Here's to 2013!

Magical Christmas 2012!

We had a special Christmas with the inlaws in Bethlehem.  Mia loved the Christmas tree, the lights, the presents - it was such a magical atmosphere!

She wasn't very keen on Father Christmas - who sounded like Oupi, but didn't quite look like him!  She loved ripping the wrapping paper off her presents, and she was super spoilt with lots of wonderful prezzies.

xx

Pietersburg Weekend

We had such a special weekend with my folks in Pietersburg.  Mia is so blessed with so much love! 

We went to the garden centre - Mia LOVED the plants, water features and concrete animals!  Went to the petshop - I nearly left with a puppy.  Mia loved the lil bunnies.  We jumped on a trampoline, and ate ice cream, and looked at donkeys and tortoises.

We swam, braai'ed lots, and really just enjoyed each other's company.

Mia got to open her big Xmas prezzie - a little miniature kitchen!  She adored it, and spent the rest of the weekend "cooking in oven".  It was too big for us to bring home - my folks will bring it when they come here again.

Special times, special memories - I just love this time of year!
xx

I will kiss you forever!

My darling Mia,

You're going through a stage (well, I hope it's just a phase!!!) where you don't want us to kiss you.  You get quite agitated when we do!  If I kiss your face, you claw and scratch at your own face, and shout, "Noooo, not face! Only leg!" And then you offer your leg for me to kiss.

Or else we have to bribe you for a kiss - "Want a choccie? Kiss mommy first!" "Want blommetjie shoes on? Kissy first!" "Want to watch Barney? Kissy first!" Just so that we can get a few precious, special, priceless smooches every now and then!

The latest, if your family try and kiss you, or touch you, or rub your back - you say, "Just look!"  I love this - please always tell this to anybody that tries to kiss you or touch you - except, that is, when it's your mommy!  :-D

I have to let you know this:  I will kiss you forever.  Whether you like it or not...  I will kiss you forever!

You are so, so beautiful, special, amazing, precious, and kissable!
I will kiss you forever and ever.

xx

Yum yum, iced marie biscuits!

Mia had so much fun today, icing marie biscuits and decorating them!

I mixed three bowls of icing sugar, so that she could have different colours.  And then gave her mini marshmallows, smarties and vermicilli to decorate them with.

It's messy...  But so much fun!
Now we have something to take with on our weekend to visit Granny and Oupa!

Mia's Advent Calendar House

Mia got given this beautiful wooden house, as her first Christmas prezzie from my sister-in-law.  It has 24 little drawers, to put sweeties in, and then track the countdown to Christmas.

I'm having lots of fun this year, making a big deal out of all the festivities with Mia.  She loves it!  She loves all the decorations in the shops, she loves our "Father Christmas Tree", and if I ask her what does Father Xmas say, she says, "Ho ho! Meeeeerry Christmas!"

I wasn't sure if this little countdown would work - she'd want to open all the drawers in one go! Or she might throw a bit of a wobbly when we tell her to only have ONE each day...  But she's taken to the concept so well!!  It's our little ritual after supper time.  Wyn takes the house off the shelf, puts it infront of her, shows her which drawer to open, and then puts the house away again. 

She happily enjoys her one sweetie, and then accepts that she must wait until the next supper time!
 :-)
I love the concentration on her little face as she opens her sweetie - she insists on doing it all herself.

 

Fun times!

xx

Mia grew some grass!

Mia got a gift from my mom, from the garden centre.  It's a whole little kit with everything you need to grow some grass - the soil, the seeds, the lil pot.  Mia had lots of fun putting it all together.  She lost interest during the two weeks that the grass took to grow.  Then stared in amazement when the lil pot had "long hair"!  So we trimmed his hair - she held the scissor with two hands and I helped her control it.  So cute! :-)

Pine Lake Holiday 2012

We had a blissful week in White River.  It was so special to spend so much quality time with my hubby and lil girl!

