look at the fish dadFriday, April 9, 2010
Settling In
We haven't entered anything into our blog for awhile as life has become somewhat normalized as we are all spending our day together and just learning to be a family. We had hoped Kai would receive his Canadian Citizenship today but now we have to wait until at least Monday. As a result, we will have to extend our stay in Durban until next friday where we will be flying to Cape Town to finish our trip. With our schedule uncertain, we haven't booked anything after Sunday including airfare to Cape Town as we don't want to make reservations and have to cancel. Luckily South Africa high season has just ended so we shouldn't have a problem booking anything when we do make a decision on our plans.
Wednesday we visited the new soccer stadium they built in Durban for the world cup scheduled for June. We took a cable car to the top of the stadium and took pictures overlooking the city. Afterwards we went out for drinks at a local bar for the first time and closed the bar at 6pm. It gets dark here shortly before 6, so I'm just starting to feel comfortable driving at night. We were back in our room by 6:15 with 45 minutes to Bath, Feed and read the same story to Kai since we've been here. From 7pm to 7am is our time and our nights are usually spent watching tv, internet and relaxing with a glass of wine.
Thursday, we visited the B.A.T. Centre where local artistans sell there wares. We liked a few pictures but haven't decided if we'll purchase anything. We had a nice picnic at out B&B (we went back to the place we were before) with another family who adopted. It felt so normal.
Today, we visited Usharka in Durban which is like Marine Land but not as good. They have an aquarium there with plenty of native fish and mammal species. Thank goodness for the stroller we are using. Kai has gained weight!
Everyone is doing well and we appreciate everyone's email. Sorry we can't reply to everyone's email but we do read them!
p.s. Louisa's night also includes washing the bottles, packing the diaper bag, organizing clothes, cleaning up and then she gets to relax! Just saying!
Wednesday we visited the new soccer stadium they built in Durban for the world cup scheduled for June. We took a cable car to the top of the stadium and took pictures overlooking the city. Afterwards we went out for drinks at a local bar for the first time and closed the bar at 6pm. It gets dark here shortly before 6, so I'm just starting to feel comfortable driving at night. We were back in our room by 6:15 with 45 minutes to Bath, Feed and read the same story to Kai since we've been here. From 7pm to 7am is our time and our nights are usually spent watching tv, internet and relaxing with a glass of wine.
Thursday, we visited the B.A.T. Centre where local artistans sell there wares. We liked a few pictures but haven't decided if we'll purchase anything. We had a nice picnic at out B&B (we went back to the place we were before) with another family who adopted. It felt so normal.
Today, we visited Usharka in Durban which is like Marine Land but not as good. They have an aquarium there with plenty of native fish and mammal species. Thank goodness for the stroller we are using. Kai has gained weight!
Everyone is doing well and we appreciate everyone's email. Sorry we can't reply to everyone's email but we do read them!
p.s. Louisa's night also includes washing the bottles, packing the diaper bag, organizing clothes, cleaning up and then she gets to relax! Just saying!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
My name is Kai and I'm a cranky pants
This is the first line of a new song I have written.
Kai had a tough time sleeping last night and ended up between mama and daddy. Yes I know, BIG mistake but it is hard I say to hear him cry. Bob here, yes it is hard to hear him cry at 1am in the morning, but when other guests from the B&B are staying above and beside you along with the owners and everyone meets for breakfast in the morning, I find it hard to say "Good Morning" when i know our little Kai has probably kept them up, so that is why we decided to let him sleep with us.
Louisa continues, He is so little and I want him to feel loved and secure. I think it is going to take him a while to get into our schedule (the lack of schedule might be the issue).
Our day consisted of eating (Kai), changing diapers and a doctor check-up. The doctor just wanted to check his ears. All good. We got more cream for his excema. Spent about an hour in line at the pharmacy. Ran into Brendan and Mary and their kids (canadian couple whole also adopted). This was of course when it is Kai's afternoon nap.
So the song goes "my name is Kai and I'm a cranky pants", I sing it as a rap you repeat over and over and wave his arms in the air. He loves it!
