Posts filed under ‘05_May 2011’
On a more cheerful note …
… I continue my flashback.
Pssst, don’t tell Erik that one day when he was in kindergarten Lilly got to GO TO THE BEACH!
And here she is, busy busy and super cool in Mommy’s sunglasses.
(Urg? What’s WORDPRESS doing? That’s not the right order! But WHO CARES??? I can finally insert many photos at a time which saves me, like, HOURS!!! Oh, goodie, I can blog myself (and you) insane!! YIPPIEH!)
So, this is not Lilly, but Nena LOVEingly cleaning her feet of sand.
The two lovebirds again.
And again.
There she is! Still all cooool.
Having lots of fun.
Suddenly she demanded to have a look at the “water”. She was very impressed, but refused to go closer.
Pick up sand, throw the sand. Repeat!
There comes Nena – typical Mom. Goes shopping and buys something for her kids. Sounds familiar. Without her I’d be in rags.
Nena, it’s quarter past nine – SCRABBLE time!
Sniff, I think we must start to online-Scrabble.
What’s more exciting – a parcel or a tip truck?
Ok, so when we came back from the baby clinic Lilly was completely exhausted from the injections and mostly from missing her morning nap.
So I packed her into bed and Erik into the car to go for a walk at the dam.
The weather wasn’t exactly inviting …
… and especially after picking up a parcel from Nena and Nobbi …
… Erik tried to convince Mama to stay in the car and listen to his new CD.
Anja insisted though and despite the dark clouds …
… it turned into a very nice walk.
As you know Erik is always happy as long as he can hold Anja’s lead.
Mama: “Erik, stop for a second. Erik, stop please. Erik, STOP WALKING! Ok, now say ‘Hello, Nena and Nobbi!’”
Erik (very obediently): “Hello, Nena and Nobbi!”
CLICK.
The highlight of the morning awaited us at the end of the walk though. While throwing some rocks into the water …
… Erik spotted something FAR more interesting!
A DIGGER AND A TIP TRUCK!
And they weren’t just parking, no, they were very busy moving soil! It was super exciting and interesting …
… until I wanted to move past them. Then he was suddenly very afraid of his beloved and admired vehicles and I had to carry him. 
Still, I’m sure he’s dreaming of this adventure right now as he’s taking his nap.
We’re back!
Geraldine found our camera so we can finally blog again (noooooooo, we weren’t too lazy! Who would ever think think something like that??)
YAAAAWN! This winter weather sure is making me veeery tired; and I must admit that sometimes I’m just too lazy to take pictures or write.
It never used to be like this in Germany – that bad weather would leave me without energy like this. I suppose we get so spoilt here. Plus everyone else seems to be in the same state of hibernation.
Anyway! Let’s get started here.
Erik and I had quite an exiting morning today after I came back from the baby clinic where Lilly got her injections.
It involved a walk, a DIGGER, a tiptruck aaaaaaaaaaaaaand …. a parcel from Nena and Nobbi! Here we are enjoying the content of the latter.
Stay tuned for the whole story!
Happy Anniversary, Nena&Nobbi and Meli&Glenn!
The 24th of May is our and my parent’s anniversary so I decided I HAVE to blog tonight because that is definitely something that will make them happy
There isn’t very much to write about. It’s been a rainy day, Lilly’s sleeping, Glenn’s still busy putting Erik to sleep and the pets are harassing each other as usual.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Erik going to Kindergarten lately and am wondering if we shouldn’t only send him three times a week to start with. Then I could still take him swimming on one of the other two mornings and have nice Erik-Mama-outings like we do now.
Today we went to the aquarium again and had such a great time! We hadn’t been for a couple of weeks and Erik spent a lot of time in front of all the small tanks admiring seahorses, catfish and anemones.
Lately we also particularly enjoy going for walks together. Last Sunday we took Anja for a Gassi in the “Magic Forest” which is just around the corner from the dam and really carries this name.
(recognise the shirt, Mirm? Erik’s still the biggest Lightning McQueen fan EVER!)
At first Erik insisted on holding my hand, but soon he went off to explore and run/jump.
Little tech-geek that he is (like his Dad) he had to take his cell phone along. You should see his face when he tries to use mine via touch screen! I bet he already finds his Mom terribly outfashioned. At the moment he loves pretending to take pictures with his phone, watch movies on it and – occasionally – even make calls with it.
Like when it starts ringing in the middle of the forest.
Ug, what’s that?
Oh, it’s my phone! Hang on …
There we go! (it was Granny by the way)
At the same time he’s also a real Softie. He plucked a flower for instance and exclaimed over it – what a lovely flower he’d found! Then a pressed it to his cheek and sighed “Ohhhh… what a lovely floooower!”
I suppose it may be contagious that his Mama keeps pointing out the beauty of nature to him telling him to look and feel and smeeeeell ….
On our way home from the aquarium for instance we normally take a little detour by the sea in Mouille Point. There we open the windows and SMEEEEELL the sea!
He’s also used to Mama taking pictures of everything like “the beautiful trees on the other side of the lake”.
Afterwards we both had a REALLY good laugh over Anja who went for her first real swim. She got so excited over this that she ran around like a lunatic, tried to jump up on me only to then dive back into the reeds.
She looked horrible! A bit like I imagine the Hound of Baskerville!
And a bit rediculous too. She reminded me of this one Fred Basset comic where his friend Yorkie gets caught in a rain shower and almost nothing is left of him.
In the end Erik found a stick which – of course – had to be poked into the water.
(Poking stick in water) + (Mama busy taking pictures of trees) = wet toddler shoes
Altogether it was a lovely walk though and we all had a great time!
OK, here’s my hubby of almost 2 years! So I will stop babbling now and just wish Nena and Nobbi a VERY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!
More Afternoon Garden Impressions
We had beautiful weather today and once again enjoyed some nice time in the garden after the kids’ nap.
While Erik and Anja were fighting over Erik’s rope …
… Lilly just happily sat in her swing and watched.
She looked so cute in her cousin Marcelo’s hat that I can’t decide which picture to show you – so you get three.
Here’s Erik calming down …
… and Anja looking very innocent.
Lovely Weather, Lovely Company, Lovely Surroundings, …
… lovely walk.
That’s what Erik, Anja and I had yesterday afternoon.
Erik decided to skip his afternoon nap and boy, he is going to do so everyday from now on!
At least that’s what he seems to have decided because he skipped today’s nap, too. After all our walk at De Kraal Recreational Dam and bird sanctuary was such fun that I’m sure he doesn’t want to miss this for some stupid nap in the future (sigh).
He got to do exactly THE things that make his little heart leap with incredible joy:
1. walk Anja
and
2. throw rocks into the water!!
Mommy time + “power” over dog + throwing rocks = very happy toddler
Higher!
Autum has come to Cape Town and the nights are getting chillier.
After Erik and Lilly’s afternoon nap we either take Anja for a walk (with a stop at the playground of course) or we just play in the garden – Erik dressed to get dirty and sick little Lilly looking like the Michellin man.
Today Erik delighted in pushing his sister on the swing.
Lilly loved it.
Then he went stomping through the flowerbed *grumble*, …
… went on the swing “ALL BYSEF” (all by myself), …
… let his digger and truck go down the slide and swung on his rope.
The rope is also Anja’s favorite.
Haha!!
Hi, this is Lilly speaking.
I’m still on my bottle strike and resist more than 200ml daily MAX! Don’t worry about me though – I’m very happy and when I heard that Nena complained that she hasn’t seen my teeth yet I didn’t waste a minute and had a really good laugh just for my beloved Nena!
In fact I laughed so hard I fell over backwards.
Oops!
St. Martin In May and Bottlestrikes
In Germany’s Autumn we celebrate St. Martin’s Day. St. Martin was a generous guy who – as he was riding on his white horse on a cold Winter’s night – met a beggar sitting by the side of the road. The beggar asked for his help as the cold would surely be his death that night. So Martin took his sword and cut his cloak in half, gave on half to the poor man and became a Saint.
On St. Martin’s Day children in Germany traditionally walk together in processions (kindergardens and schools) after dark with their hand made lanterns. Then they all meet in one place where the story of St. Martin is acted out before a great bonfire with an impressive St. Martin on a real horse (at least that’s how I remember it).
In Cape Town we can’t really celebrate this day as the right spirit would be hard to come by on a balmy Summer evening.
Nevertheless the German kindergarden has a Lantern Festival in May which is coming up this Friday. So I’m now busy making a lantern together with Erik.
In order to make your own lantern you must
1. Blow up a balloon
2. Mix the glue
3. Paint the balloon with glue
4. Stick colorful paperstrips on it
5. Go play and let Mama finish the job.
Our piece of art is now busy drying on top of the cupboard. Once it’s finished we will post pictures of course!
Lilly in the meantime was so upset that she is not getting to make her own lantern yet that she went on a bottle strike and has been refusing to take the bottle for days (with few exceptions).
(we’re still not sure whether it’s really due to teeth, blocked nose, sore throat or urinary tract infection. We started her on antibiotics today and are hoping that she will soon be enjoying her milk again)
