Replanted the fountain

Last year when we got here, I converted the fountain (read mosquito breeding ground) into my herb garden, after the winter, I planted a variety of herbs but it just didn't take. As of yesterday, only my lemon grass in the corner and the ginger I put in were doing well. So I decided to pull out the remaining basil and after looking at other people's gardens, decided to create a summer type garden for bubbi's viewing pleasure when she gets here (takes a guest to kick start my home improvements).

So after Ike woke up today, I took him to the nursery and picked out yellow, red and orange flowers of differing heights, here he is trying to monopolise all three shovels! If I had started a bit earlier, ie 2 months ago, it would be alot more grown in. Some of the flowers are perennials others I would have to change in autumn which could be quite nice, I can now read up on those plants and get a head start, maybe even do a different color scheme every season!

Bubbi lands on Tuesday, i thought she is here tomorrow. Will post pictures of how we have decorated the room for her arrival once she is on a plane!

A shot of the gigantic pom pom flowers, ike now will blow at any type of flower you give him. The white butterflies were out in full force today, fluttering in a westerly direction, thousands of them.

The sand pit after a big rain has good consistency sand for castle making or in this case, I was trying to do the great wall of china. Ike and pistol share the stroller seat. Ike today was practising his new look, he put his lower jaw in front and pulled his upper jaw back, he really actually looked like my Uncle Roland!

Plasters

Plasters seem to cure pain, as soon as one is put on, the crying stops. What I didn't describe yesterday was that the plaster was stuck to nate's thigh and the other end to his left ball. Today in the shower, the water did not reduce the potency of the stickiness so when I tore the the part off the thigh, it was quite painful that he decided to slowly remove the other part himself.

After we dry up, I see that the patch on his thigh has a few raised water blisters, like ike's mite spots. Oh oh! I did apply lotion before the plaster or did I? anyway, he got lotioned again on that spot. Still crying, he says his pee pee still hurts and wants another plaster (IQ wise not a child genius), I try to convince him that the potency of the plaster is the same if I put it on his diaper (didn't buy it), so I try to make the plaster less sticky by pasting it over my skin several times (hope it works) and manage to convince him to put it on a less sensitive part (pubis mound, is that what its called?). Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Its really pleasant dropping him off at school, he waves and says goodbye mommy!

Ike is better, he is down to one nap a day, rash has subsided. Here he is trying to blow a dandelion (pom pom flower) and usually ends up eating it instead. We went to a different park (checking out different neighbourhoods and parks) and there were these blonde, 1 year old twins that were running and climbing up the slide! Ike is bigger than them and I think babies lose their cheeks when they start walking? or will Ike have perpetual big cheeks?

Moms and sons

There are just some things that mom's cannot explain to sons or maybe it is just boys at age 3... After the shower, Nate said his balls hurt, I think he must have bumped them (it was not red or swollen... a pain I can't relate to though), he cried so painfully that it must have been painful but he is convinced that only a plaster on them will feel better.

No amount of telling him that ripping the plaster off will leave him in a worse state and with the tears flowing and the wailing... and me trying to tell him there are no more plasters, he finds a box that loren must have bought over the weekend. So we put a plaster on... he stops crying, its quite s sticky plaster so good luck to him when it has to come off! Maybe I'll plan for a bath and it will just peel off? Maybe it was so painful he didn't even try to ask for his usual 3 plasters and then thru a bargaining process it gets down to 1 plaster (these jewish or chinese genes are exhibiting themselves too early).

The chemist seemed to think that only the person with mites need to be treated, the dr advised all family members and so did all the sites that I read on scabies, this cream smells bad, I have a headache developing, even the CK I put on is not masking it! am not sure I can last 12 hours with this stuff on.

Ike in happier days pre-scabies, pointing and putting things into buckets. He is much better today but all that spoiling over the weekend has turned him into a mini tyrant. If he doesn't get his way, he throws a tantrum by pounding his head on the floor once. Thus the perpetual bump on his head. His appetite is back so he is definitely on the road the recovery.