The 3.5hour car trip went really well - thanks to the portable dvd player!  Altho the next thing we need to get Mia, is a pair of earphones - not fun for us to have to listen to Barney, Noddy and Lollos the whole way! 

We had nice weather on the Saturday, and we swam a bit - Mia just loved it.  The rest of the week was really overcast, rainy, and sometimes quite chilly - until our last day, Thursday - and we were able to swim again and enjoy the sunshine.

I packed enough "mobile-entertainment" for Mia so that we could eat out a couple of times.  Had a divine sushi lunch one day, and Mia coloured in, played with playdough, and ate her chicken strips.  Another day we went to Mugg&Bean for brekkie, and Mia was super good there too.  Yay!

Wednesday night was date night - we bathed Mia and put her to bed, and then one of the housekeepers stayed at our chalet while Wyn and I went for a special dinner, it was great to just sit and chat, relax, share a bottle of wine and enjoy delicious food.

Mia watched her first-ever movie:  Madagascar!  With a few minor interuptions here and there where she decided to play a little bit, but for the most part, she lay on the couch and snuggled with me - heavenly!  She laughed out loud at Alex the lion when he rolled out onto the beach and tried to get the sand off his tongue - so cute!

I borrowed a rain jacket for Mia from a friend, and just as well I did - we went for strolls in the rain twice!

There's a nice lil kiddies playground at the resort, so we often went there for Mia to play.

We stopped off at a farmyard, but it was really rundown and not in a great condition - but we let Mia quickly feed the bunnies, look at the horses and goats, and then we got out of there.

A highlight of our yearly holiday for me, is our visit to the chocolatier at Casterbridge in White River, Shautamy.  Oh gosh, I love that chocolate.  They have a chocolate fountain of melted chocolate - I am in heaven when I eat that!

Overall Mia was really good - she still woke up early in the mornings, around 6am, once or twice she spoilt us and slept until closer to 7 - but then we put the portable dvd player on the bedside table so that she could watch Noddy and we could have a lil lie-in!
She was a bit attached to me tho, often when Wyn wanted to help out, Mia wouldn't let him and said "mamma sal!"  But other than that, I can't complain.

The holiday went by way too fast - a week really does just pass in a flash.
xx

Christmas Tree 2012

Oh I love the festive season!

We got into the Christmas spirit today by putting up our Christmas tree.

Our Christmas Tree Traditions are:
 - Wear festive colours - red is a good choice!
 - Wear a festive hat
 - Listen to Christmas music - my favourite is Celine Dion's album, These Are Special Times
 - Nala must take part too!

Wyn is not so keen on my "funny ideas" - so he just takes piccies for us.  :-)

xx

Mia is 26 months old today!

26 MONTHS TODDLER UPDATE

1.) How old today?

Mia Mooi is 26 months old today

 

2.) New milestones/ talents/ achievements?

She can sing now - she sings her little heart out, it's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.  She askes questions - "waar gaan ons" "wie's dit" "who's here" "what's this" - luckily no "why" yet, hehe! 

 

3.) Favourite toys & favourite things to do?

She loves water.  To splash in it, to sit in it, to pour it from containers, to put toys in it. 

She loves painting - even if it's just with water!

We snuggle on the couch in the afternoons and watch some Cbeebies together

Jumping on her trampoline

Spending time with family

She really likes her Barney toy!

 

4.) Current words?

Too many to mention.  She's putting sentences together beautifully, and can really communicate exactly what she's trying to say most of the time.  Loving it!!

 

5.) Favourite food and snacks?

Viennas, chicken, marmite toast, fish fingers, chocolate

 

6.) How is toddler sleeping at night?

Good!  She sleeps through.  Bed time is at around 7h20.  She wakes up between 5am and 6am.  Wish she would sleep a bit later... But can't complain too much though, at least I don't have to get up in the night for her anymore!

 

7.) Day naps?

