Hey there Baby Cousins

While we have been down in Durban with Grannyannie & Grandpa, while Grandpa is recuperating from his emergency bypass and valve replacement surgery, we have also been lucky enough to see baby Riley and baby Rebekah a few times. At last we have been able to get all three babies together & awake at the same time. As you will remember, the first time she met Riley and Becky they were all of 12wks (Zara) 4 wks (Riley) & 3 wks (Rebekah) old. Although even now, they are still too little to pay each other much attention now, I am confident that our future visits to Durban are going to be a whole heap of fun for Zara visiting all her cousins.

Soothing the itch

Over the past few days Zara has discovered how to put her toys into her mouth. On her first attempt, she was more accurate at getting her fist there, as you can see, she has now mastered the art...... she especially like her "rasbaby teether". I think the sensation of the baubles on the rassberry sooth those incredibly itchy gums. Although she has possibly started "teething" as her teeth are moving up into the gums, it may still be quite a while before we see an actual tooth.

Bathing with Riley

While we have been down in Durban, with Grandpa recovering in hospital, we have been having supper at Mark & Claudia. Tonight we decided to try let the girls bath together....

As Zara is still new to her bath chair, she was a little apprehensive to her big cousin towering over her and at first clung onto the bath chair. Riley was all too keen to have her baby cousin come out and play so kept tugging on her legs. They both seemed to enjoy the experience and provided a good dose of laughs for all us adults.

I cant wait till they are able to play together, what with a mere 10 mth age gap, I think they are going to get up to all sorts of mischief in the months and years to follow.....

Teo & Zara

Today we went to lunch at another one of Zara's little friends. Teo's mum - Serife - and I did preggie yoga together and our babies are 3 weeks apart - Teo being the older. Teo was very patient in showing Zara how his cars work - they are like "Russian dolls" and the red one goes over the yellow one which goes over the blue one with the green one at the bottom....

Serife and her husband Chris have been in SA since the beginning of last year. Chris works up in Uganda so is in and out of SA a lot. He has just been offered a job back in London, which will obviously be a lot better for them as Chris will be home all the time. So sadly for Zara and me, it looks like they will be leaving at the end of March.....

Zach & Zara

Today, Zach and his Mom, Theoni came to visit. I met Theoni through yoga - she was our teacher. Our estimated due dates were 3 weeks apart but seeings Zara decided to come earlier, Zach and Zara were born 4 days apart. Amazingly they had exactly the same measurements at birth. As you can see now, Zach is a real boy an is a bit bigger than Zara.

While Theoni and I had a catch up, the babies lay "talking" in Zara's donut. It was very entertaining watching our little ones interact with each other. See how they holding hands......

At one point Zara started whinging like a real girl and Zach just looked at her and giggled - we have that on video!!!

Big Girl Bath

As you can all remember, we have always bathed Zara in a rather deep bath allowing her to float about in the water. Well, now that she is such a "big girl" we have decided to let her use her bath seat. This will give her a bit more inderpendance and also give us some relief on our backs. She seems to be enjoying this new found bath technique, albeit a little apprehensive at times as she clings onto the arm rests. We have also started splashing her face a bit in the hopes she will follow in Leo and Riley's footsteps and not get too fussed when splashed in the face..... as you all know I am the biggest ninny about water on my face!

Grandpa's Yacht

Never mind being on "Daddy's Yacht" - look how Zara had a chill out session with Grandpa!

She really looks like she is in the lap of luxury with her arms under her head....... what a life!!!

Zara's Cafe

Not many children can boast having a restaurant named after them - Just kidding! We were however intrigued to find this coffee shop in Durban North so together with Grannyannie we went out to have lunch. The food was absolutely divine - but the aircon was not working so we just about fried ourselves. We had to guzzle down our meal as not matter what we did poor little Zara would not settle because she was so hot. In a desperate measure, as Chris was paying the bill, I rushed out into the Woolworths next door and did a few laps up and down the isles to cool her down.