Commando Crosby.....

We are officially mobile!! Emily has been commando crawling for a few days now and gathering speed with each attempt. Gone are the days of putting her on the floor and coming back to find her happily playing in the same spot. Oh no, we are now using our newfound mobility to 'explore' every inch of the house. Just this morning we explored (a number of times) underneath the computer table, plenty of yummy cables there (Hmmmm), we explored inside the pantry, beside the rubbish bin and we also tried our best to explore behind the toilet (as mummy was using it). Drastic times call for drastic measures so yesterday the 'playpen' (kindly donated for temporary use by Michelle) was erected. At first this was a novelty and Emily enjoyed playing in here, that was until she realised that she was confined. Seems we don't like being confined so much (go figure....). I can see a baby-proofing shopping trip in my very near future....

First attempt at standing after 'launching' from Aunty Little Bec

Hmmm Nice perspective from up here, Hi Mummy!!

OK so there has got to be a way out of this place if I could just find it......

Ooooh I see Puppy "Hey Puppy come spring me from here......"

I can see I am going to have to lick and chew my way out of here then.........

OK so a bit harder than I originally thought, I will sit and rest on it but "Never Say Die....."

Visitors from afar....

This year we have been lucky so far to have had two visitors from home. Aunty Brookie arrived at the beginning of April and stayed with us for a little over 2 weeks. It was lovely to get to spend time with her and gave us a great excuse for Brad to take some time off work and go tragvelling the countryside. We mostly did stuff around our local area but we did manage to take a weekend trip away to Sun City.

Lazy Mornings.....

"The Fam" at the Elephant Sanctuary (and yes the elephant is the one on the far left of the pic)

Aunty Brookie and the kids at Pilansberg lunching with the giraffes.

Then at the end of April Aunty Little Bec came to visit. It was great to get to spend some quality time with my lil sis. We also spent most of our time visiting areas around home and also just involving Bec in our daily lives. She came with us to watch Riley at his various activites like Soccer, Horse Riding and Hip Hop Lessons. We managed a day at Christine's Day Spa also and then got ourselves tidyed up for a photoshoot with my good friend Tiaan. I suppose we needed photographic proof that we were able to pull off the girlie look (Hair, Nails and wearing pink etc....LOL).

Toy Basket Orientation..............

Aunty Little Bec teaching Riley how to Facebook??

Petting time at the Lion Park


Girls Day at the Elephant Sanctuary (and again YES the elephant is the one on the FAR left)

Dinner with the girls on Bec's last night in Joburg.

Any and all other visitors are still welcome of course, we currently have vacancy at Club Crosby....rates are reasonable too.

Glamour Girls....

It's been a long time coming but finally Bec & I decided to have some pics done together. We called up my good friend Tiaan and arranged a date and then took ourselves off to the hairdresser and then the day spa for some girlie pampering. I think we scrubbed up ok. What do you think?

7 Months Old Now!!

She just keeps growing and growing, there is no stopping this little monkey now. At 7 months she is now sitting very comfortably and confidently on her own, including in the bath tub. She is also trying her very best to crawl, she is making some headway but not always in the direction she is wanting to go, usually backwards but this morning she did move sideways (pretty tricky if you ask me). She is enjoying more foods and has started on baby custard and surprise surprise she loves it! She has also started having good old Vegemite Sandwiches for lunch, she is right into the idea of feeding herself and is now loving the Vegemite too although her first taste left her in a little bit of shock. Brad now has a theroy about why aussies love Vegemite, becuase we give it to our babies from such a young age that we grow up not really knowing any better.

Side Note: All of these lovely pics are courtesy of our resident photographer (and her new toy) Aunty Little Bec!!

6 Months Old Now (A little late but still here it is....)

So our little angel is now well and truely 6 months old. She is growing at such a fast rate it is almost hard to keep up with her. So at 6 months she is trying new foods all the time (not always loving them though I think I may have a potentially fussy eater on my hands) she tried her first bikkie which she was right into, that poor bikkie didn't stand a chance in her hands so I now have to take bikkies with me wherever we go (as well as a load of wipes to clean her and a 1M radius around her afterwards). Here are a couple of shots of her first bikkie experience.


