It is so very seldom that I get the 3 brother sitting together and smiling for the camera. So when I do – I take full advantage of the situation…
These were taken while waiting for our lunch at Sun City, The Valley of the Waves. On Logan’s birthday – 24 December 2012.
“I will smile when I am being tickled and I will kick if it gets too much”
“The keeper – just so Mom will stop with the freaking photos…”
“Right – my turn”
It is a certain Master WD Swart’s birthday today…
You have started big school just over a month ago and you are really enjoying it. You passion is and will probably forever remain trucks! You know trucks back to front – you know what they transport and your truck collection is your pride and joy!
You love dogs! Whenever you visit us over weekends you are in the garden. Diesel is your favourite dog, even though Lallie is technically “your” dog. For months you have been asking how old Lallie is, always wanting to know when he will be one year old. My boy, Lallie is finally one year old!
You are an awesome big brother. Your love for your brothers amazes and inspires. Logan loves spending time with you over weekends. He literally counts the sleeps until he will see you again, from the moment you go home after a weekend visit. You two fight from time to time, as is appropriate for brothers! You guys are also impossibly naughty and a handful together. I guess that is what it means to be a boy!
Your favourite pass time when it comes to Oliver, is to sit next to him. Very often you don’t say a word, you simply hold his hand and sit in silence. It is beautiful to see and I am so excited to see how your relationship evolve in the coming year!
It saddens us that we don’t get to wake up next to today. We don’t get to wake up in the dark morning hours to light the required number of birthday candles and quietly walk to the side of your bed, cake in hand. We don’t get to sing happy birthday to you in person, we don’t get to cuddle in bed while we all watch in anticipation for you to open your birthday presents.
That doesn’t mean, you have not been in our thoughts the whole day!
Happy birthday WD! We will celebrate the weekend!
xxx
We are having a party for WD very soon. This will be the first party K and I will really be involved in and we are thrilled.
It is extremely odd for me to have a party planned two weeks prior to the actual date. Invites out, venue confirmed, party pack stockers bought. Where is the real Alet and which aliens up-ducted her?
P.S. How very odd to do anything in a written format in Afrikaans, notice the spelling error? It is the language the fingers type English. It is in the blood!
In November last year, the Swart family made our way to a local photographer’s studio to take some family photos. So it has been a while since then, however the result is still awesome:
As soon as we walked out of the studio we decided two things: Firstly we decided that doing a photo shoot will be a yearly occurrence.
The second is that we would much rather prefer a lifestyle shoot on location. The photos of Oli is priceless. Gorgeous! However the next a natural setting outside, is and will always be more natural.
We are however extremely excited to have received these and cannot wait to put them in frames around the house!
Joy – Take us back to a moment this year when you experienced pure,
unadulterated joy.
There has been quite a few moments in the year really and I would like to think the idea is not to repeat the same information from previous posts, so here goes:
WD kind of JOY: We decided to give WD a puppy for his birthday this year. WD decided to call his dog Lallie. Lallie is one of the many nicknames I have for Logan, in essence he named his dog after his brother. This was one of the first moments I truly felt that he wanted to be apart of our family.
A Logan kind of pure joy moment: Seeing the pride on his face when he attended his Grade R party. A milestone – big school. This along with the moment he graduated from his nursery school.
Pure Joy with Kobus: The sparkle in his eyes every time we saw our little foot on the scans in the gynae’s office. The laughter in his voice when he felt Oli move in my tummy.
Oli-Mac Joy: When Oli was in Neo Natal ICU, there were a lot of emotions going around. But the first (wind induced) smile we caught on camera was the moment I knew everything would be okay.
Sundays are fast becoming my favourite day of the week. For the past couple of weeks, we have started making a point of having some sort of family outing on the day.
Yesterday we had a little outing to Safari Nursery.. The week before the boy’s had a swim at Zita Park.
Logan - Adventure Junkie wanting more and faster..
WD going safe and steady (which makes for lovely in focus pictures)
The Littlest of the all with his hat
Making a point of taking more pictures together.
Before that we had an outing to Irene Dairy Farm and if my mind serves me well the Sunday before that we spent leisurely strolling through the Unica Market.
This is a first time, 10 things I have learnt post for me. I’m sure it won’t be the last! Happy Monday everyone!
What were you up to the weekend?
Sunday was the day I finally met Kobus’ son. I must admit I was nervous. At first he was very shy and feeling a bit grumpy (from the nap). We took the boys to Centurion Lake as WD (his boy) wanted to jump on a jumping castle, unfortunately it started raining as we arrived and we lead ourselves to Milky Lane for a sweet treat!
His Boy (WD)
My Boy
Our Boys
Afterwards we took the boys home, where all three “boys” starting playing in the mud. They were building a dam, getting dirty and generally having fun:
I really like this Photo
My Boys
Little Boys come clean
After they had their bath, both boys made themselves comfortable on Kobus’ bed and watched Ben10 and Bakugan. They were comfortable with each other. Later the afternoon Kobus asked his son if it will be okay for Tannie Alet* and Logan to come with when they go and visit his ouma and oupa. He agreed that it would be okay. We had some tickle daddy/uncle Kobus moments. We had some supper. We had one tantrum (thankfully from Logan) and WD agreed that he was being naughty!
As the afternoon came to an end I knew Kobus would need to take him home. I was looking forwards to some down time, a chance to ask Logan what he thought of WD and a chance to process my thoughts. Instead the little bugger demanded that Tannie Alet ** and Logan comes with when his dad takes him home! I was very happy that he wanted us there! Not so much that I would need to sit through a 45 minute drive one way to go and drop him off at home. Small sacrifices I suppose :)
It was a really good thing, we had some lovely chats in the car and he took some great initiative snoring on behalf of Logan, after he fell asleep. Once we arrived at his home, we said our goodbyes and all I really wanted to do, was to get a good look at the ex-wife! Naturally meeting her was slightly more than I had bargained on!! It was only a quick “Oh hi there” from her side. Which is fine because it adds to the horrible picture I have of her in my mind, she is overweight, looks much older than her years but well looked after (Thanks to my boyfriend who is a softy by nature). In all honesty, I don’t know her and as long as she doesn’t make my boyfriend life difficult I will leave her be. Like Kobus say, now the formalities are out-of-the-way.
All in all, it was good. Nothing like my worst nightmare and yet I need to keep telling myself that this is not going to feel natural, not for a while at least! Does anyone have some advise on getting to know the stepkids?
* Cringe, cringe at Tannie Alet. Took me long enough to get use to Aunty Alet or as Logan says Aunty Let.
** Cringe Again: Note that I manage to spell Tannie with two N’s!!
Living and enjoying-enjoying real life is something I haven’t experienced in a long time. It is something so addictive, intoxicating and it is becoming a way of life! Here are some of the high-lights when it comes to my new favourite adult male person:
Sparrow at Heart 
