Little Something

Nothing much happening around here besides Glenn being busy at work and Meli being busy planning changes to house and garden.

Nonetheless here some pictures of Erik looking smart and ready to go shopping with Mama …

… and Mia getting stuck under our bed during the last thunderstorm. There is more space UNDER the bed then around the edges. Meli actually had to pull her out sideways.

Since then Erik has added the word STUCK to his favorites. He actually loves getting things (including his own hands) stuck somewhere on purpose to loudly state that it’s STUCK!

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

Valentine’s Day

First Erik was a bit sick, then Glenn was a little sick and then Meli got really sick with the cold and coughed around he house for the past week. This has left her with a serious lack of energy and – even worse – no motivation or creativity whatsoever to write a blogpost.

There wasn’t much to report on anyway besides her feeling miserable and sorry for herself.

Well, we think it is high time now to at least tell you a tiny bit about our Valentine’s Day which turned out to be a really nice family day!

It was a very hot day and after Erik’s morning nap we drove to the NURSERY (happy Meli) – looking all cool – …

… where we didn’t buy any plants (believe it or not), but had a very nice lunch and Meli enjoyed a strawberry milkshake while Erik went exploring with Dad. He especially enjoyed walking on pebbles and spinning the Bugz Playpark sign around while knocking himself over with it again and again.

Afterwards we drove home for a family siesta.

Recharged we hopped into the car again in the late afternoon – this time with the dogs – and drove to the beach for a nice walk …

and – to round things off – a yummy ice cream to go.

Belated happy Valentine’s Day to all of you from us Rabies!

Tantrum

Lately it’s been difficult to take pictures of Erik because as soon as the camera comes out all he wants is to see the pictures of the “Baba” on the display.

It starts quite harmless.

Lalalalalaaa… watcha doin’? Oh, what’s THIS?

Uuuuuhhh… it’s the thing with the baby pictures! Leme see, lemme see the baaaaby!

Sniff sniff … I want to see the baby. Why won’t you let me see the baby?

Please, Mama, let me see the baby! Pleeeease!

I NEED to see the baby! Show me show me!! Ahhhh, waaahh!

BABA! BABA! BAAAABAAA! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Ahhhhhhhhhwahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa… !!!! I can’t BEAR it!!!!!!!! You are so MEAN! Babaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

It may sound mean, but Mama admits she couldn’t help laughing at him and his show.

This morning …

just wanted to add – this morning Meli watched Erik wake up. He opened his eyes, sat up and said LATO! Then as a car drove by he said CAR! Brmm brmm brmm …

Then he turned to his Daddy and said DADDY! EI! (which means gently and caressing) and started stroking Daddy.

Too cute!

By the way, he also says TEDDY.

Doppelt Genäht Hält Besser

In German we say “double-stitched lasts longer”.

These days we have to keep Erik’s dummies out of his sight or he will insist on having them. Meli calls them “Nuckis” and Erik now calls them “Nunu”.

Sometimes even one isn’t enough!

Anyway, so Meli hides the Nunus away except for when it’s sleepytime. Otherwise we would just miss out on too much of what our little boy’s got to say!

He is like a parrot now and tried to copy everything we say – most of the time quite successfully! Over the last couple of days Meli has made a list of words that have so far become a permanent part of his vocabulary. So far it is at 38 (!) words – and some he knows in English and German! Here’s the Erik dictionary:

da! (= there!), Mama, Daddy, Ei (= egg), up, down, Mia (he has changed it to Mima lately), Doey (= Joey), light, car/Auto, an/on, baba (= baba = Afrikaans for Baby), Nena, Nunu, doggy, puppy, Bu (Buch/book), boat, ba (bath), Nana (banana), nose, gone/weg, apple, Ball, poo, Pipi (wee), loo, key, no/nein, mi (milk, Milch), Leine (doggy lead), Arm (pick me up!), Lato (Ventilator, fan), Mann/Manno! (when Mama gets upset).

