Weekend Report

Fiona missed work on Friday and only starting recovering this morning (Sunday) from what has been diagnosed as gastro. She has not been well.

This weekend has thus been very quiet. We spent most of the weekend enjoying the spring sunshine. So it was out with the umbrella, picnic blanket, basket of toys, loungers and sunglasses to enjoy the above 20 degrees temperature. Spent both days out on the lawn except for saturday afternoon when they went to visit Granny Jo to give us a break.

The weekend marks a development in both babies' confidence. Both of them have suddenly taken a step forward. Daniel is crawling more and he laughs at virtually everything - a very sunny child! This afternoon he decided it was time to strike out and he went off to explore the flowerbed next to the braai (a doubling of his "lebensraum"). He also crawled up the slight slope to the verandah and started investigating making the transition between the grass and the verandah. He then got a bit tired.
Within minutes, Emma did the same. First she investigated the braai and the very noisy charcoal bag (nice) before allowed herself to go behind the ivy and out of sight of ourselves (Emma cries whenever one of us go out of sight). Well there was no crying and next minute, she doubled, even tripled her living space by going off down the garden and around the corner to the garage and washing line - again out of sight (her own choice). Interestingly, the cat responded by going with her and watching her as she went off.
And then, five minutes ago, she climbed up the two steps into the study (out of the lounge). These steps have been a major barrier for a long time - now it has been mastered. Sshe is now "reading" a restaurant supply catalogue that we picked up for our coffee shop. Amazing what a little bit of confidence does. Now to get her to understand that there is a technique for going down the stairs too. Daniel is now of course trying to get up the stairs ...

Emma has also suddenly got a whole lot of new sounds. she is now singing in "lalalas" - copying us when we sing to her (dad is not so good on all the words but has the tunes).
A few days ago, we showed her a Red Indian holler (when you put your hand in front of your mouth and move it backwards and forwards) to get her attention away from something that caused her to cry. Well, today, it was hollering all over the place. And then she has started waving at us everytime we come into a room - accompanied by an amazing smile of course.

So a great weekend in terms of development steps.