Dear all

This has been a quiet and peaceful month with not too much happening but big future plans.

I have been counting down the days that I have left at work, relishing and savouring my little hell rats. I think I will really miss them being spattered around the classroom and telling each other to F*@*& off as they fight over the slide (let me remind you that they are 18months to 3 yrs old). Another thing I will miss will be explaining to the same father for the 5th day running that his daughter has been bitten again, and not by a dog. Wow, such memories!

Vaughn’s company continues to do well and now has a name, “The-i-junction”. He is still putting hours in at Praxis but does come home to enjoy his family which is really great after a patch of non-stop work. He is still cycling with Cavan and managed to lose his cell last week (please phone him so that he can replace his numbers). The did carefully look for it but I think someone was overjoyed to find a phone that rings postman pat as its tune. Luckily for us we still had our old phone so he managed to keep his old number and get a new sim card for 80 bucks. No wonder they get stolen.

M is doing really well and is now starting to wander away from couches etc before realising that she has taken a few steps and sitting down with a plop. We bought her a wooden push cart and she spends hours racing up and down our lounge, while occasionally stopping to climb in and let mom and dad push her. We have finally got used to the two new teeth but their seems to be another impending arrival much to our dismay. We thought we would have a few months off from the grizzlies but luckily vidol teething powder is our friend.

She is also starting to test out speaking and will pick up her plastic telephone receiver, put it into her neck and say “he-yo, he-yo” very seriously. Very cute and funny, she is also learning tata and will wave cheerfully if I am not around. She is still practising her climbing and has now learnt to climb into the bath. This is her favourite time with mom and dad so no problems now, she climbs in clothes and all if either of us is in the bath. She has also taken to playing with the toilet paper and will spend quiet hours unrolling the toilet roll onto the floor and the latest is a couple of forays with the toilet brush. That is why they make cisterns – to put your toilet brush and toilet rolls on. I always shudder when I see the ad with the little boy who throws the toothbrushes into the toilet bowl, takes them out and puts them back without washing them. I am pretty sure that I will walk in one day to see Emma with her head in the toilet bowl playing away. For now she can only reach the dog water bowl and that keeps her entertained for hours as the water glubs out and splashes around.

She is getting really big and I can not believe that she is almost a year old. I have not taken her for a weigh in but she does feel heavier even though she is still in 3-6month gear. She is still feeding herself and is now taking time to learn how to negotiate a spoon, before she was a hands only girl. She has also mastered drinking out of a cup all by herself and spends hours throwing her head right back to drink some water. Strange child that she is, she still prefers water and will sell her soul or Yogi Sip (drinking yoghurt) to sweet drinks.

On the Lily front, we have done a bit of 4x4ing over the last month. We spent a Sunday at Hennops 4×4 track with my Mom in Toad, Josh and Cavan in Smurf and ourselves in Lily. Toad cruised over everything and mom is doing well and learning not to over rev on obstacles. Smurf was manned by Cavan who did superbly and cruised and crunched through the obstacles in true Osborne style and panache. Lily did well proved that her health spa visit was well worth the time and the money. She disgraced herself a week later by losing a nut on the alternator making the bolt rub on the fanbelt and causing the alternator to nearly fall off. We got to spend a fun half hour trying to encourage the tensioned bolt back into place with a leatherman as their were no tools in the car. A long story but Cavan is learning about engines quickly.

We also had our first Legends tour meeting. This is the tour with the 10 Series landrovers and 2 Range Rovers to Gonarazhou, Zimbabwe, next month. It looks like it is going to be lots of fun with us being the youngest in the group and having the youngest child. Kalene might be coming with us which will be really fun as she missed out on the epic Mozambique trip in Lily before Emma was born.

I have also spent a few weeks negotiating for various quotes. Cavan’s pine floors have been taken over by termites which was one small hole. He then called in a floor man who jumped all over his floor and went through it in various places before giving him a nearly R10 000 rand quote to fix it. So suddenly a problem that could have waited a few months become a matter of urgent attention. We have found a really nice guy who is going to redo his wooden floors and starts his pilgrimage to the Osborne residence tomorrow. While contemplating various flooring options we also decided to look into how much a new kitchen would cost in our various homes. After various frustrating events we managed to get people to come out and quote. Tip for the week – DO NOT USE SEMBEL IT. They put down the phone on me, I finally got a man to come and quote. If he was any less interested he would have been dead. Their service so far has been shocking and we have not even seen the quote yet. We are really excited about our impending kitchens (we have not seen the quote yet so still live in blissful ignorance). Hopefully that will all happen quite soon.

We also have a visit from Granny Doris (Vaughn’s Granny from Zim) to look forward to in May. We will be fetching her on our way back from the Legends tour and she will be staying with us for 2 weeks while Vaughn’s mom is in Kwazulu for her 3rd grandchilds impending arrival. We can’t wait. Angie we can’t wait for you to get home – a week to go.

That is all the news for now. Please keep us updated on your news.

Love
Carrie and Emma