Grace, Eli & Pooh Bear

Two heads are better than one

Grace & Eli get tickled silly 12 May 2010

Just chilling on the bed

Grace's party trick

Cape to Kruger

Things have finally settled down once again for our little family after our successful trip to Cape Town and the Kruger National Park. Our visit to the Cape could not have gone better. After all the visitors came and left Johannesburg, it was wonderful seeing everyone again in Cape Town. Our jam-packed holiday began on Wednesday, by surprising my mom at work and, later that day, surprising Tim’s folks and brother and sisiter-in-law at Uncle Drew’s house in Pinelands. Thursday we visited Ian and his mom, Di, and enjoyed catching up with them over a cup of tea. For lunch, we went to Candice’s new home, where friends of ours from Jhb joined us. We spent the rest of the day there, where other friends came and went throughout the day to see us. We enjoyed a delicious braai and conversation with those who stuck around to spend more time with us. Friday we spent with my family at my Aunt Jacky’s house. It was a full house with the cousins, aunts and uncles all trying to get their five minutes with the twins. That evening we celebrated Tim’s cousin’s birthday, where there were even more family members who had yet to meet the twins. Saturday, Tim and I prepared for Nicole and Jason’s wedding. To their delight, my folks babysat the twins while we were out partying, although it didn’t last too long. We were exhausted by 10pm and left shortly thereafter. The wedding was stunning and the bride looked beautiful!

Sunday was the day of the twin’s Christening. The weather was absolutely stunning! Tim and I were so proud to have all our closest friends and family members support us on such a special occasion. We too, are so proud of the Godparents, who stood by us and made promises with us. Thank you so much, guys! And a special thanks to all who traveled from afar to be with us and also to those who could not be with us, but held us in their prayers. We felt all the prayers and blessings! Sadly, that was the end of our visit to Cape Town, as we were on a 7:30pm flight back to Jhb. Tim and I always marvel at how easy it is settling back into our old routine in Cape Town. Seeing everyone makes us miss home even more.


We finally left for our highly anticipated holiday to the Kruger Park with Paul and Catherine Smit on Friday, 23rd April. The twins slept most of the way to the hotel where we spent the first night, which was an absolute blessing. The weather was a bit miserable but bearable. We left early Saturday morning for the Park. Once through the gates, my nerves were slightly on edge, knowing that we were entering wild animal territory! As we made our way to Satara, we spotted zebra, elephant and impala. We also saw such beautiful bird life, like nothing I’ve ever seen before! We were nearing Skukuza, when we made a brief stop at a watering hole, as Paul had spotted a hippo. I was driving at this point and as I was watching the hippo, I saw an unusual looking stork. It had the brightest beak I had ever seen! I took a picture of it but it was hiding in some tall reeds, so the shot I managed to get was just of its head. It turned out that the bird I spotted is a very rare bird. There are less than 100 in South Africa! It’s called a Saddle-billed stork. Tim mentioned, in passing that whoever spotted a saddle-billed stork would win an all-expense paid holiday. Before I even knew what a saddle-billed stork was, Tim showed me the competition pamphlet and on the front was a picture of this very bird that I spotted! Now, Tim did not know that I had spotted this bird because at the time he was sitting in the back of the car with the twins. Excitedly, I whipped out my camera and showed Tim the picture. Unfortunately, there were several stipulations that the competition had, like taking profile pictures of each side of the bird’s head, a full body shot etc. and all I got was a picture of the bird’s head peeping out from the reeds. Anyway, all I got out of it was a sore neck in my effort to spot wild life!










Each evening we braaied for supper and were visited by brazen bats. I am NOT a bat fan!!! Our second evening was spent at Skukuza, which was by far, my favourite campsite. It is situated next to the Sabie River, where there lived a large family of hippo. That evening as we braaied, a lone hippo decided to clean his teeth opposite our chalet! It was quite a sight and quite a noise! Our final evening was spent at Lower Sabie, which is also situated next to the Sabie River. Our accommodation left much to be desired but we were not hosting dinner that night anyway, so it worked out all right. We had a braai, once again, with the Smits at their chalet. It was a lovely evening, spent talking nonsense and eating great food! We were up early the next morning, wanting to make a head start on the traffic that we knew we would encounter. And wouldn’t you know, it turned out to be the best morning to spot wildlife! As we were leaving, we came upon a lion, walking on his own.
He was magnificent! It was very humbling being in the presence of such a large cat! We managed to see hyena, which we had not yet seen, and another elephant walking in the road. Three hours later, we were on the N4 driving out of the park, on our way home. After a wet and busy drive we arrived home around three o’clock and unpacked immediately. As wonderful as our holiday was, it was great to be back home!