Usually she naps from about 11h30 - 13h30, and then has a lie-down at around 4pm, drinks her tea and chills in her cot for a while.  Although these days she often has her tea on the couch and chills infront of the tv for a bit.

 

8.) How many teeth - and how are teething issues going?

18!!!  Just two more to go!  The last molars have been really difficult for her.  These next two must just come now so we can be done with toofies!

 

9.) Weight and length?

About 13.5kg, not sure about length

 

10.) Clothing size and shoe size?

2-3 years mostly, but still fits into lots of her 1-2 things. Shoe size 6.

 

11.) Recent toddler 'highs'?

The kisses she loves the give. How friendly she is to people in town. How much she loves her family. Cuddles and snuggles in bed in the morning.  Her singing.

 

12.) Recent toddler 'lows'?

Been going through a bit of a clingy stage lately.  Other than that - no lows!

 

13.) What are you looking forward to in the coming months?

Our family holiday coming up on Friday!

Christmas time, yay!

 

14.) How are mommy and daddy doing?

Really good, no complaints! Do wish we could spend more alone-time together sometimes, but guess we need to just manage our time better and make date-night a more common occurance!  We both really love this toddler stage, the interaction is so special.

xx

My word for 2013

Every year, a group of friends share their “word” for the coming year.  A word that inspires us, that we can strive to, and lets us do some soul-searching of what we want.

In 2010 my word was BLESSED:
This has really been a year of counting my blessings.

I am blessed with my loving, awesome husband
I am blessed with my amazing family
I am blessed with a baby girl growing inside me
I am blessed to live where I live
I am blessed with my friendly, wacky crazy doggy
I am blessed to feel so safe and content
I am blessed to be having such an easy, joyful pregnancy
I am blessed with special friends

For 2011, my word was HOPE.

I hope my marriage always stays as awesome as it is
I hope I will be a good mommy to my baby girl
I hope my baby girl will become a good sleeper
I hope I will see my family lots
I hope things will go well with my business and Wyn's work
I hope I will make more time for myself
I hope I will spend more time with friends
I hope my baby girl will grow beautifully and happily
I hope my family will always be happy

For 2012, I chose the word BELIEVE.

I believe in God, and I need to pray more.
I believe in my marriage, and I need to invest more time into it
I believe in motherhood, and I need to be more patient
I believe in special family quality time
I believe in personal space, me-time and indulging in small luxuries
I believe I will reach my goal weight early in 2012
I believe my business will take off properly
I believe I will be able to save more money in 2012
I believe... 

2013…

“Tattoo”

To me, this word symbolises that I must remember what my tattoo says.
“Live, love, laugh”
That's what life comes down to, at the end of it!

I want to just live life to the full, and make the most of it, and make the conscious decision to enjoy it. I must love, love, love with all my heart, and show it! And I want to laugh lots! ♥ I want to laugh at myself, I want to laugh with my child and husband and family and friends, I want to enjoy funny movies, books and stories, and share jokes. I want to seize the moment! ♥

xx

Salt Dough Xmas Decorations!

I found this craft idea and recipe on Pinterest and just had to make it for Mia.  I think we'll do this every year!
 
You can see the full recipe here - I modified it a lil bit, I did it this way:
 - half a cup of salt
 - one cup flour
 - half a cup warm water (once all mixed, I needed another bit of water, not lots, maybe another two tablespoons or so.)

I was in a bit of a hurry and just mixed it with my hands til it was mixed into a nice doughy texture, I didn't spend 5 minutes on it.  Rolled it out, used cookie cutters, used a toothpick to make the holes for the string, and popped them in the oven (I put them on wax paper - don't do this, struggled to peel it off, next time will use Spray&Cook) and baked them on 160 for about an hour, maybe a bit more than an hour.
 
I painted modge podge over both sides of the clay, just to seal it.

