2009 Parting Shots

Well another year (and decade) has come to an end...

we started of the year like this:

and we're ending it like this:

they are watching UP


I've never made New Years resolutions and I dont intend to start. I do however always have a few goals I like to achieve.

This year I have just one:
Take care of myself spiritually and physically.

By doing that I think I can improve in every area of my life that I need to.

Ten years ago I was ringing in the new year on our beachfront in Durban. Jermaine did the same a few hours after I did in Nassau. Tonight its a quiet celebration together and as much as we would love to be out partying (cos you know we're just big party animals!!!), instead we'll be watching the ball drop in New York while we cough and sneeze together:)

Happy New Year to you all ... here's wishing 2010 is an extremely prosperous and blessed year for your family.

~Veryll

What A Week...

This would not be the way I would want to end this year/decade ... we've all been under the weather. J started of with some crud and then it slowly trickled down. Sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning Javan came into our room to sleep. As the hours progressed his temps increased and in no time he was burning up. Needless to say we stayed home from church. By the evening he had a cough and congestion. Monday Ria got it and its honestly been so hard having to deal with an infant who is sick. We didnt go through this with Javan (he got his first cold when he was 17.5mths) so it was new territory. Thankfully she has had no fever, just a cough and stuffy nose. She hasn't eaten much and has really just slept or sat quietly and played. Twice this week I had her in the shower with me and she laid her head on my shoulder and fell asleep. It was so pitiful. Tonight though she seems to be doing much better.
Ria either did this:

or this:

all week. Tuesday night I laid her on the floor while Javan and I ate and she fell asleep

Lets hope 2010 will bring better health!
~V

Daredevil

I foresee lots of bruises in the new year!!!

he has no fear and has actually already fallen off.

~V

Baby's First Christmas

Dear Ria
Yesterday you got to celebrate your FIRST Christmas! What a special day it was for all of us. I know you won't remember any of it, but Daddy and I really wanted to make it a memorable day for you. You'll have lots of pictures to look at when you are older:)

You wasted no time grabbing for the boxes under the tree and even started tearing into one - good thing it was a box for you!

Big brother didnt want to miss out on any of the action!
You got to open the first gift of the morning.
Your very first baby doll from Ma and Thata!

Javan got you lots of little books and you love nibbling on them!

Santa got you a crawl n roll ball

and a leap frog learning table. Those were two of Javan's fave things:) That Santa is a smart guy you know!

You had a stocking full of fun things

like your very first sippy cup

you knew exactly what to do with it.

You got to try your first baby biscuits - Ma and Thata sent them all the way from South Africa.


You LOVED them!

You had a fun time cooing and chatting with everyone on skype, napping in my arms and then with daddy, playing with Javan and just checking out your new stuff. You enjoyed dinner and meeting new friends. I know each year will get better and better as Christmas comes around, but your first one will always be extra special to Daddy and I.

Love,
Mummy

It's Christmas!

I am going to miss being asked 'how many days til Christmas mummy?'

I love this whole season, I love the reason why we celebrate and I just generally love how everyone is in such good spirits. I logged on to facebook a few minutes ago and saw Jermaine's status update from yday:
Interestingly enough, the greatest gift I got was not under the Christmas tree, but it was sharing this day with my family that I love with all my heart...
While everyone gets to visit from home to home with their extended families, we enjoyed a quiet but extremely awesome day at home. This Christmas marks 4yrs since I have been home with my family. Its not easy when you listen to everyone talk about visiting their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It makes me miss my family even more. But, even though I longed to be there celebrating a nice warm Christmas at home, we made some sweet memories with our little family here. Our day was filled with so much love and joy. It was stress-free, it was lazy, it was relaxed, it was just perfect in every sense.
First thing in the morning:

We had breakfast, read the Christmas story and then opened presents.



Just a week ago there were NO presents under the tree ... Saturday rolled around and mysteriously packages started piling up around the tree. Jermaine actually got his shopping done before me this year - thats a first! I love packages and I love them even more when they are surprises! I'd come home to find boxes at our doorstep. We got 3 seperate deliveries from my parents and another box (with several boxes inside) from my friend Nalini. Thankfully they all arrived when Javan was napping so I stuck the biggest and heaviest box in the garage and the rest went under the tree. Needless to say it was lots of fun to open up everything yday.

We let Ria open the first gift since its her first Christmas and then we all followed.

Jermaine really surprised me. He says I spend every day taking care of them and he really wanted to make me feel special. He did! All I asked for was a photography book and a new wallet. I got neither! But, he proved that he does listen to me cos among some of the stuff I got was my make-up, skincare and a blender! But my biggest surprise was a new lens for my camera - I am so excited about that!

my fave part of opening presents was when Javan gave J the gift he got him and said 'Daddy here I got you a tie, you wanna open it!'

we both scored some World Cup 2010 paraphanalia - LOVE it!


Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a 3yr old was so much fun! Javan was really excited about Christmas day - he was counting down the days to Christmas so he could set up this wooden train set he got for his bday. But we had a few surprises for him!
His santa gift - Little Einsteins Rocket (my fave part of this was finding it NEW at a consignment sale)

Surprise #1 - from Ma and Thata. he was shocked and really had no idea how to react.


Surprise #2 - from us (we found this train table at Toys R Us the week of Thanksgiving. It was a deal we could not refuse!) We have never seen him speechless. He was so excited that he had no idea what to say.

Stocking Fun


We pretty much stayed in our jammies all day! It was raining, there was no hurry to go anywhere, we chatted on skype all afternoon and everyone took naps while I cooked. We had Christmas dinner at our friends Leto and Jaya's house. He made a tandoori style turkey which was really delicious. I took the stuffing.


J and I were really surprised when one of our college friends showed up - its been 9yrs since we have seen her. She lives in NJ so it was really fun catching up.

I know this is a pretty long recap of the day but I did that more for us to read back on later. We had a really fun and special time together and I really want to remember it. I wish that day would have gone by a lot slower.
~Veryll

Twas The Night Before Christmas

What a fun time it has been anticipating and counting down to Christmas. During the day the kids and I played outside - even though I would love snow, I am so glad the weather was pleasant to where we could go outside without heavy jackets. While Ria chilled and then napped in the mei tai

Javan rode his bike

Once J got home, I went to pick up a few last minute items. Thankfully it was not hectic at all.

I cooked our traditional Christmas Eve seafood meal of Fish, shrimp, crab and roti. Javan helped me make the roti - he had so much fun! J enjoyed his meal so much that he wants to make another special occassion so he wont have to wait a whole year for this trio:)




The kids got their Christmas jammies


and then we read the Night Before Christmas.


Ria was already asleep so we go to have some fun with Javan - he wanted to set the self timer (he calls it 'its flashing') to take some pics

snuggle time with my big baby

We had MAKE Javan go to bed. We told him Santa would NOT come if he didnt sleep! He fought but eventually gave in

The rain fell really hard while Santa's elves got to work assembling:)

~Veryll