Posts filed under ‘12 December 2009’
A Summer’s Day
Monday and Tuesday were so hot that Erik and Mama spent most of their day inside keeping windows and curtains closed. In the afternoon the garden called for water though so after Erik’s nap Mama set up his little pool and out into the garden they went.
But Mama, I’m not even AWAKE yet.
Oh, you mean …
… there’s WATER involved?
That changes things of course. OK, let’s see …
Ah, THERE!
But to be honest, I find THIS …
… MUCH more interesting!
SPLASH!
Such fun – oh yeah! 
Happy New Year – Second Try
And here they are – meet pround puppy parents and busy house improvers Angie and Clinton:
Upon their arrival Glenn already had a nice fire going in our indoor braai – not that we needed the warm coziness with our current temperatures.
We chatted a lot of nonsense and ate way too much.
Glenn man. Glenn grill braai roll.
And after some bubbly and watching some fireworks in the distance from our deck we played 30 seconds.
The girls won of course (cough cough).
Glenn and Meli found the evening very boring.
Not.
Erik slept through everything. We suspect that maybe he needs noise and action in the house to sleep well because he woke up as soon as Mama and Daddy finally went to bed after 2am.
Besides that Meli found a cute little visitor by her bed.
Anyway maybe Erik just slept so well because he was exhausted from helping clean the house in the afternoon.
Finally we must mention that Mama and Daddy are so proud and amazed at how Erik seems to learn new words every day. Most recently he has added Doey (Joey), boat, teddy and nuki (dummy) to his vocabulary. He also says PAAAAAAAAAAAAARTY that Uncle Ashley taught him and which means bouncing like mad on someone’s arm. His favorite one is DADDY though and he tells Mama AAAALL about DADDY when he’s not there.
“Daddy babble babble babble DADDY babble babble Daaaaaaaaddy!”
Happy New Year To All Of You!
A new decade has started and we hope it started great for all of you.
We spent the last hours of 2009 with our neighbors and friends Angie and Clinton.
- AND NOW WORDPRESS IS REFUSING TO LOAD THE PICTURE, SO DROP BY TOMORROW TO FINALLY MEET THE FAMOUS COUPLE AND SPANIEL PUPPY PARENTS -
Family Braai
After we spent Saturday the 26th mainly recovering from Christmas Day we drove to Worcester on Sunday for a family braai at Glenn’s sister Cindy’s. Although Meli felt very lazy that day she also always finds Worcester worth the drive – apart from the obvious (seeing Cindy & Family) the landscape is just so beautiful. While Glenn took care of the braai together with Hugo, Erik and Meli enjoyed the garden and the nice busy-ness of Erik’s cousins. It’s so nice that Michael and Erik are almost the same age. Michael even started walking around the same time as Erik!
It’s funny – at times they seem like such big boys already, but when they cry they are suddenly babies again.
Good thing there wasn’t much crying
Niki’s new trampoline proved to also be a great place for relaxing …
… and drawing. Erik loved Niki’s Etch-A-Sketch!
He was completely absorbed …
… and documented everything that was happening.
When Dad popped in to check on the fam…
Erik was once again busy with Uncle Ashley who is just SO much fun!
Erik is determined …
… to be just as cool as his uncle.
Meanwhile Marcello and Niki had lots of fun together playing cricket …
… and going wild on the trampolin.
Erik admired the big boys.
Marley had such a hard time enduring the delicious smells from the braai and not being allowed near it.
We left much later than planned.
It was way past Erik’s usual sleepytime and we’d expected him to go straight to sleep in the car. Instead he was in the best mood all the way home, but as soon as we stopped the car in our garage at 9pm he started crying bitterly as if he’d just realised how late it was, so it was a quick bottle and straight to dreamland for tired little guys (soon followed by Mommy and Daddy!)
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells….
Christmas Eve was quiet here. As we were expecting a full house the next day it was only Mama and Daddy who unwrapped presents with Erik on the 24th.
He found the first present already so exciting …
… that he didn’t pay much attention to the ones that followed. Except for this one:
Dad desperately tried to draw his attention to the new Lego set, but that just couldn’t cry or say “Mama” as nicely as Erik’s new baby.
Later Ashley and Jackie came home and (according to German tradition) we enjoyed Bratwurst with potato salad …
… and afterwards Jackie’s delicious Chilean Christmas bread.
By the way Meli got this “Circle of Friends” candle holder from Ashley and Jackie. It fits so perfectly onto our kitchen table around which everyone always likes to gather.
Before and during supper Erik got creative by drawing his first picture with his new crayons.
If Christmas Eve was quiet, then Christmas Day was the opposite.
Santa had found his way to us.
