A snowy day

Today was a really beautiful day. Douglas, Brendon, Owen & I took a drive to the Liesbos to take some photos. Once Owen was bundled up and snug in his pram we all went walking in the woods. In the evening Brendon was distracted on the way to taking the rubbish out and ended up building a snowman in the back garden. He was give 2 cherry tomatoes, a carrot and a stick of celery to complete his masterpiece.

The birthday celebration

We were all up early. There was lots to do. The decorations were up. It was go, go, go. Due to diminished braincell capacity last night, again on my part, the quiches had to be done this morning. The kitchen was buzzing. Lynese and I were slaving away whipping up the lunch delights. Now, I think Lynese has been hanging around personalities like one of her daughters (for protection no names are mentioned) and myself too long. There was half an hour to go and there she was still cutting perfect flowers out of the horseradishes. The finishing touches were perfect but it was down to the wire. The table was set - quiche, salad, veg & dip, chicken drumsticks, sausage rolls and sandwiches + one quality cake! Food for an army when in fact there were only 12 attending. The first guests arrived. Rayne & Natasha - true South Africans. Owen is often looked after Rayne when I need to escape from the madness. He loves her. Not long and Owen was sporting Raynes colourful necklace. Then the neighbours Bjorn and Peggy arrived with gifts for the bathroom. Ding dong, next Marina with Duplo blocks. Renee arrived gift in hand but had to excuse her family as she had some sort of infection that she did not want to pass onto Owen as he was still recovering from Bronchitis from the week before. What a blessed little boy. After the yummy lunch, scrumptious cake and "gezellig" chit chat we were all exhausted and decided a sleep for all was on the cards! What a great day.

The preparation before Owens birthday party

Food preparations for the birthday part got underway the Wednesday before the party. Everyone had their instructions. Douglas and Brendon (and their happy helper Owen) were in charge of balloon and decoration coordination. Lynese was the cooking mentor and chef-assistant. I was the chef. It was a comedy in the kitchen - on my part. Take one ex-professional accountant minus a good few braincells from producing off-spring. Add cumulative months of interrupted sleep. Mix together and vola = a long evening! Firstly I had no measuring cups, no cake rack, an electric beater with only one whisk (the other one was AWOL) and no clue how difficult it was to make a cake without these utensils. Lynese had imported most of the ingredients and also the cake tin. Prior to the "Olds" arriving I had done the analytical preparation of the cake. I phoned the company in South Africa who made the cake which I saw advertised on the Internet. She gave me, the "prospective client", measurements and how many pieces the cake could be divided into. I then counted how many smarties were used for each line of the cake, all the while presuming South African and EU smarties are in fact the same size. I then drew a template from these measurements and carefully cut it out. I was very pleased with my achievements. Back to the kitchen. It had been planned that there would be a couple of practicing rounds of cake-making until the technique had reached perfection. So after about an hour and a half of preparing and baking the cake came out the oven. First time and it was a success. I must say part of the credit had to go to the recipe. It was idiot proof. The rest of the credit to Lynese for directing the event.

Thursday night was the next planned event. I was starting to feel like "Master Chef" from the BBC. This time I was a lot more prepared. Brendon had sourced stainless steel measuring cups and a cake rack, which let me tell you is like hens teeth in Breda. I still had the handicap of the one-whisk electric beater, but hey it worked first time round. I took this as being my "good luck charm". So again - ingredients measured out, ready, steady, cook. An hour later and the cake came out perfect. By this time I had had enough of chocolate cake mixture and the works so after tasting the chefs & spectators agreed that this would be the final cake. Lynese and I went about the preparation for icing. First we divided all the smarties by colour into different containers. This was a highly technical part of the event. The icing had to be coloured precisely to the chosen hue. After hours of concentration and colour coordinating the smarties the project was complete. The cake was put in a large container and stored away from prying little hands safe for Saturdays consumption!

Owen turns 1

It is tradition in Holland that when a child turns one year old they get a cake that they can do what they wish with. Some put their faces in it, some stick their fingers in it. In true Owen style he just ate it. We all had a great day. In the morning we opened presents and at lunch time we went to the bi-monthly IWC children's get together at Joepie Speelpaleis for play time. He was showered with gifts and sung happy birthday by the little girls. Owen knew it was a special day. After his bath he went to bed a tired but happy little boy.

Splish Splash

I have added some video clips to show you what Owen is up to. He loves the water and being up to all sorts of mischief.

Today he had his first taste of peanut butter and after the initial face pulling he wolfed down his sandwich.

Douglas and Lynese arrive today for the week to help celebrate Owen's 1st birthday. I look forward to all the festivities.

Time goes by

As you can see my entries are not as frequent as they used to be. It has to do with Owen's mobility as I am constantly following him around as he gets up to all sorts now. Since we have been back from the UK (29th October) he has been off the bottle. This is partly due to the fact that his parents left his nappy bag, containing all his big bottles & teats, at the security check at a London airport in their rush to make it to the gate in 5 minutes. Once on-board they would not let us off to go and get it. Luckily I had a dummy in my jacket pocket and we had 2 nappies in our big suitcase. Also lucky there was no poohing on the plane. Owen drank water from a 500ml plastic bottle and thought this was novel so constantly held it to his mouth and then lowering it again.

The gastouder arrangement did not work so I am back to having him all day in the week. This works fine for now as my exams are over for this year but we will have to come up with another idea for next year. He has had bronchitis this last week so has been on antibiotics, ventolin and a steroid. He is on the mend and getting up to his usual mischief. I am sure he will be in top form for his birthday bash this coming weekend.

Owen is a creature of speed. Nothing in his way stops him. He is still crawling, only now at lightening speed and can stand for a few seconds on his own. He cruises between furniture easily and loves standing under the kitchen table. He is also very keen to take the stairs when we have to go to his bedroom and manages very well on his own (with mom right behind him of course). Eating has become a bit of a struggle of late. He likes to have his own way and has started throwing food on the floor and spitting it out. Last night he went to bed with only a few spoons of dinner. He did not wake in the night for food and had his milk at the usual time this morning.




His favourite activities still include vacuuming, helping unpack the dishwasher, standing at the backdoor looking outside, posting items into his toys, playing in his ball-bak. In the morning weput the teletubbies on for him to watch. About 10 minutes of that and he is on the search for some other sort of entertainment. Yes, by the end of the day we are all exhausted but happy & entertained. I am now preparing for his party on the 22nd November. I find the pressure to succeed at this greater than writing a 3rd level exam! I hope the perfectionist gene is not dominant in Owen's character, but on the other hand Brendon & I are have them so Owen doesn't stand a chance!