Our almost 4 year old

Darian is almost 4, how did that happen? Not only is he growing in leaps and bounds but he is the best big brother in the world. He loves his little brother so much and I am so impressed by their relationship.

So, what is he into at the moment. All things Kelly Tarlton's, we've been there too many times to count in the last few weeks and we have promised to go a lot more times in the weeks to come. He is also very into trains and airplanes and helicopters. We've tried appeasing the train obsession by taking him to MOTAT but he was more interested in the airplanes and very dissatisfied with the fact that he couldn't get onto the airplanes. Our next stop is to try to get him to an air show so I have to keep on the look out for that. We also have promised to take him to the Glenbrook Vintage Train Day Out with Thomas event so we have to keep to that. At our Seeport event he got really up close to a helicopter but because it was so loud he retreated a bit and was happy to steer clear. He hasn't quite been bitten by the boats bug yet and thankfully with my contacts at the Port I'm sure when he is of age we could get him on board one of the tugs.

He love riding his bike and is a pro at it. We have yet to take the training wheels off yet as we need to train him a bit more, I think I'm just a tad over protective so maybe we'll do that when mummy is ready! 

He repeats almost everything he hears and of course has mastered the Kelly Tarlton's you tube video almost verbatim. Which is the CUTEST thing I've ever heard. 

Since he turned 3 he has only been attending day care 3 days a week, and with my mum still here with us she takes care of both him & Cade on the days he isn't at day care. He loves his teachers and the centre Manager, Robyn, is his fave at the moment. Rianna is still his closest friend however I have noticed that they tend to play with others now, more and more. Last week Darian spent most of his days at school with Mackenzie, but Rianna was on holiday so we'll see what happens there. On the days that Cade is at day care with him he tends to spend more time in the babies room taking care of his brother than he does with his friends. 

He still loves reading books and at the moment his favourite is "We're going on a croc hunt". He loves listening to the CD over and over and over again. We had to buy him the book and CD for Christmas last year as well as we couldn't always guarantee we could get it from the library. He also loves visiting the library and can spend hours just looking through the shelves of books and playing with the toys they have on display. 

After the issues we had in the past with his breathing, we have finally made some headway and thank the Lord have no more issues. A few months ago we were referred to an ENT specialist, Dr Robert Gunn. He wasn't keen to perform the Tonsillectomy as our GP preferred and put us on a nasal spray for a few weeks to see how it changed. Well, after a few days we saw a major difference with him. He started sleeping through the night and the sleep apnoea just went away. So Dr Gunn told us to just keep using the spray, he says even his own son uses this daily and it helps so much. With the significant changes we've seen we will continue to do so and are so grateful our boy didn't have to go under the knife again. After two adenoidectomies I wasn't happy to let him go for another operation so I'm glad it didn't happen. 

We haven't successfully potty trained him yet but we're getting there. I don't want to push him as I've seen this backfire with some kids so to maintain a healthy relationship with the potty we'll wait til his ready. 

The eating is still not the best. He still loves his weet-bix or "breakfix" but will not eat much throughout the day. He prefers sandwiches, marmite or peanut butter and still loves his fruit and yoghurt. He also is just like his dad and loves to drink water and is really into his Nesquik and Calci-yum. We keep trying to offer him new food but he refuses. We'll get there.

He still loves his music, Of Monsters and Men is still his favourite. Even though he has gone through phases of loving Bruno Mars and Pharrell he still keeps coming back to Of Monsters and Men. He loves music, his drums are always out and even plays with his brothers little trumpet toy as well. He sings all day long and (just like his mama) memorises jingles really quickly. 

He is currently enrolled at Twinkle Toes and Playball at school and on weekends we take him to swimming lessons, this semester he is enrolled at WestWave swim school. Twinkle toes is a dance class that incorporates movement and music. He loves it. We didn't sign him up at first but after a few classes Robyn rung us at school to tell us that he is so keen and they just can't keep him away when the class is going on, so we signed a deal with the dance teacher and got him in halfway through the semester. At Playball they learn co-ordination and teamwork through playing different sport oriented games. He absolutely loves Playball and Twinkle toes and can't wait to get to school on the days they're on. 

