The Art of Happiness

Mojitos assist in the happiness stakes

This is a particularly hard art to master which isn’t surprising I guess. Don’t get me wrong, we are having a blast and a wonderful time with family and friends and we never expected it to be easy with two kids.  The blissful existence we thought we might achieve hasn’t quite eventuated….we still have to get up to the kids at night, we are toilet training Leo which means hand-on with smelliness you don’t want to imagine, we are battling with Spencer’s eczema on her cheeks, meal times are chaos and of course we can’t escape the usual “processing” time each night of food/bath/bottle/bed etc.  

I can almost hear you saying “Don’t make your problems ours” and you are so right – we have NOTHING to complain about. We are blessed with two rambunctious healthy kids and we are on the trip of a life time….I just wanted to point out that it ain’t all plain sailing and we haven’t even hit the camping part of the trip yet!  Of course I am also writing this after a particularly awful night where Leo wet the bed twice (we cannot seem to find nappies for him that don’t leak) and Spencer was up most of the night with a fever.  Typical story where Spencer ended up in bed with me and Justin ended up in Leo’s bed.  It took 3 cups of caffeine before Justin was ready to talk this morning.

 Anyhow, as I said, we are very lucky and achieving the art of happiness at least 99.8% of the time I reckon. 

Justin on swing bridge

Oribi Gorge

 Mel and Dave stayed with us at the beginning of May and it was awesome to see them, fair dinkum Aussies that they are.  They took us and our munchkins in their stride and slotted right in.  We beached, we drank, we ate and we laughed.  We took a trip out to Oribi Gorge in the worst weather possible and almost wet ourselves laughing when us girls strode out over the swing bridge without a problem whilst both boys aborted many attempts saying the wind was too strong.  Eventually Justin managed it but he slid his feet the whole way and refused to  
                                             go on it if anyone else was on it at the same time. 

Leo, Mel, Dave and Spencer at Pistols

We spent an afternoon at Pistols Pub with the kids.  They have a donkey there that wanders through the pub and the look on both Leo and Spencer’s face was priceless.  We had just come from the beach and Spencer had taken on a rather big wave with all her clothes on so she was only in a nappy, Leo was a sticky mess and most of the food we ordered ended up on the floor.  It is pretty hard to lower the tone of a low key donkey ridden establishment like Pistols but I think we succeeded.



Leo & Spencer in rock pool



The kids are achieving 110% on the art of happiness stakes and arethriving. We bought Spencer her first doll (a black skinned beauty) who we have named Zola (zulu for peace and tranquility).  Spencer loves her to death.  At 10 months old we are getting 5-6 steps out of her so expect her to be a real toddler before her first birthday.  Leo’s accent is changing quite fast, taking on the saffie way of saying car (cawww), fast (faaawst), hard (haaawd), he is calling his dinner “supper” and saing “Ja” for yes.  All I need is for him to tell me he had a “lekker jol” down at the beach and we’ll have to start calling him the bokkiwi instead of the kiwibok.

 



Happiness Is

 

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Spencer with Zola & candyfloss



We have had a myriad of “first times”.  Leo’s first time flying a kite was hilarious and we shouldn’t have done it on such a windy day.  It was whipped out of hand pretty quickly and he was devastated to see it scream away in a huge gust.  Grandpa Pete was the hero of the day and braved the bamboo forest next door to retrieve it which was no mean feat.  That bamboo is full of rats, snakes and thorns so thank heavens Grandpa came back in one piece. 

Margate Pier

The Margate Pier is a great hangout for us and the kids, the waves crash over it and the crabs that live on it are a constant source of entertainment for Leo.  Leo’s face when he was literally smacked in the face with a massive wave was hilarious “wow that was a BIG one” is all he could say as we tried to dry him off.  We went to the SPCA fundraiser fete (where Grandpa volunteers on the committee) and Leo had his face painted for the first time and bounced on a bouncy dragon which he absolutely adored.  Spencer?  Well Spencer is such a little ball of fun, she wants to do everything Leo does and give it a good try and her first taste of candyfloss was a real treat (thanks Granny).

J & K on 4th Anniversary

Justin and I celebrated our 4^th wedding anniversary with a dinner out and cocktails overlooking Margate beach…luffley!  Granny and Grandpa are enjoying the kids and the kids love them.  There are some special times spent on the lawn each night with Grandpa and his wine while the kids frolic all over him and Granny is an expert at making any time with them a quality time.

Leo and Kiran

Dave and Mel left us to head to Lesotho and the highest pub in Africa (you have to get there by 4 wheel drive) and a few days later Justin’s Uncle Kevin, Aunty Sam and cousin Kiran arrived from Cape Town.  Kiran is five and Leo adored him, quickly becoming his little shadow.  Spencer took a big liking to her Great Uncle Kevin who would sing her Beatles songs and Justin and Kev had some great fishing trips (although no fish). 

Dawn fishing

Justin is determined to catch a Shad (kind of like a snapper). Early mornings and late afternoon attempts haven’t provided any luck so Justin has taken to bringing his rod to the beach when we walk the kids.  Yesterday was great, caught two babies and hooked 3 big ones but each got away in the shallows.  We had to get Grandpa to come and pick the kids and I up while Justin stayed on.  He came home soaked (from swimming out to release his lure from a rock) but jubilant….although empty handed.  His standards are high and he only wants to bring home “the fish” that can feed the whole family so he has thrown quite a few back so far.



There have been 2 shark attacks at nearby beaches recently (not fatal) and apparently around 35 great whites are caught up in the shark nets along this coast each winter.  Neither of which makes me want to swim so luckily each beach has a “rock pool” which is a man-made pool in the rocks that is cleaned out with new water at each tide.  These are just lovely, beautiful clear water and great snorkeling.  Justin likes to snorkel the rocks outside the pool too and says it is some of the best he has had in a long time.



The little known "Granny's Rockpool"



After 6 weeks here we finally have tan marks….it takes that long now because we are no longer beach bums, we are running around after two little ones.  This means that if you don’t want your jiggly bits jiggling (which are more numerous these days) about as you jump waves, dig holes, build sandcastles, try and catch fish in the shallows, climb rocks, and have races you spend more time sarong styling it then bikini jiggling it.

Inside Port Edward Lighthouse

Leo outside Lighthouse

 It's been rainy the last couple of days so the last trip of this blog was to Port Edward where Leo and I climbed the lighthouse there.  Many old ships sank off this coast because it is so rugged and the little cafe there has a lot of the old copper lanterns and other maritime gear that has been recovered over the centuries.

Dad, Mum and Pete in SA 2009

Now that we live our lives at a slower pace there is more time to contemplate life and I have to say it’s nice to be at the place where Dad spent his last overseas holiday just 6 months before he died.  We go to the places where I’ve seen him and mum posing in photos and although it’s still a very sad pang I feel, it’s also nice to feel close to him when we are so far away from home.  As for mum and other family members Skype and emails have been a godsend.  We are expecting a new nephew any day now in the Hay household so can’t wait to see the little bundle on Skype.

OK Wrights over and out for now.