Enjoying a South African Summer

The last couple of days have been real scorches of days, and resting at home with a toddler is quite limiting when its HOT HOT HOT!  So we decide we'd invest in a pool....ok ok its a blow up splash 'pool' but to Jaime its the best gift anyone could have given him.  He is in and out splashing playing giggling ...best R100 I spent in a long long time!

The streakers..Jaime and Chanel our special visitors from Durban!

The shiner

Moms I need your advise here....Jaime has the nak of falling and whacking his head smack bam in the middle resulting in a 24/7 bruise...how do I teach him to be careful?

Jaime and his girls

Today we said our good bye to the 2009 Moms & Tots year. We celebrated the session with the usual songs in the beginning...however Jaime was little preoccupied with a young lady called Willow. Now to fill you in with the history Jaime has been working on her sister Amilee for the part 2 terms but boy the older sister arrives and he dropped poor old Amilee like a hot potato and attacked Willow. Poor girl didn't know what she was in for lol!

Later on that afternoon Jaime got the boot from Willow and guess what Mr player was back in the love boat with Amilee...mmmm his father would be proud me on the other hand am not letting him out the house till his 21!

Mom's & Tots Christmas party

Who said I has issues with texture?

Jaime's favourite place in our house...aha outside nope not playing on the huge grass patch specially grown for soccer practice and cricket and picnics but rather he much prefers the dull, dry hard dark brown sand right at the very bottom of the garden

Bob the builder

My dad and uncle Abel have decided to build something, just for fun, to keep themselves occupied. My mom decided Tiago and Jaime needed to see Bob the builder in action. The result...

My dad and uncle Abels little bit of fun on the wild side

Jaime & Tiago ...mmm up to no good!

Jaime waiting in anticipation for the blast...they used dynamite to blast the deep rock surface in order to start foundations

Tiago standing tall in front of the digger

The best smell is bread, the best savour, salt, the best love that of children

Most of you will know how hard its been, and the road we have travelled to get Jaime to eat. Eat anything whether it be milk, formula, puree, solids, texture you name it. Well on numerous occasions people gave me advise this been one of them...

"Empower your child by giving him a choice and a chance. Let them learn to make their own decisions, when appropriate, and learn to trust their feelings"

So this is what happens when I follow other peoples advise....

(pasta and chicken in his hair)

(now you know how it got there)

(check the mohawk and the cheeky grin!)

I just need to learn to let go....

Our 2nd attempt at swimming lessons

Today Jaime attempted swimming lessons for the second time... this time round things are very different ie Jaime is about 4-5 kg bigger, he is alot more alert, has way more head control and I'm a lot more chilled out in the water. All of these point contributed to a successful first 'lesson"

The first lesson was pretty chilled, granted I know the teacher personally so we chatted more than swam lol but the whole aim was to get Jaime comfortable in the pool, used to the temperature, used to Enid and the new sensation of the water. We did do a few exercises as a tester which Jaime enjoyed thoroughly. So I'm really happy that we've finally joined the swimming society!

strutting his stuff around the pool

Entering the pool....

ok ok the intro to the pool was not quite "exciting" to Jaime... think he was remembering the first attempt...refer to pics below

but pretty soon he got used to the warm water, the toys, Enid ...

check out my Olympic swimmer!!

kicking his legs while lying on his back



pointing at the birds and fish mobiles on the roof of the pool

The first attempt... August 2008. Jaime was 3/4 months old.

Geez my little boy how much has he grown hey? today was fun cant wait for Tuesday!

5 years together...

Our history...

After going out for 4 years...

getting proposed to by a chicken...

We got married on the 31 October 2004...

this time 5 years ago.....

Our second honeymoon in Ibiza... (no digital camera for the first)

And now today as we stand...a family of 3... Hilario, Rose and Jaime.

"The LOVE of a family is life's greatest blessing"

Someone seen my skin?

Happy Halloween everybody

Check out my suit..cool hey plus its glow in the dark!

Monkey see monkey do...

Check out the frown...this is the latest thing, frowning when ever things are not going according to his plan!

Closeup Friday

Fun on the Farm!

My baby is turning into a little boy! It's been hard the past year and a half but man its definitely all worth it!

The new dance move- we've been watching "So you think you can dance" and Mr Jaime has been picking up some tips..seriously!

Everything in the house is now something to climb in, climb on, jump on, jump off, carry around..absolutely NO FEAR!

Check how much he has grown! I should actually take monthly pics next to this door ;-)



Check his knees! LOL

Do you guys think he has put on weight? I'm to scared to weigh him! So now I'm going on pictures LOL

The challenge begins

Now that Jaime has started to stick to a "routine" per say ie he is eating breakfast lunch and dinner, with snacks in between, plus 3 bottles of formula and limited gagging, vomiting and the usual fussing I complain about, I think its about time I focus on me - a little at least ;-)

So here is the plan aka the challenge. Ive joined a new group of runners. These girls train at 5 in the morning, they train every day, me well I'm doing 3 days a week. My 3 days a weeks consist of Tues 6km run with leg workout, Thurs 8km hill run and Sat 8km fast run. I am intending to include a 5km on the Friday but for now its just in the plan for the future...

Now health wise...mmmm..... the HUGEST challenge! Now to me food is my comfort, my best friend, my soul mate! Its there when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm stressed, when I'm relaxed its just always there and its always just so dam good. So how mentally do you stop or change your perception towards it? Well anyway I need to get over this obsession and just gain some control. So after reading Beths blog and checking her 8 pack Ive decided I'm going start clean eating. I've done weight watches before, which worked well so I'll integrate the two and see how we go.

So here is to the new Jaime, the new me and the new Ili (ha ha he doesn't know it but he's gonna eat clean too hee haaawww hee haaa)! Bye bye beeg bum bye bye

Clean Green

Finally I found a product I can use on Jaime that is organic, hypoallegenic, herbal and all Green! And one for Laura, its made in the USA.

Geez SA seriously needs to get up to speed with the rest of the world with regards to going green!

Sports injuries

My brave boy sporting his very first graze

What is it?

What is it with toddlers that the minute they turn 1 they cant leave you alone? I mean even for a second! Lately I cant even go potty without the assistance of my toddler, I mean whats he gonna do, help me push?

Ah the joys of being a mom!

The Rhino and Lion nature reserve

The kids have been begging me forever and a day, to take them on a trip, 'a trip anywhere" they say! So I decided Friday was the day and off we went to the Rhino and Lion nature reserve just North of Johannesburg.

It took us just over an hour to get there (lol it was quicker to get there than to organise everyone together and into the car to leave ha ha ha), but what a nice surprise when we got there. The place is huge!

Its filled with a huge range of wild life including lions, rhinos (you don't say) buck, wildebeest, warthogs, wild dogs, vultures, reptiles, crocodiles etc

The boys (Micheal and Jaime) all reved up in the back seat

Jaime, Monica and myself got to go inside the white Tiger cub cage and play a little. Jaime was in his element screaming "wow wow" we of course correcting him after each stage "no no my boy kitty cat" not technically correct either but hey

The kids - Jardim's and Duarte's

Jaime being escorted by his big cuzzies Michael and Monica - with these two guys around I really don't need to stress Jaime is really well looked after. Thanks guys!

Laura next time you guys in SA, we taking Robby ...you can come too ;-)