I was so looking forward to going out for a cream tea for Mother's Day today, but will have to try that again another time.
We still had a lovely day at home with the sun being out. More gardening: we planted tomato, cucumber, courgette and sweetcorn seeds plus some more sunflower seeds, all still in the greenhouse. We're going to have a full garden!
Isabella has been spending a lot of time on the trampoline.
And instead of scones, Andre and Isabella baked a Mother's Day cake in the afternoon while I relaxed with a book in the sunshine.
Tomorrow it is work and 'school' for us at home. Isabella is actually very excited to be doing school work at home and can't wait to get started. I need to read through the planning her teachers sent home, but I know we'll have more than enough to keep us busy with educational activities. Luckily she enjoys that.
We have a bit of a schedule ready for weekdays, although it will be flexible and is just to help us get back on track if things start getting a bit tricky or if Isabella gets bored. It's something we can then refer back to for ideas.
The sheet at the top is from The Organised Mum Blog and is where we write down things we'd like to do during the day so we don't forget. Also a bit of meal planning. But all open to change. The sheet below is a list of things Isabella can pick from of things to do.
A slightly more detailed routine for the day, but all it basically says is Isabella to try play on her own and once that fails mum or dad to take turns playing and working. With a bit of screen time in between of course to help us out.
It has been strange how quickly life has changed these past four weeks or so. From only hearing about this coronavirus/ Covid-19 starting in China when it felt so far away and not affecting us at all, to hearing about how quickly it started spreading through Italy and then through the rest of Europe and becoming a risk affecting us and everyone worldwide. It's such a strange thing this way we're living now and how quickly we got into keeping our distance from others whenever possible. Becoming suspicious of a cough.
We started working from home on Monday, with Andre still in the office some days. We've set up a second desk at home and it's been working well. This coming week Isabella will be joining us at home so things will change some more once again, but I'm sure we will be keeping it interesting and making it work!
It has been a lovely relaxing day at home today. I am absolutely enjoying not having to rush anywhere. No where to be and no one we need to see.
We started the day playing vets with Isabella's soft toys. ALL. OF. THEM. She has no favourites and loves them all equally. That was what she told me when I asked and it's absolutely true.
(You can click the [ ] at the bottom right of video to see it full screen.)
We then moved downstairs and Andre built our outdoor chairs which arrived yesterday. We're still waiting on the table and I'm suspecting an issue here so will probably need to contact the supplier on Monday. But so excited that we'll finally be able to eat outside this summer! We went for this cast aluminium set as it seemed the most durable for the shady (damp) spot the table will be spending most of the year.
Isabella started working on a cardboard house for her soft toys using the empty boxes.
We spent some time in the garden, I planted flowers, Isabella went on the trampoline, Andre and Isabella washed the motorbike and then also went for a short ride around the village on it. Isabella also got back on her own bike for a cycle! Something she's not done since summer. I didn't join them, but apparently she was doing well on her two wheels. I will capture some evidence of that next time.
Isabella was excited to start her school pack she got on Friday evening already, but we have decided to keep weekends as weekends and start that on Monday. All of Isabella's after school activities have now been canceled, her two dance classes, gymnastics and ice skating, and restaurants and gyms etc have been told to close too.
Today our schools are closing until further notice. That is for at least the next four weeks as we would have had two weeks left of school before the two week Easter holiday. We're ready to receive a work pack from the teachers this afternoon and look forward to giving home schooling a try. I made sure to get a picture this morning on the way to school, just in case this might end up being Isabella's last day of Year 1! Hopefully they will get to go back for the summer term though.
For my own future reference I should add that this is of course due to the Corona virus or COVID-19 situation. We're all still healthy and hoping to keep it that way for now so will just be trying our best to stay home.
We will try to keep blogging now about our days at home and what we're going to do to keep busy. Andre and I are both still working, and so thankful for that, so Isabella has already been told that she'll be doing some activities on her own at times. I'm planning to try and get her to do some blogging here too!