Besides this he supports Mama and Daddy when they tell the dogs GO, STAY and OUT and he knows several animal noises such as miaow, wauwau, moo, eek eek (Guinea Fowl), grunting of the piggy, ee ee of the mouse …

Not only Erik, but also Mama and Daddy love that Erik can now finally TELL them many things he wants! The other day he even told Daddy “light on up” and pointing at the light switch, meaning that he wanted to be picked up to switch on the light.

His very favorite at the moment nevertheless is the LATO. From the moment he wakes up throughout the day and until he goes to sleep he can’t get enough of telling us about the fan in his room and that he wants it ON (he used to be afraid of it, but now that it’s got a name it seems to have lost its scariness).

Erik seems to pick up new words every day. Who knows – maybe sometimes he feels the need to put a stop to all those new words coming out of his mouth.

NUNU!

Junior Surfer Dude

Yesterday Ant, Erik and Meli had breakfast at Sandbar in Camps Bay. This should look familiar to Meli’s family:

Erik enjoyed it – for about 10 minutes after which he had thoroughly explored the table, finished his lunch and was ready for new adventures.

Too bad that by that time Ant and Meli had hardly even placed their orders, so breakfast couldn’t exactly be called relaxing – despite of the fabulous location. The girls reckon they might have to put their traditional breakfast on hold for a while and replace it with picnics on the beach – the poor things!

Beaches certainly are a great place for parents where they can actually relax while their toddler runs around to his heart’s content! That’s why our tuna and avo sandwiches were gulped down in record time and we soon headed across the road to dip our toes into the white sand.

It was Erik’s first time to the beach since he started walking, but he soon found his balance …

… and headed after Auntie Ant.

Aunts are great babysitters!

Main responsibility of babysitters for 15 month olds: keep up!

And explore everthing with them.

(by the way in this cheat-panorama you can see Lion’s Head on the left and Table Mountain from the side on the right with the cable car station on top)

We even managed to lure Erik into the water – at least to a spot where the waves reached his feet, …

but he was positively horrified and there was lots of crying – maybe due to the scary wave coming towards him or maybe to the freezing temperature of the water; or maybe due to both.

So as the tide came in we moved FAR away to where Erik felt safe and where he could practice his surfer moves. He reckons he’d rather get into the water with a dry suite when he’s big.

We admit we understand. As tempting as it looks, it does have to be a particularly hot day to get us to jump into the Atlantic as well.

Feeling much more comfortable Erik even went for a walk by himself. (here you can see the Twelve Apostles in the background)

Finally he took a shower (more screaming) and we all moved on to SINFUL ICECREAM EMPORIUM where some delicious scoops concluded this holiday-like outing.

We were hardly back in the car and Meli was just saying to Ant how she would have a hard time keeping Erik awake on the drive home … when she looked back and the little surfer dude was already in dreamland.

He was so exhausted from all the excitement that at home he even went straight from his carseat to his cot where he continued to dream his little surfer dreams.

Busy Saturdays

Last Saturday we “borrowed” one of Angie and Clinton’s casual workers – in fact the one and only Asunda! – to help us around the garden. His main job that day was to remove the rediculous remains of our hedge (in case you missed that, here’s the story: http://kohlrabie.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/over-the-hedge/

And here’s Asunda busy with the hedge (which had incredible roots) and Mia doing quality control.

Not a trace of the hedge is left now and in a few days time we’ll finally put a new fence up.

Meanwhile Glenn decided that he can’t dawdle around while Asunda is working so hard and took on the huge job of tidying up our garage. This kept him occupied all day long.

Erik found all this most fascinating and Meli had a hard time coaxing him away again whenever the two of them came to check on Dad.

Meli on the other hand felt incredibly useless in comparison and was terribly bored all day. The only thing that felt like a success to her was saving these old lamp shades from the bin and turning them into lanterns for the deck table.

So kann man auch mit kleinen Sachen

Meli eine Freude machen.

(Little things can make Meli very happy)

Well, the garage looks spectacular now – almost homely – and we will post pictures soon of course.

Yesterday Asunda was here again and he and Glenn started fixing the sprinkler system; a frustrating job as once one hole is fixed and the water flows through that section nicely, it then spurts up a few meters further on and the work begins anew. Glenn’s now really into it and determined to get this done. He has also decided that we shall have a beautiful, luscious and presentably lawn – quite ambitious during African summer.