What is worse than chicken pox?

well ike does not have chicken pox, today he was seen by 3 doctors in the emergency ward and his normal ped who was called in, they concurred that he has scabies. Its extremely itchy and it takes 2-6 weeks for the itch to go away! Now we are recleaning the house, the dogs get their mite dip at the vet on weds and some websites say all other humans in the home should get treated too, others say only the infested one.

Hmmmm... and I thought head lice was the only lice-mite I should watch for.

The dr thinks it is likely he got it from the sandpit, which ike likes to play in and is there almost everyday. Yesterday when we thought its chicken pox, he was there to spread the mites.

Bubbi, welcome to mite-land in advance!

Now that Nate does not want to nap, he sleeps really early, its 5pm and he's asleep, it feels like when he was under a year old. He just wakes up with the sun and sunrise now is 4:50am. y-a-w-n!

Dark Continent

For those who have read The Dark Continent by Paul Theroux and feel totally depressed about it, there is a funny book which i picked up recently called, Dark Continent My Black Arse, written by a black south african writer who also travels from Cape Town to Cairo. It is really quite funny and a good read if you have been to or want to travel africa.

I managed to pick up a few books for the holiday read, another one is the geology of the african continent which as you all may know is the oldest and most stable continent (read no earthquakes and no tsunami's).

I took Ike to the bird park on Friday to catch the 11am bird show, he wasn't too impressed. He did like the walk and we did see some new things like flamingoes building their nests on padded mud piles (see pic). Then a cockatoo decided he liked the button on the already beat up stroller and tries to pluck it off.

We also collected the tickets to the Lion King for Nate's teacher. Christine and I are sharing in on 2 tickets for her for X'mas, she is so excited to go. Its nice to be able to match up a good gift.

Later that evening Ike gets his rash, fast forward to sunday, he was really a grump today, took 4 naps, each nap under an hour. His last awake period he seemed a bit happier but did not last being awake for 3 hours. His rash or suspected chicken pox has not spread. Let's see what the Dr says tomorrow. Am tempted to get a second opinion.

Loren was sick as well over the weekend, relapse into the Rwandan flu. I think we must be getting all the viruses that we have never caught before in Africa.

I just saw the pics to my grandma's funeral. It looked really good, I mean, I had somewhat expected a really ching chong ming mong, cheena looking funeral but it was all white drapes and white flowers and really could have been a backdrop for a western wedding.

Ike has suspected....

before I tell you his next ailment, Ike has been nicknamed, "woo woo" by us as that seems to be his favourite word.

So Woo Woo has suspected chicken pox. He had his vaccination in early september, ie on schedule and the nurse said although kids are vaccinated, they still have a 20% chance of getting it. I guess we have struck the chicken pox lottery. Last night he had this bad and angry rash on his bum and woke up several times, this morning its on his legs and a few spots on his hands, of the many spots only 2 have water in them, so the dr suspects its chicken pox, we will see him again on monday.

In the meantime, he is itching and is on antihistamine and is not the happiest of babies. I have not had chicken pox before but am vaccinated, lets hope we need not strike lottery twice. As i write this, he has woken up, so will have to update other news later...

Another sizzling day

If it gets any hotter than today, I will have to rethink my wardrobe. Here is the back of Ike's head, look at all his hair!! Ike is really into doors, open shut open shut open shut. He now apart from pointing, claps, waves and shakes his hands... finally! the classes must be paying off.

Nate is now getting into swinging himself in a swing and the knotting a swing up to go round and round. He says look at me alot and can really express himself quite well. If he doesn't nap, he sleeps at 530pm and wakes at about 5am. If he sleeps later, he still wakes at 5am, its either loren's noise in the morning or that sliver of sunlight at sunrise which is now 455am.

I have resorted to sleeping really early and am feeling alot better than last week.

Really HOT day

Summer is around the corner, today was just sizzling hot, I wonder if it its combined with the altitude but I felt dizzy, charmaine said she felt dizzy as well.

