Fishing, biking and water ballooning

A few weeks ago we had a sudden change in water temperature due to ocean rip current, which cause fish to scatter everywhere I would guess and some got stuck in the pools in low tide. A brilliant opportunity for the Boeta to do his own fishing. He loved it.

Then came the new bike, his first big boy bike….he really LOVED it….

Finally dad introduced a new game – water ballooning…now this took the cake.. HE REALLY LOVED THIS….

Just some fun moments in the life of our little man who can now put together enough words to explain what he wants to do, where he wants to go or not….

Such a pleasure watching him develop with such an abundance of joy and laughter…We are proud parents.

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.

Prints of a little man

Boeta got a great present on his 1st birthday, a few months back. It was a clay-based frame, to make a mould of his one hand and foot, something to remember, something special for mom and dad when they think back to the early years.

Those little prints has now become special already, but for many reasons, some of the reasons can already be picked up in this picture a few months back. First, let us show the frames. Mom carefully worked the clay into the frame and smoothing it, while still workable.

We then lifted the little one year-old and carefully made prints, the foot was easy, but at this age the hands are not that easy. We got a hand, eventually.

It turned out fairly good and has hardened totally. It will have pride of place amongst our family photos.

Since then those little hands got much more active and so did the rest of the little man, climbing, crawling, searching, kicking, running, building and much more. We found 2 poems to describe some of the feelings.

handprints on wall.

“Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small,
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But everyday I’m growing,
I’ll be grown up someday,
And all these tiny handprints
Will simply fade away.
So here’s a final handprint
Just so you can recall,
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.”

– author unknown –

Footprints at 6 months

So small and so sweet
Tiny toes all in a row
Catch them quick
before they grow
A keepsake we’ve created now
so when you’re big
you’ll see how
Once upon a time
they were…
your precious feet
so small and so sweet

– author unknown –

 

It is only 5 months later. A lot has changed in that time, from a boy who was just walking to this.

Yes, that is our coffee table!

Our nerves are being tested no end at the moment as the little man explores everything in sight and uses any method available to get what he wants to play with or explore.

We love our baby’s little prints in sort of 3D and will always cherish it.

 

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!

African Spoonbill (Platalea alba)

How would it feel to walk around with a spoon for a mouth? Well, I guess this bird should be able to answer that question. The African Spoonbill, pure white, a challenge for a point and shoot, especially on early afternoon, with distinctive long, flattened spoon-like bill. Red tinge around the edges with featherless (bare) face.

We saw these in the Eastern Cape, around Port Elizabeth, but they occur in most of Southern Africa, except dry regions, up the eastern African countries mostly.

They feed by sweeping those spoons side to side. I tried to get some pictures of this.

Hope you enjoy this quick look at the spoonbills.

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