Kaelia's Crawling!

Our little monkey has mastered crawling this week. She started off about a week ago with one to two "steps" followed by a big belly flop. Now she is slowly motoring all around the house, following us all around. To add to her mobility, she also now pulls herself up to stand constantly. She will crawl over to Taelyn's bookshelf, pull herself up, and then pull all of the books off the shelf. Actually, as I am writing this blog entry while sitting next to Kaelia on the floor, she is pulling up on my shirt and arms to stand next to me and see what I am doing. It is quite obvious that Kaelia is pretty excited about these new skills because she can now be around us all the time which is what makes her happiest.

Big Girl Bed

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for our little big girl, because Taelyn got her first big girl bed! She has been eagerly awaiting this day for weeks now. It all started on our vacation over Christmas when we gave Taelyn choices about where she could sleep at each place we stayed. We brought our pack-n-play and we often had an extra bed in the room. So we told Taelyn she could sleep in the crib or the big girl bed and Kaelia would take whatever Taelyn didn't choose. Every time, Taelyn wanted the big girl bed. It was really cute because she didn't want to go to sleep, so she had tears in her eyes and her voice was half crying, half whining as she said "big girl bed" over and over again. Then once we got back from vacation, she didn't want to sleep in her crib at all. We finally let her sleep in our "big girl bed" for naps and put a big girl pillow in her crib for bedtime at night. But now Taelyn has her own bed, and she absolutely loves it!

After the bed arrived at our house yesterday, Taelyn and I set off to the store in search of the perfect sheets for her new big girl bed. The kids department had beds already set up with lots of toys and accessories, so Taelyn had a fun time at the store. She then picked out her own sheet set, and we went home to put it on her bed. She loves to play on her bed now as well as sleep.

Kaelia - 7 Months

Kaelia is now 7 months old and changing every day. She has continued to try new solid foods, eating some rice cereal mixed with a sweet fruit or veggie in both the morning and evening. Her favorite foods so far are butternut squash and bananas. And the food is certainly helping her grow as she is now 17.1 lbs., 26.8 inches long, and has a head circumference of 16.5 inches.

Kaelia has also been growing developmentally. She has mastered sitting up and will go from sitting to all fours. Crawling is just around the corner as she will now rock back and forth and then lunge forward and flop on her belly. And Kaelia can pull herself up to a stand now. She is so eager to get moving so she can follow her sister around. Kaelia also got her first tooth this month.

Her personality is shining more and more every day as well. She loves to be around people (especially Taelyn) and gets mad whenever we leave the room. And she gets very excited when people give her attention. Peek-a-boo is one of her favorite games; she particularly likes when we cover our faces for a long time so she can grab our hands herself. And she loves it when Justin bounces her on the bed and when I dance with her. We call her our little gorilla because she will often beat her fits on her chest and cry out when someone gets her excited. She is actually doing it right now as I write this blog! In general, though, Kaelia is very calm and easy-going.

Christmas in January

It took us a little while to have Christmas this year; we actually celebrated it two weeks late as we were waiting for Santa. Some friends here in South Africa went to the US for Christmas and brought back all of our presents for the girls, but they did not get here until the week after New Year's. We were also on our trip during Christmas, so it worked out to wait a little bit. But Santa did find us on the road and brought the girls' stockings.

Taelyn and Kaelia had a great Christmas. Thank you to everyone that sent cards, gifts and/or for thinking of us. We miss you all!

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Funny Phrases

Taelyn’s vocabulary continues to increase, and she has recently started using verbs frequently. Some of her common sentences are pretty cute. Here are a few of our favorites!

1. “I stuck Pooh Bear” (stuck like Pooh Bear) – she says this whenever she gets her body stuck somewhere. She tends to overuse this phrase, though, and says she is stuck any time she just doesn’t want to make the effort to move. She will put her foot in the laundry basket and say she is stuck like Pooh Bear even though she could easily take her foot out.

2. Taelyn: “I so sowy” (I’m so sorry)

Justin: Taelyn, you don’t have to be sorry.

Taelyn: “so so sowy”

We’re not quite sure where Taelyn picked this up, but she likes to say she is sorry in a very sad voice. Sometimes she has a reason to say it, but other times she just says it out of the blue. Lately, she has been saying sorry when she feels a little scared; if she sees a car when we go for little walks, for example, she knows she is supposed to hold one of our hands, and she will quickly grab a hand and say sorry to the car.

3. “Monkey ead cookie book” (Monkey read the cookie book) – I asked Taelyn if she wanted to read with me the other day, and she said this. She then got her stuffed monkey and the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and started to “read” the book to the monkey. After a few minutes of this, she also got out her Wall-E, lined him up with Monkey, and read to both of them.

4. “Kae-ya pay monkey” (Kaelia play with the monkey) – Taelyn has been trying to incorporate her sister with play time much more. She will take toys like the stuffed monkey, put them on Kaelia’s belly, and then tell Kaelia to play with it. Kaelia, of course, loves any attention that her sister gives her.

