10/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (32 weeks) - Anna Clementine (top), Florence Willow (above)

This week was one of many firsts. Our first family holiday. Your first flight. Your first breath of clean, salty air as we walked along the Sea Point promenade. Your first view of rolling hills of grape vines. Anna, you had your first taste of olives and tomatoes and grapes. In fact, you can't seem to get enough of new flavours. Florence, you tasted a grape with a mix of suspicion and delight. And your two bottom teeth have most definitely cut through. It was a week of change too. Florence, you suddenly started eating with more eagerness, opening your mouth for a few spoonfuls. And you are speaking more every day. Anna, you are moving forward very easily now and even crawling once or twice. You are both sitting - not getting there yourself, but balancing for long enough once we position you. You are both noticeably more interested in what the other is busy with, be it an object or an activity. I may be imagining it, but I think your faces changed too. Almost imperceptibly your necks grew longer, making me want to run my fingers down that beautiful valley it forms from the base of your heads to your spine. I love experiencing these firsts with you. And I love witnessing your continuous change. It makes me see things with fresh eyes. To relearn the obvious. To seek adventure in the mundane. The normal becomes new with you and not a day goes by I don't thank-you for that.

9/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (31 weeks) - Anna Clementine (top), Florence Willow (above)

You became seven months this week. Seven months crosses over that half a year mark. It sounds far removed from the tiny new borns I cradled against me. And you are both big, beautiful roly, poly babes with delicious folds of skin on arms and behind knees and around ankles. And yet you are still my tiny babes. Seven months is only 30.5 weeks, barely a breath on this earth. My sweet souls that I rock in my arms. My babes that are discovering newness each day. Whose heads are still covered in baby down which gets sweaty as you breastfeed, your bodies against mine.

You do strange things to time. Day after day... Days somehow blend together. They become a time I will refer back to. That time when you were babies, when detail of months fade and distinctions matter less. Yet it is our everything right now and I want to remember these times distinctly. Not as a time but as this time when you were seven months old. The day you slept on my bed with me and a thunderstorm sung it's sweet melody as you napped in the afternoon. The day we popped out for iced coffees and visited the apartment below ours. The day you both enjoyed a dinner of zucchini and corn purée and Florence, you shared my green smoothie for the first time, eagerly lapping the glass, grasping it in your baby-dimpled hands.
 

Seven months. But a breath on this earth but a life without which I cannot imagine. Thank-you for making each moment come alive for me. For making me feel more. Appreciate more. Love more.

Bailey's plant shelves

I instagrammed Bailey's plant shelf last night and everyone loved it as much as I do, so I thought I'd share the pic with you today:

Isn't it fantastic? 

8/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (30 weeks)

My darling Anna Clementine. This week you tasted your first nectarine. A white fleshed, sweet, juicy nectarine. We were outside, Kimmy and me and you and Florence, under the shade of trees, dappled sunlight catching your eyes now and then. Florence was lying with her feet off the quilt, her baby toes digging into the moist soil. You looked at the nectarine I was eating with such interest I gave you a bite. And oh how your face lit up. You sucked all around that juicy piece of fruit, I peeled the skin off with my teeth and the flesh dripped its stickiness on my hands and around your face. You made sounds of such glee. And I laughed with wonder as you, my summer peach, discovered one of life's simple pleasures for the first time.

My sweet Florence Willow. I discovered your first tooth coming through yesterday as you sipped from a glass of water under the large oak tree of Kimmy and bear's house. My baby baby has a tooth. How did this happen!? And yesterday you discovered you could make a new sound - Yayayayaya. You chatted all day. Forming this sound on those beautiful big lips with your mouth open wide. Relishing in the feeling on your tongue. Drooling. Smiling. Make me smile with melodic sounds. My singing babe. My little heart.

Date idea for when you are traveling

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Have you ever gone to movies while traveling? My husband and I always do it. So far we have been to movies in London, Paris, Mumbai, New York, Sydney and Vietnam. I know it might sound silly to some since you can always go to movies at home but trust me, it is wonderful, after all you are on holiday, right? And after a long day of exploring, probably walking for ages, popcorn and a movie is pretty much is as good as it gets for us. Plus it is fascinating to see different countries cinemas and the auidences.

London is pretty similar to South Africa except you can buy a whole variety of food instead of just popcorn and chocolates. It might sound great but it's not my best... not so cool watching a romcom and smelling a hot dog!

English movies in Paris are... expensive! We were shocked at the price of tickets and then popcorn and cool drinks. Only when we got into the cinema did we realise that we were the only people who were eating popcorn, so obviously we weren't the only ones to find it expensive. Also we noticed that before the movie starts people pull out something to read - their book or the paper.

Mumbai is bazaar! Before the film starts the entire audience stands up and sings the national anthem! I kid you not.

New York and Sydney were also very similar to home although quite a change for us not going into a mall for the cinema but heading in straight off the street. In Sydney I went to an art decor cinema which had it's original seating.

And in Vietnam going to moves is a full on social occasion... people don't sit quietly and watch the film but chat and talk the whole way through it, as the film plays in the background. One person next to us even played with different ring tones which truly drove is crazy as we watched Life of Pi.

Do you have any traveling rituals? Secret indulgences when you are in a foreign city or have you been to movies somewhere exotic?

ps. How crazy is this cinema in Greece? 

happy weekend

Happy weekend lovely readers. What are your plans? We are actually planning to chill out this one. Have you seen any great movies lately? We are going to The Monuments Men tonight and on Sunday we are having (our usual) family get together with G&Ts, swimming costumes, babies, cousins, husbands and friends... it's the favourite part of my week.

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Here are some links from around the web that I enjoyed this week:

When is your favourite time to have sex? This sounds quite nice. 

This 'make bullshit' site is the best thing ever. Writing a report? Heading to an important meeting, this one is for you. 

Our other sister suggested this recipe: Prosciutto, Tomatoes and Olive spaghetti... she guarantees it's not only super yum but also super quick and easy. Hello Tuesday night meal. 

This stamp is on my wish list. 

The best rebranding and design.

I want everything from the current Country Road home collection. 

Have you been watching the Winter Olympics. I am obsessed with the figure skating, I just love it. 

Make the ordinary come alive

 Anna, 6 months old, laughing at her great grandmother

Bringing up children is the most important job I have been tasked with and will ever take on. The more thought I give around this task, the more reading I do, and speaking to other mothers whom I respect and love, the more the husband and I talk about this, I realise it is a philosophy of simplicity that I want to follow. This extract from William Martin's The Parent's Tao Te Ching really resonates with me in this regard...

"Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is a way of foolishness.
Help them instead find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself."