Ho-ho-ho

For the purpose of keeping up to date with all that happened around the festive season, I have to include Christmas too. This was the reason for Boeta’s Grandparents staying with us and the first time Boeta had more of an idea what it was all about.

It started the previous day with preparations and for the first time a photo of the half-finished kitchen, I am nearly done, just the tiles and a few smaller touches. This is such a nice pick of mom doing her thing, I have to include this.

She is the heart of our house after all.

I took time to shoot a few more shots of her and Boeta.

The photo of Boeta and mom is after his afternoon nap, he loves waking up in her arms.

Christmas Day

We started by opening some gifts with Grandma and Grandpa, while they were still in bed that morning. We spread the opening of gifts over the whole morning for Boeta, otherwise it is too much and he does not enjoy each as he should. After the first session we had breakfast and then we did another stint.

We decided to change and do a Christmas photo shoot. I am pretty certain I do not have to add to much words to this, as you can easily see that we had some fun here…

Personally I would like to add that I love the photo and it represents all that my wife and Boeta’s mom is.

Elegant, motherly, soft touches, warm personality and full of love and again the heart of our house.

One final (official) photo we all liked.

We had a lovely Christmas dinner and after nap-time for the whole family we went to the beach for Boeta’s sake. I took the camera with and took a few shots.

Mom and Boeta watching sundown and throwing rocks.

Grandpa watching the sun going down.

So that was our day, Christmas 2015.

For us…

Perfect.

The Birthday on Holiday

Our 2 week trip was all about Boeta and creating a special time with him for his second birthday. It included seeing family and giving him all types of new experiences. He got the odd present every day or so, be it a new book or toy. On the 4th of June we awoke in Struis Bay. We had his grandparents with us and we were on our 4th day of the 2 week holiday.

Boeta was with us in our bedroom in his cot and at 6 am (the precise hour of his birth), we had him in bed, sleeping between us. This, for us, was a special moment.

We sang for him and spent time together before grandma and grandpa awoke.

We also hid gifts throughout, which he got once he saw it. Giving a 2-year-old too many presents at any one stage is a waste. This way he could enjoy his new friends thoroughly before moving on to the next.

He saw this box and pointed it out to mom. Now the little man seems to have more of mom’s genes when it comes to opening presents. It takes forever!

Boeta loves Formula 1 racing at the moment and one his gifts had to be a racing track with Formula 1 cars. Most people see this a present for dad and son! Okay, dad loves the idea too and yes, having a son also means daddy can get some added “kid-time” as the little man grows.

 We decided to do a proper birthday with cake toward the midday lunch-time. Being on holiday we had to put together a birthday with what we could find or managed to bring along in the suitcases. Struis Bay does not have the biggest supply, it has the basics one needs on holiday. Mom produced a bag of balloons, which we needed to blow up. The fun started.

Grandpa (81) and Grandma (77) are still full of life and they can still make a joke.

If there is one thing daddy will always remember and hold dear to his heart, it would be that we did laugh a lot on holiday as a family at each other. This is one thing we would hope Boeta would also be able to remember one day about us.

Mom also produced the smallest party hats, good for 2 year-old’s, but a stretch for adult heads and after some D.I.Y. we were set. Boeta was seated at the head of the table and grandpa put some of the balloons on the table.

We got, a car cake, added candles and sang to Boeta again. He wanted to touch the flames and mom blew out the candles for him.

 The rest of the photos present some idea of mini party we had for the little man.

The balloons were all over the house and Boeta got to play with them for the day.

Looking back, we had a good day with our son and his grandparents in the house of his late grandparents, so in a sense, they were also present. This was the first of many more adventures we had planned for the him.

This week the photo challenge talk about muse and the subject that you keep coming back to. Well for the last 2 years it has been our little boy and most of the things seen on this blog has been with him, about him and showing him the world around him. They are both qualifying as muses, but f you want a singular muse: FAMILY

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/muse/

Piano toddler x2 and giving grandparents a workout….

Some of the older followers may remember the little 9 month old loving the piano. Well, at nearly 2 years old he still loves the piano, but now he sits on his own and he can give a toddler version of piano performance. The perfect background to toddlerism, starting of with soft one note twinkle, slowly building up and then all hell breaks loose as we end with thunder and lightning.