The day already started busy as Glenn and Meli prepared for everyone’s arrival around 11am. With all the busy-ness Erik thought Mama wouldn’t notice him in the doggy beds (where he’s not allowed).
After being chased out he tried to get to the presents, but somebody had forseen this. Poor Erik!
In Meli’s family Christmas cards used to be put up on the banister. This year she started this old/new tradition in her new home.
She reckons she will have to write more Christmas cards in the future in order to ever have her banister look like the one in her parents’ house.
As soon as Cindy and her family arrived from Worchester …
… we could finally get to what the kids had impatiently been waiting for – the unwrapping of the presents!
It was crazy! Erik and Micheal both wished they were as big as Niki so that they could also play with such a cool remote controlled car.
When everything was unwrapped, admired and tried out we moved on to the second most important thing that Christmas is about – FOOD!
Jackie did a wonderful job decorating tht table.
By the way, what you see on the plates are Christmas crackers – a South African tradition. Read more about it here to learn why everyone’s looking so funny: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_cracker
The absolute highlight (again) was Dolores’ TRIFLE. MJAMMMMMMMMM!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifle
The rest of the day was spent playing (kids) and chatting (the rest of us). What a nice family day – if only Meli’s family could have been there, too!
And here we all are:
From left to right: Hugo with Niki, Glenn, Cindy with Michael, Meli, Nan, Dolores, Erik and Granpa, Jackie, Marcello and Ashley.
Here you can see just the Ross/Rabies:
And finally Dolores and Steve with their grandkids:
Ready, Set, …
The tree is decorated and the presents are wrapped. Uncle Ashley is here with Autie Jackie and Marcello. Christmas can come!
Merry Christmas To All Of You From Us Rabies!!
Click here to see the Rabie Elves dance for you:
New Cot Bumper
Erik has been a restless sleeper lately and he has developed this habit of sitting up in bed and then just collapsing somewhere. Often he collapses against the side and although it usually doesn’t even wake him up, it does hurt us to hear the THONK.
So Dad insisted we buy him a cot bumber. This cot bumber came with a matching duvet and Erik LOVES the new look of his cot. As soon as it was set up he just wanted to get in there and stay.
Very proud!
Very cute!
Erik’s New Playroom
You may remember that for quite some time we’ve been busy turning the former upstairs guestroom into a playroom for Erik and a study for Meli. We must admit that in the beginning it sounded like a fun idea to paint the playroom ourselves. It also promised to be a romantic couple project.
Later we ended up reluctantly taking turns and moaning and groaning about it too.
It was especially hard to get ourselves to paint in the evenings after a long day.
But in the end we made and were mighty proud of ourselves!
And this is what it looks like now:
The ladder is out now. We just needed it to replace a bulb. The ceiling is very high which made painting such a mission.
We got this butterfly at Butterfly World. http://kohlrabie.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/if-you-should-see-a-butterfly-upon-a-sunny-day/
And this is our gallery of cousin Anna’s art work (we’re hoping for more *hinthint*).
Flashback
Before more time passes I do still quickly want to report on our little hike in the Tygerberg Nature Reserve.
As I said before it’s an about 5 to 10 minutes drive up the hill from where we stay. Unfortunately dogs aren’t allowed in. Otherwise we’d probably be walking there all the time.
Sorry, Mia and Joey! No Gassi for you 
Boris took FOREVER packing his backpack. Erik thought about taking another nap.
When we left it was overcast and Meli praised the weather for being so ideal for hiking.
When we got there the sun was laughing from a blue sky and it was exactly noon. Meli couldn’t find Erik’s sunhat (which she KNEW she’d packed) and his carrier sunroof neither.
Poor Erik had to wear Dad’s cap.
At first we thought the reserve was closed, but it turned out the guard had closed the gate because this tortoise …
… kept trying to make a run for it. It sure was some rebel. It even went for Boris’ foot!
We chose the Tortoise Trail and Meli panted so much that she didn’t take any more pictures after this one …
… until we reached the top. Here’s the view again: http://kohlrabie.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/bye-bye-boris/ It’s all a bit small and for those of you who haven’t noticed – that’s Cape Town city all the way on the left.
It was tempting to walk further although Meli was a bit reluctant at first thinking that going all the way down there inevitably means climbing back up again later.
Well, we did and it was worth it. This is the view back up the hill.
Here you can see one of the many housing developments in South Africa that Meli still finds an unusual sight and that reminds her of the United States. Rows and rows of identical or very similar (and often very nice!) houses.
On our way back …
… all of a sudden something fell out of Erik’s carrier. Surprise surprise! It was the … sunroof!
Erik got so snoozy from all the rocking that he almost dozed off.
Back on the tar road we headed straight for the (guess) …
… where we enjoyed a short, but well deserved break and snack …
… before heading home where Granny was already waiting for us.
When we
