Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas 2011

This year the kids understood more about Christmas. It started off when I reprogrammed Emma and Dylan’s Leapfrog toy dog Scout to play three Christmas songs. He randomly selects which songs he plays when you press on his paw. Emma skipped passed all the normal songs and only had him play “Chrismas Songs”.

The kids didn’t quite get how the gifts work. We took them along to the toy shop to help select their own gifts. Dylan fell in love with his digger then. So when we came home after shopping, they had their afternoon nap and then demanded that they want their toys now. There were still 4 days left till Christmas Eve so needless to say lots of explaining was required. When we got to Christmas Eve it was as though they had made piece with the fact that their toys where under the Christmas tree. That was until we started opening them. We all had a great time and the kids really enjoyed their presents.

On boxing day the Dylan decided out of the blue that he wanted to play piano and Emma joined him for an impromptu recital. Then Emma continued to play with the organ settings. See the videos below:

Click here to see the pictures

Emma opening her baby bed and Dylan finally opening his digger
The kids with their wagons
Dylan and Emma playing a modern piece of their own composition
Emma making it look effortless

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Strandfontein and Cape Town December 2011

We had a wonderful holiday. It all started off on a rainy December day. The airport transfer was late due to the bad weather. Our plane was late due to the bad weather. Somehow whenever we go on a local holiday the plane is delayed. The kids are older now so they could manage a little better. Eventually we were on our way in the “green airplane” as Dylan called it. We were lucky again and had 5 of 6 seats in our row. A poor young man (who appeared to be on his first flight ever) got the privilege of sitting at the window seat next to Dylan, who kicked him often while Dylan was trying to get to sleep. Emma slept most of the way on Dylan’s actual window seat which he gave up before the plane took off because he wanted to sit with his Mommy. The kids are much better at flying now and know how things work with taking off and landing since their 4 flights in the last two months.
Our holiday started with a one night stay over in a downtown Cape Town City hotel. We had booked a suite because we wanted some space for the kids. It turned out to be a fabulous two storey suite. The kids slept downstairs and we slept upstairs (See the pictures for more details). The kids were impressed that they had their own TV in their room. They never watched any TV but that wasn’t the point. We went to the Waterfront in the evening to buy some supplies for the rest of the holiday and then later had some dinner. The weather was gorgeous and very warm.
The next morning we got together with Anina’s sister and her husband for breakfast. After breakfast we finished the rest of our shopping and headed north to Strandfontein to meet up with Anina’s parents. The kids were very excited to meet their grandparents. We can’t tell if they could remember them from the previous visit a year before. We stayed in exactly the same place we stayed the previous year. It was wonderful to see how the kids had developed and what they could do now that they couldn’t do the previous year. Our holiday routine this year was far more relaxed since the kids now sleep in the afternoon and don’t need to go to bed at 7pm anymore. This meant that we could do things in the morning and in the late afternoon. We went to Lutzville one morning to take the kids for a ride in their Oupa’s vintage truck. They also got to sit in some tractors which made their day. They both love farm equipment especially Dylan. All to soon sadly our time in Strandfontein was over.
Then it was back to Cape Town. This time we stayed in a magnificent apartment in Mouille Point near the Cape Town Soccer Stadium. I found this treasure on the Internet through a letting agency. It was a penthouse apartment clearly added on top of an older apartment block. This was evident from the fact that the lift only went to the four floorth and we were on the fifth floor. Anyway the view and apartment itself which was huge (200 sq meters with two bedrooms) made up for this in spadesful. We didn’t have much of a schedule planned for this part of the holiday. We ended up eating most meals in the apartment since it was the best place to be in Cape Town with the best view. On the first day the kids spotted the kids train from the balcony and demanded that we had to go there right away, which we did. We ended up riding the train twice after Emma insisted that we needed to do it again. Then we found a slide that was suitable for the kids and they played the rest of the morning on that. (See the videos of this below) We also went to the Cape Town Aquarium. The kids really enjoyed this especially seeing the penguins. They have fluffy toy penguins which Feli gave them from South America they were really keen to see the real ones. Since we are back from Holiday their toy penguins are receiving much more attention than before. They also liked the fish. Dylan seems to remember the sharks most. The last day we went to Kirstenbosch gardens with Anina’s sister and her husband. We enjoyed a beautiful picnic lunch in the gardens. Then sadly the holiday came to an end. Fortunately the return flight had no delays and we were entirely spoilt again and had a full 6 seater row (3 seats on each side of the asle) to ourselves, not that the kids really noticed the difference. They still changed seats often and bounced around a lot.
For the last three days we have been catching up on Christmas Shopping and preparing for Christmas.
See pictures since the Mauritius Holiday
See pictures of the Standfontein Cape Town Holiday
Videos on YouTube:
Dylan playing on the beach in Standfontein
Emma sitting and talking telling stories
Emma and Dylan riding on the toy train through the tunnel
Kids playing on the jungle gym and riding the slide. They had great fun.