HMMM YUMMY!!


OHHH SLIPPERY LITTLE SUCKER.....

THAT WAS GOOD MUMMY, PLEEEEASE MAY I HAVE SOME MORE....

YAY, I CAN HAVE MORE!!!

Easter

It has been so long since I posted now, partly due to time and the demands of my beautiful children and also partly due to loadshedding (the whole no power thing is getting boring). So I started this post at the end of March and now being the end of April I guess it is time to finish it off.

RILEY'S SCORE FROM THE EASTER BUNNY

We had a lovely Easter this year, Riley got right into the spirit by making Easter Bunny a lovely Easter card (which has been quietly put away for prosperity) and so Easter Bunny returned the favour and wrote Riley a thank you note (complete with chocolate marks on to prove that he did indeed eat the chocolates that Riley had left for him).
RILEY'S LETTER FROM THE EASTER BUNNY

As Emily is too little for chocolate (much to her disgust) she scored with a couple of books, one from Easter Bunny and one from Mummy & Daddy.

EMILY LOOKING ON IN ENVY AT RILEY'S SCORE


EMILY TRYING HER BEST TO GET CHOCOLATE OUT OF A GIFT BAG

EMILY LOOKING LESS THAN IMPRESSED BY HER BOOK

After the initial gorging on chocolate we then went off for a lovely brekky at one of Riley's school friend's houses. The kids started off by doing a huge Easter Egg Hunt which Camilla's parents arranged for us. They all had such a wonderful time running all over the property looking for hidden eggs. After the egg hunt we sat down and ate a yummy brekky (preceeded by chocolate of course).

RILEY AND CAMILLA GETTING SOME 'ALONE TIME' (Hmmmm)

RILEY AND HIS LOVELIES, KELLY & CAMILLA


CAMILLA GETS A FLOWER FROM RILEY


KELLY, RILEY AND CAMILLA ENJOYING SOME BREKKY



RILEY & HIS FUTURE FATHER-IN-LAW?? (Kelly's dad)

It was a very lovely and relaxed morning which I think ended at around 1pm with Riley going to a playdate for the rest of the day at another school friend, Kelly's, house. Both school friends were girls so all day on Easter Sunday Riley spent being the only boy amongst a bunch of girls. At brekky there was a bit of tension between Kelly (his regular on-again-off-again girlfriend) and Camilla (the friend who's house we were at). They both needed to be sitting next to Riley at all times (hence him being in the middle of them in all photos). At one point Riley and Camilla came and sat together outside and Riley went and picked her a flower (no idea where he gets this romantic streak from), Kelly comes out and stands looking at the flower, the conversation then went like this: RILEY "Kelly do you know where Camilla got that flower from?" KELLY "No", RILEY "I picked it for her" KELLY (in a rather annoyed tone) "Oh" RILEY "Do you want me to pick you one too?" KELLY (in a very authorative tone) "Yes, I do" so off he runs to pick Kelly a flower and thus appeasing both his loves of the day.

Rocker Riley

We have officially entered the "perfomance stage" of life. Riley's school is very muscial (which is nice as he has always been musical too) and they often perform little songs for different events, like Christmas, Easter and more recently Grandparent's Day at school. Riley is also doing Speech and Drama which is of course encouraging his need to perform. A few weeks ago we watched a Justin Timberlake concert on TV which Riley really enjoyed (now there is a born performer) and when the concert was over Riley was really excited and decided that I should go to Montecasino (a very large casino and entertainment venue) and hire out the venue for him to put on a show (his repertoire includes When I'm 64, I think I'll wear for Easter.... and When Santa got stuck up the chimney). He was most upset with me (the worst Mother in the world) for not running straight out and hiring Montecasino for him and selling tickets to all of our friends to see him perform. So he put on a very convincing show for Brad and I, including runs into the audience etc and for a microphone he used a roll of wrapping paper. So today we were at the toyshop and he sees this microphone and just had to have it. The minute we got home he set it up and has been singing up a storm ever since (some days there is just not enough Panadol.......). I took a coupld of quick pics of him and thought that I would share them here.