52/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 (3 years, 5 months)

We spent our Christmas holiday with our whole family on the Natal coast. I get nostalgic returning here – the smells of the tropical vegetation under foot as you make your way down to the beach through a jungle-like canopy, the sticky feeling of salt water drying on your skin, and the sight of tropical leaves lining every street bring back so many memories as we create new ones with you. Our barefoot days were spent going to the beach with the kids piled in the boot of the car amongst umbrellas and boogie boards and buckets, dips in the pool, late afternoon walks on the golf course, long swims in the sea, and and early mornings with the smell of the ocean and suncream more than hinting at what the day will hold.

My favourite thing about holidays is the carefree days. Shoes are abandoned before breakfast,  naps are a little bit longer, cousins are joined at the hip as endless play takes them from the house to the beach and back again, fingers are always a little sticky from big, fat litchis or home made mice pies or a bowl of Christmas pudding ice-cream. The smell of sun block permeates the air. Until it rains. And we watched the storm roll in  from across the ocean and blow away our towels hanging over the balcony. Until the next morning when the world appears new and we begin our beach rituals all over again in a cycle of endless days, rolling into one long and happy memory of bare-bodied babes, and ocean swims, and salty hair and sand at the bottom of the bath, and the deepest sleeps from all the fresh air. 

34/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 (3 years, Sibon)

"...she remembered watching a summer sunset from this very spot. Not so long ago; just a lifetime."  Sharon Kay Penm

We are back at Sibon, our favourite place in the world. I love watching this place grow in your hearts as you sip hot rooibos tea in the chilly mornings, waiting for the world to wake up, as you think it's normal to see a herd of elephant come down to drink at the waterhole, as you jump into the Landrover as if this is more than just a holiday spot, as you experience the joy of roasting marshmallows for the first time. This place nourishes all of our souls. 

19/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 9 months)

We spent the week with Cheska and Francie at Sun City. It was a real girls' adventure - we hired a van and all drove together, and rented a small chalet. We did all sorts of cheesy resort things, like going on train rides, visiting petting zoos, and we even went on a ride in the Valley of Waves (this was met with mixed emotions from the little ones and everyone had to evacuate before the ride was done. Perhaps three babes and two moms on a tube was a bit ambitious!). We went on long walks through the incredible man-made tropical gardens, we visited the aviary, and we even went for high tea at the Palace. We had lots of fun all staying together, saying hi to the peacocks which came to visit us each morning, sharing meals, and baths, and tears and laughs. Travelling with you, no matter where, is one of my favourite things to do. 

17/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 9 months)

We've just been in the bush for our annual family holiday. I love being there with you - watching you play make believe games in the dirt, bundling up for early morning drives armed with rusks and jackets, spotting the hippo every time we crossed the main road bridge, renaming impala pea-hogs, spending all day with your cousins, sleeping under mozzi nets, braaing sausages around the fire at night after running around the camp with glow sticks, looking for owls with Bear. The slower rhythm,  the last rays of hot weather, the carefree barefoot days, magical sunsets. I always wish we could stay longer. 

5/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 6 months), on top of Table Mountain

We're in Cape Town for our annual family holiday. I love bringing you two here as you make us completely embrace the this beautiful city. Our days were filled with riding bikes on the Seapoint promenade, hanging out on different beaches, exploring the Company gardens, going up Table Mountain where we followed fairy paths and looked for dassies (dissies), visiting different playgrounds, swimming in the public pools, trying different restaurants, eating dinner on the beach with sand in your toes watching the still-sweltering sun slowly slide down the sky, and dipping in cool waves while gripping tightly onto my hand. You sleep soundly at night, sharing a double bed, little bodies resting up for our busy days, and little minds swirling with new experiences and reference points and conversation snippets, little eyes visiting a dream world of new tastes and smells and sights, all absorbed with wide-eyed wonder. Cheska and Francie Sugar join us for the second week. We hire a van and drive around the city altogether in a cloud of giddiness and exhaustion as we continue our daily adventures. With happy minds and happy hearts, we're already planning our return.

4/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2.5 years)

We celebrated your two and a half birthday while we were in Cape Town. We took you to The Creamery for your very first ice-creams to mark the occasion. It was a gorgeous hot day and we strolled to a bench on the Seapoint promenade to eat them. As far as ice-cream goes this is right up there with some of the best I've ever tasted. Florence chose chocolate and Anna chose peanut butter. Sticky faces, big smiles, jumping with excitement, sharing spoonfuls with each other, talking about it non stop, the sheer delight in your eyes told me it's probably the best thing you've ever tasted. In fact, Florence woke up the next morning and the first thing she said, whispering in my ear, " I love chocolate."

