Nicholas' Birthday Week

The celebrations for Nicholas' birthday lasted a whole week which was way over the top but kind of fun. He was totally aware that he was the special boy and that all the fuss was about him. He loved every minute of it especially all the wonderful cards and presents that he got from across the world. Thanks to everyone who made his 3rd birthday so memorable.

Monday: Daddy had the day off so we just did what we usually do on mondays spiced with a bit of fun to mark the occasion. We spent a leisurely morning opening presents at home. Nicholas then had the chance to show off his skills at Little Gym and Playball to Daddy. And, like good old South Africans, we had a birthday feast of ribs and milkshake at the Spur.

Tuesday: Nicholas celebrated with his friends at nursery with his favourite home made banana muffins. Much to my delight there wasn't a morsel left at the end.

Wednesday and Thursday: Baking and preparing for the party was loads of fun too. Nicholas enjoyed playing chef and I got to work on his (non-existant) sweet tooth a bit. He is finally starting to like things like cake, chocolates, smarties and jelly tots. He also loved filling the party bags and we even got to do some arts and crafts.

Friday: The party was a great success because Nicholas had so much fun with 8 of his little friends. We made all sorts of things to go with the rocket theme: the obvious ones were a rocket cake of course, rockets made from icecream cones filled with smarties, rocket biscuits and rocket balloons and the more obscure ones were meatball and cocktail sausage aliens and rocky road from the moon. Besides the general chaos we played pass the parcel and pin the astronaut to the rocket. No party is complete without a bit of dancing. It was so much fun watching the kids jamming to some of Nicholas' favourite songs in front of the telly under the glitter ball having the time of their life.

Saturday: The festivities continued when some of our friends came over to eat cake and snacks (and drink beer and prosecco) while watching rugby. The lucky boy got even more lovely presents. There's no wonder he expected it never to end.

Sunday (and the days that followed): We had to break the news that his birthday was finished and things would return back to normal again. He looked thoughtful for a moment and asked if he can play with all his new things. And that is what we've been doing ever since.

Sleeping Angels

Things that make a mommy's heart melt ...

Daniel Week 24

Like I mentioned before Daniel had a terrible bout of vomiting and diarrhea and to top it we were busy with Nicholas' birthday celebrations so there aren't many photos from this week. Here he is lying wiped out on Daddy when he was still sick and then enjoying a bottle of rooibos to soothe his tummy when he started recovering.

Peekaboo

Daniel Week 23

Daniel had his first taste of solids the other day. We've decided to take the gradual approach and only give him one teaspoon of baby rice once per day for 2 weeks before we start getting serious and adventurous. At first it seemed like he liked it but his enthusiasm soon turned into utter disgust. Now he keeps his mouth shut, sticks his tongue out, hits the spoon out of the way and sometimes even screams. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Mmmm what's this?

Give it to me!Yummy!Oh wait!
I've changed my mind!

This series are especially funny not only because of Daniel's facial expressions but also those of Nicholas in the background. One of the things Nicholas does not like at all is custard (which is hard to understand for a mom and dad that love it). So he quite cleverly says: 'Mom, Danny doesn't like custard either, give him something nice!' I guess the baby rice does resemble custard and he has a good point maybe we need to try something a bit more tasty.

We've also started giving him a few drops of water out of the doidy cup. Not much is actually going where it is meant to just yet but the idea is that he will get used to drinking his water out of a cup after every meal. It's just a habit I got into with Nicholas and I think it is healthy part of the eating routine.After a week of trying we stopped abruptly when a horrible bug of vomiting and diarrhea hit the poor little thing. It was severe and lasted for 4 days. He couldn't even keep breast milk down. As you can imagine his thighs are not as chunky anymore but other than that he is back to normal. Now that his milk consumption is back on track we'll give the baby rice another bash.