11elleven

English Lesson

2006-08-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

It’s been an up n down two weeks, hence the reason for the blogless weekend last week. My Father in law has arrived in SA, so now the whole over continent family is here and we have been visiting them a lot.

Nathan has been loving it because he really misses his grandparents overseas and loves to spend time with his ouma and oupa from Saudi. He is growing in leaps, and talking the chemical off a photograph. You can only make out one or two words per sentence/paragraph of banter, but that’s all you need to understand what he is on about.

It is awesome to connect and communicate with such a small person because he get messages through to me and I can understand what he want and likes and doesn’t.

Here is a classic Nathan sentence: jessieisassisaboom. (Jessie fell down) - Often when Nathan refers to name he is actually referring to a car or possession e.g.: dadammmmmmisaissaisaouwie (I have just dropped my car off for repair and this was the interpretation in Nathans words.) I have come to the conclusion that “isaisasaisa” can mean anything between two words, this is how we put together the meanings and translations eg: ~dada~ being my car, and ~ouwie~ being the damage or problem with the car, ~isaisasaisa~ being the in between information needed to make the sentence.

He picks up words extremely fast and accurately. --- A bad word to teach a two year old is “no”. this come up often when he is irritated or does not want to eat or sleep or walk or stand or sit or brush teeth (not often the case – loves to brush teeth) or come when you call or drink or anything for that matter e.g.: nononnonnonononnnonoonnondada or nonononoonnonononnonnmama or nononododie.

My friend just got a Jack Russell on the weekend for his birthday and named it Mila, I called the dog once and Nathan (standing next to me) immediately copied me ~Mida Mida~ this is only one of the hundreds of words he has picked up in the last week.

Most of the words he has picked up were not taught to him, he just heard it, like the no no no no, by his mom and I when the cats or dog do something they are not supposed to, and to him now and then.

Yesterday while choosing him clothes to put on for the day, the stood in front of the cupboard with me, looking into the shelves he starts -- ummm -- and points to the item of clothing he wants, at the same time he walks over to the bed and sees a new pair of pants (that had just been given to him by his ouma when she came from Saudi) and says at the top of his lungs --- WOOOWIEEE --- I could not contain the laughter. Then to get me rolling on the floor, he sees me laughing and says --- nononnoonnooonnonondada --- I apologized and let him put on his new pants

Moral of the story: DON’T UNDER ESTIMATE THE BRAIN POWER AND UNDERSTANING OF A LITTLE PERSON, NO MATTER WHAT AGE. THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHATS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME. This we all know before the time but are still not careful enough when speaking in front of them. ~cliché coming up~ they really are like sponges and do really soak everything in.

Nathan vocab :

Dada
Mama
Oumi (Great grandmother)
Oupi (Great grandfather)
Ouma (Other grandmother or Ford)
Oupa
Nana (Grand mother and Mercedes)
Kiti
Doddi (doggy)
Mida (Mila dog name)
Augi (Audi)
Maha (Mazda)
Opo (Opel)
Kari (Karen – Aunt)
Cahee (Cathleen – Aunt)
Bigi ( Brigitte – Aunt)
Cangi (Candy – Aunt) AND
Ano (Angel – Aunt) MANY
Ania (Friend or VW) MORE
Jessie (Friend or Toyota)
Upsidedown
“Alphabet”
Iceem - take a guess
Nonononono
Car
Bou bou ( bounce bounce)
Uppi
Down
Baba
Tea
Bye bye~ - with any of the above attached
Spicie (name of any teddy bear)
Nigh nigh (good night)
Vovo (Volvo)
Hhhhhhhh (BMW/Porche)
Clysla (Chrysler)
Ba (trucks, taxi, bus, vans, utility with canopy)
Ouwie (injury or pain or broken object) this is a big help in desiphering irritations with a small child.
Wowie (new stuff or cool stuff on tv or at home or new cars)
All his words are used in the correct context every time.

GUESS THE THING

2006-07-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

ANSWER

Its an EARING

The next one is going to be a little trickier.

USELESS FACT

2006-07-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

With all the technology we have to make things easy and fast, people still abbreviate long words so they don't spell it wrong or don't have to spell check cause it takes time.

eg: Computer lit.

Heeeeeeeres Nathan!

2006-07-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

I love my grandparents and talking and cars and cats and dogs and my room with my ferrari bed set and my all my fire engines. I started talking all sorts of long sentences with all the words that I have learned and I don't like to fall down.