He loves helping mum out in the kitchen and wants to always be involved in anything I've got going on. I have to give him little jobs when I'm busy so he doesn't get under my feet too much. He especially loves it when I use the planetary mixer and wants to help add all the ingredients into it. And he is finally over his fear of the food processor. I don't know why but he would get so scared of the food processor, so much so that he would not come out of his room til it was literally packed away. He is over it now though and is quite proud of the fact that he is scared anymore and will proudly announce "I not scared of the food processor mummy". Too cute! 

Easter 2015

Happy Easter to one and all!

I for one was so looking forward to this long weekend, and it could not have come at a better time. And for once we had nothing planned and were just going to wing it this weekend.

Thursday was mum's 65th Birthday. Although we couldn't be with her our thoughts were with her. It's so sad to be away from family, especially on special occasions but we can look forward to mum coming to spend some time with us later this year when baby number 2 arrives.

Happy birthday mummy, you mean the world to us!

On Good Friday we had a very relaxing day and actually didn't leave the house at all. BLISS! Although I did, for the first time on my own, attempt to make Pickled Fish, a traditional South African Easter dish of fried fish pickled with onions. Typically eaten cold on Good Friday. And well, let's just say for a first attempt it was quite good. Thursday night of course I had to, at the last minute ring mum for her recipe and of course get Cameron to stop at Countdown on his way home and grab whatever fish he could find! All shops are closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (And Christmas Day), here in NZ so Thursday night he had to do a mad rush to ensure we had everything we might need for Friday. We also had to give Darian his Easter egg on Friday even though we intended to wait til Sunday, he was just beside himself with excitement and tried to eat it all in one go.

Asked him for a kiss and this is the face he gave me.

We had to wear Bunny ears to eat our Easter Egg, of course.

The face when he saw his Easter egg, #priceless.

Wish I had captured this video from the moment he saw his Easter Egg, his reaction was "Oh WOW, AMAZING". It was too cute for words. Love how big my boy is getting and what a character he is becoming. Love seeing his personality developing.

On Saturday we decided we needed to go shopping for a big boy bed for Darian. As we are now 24 weeks pregnant, we need to start planning for our little one to arrive, which means getting Darian out of his cot so we can get it ready for baby number 2. Even though it's a convertible bed and is currently a toddler bed, we need to get Darian out before baby arrives. As it is, everything is "mine" so don't want too many changes to affect him when the baby comes. Anyway, he had a blast jumping in and out of the beds in Target and testing them out. He even got comfortable under the covers with a teddy they had used as a prop.

Easter Sunday we headed off to Church and then to Lenny & Premika's for a BBQ. It was a lovely evening with our friends. We got to talk and catch up while the kids kept themselves busy and kept each other company. 

Today (Easter Monday) was round 2 of big boy bed shopping but after a day of shopping we still came home empty handed and decided we'd wait til the perfect deal came up. So, this remains a WORK IN PROGRESS! LOL! We got home and I decided to make a full on Sunday lunch, with Roast Chicken and Stuffing, twice roasted potatoes and a parmesan crisp salad. And of course milktart for dessert, which unfortunately was a complete flop! Didn't set at all so we had biscuits and custard! LOL! Tasted good though! Will try again and get it right! Or wait for mum to get here and help with my milktart craving!

Not looking forward to work this week, even if it is a short week. But it will come nonetheless!

Too much to catch up on

Ok, so I thought I would back track and update the blog on all that's happened with individual posts but looking back there's way too much to talk about! So I'm doing it all in one, concise little post!

Since my last post, we've been to Sydney over Christmas, our little boy has grown exponentially and we're in the middle of planning a trip back home. Work has also been quite busy for both of Cameron & I and we've been trying to tidy up the house, well Cameron has. He's been water blasting and staining the deck and fence so that it's all neat and tidy. And has done a remarkable job so far.

