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.