Happy half birthday baby girls. I love sharing new tastes with you. 

50/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (27 months), Millstream

We went to a farm in Dullstroom for a week. I love that when you go away, normal routines slip away and the days seem to take on a rhythm of their own. I also love the way different family members just naturally take on different roles - bed time stories with Chessie, mealtimes with Francie Sugar, and driving with Human. k and we would start our mornings with you at the kitchen counter nibbling on rusks and helping prepare breakfast. After breakfast we would make our way to see the horses, which Anna named Angelpie Snowflake and Florence named Bow (as in take a bow) Snowflake. We would then go for a swim and meander back home for some home made apple pies (Anna with crea, Florence without). Our afternoon naps with us all on one bed would usually be accompanied by thunderstorms and incessant rain on the tin roof. Following a late lunch we would go for a walk in the hills, or around the dam, with you two snuggling up in the carriers.Evenings ran later as you helped papa with the fire, naps ran longer, and bathtime was an eventful affair joined by whoever was staying at that time (Kimmy, then granny nanny, and Chessie). In between you made mud pies and found fairies, you saw a rainbow and went on a row boat. It was a good week. 

A note on horse riding: Although you were nervous of patting the horses,  after the first day of visiting themAnna you said right away, and determinedly, that you were going to ride by yourself the next morning. Which you did. Florence, you started off riding with papa and the said half way through you would ride alone. Which you did. The pride in your faces made me beam as we walked along side you around the lawn. You then asked to go riding every morning! One morning papa and I went for a ride by ourselves while you stayed with Chessie and Human. I was misty and the horses were frisky and we galloped across the grasslands passed zebra and springbok and blesbok. It was magical and I cant wait until we can all go riding like that together. 

41/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (25 months), London, UK

Oh London we loved you. We loved strolling along the Southbank from Westminster to Borough Market, we loved visiting Tate Modern and running through the National Gallery to find one of our favourite paintings, we visiting the queen at Buckingham Palace and watching the gardeners rake the beds, we loved the good weather conducive to running through green Park , we loved nibbling on croissants for breakfast and eating out at restaurants and trying new foods and strolling back to the apartment in the evening when all the lights were glowing and city commuters were on their way home, we loved catching buses and underground trains and riding in taxis with no car seats, we loved watching the fountain in Trafalgar Square and listening to a street performer play his bagpipes, we loved walking around the cobbled streets of Convent Garden watching the world go by, we loved discovering Peter Pan's statue in Hyde Park, and visiting friends we've only met in letters. For us, it was fun to be back in a city in which we both once lived, and for you, it was fun to experience a big bustling city who's sights and sounds we'll talk about for many months and years to come.

40/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (25 months), Windermere, UK

This week we went on a great adventure It started with 24 hours of travelling to arrive at Langdale Chase Hotel, Windermere in the Lake District in England. You are super star travellers - sleeping the whole flight, running through airports with your little backpacks,  asking questions about buses and lifts and transfers and check-in and security, and finding the while experience rather thrilling. Travelling with you makes every part of the trip more fun, including all the waiting. 

The Lake District was beautiful. We met up with your Papa's family there for a few days to celebrate Oupa Jan's 60th birthday. We stayed in a grand old hotel, with wooden-clad halls and ornate fireplaces, which you fondly referred to as Jeremy Fisher's house. We would wonder around the grounds in the afternoon, stroll along the waters edge, and run down grassy hills.  You gazed in wonder at the new scenery - the glass-gray lake, the old wooden jetty, boats passing in the water, damp stone buildings, and a constant mist which gave it all an eerie, magical feeling that would only lift in the early evening. We also took a boat ride around the islands, ate lunch at old pubs, strolled through a little village and came across a meadow of cows, and visited the quaint Beatrix Potter Museum. This area is the home of Beatrix Potter (some of your favourite books) so we and you were fascinated by all the characters. 

The highlights for you however, were the hearty English dinners you ate (think roast chicken with old fashioned veggies, fish and chips and cottage pies); and getting to wear your raincoats and gumboots and splashing in the puddles with umbrellas one rainy afternoon.

38/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (25 months)

My bush babies on the back of the Landrover.

37/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (25 months)

We're back in the bush for a week - endless days, silent nights, no cell phone reception, sleeping under mozzie nets, eating breakfast with hornbills and squirrels, and cultivating a love for this special place in you. Sleeping on the platform was one of my greatest adventures growing up. We introduced you to this adventure for the first time and it was magical falling asleep with you under the stars, bundled up against the cold, listening to the sounds of owls and a far-off leopard, and waking up under the leaves with the sunrise outlining them in a startling glow. I hope this is the start of a family tradition for you, the next generation of bush babies.