It's been a beautiful summer in Auckland so far and we're dreading the end of it, with the end of summer comes cold, wet, dreary weather so we have to take advantage of this as much as we can.

To start our wonderful summer holidays we had our annual Ports of Auckland Christmas Family day at ASB Showgrounds and Darian had his face painted for the first time and got to play on bouncy castles which was much to his excitement.

Darian's daycare also had an awesome Christmas party but all the pics are hazy and distorted cos mr didn't stop dancing and had a massive tantrum when it was time to go home!

Over Christmas we headed over the ditch to see Bradley & Shamini. It was a wonderful two weeks of holiday that ended way too quickly. We visited the Australian Reptile Park, where no one took pity on me, who was a blubbering mess looking at all the snakes, reptiles, spider and other dangerous creatures in the Aussie wild.

Darian had a wonderful time playing at the beach, park and other exciting places we visited.

And on Christmas Day we got to spend a relaxing day at home, eating all kinds of yummy food and enjoying each other's company.

New Years was a quiet one for us. For the first time in a long time. We ended 2013 finding out Shamini is pregnant. She had a positive HPT on December 31st and another one on New Years Day. She then had a subsequent appointment with her GP who confirmed her pregnancy that Thursday, the day before we left. So our holiday ended on a massive high!

I promise to blog pics as her pregnancy progresses. 2014 is a baby boom year for the Pillay/Subban Family. Not only will Bead & Sham have their first in late August, but Cam's cousin, Kremalin & his wife Reena are expecting a week before Brads & Sham and Nicole, Cameron's cousin in Cape Town and her hubby are expecting their first at the end of May. Darian will have heaps of cousins by the end of 2014 and won't be the only one in his generation anymore!

On a sad note, at the end of 2013 we also lost the "Father" of our nation, South Africa. Nelson Mandela passed away on December 5th 2013. It was a sad day for all South Africans and was felt all across the globe. I happened to be in the office when the news broke, and one of my colleagues walked out of his office and announced it. I had to then google it to see if it was true. I spent the rest of the day reading up on all the good works and the life of this remarkable man and what he meant to me, as a South African. I also started reading his book, A Long Walk to Freedom.

So far, 2014 has been a busy year for us. Darian is now 22 months old and growing like a weed. He loves daycare and loves helping mum & dad around the house. Whether it be daddy in the garden or mum in the kitchen, he is always around saying, "help, help". He is such a joy and even though we're in the middle of tantrum season, we love every minute of parenthood. He is starting to mimic all we do and repeat all we say. Soon we will have to start censoring our vocab. He loves animals and thoroughly enjoys visiting the zoo. He's favourite animals are the seals and can spend hours just watching them play in the "Ta" (water). He is also loving his stuffed animals at the moment, including the "mama" (monkey - which is not funny that he has the same word for both mum and monkey), the "popo" (Hippo), pig and frog. He is still very much into his musical instruments and we are considering getting him a drumset but weighing up the noise factor against whether he will really enjoy it or not! And have decided once he turns 3 he'll start piano lessons, hoping his interest is still musically inclined by then.

We are planning a trip back to SA in April/May so that we can have Darian's second birthday party there so I'm in planning mode again. Lots to plan for with catching up with family & friends. It's super exciting!

So, I've tried to catch up as much as I can. I need to plan a day every week to update the blog so that I keep to it! Harder than it seems, keeping a blog updated!

So that's it from me for now. See you on the flip side!

