2009 - No 1

Happy New Year everyone - we hope that 2009 is full of happiness and success for everyone.

I went to work on Monday and Fiona and the twins started today. Not fun for anyone, although the air conditioned offices were quite welcome after the heat that we are having.

New Year was spent pretty quietly at home. We had a leisurely braai before deciding to raid the games cupboard for Chinese Checkers which we played until well after midnight. This year we are going have a games evening at least once a month as we have virtually every board game in existance and it is plain FUN!

The twins were beginning to suffer from cabin fever, taking each other out quite a bit every day. Today was quite exhausting for them as they couldn't sleep until the usual 8 am and they had to cope with so many more stimuli at school. Nice to see them tired after a great day.

One of the big themes has been water. They have acquired two old pots plus two potties (we are introducing them into the fray as they are getting ready for them) which are filled with water. They then put in old shells (brought up by Lesley and John from Hermanus), flowers from the garden and non-toxic bathwater dye (red, yellow, blue) in the water. The day is then spent playing in the water, emptying it out and manipulating an adult to refill the bowls for one last time. Actually it has worked nicely as they play for hours. A new favourite after listening and dancing to music (preferably Boney M Christmas Carols).

Their speech is getting easier and easier to understand, and they are putting together bigger and bigger sentences virtually by the day, often using words that they have heard only a few times. Daniel is good at noticing and remembering detail whereas Emma is more global in herthinking and will often take a complete flier to answer a question that Daniel will often think about before answering.

As a result, the questions are beginning to come. Emma asks where different people and things are virtually all day. She has a wicked sense of humour and turns it into a game - seemingly to try us. Anyway we now often turn the questions on their head which results in klots of smiles. Daniel is also starting to question everything but not at the same frequency as Emma (thank goodness).

Daniel is still making his bedtime a nightmare as he only allows Fiona to put him to bed. He then invents every excuse and tantrum in the world to avoid going to bed - so things are quite tedious at bedtime. Emma on the other hand often goes to bed without much fuss (but not always).

Fiona had her birthday on Monday. We had a nice dinner at Adeja in Bryanston. Nice prawns! Granny Jo looked after the babies which was a great break for us all.

I hope you watched the cricket today. South Africa came within 10 balls of beating Australia and causing the first whitewash of an Australian side for 120 years. Graham Smith was magnificent, coming out to bat with a broken hand - unfortunately, he just couldn't do it. Made for some heart racing moments (I was standing in a queue at the licensing department listening to the cricket via the radio on my cellphone - anyone watching me must have had a quite giggle as it was very tense). Hasn't it been a great test series. Now for the 20/20 matches and the one day internationals!

Oh well, only two days to the weekend. Lesley and John fly back to England on Saturday night so we're doing a final dinner on Friday night.

At least the Joburg traffic is still nice and light. It should change next week when the schools go back.