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!