First steps

Joshua has finally taken his first steps! Wednesday last week saw me a very proud mom when Debbie got him to walk three steps for me...

But I waited to tell everyone because I wanted Andrew to see Joshua walking as well. And that's all very fine in principal, but here we are nearly a week later and Joshua still won't walk for us again...

So let it be recorded that Joshua did walk, but now has decided to be stubborn (wonder where he gets that from... ;o)

I'll try and get a video or photo soon - he will eventually walk again. But it's all before his birthday on Friday, so that is exciting ;o)

Parenting challenges...

Well Joshua has thrown his first real tantrum... He wanted to be outside crawling around on the lawn, but it was time to come in for supper and what ensued was not the most pleasant experience. As my mom later said, we have a very strong willed little boy, and he know exactly what he wants.

But I think overall we handled it not too badly, and I'm sure we'll get better with practice ;o) But I thought we should just have a look and see what we could find by way of guidance. I only looked at one article but it is really great: Love, Limits and Latitude from the August 2008 Ensign. I think there is some fantastic counsel, that we will be coming back to often, in the years to come.

To all those more experienced parents than us, who have been through all of this so many times - I salute you!

Election fever

The country is being gripped with election fever. This is definitely the most historic and significant election in South Africa since 1994, and it is being felt all over. Every news bulletin will have something about the elections or some politician or other. In some ways I can't wait for it all to be over, but it's also exciting to have this happening when I am at an age to be able to appreciate it. I was only 11 in 1994, so I had a very superficial understanding of events. And although I have voted twice already, like I said, this is a big one.

One significant event for all South Africans is that the constitutional court ruled that South Africans abroad can now vote (see IEC website for details). I think for this election it is only citizens that are already registered, but I think that there are many South Africans abroad that can now make a difference to our country's future.

The next six weeks are going to be interesting times. I'm sitting waiting with anticipation! I hope we can all be reasonably happy with the outcome.

Back home... again...

Okay, so this drama seems to continue forever...

On Monday my mom was having serious pain in her chest area whenever she coughed, and eventually they contacted the specialist, and he said she should come in for some special scan. But the catch was that the only way the medical aid would cover the scan was for her to be admitted to hospital again and stay overnight.

Anyway, the verdict is that she has a cracked rib. But there's nothing to be done except wait for it to heal, which will take about 6 weeks. But other than that, and the fact that she's got no voice, her lungs are now clear and she's much better!

Back home

My mom came back home yesterday, but is still not completely better. But everything that is still being done to treat her (medication and nebulising) she can do at home, so there was no need for her to stay.

The diagnosis was that she had viral broncho pneumonia (or something like that...)

She's been booked off work for at least this coming week, and it will be assessed again at the end of the week.

One major lesson for everyone is that if anyone is experiencing any abnormal difficulty in breathing to see a doctor right away. This virus seems to be affecting a lot of people around Cape Town at the moment, with a lot of hospitalisations.

We're just really hoping that Joshua doesn't get it! But the news is generally getting better...

Tongue wagging

Joshua started this cute thing today of moving his tongue from side to side, and making a little noise while he's doing it. It's SO cute! And if I do it for him to see me now, he copies it straight away, but it was all started by him...

And then this evening after supper we were in our bedroom, and Joshua started playing hide and seek with me. I was lying on my stomach on the bed, so that he couldn't see me if he was on the floor, but then he'd pull himself up so that I could see his face. Then he'd go back down on the floor and move to another part of the bed and come up again... And he was also moving to all three sides of the bed, so really being very inventive. And of course this was just he funniest thing for him, so he's laughing, almost hysterically, the whole time. And it was great, cos I could just lie and relax a bit the whole time, knowing that he couldn't really hurt himself at all! Fantastic!And he was also playing hide and seek with himself, standing up against the mirror...He's cruising along the furniture really well now, so I'm pretty sure he'll be walking by his birthday in 3 weeks time. Then the next chapter begins.

Joshua also really loves books. Even books that don't have pictures he just loves holding them, and "paging" through them - so moving a whole pile of pages at one time. On Monday I was busy making supper in the kitchen, and then I realised that Joshua wasn't in the room anymore, and very quiet. So I poked my head around, and there he was by the bookshelf, with one of his books on his lap (and it was even the right way up) and he was talking quietly to himself like he was reading... By the time I got my camera he'd changed books to a colouring book, and I didn't manage to catch him with the book open (of course) But isn't he just so cute!

The mop!

You know how you have all these good intentions... And some things just don't get done... Well Andrew's hair cut was one of those things... He's been asking me for ages to cut his hair, but it's always at a time when we couldn't do anything about it.

But last night we finally got as far as cutting it. And look at the mound of hair that came off!

Andrew joked that you could almost make a toupee out of all of that hair!