoors for most of the holiday and when the men were finally able to venture out again, the weather soured and we were left with drizzle, wind and no time for the beach!

Enough with the moaning, I hear you say. OK then: we did get in a trip to Ushaka Marine World, a spectacular aquarium and water park that easily rivals anything I've seen in the rest of the world. And that, for our third world country, is quite impressive.

Quickly back to the moans now - the horrible last few days has really made me nostalgic for the US. Especially as you gear up for Thanksgiving on Thursday and then Christmas. I am trying to make a 'South African' thanksgiving here, but with no canned pumpkin and so much of the traditional stuff not available, it's going to be a bit weird.

While I was gone from the blogosphere, James turned 3! We have a lovely Winnie-the-Pooh birthday party for the big boy and had lots of fun. I'll post pics of that soon. Attached here are a few pics of his birthday morning and a pic at his school too. Rein's mom bought him a skateboard and all the gear for his birthday - totally age inappropriate, but fun to play dress-up!








Kate is rolling wildly!! Hee hee - not really, but she will not stay put on her back anymore! She also sits tentatively and has recently started a few mouthfuls of solids. Not her cup of tea yet - although speaking of tea, she LOVES a bottle of rooibos tea every now and again. She is interacting quite a lot with all of us and loves touching our faces. James is quite perplexed by this behaviour and we have had to do lots of explaining. She doesn't seem to like her crib much and in fact has totally rebelled about going to sleep in it - she only goes to sleep in her sleep sack on our bed and then we transfer her.

Miserable...

So so angry with myself. Rein bought me a splendid new digital camera as a belated birthday gift. It was small enough to put into my bag so I could snap piccies whenever and not have to wait for the massive genius of the Canon!

Notice I said 'WAS'..... I dropped it DAMMIT!!! And it is kaput - totally stuffed. It had a cool touch screen to view the pics and that shattered. So I am just devastated.

Rein took it surprisingly well. 'My schnok,' he said, 'thank goodness you and my kids are safe. It's just a material possession.' Shoo - what a man!

Siza, our housekeeper, practically ripped her apron for me and said she always cries when things like that happen. It was actually quite sweet and comforting to hear that from her. ;)

So, I will now crawl into bed and try to dream pleasant thoughts and not about self flagellation!

Bad Influence!

This is how it started...

which led to this...

The real purpose of the Bumbo....

Kids in Spring

James showing me the clap-clap song from school

Flower fairy

The nearly completed jungle gym - still needs a slide which will come off the front left and another log ladder on the right. My Dad did a fantastic job - something the kids will use for many many years to come!

What's been happening...

My Dad putting up a jungle gym in our garden. I helped him for a week while he was on leave and Rein has been helping every weekend since. Another picture of the completed (oh well, sort of completed) structure will be posted a little later.

James playing soccer with Kirstin (still Winter grass in this pic)

Mike, Rein, Me and Laura at Moyo celebrating. Can you guess who has been drinking too much?

Grandad (Boepie) and Kate in our garden with camelia blooming in the back :)

Hi dear friends,

Spring has sprung here in Africa! It is wonderful. Everything is coming into bloom in the garden. Lots of crisp white linen and pink as well as floral skirts in the stores for the season (and long skateboarding shorts for men - much to Rein's delight!)

James seems to be settling down nicely at school. Last week he was at home with a bout of tonsillitis - horrid - so this week he has been a bit sad when we dropped him off. I told him a story about a little boy called James Muffin who was sad to go to school, but he and his Mommy thought up a secret sign that she would give him whenever she dropped him off to let him know that she loved him and would be back to fetch him soon. He wanted me to repeat the story 4 times and then this morning he was all smiles at school after the sign. :) Cutie pie boy.

Kate is growing like bamboo. Really -she is so big, but gorgeous and getting ever so cute as well. She smiles lots now and croons to us from about 5:30 in the morning until we decide to get up sometime later. She has a blocked tear duct, poor girl, and so has had to battle with a lot of gunk in her eye and soreness at the edge from all the wiping. Apparently it's a really common thing and nothing should be done until they reach their first birthday (if it's still blocked). I am loving dressing her - especially now that she can wear little summer things. Ooooh, it's just fantabulous!

We've been partying a bit too. My friend, Laura, has been out from the UK to celebrate her 30th here. I'll attach a pic of our dinner at Moyo - an African- themed restaurant where they paint your face during the dinner and have African entertainment every half-hour or so. It was spectacular - although it might have been the red wine that contributed to the scintillating time I had!

Cheesy Grin