This has resulted in – you won’t believe it – HIM “dragging” Meli to the nursery today to get weedkiller and lawnfood; and he even agreed to buy two lavender bushes for the new empty space by the post box. Who would have thought!

Holiday Feeling on Memory Lane

Even though we live so close to the sea we sometimes go for weeks without seeing it (at least without seeing it up close as we do have a glipse of False Bay from our house).

Every time she is by the sea Meli resolves to come more often as it just generates this unique holiday feeling which leaves you relaxed and recharged.

So last Sunday while Glenn and Erik went to visit Granny and Oupa …

… Ant and Meli went for drinks at sushi restaurant Wakame in Mouille Point.

Mouille Point is where Meli stayed with Glenn before they moved into their house in Greenpoint.

It’s Meli’s favorite beach front in town! It may not be as picture perfect as Camps Bay or Clifton, but the rocks and the kelp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelp

at Granger Bay,

the promenade and the waves breaking hard against it, somehow give it an irresistable touch (Meli thinks at least). It’s also the people one meets there – the runners, dog walkers, romantic couples and families …

… and the memories of course. This is where we spent our first weeks together, where we used to walk Joey and Mia, where we did our kayak course, where Meli came on 01 January 2007 (the day after her arrival back in Cape Town) to sit on the rocks and watch life in the rock pools.

Where she called her sister sitting on one of the promenade benches on that same day, where Thomas and Katrin got married in the light house, where she went for pizzas with Glenn or friends or her Dad and Erik (when he was only one month old).

Where she actually went running on the promenade a few times and was rewarded with the most glorious sunrises.

Anyway, somebody is getting all sentimental here. Sorry!

OK, where were we?

Oh, yes – happy Meli having drinks at Wakame …

… enjoying the view (that’s Robben Island in the background) …

… and resolving to finally get serious about kayaking (see that tiny kayak there?) !

Some of you may recognise this view from the pictures Meli sent out in June 2007, taken from Glenn’s balcony.

Sigh!

As you can imagine these two hours were like a little holiday!

When Meli dropped Ant off she took the opportunity to take a few more shots of the house she lives in which she thinks is such a little jewel in the middle of Gardens, Cape Town.

Lucky Ant – this is where she gets to enjoy her morning cup of tea – and a perfect view of table mountain up (very!) close!

Yucca Beauty

It’s amazing that dry soil can produce such an ocean of colour. Almost weekly we can admire another – up to now hardly remarkable – bush, shrub or grass come into flowering season.

The greatest surprise so far was what our yuccas in the front yard had in store for us.  So far they had just been spiky things which Meli wanted to have taken out right away (not Feng Shui). Then they started sprouting long mysterious stems. Finally one day they presented themselves as the absolute queens of our front yard!

Aren’t they magnificent?

Three did have to go though. They were placed so badly that they not only posed a threat to any visitor coming down the front stairs, but also kept Meli from get the post out of the post box as it was almost impossible to open without getting stung – and man, do they sting sore!!!!!!!!!

Now there’s one left by the post box. The others will soon be replaced by something very harmless – like lavendar bushes.

Fashion Show

Last Friday Erik and Mama were at Tygervalley Shopping Centre http://www.tygervalley.co.za/. Exhausted and tired they were just on their way to the exit when Mama decided that NOW is the opportunity to finally buy Erik a new sunhat.

His old one which you will have seen on many pictures he’d been wearing since our visit to Germany last June (thanks H&M!) and it had been too small for him for a long time already.

Instead of one we bought four and after a refreshing lunch and nap it was time for a photoshooting which Erik seemed to enjoy a lot!

And here they are. We proudly present:

The Baby Blue Hat:

The Navy Blue Hat:

The Beige Cap:

Peekaboo!

And finally the Baby Blue Cap:

This one seems to be his favorite. It even made him start to STRIP!

I’m … too sexy for my cap … too sexy for my cap …

You know, Mama, I think when I grow up I wanna be a …

Mama missed the rest because her fingers ended up in her ears and she involuntarily started singing.

LALALALALALALALALAAAAAAAA