Who Changed the Rules?

Natalia of course, who else. HRH has always been in charge, from day 1 actually. We have come to the realisation and understanding that she 'tells' us what to do and what happens next. We are her subordinates; at her mercy. She determines if we get to sleep or not, if we have a good day or not, if she needs food or wants to play with it or not........ She is a force to reckon with, a lightening crawler and is very vocal. She is cute, funny, makes me laugh every day, astoundingly bright, alert, absorbs everything in her surroundings, changing daily from a baby to almost a toddler now. In the last 5months she has progressed from lying on her back, to rolling over, to sitting unsupported, to rolling over and sitting up on her own, to rocking, to crawling, to kneeling, to pulling herself up, to cruising along furniture......... shoo, and soon she'll be walking. It's the most incredible journey and experience and its happens so fast. Lately she's copying everything we do, which scares me. If I open the fridge, so does she. If I open the drawer, so does she. This morning I used the hair drier and now she knows how it works.......we have to close all the bedroom and bathroom doors. While I was brushing my teeth this morning, Natalia half climbed into the loo........this is sooo dangerous and it happened in a matter of seconds, and then she was unravelling the toilet roll. We have filled all our water features with stones. The pool has a net on it, but she's still attracted to water..... This weekend we played in the garden and she got real messy. We have tons of fallen leaves lying on the ground and she spent ages playing with them..... Here are some pics from the weekend of what HRH got up to! Enjoy Granny Bugs!!!

Snail-trail to the gate

Hey people, I'm leaving home........

Ring ring ring

Blah blah blah

Real dirty grin.....I've had a good day people!

Fathers Day

We celebrated Father's Day today at our house. We had 3 fathers here today. My Dad, Kim and Darryl. The Dad's and Grandad played with the young ones while the Mom's and Granny made a delishes lunch and dessert too! Here's to all the Dad's!!!

Grandpa with Harlan

Grandpa with Natalia

See my uber cute outfit people

The cousins hanging out........

This is my scary face - so cute

Falling Apart

Natalia dressed like a snowman because its just too cold......
Our houses aren't equipped for this freezing weather!

Natalia giving her Dad tips on how to fix the washing machine

This is how you do it Dad - are you watching?

This week brought the coldest weather we've had in a while - and I'm sure its not the last. Tuesday and Wednesday were fffreezing. Temperatures dropping to negative 4deg where we live in the wee hours of the morning and a high of 6deg at midday with a bitter icy wind! What do you do with Natalia when you cant take her outside to play or for her beloved walks?

We also started building an extra room onto our house, which of course brought copious amounts of dust and just a general mess! I cant wait till its over - the filth is killing me!!!

And then on Wednesday our microwave packed up and oh on Thursday our washing machine packed up!!! And oh, we just replaced our dishwasher 2 weeks ago because the other one also packed up....... What the hell??? On the bright side our microwave was replaced as it was only 5 months old, but we had to buy a new washing machine. Kim tried to fix it, but it wasnt worth it in the end.

Graduation & 11 Months Old Today !!!

Looking big sitting in a chair

Receiving her certificate and apron

So, Natalia graduated from Moms & Babes today. She received a certificate and a cute little apron. It was her last class and now she moves onto Moms & Tots. I think I have found someone in Randburg, but I still need to get more details.
AND, Natalia is 11 months old today!!! 4 weeks to go and Miss Muffet is ONE. She surprised me today by having a mini tantrum when I took something away from her. She got the Prodol out of her nappy bag and was practically drinking it, so I grabbed it from her. Helloooo, that could have been funny with her whole mouth and and and numb, lol. It was also a little friend in the class’ birthday party today and Natalia had her first cupcake…..her first taste of cake! Guess she won’t be sleeping early tonight after the sugar-high.

We Meet Kirsten Cate

We were honoured to meet Kirsten Cate Roderick on Sunday morning. Congratulations to proud Dad, Lance and Mom, Shelly. We didn't get to interact much as she is one sleepy little baby at 3 weeks old. Natalia cant wait to be able to play with her new friend!


Lance and his precious daughter........

Such a lovely father daughter pic

Tali getting her Vuvuzela practice in for the 2010 World Cup

Pimp My Ride......... say no more

On a different note, Tali is now only having 1 nap a day. She changed that for herself last Monday. Now instead of napping at 9am and 2pm, she naps at around 11am for 2-3 hours. This might pose a problem now, as I have already planned her birthday party to be from 11-2, and this is now the time she sleeps.... Shame, she might not even be awake at her own party now. We will have to see how we can get around this problem!

And Then There Were 6

What has happened this past week you may ask? Well quite a bit….

Natalia has been a lot better since about Tuesday and is back to almost sleeping through the night. She wakes up around 2 or 3 but then goes back to sleep relatively easily until about 4 when Kim changes and feeds her. She has started pulling herself up into a standing position with more and more ease, and started taking steps when holding her hands. She has become a lightning crawler, speeding around the house. She is becoming cuter and cuter by the day, expressing herself with a lot of ‘words’. She hasn’t said Mama or Dada yet, but OW OW comes out a lot – I think from watching Teletubbies.

On Saturday all the cousins got together with all our babies and kiddies. There are 6 little ones in total now.

Leigh with Natalia, Loren with Malakai, Brad, Doreen with Harlan, Cole with Lucy, Jarrod with Jack, Brett with Chloe

See my teeth - Natalia has 5 now

Catch me if you can Dad!!

Jack and Tali playing ball......

Mmm, can I have some more of that please.....

Little Lucy is going for her big Op on Wednesday, 9 June. If you remember, she was born with an oesophagus that is not joined to her tummy, so she cant eat. She is 10 months old now and is still fed through a tube. The surgeons are going to bring her tummy up into her chest to join it to her short oesophagus. We all wish little Lucy well and we will be thinking of her on the day..... also of Linda, Jarrod and Jack, her mommy, daddy and big brother.