Friday, November 18, 2011

More Mauritius Videos

Here are two more videos of the kids playing at the Angel Club. Read the previous blog post for more info:

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Holiday in Mauritius

We just got back from an excellent holiday in Mauritius. It was our 14th Wedding Anniversary and while we were there Dylan and Emma turned 2 and a half. It was a full 10 day celebration. The kids also went on their longest flight (just over 4 hours) ever and the first one out of the country. They have now got some stamps in their new passports.
On the flight there we sat three together on one side of the plane and had one aisle seat on the other side. Emma and Dylan found it hard to believe that the aisle itself between our seats did not belong to us. They wanted to sit and lie in it. SAA provided them with a colouring-in book and crayons that went down very well. The airline hands out the special meals (i.e. the one for the kids) before they hand out the others. This meant that we sat with trays tables down for an awfully long time. At some point Emma kicked against one of the trays by mistake and sent it flying into the aisle. The steward serving drinks to the row in front of us didn’t notice and proceeded to drive his trolley into the pasta noodle salad amongst other things. Only later in the flight, did one of the stewardesses pick up that something had been spilled and had a hell of a time trying to clean it up. Other than that the kids managed quite well.
When we got off the plane the passage to passport control was so narrow that when walking with a child next to you, no one could get past. Emma and Dylan are rather slow walkers so there was an incredible holdup behind us. To add insult to injury when we got to passport control we were shown to the red carpet Premier queue because we had small children and the others who had been held up got to join the long regular queue.
In Mauritius itself the Long Beach Hotel was absolutely wonderful. It's a modern 5 star hotel completed in April this year (2011). Everything is new and very modern yet pleasing and comfortable. Our room was configured with two “roll-away” beds for the kids to sleep in. We especially went for a larger room on the ground floor close to the beach that would accommodate us all. It was wonderful.
We quickly got into a routine of breakfast, beach, kids club (Angel club), lunch at the pool restaurant, afternoon nap that lasted till 6pm and then dinner at 19:30 or 20:00. The kids managed surprisingly well to stay up until 21:30 or 22:00. They were so tired from their morning fun activities that they needed their very long afternoon naps to recover.
The dinners at the hotel were really good and we never got that stuffed chicken feeling. The service in the Hotel was rather variable. Most of the staff were new and the level and type of service you got depended on who you got as a waiter. Our frustration was that we had to always get milk for the kids at a lukewarm temperature. No one in Mauritius knows the word or knows what it means. So we got between very warm and hot milk. Later we started ordering the milk with a jug of cold milk on the side so that we could fix up the temperature. Emma and Dylan were of cause oblivious to complications of their milk and just wanted their milk ready to drink.
We had hoped that the kids would walk a bit more and hence had left the pram at home. Both however developed a need to be carried around which meant that we couldn’t go far at all. Emma especially would insist to be picked up and in the humid 28 Degrees Celsius Mauritian climate you can’t carry Emma or Dylan very far. Our room was fortunately just within carrying distance of the restaurants, hence we only got to see parts of the resort.
We were glad we stayed for 10 days. It was the perfect length. Some more detailed descriptions of what we saw and what we got up to can be found in some of the photos on Flickr. Follow the link below.
Click here to see the many pictures from the Holiday
Emma and Dylan playing in the sea
Dylan in the pool:
Dylan in the main pool
Emma dressed for dinner:
Emma in a pretty dress before dinner
Emma and Dylan holding hands:
Emma and Dylan dressed for dinner - holding hands

Saturday, September 3, 2011

And the railings came down

Last week Saturday was a big day for the kids. Mommy and Daddy finally decided to take the railings off their cots. At first I had planned to put a narrow plank on the side to keep the mattress on, but after the hardware store cut the wood to the wrong length I decided to abandon that project. We found a way of attaching their mattresses to the beds. See the pictures below.