Isabella and I decided to make a short video and post with some tips of what works best for us when flying. We have done at least 5 long haul flights with Isabella now, she's only 5 years old and while it is still not easy, it does get better!
Before flying:
We always book Isabella a kids meal. You can do this via your airline's website and should find it around the section where you can select your seats. The kids meals usually consists of something like chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and fruit plus child friendly crisps, chocolate treat and a juice/ water bottle. There is no way Isabella would eat any of the regular meals you would receive. Too many different bits touching and strange sauces etc. So this way she usually manages to eat at least something.
The other benefit to ordering a special kids meal is that it is brought to your seat before the rest of the plane is served their meals. This allows you to help your child with his/ her meal, then get them settled with a movie before your meal arrives, allowing you to enjoy your meal in relative peace.
What to pack:
Carry on suitcase
We use one of these once it's sleep time to extend Isabella's seat to a bed. Place it upright at the child's feet with a pillow on top and you have a bed! See photo below.
Pillows and spare clothes
In this suitcase we pack 1-2 pillows depending on space and spare clothes for everyone. We've never needed it, but I'm pretty sure the day I don't pack spare clothes for all of us she will be vomiting all over us or spilling a drink on me. It can also often be quite warm on flights so pack light clothing and layers.
Sleep mask
Isabella sometimes likes sleeping with a sleep mask at home or will drape her comforter over her eyes. We find it definitely helps her to switch off and fall asleep faster. Especially useful on a plane with many distractions and then on the rest of the holiday too. She had a cute reindeer one from Primark for the past Christmas flight.
Favourite toys
Isabella loves her soft toys so we pack about three of these, a few dolls, note pad and pens, stickers, activity books. Any of your child's favourites, although we find these get used minimally on the flight. Do pack lots of toys for the holiday as we found Isabella gets homesick even during the best holidays and it helped having enough bits from home.
She now looks after her own carry-on as you can see below, which also holds her favourite soft toy or doll in a pouch on the outside. She used to have a Trunki which was useful to sit or ride on when her legs got tired, but a pain to pull along as the wheels don't swivel and a pain to open on the flight as it needs to fold completely open.
Tablet and headphones
When Isabella was younger, the angle of the screen and her height meant she couldn't see the built in screen very well so a tablet worked better. Now that she is 5 and taller the screen worked perfectly fine for her and she enjoyed the choice of movies. Having her own comfortable headphones was a must as the adult size in-ear headphones wouldn't have been comfortable for her.
Snacks
Isabella usually ends up not eating a lot of her snacks, but again, should I not pack any she would probably be asking for more snacks. I would pack as many snacks as possible.
Milk
Isabella loves her milk so we pack her empty milk bottle which now is a sippy bottle she loves. Before boarding get some warm milk from a coffee shop. You could even bring a flask to fill with warm milk form a coffee shop. Previously on flights we were told they didn't have enough milk for children to drink and that it was only really for tea/ coffee on the flight.
When she was under a year and drinking formula milk I took pre-made bottles of formula which you are allowed to take for babies. Plus some formula powder in a container to prepare fresh on the plane if needed.
Reward for good sleeping
On our first long flight with Isabella I bought various cheap small toys to have some new things to keep her occupied. This was a mistake as she was so excited to open all of these she didn't want to sleep. Now what we find works better is having one treat which is kept for the next morning, usually very early morning, once your child has hopefully slept at least a few hours during the night. We've had good flights where Isabella slept six hours, and then we had our last flight when she had three hours sleep only.
If you're flying with little ones, may it be as quick and painless as possible! Enjoy your trip!
We inherited two lovely wooden garden benches with our house. A few years ago we sanded and varnished one, but never got around to doing the other and since then one bench's seat had also broken. They were close to being discarded by Andre but I was still clinging to them, not really sure how to save them.