Once dry, I painted them gold all around.  And then I gave Mia free reign!  We did this over a couple of days, as she enjoys these crafts for about ten minutes and then loses interest.  So I first gave her the purple paint, then the pink paint on another day.  And a few days later she had fun with glue and glitter.

Once that was done, I just modge-podged them again to seal them. 

Used ribbon and rafia through the holes to turn them into tree-hanging decorations, and wrote "Mia 2012" on the back.  :-)

Lots of fun was had by all, and they came out so festive and special!
xx

What we've been up to!

Been quiet lately - but just been busy.  Busy with Mia, busy with family, busy with memories, busy with friends, busy with life!

 

Here are some latest piccies of Mia, us, etc!

xx

Teething, Painting and Singing

A bit of an update in Mia's world is due!  :-)

She's busy cutting her last molars.  Number 17 and 18 are through, two more to go. She got both molars on the left side first, top and bottom - all along I've been waiting for the bottom right one to come through, and meanwhile the left top one came through, amidst fevers and niggles and bad sleeping patterns that I just couldn't understand.  Now for the last two.  Eish!!

Mia loves painting.  It's a bit messy, so I'm reluctant to bring out the paints at every opportunity - but that doesn't bother her, she just paints with water, and if I don't give her water, she makes a plan: spits her juice out into her painting cup, and proceeds to paint with her juice!  And not just paper... Her toys get painted too! Sticky, sticky, sticky...  If Mia wants me to also "paint" with her, she tells me, "mommy, have some paintbrush!"

At bedtime, while I rub some cream on her, I sing a special song.  "You are so beautiful" by Joe Cocker.  I've done this for quite a while - long ago Mia already started singing the "meeeee" part along.  Recently, however, she can sing the whole verse of "you are so beautiful to meeeeeee, oh can't you seeeeeeee!" And she goes so high and off tone and it's just the most special precious beautiful thing I've ever heard in my whole life.

xx

Family Photoshoot

First wee in a potty!

Oh gosh, what a bittersweet, exciting moment!

Mia is two years and one month old tomorrow.  So far, she really hasn't shown any interest in potty training, and so far my approach has been very relaxed, I'll let her guide me when she's ready.

We do let her sit on the potty before bath time.  For a long time, she refused to even sit.  The last couple of days, she does sit for a while, but doesn't actually make a lil wee.

Tonight she made her very first wee in the potty!  I wasn't even in the bathroom with her, just Wyn was.  I did a lil victory dance for her and smooched and praised her, she looked so chuffed.

The next journey ahead of us - lots and lots of loo trips!
xx

Mia's 2 Year Photoshoot

Had some piccies taken this weekend, by the fabulous Karin Meiring, to record Mia's second year.  Her birthday went by without a single piccie of the 3 of us together, so this is the perfect opportunity to get snaps of us together.  We did a few family pics in the garden, and then the rest of the shoot consisted of Mia baking and icing cookies.  :-)  Supercute, and so much fun!

 

  

 

 

 

This was our sneak peek - can't wait to get all of them!  Definitely going to print and enlarge some of them.  And will have to print some for all the grandparents. :-)

xx

 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and other little stories :-)

Mia took me totally by surprise last week, by singing the entire Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to me!  It's just the cutest thing I have heard in my life.  Not all the pronunciation exactly, but you can hear exactly what she's singing.  Officially her first nursery rhyme that she can sing - bless.

I'm doing much, much better this week, after the slump I hit last week.  The world is filled with rainbows and butterflies once again. ;-)

We had a great weekend filled with family and friends, and yesterday we had a lil family photoshoot at our house, where Mia baked and decorated cookies.  Can't wait to see the pics!

I've started a personal challenge.  It's 40 days until our holiday to Pine Lake, and it's less than 3 months to my 30th birthday.  I need something to boost my weight loss mission - and a personal challenge sounded like just the solution.  I started a separate blog to track the 40-day journey.  http://jessv40days.blogspot.com/   Feeling very motivated and inspired!