5. “daw zeba” (draw zebra) – at least once a day, Taelyn will take out her crayons and paper to “draw” a zebra. She scribbles all over the paper and says over and over again that she is drawing a zebra. Then she will sometimes draw Wall-E and Eve, but the zebra is by far her favorite.

6. “sippy, oh sippy” – this is Taelyn’s way of looking for her sippy cup when she can’t find it. She will call for it as she wanders around the house looking for it. The phrase also changes to anything that she is looking for (“blankie, oh blankie”). Now, if Justin or I mention anything like “where is ______?” Taelyn will immediately start searching the house with her catch phrase. She is so helpful, and sometimes she actually finds what we are looking for!

Some other words that Taelyn frequently uses are: eat, ucky (yucky), Eemo (Nemo), Eh-mo (Elmo), and peese (please with extra emphasis on the ee).

The Garden Route

We just got back from a trip to the Garden Route, along the southern coast of South Africa From Port Elizabeth toward Capetown. It was an awesome trip! First, we traveled to a town called Knysna. This is a great town with lots of activities and restaurants. We began the adventure at an elephant park where we drove down a long road that took us to a large group of elephants, lounging around in the middle of a natural, open field. Once the elephants saw us coming, they migrated over, and we fed them from a bucket of food. Guides for the park were nearby to make sure we were safe and that the elephants did not get scared. When the elephants had enough to eat, they simply walked off and went about their day. That is when one of the guides came over to our family and had us follow the elephants, telling us all about the history of those particular elephants and information about elephants in general along the way. We got to pet them and get pictures with them as well. It was a fantastic interactive experience with such a large creature.

While in Knysna, we also visited a wild cat park where we got to see African cats such as leopards, caracal, serval, and cheetah. The park was sectioned off by different pens, holding the different types of cats. While we were not allowed to take the kids in a couple of the pens, most of them were open to us as long as we kept the girls in our arms. Some of the cats were very friendly while others were a bit intimidating. The serval cats, for example, were so eager to visit with us, that one in particular kept coming toward us and brushing up against our legs. He especially liked Justin and would weave in between his legs over and over again. The caracal cats were not as inviting, though. One of those cats also brushed up against our legs and then continued to "play" with Justin's toes. The guide had to step in because apparently the caracal could rip his entire toe off! We quickly left that pen after learning this news. The final pen was full of cheetahs, and this was the most thrilling part of the day. The kids were not allowed in, so the guide took Justin and I in one at a time. I entered first, and we set off searching for the cheetahs. We came across two of them laying down side by side, purring so loud that is sounded more intimidating than affectionate. Then the guide told me to walk in between the cheetahs and crouch behind one of them (all of the actions we were told NOT to do in the other pens!). I followed his instructions as my heart was racing, and then one of the cheetahs got up and started to briskly walk away. I was then told to run and follow him. After he stopped, I knelt down next to him and was able to pet him. By this point, we could hear the kids from the other side of the fence, and the cheetah immediately started his "hunting mode." He crept closer to the fence with his eyes on the target and certainly looked like he was hunting his prey. There is a reason why children are not allowed in the pen! Justin went in to the pen next and knelt down next to the cheetah that was not interested in eating our children. The overall experience provided a bit of a rush at times and was a great close encounter with some wild animals.

Our next stop on the trip was Outshoorn, and this was one of the major highlights. We went to an ostrich farm for a hands-on experience with these large birds. First, they took us to the incubator where we saw the eggs waiting to be hatched and then went to the newborn pen, filled with tiny little ostriches. Then we got to feed some adult ostriches, and this was really neat. Some of the ostriches would peck at our hands a little too roughly while others were pretty mild. Taelyn thought the whole experience was hilarious, and then she even got to feed one! The tour moved right along to the next station: ostrich riding! This is something that we have wanted to do since before we ever came to South Africa, and our expectations were not let down. Both Justin and I rode separate ostriches throughout a small pen and had a blast. After riding, we saw the pros show us how it was done as some jockeys raced a few of the ostriches on a small race track. Next, the guide took us to the breeding camp where a male and female ostrich took turns sitting on their eggs. The guide shooed the female off the eggs, and we got our picture taken on top of them; we learned that one egg is about 24 chicken eggs put together and can hold around 400 lbs! To finish the tour, we ate at the farm's cafe and had their specialty: ostrich egg omelet and ostrich burger. It was pretty tasty.

After Oudtshoorn, we traveled to a small town called Graaf Reinet, home of one of South Africa's many national parks. There were many monkeys, baboons, springbok, bleesbok, and some beautiful landscape. The rest of the town was a bit of a ghost town, though, because we were there on Christmas day. We were lucky to even find a place for dinner!

Finally, we finished our trip back in Port Elizabeth. The main attraction was Addo Elephant Part - a completely different elephant experience than in Knysna. This park was set up more like a safari park that we drove through, looking for any wildlife we could find. At one point, Justin had to slam on the brakes because out of no where, an elephant came out on to the road. We saw lots of elephant herd in the wild here along with a warthog, water buffalo carcass, and dung beetles the size of a human hand.

Our trip to the Garden Route was the best trip we have taken in South Africa so far! Here are some pictures and videos to recap the experience.

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