Darian's 4 month check up

Ok, so I've been really slack in keeping up to date with the blog, nothing unusual about that, but in my defence I've been back at work for almost a month now and well, it's harder than I imagined. Leaving my little man at home everyday and only getting back in 10-11 hours is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my entire life. If only we were all blessed to have the opportunity to stay home with our little one's, alas, bills keep coming in, mortgages need to be paid and well, I think I need to work to keep my brian working.Last Monday we had Darian's 4 month check up at Plunket. He now weighs 7kg's and has only grown 1cm, so he is now 62cm. Somehow I don't think that's accurate, but who am I to argue. So he only falls into the 25th percentile (lengthwise) for kids his age. It isn't to disconcerting because he is healthy & well and is growing & developing so well. He is very friendly and loves looking at faces and "talking". The other day (Sunday) he said "Ma-ma" for the first time, I know he hasn't connected the meaning of the word to me yet, but it's nice that he said that first, before "Da-da" or "Ba-ba". He says it over & over now and it really makes me feel good! He is becoming very aware of his surroundings now and loves staring at himself in the mirror and smile and frowns at his reflection. He is keenly aware of when we leave the house now and when we get home he gets really excited and kicks and coo's and when we put our arms out he almost jumps into our arms. He is still battling with teething and we've tried it all, teething gel on his gums, Amber beads on his neck and homeopathic drops in his mouth and I do believe they're working because he gets relief and well, it would be worse if we didn't have those. He gets really cranky when he feels them but is quickly back to his normal self once we've given him some relief. He loves his teething rings and bites EVERYTHING. He goes through about 6-7 bibs a day due to the drooling. He is still thumb-sucking but because of the teething he bites his fingers so we resort to the dummy (pacifier) so that he doesn't hurt himself. We've also started him on solids (as of last Monday) and he loves his food. He is getting so good at eating and feeds well (excpet when the fingers go into his mouth and there's food everywhere). He loves his fruit, peach & Apple is his favourite and also pear & banana. He also loves the carrot, pumpkin & kumara (NZ sweet potato) mash and is not too keen on broccoli, we've learned, but eats it anyway. He is still having night time breastfeeds and is on formula during the day.This week we got him enrolled at the daycare (First Steps Parnell) near my office. His official start date is October 15th. We were not very keen on having him start so early, especially as my mum only goes back to SA in November but the daycare had no vacancies later on in the year and this was the only one they had and as I work in the city I did not want to enrol him in a daycare close to home. Traffic and work hours wouldn't work around his daycare operating hours so we resolved to having him closer to me. I am very happy about that because it means that I am 5 minutes away from him if he ever needs anything or I have to pick him up urgently, and it means I don't have to amend my work hours (they close at 17:45 and I finish at 17:30). The only con to this whole arrangement is that he will be stuck in traffic with me all the way home in the afternoons and in the mornings, which aren't as bad as the evenings (yesterday it took me exactly an hour from the office to home - door to door). But I am very happy with the daycare facility and the carers, and I know he will be well taken care of. It breaks my heart to have him in daycare so early (he'll be 6 months) but we don't have any other choice and I know it will make him a better person, more social and more interactive, and most importantly his development will increase exponentially while he is in daycare, instead of being home with me or a nanny.So here we are, 4 months have flown by so very quickly (19weeks to be exact). I still look at his pictures from day 1 to now and I can't be happier with my little boy, he is such a blessing to both Cameron & I, and we are so very much in love with him. He makes our lives that much richer & happier, and we're enjoying every single minute of him.