35/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (25 months)

The South Coast immediately conjures up idyllic memories of childhood beach holidays. That damp smell of ripe vegetation, squishy berries underfoot, mixing with sand bought up from the beach and never quite discarded (even months later we find tiny traces of those days at the bottom of beach bags), big banana leaves that make you feel very far away from ordinary life. As I watch you scurry along an overgrown path with lush overhangs of tropical proportions, it's as if I am watching myself many years ago, running with buckets and spades under arms, eager to get to the beach. The destination. The reward for a long walk down. 

Everyday, in the late afternoon, we walk across the golf course, down this overgrown path, and onto a beach, deserted. All ours. Surrounded by nothing but the Indian Ocean and rocks on the one side, and vegetation on the other. It's the end of August so a winter chill is still hanging around in the evenings but this doesn't prevent dips in the sea, and naked bums on the beach. We make our way back up to the house for dinner, tired but exhilarated, and you tastes of salt as I kiss your chilly bodies and wrap you up in whatever warmth we can find. These are the favourite parts of my days. 

29/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (23 months), at the bottom of your great grandmother's garden

I love being on the farm with you, a place where I spent many holidays in my childhood. A change of scenery out of the city, different faces as family gathered for my cousins's wedding, and  the warm weather in the lowveld meant that little toes which had been hibernating in socks and stockings for the last few months could bare themselves and run freely outside. It all suited you very well. We spent most of our days outside with your cousins, inventing games as you climbed over rocky beds, blowing bubbles on the lawn, finding giant leaves and popping impatient pods. We had long lazy breakfasts, long lazy naps, and late lunches. You played dolls on the lawn overlooking the Crocodile River. On the last evening, we had our dinner to-go, as we walked along the game fence of the farm following three elephants. So close we could almost touch them. Then home again on the back of a bakkie, through the sugar cane, as the light of the day started to fade.

17/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (21 months), at Sibon for our annual family holiday

Sunshine halos around your head and long shadows from early morning light. Shoes off before breakfast,rusk in hand while tentatively exploring the camp, traipsing after your cousin - three pink strollers bumping over rough terrain. A fascination of footprints (Florence) and the reference to hornbills as ducks (Anna). Family every which way you turn from your great grandmother to your brand new four week old cousin. Afternoon drives wearing safari hats and riding shot gun up front, saying hi to beasts and birds or just playing with dashboards and gear stick of the old landey. Chaotic communal meals, a sunset lighting the whole sky on fire, seeing fish in the clouds. That magical hour of dusk when you're full of life and you run around laughing and jumping and dancing and hugging each other, each passer by throwing you up in the air or embracing you in their arms. Climbing into the bath altogether and all dirty. Then night fall, and quiet, and clean babies fall asleep in my arms under the mozzie net. 

Of all the places we've been, I love being here with you the most. I see a sense of adventure being planted in you as play in mud under the grand old tree out front, or as you ride on the landey with dusty wind flying through your hair, I see a love of nature beginning to form as you examine a strange beetle in the soil, or feel the velvety tips of a succulent leaf, I see a love of the outdoors and fresh air starting to form as we're out doors from sunrise to sunset, and I see the value of having family around you all day. And I am grateful.

Portrait from our trip to the bush last year

home away from home

Our little family of four recently went to Cape Town for a holiday. Renting a house or apartment makes more sense to us now that we have babes as it means more space and our own kitchen. Beside, it's fun to feel like a local when you are travelling. We stayed in a lovely home in Greenpoint which we found through Airbnb. I loved the little creative details, cool art and quirky objets found throughout the place.

50/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (16 months and two weeks - 72 weeks)

We picked this spinach from our veggie garden - the leaves larger than your faces. We are outside a lot this time of year when pent up summer afternoons start bulging with thunderclouds. I want to cultivate in you a love of outdoors and nature, and in doing so it is reminds me of the beauty and simplicity of being outside. We chase ants with our fingers, Florence manages to catch one and proudly brings it to me. A game we repeat with imaginary ants throughout the day. We look for hadedaes and guinea fowl in the garden, we marvel at ladybirds on our Swiss chard leaves. The cats in the complex grounds are scary but enticing and your little bodies quickly jump on mine when one saunters by too close for comfort. We say hello to the chameleon statue hidden under a bush, still with that child belief that the unreal is real.