Walking home….with the explorer!

After turning around, we walked back slowly, still looking for anything interesting.

The sun was going down fairly quickly by now. We still had a bit of a walk back home. Boeta did not care one bit.

Every time I pushed him a little he complained and wanted to walk in the opposite direction, only for the drag of a dad to remind him that it was getting late and we had to go home.

I loved this spot with the green algae to spend some moments here to shoot a few shots, all freehand.

I looked for Boeta who was in his own world, finding another treasure, I am sure. I called him and he came walking toward me pointing at a Oystercatcher flying past and asking what it was.

I again reminded him that we had to move on and he reluctantly joined me as we walked towards home. I took a few shots in that direction. You can just see the houses.

It was a brilliant evening yet again. I could not get enough of the clouds and the setting sun, so every now and then I would get another shot.

As we got closer we saw some fisherman again. Sometimes the ladies join their husbands/friends as they angle in the early evening as was the case with this young man.

Boeta was in great spirits and still throwing rocks, running and enjoying being at the beach. You would never know we were coming to the end of a 6 km walk.

It was too dark now. I was on the built-in flash to get any descent shots. Really time for us to get home.

I took a last shot of the white rocks and the remaining sunlight.This is the last of this series of posts. We hope you enjoyed the full photographic walk with us.

Tomorrow we leave for a short Safari and a few days in the mountains to celebrate our son’s 3rd Birthday. Hopefully we will bring lots of photos of wildlife and landscapes to share next week. Have a great weekend, I know we will.

I looked for Boeta …. he was busy looking for crabs under the flat rocks.

My son – The explorer! Happy Birthday, we are so proud of you! Love you, Mom and Dad!

 

Experience nature

We have shown a few photos of our outing yesterday, lion and giraffe, but Boeta also got to roam around at applicable areas. He had lots of fun investigating stuff as we walked around. Here are some photos, ending with mom pointing to something in front of them. Daddy is fairly proud of this series of photos.

Mom home = pure happiness

Mom home = pure happiness

Most of you know by now that Mom was away for 3 weeks and arrived back last night. The boys got ready early and got to the airport on time, but as luck would have it, the flight was delayed, still we said rather safe than on time. The plane arrived.

We waited in the reception area and mom came walking through with the airport trolley, loaded with 2 suitcases, computer bag and backpack. When she saw us, immediate tears and speed as she wanted to get to us (Boeta) as quickly as possible. After nearly running over a person who sidestepped the anxious mom, she came speeding to us and in the more or less proximity just let go of the speeding trolley, running and grabbing Boeta. These trolleys have their own brakes once released and it braked but the momentum was such that all the luggage except one came flying of the trolley all over the floor. Mom and Dad did not care at that stage, but Boeta was a little concerned.

Mom got flowers from the boys to show her we missed her and we are happy that she is back.

Fast forward to Saturday morning.

Boeta awoke to a whole family again and was promptly scooped up and put into bed with mom for an additional hour of sleeping bliss in her arms. Daddy got a cake and candles and we belatedly wished her a happy birthday. Then daddy prepared a second spoil with croissants and omelette in bed for all 3 of us. It was obvious that Boeta enjoyed all of this “being treated” and must have thought it an early Christmas.

We got going and he was in full flight by now. Daddy says he has never seen him fall so much, since when he started walking. Why? Well, he was performing for mom. Running past but watching her, showing her things he can do now, dancing, laughing. Mom brought many presents from the USA, but we decided to hold back most for Christmas and only give him 3 “items”. The first item is “Buzz” the Georgia Tech mascot.

The second was in direct relation to his new joy of playing with little cars.

In the last picture he checked if the car has an on/off button. One never knows. After playing with his new stash of little cars, we had to also do the laundry which meant going out the back door and into an area where he is rarely allowed at the moment, due to daddy doing some work there. He was this morning and went straight for the bin of bush soil and compost, which daddy uses to enrich the sandy soil in the garden. He started throwing the soil and it led to uncontrollable laughter.

This lead to a dirty boy, from head to toe. So for one of the first occasions, he will be having an early bath as well.

After his bath or cleaning session, the third a soft toy, one of those mom could not leave behind. An elephant, eagerly accepted and joyously played with.