Last week I had a glass of wine, which I put down on the table at dinner time - and didn't notice Mia climbing up on a chair while I went back to the kitchen to fetch our food.  She pulled the tablecloth towards her, knocking my glass of wine over and spilling everything.  As Wyn and I walked towards her, she looked at us and said "Mia drink alles!"  How we laughed - she figured that before she can get reprimanded for messing, she'll rather 'admit' to drinking everything.  I got a fright, but realised the wine glass was far away from her - it definitely all spilled. 

I need to work out my Christmas present budget...  Excited for the festive season that's literally just around the corner!
xx

Mia Jill ~ Two Years Old

I'm in a horrible mood

For the past few days, I’ve been feeling irritable, jaded, tired, bored and lacklustre.  Not a good feeling to have, no!

I’m not sure what the cause is.  Maybe just the time of the year?  Maybe the anti-climax after all the birthday and anniversary celebrations of September? Maybe just a bit stuck in a rut?

Whatever it is, I need to get over myself!  I feel so lethargic too.  Dragged myself to the gym yesterday, spent about 2o minutes hobnobbing around there, going from one machine to the next but not doing anything constructive and then gave it up as a bad job.  I felt so irritated with everyone there, the cleaners were in my way, the other gym members were breathing too hard, the announcements over the intercom pissed me off!  Came home, looked in despair at the shelves in the study and all Mia’s toys that I want to organize – and curled up on the couch with my book.

Now – I go look in the kitchen, trying to feel inspired for dinnertime, and nothing comes to me.

I’m feeling so peeved at my weight loss mission that’s standing still – I feel so uninspired and demotivated, just can’t get back into the proper mind-set.

What’s my problem! Seriously need to do some soul-searching and build a bridge and get over it, snap out of this horrible mood!

Mia isn’t suffering due to my mood – she gets laughs out of me – but poor hubby is being targeted by my short temper, the poor man.

Right, time to fix myself.

Yes!

OK!

No wait, I’m going to go lie down a bit…

xx

My Parent24 Blog

I originally started blogging in January 2010, when I had just found out that I was pregnant.  I wanted to track my pregnancy journey, and then everything that would come thereafter - the rollercoaster ride of being a parent, and being as frustrated as I'd never have thought I could have been and loving more than I knew my heart to be capable of.

Unfortunately, the blog platform that I had been on, changed to a new format that I just really couldn't adjust to - it was not as user-friendly as I had been used to, the community feeling got lost, and I just realised I was blogging less and less and feeling quite unhappy about it.

Thus this new blog was created, and I'm super happy with it!

I copied many of my old blog's entries into Word Documents, so as to be able to keep them in some way - and some of them got added to this blog, in the different categories under the heading.

However, for reference, I would like to share the address here too:
http://blogs.parent24.com/jessicaviljoen/

Blogger rocks, tho! :-)
xx

5th Wedding Anniversary Weekend ♥

Wyn and I went to the Palazzo Hotel at Monte Casino for the weekend.  29th September marked our 5th wedding anniversary! 

My inlaws came to stay at our house to look after Mia.  We used our Vitality travel benefits through Discovery to book at the Palazzo, getting the accommodation at a whopping 45% discount - awesome!!

We arrived late Friday afternoon.  Booked in, checked out the room, and then went for a stroll through Monte Casino, stopping for a glass of wine at one of the streetwalk cafe's.  Then back to hotel, got our luggage brought to the room, changed into evening clothes, and back to Monte Casino for supper at The Meat Co.  Porcupine Ridge Merlot, Haloumi cheese starter and fillet steak main - divine - no space left for dessert!

We wanted to book a show for the following evening - there was a Marc Lottering comedy show on.  Unfortunately it was fully booked.

Saturday morning we slept til after 8 - blissful!  So strange to be so lazy and not have a million things to try and get done.  Went for breakfast at about 10, and saw a couple of Springbok rugby players - I wouldn't have recognised them if it weren't for Bryan Habana - I don't really know them very well!