Both the boys in bed by 6 and both will probably be awake by 5:30 tomorrow. Ike is quite tired from all his cruising but didn't take a second nap today after a big 2 hour nap in the morning. He does a really good squat now but not quite a stand. He must feel so sore at the end of the day.

Nate scraped his knees today at school, he must have insisted on bandages as he came back with two big ones, they were the ones that are hard to rip off so I had to rip them off fast before the shower, but it was still painful, he cried for a long time! The last time he cried so hard must have been his diaper rash. I need to find him some loosy goosy longish pants to wear, he falls so often that even his longish pants have holes in them. Everytime he goes to school in shorts he gets his knees scratched up so much so that he would want to wear long pants to school.

Hope there is some rain soon!

Some strange weeds

I think these wild daisies / weeds will be those big pom pom like things that nate likes to blow in summer. They are really not like any flower I have seen before. The garden route must be amazing with all the wild flowers popping up. I must take a shot of my landlords garden near the garage area, she ripped out all the lavender to put in indigenous plants, its gorgeous.

I have started growing my own goji berries, they have now sprouted!

This week

feels long, esp. after a nice holiday. Looking back at the pics that I took, I am surprised at how much i did this week. All I remember though is feeling tired (Ike back to waking at 4 am for a big poo) and I now have antibiotics for this cough.

Took Ike to another activity based in dainfern, he is liking all this stimulation tho he does not like baths anymore, am not sure what changed after mozambique, he just cries the whole time he is in a bath, maybe he wants to shower instead?

On the environmental front, I found a company that will pick up and recycle almost all non-organic trash. The organic stuff goes to my worms and I just placed and order for another worm farm - the worm factory and the tumbleweed composter (compost in 3 weeks!), I hope this will handle all my summer garden clippings. Next year maybe I look into how to recycle the washing machine water and solar power? For detergents we use a bacteria cleaner that eats up dirt.

My swimming pool is another pet peeve, it is high maintainence, environmentally unfriendly in a land where water is scarce and high evaporation rate and the amount of chemicals I throw into balance it, or make the silt sink (which is this shot). I have asked about turning it into a big sand pit but if I drain the water the walls will crack or something like that. This is the white elephant in our home.

Thanks for all the condolences, many asked about the funeral, if it is anything like my granddad's it would have been quite a party, or rather my memory of my granddad's funeral.... some scenes, I remember everyone is folding paper money, the stack was so big it filled a basketball court. My granddad had 4 wives, 22 children and I don't know how many grandchildren and great grandchildren. But there we were making origami gold ingots, he also had paper houses and paper cars, paper electornic goods, paper clothes, burnt as well, which led me to think of another business, kits that families can put together at the funeral as opposed to buying ready made ones. But I was disuaded by the fact that the exobitant paper things are mafia controlled and all this burning is bad for the environment, better to write a single check and burn it. Or as my dad the economist says, chinese hell or heaven is suffering from super hyperinflation.

The monk chanting was the hardest to bear, having to sit and chant for sometimes a few hours. The procession is kind of fun, the staying up and chatting with other cousins about the "good old days" when we were kids biking around the neighbourhood is probably the best part.

17 days till marcia is here! 24 days till I see chicken rice and wanton mee in KL.

Postal services

Everyone here has a pet peeve, some hate it when the electricity or water stops, others are when there are strikes, I think mine is the postal system. Gone are the days of passing a post box and tossing in your letters. Now one has to wait till the post office opens, then as they also serve as "banks" or deposit taking institutions, one has to watch for dodgy characters (our post office was just robbed a month ago). Letters never arrive at the physical address and P.O. boxes make one's address look suspicious (never mind "Africa" in the address).

Then... the postal system has no standardisation of value of stamps to different continents (prob the price changes every year?) so its Rand 4.65 to send a letter to Asia, dictated by size of envelope and not weight. Usually it means there are a min of 4 stamps that I need to tear and then paste. Of course the stamps then come with borders that take up space on the envelope. Sometimes they have different denominated stamps, I have to paste up to 6 or more stamps. Oh and you must paste the airmail sticker too.