He then decided to continue this thunderous end and charge poor grandma and grandpa, who seemed to enjoy his music so much.

If you charge grandma, she typically wants a kiss….”what’s wrong with women!?”

Now Grandpa is much more fun, he lifts and put me down so that I can do it again…and again.

Grandpa had to go sit down and Boeta kept coming…

Mom decided it is time to give Boeta’s grandparents a break and Boeta got his dinner while daddy lit a fire for our dinner.

This calmed the little man down and he decided to give the family another softer version, more a lullaby version of his piano skills. It was near bed-time after all. This time we started with thunder and lightning and ended with soft tones that had him fully immersed in the music, leaving a slightly stunned family.

Who said you cannot have fun when it rains?

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!

Need for play space…

Daddy has been hard at work outside, trying to prepare a level area for our little man to play. Our problem is that we may be living close to the ocean, but we also never thought about children when we bought the house, and who could have known that we would have such issues.

The difference in height between top and bottom of our plot is 8 meters. This means everything is at a steep angle. Daddy said that this needs to change, as the deck is the only area that is level and as we move to summer, we need to get some more level space for the little man to play.

At the moment he walks like an old man up and comes down like a sprinter, or rolls down. He has now nearly finished preparing a 70 square meter area and once the grass is placed, hopefully next week, we will be ready for some more fun outside.

We can look at adding some frames and swings, maybe a little bench for mom and dad. We cannot wait for this “new development“.

Daddy had to move some of the garden, which is still being established, lower down as well, but that is not an issue. One thing about living near the ocean, it is all sand, easy to garden, hard to get things growing.

On the home front, Boeta has added 3 new words, including grandma. He has had some interesting foods this week as well, including fresh raw peas, turkey, fresh blueberries, polenta slices, fresh guava slices, to name a few. He has also increased his weight to 12.3 kg.

We can also make it known that we are all flying down to Cape Town, Boeta’s first, as mommy need to go for work, so we decided to make a long weekend of it and visit Boeta’s grandparents. We decided to let them know, because at 80+, the surprise may be “not so good”, so they can prepare. They are excited about this development.

Piano man (toddler)

We have noticed from an early age, when Boeta was only a few months old, he loves music, when he could just sit up, he rocked to music, very cute indeed. I recently posted a video of him rocking a little, since then he started doing turns as well.

Over the last few months, ever since March 2014, when we visited his Grandparents, he loves  hearing a piano. He got to play one a few times on the trip, and it stayed with him, last Sunday, for instance there was a concert on television with a piano, he stood and watched for nearly 20 minutes.

Our family history does have a lot of music in its genes, and the piano does play a big role. My parents both can play a bit, granddad played guitar, little piano and sang in church choir nearly all his life. Grandmother also played a little, so did her sisters.

We had a piano in our house all my life and although I could have played if I really wanted to, I was more interested in sports. I did join the school band, played bugle and sang in school choirs at various stages, so did my brother, who played the trumpet.

Boeta’s first real piano session with his aunt (dad’s sister), the real musical power of the family.

Our sister had music running through her veins and became a gifted music teacher, singer, conductor of 3 choirs and a marimba band to name a few achievements.

Opera singing

Marimba band

The mother of our house also grew up with a piano, learned to play it and has the ability to play by ear. She sang in choirs, one of which is fairly well-known in and outside South Africa, made a record (vinyl those days) with them and even traveled to Europe with them. Her piano is still in our possession, but is still in Struis Bay.

Boeta playing with mom at Struis Bay.

So we are now working on a plan to move it up to our permanent house, but moving a piano 700 km is pretty pricy. We just feel, it is important, so we have to do it, sooner than later. We think that it is important, as parents, to notice and promote or support any activity our child shows interest in, even if it does not go further than a love for it.

Yesterday, we bought our son a xylophone (glockenspiel to be more correct), his second, but the first one had wood bars, and not really sounding at all, but the new one has metal bars and he took to it immediately. Time will tell where this music love will develop to, but we might just have another piano man in our house.