As always, you are all close in our thoughts and we wish we could share so much more with you all. We miss and love you! Be blessed!

Loads of visitors!!

Two weeks before Easter we had Mike and Lee surprise us with a visit. It was awesome to see them and we spent as much time as we could together over the four days that they were here. It was so encouraging to be reminded of the special people that we have in our lives and how GOD has blessed us with such amazing friends and family. We truly are blessed!





At the end of the week Stu and Tracey arrived from England, as Mike and Lee were leaving, so we had this continual presence of visitors, which, although tiring, was really really awesome! We spent lots of time with the St Albans Slatters and they got loads of contact time with their niece and nephew, which was rocking! Then on the Thursday evening before Easter my folks arrived from Oz, laden to the hilt with gifts for Eli & Grace, of which they really liked their little dolls. Unfortunately our time with them was short as they left early the next morning for their Easter trip to the berg with my Grandparents. However short the time was, it was rocking none-the-less.










Easter weekend seems like such a blur now, with all our visitors, we barely had breathing space with all our services and then our trip to Cape Town on the Wednesday. Although... Eli and Grace always seem to find time to snooze!







We managed to have an awesome lunch with the Smits, Frederiechs and two other families on Easter Sunday. The twins had plenty of hands to hold them and all the other kids had fun outside in the (very wet) sand pit. Bethany went through about 3 sets of clothing...

The Goltmans joined us for a quick visit on Monday just to wish us well for our trip. We combined it with our housesitter's, Heinrich, visit, and both came armed with hotcross buns, which are always a winner.

Eli & Grace both picked up sore coughs over the Easter weekend, so on Tuesday we went to the Pead to get them checked out. He was happy to tell us that they were not serious coughs and prescribed some anti-biotic nose drops. He was also happy to tell us that Eli was 4.95kgs and Gracie was 4.5kgs! They were so good in his office, which is a first, and were so full of smiles... definite preparation for their CT trip.


For the rest of the day we just chilled at home and once the twins were asleep, El and I packed for our trip home to CT. What an effort to pack for two babies!!! We eventually crashed into bed at about 12mn, then woke at 1 for a feed, then again at 3, because Eli couldn't sleep and then had to be up to get to the airport by 6am, so not much resting for us parents!! The twins flew so well, we went straight from the airport to El's mom's work to surprise her, as she didn't know we were coming so early. We then went to my Uncle in the evening, where Stu, Tracey and my folks were have supper and surprised them too. Eventually we arrived at my Aunt's house where we were staying and sleep found us at about 23h30, so another looooong day. The rest of our CT trip was jammed packed with family and friends and everyone went out of their way to see us, which was rocking!

I will post news and pics of the Christening soon, just waiting to download them all! We are missing you all very much and hope that GOD is blessing you richly!

GOOD NEWS!

We have been concerned about the weight gain of Grace and Eli, but last week, the new diet of milk and porridge helped them both gain considerably more than previous weeks.

Today, we weighed them again and Eli has hit 4.3kg and Gracie is sitting at 4kg! GOD is good!

Two weeks back we had Ella's dad staying with us - it was awesome to have pops and he loved spending time with his grandchildren! Thanks for all the spoiling, dad!

Bigger, cuter and more talking....

We had such an awesome and busy time last week! We started a new small group at church on Wednesday evening and it went so well. Eli and Gracie joined us and were so well behaved, they slept most of the time, which allowed us to stay for over two hours.




On Thursday evening we had our big worship team meeting and it was an awesome time of growth and encouragement for us all. Again, the twins were so good and stole the attention for most of the evening. We have been working on some new stuff in worship and our church is responding extremely well to it all!




