Padda wou gaan opsit...

Baby girl... It seems my hopes of you being a prima ballerina dancer might have to make room for something else..

You had your first school concert a couple of weeks ago.  It was a state secret what the theme would be & we had no idea what character you were going to play.  We were so excited & bought tickets weeks in advance, invited friends & family to come watch the spectacular show with us, the works!

On arrival we got popcorn & drinks & we couldn't wait to see your debut!  But then we had to wait.. first were the babies then the older babies.. & FINALLY! It was your class' turn!  Onto the stage you came, not a cry or a tear in sight, you took your place together with all your little froggy & duck friends & then you noticed the crowd.  That was the end of it.. You sat & stared & stared & stared.. Not a word came out of your mouth & no dancing or movement in that little princess body of yours..

It seems the moment was too big for you & stagefright got the better of my little 2.5 year old princess froggy.  But let me tell you this:  You were the most beautiful froggy I had ever seen & mommy had tears running all the way down my face!  I dont care whether you didnt feel like dancing or singing in front of 100's of people & truth be told I would have been proud even if you did have a properse meltdown & cried your heart out!  I dont care if you dont like being on stage, all I want is for you to be happy & mommy will do just about anything for you to be happy.  So maybe you'll take ballerina lessons, but if you dont want to dance in front of people.. You'll have to dance for me:-)!

I am proud of you baby girl, always have been, always will be!  Your the most beautiful baby in the world to me.. Even in a froggy costume with your face painted green ;-) ! Mommy loves you!

X is for Xhosa

We have limited information about your tummy mummy sweetheart but one thing we do know is that she is Xhosa & this week we celebrated Heritage Day, otherwise known as National Braai Day.  So we decided to focus on Xhosa this year.

What is Heritige Day?  Google defines it as follows:

"What does Heritage Day mean to individual South Africans? - for some a braai with family and friends, for others a chance to respect their traditions and for some who don't know their roots Its just another day as usual.

Heritage Day is one of South Africa's newly created public holidays and its significance rests in recognising aspects of South African culture which are both tangible and difficult to pin down: creative expression, our historical inheritance, language, the food we eat as well as the land in which we live.

Heritage is defined as "that which we inherit: the sum total of wild life and scenic parks, sites of scientific or historical importance, national monuments, historic buildings, works of art, literature and music, oral traditions and museum collections together with their documentation."

So of course your father & I don't know anything about being Xhosa - What would we do without Google?  A few strokes on our trusty search engine & I had a few recipes for dishes we could do on the braai & even a few pics of Xhosa face paint.  

I was worried about the food - especially about what it was going to taste like cause it sounded 'volks vreemd"! :-)  But Umngqusho rocks!  It took forever to cook but it was nice & the Oxtail was devine!  

Needless to say.. We'll be cooking some traditional Xhosa food & celebrating the heritage of your tummy mummy a little more often than once a year baby girl.  

We love you!  xx 

Two...

So baby girl.. I haven't written you in a while.  It's hard & terribly busy busy busy raising a two year old! :-)

You turned two in May & although I have enjoyed every phase, this one is proving to be the most challenging but also most enjoyable phase!  You can communicate with me & I'm loving it!

So let me tell you about a few things you've been up to in the last week - I know you'll love reading this one day!

I bought you a reward chart - you don't quite understand the concept yet but I felt that we could slowly introduce you to it.  We bought a few interesting stickers & also introduced you to the potty..  Every time you sat on the potty you got a sticker.  You seemed to really enjoy the chart & then... the chart went missing.  I didn't think too much of it, figuring that I'd find it amongst your toys.  That was until I went to the toilet!  You had tried to flush your reward chart down the toilet.. Ai jai jai!

Have I mentioned that we're trying to potty train you?  CHAOS!  In my attempts to be informed, I googled the topic & read an article "How to potty train your child in three days".. Well, not this child! & definately not this parent!  I feel like pulling all my hair out, one by one!  You pee in the potty once & then on the floor, & then on the chair & then on the carpet & then just to keep it interesting.. in the potty!  Turns out you dont even mind cleaning up after yourself!  Thought that cleaning might encourage you to pee IN the potty, but no - you enjoy cleaning.  Ai jai jai jai jai!!