So the kids can now easily climb into and out of their beds without any help. We thought it would be difficult to keep them in their beds but it has gone incredibly well. They were quite happy to climb into their beds on the Saturday night. There was only a small incident at about midnight when Emma fell out of her bed. It’s not far so it was not serious and she was back in dream land in no time. Dylan fell out on Sunday night and since then has also had no problems with “his new bed” as he calls it.

The kids have also started potty training. They both got a potty which they chose themselves in the shop. So far it has been more of game to sit on the potty. The one that Emma chose has a rather large opening so she almost falls in. As a result she prefers to sit on it with the lid on which defeats the point. Dylan’s has a better seat and you can also take his seat off and put it on the big loo. So yesterday they had their first successful wee on the big loo. Dylan managed to produce some drops first. After that Emma had to prove that she can also do it and managed to produce a little wee. Janine made a chart for them to track their potty training progress, so each of them got a sticker on their chart.

Summer finally arrived last weekend and the weather has been lovely so the kids have at last been able to play in their sandpit again and we no longer need to dress them with so many layers. Mommy bought them new summers shoes which they are very proud of.

Stats:

Emma: 14,340 kg

Dylan: 15,140kg

Click here for more pictures of the Kids

Dylan in his cot without railings:

Dylan in his bed without railings

Emma in her cot without railings:

Emma in her bed with the railings removed

Dylan and Emma sleeping in our bed:

Emma and Dylan sleeping on Mommy and Daddy's bed when Daddy was in Cape Town

Dylan and Emma playing with water:

Sunday, August 14, 2011

First Train Ride

Dylan and Emma continue to improve with their language skills. Emma can say complete sentences with all parts of speech. She used to leave out the prepositions but she is including some of them now as well. Dylan doesn’t use any prepositions but his vocabulary is now also vast and he can get most words out. Sometimes they don’t quite say the words correctly and it takes a couple of attempts to understand what they are saying but in general they are talking very well. The difference between now and their Birthday when they turned two is astounding.

Last weekend we went on the newly opened Gautrain between Rosebank and Hatfield. The week before Emma and Dylan and I had been to the Rosebank station to see what it looked like. We had a couple of minutes before the train departed so there was enough time for a picture or two and then we climbed in. Emma and Dylan made good use of the inside of the train as their personal jungle gym while waiting for the train to depart. When it set off Dylan was very excited as was Emma, but then Dylan got scared and started to cry. I think it might have been because the train goes underground, so when it pulls out of the station it is dark. By the time we had pulled into the Sandton station which is also underground he had gotten the hang of it and was smiling again. The rest of the way was enjoyed by all. At Hatfield we got off. The station was really full of people buying their tickets. We walked together with the whole train load of joy riders to the Hatfield shopping centre and eventually on to the News Cafe for some lunch. They could not cope with the new source of customers all being shipped in by the train but we did eventually get fed. Then it was back on the train all the way to Rosebank. We all had a thoroughly good time. The train ride was excellent.

Emma and Dylan turned 27 months on the day before yesterday. They are growing big so quickly now.

Stats:

Emma: 92cm 14.120kg

Dylan: 91cm 14.810kg

Click here to see more Pictures of the kids

Emma, Daddy and Dylan at the train:

Emma, Daddy and Dylan on the Rosebank platform waiting for the train to leave

Mommy and Emma on the train:

Mommy and Emma on the Gautrain

Dylan and Daddy on the train:

Dylan and Daddy on the Gautrain

Emma and Dylan playing with their dolls:

Emma and Dylan playing. Dylan has the play wipes container

Saturday, July 16, 2011

26 Months already

This week Emma and Dylan sailed through turning 26 months old. So what has been happening: a lot of talking. They really started talking since they turned two. Emma is ahead on the talking. She started first with single words and then moved on to two word sentences. She probably knows more than two hundred words already and continues to amaze us by using a word she only heard for the first time yesterday, or using words we didn’t know she knew. In the beginning she stayed with two word sentences for quite some time. In the last two weeks she has however sprouted long sentences with six or seven words. She is like the commentator in a horse race. If we had a blind person living with us, they would know exactly what was going on. It doesn’t matter if you are preparing breakfast, eating or getting dressed, Emma will deliver running commentary on what ever she sees. She also knows what is going to happen next so also comments on this.

Her best interpretation yet relates to the air conditioner. It’s a bit of big word for her. So we refer to it as the aircon, which since it is a particularly cold winter we have had running frequently to heat up their room. Emma is also big on saying things like light on and light off, so she knows allot about on and off. She therefore believes that the aircon is in fact just called the airc. So that is why she says “airc – on” when you switch it on and “airc – off” when you turn it off. It is absolutely adorable. Dylan has of cause also cottoned on to this, so now so he says the same.

Emma is particularly proud of the things she builds with Lego. She comes and shows it to you and then she says: “Emmy make it”.

It’s a lot easier since they can talk. They can now tell you what is wrong and what they want to do. Their favourite word is still “NO”. They use it all the time when they don’t want to do something. They aren’t big on “yes” even through I have been trying very hard to explain it to them. Janine has also been teaching them to be polite so when I give them their tooth brushes in the bath, they both say “Tanx”. These days we are bathing them together. It is working well and is far quicker, they also like it allot. They splash each other and the floor is rather wet when we are done.

They are really growing well. They walk well too now without falling much anymore and are becoming quite independent. Emma however still has days where she just wants to be carried all day by her Mommy.

Stats (They are big):

Emma: 13.810 kg

Dylan: 14.550 kg

See pictures when they were 25 Months

Pictures at 26 Months

Here is Emma riding her bike outside:

And here is Dylan riding his bike outside:

Thursday, June 16, 2011

2nd Birthday party

Emma and Dylan had a ball. They just knew it was their party. Unfortunately Dylan was still recovering from a cold so he was not totally well. The day was absolutely wonderful. The weather could not have been better for the time of year. We held the party at a venue called Fantasy Park. They have an old aeroplane there that the kids can play in and many more fun things to do. So all the kids had a whale of a time. The adults where also well catered for with some comfortable chairs to relax and enjoy the afternoon with some tasty snacks.

Later on in the afternoon we got all the kids and everyone else together at the kids table and sang Happy Birthday to our two little ones. After that all the kids opened their party packs and really enjoyed the sweets and toys they got. Emma and Dylan who don’t get to eat any sweets at home, sat on their little chairs and stuffed themselves with sweets and cake. They really enjoyed themselves. Then it was time for more playing and very soon sadly the afternoon was all over.

Anina put a huge amount of effort into finding the venue, making the party packs herself and coordinating everything. Emma and Dylan really have a special Mom.

The next day we let them have some of the gifts that they got at their party. We try not to overwhelm them with too many new toys. They do have a lot already. They were both a little down with colds, but loved playing with their new toys. Dylan again didn’t make breakfast. He played for an hour and half non-stop with his new car that has plenty of buttons and lights.

Click here for more Party pictures

Emma and Dylan on the jumping castle at their party:

The bikes at the party:

Emma and Dylan on bikes at the party

The cake:

The birthday cake

Emma and Daddy:

Daddy and Emma with wings

Dylan:

Dylan

Emma:

Emma

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Dylan and Emma’s second Birthday

To sum it up they had an excellent day. We had laid out some presents for them in the dining area so we had to make sure while we were getting them ready that they didn’t escape from their room until we were all ready. Emma needed a bit of convincing but we managed to pull it off. They were surprised to see all those boxes when they walked into the dining area. Emma immediately knew what was going on and started unwrapping the presents. On a normal day they have a short play time before breakfast and then they insist on eating. Well Dylan could not believe his luck. He has been enamoured with cleaning tools for quite some time now as you have seen his love for mops in the past. With this in mind we bought him a janitors trolley for his Birthday. Boy was he over the moon. He has spent hours watching Renice, our maid, cleaning the house. He therefore has many good techniques already under his belt. So when he got his own mop, broom, trolley and stuff he was in heaven. He had no interest in eating breakfast, cake or cupcakes. He was cleaning the house. Emma loved unwrapping the presents and unwrapped most of them. She liked the dolls we picked for her but also loves Dylan’s cleaning set. She generally now gets the broom and he has the mop. Anyway Emma had her Birthday breakfast with us. Dylan ate later.

