Dylan 2 take two

We had a second try at celebrating Dylan's birthday yesterday with his two little friends...Ivo and Adriaan and of course Ivo's brother Burl was there too. We even managed to re-create the cake. Dylan was behaving as though he really got it that it was for him, he ran around shouting and screaming with excitement from the time Adriann got there. He actually had such a sweat going at one stage that a change of clothes was required.

The boys had fun and as the morning went on they played really nicely together and independently of each other. The only altercations involved the high chair. It is funny, when we go to Ivo's house Dylan insist on sitting in Ivo's high chair and this upsets Ivo (even though he doesn't use it much) so when Ivo saw Dylan's high chair he decided it was payback time (pic below) Memories like elephants these boys.

Dylan got really excited with the candles on the cake , but proceeded to put a cookie in his mouth instead of blowing them out.

Adriaan in the ball pool


"My high chair"

Dylan with his "Toy story" figures

Ides of March

Haven't posted in a while. Getting back into the routine of things. We went to see Ivo's little brother Burl on Tuesday ..very cute and looks just like Ivo as a baby. Then on Wednesday Dylan and I went to gym. He had fun playing with two other kids in the ball pool and then proceeded to unpack all the new toys that are there. He loves unpacking shelves, but hasn't quiet got the love of repacking them -unfortunately.
We are having a bit of a "clash of cultures" with the babysitter again..she wants to potty train him, but her way is not necessarily our way. She takes of the diaper and lets the wet themselves so they know when they pee. We are also not sure that he is ready for it, he seems distressed by her leaving his diaper off and is quiet happy when Ciro puts one back on, he never usually lies still.
Some pics of the little guy...note we do not usually give him two bottles, but if he has juice and milk bottles nearby he grabs both and stuffs them into his mouth. so we handed him these two to capture that.

Sunday evening

Had a very quiet weekend. Dylan passed his cold on to me, think i have sufficiently blasted it away with vitamins and rest. Gran's service was today. As i am writing this everyone is gathered at the house. We had our own "remembrance" here so it has been a quiet day..just one of the many reasons i love my husband..he has been amazing this week, he helped set up a "balcony 'remembrance' garden" and organised a little memorial for gran..knowing how much she meant to me and how difficult it was being far away from the family! It meant so much and made it easier. Thanks Ciro!!
Will post some pics in the week.

Finally Friday!!

It has been a bit of a downer as far as weeks go. Dylan has also not been able to shake this cold and on top of it he is teething. I can see the tooth coming through this morning, so hopefully he will feel a bit better at the weekend. On the home front, a service is going to be dedicated to gran on Sunday, the fam will attend and then have tea etc at home. Mom is a bit worried as she mentioned this at work. She works in an African school and it is the african custom to visit your coworker and eat a plenty on the day of a funeral. Not too sure how many people she should expect on Sunday.
All for now. .. Pics are of the little guy who thinks he is a cat lately watching TV lying on the back of the sofa, loving his peanut butter and a result of me messing around with the software bundled with the camera.

Farewell to a lady

It has been a bitter-sweet weekend. It was Dylan's birthday and then on Sunday night my gran passed away at 8:30 SA time. We got the call at 3am . She has been bed-ridden for a long time and it is not unexpected. That does not make it any easier though. We were especially close when i was a child and she taught me so many things. It is really dificult being so far away now. we were there at Christmas and said our goodbyes as we were not sure that we would see her again. At least the whole family was together for her last Christmas. If i were to sum my gran up in one word it would be " lady". Although she has not been herself for a long time and i know that this is better for her in a way , i will miss her!

At our wedding September 2001

With one of her favourite flowers.

Last Christmas with mum, me and Dylan

Dylan is two!!!!