I can't hide stuff as easily from you any more.  this morning you fetched your chair from the lounge, took it to the kitchen, opened the fridge & took the cheese out from behind the bottles of mayo & mustard where I was hiding it on the top shelve.  You then brought it to me in the lounge, doing your victory dance singing "Kasies, kasies yum yum kasies!"  I couldn't help it.. I just had to give you some kasies :-)

I love that you make me laugh so much every day.  You're so cute, I almost wish that you would stay this age forever. Well once you're potty trained!  Love you baby girl! xx

My perfect baba..

So when we got you we imagined how perfect you would be & what perfect parents we'd be.. as I'm sure all prospective parents do.  But boy were we naive!

We had our first "Head Master Office" Discussion this week.  Turns out when you're frustrated at school YOU BITE! 

First thing I thought of when she told us was how your dad & I mocked the lady @ the school we're hoping to send you to.  We went to enroll you because there's a waiting list as long as my arm.  One of the things she told us, with a very stern face is, "Biters are expelled!".  We shook our heads in utter dismay, ofcourse biters should be expelled... But when we got home we had a good giggle about the whole scenario! 

Moral of the story: Don't mock people..

So what is this perfect mommy of yours going to do?  Nothing!  Apart from giving you as much of a speech as you can give a 19-month old..  & Loving you to bits, teeth & all!

Turns out I'm not so perfect after all & neither are you.  Seem's I've got some reading to do on how to handle situations like these & you've got to learn some communication skills.   

Fact is though, as I was watching you go off with the nanny today to go play in the park I realised once again just how perfect you are for me!  You are happy!  And what more can a mom ask for? 

You've been happy & content since the day you were placed in your daddy's arms.  You smile & giggle & laugh all the time & you love how quirky we can be together.  I'm quite a serious bore on my own but with you & your dad I come alive!  Your dad's a bit of a nerd & to top it all he looks a bit chinese!  But to us he's the hero that kills the bugs & fixes things (& secretly dances like a crazy person when nobody's watching). 

You see, together we make the perfect family in my opinion.  Caramelle - Daddy our Portuguese but chinese looking hero, White Chocolate - Mommy! & Chocolate - you our little dark baba girl! We cover the whole spectrum of sweet chocolates, one of my favourite things!  We're my kinda perfect!

Baby girl.. I hope you dance!

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'
Don't let some Hellbent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)
I hope you dance I hope you dance
(Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder, where those years have gone?)

A Beautiful Song by Lee Ann Womack

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This song has always been a nice-enough-to-listen-to song for me.. but I heard it playing on the radio recently & now that you're in my life this song has taken on a whole new meaning for me. 

You see, some of us are behind-the-scenes kinda people, some of us are writers, some singers, some painters, but you my girl, You are a dancer!  It's a wellknown fact that African people have rhythm.  That's black Africans, just so we're clear, cause your dad & I have ZERO rhythm between the two of us :-)  But you, you've got the ability to sway those little hips of yours to the rhythm of just about anything in the pretiest way I have ever seen. 

And you find rhythm in Everything!  You'll hear a catchy advert & you'll start swaying away like the music is talking to you.  You dance to the tune of the wind & the waves.  And when there's no music, you make your own & dance to that..

My favourite dance to date is the one you do in the mornings.. You stand in your crib & dance to the song that daddy made up for you.  You stand, dummy in the mouth - cause you're a little grumpy in the mornings - & when one of us start to sing you'll start smiling your little dummy smile & dance.. whilst still in your sleeping bag!

I think what gets to me most is your confidence.  You dont care where we are or who is looking or what time of the day it is..  If you feel like dancing, you dance!  My prayer is that you will always have that confidence.  That you'll always find the rhythm in the situation & DANCE to it Danielle-style. 

Mommy loves you my little dancer. xxx