Cheeky Chops

"a picture paints a thousand words"

Noddy...

Zara has been absolutely besotted with Noddy so today we took her to watch the Noddy production at The People's Theatre in Braamfontein. She was very good and sat on either my lap or Chris' lap for the entire show, which was an hour and a half long. We bought her a Noddy doll and she held on to him the whole time too. At one point it all got quite noisy and she said "big fright, Mommy, big fright". I thought it might be the end of her concentration but I just cuddled her and she settled down again. I must say that I was a bit disappointed by the "modernisation" of the show and would have preferred a truly traditional play but Zara thoroughly enjoyed it all and that's what counts. Tonight after her bath, she was still enjoying her Noddy doll and even brushed his teeth whilst I brushed hers...

Babe in Boots

Today Zara insited on "wearing" my boots... I think the pictures tell the story rather well

Story time...

We had Lyn and Peter W for dinner last night. They had been to Kruger for the week and had a free nthe ight in Jozi so we fetched them after the rugby so that they got to see Zara. We tried to explain that Lyn was Grandpa's sister but I think that was a bit much for her to really understand. Never the less, Zara was delighted to have Lyn read to her before bedtime... We then got to hav a lovely time catching up!

Belle of the Ball

well we thought so anyway...

On Saturday, we went to a wedding and naming ceremony so I decided to take the (possibly only) opportunity to dress Zara in the dress and coat she inherited from Emma Mae. If memory serves me correctly it was sent from America by the Smeetons and I am sure you will agree that its really is just the sweetest outfit...Thank you Thank you Thank you

Zara and Samuel...

Life in the rat race has prevented us from seeing as much of the Katz' as we would like but this weekend we finally managed to get together. We went round to Shaun and Eleanor early evening so that the kids could play together. After supper, they had a bath together and then off to bed. Shaun made a divine Paella for supper... Its really great to see how nicely Samuel and Zara played together and this has made us realise we really need to make more of an effort to get together.

Baking cookies

Today we had a lovely afternoon hosted by Theoni, Zach & Sherene.

The activity of the day was making cookies, decorating and then best of all, eating them.

...no need for dinner after that...

Little Miss Model

I finally decided to dust the cobwebs off my (proper) camera and attempt a "pro" photo session with Zara for her 18 mth birthday, which was 2 weeks ago. Where has the time gone???

My last attempt was for her 1st Birthday and was not really that successful! She wouldn't sit away from me, so every time I got her in place and turned back to the camera she was right there behind me and back on my lap. This time, I managed to keep her entertained and the last "trick" up my sleeve was a call to Daddy... note the concentration as she listened to Chris on the mobile.

These I think photos epitomise the munchkin who we adore so much...

Easter in Wakkerstroom

What an AWESOME weekend we had in Wakkerstroom. Its a really small town, so when you forget to pack nappies there is not much that can be done till business hours or a drive to Volksrus about 30 mins away...

However there is so much to do... We enjoyed riding our bikes, going for walks, drawing, painting, reading, looking for crabs and frogs and just general R&R...

On Saturday there was the annual Easter market where we enjoyed delicious pancakes (and yes so did Zara) and also took Zara to see the farm animals. She loved the little bunny and baby chicks but was a little bit hesitant to sit on the horse. Eventually after sussing him out and getting me to sing some "horsie" nursery rhymes she was happy to sit and stroke "Bubbles'" mane.

The Easter Bunny also made a delivery to the Wakkerstroom garden and whilst enjoying a few chocolates she also enjoyed opening the presents he left for her. Quite a clever bunny to think that winter is just around the corner and Zara got some pj's, a woolly hat, top and bubble bath.

In the evenings it did cool down quite a bit so Zara was fascinated by watching her Dad make a fire. She was very good about staying away from the fire and in the mornings when she came through she would warn us that its "shisa - tot" pointing at the fireplace.

Knowing how her cousins enjoyed swinging the gate, we took the liberty of teaching her . She almost got the swing of it and was really chuffed with herself.

I think, having no commitments to rush off to, and just having the freedom to run around the garden and come in one side and out the other side of the house combined with plenty of fresh air was just what we all needed...

