A visit to Kalk Bay harbour, May 2010

Mom and Dad had had a bit of a hectic time of it, what with lil Emma being so spotty, her eye swelling up and all.
On top of that of course, we'd both had to take a few days off work cos the nursery / day care wouldn't take her with her all spotty. Sounds like fun but it's not like you can do anything at home when your child is under one... they demand constant attention. And when they're quiet... you just know she's destroying or eating something she shouldn't be.

So we needed a break, a reward. But lil Emma needed one too... cos it wasn't her fault either.

Hence, Kalk Bay... fish and chips (and calamari) and a walk on the pier.

I'm sure the fresh air did us all good. Cabin fever gets you down.

Funny seagulls...

And Emma got to see her first seals... they were quite playful... but claerly hungry for the fish-scraps that the okes were throwing them



Look Emma... seals!


Hungry bugger!

Arf! Arf!




Playing and waving goodbye.

Goodbye.

Emma isn't well! Shame man. (and 2 oceans half marathon)

First thing I'll say about this post is: children are amazing. The ability to get through, with a smile on the face, when fate deals them a crappy hand, is amazing.

I'm so proud of my tough little angel.

Okay, so she looks happy right? Well she was, but underneath that tough, impenetrable exterior was a body ravaged by spots, a mind wondering what was going on.

When we saw the spots all over her ass (it hit her ass first I think) and we thought it was a bad case of nappy rash so we decided a bit of time out of the nappy would be a good thing. So here's Emma streaking around our back garden (okay, maybe just the picnic blanket).

Speaking of the garden, I know, I know,... I still haven't taken photos of our home and put them up... it's on the to do list okay (along with 26-million other things). Here are two... the one's quite dark but I wanted you to see the view from our pool. As it turns out, now you can't see the pool.

Anyway, back to the rash... EXTREME CLOSE-UP!

Emma's feet and bum all spotty.

Then, a few days later, Emma's eye slowly started to swell, and swell, and swell... until it swelled shut. Ugh. It was so gross. While providing me with plenty of photos for her 21st (yes, I'm planning already), it was a tad... gut-wrenching. I mean, she's gorgeous, and then this happens.



We have no idea what caused it... probably an allergy to something, but we don't know what.







And yet she still smiled through it all.

Except when I pulled her eyelids open to wash her eye, then she screamed blue murder.

And, despite her condition, we even went for a ride or two. People were probably like: "Oh, a baby, what a delightffff... ugh, that child is ug-ly!"

Emma continues to explore: May #2

Not content to empty Mommy's clothes onto the floor, Emma added the shoes to the pile...



Using one's toybox as a ladder gains you valuable centimetres when trying to
stroke the puss-puss. Who's a clever girl then?

Of course, it was all fun and games when Emma was emptying Mommy's clothes on the floor. It was, however, a completely different kettle of fish when she found the passage bookshelf. "Hey, these things with different colours COME OUT! Oh boy..."

And so she took them all out, one by one. The entire middle and bottom rows of the bookshelf. She tried to get the top row too but I intervened then. Enough was enough... she was never going to read all these books in a week!




At Julie and Mark's house, Emma learnt a valuable lesson: sometimes puppies fight back.
Yes, there were tears. But lesson learnt, no harm done.



Just chillin, good mates, good chat.
Then... "What's that? I must explore more..."



You can't blame her for wanting to touch them, they were so cute...

And then came the pounce...

But Emma hasn't really learnt "gentle" yet, so maybe the puppy thought she was declaring war... next thing... "Arrrgh! I'll have you little girl!"


But it ended okay, they're friends again.

Emma explores - May 2010 #1

I've said for a while now that I reckon kids are your pennance - and that has become a nickname I use for Emma every now and again when she does something like... this.

You see, when i was her age (and who am I kidding, a lot older too), I did this type of thing...
a lot. So did Cath as it turns out. So Emma is God's way of payback I reckon... have a taste of your own medicine...



She's so careful about the way she unpacks everything... not content to just unpack the shelves, she studiously also unfolds every individual item, feeling it carefully, before discarding it over her shoulder.

She loves the cat too and it has become a tad bit wary of her, finding places where she cannot pinch it and fall on it.

We've also introduced Emma to biltong this month...

and she loved it.

wary that biltong is a bit salty, and you're not supposed to introduce salt or sugar in the first year (apparently), I found to my delight, that you can get special teething biltong with less salt and spices.

Mmm. What's this then? Tastes like... cow. Yummy.

Now that I've had it in my mouth for an hour or so, d'ya want some?

Ta for daddy. Good girl.

Proudly exploring the changing mat.

Exploring the shower... photos not included: her standing up and climbing into the shower to explore the various shampoos and conditioners that Catherine seems to collect.

Davie-poo stayed over early in the month, he seems to be cuddling up to someone but I checked... no girls smuggled into this room!

Two Oceans half marathon

We've ordered our Two Oceans half marathon photos, but until they arrive, these will have to do...
I'll update this post when they arrive.

So in these photos: My sis, Janet; my bro, Martin, Cath and I and Cath's sis, Emma.

Martin ran for a time, so he caught up with us at the end, but the rest of us ran together.

And now April is up to date

Hooray!

Done.

Pretty much up to date now.

Latest news: Emma got spots, was covered in a rash. We were originally told measles but after doctor visit got told it was something else entirely - something less well-known.

Then her eye swelled up so much so that it actually closed. Ugh, shame man. Better now though.

Also - dog kennel has arrived and it now in the back, dogs seem to like it. I need to waterproof it properly.

Garage better. Could probably use it now. A bit clogged still.

Pool guys came round to fix pool. Next day it had problems again.

House nearly ours. Few things still to be done by lawyers.

Windowsills all need to be sanded down, varnished and re-puttied. My next job.

Wendy house will be expensive to repair. Do I really need it? Need a lot of wood.

Work going well, still writing column every now n then.

Cath work going... okay... she's often frustrated by it all.

Youth club numbers around 20.

Newsflash: blog being updated slowly but surely

I'm getting there.

Great joy: I'm finished with January now.

And now I've finished with Feb.

And now March.

April... don't push it okay?

However, because there were some posts up before I started the whole catch-up blog update plan, you may have seen some of the more recent posts and think 'I've seen up to there'. You'd be wrong - because some of the posts I've put up were before then... so look deeper. - use the contents on the left (or right or wherever it is to scroll through a list of the posts).

Oh, and ignore the dates that are above each post... that's only for when I first created a file for each post and has nothing to do with the contents of each post.

Enjoy
-a-