The rest of the morning involved mom having to take tests in identification of objects…

Mom, being a mom, loved the picture of the baby…

Boeta being a boy and growing, naturally was more interested in the bread picture…

Boeta also showed mom his new special, just for him, chair…

Then there had to be some music played and again lots of acting for mom…

Most of all, playing and running, hugs and kisses, lots and lots of it.

Finally, daddy will repeat with what he started…

MOM HOME = PURE HAPPINESS

  Mom is our most special flower in a bunch of flowers.

To MOM…

To my wife and our mom

A few years ago, today, an angel was born with a heart of gold. The translated announcement in the newspaper read: “To Mother and Father, a beautiful daughter is born, all is well, we thank our Heavenly Father and the doctors and nurses of the Hospital”.

Over the years her parents nurtured her and loved her as she grew and blossomed into a beautiful young woman who brought joy to everyone she met, who enriched people’s lives with her pure, true heart and inspiring love, never relinquishing that which she held dear to her heart, but standing strong to protect it with determinate fire in her belly. They may not be with us in life anymore, but their love is still represented by these flowers**.

When you reached your mid-twenties and before we met, you wrote this as motivation for yourself in daily life. Your handwriting and I kept it after I found it.

I was drawn to you like a moth to a flame, in fact your beautiful eyes were that flame, I could not stop looking at them, at you. You were my soul mate, you were the person I would gladly give my heart to, the one soul I wanted to wake up next to every morning, just to see what you would say or do, to hear your voice, see you smile, hear your laughter, your humour and yes sometimes your anger.

Today, my love, it is your birthday! I found a birthday card of yours when you turned one, which translated reads: ” Today, you are one, may God give you many a year, Bless you with joy and with every small step, lead you safely and keep you save, though His angels to a life full and with much joy.” This holds true, even today.

I want to wish you the world and shower you with the love of all the stars above. You deserve nothing less. I want to thank you for the way you held my heart all these 18 years, how you protected it and how you nurtured our love and kept our flame burning through thick and thin for your love is always caring, a precious gift, always there in a hug, caress and your touch, be it our son or his dad.

I want to thank you for our son, for the way you protected him, even before he was born and for the mother you are. I want to thank you for giving him the same strengths and determinations, which he already shows, and giving the world another little bit of you through him to live on long after we are not there. I see so much of you in him and even though you are 100’s of kilometres away from us, in a sense part of you is sitting right next to me. Another beautiful angel, born with a heart of gold.

So Happy Birthday my love and mom. With this we send you all the love and kisses we can muster and wish you a wonderful day. We cannot wait to see you again and wish you just joy, love and success for the year to come.

Geseënde Verjaarsdag Mamma!

Ons is Lief vir jou.

The Boys

** The flowers have special meaning. The carnations come from mom’s parents, her mom passed away nearly 17 years ago now, and still, every year, we get lovely red carnations for her birthday, a reminder of their love for their daughter. It is therefore no surprise that daddy used this as the theme for this post.

*** The pictures are supposed to focus on the love as demonstrated by her parents and as we go to the “now” we go full colour. The semi-colour photo with Boeta is meant to show the change of guard, sort of, as he takes the flower from then to now, because he also represents 50% of mom and thereby her parents.

Following is some fun pictures while we attempted to put this together, not easy with time delay and daddy having to run and catch the little man for a pose in 20 seconds.

Second flight…

It took many naps for my first ever flight, and not so many for my second. I was surprised at how soon it came. I think I achieved many of my goals with my visit to my grandparents. I made sure granddad got some exercise, I need to keep him fit for more visits.

I made sure grandma got many kisses and sure enough, I got many nice treats, which mom and dad allowed to my surprise.

I also learned all about lights, and were they are. Daddy taught me the letter “A”, which he said is a good letter to learn first, because it is first in the alphabet and nice to practice when one brushes teeth or someone needs to get something out of one’s mouth that does not belong. I did check on grandpa’s mouth a few times, making sure he did not put something in his mouth.

We drove back on the road with lots of cars, and daddy gave our car back to the same person mommy talked to, when we arrived. After that we gave our suitcases to another nice lady. Mom and dad said we had to wait for our flying car to arrive, so I decided this will be a good time to give daddy some exercise.

This place was so big, I ran and ran, but could not get to the other end. I wish I had a ball to play with or one of my cars. Next time I must remember to keep one for such an occasion. Our flying car came, and unbelievably, daddy forgot my stroller at the stairs again. He is getting old, I think.