A Quick One

2006-07-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Favorite color : Yellow

Lucky Number : 11

Favorite beverage : Windhoek Lager

Favorite past time : Fishing and singing

Favorite Sport to watch : F1 racing

Next on wanted to buy list : Elton John Greatest Hits 1970 – 2002

Next on wish list : **** Ferrari 250 GTO ****

Short term goal : Find a new Job

Long term goal : Sing on MTV and travel the world with my family

Dream : Having a screaming mob wanting my autograph and chasing away paparazzi

Let me know yours

WHAT A WEEKEND

2006-07-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

It started directly after work at 19:00 when I got home and had to go to my mother’s house to ice and “dressage” the cake. The cake was in the shape, somewhat of a Le Mans racer and I decided to make it the GT40 light blue. I didn’t have enough orange smarties for the stripe so I had go for a half stripe over the rear wing. The wheels were made with Oreo’s and I attempted to put wheel nuts on them with those tiny little silver balls (which are sweet but impossible to bite or suck so you have to create holes in your teeth in order to taste them) with tweezers and small amounts of icing. This did not work, but I had to try. I was the center of the joke with my wife, mom and sisters laughing their heads off at me with a pair of tweezers and Oreo and tiny silver balls.

I am rather meticulous when it comes to creating; my sons 1st birthday cake was a fire engine with front and rear lights, pumps, hoses, rims, tires, and all the appropriate features you would find on a real fire truck, even reflectors and indicators and the enlarged front and rear bumper for the firemen to stand on. All as fashioned neatly out of liquorish, smarties and other sweets.

After that it was off to my house to make the rest of the treats for my son and his friends who were going to be there. As you may know I am an F1 fanatic and my son loves cars, so, I was out to make small F1 cars with boudoir biscuits, wafers, jelly tots and smarties wheels. Have you ever tried to cut wafers? Not funny. I made the main part of the car the boudoir, the front and rear wing out of the wafers, the helmet sticking out of the cockpit was the jelly tot, and the wheels – smarties. After cutting out the small paper racing cars for the table sprinkles we were then ready to go – to bed.

Saturday morning; we were off to the hall to decorate at 08:00 before the guests arrived at 09:30. We put out racing car cups, hats, plates, and blowers (which thankfully we bought) and filled each seating with chips, sweets, cool drink and a mini F1 car.

All that aside; the party was great and Nathan loved the people and the kiddies and the presents and most of all - When everyone sang happy birthday to him, he smiled from ear to ear and joined in the “hooray” at the end.

We only had the hall for a short while, but moms and babies don’t have a lot of time. Babies from 8 – 24 months have sleep schedules and eating schedules as does Nathan, so the few hours of amazing sound levels that can come from 12 children it was more than enough and fun was had by all.

Then -- It was off to my moms’ house at 13:00 for a family braai/bbq.

From 12 kids to my family is not a huge difference in decibels and smiles. I was at one stage asking my sisters if it was necessary to shout 1 meter to the person across half a patio. - Literally half way across, one in the center and one on the side. Nathan was the centre of the show and everyone was enjoying his baby chatter and laughing and his amazing sense of humor.

Behind the scene’s, my mother in-law had arrived on Friday for Nathans birthday and will be here for a while. Nathan loves his granny because he does not get to see her for long periods at a time as she lives over seas and comes down to us at least twice a year. This time she is going to stay for long enough for us all to see and have fun with.

My sister in-law which we see even less lives even further away and only saw Nathan for the first time when he was a year old, has also come down for a visit and to surprise the rest of the family because we all miss her.

After the braai my wife and I had to ready Nathan to stay with my mother while we went to see da Lemon Code by Barry Hilton in Sandton (SA’s best comedian). I won tickets over the radio for the show and we enjoyed it tremendously.

Sunday we had a bit of a rest and came down from the two days.

OH! One more thing

2006-07-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

NO OPP.

Aint it cool

Just after last week end we got the results back from the biopsy and they were fine.

I hate to say it ----

2006-07-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

But christmas is on its way!!!!!!

Nathan is 2 TODAY. I know I have mentioned it in past posts, but it’s quite exciting. The pics I have added are to show just how much Nathan has grown. The pic of him with the dog is the most recent one and the other two are two years old -- look at the size of the dummy next to his head.

Today has been eventful for Nathan and me. Nathan has been driving all over with his mom fetching family from the airport and I have been icing cakes and building F1 cars with wafers and other biscuits.

Nathan took one look at his pillow and passed right out, and I am going to do exactly that. Catering is hard work, -- I take my hat off -- It is strenuous and time consuming.

Tomorrow is the fun of making the place pretty and tidying it afterwards. We have made all the décor, with lots lotsa lotsa lotsa help from my mom and sister. The main cake is a blue racing car with orio wheels and cracker side fins, a very Le Mans style rear wing and a nose like a Diablo. Some silver balls and smarties and some jelly beans and the cake is master piece (almost).

Time goes incredibly fast - how many of you realized that its half way through the year.
It feels like Christmas was last month and its almost here again. The T.V. and radio will very soon be starting with their Xmas specials and there sales and “What you should get for your loved one this Christmas” adds.

Guess The Thing??

2006-07-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Who can tell me what this is?

Nathan's Birthday

2006-07-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

DON'T FORGET I ONLY POST ON WEEKENDS

2006-07-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

The Week Ahead

2006-07-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

Its Sunday Night

Tomorrow is Monday and we are going to get the results from Nathans second biopsy and we are waiting to find out when and what they are going to do.

We are hoping for a simple and quick solution, but there are none. I am hoping that the doc will say “Oh! Just stop giving him butter”, or something pathetic like that. But I do believe that we will have a good solution and we will sort the problem out.

My son is a happy boy and he has the best personality and sense of humor that a 2 year old can have. Now imagine if he had sort out his stomach, he would be a 100% smile. There will be nothing to get him down; he will be a little beam of light to everyone around him, not like he can shine any brighter.

So say a little prayer for Nathan tomorrow or just keep him in your thoughts for the day, or for a few days.

Rhyming words

Father to Son

A gift of life brought down to earth
Given to us through miracle of birth
Sent from high in the heavens above
For us to cherish and shower with love

A tiny sprout of life has begun
To fill our lives with laughter and fun
I look into his beautiful face
And wonder what previously could have filled this space
His tiny posture and delicate physique
I doubt in this world, one could be more unique

A bond any greater - - I don’t think there is one
Than that of a man
To his wife and his son.

Nathans Dad

Rhyming words

2006-07-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

Life For Granted

The race strangely lets life pass away
Not stopping at all to take in whats in play
There's so much to see and so much to notice
Funny how easy it is to loose focus

Just think of man and what he's achieved
Some of it's realy hard to believe
Natural things are always a wonder
Like mountains and trees, lightning and thunder

Take time to stop and take in the sights
Both natuaral and man made, moonshine and lights
Look at the clouds and what how they are made
Defying gravity and just get blown away

Radio's and TV's are something to apreciate
Just imagine the minds that think up and innovate
The human brain is taken for granted
Look around and inside at organs implanted

Flowers and trees, not one is the same
The are simply millions and they all have a name
What's left to discover in our small exsistance
There's no uncharted course no unplotted distance

So we look to the stars for our next exploration
For something to stop us from lost concentration
The brain of man though small in itself
Has become unstimulated and loosing its wealth

Take time, look around at whats to be seen
Don't sit and idle, give the mind a good clean
The earth that we live on is fascinating in many ways
Enjoy as much as you can
You have very few days

Nathans Dad

Two years and finally getting somewhere

2006-07-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

15 July 2006

We have had a rough week. Nathan went for his second biopsie and thank goodness he is at home and not in the hospital. The second time is to double check on the first one so that they are sure of what they have found before going ahead with the big opp.

Let me fill y'all in :-

Nathan since a few weeks old has battled with his colon for as long as he has been around, causing serious cramps and hospitalizing constipation. He has been to numerous dietitians and homeopaths to get different diet plans and nutrition plans to help him out. These have not worked. He is now almost two years old, as you might have read, and he is no better.

He has been living on laxitives and with his smiling little face, you would never think there was anything wrong at all. He goes on as normal and plays and runs around as usual. His eating routine is interrupted and irregurlar, he sometimes goes a whole day with nothing but a small portion of his bottle.

The first biopsie was done on the 29 June 2006. - Problem found. - dead nerves in the colon, causing the low or non function most of the time in certain parts of the colon. This would mean that, that part of the colon would have to be removed to fix the problem. Our doc. is vcry thorough and has done a second biopsie and taken two samples and sent it to two different pathologists to make sure that what was found was infact correct and accurate. After the biopsie the doc. told us that - from the results of the first one and from what he saw during the second one - "nathan has a serious problem" an opp. is in the pipeline.

