The last two weeks...

The last two weeks have been hectic! Hence the lack of posting. But I've been storing up the photos and details that I wanted to share, so that's why there's a deluge today! (I took my February posts from 3 to 10!)

Firstly a comment on the weather... While the UK have been having the worst snow in 18 years, we have been having the worst hot and dry weather! Fires are becoming a standard part of life in Cape Town at the moment... This was the headline 2 weeks ago, and over these past 2 weeks this number will be have grown hugely!
And just to make the weather even better there was a terrible stomach bug that we managed to pass around so that only my brother Andrew and Joshua didn't get it... So last Saturday Andrew and I were completely flattened by it. But of course Joshua is completely on top of the world and wanting all the attention that a 10 month old will...

At one point I put him in his cot and just sat/lay on the floor trying to find some interest in life... Well Joshua did manage to brighten things a bit. Who couldn't be at least a little happy seeing this face!

Because Andrew and I were doing so badly my parents took Joshua from the middle of the afternoon, and he had his first sleep over! We set up the camp cot in my parent's room and he was so good! He slept well, and didn't give them any hassles! Of course when your parents are right over the road it does help the whole situation... It was SO weird not having him at home with us! But it was really great to have a good night's rest! We woke up feeling much better the next day, but really weak after the lack of food... But by the middle of the day we were tons better!

I don't know when exactly this was (well, I can read that it was 9 Feb, but can't remember what was happening...) but I just love these photos! I love these two SO much!

For those expats no longer living in South Africa... We went shopping last week, and this was just about at the end of the shop, so it really wasn't a bit shop: R824... And the only item over about R30 was a pack of 68 nappies for R140 (which are the cheapest good that we can get in Joshua's size - the one thing with a big baby is that things like nappies are more expensive as they get bigger... And we didn't have long on the smaller sizes!)

Joshua really likes eating my shopping list...

Joshua doesn't often have a bubble bath. In fact he often showers because its so much easier to have an almost instant source of water... But we gave him a full on bubble bath the other day, and he decided he really rather enjoyed these bubbles!

He is now climbing everywhere he can! He's just starting to pull himself along the furniture, but its much quicker for him to sit down, crawl to where he wants to be up again, and then stand up... So ever the lazy one...

But this was him crawling around behind Grammy and Grandpa's couch and then I'm not sure if he pushed the cushion out, or if Andrew moved it so that he could see what Josh was doing, but he ended up like this:

Joshua has FINALLY cut his second tooth! And then today we found that he's actually also cut his first top tooth. So he's a 3-tooth boy now ;o) I'm hoping that while we're busy with the teething he'll at least cut the other top tooth so that he can be a bit more even now... That one bottom tooth was out so far that he really did look very amusing!

Joshua has also completely weaned himself now. We made it to just under 10 months with him still having some breast milk, and although it was traumatic for me, I know it is better that he's the one who stopped, so that I know he really was ready for it. But when it comes right down to it, it's just easier and faster to get milk from a bottle, and my boy loves his food! He doesn't want anything slowing him down!

Oh, and other major events in the (local) world...

We had our budget speech this week, and I think we're all feeling as positive as we can about it... I really think that Trevor Manuel is someone we can trust to make sure that things go as well as they can financially in the country.

Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister this week, to serve in the unity government with Robert Mugabe. I think we're all taking a wait and see approach...

Yesterday, quite by chance, we heard the Democratic Alliance's election manifesto being launched. Helen Zille gave a speech, outlining their manifesto and what they have very carefully put together, and costed, as their plan for governing the country. I can't help but feeling confidence when I hear her speak... I think we all know that it's still very unlikely that the DA would win this election, even with COPE that will hopefully split the ANC vote. But, as some analysts are saying, they are no longer talking like an opposition party, but rather they have started talking like a ruling party. And I think that that's the really important thing. And they really are aiming their campaign at all the demographic groups in the country. One of the other parties is busy in court trying to get South Africans outside of the country the right to vote in the upcoming election. I really hope they get it right, because I think that all of the expats can also help to make a difference. But the DA are aware that this election will probably be the ANC again, but their plan is to win in 2014. If they carry on as they are, I actually really think they have a chance!

And then the last exciting thing is that these past 2 weeks may have been pretty tough and hectic, but they've cut in half my time left at PwC until I start at UCT. Just 2 weeks to go! ;o) And I think that the next two weeks are definitely going to be better than the last two!