His absolute favourite song is "Hands up baby hands up give me your love gimme gimme your love..." I will try to expand his musical tastes to some Wham! "Wake me up before you go..."
I did get the best present today....first Kai likes me more than daddy and I got Easter notes from my Blue team! Shout out to the BLUE team. I miss all my kids (blue and yellow). I hope they had a great Easter and not too much chocolate (a sometimes food). How was indoor nutrition break? Yes I know EVERYTHING so be good! Love you!
Kai had a tough time sleeping last night and ended up between mama and daddy. Yes I know, BIG mistake but it is hard I say to hear him cry. Bob here, yes it is hard to hear him cry at 1am in the morning, but when other guests from the B&B are staying above and beside you along with the owners and everyone meets for breakfast in the morning, I find it hard to say "Good Morning" when i know our little Kai has probably kept them up, so that is why we decided to let him sleep with us.
Louisa continues, He is so little and I want him to feel loved and secure. I think it is going to take him a while to get into our schedule (the lack of schedule might be the issue).
Our day consisted of eating (Kai), changing diapers and a doctor check-up. The doctor just wanted to check his ears. All good. We got more cream for his excema. Spent about an hour in line at the pharmacy. Ran into Brendan and Mary and their kids (canadian couple whole also adopted). This was of course when it is Kai's afternoon nap.
So the song goes "my name is Kai and I'm a cranky pants", I sing it as a rap you repeat over and over and wave his arms in the air. He loves it!
His absolute favourite song is "Hands up baby hands up give me your love gimme gimme your love..." I will try to expand his musical tastes to some Wham! "Wake me up before you go..."
I did get the best present today....first Kai likes me more than daddy and I got Easter notes from my Blue team! Shout out to the BLUE team. I miss all my kids (blue and yellow). I hope they had a great Easter and not too much chocolate (a sometimes food). How was indoor nutrition break? Yes I know EVERYTHING so be good! Love you!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Roundabouts and Shopping
You can’t seem to travel more than a couple kilometres anywhere without running into a roundabout. After driving probably five dozen of them over here, i find the size of the roundabout and the amount of traffic flows are similar as what we have in Waterloo Region; however, the lack of signage does pose a bit of a problem, even with a GPS. (okay Louisa here..I love my husband but it is his inability to listen to my directions from the backseat, the directions and illustrations from the gps and his lack of understanding about how a roundabout works is what has us going around in circles)
We decided to spend our day at the local mall which is billed to be the biggest in the area with over 50 restaurants, 18 movie theatres, largest indoor climbing wall in the world, skate park which was designed by Tony Hawk and a wave pool. We have found no real great deals here on clothing, souvenirs etc. here as I find most prices are competitive to Canadian prices. (That what I get telling Louisa anyway as she still had problem converting prices to our currency) (Louisa again, I thought the mall was good but would have preferred shopping with the girlz and Kai!)
We decided to spend our day at the local mall which is billed to be the biggest in the area with over 50 restaurants, 18 movie theatres, largest indoor climbing wall in the world, skate park which was designed by Tony Hawk and a wave pool. We have found no real great deals here on clothing, souvenirs etc. here as I find most prices are competitive to Canadian prices. (That what I get telling Louisa anyway as she still had problem converting prices to our currency) (Louisa again, I thought the mall was good but would have preferred shopping with the girlz and Kai!)
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
This is our actual Sunday blog as the other two were done by louisa and myself over the last two days. I'm feeling great today and now Louisa is starting to get some of my symptoms so we've purchased a family pack of imodium.
Our day started with kai waking up at 2:30am in the morning with him falling in and out of sleep over the next 4.5 hours. At 7am, we fed Kai his bottle and by the time he was ready, we were ready for our breakfast by 8am. Today was the first time I’ve had a real breakfast probably in the last three or four days. After asking the owner of the B&B we decided to go on a tour of the coast up to a small town called Ballito. We walked the boardwalk and enjoyed a festival where they had go-kart racing and burger eating contests. After wanting to take a picture of Kai in the sand , beside the phrase “SOUTH AFRICA 2010”, that Louisa had wrote, I let go of Kai and he did a nose plant with sand managing to find itself in almost every crevice on his body. Sand we have learned, is not a parents friend. We continued our journey to the crocodile creek farm where we saw 5 species of crocodile, a black mamba snake, vipers and a python. We took a picture of Louisa holding a croc and Kai and me holding a python.