From Janine and other friends in the complex Dylan got his new favourite toys: His Fire engine and his electric screw driver. The Fire engine makes a driving sound when you push it along. Dylan extends the ladder and uses this as a handle like a remote steering wheel. He then pulls his truck along behind him while he runs down the passage and the motor wines. It is really amazing to watch. He was not keen to do this on video though yet. The electric screw driver came with a car that had to be built together with plastic screws. It is as good as the real thing. There are a number of different bits to attach for star and flat screws. Dylan can change these himself. It winds forwards and backwards and even makes the torque noise when the screw is tight. There was no need to show him how all this worked. He just new. Boys and girls are amazing how some things are just entirely preprogramed. Emma is preprogramed when it comes to her dolls. She does exactly what we do with her, with her dolls. Dylan couldn’t be bothered.

In the afternoon Anina and Janine took the kids to the botanical gardens where they enjoyed the nice weather. Later that afternoon some friends in the complex with kids, came round for a small tea party. At the end of the day Emma and Dylan were both very tired but were extremely happy. They truly did have a wonderful day. Anina baked them cupcakes that they loved.

Emma has now really started talking. It started last week when I went to Cape Town for two days. I got back and was bathing her when she said “Mommee” and “Daddee” with great clear annunciation. Up to now she had been mumbling Mama and Dada and similar words but these were real words. That was where it started. Now she has a lot of words. Many of them are not the right words yet but she gets her point across. We can understand most of them but I would not really always call it English yet. The speed at which she catches onto new words though is amazing. Dylan is also coming along and has a couple more words but he is more reserved and holding back.

Emma, like her grandmother, has a great fear of dogs. We went to go and visit someone last week who had small yapping dogs. They were very eager and wanted to lick her. She was terrified. Today we took the kids on their first walk into the neighbourhood without the pram. Emma is now starting to sprout two word sentences. So when some people came walking with their dogs, Emma said to her Mom very pertinently “Woof Up”, meaning she needed be picked up as there was a dog approaching. This is her best two word sentence to date.

Stats:

Emma: Weight 13.055 kg

Dylan: Weight 13.695 kg

Click to see plenty of Birthday pics here

Here are many Birthday videos to enjoy:

Emma unwrapping her first present and Dylan with his penguin:

Emma unwrapping her doll:

Dylan and Emma upwrapping the janitor set:

Dylan showing off his cleaning skills:

Dylan with his own Dustbuster and Emma with the trolley

Emma showing off the new janitors trolley

Emma in her angel set that she got from Jenny

Emma the angel pushing the trolley

Monday, May 2, 2011

Holiday in Umhlanga

Our holiday to Umhlanga went really well, all things considered. It started off a bit rocky with the airline first letting us know by text message that our flight would be delayed. This being the case we put the kids to bed and where preparing for a little rest ourselves when we received the next text message that the flight was now on time. By this time we were now late for the flight. So after a mad rush to get to the airport and three trips back and forth from the car to get the luggage, we arrived in the departure lounge to find that the plane had not yet arrived. They were flying in a backup plane from OR-Tambo that had not arrived yet. The backup plane was not that great either. We boarded the plane, pushed back and the stood on the tarmac for some time. After a while we could see a technician with his head in the left engine. Not good. After another while the captain announced that they were going to have to park the plane again since they could not get the left engine started. A couple more long minutes passed with lots of frantic activity. Eventually they got the engine going. Very disconcerting. Then after having to wait in the queue for about 5 other planes to take off and land we were finally on our way. In Durban all went smoothly and we hired our VW Bus, just like the one we had had in the Cape. It is perfect for us.

Our apartment in Umhlanga was excellent. It was really a home away from home. It had 2 bedrooms on the eighth floor with a beautiful view. We rearranged the second room to fit the kid's cots in. They slept very well and were extremely excited to be on holiday and with the apartment.

The kids walked very far in their terms and got plenty of practice climbing stairs. In the mornings we would take them for a walk on the beach promenade either to the lighthouse or to the pier. Then they would have their mid morning nap. We ate at the apartment most days and then went to the beach in the late afternoon. Our beach time was quite short since after lunch there was not much sunshine time left before the shadows of the large buildings in Umhlanga hid the sun. Then we went back to the apartment to get changed and then put the kids in the pram for a walk along the promenade in the evening. Then the usual bath and dinner routine and by that stage all were ready for a good nights rest.

We took a drive to Uvongo one day. We stopped off in Scottburgh but it was so full we could not even find a place to park let alone walk around. The beach and sea in Uvongo were the best. Here the kids and I went into the sea together. Emma has gotten over her initial fear of the sea she had in the Cape last year. She is now as eager as Dylan. So I had quite a time keeping the two of them upright with waves rushing in. We were in really shallow waters but the kids are not that used to water washing around their feet and ankles. Emma took a tumble with one wave but was having such a whale of a time she didn’t really notice how I had to pluck her upright again. We had a really good time there.

We also took a drive north to Ballito on the one and only rainy afternoon. The development there has been phenomenal with a huge shopping mall and urban sprawl. The afternoon was cloudy and rainy so we could not go to the sea but opted to find a nice place that sold hot chocolate and cake, Cinnamon & Silk. The cakes were awesome and the kids had to learn a bit of style and elegance. We are starting to use the pram less now since the kids can walk better by themselves. They made it to the coffee shop even though we parked on the opposite side of the shopping centre not knowing the setup. The kids mainly ate our own supply of Marie biscuits but did have a couple of bites of gorgeous Toblerone cheese cake.

Sadly Emma got very sick with a cold and high temperature on the day of the British Royal Wedding. Luckily by the next day when we had to depart she was much better. The flight back was uneventful and almost on time. Dylan had the same cold as Emma yesterday and also ran a very high temperature. Last night he was really not well. He slept well though after we gave him medication and today he is much better, still with a bit of runny nose, but no more temperature.

The kids put on some weight on their holiday. The muscles in their legs got to work really hard:

Emma: 13.135 kg

Dylan: 13.780 kg

More pictures of Emma and Dylan on Holiday

Dylan and Emma walking on the beach sand:

Dylan on the beach in Uvongo:

Dylan on the beach in Uvongo

Emma and Dylan having fun:

Emma and Dylan clowning around on the "table" in the lounge

On the pier looking to the lighthouse:

Emma and Dylan

Monday, April 25, 2011

Mega photo blog post

I see that time has been catching up and blog posts have been sparse. There are many new pictures of the kids doing all sorts of things. I left a number of sequences of pictures in the Flickr stream as they allow you to see quite nicely what the kids are up to. Janine is good at taking pictures of them when they are doing their fun activities with her. They are now perfecting the art of eating their own yogurts out of the containers they come in. This is extremely handy. I took some iPhone videos of this. See below. The video is a bit deceiving. Emma is actually the very very slow eater. She can spend at least half an hour or longer on a meal nibbling her way through food and Dylan likes to eat what ever is there for the eating.

Btw Dylan loves cars. He points at every car that goes by. (See picture below)

There is still not much talking going on. Emma can repeat a number of words in her own way. Dylan too. They are learning a couple of animal sounds like woof woof, meow and moo. Most animals still say moo according to Emma. They are becoming more and more interactive.

We are currently enjoying our beach holiday, but the pictures and videos from that I’ll upload when we get back. The kids are walking well and learning to climb many steps. Yesterday they walked to the beach and back twice. It’s a long walk for those two little legs, much further than they have ever walked before in our complex at home. They are loving it and are enjoying the beach sand.

Stats:

Dylan: 13.5kg

Emma: 12.795kg

Click here for more pictures

PS: Dieter I have still not figured out how to make these videos run in htlm5 so that they will play on an iPad directly from the blog. If you want to see the video’s from an iPad click the picture link above and select the video’s in Flickr. They have an awesome player made especially for the iPad.

Emma eating her yogurt video:

Dylan eating his yogurt leisurely video:

Emma:

Emma wearing her designer hat

Dylan:

Dylan

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Party time

We went to Anina’s cousin’s baby daughter’s second birthday party last week. The kids had great fun playing in a small blow up pool. I decided to get one the next day, as well as some of those colourful balls that Janine has been wanting me to buy for quite some time now.

In this blog post there are a number of videos of the kids riding their bikes which they quite enjoy these days as well as some long videos of them in the baby pool. All videos where taken on my iPhone, its really good at that.

They turned 22 months yesterday, just two more months till their second birthday.

Stats:

Emma: Weight 12.570 kg

Dylan: Weight 13.005 kg

Click here for more pictures of the kids

Here are some videos to enjoy:

Emma and Dylan playing in the pool:

Emma and Dylan riding their bikes:

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Playtime

Progress is steady. This time I have put many of the pictures taken by Janine of the kids while the kids are playing in the mornings. There is also a video (a little under lit but you can see the just of it) of Dylan climbing the stairs.