Dylan turned two yesterday . I got my babycentre newsletter today and it said he is now a preschooler not toddler anymore..growing so fast..he is still my baby!! We woke up very early and he opened presents, he got a junior engineer set and a frying pan set (the latter due to his fascination with cooking) We set off to the Natural Science museum where he had a lot of fun running around the botanical gardens. It was a really hot day , if i look back to the pictures of his birthday last year we were all in winter gear and this year it is T-shirt weather. After a busy morning we came home for a nice nap. Unfortunately after his nap Dylan was very unhappy, he has been teething and initially i thought it was that. Turns out he has got a bit of a cold with an explosive nose. We were supposed to have his friends Adriaan and Ivo over to celebrate his birthday but we had to postpone. Adriaan is also sick with gastro and Ivo has a little brother in the house and we don't want him to catch anything from Dylan and pass it on to Burl. Still Ciro and I made his cake already, so here are some pics of Chicken Little

Photography

I have always loved taking photos, now with the new camera i have been going crazy again. So thought i'd put up some of the pics..not eveything i photograph is Dylan...tulips and fish from the botanical garden at the Taichung Natural Science museum and a sculpture at the Taichung art museum

Dylan-back to schedule

The photos i wanted to add on the last post don't want to upload so i hope all goes well with this one. School started without too much hassle. Dylan was a bit upset on Monday morning when Ciro went to work..he wanted to hang out with his Daddy. Monday night we stayed up late watching teh rebroadcast of the oscars, i was very happy Scorcese won the director's award. We went down to Sandy's on Tuesday to play with Gail and Ivo while Sandy was at the doc... and then Wednesday was a holiday!!Yay , did some shopping for the little guy's bday and then relaxed. Ivo's little brother Burl was born yesterday evening . We will see them tomorrow.
Dylan's birthday card from his great-grannie in England arrived today. Two years ago tonight i was in the beginning stages of labour with Dylan..wow a lot of remembering going on...

At Ivo's

Fast asleep with his brazilian soccer bear Paul brought him back.

Asleep

Fooled you!!

Back to school

It is back to normal tomorrow...school again. We went in this morning to pick up our stuff for tomorrow and get sorted out with schedules and all that. I was thrilled to find out i don't work Saturday's this semester. Dylan came in with us and turned my classroom upside down in the time that we were there. He had great fun playing with the toys and i don't think there was a marker or crayon left in its container by the time he was done. He had a good nap this afternoon but then woke up soooo grumpy!!!! still getting over this sore throat / teething or just the grumps!! The pics are from the art museum we stopped in there the other day and as always Dylan loved running around the park.(these pics won't upload so will post them next time.. )We went shopping for his birthday pressie!! Don't think he suspects anything:) Can't believe he is almost two. And on that note here are some old pics of Dylan...

The first pic ...3rd March 2005 in the Jen ai hospital NICU.

Opening pressies on his first birthday. 3rd March 2006.

Our little one year old!

Dylan at play

We went to the play area at Carrefour on Wednesday. Dylan loves it there and gets very excited. It got a bit hectic with loads of people still on vacation but he had fun. He loves playing with the kitchen set , perhaps he will be a great cook like his dad!

The holiday is winding down...

The holiday is slowly coming to an end. I have not posted for the past few days so here is the news in pictures.
Dylan and Ivo on the piano at Ivo's. Oh how we wish they had never found the volume button

No rest.... Dylan loves to wrestle. He has also been enjoying his books and trying to mimic the sounds. The other morning he woke up and passed us one of his story books. On the correct page he burst out "No, its kang-roo" very clear...but has not said it again... we wait!

I made some of my gran's "famous" cookies and Dylan (like the rest of us as kids) loves them!!!! So much that I had to hide them from the cookie "monster".

Happy New Year

Happy Chinese New Year to all. It is now the year of the pig and from what i have read that is lucky for those born in it but the actual year could be tumultuous! We shall just have to wait and see. It has been so hot the last two days 27 and 28 degrees. This morning in particular the lethargy set in and i think it was heat related. It is February!!!!!!
News from home: Ian started his new job on Friday and it seems as though it will be a much better thing for them as a family.
Dylan seems to be really enjoying this holiday time, he is being so animated, at the moment his favourite movie is chicken little and he loves playing with his jumping dog..although still wary of it..he switches it on and runs to the doorway to watch it from there. We have unleashed war on the mosquitoes and so last night was much better although the bites from the other night are still pretty visible on his face.

I was anticipating lots of fireworks last night as the new year came in but there seemed to be more firecrackers and less elaborate fireworks. Took a panorama view of the city from our balcony though.

Dylan loves getting into things, even though he can't always get out. He enjoys sitting with a book quietly sometimes.

In the school garden and the closed piece of road in Dong-hai. He loves running along the yellow line

Very busy making calls on Daddy's phone.