Christmas Time

(posted by Elizma)

It's all over, but we had such a lovely time...

Cecile (my eldest sister) arrived from South Africa on Thursday morning and is spending the next three weeks with us. Liam is already very fond of her calling after her when she leaves the room and happily climbing on her lap to read a book or watch Thomas the Tank Engine.

On Christmas Eve we had a lovely meal with Leon's parents and his sister Tania and her partner Andy.

Liam really enjoyed opening all his presents. The first ones went a bit slow, but by the third one, he really got the knack and was constantly going back to the tree for more. Next year he will be looking forward to Christmas and know what to do without us having to show him. I can't believe how big he is already! He loved all his presents very much - thank you to everyone for their kind gifts.

I got Leon a hand-painted image of Liam - which had him in tears (as well as a few other people in the room). The painting is beautiful and even exceeded my expectations. Some photos below.

On Christmas Day we had another nice lunch with Leon's parents before enjoying a quite and relaxing afternoon around the house.

Thank you to everyone for their wishes via text message, phone and e-mail.

We wish all our friends and family a blessed Christmas and the most wonderful things for 2010!

For more photos, click here.

Oh-oh!

(posted by Elizma)

For all our Afrikaans speaking family and friends, the cuteness of this video will be obvious.

For our English speaking family and friends - here is a short synopsis:

Leon is 'reading' Liam a story of a broken down train. The crux of the story is that the train breaks down, the driver separates the locomotive from the carriages. A horse is roped in to pull the carriage - working VERY hard to get it up the hill.

(I'm sure you will recognised various 'checkpoints' in the story through the sound effects!)

Getting the Christmas Feeling

(posted by Elizma)

Exciting weekend for us this was. We went and bought our Christmas tree. Early, some people might think, but as I love the whole build up to Christmas so much - why not stretch it out as long as possible?

Liam at 18 months

(posted by Elizma)

EIGHTEEN MONTHS?! Surely not!

If anybody told me how clever and amusing an 18-month old is, I would have struggled to believe them. Still so young, but Liam is proving me wrong - all the way.

From choosing his own bib (none of the ones I picked was good enough) to knowing which song comes next on his favourite CD, he copies almost everything we say and do.

We went for a check-up the other day and the doctor said that at this age babies should be able to say about 20 words - well he did that at 13 months and is now well over 50 words - if not more. Now I know every mother thinks her child is the brightest and he's probably quite average, but to us he is super special. He has also now started to use English as well and understand everything I say if I speak it too.

He loves being outside and it's quite challenging with the weather we are having at the moment.

Yesterday he had his first art exhibition at nursery. It was brick painting and he made us very proud ;-)

Here are some of my favourite photos of November. For more, click here.

Today - at 18 months exactly

Liam Picasso - the props are for inspiration only

Dorset for the weekend

(posted by Elizma)

Early in November we joined Leon's parents in Dorset for the weekend. It is a beautiful county with magical scenery. Sadly the weather wasn't very bright and we spent most of our time indoors. Tania (Leon's sister) and Andy joined us for the Sunday afternoon.

It was still lovely and relaxing and Liam enjoyed all the Oupa and Ouma attention of course!

More photo's here.