Then Andre's dad and stepmom came to visit a few months ago and within days these two benches were looking brand new and standing much prouder!
Sanding the benches in preparation for painting.
The first bench was painted red and now lives next to our front door. A lovely sunny spot in the afternoons for Isabella and I to sit and wait for Andre to come home.
Oupa Chris inspecting the base coats.
Isabella approves!
We love it!
Andre's dad repaired the seat of the other bench and it was painted a colour I think is called seagrass and describes it pretty well- a light greeny-turqoois. A very calm colour. This one is currently in our back garden next to the BBQ.
Testing the new seat.
Thank you so much for the help Chris & Marietjie! We can now enjoy sitting on our benches again and they look so much better!
An aloe and a yukka plant was also given a bigger home in the process. Both were originally indoors, and I hadn't even noticed that they were outgrowing their pots. The yukka now has a lovely big pot next to the red bench and the aloe is also in a much larger pot than it was. For the aloe Marietjie used an old brown plastic pot found in our greenhouse which she painted with the grey undercoat we used on the benches and it looks great next to the seagrass bench.
We have plans to turn Isabella's old sandpit into shelves for flower/ herb pots and also into a bench, but that is still on the to-do list.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
I'm back!
Wow it's been very nearly two years since my last post. I wish I had kept the blogging up the past two years, but I just didn't get the time in between playing duplo and dolls. And after Isabella's bed time I just did not feel creative at all to be writing anything.
The vlogging started after we recently started watching and subscribing to a few other vlogs on youtube which we watch most evenings instead of tv shows. We find it relaxing to switch off from our own life and watch someone else's instead and at 10-20 min each it's nice and short so we can watch one or two and then get on with other things like this, instead of getting hooked on a tv show and trying to watch the entire series in a night.
I decided what I post here might not be in any specific order. It will just be what I feel like writing about or showing you on a specific evening and depend on how much time I have.
We've just gotten back from an amazing two weeks in Mexico. We travelled to Puerto Vallarta for my sister's wedding which was absolutely amazingly beautiful and perfect. More on that at a later date. There are way too many wedding photos to sort through and I want to try not get to bed too late. I feel like I might have a cold coming on. Anyway, there will also be a vlog about the wedding soon. That will be our very next vlog actually! I'm excited to start on that and show you.
After four amazing days at the wedding venue (and I'll show you more of that later too) the three of us moved to a different hotel to stay an extra week. I'll also give you a tour of that, probably in a vlog too I think. But what I wanted to show you tonight was this animal show we watched at our hotel. If I understood it correctly it was some rescued animals and they showed them and gave some information about each. It was a quick little show but perfect for the kids. There weren't too many people/ kids watching either. They took pictures (we weren't allowed to) which they then sell afterwards to raise money for the care of the animals. At the end the kids could hold either a small crocodile or a python and Isabella was brave enough to hold the python!!
And I was excited to show you those photos! But then I just realised Isabella wasn't wearing a top... And while she's still little it's fine but one day she might not like having such a photo of herself online. So if you're family or a friend, let me know if I haven't sent it then I will send it to you to show, but I'm sorry only after writing all the way to the previous paragraph I realised she wasn't wearing much. We were in the pool when they came to tell us about the show about to start so we didn't have any clothes for her with us.
But we did also get this one of Andre the crocodile hunter! Or rather gecko hunter. (No geckos were hunted or hurt in any way!)
I promise to have more photos next time, but at least I'm back!
And if you haven't checked out our vlog yet, go take a look and subscribe. I'll be back here again soon!
Oh, did you spot the gecko on Andre's hat? (Click to enlarge.)
Isabella has been in the pool with her armbands quite a few times before although she never keeps them on all that long. Last week however she started 'swimming' around with them for the first time. Before she would just float or hold my hands, but all of a sudden she realised she can kick and actually get somewhere. It was very cute to see. Ouma Etta joined us in the pool and we met another friend there too. The two little girls had a great time in the pool as usual.