Statistics:

Emma: 12.560 kg

Dylan: 12.835 kg

Click here for many more pictures

Video of Dylan climbing the stairs:

Emma playing with whipped cream:

Emma playing with whipped cream

Dylan playing with whipped cream:

Dylan playing with whipped cream

Sunday, February 13, 2011

21 Months yesterday

Yesterday the kids turned 21 months. They have progressed a lot in the last month. In the last week or so they have become great self feeders. They can now eat their own bananas and crackers. We can finally order something from the menu for them when we go out. They share a portion of chicken nuggets and chips. The kids portions are so big that they can easily share them. They manage to nibble on their chicken nuggets and also eat their chips. Lunch is now a very different meal. Previously we had to eat quickly as the kids wanted their purity then their bottle and then they wanted to leave, with some running around in between. Now we sit down, order their food as quickly as possible, they drink their milk first, because they can’t wait for the food to arrive. Then when their food arrives it's a bit of battle to get it to cool down with two eager eaters ready for their lunch. After that it is really easy. They are very slow at feeding themselves, especially Emma. She can nibble on one chicken nugget for half and hour. She makes good progress, however is just very slow. We can therefore eat our lunch in peace and don’t need to rush to get the bill.

Dylan now holds his own bottle always. While he has been quite capable for some time to do this already he was never very eager to. Now he has got the hang of it. He now holds and drinks from his own bottle at all times of the day. This has made bottle feeding an absolute breeze. You just make the bottles and hand them to the kids. They do the rest. They are very eager to bring them back to the kitchen as well when they have finished.

Emma has been eating her own yogurts in the evening since Friday. It is a messy affair but she manages to get most of her yogurt into her mouth which is good going for the amount of practice she has had. She has a twist spoon technique that is interesting. She loads up the spoon heaped full of yogurt and then twists it sideways and down as it gets into her mouth. This way she can clean the spoon on every bite. Sometimes however the twist happens before the spoon reaches her mouth and then the load lands on her or any other unsuspecting victim.

They have also mastered 3 wheel bike riding and their 4 wheel car. They used to be no good at steering and always fell off. Now they get on by themselves and can go up and down the passage all by themselves. They even steer pretty well. When they want to make a sharp bend they simply lift the front wheels and drag sideways.

Stats:

Emma: Weight: 12.350kg

Dylan: Weight: 12.560kg

Click here to see more pictures of them

Dylan playing with his broom:

Emma and Dylan eating Bananas:

Dylan at 21 months:

Dylan 21 Months old

Emma at 21 months:

Emma 21 Months old

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Our new sandpit

Emma and Dylan are thriving. We had to say goodbye to their Nanny 2 weeks ago which was quite sad. I don’t think that they really realised that she was not coming back. We have managed to find a wonderful Au pair. She is a young kindergarten teacher who is studying part time this year to become a teacher. Emma and Dylan have taken to her very well. She comes with a whole lot of new fun play ideas and has a lot of energy. You can see the sparkle in the kids' eyes as they experience new fun. Their new care giver came with a list of items that we were missing. Among them was a sandpit.

With all the rain we have been having, La NiƱa has really been on at full force. South Africa has had its own fair share of flooding along the Orange River. All the rain delayed our outing to go and buy the kids their sandpit. To take them along we had to go in two cars. We eventually got to it today. We were going to buy them a two piece clam shell but the ones they had did not fit together nicely. So we looked at the other options and found this car sandpit that has enough space for both Emma and Dylan. As you can see below they really enjoy it. However just after we finished taking the pictures it began to rain so we had to put the ‘canopy’ up and head back inside.

Their vocabulary has not grown much. Emma has a new word that comes from playing Peekaboo. It is “wezzie” as in “where is he” when Dylan is hiding for example. It is very cute. She also uses this when she is looking for her favourite sleep bear rag doll – “beertjie”.

Stats:

Emma: 12.170 kg Height: 86cm

Dylan: 12.490 kg Height: 85cm

Video of Emma and Dylan playing in their Sandpit:

Picture of Emma and Dylan playing in their Sandpit:

Emma and Dylan playing in their new sandpit