On Friday evening we went through to Renee and Andrew's for her birthday and had a rocking time. I was so tired that I kept falling asleep in mid conversation... but it was good to be out and about. On Saturday morning we headed off to a second-hand baby stuff dealer and traded in our current car seats for two that will clip directly into the pram frame. This way, when we go out, we don't have to transfer Grace and Eli into different seats for the car and pram... it makes our lives WAY easier and their's far more comfortable! It was such a lucky find and we paid a fraction of the price we would've if they were brand new.


In the evening we had dinner with another young couple from church who had a son two days after we had the twins, we are the first people that they've entertained since they had Jude, and they did a rocking job. There son is almost 8kg... double the twins!

Gracie is really enjoying her bathing now, as is Eli, but he's not quite as strong when it comes to sitting.... They both are getting so smiley and talkative, and are feeling far more substantial when we hold them.











Last weekend we went to watch Tarryn in her water polo tournament. They did extremely well, winning all their games up until the semi's where they narrowly lost in a closely matched game. It was great to see her and she got to hold Eli for a bit.

Just a quick update on what's been happening with our little family.

We discovered a swollen gland under Eli's arm about two weeks ago. Under the advisement of Micheline, we took Eli and Grace to see Dr. Neethling last week Monday. We were also concerned that they were not gaining enough weight so off we went to the doctor.

Dr. Neethling didn't seem concerned by the swollen lymph gland, which he said was the result of the BCG he had a few weeks ago. But he was concerned that Eli's head seemed out of proportion to the rest of his body. He said that, clinically, Eli is fine but that he wanted to see Eli again in a week to measure his head. I did a bit of research to find out what "big head in infants" is caused by. Hydrocephalus (water on the brain) is what the doctor was concerned about. The site I visited listed a lot of symptoms, which Eli displayed none of.

At the visit, Dr. Neethling also recommended a new diet of two teaspoons of porrige added to a milk bottle and two and a half mililitres of oil to another milk bottle, twice a day, just to add calories to their diet.

We visited Dr. Neethling again on Monday to find that Grace had gained only 150g but Eli had gained 350g in a week. Dr. Neethling also measured the circumference of Eli's head and said that 1/2cm of growth is considered normal and so there is no need for blood and urine checks or a sonar, which was the best news! Tim and I were quite concerned about Eli, naturally, but once I had done my own research, I felt a whole lot better, knowing that Eli did not display any of the symptoms. In fact, since the twins have been on the new diet, they are far more content between feeds and are very happy little babies. They are sleeping extremely well, which Tim and I also benefit from. We have really been enjoying watching their development of late. They are making cute sounds and squeals. They are both laughing and grinning a lot! Grace is particularly inquisitive. She observes everything happening around her. Eli is really chilled. He often stares at things in the room and smiles at them. They have both started grasping things within their reach and promptly placing them in their mouth. Grace seems very fond of placing her fist in her mouth. I have also noticed a lot of drooling from them both...could they be in the pre stages of cutting teeth? I don't know!?!

I started work three weeks ago and am happy to report that I only have three weeks left here. I miss the twins terribly when I'm at work but it's also nice to see some of my friends again. I am really excited at the prospect of starting something new, even though Tim and I are not sure what that is just yet. We are trusting that God will make a way for me to be an at home mom for this year at least, so we are praying that He will provide opportunities for Tim to earn more cash. Already Tim is privately teaching some old ladies how to use their PC's. How to email etc. We have two other business ventures that we are looking into, so your prayers would be much appreciated.

Our tickets are booked for Cape Town and words cannot express the excitement we feel at the prospect of seeing our friends and family. We will be sending invites out soon for the Christening of the twins...you'll soon know if you cracked the nod or not...just kidding! I don't know if this is forward or not but I'm just going to put it out there...For the Christening, Tim and I would really appreciate it if gifts were not purchased for the twins. It would be very difficult returning to Jhb with loads of gifts. If you feel you

would like to give them something, by all means do. But my request is what you would have spent on a gift, rather give the cash to them so that we can add it to their savings that we are going to buy shares with for them. This would be a much better investment of your money and it would then go to them when they are of a certain age and then they can decide how they would like to spend it.

Anyway, that's my story. I hope that this email finds you well. Thank you to all who prayed for Eli this past week.

Sending all my love,

God bless,

Ella

xoxox