We sat down and when the initially slow-moving flying car revved its engine again, mom gave me a bottle, I sucked on it, but this time did not finish it with take-off as mom called it, I kept sucking while my ears crackled…very funny. I showed mom my empty bottle and the next moment there was a bing-bing sound. Mom said, “did you sleep well?”, I do not remember, but the next moment we drove slowly again.

I missed my grandparents already and wondered how long it will be before I see them, but when we got home, I was so glad to see my toys and I made sure each and every one got some time to play with me.

Cupcaked…

After a few naps, I was back in my hanging chair in grandma’s kitchen. This time she had a big surprise for me. You see, my grandparents could not be at my first ever birthday and I guess they really wanted to be there for the cake, at least!

After my midday nap, grandma said that she had a surprise for me, just because they missed my birthday, I could choose one of these…

I was shocked, so many cakes to choose from and mommy was sitting right there. She never allows me more than a bite of any sweet stuff. A whole cake and I could choose it myself! I decided on the green one.But second guessed myself immediately, when mommy took the others away and left only the green one.

I still could not believe this. Mommy said it is because we are at grandma’s house and they can spoil their grandchildren a little, they earned that right. I thought, we need to visit more! Looking at the huge cake, I had to ask daddy too; “Can I eat it all?”

He said yes! I grabbed one of the halves, before anyone changed their minds and “stuffed” my face. I guess I was too hasty, because I could not get anything in. Mommy and Grandma started laughing, and when I took my hand away, the cake was still stuck to my hand. I showed mom.

The green stuff stuck to my hand, and painted my face and hands. It did taste very nice, so I just continued licking, sucking and stuffing, before they stopped me.

Mommy said that she would help me with the rest and she gave me the “cake” part, I learned that I tried to eat the icing first.

I think I will do that again in the future, because the icing is very nice. Daddy said that this is why we always have dinner before pudding. Mommy said I was properly caked and I said: “Thanks grandma, dad, take me out of this chair, I want to run!“

Guava and custard

You know the flying car took us to a place called Cape Town in just over 1 sleep, daddy said I would have had to sleep at least 3 times, if we drove with mommy’s car and 4 times with the diesel.

We got the stroller back, and mommy talked to a friendly person who offered us a car with a baby seat, just like that. We loaded all our suitcases and off we went to my grandparents. We took the N2 (National road, said daddy), and I decided to say: “It is a car”, every time I saw one, but I got thirsty quickly, we did not even get to the N2, because I had to say it so many times, so I decided to say it every now and then, just so mommy and daddy could see I knew it was a car that passed us.

After a drive, we arrived at my grandparents. They were glad to see me, sorry us, in fact so glad grandma made me guava puree. Good thing too, I was getting hungry. I was a little worried about where I will be sitting, could not remember daddy packing my chair, but you know, he is very clever, he took a few sticks and material, said a few words to it, which I do not understand yet, and there, I had a chair.

My feet hang loose and it felt a little like swing, I liked it. I was very interested to see granddad standing back, far away. I think they have not seen me eat, and was scared I would make a mess, or scared I would fall, but daddy made sure that would not happen.

Mommy said that I had to wait for my pudding, and first eat some food she brought with her. She is also very clever, because if she did not, I would have surely starved. Grandma was also worried, it seemed, as I said, they have not seen me eat before. They really did not have to worry.

 After I had my meal, it was guava and custard time. Grandma made it special and maybe she was worried I would not like it, now that I think about it. Mommy said I should test it and see what I think. It was so nice.

After I had my guava and custard, I thanked grandma with a loving look and gave them both a kiss, okay, several for grandma, hoping there would be more.

One final comment on this post, mom also got some disposable bibs as we forgot to pack them at home. I am not a big bib fan, but for any toddlers looking, they do work, best is they can be torn into pieces after dinner – I loved that!

A Full Moon…

It is now 4.30 am. I have been awake from 3 am. Times like this I miss my wife.

I do not know where this comes from, he did not cry or anything, just suddenly found myself watching a monitor with a “wide awake” 13 month old. I fumbled and stumbled my way down to his bedroom, took him out and dragged myself back to bed in the hopes that he would fall asleep again.

No chance, talking and smiling. I even got a kiss, which felt like kiss of death (of sleep), so daddy got up, changed diaper, gave him something to drink, made coffee for myself and off we go on another day. I choose to look at this positively, long-term. Early morning nap, early afternoon nap and hopefully fairly early night.

It is full moon after all!