Then we went for a stroll through the Bird Garden.  It's really nice!  Watched a bird show, and checked everything out.  Saw a bat sucking his winkie.  Yes.  So strange!!  And got chased by a guinea fowl, hahaha!  So that was quite eventful.  Then back to the hotel, and sat on the terrace and each had a cocktail - still too full from breakfast to have lunch!  Then we were debating whether we wanted to go watch a movie or have an afternoon nap...  The afternoon nap won!

The room is so dark if we close the curtains - we decided to set an alarm to wake us in two hours, else we might sleep through to the next morning!!

Then got dressed up for our anniversary dinner at La Scala restaurant.  I had specified that we want a special table as it's our anniversary - when we arrived, we got presented with a glass of complementary champagne, and I got given a bunch of flowers!  Really special.  Had a starter of minestrone soup and a main of chicken penne - had been planning on profiterols for dessert, but had no space!  I must really learn to only eat half the main course so that I can have dessert!!

After that, back to the hotel, and opened our bottle of wine that we'd brought along - Alto Rouge.  Sat on the bed watching a movie (Bakgat 2, hahaha!), eating choccie and drinking vino.  Heavenly!

Sunday morning we got up lazily again, had breakfast, and checked out at precisely 11am - checkout time.

So nice that it only took us half an hour to drive home!

Was awesome to give and receive the biggest hug ever from Mia.  She had a wonderful time with her Oumi and Oupi and they enjoyed her very much too.

It was a super special weekend.  ♥

The fabulous Lollos cake!

This cake was just amazing.  Perfect.  Beautiful.  Delicious!

Mia was in absolute awe of her Lollos cake, staring at it in wonder.

The top tier was a delicious rainbow cake, and the bottom one was scrumptious chocolate cake.  The most fabulous secret, however, was that beneath the layer of fondant icing, was a layer of caramel!!  Pure bliss!

This cake was done by Cakes-By-Rox, who is my special blog friend and officially also my cake lady! :-)

Mia's Birthday in Pictures

 

Mia woke up to a couple of helium balloons floating in her room.  I got them in green and blue, as that was the colour theme of her Lollos birthday party.  She loved it - I heard her wake up over the AngeCare monitor, and the first thing she said was "balloon!"

 

 

Wyn and I walked into her room singing happy birthday - she was positively beaming!

 

Then it was present time.  What a difference to last year, when she didn't have much of an idea of what was going on...  This year, she opened the prezzies all by herself, complete with appropriate sounds like "ooooh, wow!" 

 

Cupcake for breakfast!  She blew the candles out, and then asked to "maak vuurtjie" - she wanted to blow them out again!  All in all, she blew candles out 14 times on her birthday, plus twice more the next day at her party!

 

Another cake, for visitors to share with her.

 

And yet another cake!  Oumi couldn't arrive empty-handed!  This was a cute miniature one, decorated so prettily.

 

Mia's birthday party was held at a teagarden, with loads of kiddies entertainment.  Everyone had such fun.  The venue did the decor in our Lollos theme so nicely, we were super pleased with it all!

 

Mia adored her fabulous Lollos cake!  She spent the first ten minutes of her party sitting there, admiring the cake!  This cake was so awesome, it deserves it's own post with more piccies - will share soon! :-)

 

Birthday girl had so much fun at her party.

 

Everyone sang happy birthday to her twice - in English and in Afrikaans.

This happy lil face tells everything - she loved it!

 

So spoilt - a mountain of presents!  She spent the weekend opening her prezzies bit by bit - lots of distraction each time she opened a prezzie and wants to play with what's inside! :-)

 

The end of the Lollos cake!  Yum yum.

 

 

Mia is a very blessed little girl.  She had the kind of birthday every little girl should have!  Surrounded by so much love, joy and happiness.

xx