This year’s Christmas went far smoother than last year with the kids and their presents. They helped to decorate the Christmas tree when we put it up and did not manage to break too many of the small wooden ornaments. They had a whale of a time ‘helping’.
On Christmas Eve after having had some afternoon biscuits for the whole family we started the ‘Bescherung’. There were no screams about tearing wrapping paper as we experienced last year. This year Emma perfected the art of ripping open Christmas presents as you can see in the video below. They seem to have liked the toys we selected for them. The tractor trailer combination was a complete hit. We had no idea it had so many features when we bought it. The toys of today all have the most amazing electronics built into them. Each of the animals on the back of the tractor Trailer makes its own noise. When you press on the steering wheel the horn honks and lights flash. Dylan loves this one.
Emma’s Godmother gave them a set of musical instruments. These have been the perfect gift. One was a rod with a number of bells attached. We now no longer need to wonder where Dylan is, we can hear him.
We eventually decided to hold back their truck gift and did not open it on Christmas Eve as they where already so over excited and overwhelmed by all the gifts they got. This turned out to be a good choice as they had plenty of fun playing with that today, the day after Christmas.
All in the family have now recovered from the Gastro. Emma was fine by Wednesday. I turned out to be the one who took the longest to recover and am still a little weak from the whole episode. It was not the greatest way to start my December vacation. Anina missed the Gastro all-together.
Yesterday was weighing day for the kids. There is little change in the kids weights. They are however eating as before they got ill so they should soon recover some weight. For now they are both at the same weight approximately that they were 1 week ago.
Well the kids sailed through their 19 month Birthday. Dylan has finally recovered from his bout of Gastro. That was when Emma started to show symptoms as well as me. Emma is having a hard time with it. She throws up at least twice a day and takes the nappies past their design specification. We go through a lot of outfits and bed clothes. It has been hard on all of us.
Dylan lost quite a bit of weight with his gastro. He is down to 11.92kg. We have also had to take him down a nappy size, so he is now the same as Emma on a 4+. He must have been wearing a 5 since he was about 9 months so this is really a change for him. Emma is also down to 11.54kg.
The kids' communication skills are also coming along although their vocabulary is still very limited. They seem to now be babbling to each other. They babble a bit and then the other one seems to understand and do something. On a more real note though their true vocabulary of baby words is about five.
1. There is daa with an emphasis on the last a, that I don’t have the language skills to spell properly. Dylan started this first when he wants you to give him his bottle instead of he drinking himself, which he can do but won’t. Emma has also adopted this and it is always used when you should do something for them or they are giving you something and saying “here it is, it’s yours”.
2. Tata. This was their first word first used by Emma. It is now used in a whole number of contexts. Dylan adopted using the word too. The best context he used it in the other day was when he no longer wanted his lunch, he pushed it away and said ‘tata’. Emma’s latest is to say goodnight to the Christmas tree before she goes to bed. She does it with great gusto as though she is saying goodnight to a visitor. Running up to the Christmas tree and saying ‘tata’ while waving wildly.
3. Thhhhhhh. This is not really a word but something that Emma started doing while eating about exactly a year ago. Then when things were ugly or stinky we would say Thhhhhh to her. She would love it and say Thhhhh for the next 5 minutes. So more recently Dylan and Emma would point at a dustbin or something stinky and go Thhhhhhh. We love it and they use it regularly.
4. Num Num. This started from us saying before their food that they would have num num food. They don't quite get the pronunciation right but they now call all food num nu. They have made the association with the cats food at well. When they help to feed the cats they say num nu. It really is cute.
5. Mama. They use this indiscriminately. It often does refer to their Mom but not always.
Anyway we understand them very well.
Here is a short video of the kids playing on the patio at home with their beach toys:
We had a wonderful time on Holiday. Emma and Dylan got to experience the beach for the first time. They did many other firsts. We flew down to Cape Town. The flight there went really well. It was at 9:00 in the morning which is their usual nap time. So after their take off bottles they both fell asleep. That was really great. Emma slept for half and hour and Dylan for most of the flight. Emma screamed quite a bit on the decent. Unfortunately she had had most of her bottle on the way up and there was little left for the decent. We got through that. Then on the ground it was the long trek to the car rental in Cape Town. Fortunately we got a porter to help us with our luggage. We had four suitcases, two carry cots, two car chairs and the big pram. Excluding the car chairs and the pram our luggage weighed in at a hefty 107kg. Good thing I had bought extra baggage for the flight.
We rented a VW Kombi, the biggest car you can rent. It swallowed all the luggage with ease with the back row of seats folded down. The car seats where also very comfortable to put the kids in and out as they are much higher than in our cars. Dylan and Emma sat a mile apart as in the Kombi you actually can sit between them in their car seats.
We stayed a night in Cape Town in the wine lands and the next day we did mega shopping to have enough food and stuff for the week long self-catering holiday in Strandfontein. It all fitted into the Kombi. Our lunch stop was at Piketberg at the Spur there. This is well suited to our kids. They got crayons to play with but were a bit cranky. The rest of the stretch (350km in total) was the long part of the drive but they behaved beautifully all the way to Strandfontein.
Our apartment was superb. It had two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms a huge lounge dining room area and a separate kitchen all on the same level. Outside there was a fenced in patio that was also huge and a rotating washing line which we used a lot. We really could not have asked for more comfort apart maybe for a dishwasher. The unit was better suited to our little family than our house is, since everything was on one level. Ouma and Oupa stayed in the bachelor apartment at the back which catered well for their needs. They spent most of their time with us in any case. Between Ouma and Anina we certainly did not go hungry.
Emma and Dylan loved playing on the beach. The first day we went it was very windy and so we just walked a bit and could not enjoy the beach. The other times we went the weather was excellent and Emma and Dylan liked sitting on their towels and playing with their beach toys we had brought from home. We tried out the sea a bit. Dylan loved it and wanted to go deeper and deeper even though the water was very cold. Emma only dipped her toe in once and then ran away crying. After that she refused to come near the water.
The drive back went well to a point. We stopped off at Ouma and Oupa’s house to say goodbye and then stopped again at the Spur. This time lunch was a breeze. When we were 20km from our wine farm destination in Cape Town Dylan threw up. We had to stop at the side of the road. A couple of kilometres later he threw up again. By this stage he was out of outfits. He made it to the wine farm. His car seat needed major cleaning.
On the Saturday we went to visit friends of ours in Cape Town who have a little daughter named Lily who is a couple of months older than Emma and Dylan. The kids all played nicely.
On Sunday we completed our “adventure” with the flight back to Johannesburg. Anina had got the kids exited at the beginning of the holiday by telling them they were going on an adventure. They really were.
At the airport the kids got to try out the fancy business class lounge I now get access to with my credit card and liked playing with the toys they have there. The flight back went well apart from the landing. Dylan slept for the whole flight but threw up again all over everything when we landed. Emma did not scream at all on the entire flight, not even on the decent. We ended up just driving home and then straight to the ER at the local hospital as Dylan was running a very high fever. The doctor did not know what was causing the high fever but he got medication to reduce the fever. We got home after 21:00 from the Hospital. What a long day to end the holiday. Dylan went to the Paediatrician on Monday but he could also not find the source of the fever but suspected gastro. On Thursday this was confirmed. He has not been eating very well since his gastro but is starting to recover and no longer has a fever.
All in all a very eventful but very successful holiday.
