Kailey's Day Today

I thought I would give a quick break down of Kai's day....

We started out with milk and The Mickey Mouse Club House - she loves this show and can't belive she knows Micky Mouse. She freaks out whenever she sees Mickey. Today she noticed he was on her nappy (dipers) and walked around with it for hours.



We then had music class today. This is Kindermusik, it's quite sweet and she enjoys it. This is the church where it is held... very southern!




When we came home she found the bunny ears I got her for easter... she put them on and wore them for a while.




The rest of the day she played with her new drum (and shakers), slept, and waited for Daddy to come home. Since Deric is the breakfast master, he used his 'eggspertise' and taught her how to make scrambled eggs!





Last but not least Daddy took her off to bath (aka play time) to have some quality dad and daughter time (and to let me be babyless for 30 minutes).

What Kai has been up to lately!

She is changing so much lately, before my eyes and there is nothing I can do about it!!! Seeing her become her own little person is just the best thing ever. I ask her if she wants milk, if she needs a nappy change, if she wants to go to sleep, where here toys are etc… she will answer ‘ye’ for yes and not at all for no!


But she is miss independant and has to walk EVERYWHERE! It's too cute!

She will start holding your hand and then pull away with her arms at her ears and usually squealing as she speeds up on a bit of a speed wobble!

She goes down stairs on her belly and slides all the way down, something like this...









We started her on swimming lessons this past weekend, since I did the ones from 6 months Deric has taken on these - of course I am right there taking a million pictures!


Other than that we have all been sick lately and have spent a bit more time at home than normal. She plays all day long and 'destroys' the house. Her bike is a top toy and she will get on and off it all day long (thanks Rachel and Kelly)

Just a few of my NEVERISMS

Things I said I would never do……and have done or totally went above and beyond

• I would never marry a policeman since they did not come home every night. (if only)
• I would never let my child eat sugar till they were two
• I would never go through a drive through – I would get out my car and get it myself. (Now with a child in the car they rock – ATM, Starbux, Drycleaners….)
• I would never use a dishwasher – ha!
• I would never eat sushi - stable diet now!
• I would never leave my trolley (shopping cart) in the middle of the parking lot – well now I am not leaving my child alone in the car to take it back …. And I am also not parking next to the trolley drop off incase someone hits my car (it’s a complex one)
• I would never live far from my family
• I would never get a speeding fine (it was a personal goal – now in SA I got 7 in 5 months…… coming home from school and wanting to get home to Kai)
• In 1994 I said I would never get a cell phone they are for showoffs!!!!
• In 1997 I said I would never invest in the internet – it would never take off (I guess you see why I do so badly with roulette and that’s just black and red)
• I would never drink beer – in London its sooooo much cheaper than anything else!
• When I had kids I would make sure all their toys stay in their bedrooms so the adult areas in the house would stay clear and neat – the funniest one of all!


Things I said I would never do...and still have not done – watch this space things could change

• Wear my husbands T-shirts even when pregnant
• Go to Wal-Mart at midnight … in my pajamas… with slippers on….. with curlers in my hair….. Oh the list could go on.
• I will never cut my hair short
• I will never eat fruit


That’s all I can think of now – I guess I have done most of what I said I wouldn’t! Just goes to show - never say never!

She is WALKING!!!!!

On Tuesday night Kai started walking - she waited for Deric to get home from work and to add to the good timing Hannah came over and I could get some pictures of her.






She has been very busy. She started with a group in Kindermusik, we go to a reading session at the Library for 12 month old's and she is enrolled in swimming class, not to mention the playdates, which are more for me than her.

She is tring to speak much more lately, she says 'juice', 'shoes', 'deka' (thandeka), and 'where' usually refering to her dummy (pasifier)I am trying to get a picture of her saying 'where' as she lifts her shoulders and raises her hands - too cute!!! She has started to copy me too - if I put a hair band on she takes it off my head and puts it on her's, if I put chapstick (lipice) on she wants some too!

We are at a stage now where she is more fun than work, she is sleeping well, eating well and playing well.

As you see she is also helping around the house. Here she was very interested in how Daddy was fixing the door.


We are enjoying the house so much lately and the calm before the storm. We move to Kansas in June, and then again a year after that! So now not rushing around is exaclty what we all need.

Kailey's Birthday Party

Happy 1st Birthday Kailey

Here are just a few pic's of the birthday girl. Her party was on Saturday and we had such a fun time. I will post full details with photo's as soon as I get them all together.
Thank you to everyone who came and sent wishes to Kai..... we are so blessed to have you all.

364 days ago!

Well, its my birthday tomorrow and for the first time I have not even thought about it (till now that is) Now those of you who know me, know that daily reminders are sent to those around me, reminding them of the day that is about to come. I usually make a huge deal about my ‘big’ day and use it to my advantage to see all my beloved friends all at the same time.

So this year is the first year when I just don’t care. I have been focused on Kai’s birthday party and what she will be doing on Friday

I have come to the conclusion though, that I am going to be much better at 32 than I was at 31…… here’s why.

At my 31st birthday I:

 Did not have Kailey in my life yet
 Had not experienced 26 hours of labor
 Had not yet experienced been a 31 year old full time student
 Did not have my degree
 Was not half as bossy as I am now (motherhood does mad things to a woman)
 Had no idea how much I could do in a day let alone a year
 Had not yet reconnected with my SA friends
 Had not yet had a 24 hour travel experience with a 9 week old on my own
 Had not yet experienced the words Mama
 Had not learnt the word patience to its fullest (thanks to Kai and Deric away for 9 months)
 Had not yet learnt that home is where Deric, Kai and I are (or where Kai and I are, depending on deployments)
 I had not yet learnt that I can operate just fine on 4 hours of broken sleep for 6 months, at the same time as writing a thesis, completing 11 assignments, doing 2 practical exams and writing 5 theoretical exams
 Had not yet spent quality time with my family and parents in SA
 Had not yet experience what it is like to be a single parent - (thank goodness that’s over)


So, what this birthday brings me is that I am better than I was at 31 and much stronger than I was just 364 days ago.
What more could you ask for from a birthday!!!!

We have been in NC now for 3 weeks!!!!


We are settled now and starting to find our grove. Kailey is fine, she goes to sleep now at 7:00/7:30 and wakes at 8:00/8:30 and no more night bottle, I love this routine of hers – I hope she keeps it. We have had only two bad nights so far where she was cutting a molar and was up most of the night screaming. (Yip we are now on tooth number 16) But the late mornings make up for these nights for sure.

I have been seeing friends whom I have missed this past 9 months. Or, Dani and Rachel who is in town for 2 weeks from Texas!
These are photo’s Rachel took – She had her Lorelai 3 weeks before I had Kai. This is how fast babies grow up. Lorelai is 3 weeks in this picture and Kai was 4 days old. (It feels like 5 years ago at least)



But everything is going well – getting ready for Kaileys birthday next weekend. We are having some wonderful friends come and stay with us that we have not seen in ages….. I will update fully on the birthday weekend.

Back in the USA!

Christmas 2007 - Johannesburg South Africa

South Africa Vacation 2007! (Finally some pictures!)

Dear Dedicated Readers

I know we said we would post pictures but we are too busy, making sandcastles with Kai, walking with elephants, having afternoon naps, enjoying afternoon teas with relatives and sipping Champaign at night while staring at the stars over the Indian Ocean.

So….. When we get back to my parents house in Jo’burg on Friday…, We promise to post pictures.

Of course we are thinking of you all!!!!!

J,D, & K

Vacation Update – Deric and Jo Versions

Deric's Version

Now that I have finally gotten over my jet lag (3 days standard), we have now officially started our vacation! It has been wonderful so far so we thought we would let everyone know what’s been going on.

Our first three days were spent at Jo’s parents home visiting and reconnecting with Kai as a family. It has truly been amazing. I took straight to Kailey and we have really done well adjusting to hands on fatherhood after a 9 month break. I seem to be a little more adventurous with Kai than Jo is. For example, I let Kai crawl up the stairs for the first time (supervised closely of course) and then I took her out to the lower garden where she crawled and played all over inspecting everything! She had never been let loose there before and she loved it!

Over the weekend we went to Bakubung Game Park and had a nice 3 day family safari. We did so much and yet not too much. It was perfect. We went on three game drives and saw several different animals to include zebra, giraffe, hippo, rhino, lion, all kinds of buck, baboon, and wildebeast. Kailey slept through most of it as we timed our drives around her naps so she would not get too bored.

However, Kailey did get to see some zebras up close outside of our bungalow window and monkeys up close when they came into the outside dinning area to steal people’s food!! She wasn’t scared a bit thought they were pretty funny.

I also sent Joanne to the spa for a 90-minute massage and relaxation therapy. She really needed it as she has been going 100 miles a minute raising a baby, finishing her degree and working on her masters! It was the least I could do. During that time Kai and I spent our first Daddy and Daughter time together. We explored the whole lodge, played in the park and then went to our room for a bottle and nap. We did this all without a cry or a worry that Mom wasn’t around. Very cool. Jo was pleasantly surprised.

Another learning point for me through all this was how much physical (and mental) work raising a baby actually is! Seriously, I’m exhausted!! I brought my PTs to work out, but I don’t need them. Chasing Kai around the lodge, picking her up, putting her down, then again and again and again, rembering when she ate, napped, cried (so I don’t do that again), laughed (so I do to that some more)….. Man I’m smoked!!

Africa is so funny – On the drive to Bakubung the navigation system in our car took us over a mountain range on a dirt road, I was freaking out….. how could our nav system guide us on a dirt road over a mountain top as a main route for 30 minutes? Jo was like – ‘what’s wrong with that?’ Oh we were in a Volvo S80 Sedan– not a truck!

When we were at the at Bakubung a troop of monkeys came to the restaurant and played in the trees and tried to steal peoples food – I was thinking this was the coolest thing I’d seen in a while and Jo was just like ‘what’s wrong with that?’

Then, on the way home the navigation system again cautioned us “Monkeys Ahead” in this area. I thought it was odd to get a “Monkey Ahead Warning” and Jo was just like ‘what’s wrong with that?’

Africa man…. It’s always an adventure!!! And soon more to come.

Jo’s Version

Well since Deric has summed up the time so far I thought I would give you some nitty gritty on the reintegration process.
When Deric was on tour he had to have all the answers to his questions in black and white (meaning with strong yes or no). I however, at the moment live in shades of grey.

Q: When is Kailey going to wake up? – A: Sometime!……
Q: Will Kailey eat all her food? A: Maybe!….
Q: Which road should I take? A: I think it’s this one. I’m not sure!

All these answers cause him to get a twitch in his neck! So he is working on that.

We are staying in a great deal more, and run around so much with Kai all day we are asleep by 8:30 – a big change from four years ago when we met and were out till 3 or 4 am and figuring out when breakfast closed so we could get there 10 minutes prior. Now we’re figuring out when breakfast OPENS and waiting outside cause we’ve been up for an hour!!!!!

I have to let go and allow Deric to take over. I also have to slow down a lot and learn to relax. I go about 1000 miles an hour all the time, he cant even keep up when I walk. I guess I have gone from being single mom to a mom with a caring dad by her side.

Deric is great though – I was very impressed with him today at lunch when he ate a burger, held Kailey and gave her a bottle all at the same time, he is a natural!

So as you see we are all good – thank you for your kind words and thoughts.

On Wednesday we are off to Jeffrey’s Bay and will be there for 10 days of family fun and a little surfing for Deric on the side. We will update from there.

We will follow this blog up tomorrow with a slide show of some recent photos. But right now we both need to go to bed because we are too tired to carry on. It’s 9:00 pm!! Way past our bedtime!

Holbrooks Together Again

Hi Everyone!

Well I am happy to say I have a husband!!!! He arrived Tuesday not Monday. Due to weather conditions in the USA he was delayed and missed his flight to SA. He had to fly to Doha, Qatar and then down to SA. When he arrived his bags did not! When Deric’s sister came to SA her bags also did not arrive and we thought we had been struck by the same curse. But thank goodness Deric’s bags arrived two days later….. phew!

Deric met Kailey at the airport and her reaction to him I will never forget. It was like ‘oh here you are where have you been?’ They are so sweet together and you would never know they have been separated so long…. She does remember!

We are now at Bakubung – a game park about 2 hours from Johannesburg. We arrived yesterday and have been relaxing and working routines out! Today we did two safari drives during Kailey’s naps, I had a hot stone massage and then we went to Sun City (it’s a mixture of Disneyland and Las Vegas) We have now decided to stay one extra evening and will only go home on Monday. Tomorrow we have a full day of hanging out at the pool, another safari and hopefully we will be going to the Palace at Sun City.

Other than that … we are just connecting as a family and trying to relax.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took a moment to reflect on thanksgiving and my very short history with this holiday…

For me Thanksgiving began in 2002 – before then it was a holiday that was sometime in the year and I did not understand why Americans even had it.

I left SA in the beginning of 2002 and was invited to have my very first Thanksgiving in Rochester NY. This was my very first trip to the USA and the first time I saw real snow (lots of it). I could not believe how much food there was!

In 2003 Deric and I had met and we were dating – He was living in Germany and I was in London still. He flew out to spend Thanksgiving with me. I was still working and on the Thursday Deric flew in and caught a cab to my flat in Marylebone. Unforeseen to me I was called to an event that I had running and was not able to get home till 11pm that evening……. I felt so bad, but Deric just hung out with my flatmates and chilled. All the restaurants were closed so we landed up having Thanksgiving dinner at a Doner shop. Deric says that was his best Thanksgiving.

In 2004 – Deric was in Iraq and my friends Sarah and Zack (Americans) were having a Thanksgiving dinner – they made this funny food called ‘Chilli’ I had no idea what it was suppose to be, was it soup? was it spaghetti sauce? They called me the token American and it was a great evening. (by the way I am now a chilli addict)

In 2005 – was almost a month till our wedding and I was flying to SA the day after. Deric and I spent the day alone and I made a small chicken for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year 2006 – we drove to Virginia to be with Dawnele and Lexy (Deric’s sister and our niece) and had a great weekend there, I was pregnant at the time and as far as I can remember was sleeping at every chance I got.

Now this year I am in SA, and Deric is in Florida with his parents. Although I am looking forward to his coming here, I am starting to get very frustrated. I have been waiting for almost 9 months and he is still not here…. School was supposed to be finished last week and now drags on for another week!!!!! Nothing is ending! I am not going to count down anymore days I will just keep busy and get as much done as possible before he arrives.

So there you have it ….. Kaileys first Thanksgiving too and today when we go to the shops to do some Christmas shopping I will let her have a cookie!!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day and safe travels!