Down time in Natures Valley

brace yourself for masses of pics. Long time no post.

Beach toys are cool.
'I can clap my hands now...'

'Oh my hat - chocolate...yes!' (Which was administered soon after she bit her top lip - first blood ever - see top)
a chop and a dop in Natures in the walking ring I told my mum not to buy.... SAND!!!

'Bye guys, I'm going for a swim'

Hey everyone - I can stand now in my cot (almost 8 months)
'I hate unpacking...'
'I eat bread now and wear 3-6 month size shoes even though I am nearly 9 months'
BIL teaching SIL to surf...

It feels like the rest of the world has gone away when I come to this place. It honestly feels like time stands still. There is no place more relaxing than Natures Valley...even with a 9 month old.

Freak out - ella is nearly 9 months, and in this last month she has learnt to crawl fast enough to have me chasing her all over the place, pull herself up into standing and back down to sitting, clap her hands, sing like an indian (she moves her little hand back and forth over her nouth - classic) and chew bread. She clearly has a will of her own producing these weird grunting noises everytime she does not like something. She has a seriously cute laugh and when caught in the right mood will giggle and giggle and giggle...

Ella has finally popped a tooth. You can see it now. But what boggles my brain is that the midnight awakening still persists unless I give her meds. It is really not funny - being woken up to play between 12 and 2am. Its now a habbitt and I guess leaving her to scream will the only way to break it (which is what I usually end up doing anyway). It really does suck.

She is suddenly enjoying books being read to her and will sit, intrigued by the pictures and sounds. This holiday I have started putting on baby einstein dvds in the early am - she goes into another zone during this time. She sits dead still staring intently at the moving objects on the screen. We have borrowed Chess and Ian's baby backpack and we have had such cool family walks in the constantia green belts and forest. Bruno loves these walks. We have discovered that Bruno is better transported in the Corsa - which has a hutchback boot. We must be quite a sight, all 4 of us in this little car with the dog horse in the boot.

And now, after what feels like a marathon of a last few months, we are chilling in natures. The weather has been amazing. Sunny autumn days - warm enough to be on the beach, cool enough to stay out all day long. We walk on the beach - a mere 2 mins walk away - every morning and eve, soaking up the tranquility and spectacular scenery. We celebrated dad's 60th - can't believe dad is 60! This is just what I needed after surviving 10 weeks of consulting for loveLife and hectic church stuff. The loveLife project landed well, I was really pleased with the outcome. I left Ella with mum for 4 days whilst in JHB for the final handover. It was so hard leaving her behind. She survived, I survived.

My brain is temporarily on hibernate. It took huge emounts of energy to boot up enough capacity to write this blog entry. I have no desire what so ever to contemplate anything. I should be thinking and mulling over a whole lot of things...the strategy of the common ground foundation, our holiday in Sept in Europe, a talk I need to do on grace, but my brain just wont go there. My brain is on holiday.

As I write my sister is trying to expose her niece to cullinary delights - which she calls cullinary adventure...lint choc, smoked chirizo sausage, goats milk cheese...I have lost control.

I know that I am on holiday when all I feel like doing is reading shortened readers digest books!! There is a whole library of them here...I think I need to retreat back into the thriller I am reading... Flip, Steve has stollen my book. Its all downhill from here.

Mum is back from PLett - dying to spend time with Ella...

holidays. Gotta love them.