Darian at 3 months

On Monday our little boy turned three months old. He has been an amazing little boy and we're still enjoying every minute we have with him. We've been going to our plunket meetings every 2 weeks and he is doing wonderfully, the nurses and support people there are really happy with him and how he is growing. As at the 12th of July (our last visit) he was 6.22kg's and 61 cm long. He is growing very well and we can't be happier with our little man. Let's see, what has he been up to the last few weeks. Well he is getting too big for his capsule now and thankfully we picked up the car seat from the Waitakere Trusts (a free car seat that only people within the West Auckland area are able to receive) and that's in Cameron's car. So he is very comfortable in that and although he still hates being in the capsule in my car he loves being in the car nowadays and looks at the world passing him by and coo's at everything. He loves being in church and loves the singing. He has only fussed once when I had to take him to the Mother's room but other than that he has been amazing. Everyone in church just loves him because he stares at and "talks" to everyone. He even loves going to the shopping mall and only fusses when he can't see one of us so we take turns walking in front of him at all time so he can see us. He gets excited too when we're in the toy section, I think mostly because of the different colours. He still loves his tummy time and we're waiting for him to start turning but at the moment he loves being on the floor with his toys. He is starting to pick himself up and hates laying down. He always tries to pull himself up so we're really careful about where we put him and what's around him. He tends to fall to the side in his efforts to pick himself up so it's quite tricky even leaving him on the floor. I've also started supplementing his feeds with formula, in my efforts to get him ready for when I get back to work. So he is having about 3 bottles a day now and then is breastfed at night. It's still a bit tricky keeping the breastmilk up now that he is on formula but about week 11 he started feeding so much that we ended up using all my stored expressed milk. Thinking it was in preparation for his growth spurt in week 12, but come week 12 he started getting really fussy and my first initial thought was he was not getting sufficient milk so that's when I started supplementing. He took to the bottle so well and has had no issues with the formula so as much as I am sad the breastfeeding is coming to an end, I'm also glad I finally now have some free time and am not tied down to feeds for an hour every 3 hours. Cameron can now feed him too which was a nice bonding experience for dad and Darian so that makes me happy. He is also starting to teethe, as much as that may sound strange, but he is biting everything and gets really fussy every now and then even after he's bathed, changed, fed and burped. We've bought a teething ring for him but he hasn't figured it out yet, we've been advised to give him thing to bite on but it hasn't brought mush relief so we've resorted to teething gels and hope this brings some relief for him. Darian has his 3 month immunisations due but he has had a bit of a stuffy nose so I've been advised to wait until next week to see if he's better and then arrange the doctor's appointment, so praying he gets rid of the bug causing that. Not much else happening at the moment, I'm getting ready to return to work on the 1st of August, not the best planning when my birthday is on the 2nd but hey, time I get back to it I guess. I'm not entirely happy to be leaving my little baby so soon but at least I have mum around to take care of him until he is ready for daycare. Speaking of which, we have visited a few daycares in preparation for when he is ready in a few months and waiting to feel the "right fit" before confirming his place. To end this update, here are just a few random shots of little Darian...

Darian - 8 week update

Our little boy is 8 weeks old. How time flies. I cannot believe how quickly it's gone, just the other day I had a huge belly and was waiting expectantly for our little bundle to arrive. And now he is almost 2 months old. He is such a blessing to us and we cannot be more grateful. Here's what's happened in the last few weeks. At 6 weeks he had his immunisations. He was a trooper, but when he got his jab he cried bitterly and Daddy was right there to comfort him and give him lots of cuddles. He is smiling more and making lots of sounds. He is very interactive. He loves staring at faces and mimicking whatever you do. He loves his mummy & daddy and smiles for us everytime we enter the room or talk to him, and looks for us by turning his head to and fro to wherever we are. He is sleeping well during the day and at night. Although it's been very cold he's been good by sleeping in his cot all night. His feeds have been good too, although he hasn't kept to his 3 hourly feeds he is such a good feeder so when he's hungry he feeds well enough until his ready again. He has steadily put on about 200g a week and at his last check with Megan the Plunket nurse (Friday the 8th) he was a whopping 5.2kg's. He measures 59cm in length according to Megan and is in the 75th percentile of kid's his age. He love tummy time and plays well with all his soft toys. He loves his caterpillar, a gift from Ricki, a work friend of mine. He "talks" to his soft toys all the time and tries very hard to grab them. He successfully grabbed and held one of his little toys, Tiggah, a little rattle that Mrs Martin gave him. He loves to kick and has fun at bath time. He is so strong and stands firm and even climbs with his feet if you hold him up. He has enjoyed his time at home with his grandparents and I am so grateful that he has had this time where he can be doted on 100% by them all. Here are a few pics from the last few weeks of Darian: