Nico is now one and a half and has just started school

Well, not school school. Although they do call themselves a school. Its more like a play school. Or kindergarten as Benedikt calls it.
His first day went quite well - he didn't even cry when I said goodbye! Although his teacher did call me to please collect him at 10am. Apparently he had been crying a fair bit. Jungle Tots is about 1.5kms from home and is within our secure (boomed off) suburb so its very quick and safe to get there. They only take kids up to age four, so its all very geared up for the little ones. The playground is just amazing! Perfectly sized slides and swings and a big plastic aeroplane and lots of push bikes with a track all the way around. Then they have a wooden puzzle room, a main dancing/music/activities room, and 2 classrooms. Nico is with 9 others, he is the youngest I think as they only take kids from 18 months onwards - he just made it.

I've made friends with one other mum so far, her and her family have just moved up from Durban. Her little boy, Max, and Nico are in the same class.
Its funny this whole school / classroom / teacher / rules / bag packing / writing Nico's name on everything business. I felt nervous myself going there on the first day!

Days 2 and 3 were nowhere as easy as day 1. He cried hysterically when I dropped him off. Well more like wrenched him off me to hand him over, his eyes big with fright and him crying the loudest ever. That didn't bother me too much as I know he was ok, just out of his comfort zone. Its when he looks around during play time later in the morning and doesn't see a familiar face, that's when I want to be there for him. To encourage him and look at whatever he has found.... instead he probably just cries some more because he doesn't recognise anyone. Poor little thing!
I've had to pick him up at 10am every day so far. So I have a measly 2 hours to get things done which is nothing, this morning I spent the entire time at the local home affairs which is always a joy. And I need to work! Nico has to start surviving at school until 12.

On Nico's 18 month birthday I took him to the Bunny Park in Benoni. He loved it!


PS. Nico survived until 12 noon on his 4th day of school. Yeeeeeeeeeeha! I didn't know what to do with all that free time. AND he slept until 3pm when he got home. So thats like almost a whole day. Lets hope this keeps happening

Braai at ours and the Dischem 21km

Its been really great hooking up with all my friends here. Its been 3 weeks of me looking after Nico ALL DAY and boy does it get tedious. Benedikt has started his new job and thats going well so far. Its a good challenge for him. I'm keen to get going with my web development work, but am waiting for Nico to start at nursery school. Its impossible trying to sit on my computer with him around. He climbs all over me, and presses all the keys and kicks the table etc etc. So instead, I try to meet up with friends or go on excursions daily to get out of the house. Even if its just to lurk at a local toy store :) 3 of my good friends have kids now so our visits are play dates for Nico too - bonus.
So last weekend we entertained for the first time in our temporary rental house. We have only basic furniture. And lots of mismatched stuff that my father has... He is living with us while we are here so that he can be chief babysitter, dog sitter, furniture and car provider! He and I are sharing his bakkie so that I don't have to get a car. Its all working well so far.


I am REALLY trying not to get sucked into doing too much exercise while I am here. It won't help our pregnancy cause. But its SO hard. This country is a sports mecca! I couldn't not enter a 21km that started 700m for our house could I? The announcments alone would have woken us up! So Mandy and I ran it last weekend.
So our good friend from Nairobi came to stay with us yesterday. He did the half ironman in East London. His first big triathlon. He did super well in the swim and bike but absolutely died in the run! Was SO good to see him. He and I shopped up a storm for him to take supplies back to Nairobi!

New Years in Brits the Pits

So my sister and her husband are in the middle of a 2 year stint of living in Brits. They are there while Collin specialises in embryology. So my sister does a LOT of driving to get to joburg and its surrounds in her new job as a Veterinary rep. She got very tired of the hard lifestyle and stressful job of being an outpatients nurse at Ondestepoort.
So after our week in Swellandam, Nico and I went and spent 5 days in Brits. Benedikt joined us on the fourth day as he'd been back in Nairobi to wrap up things at his old job.

Kreeeeesmaaas in Swellies

Its been very funny to hear the strong South African accents again and all the south africanisms...its entertaining Benedikt and I no end. Things like 'eish' and 'seriaaaaas' and 'kreeeeeesmaaaa' and 'aswell'... I love this place.
So we all spent a week in Swellendam in the Western Cape over Christmas at my mum's lovely house. My sister and I flew down to cape town with Nico and my mum picked us up. It was really nice that it was just us 3 for the first night. Then Dad drove down the next day with my sister's dog, Malawi, or 'Malawa' as Nico calls him. Then Benedikt arrived the next day as he'd had to spend the week in Germany for his new job. Then Collin arrived the next day, on Christmas eve. We just missed having my brother and Nicola there.
It was a very social week, we visited some of my mum's neighbors and Swellendam's one and only vegan (who grows amazing salad veggies hydroponically) came to visit twice, we had a a visit from an old school friend of my brother's and met her twins and we met up with a family we know from Kenya who were holidaying in Cape Town and did some wine farms and went for lunch with them.