Happy ONE Week Old Birthday

I can't believe that it has been a week already. Oh how time flies. Little Damian has been a little angel. He is mom's little snuggle bum. He figured since Mommy needs to rest and take it easy, he will just snuggle right on up and make sure that she does not move.

This is how Damian's average day goes: eat, poop, eat, poop, eat, poop, sleep, and repeat this process every couple of hours. I laugh and say that in the 24 hour period he has collectively opened his eyes for a total of about 1 hour. The big event of the week was Ben's first diaper spray. While he was changing Damian's diaper, little Damian decided that he wanted to pee. It was funny. I thankfully was a safe distance away, but I really think that Damian aimed for me. Then something that I am learning about his little personality is that he has no patience. When Cyndi was a newborn she would cry once to tell us she was hungry. Then wait patiently until I was ready to feed her. Damian will just cry until he works his way up into the cry/scream of the injustice. But what he lacks in patience, he makes up in tolerance. He will just sit there while Cyndi 'loves' on him. Cyndi is still learning to be gentle and little Damian will just sit and wait until she is done.

Here are s few pictures that we have taken over the last few days - pics in no order.

Daddy decided that there is no better time to start tummy-time than from the very beginning. This was his first tummy-time and guess what... He slept through it. Cyndi hated tummy-time and would scream blue murder the whole time. Not this little guy, he looked around a little, then put his head down and closed his eyes.

I love how little Damian is in this picture. He just fits under Ben's arm perfectly.

This is a common position that Damian was in when he was still in my tummy. See those legs and knees - I felt them regularly trying to push their way out of both my sides at the same time. Look how his cute little toes are curled around each other.

This is a common activity.

My cute little mole! Love him to bits already.

New Addition

On Friday, July 15, 2011 we had a scheduled C-section. Everything went smoothly and mom and baby are healthy and mom is recovering well. My doctor said that if I went into labour naturally before the 15th then I could try a VBAC. But sadly that did not happen.

On our way to the operating room. Yes they made me walk myself there. It was nerve raking to say the least.

Little Damian Ira was born at 12:51pm

He weighed 7lbs and 5oz. His height was 20.75in.

Almost a whole pound heavier than his big sister and only a little taller than her.

Proud Daddy and little Damian

The three of us

Bonding with Daddy already

Cyndi, Ouma and Marius came to visit a few hours after Damian was born. It was good to see them and see how Cyndi fell in love with her little brother from the moment she said hello.

Loving each other!

Already a desert rat like his daddy. This is what Father and Son did every afternoon.

Damian was born with tuffs of hair on his ears

Catching flies

Sleeping like his big sister. Cyndi would sleep like this all the time

Cyndi found the stethoscope and started to listen to Damian's brain.

I wonder what she heard.

On our way home.

Little African

What can I say... The African blood runs strong.

She did this all on her own. It was so funny.

Operation: Save the Ducks

I have come to learn that ducks are not the smarts or most family orientated animals out there. I have seen mommy ducks completely abandon their ducklings and other mommy ducks do anything to save their ducklings, but the most common thing that lies in the duck gene is their lack of smarts.

The other day coming home we found a mother duck and her 8 ducklings stuck in the basement well of an apartment. A little against Ben's will, I got him to jump in and try to get them out. Every time he caught a duckling, it would jump right back into the whole - a lesson in itself for another day.

Mommy and her ducklings

Ben thought it would be a good idea to put a board up for them to climb out of. We got bread and tried to get them up it, but it was a failed attempt at rescue.

I love this picture, mommy duck is 'yelling' at Ben to stay away.

Eventually Ben took his hat off and started to try and chase mommy away so he could get the ducklings out. He chased mom right out of the well and then I helped keep her from jumping back in while Ben would grab a duckling and toss (I kid not, some did back flips) it out to mommy. He saved all 8 ducklings and mommy. Such a fabulous hero!

The terrified mommy back with all 8 ducklings running in the opposite direction for safety.

Koeksisters

Last week I made a South African treat. Koeksisters. They were nummy. Don't they just look mouth watering?

Meet Happy

We would like to welcome Happy to our little family. Happy is a little kitty cat that Cyndi got as a reward for sleeping without her binki. That's right... Cyndi is now binki free and just in time! Most nights are still hard to get her to calm down and relax to go to sleep, but everything is work in progress.

Yes that is a carrot, cheese and a crouton (we were having salad)

Cyndi loves happy. She puts her to bed on Mom's rocker with a blanket most nights. Pets are not allowed to sleep in beds/rooms with kids. I thought it was so cute how she would treat Happy like a real cat. The food she tried to feed her was a little strange for a cat to eat, but at least it got fed - right.

Zoo Trip

Last week we went to the zoo. There was a large group of us, it was Shared and his family, Ouma, Granny and Ben, Cyndi and I. I was hoping that the hot walk around the zoo for 6 or so hours would help encourage Damian to join us, but I think it just made him hide. It was fun to see Cyndi loving all the animals. I never took lots of pictures since we had seen the animals before. So here are a couple that really stood out to me.

Ouma has a cat that sleeps just like this. It was funny to see.

Daddy showing Cyndi the birds in the bird house

Cyndi got to go on the carousel. She has been on one before and hated it. So it was cool to see her loving it this time. She would wave every time she came around and yell 'Mom'

This little guy reminds me of Timone and his family from the lion king 1 1/2. I can see the song 'What was that' going through his head.

Ouma and Cyndi with the elephants. Cyndi LOVES the elephants.

I tried to get some pictures of everyone on the carousel, but I failed. Every one kept coming out blurring. So I videoed.

July 4th

July 4th we kept tradition and went to the Murray parade. Honestly the only reason why we go to that parade is because of the Jeep 'float.' Its a whole bunch of Jeeps doing little tricks. Its cool. I love it!

Cyndi was very good at learning to respect the American Flag and every time she saw one she would put her hand over her heart. She did not have to be told or anything. She saw everyone do it at the beginning of the parade and every time after that, she would automatically do it. It was so cute. There was a bag-pipe 'float' and at the beginning of the bag-pipes there was a flag. Cyndi did not like the bag-pipe sound and covered her ears while keeping her hand over her heart. She was so cute.

The JEEPS!

Later that day Shared and his family came over for a braai and we all got to hang out. It was fun. Then in the evening we went to the Murray fireworks. Cyndi had a blast. She got sparklers and glow sticks. By the end of the night she had about 25 glow sticks all over her body and she looked like she should come out of one of those futuristic movies where all the clothing is metallic and reflective.

It was a great July 4th this year. I am guessing we have more to come!

Starting July 3rd...

We decided to start the July 4th celebrations on July 3rd. Since July 4th is going to be filled with a visit from Shard and his family, a parade and fireworks in the evening, we thought it better to do a Cyndi party the night before. As always I had to make a cake for the fun. Ben really wanted to add some 'flare' to the cake, so we got some mini fountain rockets to put on top. They turned out rather cool. We also got just a few cheap fireworks that were Cyndi friendly to light.

The cake. It was a red velvet and vanilla pound with butter cream icing.

The fireworks!

Inside the cake - American flag

Cyndi loved the sparklers. But Marius burnt himself lighting the cake, Cyndi kept crying wolf saying 'I burnt myself.' Note: No Cyndi was burnt or harmed during the night!

The Family at the little celebration:

Cyndi playing with the sparklers - she had so much fun!

Ben and Cyndi playing with the sparklers.

Once we got home, Cyndi went up to Ben and gave him a big hug. She then proceeded to thank him for her party.