We have found in the past, that a second opinion is not always a good thing. The opp is 5 - 6 hours long. This will be his 6th time under anesthetic and his second major opp. The first being a VP Shunt, - which is a tube from the brain to the stomach, draining exess brain fluid to stop presure on the brain to stop impending damage. This has been very successful and we forget it's even there. It is not visable anyway.

I must say all the prosedures have been smooth and without a hickup.

AND

When you spend so much time in a hospital, and you hear other peoples stories of their children - you are incredibly greatfull for what you have endured thus far, your only hope is that your child will grow out of it. Nathan has been in hospital for pneunonia 14 times, twice for gastro, once for constipation, once for the shunt, twice for a biopsie and here we are now.

THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE ELSE WORSE OFF.

But all is well in our house, my wife has attacked the garden and has done a stirling job of it.

I will only be posting my blog every weekend as my week is full and my job demanding, so after work is me my wife and nathan.

Write y'all

2006-07-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Time Flies

It's July and Nathan is turning 2. The thing I love most about this age - is the new stuff. Nathan comes up new stuff every day, like putting words together for the first time. One morning wake up and say a sentence and smile at you, all proud of himself. Thats realy how it happened, I still asked him to repeat it, which he did quite promptly.

He is making all kinds of new noises and jabbering non sense making chatter, which I listen to with baited breath. Of course we taught him all the important words like Mama and Dada and Ouma and Oupa. Then he kind of extened the vocabulary all by himself.

It opens your eyes to how much babies and todlers and small children actually listen to what is going on around them. We don't tend to listen so intentively because we've been around much longer and are used to the sounds around us and like somtimes to close the one way switch in the inside of our ears to whats happening around us.

Nathan walks around very independantly and does not like it when you tell him to go where you want him to go, he wants to go alone and do it his way.

Bathtime is a fave of his. This is when he gets to soak the rest of the bathroom, it's like a goal - as soon as they put me in the water, I'm going to see how much of the water I can put in the rest of the bathroom. We baught him a bag of 100 plastic balls, roughly the size of tennis balls. They fill the bath from side to side, like giant long staying bubbles, and of all the fantastic toys that he has and all the cars and fire engines - he want to play with the plastic floating balls - It's like the wrapping of a presant is more intersting than the presant itself.

These past two years have been the best anyone can have.

Check out the pics and you'll see what I mean.

2006-07-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

We are a small part of the huge family in ZA. The three of us and our three cats and one chewing machine live out our days like any other T.V. family - If only it were that easy - .

I am a graphic artist and my wife works at an aftercare whom she is trying to take to court for not adhering to the rules of employment, such as - sick leave, remuneration, unpaid leave and conrtacts. I really take my hat off to my wife as she looks after our little Nathan in the morning and then goes off to work in the afternoon with 40 - 100 shouting primary school kids.

I work a nine hour a day shift, making peoples bad photo's look nice. You won't believe some of the requests that I get with regard to photo's. Sometimes I have to move a row of people around so that they are in the right order, and not three or four people, no - twelve people all standing in the wrong places. Why not take the photo how you want it in the first place. Its not allways like that, most is weddings and special effects and new designs of logos and business cards.

Nathan is turning 2 and I can't believe that just last week - two years ago - we were in the car with bags heading for another check in the middle of the night only to find another false alarm.
He was a c-section, and had to be because he was a breech baby, Which is not such a big deal anymore because of this.

Angel's Mind (blog) is full of Nathan, and she loves him almost as much as me and his mom. He has the most amazing sense of humour for a two year old and loves cars. If you page through a car magazine or drive along the road, he can identify nine different car manufacturers and gets it spot on 99% of the time. He know's Audi as Audi (My fave), Alfa as Alfa, Opel as Opel, Mazda as Maha, Aston Martin as Ahin, Toyota as Jessie (Friends who have a toyota), VW as Ania (Friends who have a VW), Ford as Ouma (Self explanitory), Subaru and Merc as Oupa (Oupa in Saudi with the Subaru and Oupa here with the Merc), BMW as a sound which he only makes when he see's the tell tale front grill of a BMW or the emblem, Lastly my absolute fave as a formula one fan of note - Ferrari as an enthusiastic MMMMMMM with some grunt that comes from I don't know where, and no one I know can make the same sound. - It sounds good, don't get me wrong.-