We had a good rest at Dikhololo

Dikhololo is a great place for families. It was just under a two-hour drive from Johannesburg, and we were in the Bush-veld on Friday this past weekend.

Of course we were still emotional about the loss in our family. Stew's death left us reeling! We had his funeral on Monday this week.
(I don't know if you ever get over the loss of a young family member? How do you smile when you know there are so much sadness?)

Little Miss did not stop swimming for the whole weekend. The best of all! We could watch her swimming from our chalet as all the chalet clusters are built around swimming pools. How cool to watch her swimming from the bed (while reading) or braai (barbecue) for the whole weekend!

We went exploring, water sliding (even me, and I loved it! Little Miss hated it!) and played tennis while we were there! We could have stayed MUCH longer, but a weekend is of course way too short! We did not even went to the indoor heated pool (it was too hot!), or drove around too much looking at the wildlife. The putt-putt also did not happen. Next time...

I am sure we are the only family that got lost from a viewpoint on our way to our car... But that was part of the adventure! My Dad with his in-built GPS could only shake his head when he heard about us walking around the hill searching.

We celebrated my Dad's birthday this weekend! How blessed we are to still be able to go on holidays together!
He is such an inspiration for always being active and on the go!

Thanks, Dad, for all the holiday fun!

This is life! Summer, the Bush-veld, a fire going, a swimming pool and a drink!

This was a good rest!

Wordless Wednesday #254 - Summer swimming

Wordless Wednesday #219 - Swimming lessons

Wordless Wednesday #205 - Swimming

You know it is near the end of the year...

when...

- The Student is back home, finished with writing her exams. I am exhaling with her! It has been a tough year!

- The Toddler is busy with assessments at pre-primary, and not so keen going every day.

- The concert is done and dusted.

- The ballet concert is a few movie clips on my phone!

- The tiny gymnastics end-of-year is happening on Saturday.

- We are seeing Christmas decorations everywhere, but I think I will leave our own Christmas decorations for December. (It feels like it has been put up very early this year?)

- We are all beginning to look forward to the holidays, especially since we now have our own holiday to look forward to. I usually feel that holidays at home does not feel like holidays.

- I have compiled my list: What I want for Christmas. It is the first time I had drawn up a list so far in advance, thanks to Blogger Secret Santa by Stiletto Mum.

- I am beginning to contemplate my goals for next year. One of the main goals is looking at studying again. A lecturer told me to contemplate doing a longitudal study with my Masters that I did not finish. As I hate not completing it, it is something really worth considering!

- It is great weather for swimming here! (Sorry, Northern Hemisphere!)

 

I love this time of the year!

 

What are you planning for December?

Do you also like this time of the year?

 

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Movie Clip Monday #24 - Swimming lessons

I haven't posted a video in quite a while.

The swimming lessons went real well (Swimmingly) last week, and this was one of the exercises.

Turning around five times in the pool, and swimming to the side underwater.

Not bad for one quarter of swimming lessons...

Swimmingly

We saw for the first time yesterday how the Toddler is doing with her swimming lessons. She has been going now for 4 months.

The swimming lessons is at school, so by the time we go to pick her up, she has done her swimming lesson, twice a week. We have also not been swimming this past four months, so we had no idea...

But we could see immediately when she started that it made a positive impact. She is now extremely willing to lie back in the bath when we wash her hair. And she is quite indignant on days that she do not have swimming lessons: "They forgot to come and fetch me!" Which means she really enjoys it!

We are amazed at how much they have learnt. She is not afraid of the water, and they even swim for small distances underwater.

Except for making some high pitch noises every now and again (? *watch me*), she insisted on wearing the swimming goggles... Apparently it was for the first time, but it went really well, and we were told to buy her some as well!

She was extremely pleased to see us there, and wanted to know if we are going to come watching again. It makes me realize again how important it is to be there for them.

Cheering spectators on the side!

Guess what we did this weekend?

Wordless Wednesday #100 - Summer swimming

Weekend in pics - Hubby's BDay

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

Wordless Wednesday #49 - Toddler: Don't splash me!

Eastco Holiday Resort

Related post:
Camping - we should do it more often

Quirky toddler behaviour of the weekend

We think some of the things the toddler do are very strange, but apparently there is nothing abnormal about any of the behaviours. I was just reading Baby Zone, and now I won’t be thinking again that we have an abnormal toddler. Everything goes in Toddlerville!

The toddler and swimming

The toddler enjoyed “swimming” this weekend. NOT in her baby pool, but next to it. Playing with water and containers of any sort is the best toddler activity EVER! Notice the potty. It has not been used yet for what it is supposed to be doing…

The toddler had a ball drinking the water from the pool. She was carrying it to and from the pool, and pouring the water in other containers again.

The toddler is scared of the thunder

We had some thunder and lightning and some quick showers here. We get very excited, because it signals the start of our summer rains. It is very dry on this side of the world.

But the toddler is not impressed. She gets very scared. We noticed last night that she quickly came to sit next to us, and the next moment she was on my lap. We noticed that she had her eyes closed, and she would not open it again while the thunder was going on. It was some sort of blessing, because I soothed her by breastfeeding her and she went to sleep for the night! Poor thing!

We will keep trying to tell her that it is not something to be afraid of, because it signals the rain for us….