Emma Dancing

Here is a short video of the Emma dancing to “The wheels on the bus go round and round”. These are all her own choreography and dance moves. She just does them herself. As you can see later in the video Dylan is not moved by the music one bit. We think it is really excellent.

Outing to the Botanical Gardens in Krugersdorp

Yesterday was a public holiday in South Africa so we decided to head off to the Botanical Gardens in Krugersdorp. We had actually wanted to go away for the long weekend with the kids, but I was a little slow in getting that off the ground and by the time we started to look for places everything was fully booked. We will have to do another short holiday soon, now that it is spring and the weather is really nice.

We had a great day at the Botanical Gardens. We started off with some lunch. The kids each got their own high chair and a tin of crayons to draw on their menu. They don’t eat from the kids menu yet. Their parents aren't quite ready for that. We still take food for them in restaurants. It was the first time they had encountered crayons and did quite well with them managing not to eat them. They aren’t really that big on putting everything they encounter in their mouths anymore anyway. Emma thought you had to dunk the crayon in the tin bucket before it would write. She is really cute that way. Anyway they both really enjoyed their lunch and held out pretty well. Then we walked them to a shady spot where we put out the blanket and the kids played with their garden toys that we had brought along. We had a lovely time. They can manage short walks.

Emma these days understands a lot of what you tell her to do. You can give her instructions and she executes them, like: “pick up Dylan’s Tigger and give it to him”, when he is in his cot and Emma is walking about. She can do that without batting an eyelid. She also knows very much which are her bed toys and which are Dylan’s bed toys. She gives his toys to him. Her other great trait is that she now knows how to pack up their toys into their toy barrel. So when the end of play time nears Emma will pack all the toys back into the toy barrel exactly as she has seen us do it. She even does the compacting of the toys to make space when it is getting full. It is amazing and saves us from having to do it. We have had plenty of practice. Dylan is not far behind in executing commands. He has some tricks of his own. Anina says the kid's command of English is now as good as her command of German. She can understand if you say something concrete to her and you say it slowly, but she can’t answer any questions. That said, Emma does every now and then point at a location in her room and want a particular toy. If you choose the wrong toy she continues to point until you get it right.

Weights:

Dylan: 12.515

Emma: 11.500

Some new Pictures of the kids at 15 months

Picture of the kids at 16 months

Emma and Dylan at a Birthday party:

Emma at the restaurant and the Botanical Gardens:

Dylan at the restaurant and the Botanical Gardens:

Mommy with Emma:

Mommy with Dylan:

Spring and warm weather are here

It’s been a long time since the last post. Things have just been busy and I’ve been a bit lazy.

Emma and Dylan continue to thrive. They don’t do much new but they are getting a lot better at what they can do. For the last week now, Dylan has learnt how to stand up from a sitting position without any props. This makes it much easier for him to walk. Before he would walk well until he fell down and then would have to crawl until he got somewhere where he could get up again. This was especially a problem when he was outside or in a shopping mall. They are both walking very nicely now with much better balance than before. They can walk one lap around our complex, pretty much by themselves. It takes forever though. They are like little dogs who get stuck at various points along the way. They also have their favourite pieces of grass that they have to walk over. As an example on the last stretch up the hill back to our house they have to walk on the grass under trees and up the steep slopes where peoples driveways are. This as opposed to just walking on the paved road.

This last weekend the weather has been excellent so they have spent quite a bit of time outside. If you look at the videos below you will see them playing. Anina bought them a beach set of toys which we call their outside toys. They absolutely love them.

Dylan is much happier since he can walk by himself. He tends to prance around quite proudly.

Anina’s sister Hannalie and her husband Johnny came to visit us for a week in early August. Johnny took some pictures of the kids. We had a fun week checking out all the local sites.

Weight Stats:

Dylan: 12.5 kg

Emma: 11.375 kg

Here are lots of videos and pictures of the kids as per the many requests I have received:

Too see more pictures click here

Emma and Dylan:

Emma walking in the house:

Emma digging in the garden:

Dylan showing how he can stand up by himself:

Dylan walking on the lawn

Emma playing outside: