oct, 10th - swinging time....

day 240:

FIRSTS! who doesn't love the first time that they try something good....or, being with someone else when they try something for the first time....watching their fizz of joy and excitement is even better

when i think of Lissom and all the Firsts that she has in front of her.....first jump on a trampoline, first feel of running, first taste of chocolate, first feel of snow, first read of alice and wonderland.....and if her wonderment over her first balloon is some indication (day 234)....she's going to be bursting out her skin when we take her to her first fair.

so with my mum and stepdad in town, we took her off for her very First Swing....

she didn't quite fit...

and seemed more intent on her toes than swinging.....

but once she'd taken some tips from the 2/3 year old veterans swinging next to her....

there was some sedate serious swinging to be had!

.....you may need to wait awhile for those flying-through-the-air action shots though.

oct, 9th - falling leaves....

day 239:

i grew up in a small town, north of Durban in South Africa. it's sugar-cane country, with rolling hills and dense bush along the coastline. the weather is hot, hot and steamy....so...when i moved to Cape Town during my university years, i was enthralled by the changing of the seasons. Autumn/Winter at home had been limited to putting on a cardigan over your summer clothes.

down in Cape Town, we had leaves turning, storms brewing, winds howling. i could wear scarves, gloves and hats....hooray! even though i'm not crazy about the short days.....i still love everything else about the colder months. it makes you appreciate the renewal in Spring that much more. [although....i haven't turned my back completely on the Tropics...forget a last meal....i would ask for a last late afternoon, warm, Tropical thunderstorm instead.]

i don't expect....that i'll ever stop wanting to do all the seasonal things that i never got to do when i was young: kick leaves wearing welling boots, wear mittens, lie in the snow and make snow angels....and now i get to do them all with Limi. and for her very first Autumn...our closest park is putting on a brilliant display.

who needs brightly coloured toys when you have brightly coloured leaves....

....................

while we're on things i love.....i love a bit of randomness....and this linen dress by birdiehandmade, spied on Etsy (day 121), is a perfect example of gorgeous randomness

all in the details.....

oct, 8th - first comes love, then comes marriage....

day 238:

recently (day 211), i blogged about French philosopher, Elisabeth Badinter and her current book called Le Conflict, La Femme et La Mere (The Conflict, The Woman and The Mother). it's essentially about finding the balance between career and kids; over-parenting and parenting; retaining you identity but still accepting your new role as a parent. 

this lead a reader (okay, family member, let's be truthful about my readers here) to send me a link to an interesting article prompted by another book, called To Raise Happy Kids, Put Your Marriage First. The article, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, is about how we prioritise our relationship time. The book by American family therapist, David Code, says that the current shift of focusing all our attention on our children, can mean neglecting our relationship with our partners, which is actually detrimental to a child's development.

i like his views (maybe...because he says that we shouldn't feel guilty about date night and that instead it's actually a positive thing for Limi). As the article says: "....we are so terrified of being selfish adults that we have forgotten that simply setting a good example is what creates a rounded, successful, happy human being. It is not the child who plays tennis and speaks Italian who is set for a fabulous life if her mother can't be civil to her father."

it's worth a read, if only to remind ourselves that growing up in a family full of warmth, love and affection is a lot more fun than diary discussions, rushing from one appointment to the next and never being in the same room long enough to have a conversation.

link: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/the-parent-trap-20100329-r7nt.html

oct, 7th - finger foods....

day 236:

stuck on healthy, delicious, new textures and fun finger foods for limi.....

today's selection was avocado, cucumber, wholewheat toast and organic, carrot 'quavers' (with rooibos tea - see day 232)

any ideas? anyone....anyone?

oct, 6th - 8 months....

day 236:

8 months old today! so...the 8 month round-up....

Dimensions & Weight:

Lenth - 72 cm (that's a whole 5cm growth since the 6 month update - day 175)

Foot Length - 11 cm

Hand Length - 8.5 cm

Ear Length - 5 cm 

(whoohoo...at last some ear growth. 0.5 cm since day 175)

Hair - growing...still...but not enough to keep her warm in Winter.

Weight - 8.4kgs

This Month's Likes & Dislikes:

Likes -

• crawling...at speed (day 222)
• pulling herself up to standing
• wholewheat toast!
• blowing rasberries....still

• swimming....still
• bubbles (day 229)
• clapping and clapping and clapping

• playing peek-a-boo..guaranteed to make her belly-laugh (day 217)
• balloons (day 234)
• saying bababababa and mamamama but no dadadada

• tropical fruits especially paw paw (papaya) and mango

• violent forms of affection...hair pulling, nose grabbing, nail raking, eye poking.....still
• wrestling with The Monk

Dislikes -

• any protein...can your 8 month old decide to become vegetarian?
• lumps in her food
• sleeping in!
• not being able to stand without holding on....very frustrating
• keeping a hat on

oct, 5th - 500 coloured pencils....

day 235:

i was a big sharer when i was young (with two elder siblings, it wasn't really a choice thing)...except when it came to my crayons and pencils.....i hated it when someone smashed my crayons into the paper.

so there'd be no hope of me sharing these! 500 Coloured Pencils is a subscription service where you receive a pack of 25 (perfect, no smashing) coloured pencils each month, for 20 months. Genius.

not only would i be able to hoard 500 pencils but i could also satisfy any obsessive compulsive tendencies by arranging the colours and keeping each pencil equally sharp (now there's an exciting hobby.)

the Genius doesn't stop there. you can also buy various installation display options to turn your pencils into a work of art! 

and with brilliant names for each colour to memorise...you never have to leave the house again. perfect for Winter!

and sadly, more perfect for Limi than for me....hopefully, she didn't inherit my non-crayon-sharing gene....

Via Elle Decoration

Pics by Felissimo

oct, 4th - orange balloon....

day 234:

Balloons! up there with bubbles (day 229)! we went to meet A for lunch in town and Limi came home with her very first, bright orange balloon....her excitement was magical....

the first of many orange (yellow, red, blue, pink, green) balloons, Mouse. i promise! x

oct, 3rd - libby and dan....

day 233:

yay, more visitors. A's sister, Libby and her partner Dan, arrived today for a month from Australia. Limi gets to meet more of her family for the first time.


more of our adventures to come.....

oct, 2nd - rooibos tea for babies....

day 232:

when i think of home, i think of scrunching sand beneath my toes, smelling the fynbos (fine bush), looking up at the mountain as i scoot from one part of cape town to the next and curling up with a cup of rooibos (red bush) tea and honey.

rooibos tea is as intrinsically South African as proteas and vuvuzelas. i remember my flatmate at university telling me how when her older sister was a tiny baby, she wasn't thriving and the doctors didn't have any ideas so her mum started putting rooibos tea in her milk and sure enough, she started blossoming. 

giving babies plain rooibos tea in their bottles is a very common thing to do in SA. it provides a change from water, it's not juice and it's packed with minerals (that supplement the daily intake of fluoride and calcium) and anti-allergic, anti-spasmodic and anti inflammatory goodness. which means that it's good for colic, stomach cramps and digestion. it doesn't even stop there...when applied topically, it's had great results with relieving skin irritations like eczema and even the common nappy rash...all from one small tea-bag packed with some dried bush.

the colic benefits were discovered by Annique Theron in 1968. she was living in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa, and was caring for her youngest child who was suffering from terrible colic and couldn't keep any food down. as the story goes, after many sleepless nights, one morning her child was crying non-stop from hunger and in desperation, Dr Theron warmed up her milk with some of the rooibos tea that she had been drinking. for the first time, the baby slept for 3 hours and not only slept but also stopped vomiting. the connection to rooibos was not instant but once Dr Theron remembered and tried it again, she found the same results. she went on to dedicate her life to discovering the therapeutic benefits of rooibos tea. she has written books on the subject and helped millions of babies who were suffering the same stomach issues. this year, Dr Annique Theron turned eighty. there is a great article on her story here.

anyway this week, i started Limi on rooibos tea....you steep one tea-bag in her usual bottle...that's it. don't add anything to it. besides the benefits, i love the fact that it looks like juice so she won't feel left out if others are having cordial, it's not sweet, so hopefully she won't crave sweet drinks (for awhile), it can be served warm (great for winter) and best of all....she seems to enjoy it! and of course for me, it brings a little slice of home to London....

pic source

oct, 1st - milestones....

day 231:

there's been a sudden flurry of milestones that Limi has conquered over the past week. pretty exciting for her and for us. although, they come with the usual bittersweet notion that time is passing and have we savoured every moment....(some of our friends would say that we may not have savoured but we have certainly attempted to capture each one...)

so....on milestones, just short of her 8 month update....limi has tackled:

• pulling herself up to standing....current success rate 60%, although at least she's starting to figure out how to land on her cushioned nappy rather than her head

• crawling at speed.....0 to down-the-passage at turn-your-head pace

• clapping! this is a biggie. she is super chuffed with this one. and impressively, she claps on command....now, i wake up in the morning to this small slapping sound and when you walk into her room she's sitting in her cot...clapping away!!

• and finally, holding her own bottle..but more importantly, tilting it to reach the liquid. she's even introduced a swivelling action...obviously i've been doing it wrong for 4 months.

anyway that's the round up for this week....