Back to the B&B by 4:30 and the nightly routine starts all over again. Hopefully Louisa starts feeling better tomorrow.
Our day started with kai waking up at 2:30am in the morning with him falling in and out of sleep over the next 4.5 hours. At 7am, we fed Kai his bottle and by the time he was ready, we were ready for our breakfast by 8am. Today was the first time I’ve had a real breakfast probably in the last three or four days. After asking the owner of the B&B we decided to go on a tour of the coast up to a small town called Ballito. We walked the boardwalk and enjoyed a festival where they had go-kart racing and burger eating contests. After wanting to take a picture of Kai in the sand , beside the phrase “SOUTH AFRICA 2010”, that Louisa had wrote, I let go of Kai and he did a nose plant with sand managing to find itself in almost every crevice on his body. Sand we have learned, is not a parents friend. We continued our journey to the crocodile creek farm where we saw 5 species of crocodile, a black mamba snake, vipers and a python. We took a picture of Louisa holding a croc and Kai and me holding a python.
Back to the B&B by 4:30 and the nightly routine starts all over again. Hopefully Louisa starts feeling better tomorrow.
Happy Easter
Friday night and the boys are in bed! Kai is sleeping like an angel and Bob is under the weather. It has been a stressful 2 days of what feels like single parenthood (with some brief visits from dad). Please let Bob feel better tomorrow!!!
We moved to a new b&b near the indian ocean!! It is just a suburb of Durban called Umhlanga. Lots of hotels and houses with gates. We went to the beach and I walked in the ocean. They have flags to indicate where you can swim. It wasn't a wide space. Lots of people! I'll just say I really appreciate North Carolina. It was hot and someone didn't sleep well last night. We've figured out that the first night in new places are upsetting. Which makes sense since we have only been a family for 11 days. The new b&b is nice but we miss Heaton Cottage, Shayne was a great hostess and she made it feel like home.
If you didn't have a car, Shayne would drive you, doctor appointment, car rental, Shayne was always available if asked.
We moved to a new b&b near the indian ocean!! It is just a suburb of Durban called Umhlanga. Lots of hotels and houses with gates. We went to the beach and I walked in the ocean. They have flags to indicate where you can swim. It wasn't a wide space. Lots of people! I'll just say I really appreciate North Carolina. It was hot and someone didn't sleep well last night. We've figured out that the first night in new places are upsetting. Which makes sense since we have only been a family for 11 days. The new b&b is nice but we miss Heaton Cottage, Shayne was a great hostess and she made it feel like home.
If you didn't have a car, Shayne would drive you, doctor appointment, car rental, Shayne was always available if asked.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Umhlanga - New Digs
We moved to a new B&B two days ago. Umhlanga is located around 30 minutes from Durban and is situated along the Indian Ocean.
I've been feeling abit under the weather the last two days as i think i've been sick with food poisoning as Louisa has had to handle motherhood all by herself. She found the last two days very hard with me being sick as she not only had to look after Kai by herself but her other big baby, me. I've started to feel better today and we actually swam in the ocean.
The pace of our lives has been very slow motion the last few days and nothing much to report. Louisa went to sleep at 8 pm as I'm fullly rested after spending the last couple days sleeping. Everyone is doing good and we thank everyone for there happy wishes.
Love Bob and Louisa.
I've been feeling abit under the weather the last two days as i think i've been sick with food poisoning as Louisa has had to handle motherhood all by herself. She found the last two days very hard with me being sick as she not only had to look after Kai by herself but her other big baby, me. I've started to feel better today and we actually swam in the ocean.
The pace of our lives has been very slow motion the last few days and nothing much to report. Louisa went to sleep at 8 pm as I'm fullly rested after spending the last couple days sleeping. Everyone is doing good and we thank everyone for there happy wishes.
Love Bob and Louisa.
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