The stamps are really pretty though which make them targets for mail theft or stamp theft. The postal officers take a long time to calculate the value of the total purchase of the stamps and take their time tearing it too, which means I should buy in bulk, which I did but then a month later the cost of posting changed!!!!! But they are quite sophisticated with the bar code scanner to get the total price, its just when there is no electricity or when it breaks down, they need a calculator, when that is not available.... it takes forever. I have significantly cut down sending mail and post cards (there is just no space to put the stamps!).

Pics

Here are some misc shots taken, someone once mentioned to me that young kids and banana's don't really go as the the fruit is squishy and has a funny taste. Well its ike's favourite fruit, here he is just attacking it, almost devouring the skin (competition for my worms!)

Took ike for a look around the fish tank shops, he really enjoyed that, now with him taking only 1 nap, I get to take him to many places, I still have to take the stroller as he is 11kg and is hard to lug around, even in back pack he feels heavy. Speaking of the stroller, it may look beat up but its still very functional and hardy, when people manuever it they are surprised at how easy it is to push. Thanks Yu-lynn!! the stroller has now logged another country onto its impressive travel list - mozambique.

This long looking vege is the butter lettuce I have been growing in my garden, I wonder if the supermarkets just harvest them early and they resemble the more familiar ball shape... then they start to head skywards, like this one. It went to Michelle, she said it was the tastiest butter lettuce (solely fertilised by worm pee) she has ever had (over politeness?).

Nate is now into the plaster/bandage stage where every small cut requires a big bandage. he is quite choosy about the type that goes on, the best that heal his pain quickly are bob the builder. Here he takes his wounds a step further by insisting they be wrapped in a towel before the shower so the bandage won't fall off.

The shuster boys' great-grandmother, my ama passed away today. My family in KL are sad but glad she doesn't need to go on suffering. A good book on how we die in our day and age is "The way we die". She leaves behind all her 8 children, 17 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren.

Mozambique Part II

We had one day of rain, which was nice, it was cooler and the sand was more conducive for building castles, Ike hasn't got the concept yet, he thinks we are building barriers to improve his crawling ability.

There are lots of crabs, they seem like easy prey, there were also these nice lizards that would tan on the boardwalk deck (which i didn't take a pic off), nomsa was pale one day as a (non-poisonous) green snake plopped in front of her. Some frogs too, the wind was too strong for any mosquitoes. The place we were at bordered the Tembe elephant park so some of the guests saw an elephant or two.

Here is Nate with his "paper", it is a sheet of paper and a catalogue of thomas the train toys, nate can stare for hours at this piece of paper so the drive was quite easy with him, he sleeps with this piece of paper until it becomes all torn up, then we tape it up and then it lasts for a few more days. It is truly "ham choy" (salted vegetable) when it has to go, I have jokingly told him we can make ham-choy soup out of it and he wants to do it, forget osmosis, might as well internalise it!

Ponta Mamoli - Mozambique I

For those who live near the sea and beach (sentosa is counted!), you are really lucky! It took us 8 hours of driving to get to this place. Africa is a big continent! But it was a really nice break. I miss the smell of the sea.

Day 1
Nomsa : I am scared of the ocean
Nate to Loren : No dada. don't go in the water, lets go back, there are crabs
Ike : pointing to land, away from ocean, ooh ooh (head back?)

Day 2
Nomsa : After splishing around, wears shorts instead, jumps around the surf
Nate : picks seashells
Ike : plays in the sand at the halfway point

Day 3
Nomsa : trying to get salt water to bring home to her family (???)
Nate : playing at the waters edge jumping around, enjoying the wet sand and drinking the salty water
Ike : bopping towards the ocean

We got to do some yoga, see strange seeds, saw a few pods of dolphins, a mother and child humback whale, snorkelling, no horse riding (no nate's helmet size). Ike did lots of eating (whats new?), naps, ahhhh.... all to the sound of crashing waves.

Ike and Nomsa shared a chalet, she now knows why we sleep with our dogs and not the boys. Ike consistently woke at 4am and then decided for 2 nights to wake at 12 for a milk snack and chat! Got home he slept all the way to 5am again.