Zara meets a crab

While we were in Wakkerstroom this weekend, Chris found a small crab in the garden. in fact I very nearly crushed the poor thing with the pram. Chris fist picked the crab up and tried to encorage Zara to come look. Being a real girl, she declined to come too close but did observe the crab from what she considered a safe distance. She wouldn't go near Chris while he was holding the crab so I had to hold it and when we had finished looking, we put it in the flowerbed so that it could hopefully make a safe escape.

(thank goodness it wasn't a FROG)

Moms and Babes...

A couple of us Moms have decided to have a weekly get together so that the kids can have an fun activity, the Moms can have tea and cake and we actually get to see each other regularly. The second get together was hosted by Nicole and Jazmine, where Nicole bravely encouraged a painting experience... At one point, Zach decided that Zara could be his canvas and she quite happily let him paint on her. She also decided to give herself some lipstick. Needless to say there was paint all over the show and it was time to hose the kids down...

Little Miss Independant...

For a while now, Zara has been feeding herself...

She will have no help from any of us until the very last mouthful that is virtually impossible for her to get onto her spoon.

It started off as quite a messy affair but she has made such good progress and her "hand to mouth" co-ordination improves with every mouthful (every now and again when she is really hungry and cant quite get the food in fast enough she holds her bowl out saying"help you")

Kindermusik

Zara and I started Kindermusik at the beginning of February. The Kindermusik programme is based on the belief that "Music nurtures a child's cognitive, emotional, social, language and physical development". Even though Zara was only 16 mths old, the teacher, Estelle, advised us to rather put her in the older group, this means she is the "baby" of the class. The other toddlers are closer to 2 and 3 years old... I was a little concerned by the age gap but she has really thrived and has surprised me at how well she responds and how quickly she learns from seeing the bigger kids doing the activities. These photos were taken by another photographer at the "Valentines" class...

no alien abductions...

Just a quick note to let you know that you have not been abducted by aliens and suddenly returned to earth again having missed out on our exciting family adventures...

Its a little less boring than that - I had kept some of these posts as "drafts" as a month ago our laptop died. I have been waiting in anticipation to be able to post the videos of Zara walking which I could only do on the laptop. Today we heard that our insurance claim has been approved and we should have our new laptop by the weekend - HOORAY!!!

I will endeavour to download the videos again and get the last two drafts posted ASAP.
(and keep a little more up to date) ;~)

Love my Dolly

I took these photos a couple of weeks ago and had almost forgotten about them until on our way out the other day, Zara insisted on taking her "dolly" with her. For the past few weeks have not been able to go anywhere without a supply of books for her to "read" in the car so I was very surprised at the announcement that "dolly" had to come too...

Money makes the world go round

Zara is certainly her father's child. Having been encouraged to walk with money (and peas) we were assured of her love for coins - so last night she got stuck into helping Dad transfer our old coins from the broken glass jar into the old milk-can which we found in Rosendal over the weekend. She took great delight in grabbing coins by the handful, chanting "money money money" and then putting them into the milk-can...

One week into my "new" walking world...

Its excatly one week since Zara took her first steps...

She is finding life far less frustrating and there is certainly a whole new world to explore - we think she has made excellent progress!!!

Samuel turns 1

Today we met the Katz family at the park so that we could give Samuel his birthday present. As you can see, Zara was very keen to show him what to do with presents whilst he looked on rather enjoying his rice cake...

Look out world - I'm toddling!

For a while now we have been convinced that Zara is fully capable of walking but merely needs the confidence to get going. Over the past week, she has been taking two to three steps at a time and then as soon as she realises what she has done, simply sits down...

This morning she started "walking" on her knees (as you'll briefly see at the beginning of the video) I had visions of all her clothes being worn out at the knees in no time if this was to carry on for an extended time!

Then - lo and behold - this afternoon, while I was talking to Grannyannie on the phone...
she took: one-two.. stop.. three-four.. stop.. five-SIX steps and then sat down!

WOW - totally unprompted!!! Having seen her in action, gave me the incentive to "bribe" her to do it again and again and again. Using the remote and tons of praise we had a fabulous afternoon encouraging her walking. I phoned Chris and told him to hurry home as Zara was taking six to eight steps at a time! As soon as Daddy got home, the video camera was out and Zara pulled out all the stops for the camera... many more than eight steps at a time.

Its quite a long clip but bare with us - we are VERY proud and excited parents!!!