I have pondered paint colors for weeks now, loving every second of spreading out paint samples and chips and driving Mark crazy with a dozen questions about which shade of green looks better. Finally decision made, paint purchased, I set out to paint the living room. My plan is to paint while Benjamin naps during the day, and after that while he plays quietly and sweetly in the dining room which is cordoned off and safe. I am so excited I can hardly wait for him to take his delicious long morning nap so that I can get started. Finally he is sleeping, I get kitted up and just as I am rolling on the first stripe of green, I hear a cry. Rats! He is awake, already? Ok well no problem, I will just put him in the dining room and let him play there. Aware that paint is drying on the roller, I quickly get him set up playing and race back to paint. 2 minutes later, he is wailing his head off. Back down off the chair, roller down and check on Benjamin. He is stuck in a cardboard box.

Reverse the man out of the box, back out, up the chair, roller back in hand. Another wail. Down we go again. Reverse him out of the box again, back out, up the chair and roll. Wail. And so on and so on. Holly in the meantime is whining to be let back in. She has muddy feet so I make her lie down on the mat to dry off. I then bring Benjamin in to the living room with me, with all the gigantic cardboard boxes that he loves. Space is getting a little tight now, but as long as I can shuffle around the boxes  and wet dog I should manage to get a coat on the wall. Back up the chair we go, roller in hand. I reach up, delighted to finally get stuck in. In a matter of seconds Benjamin has navigated through the boxes and heads straight into the pan of toxic paint. Delightful. And is now tracking paint all over the wooden floors. Holly decides that now is the perfect time to slink onto the carpet unnoticed.I frantically climb over boxes diving to get to Ben before he makes it to the carpet or eats the paint, meanwhile yelling at Holly to get off the carpet. She in turn, looks terrified and like she might pee, and Benjamin is frightened of the yelling and starts to cry.

I am standing in a room surrounded by boxes and paint cans, holding a green baby under one arm and clutching at the collar of a muddy smelly dog in the other. Mud and green paint all over the floor. I laugh and take a deep breath. I am trying to do too much and it ain’t workin’ mamma! So Holly gets turfed out to dry in the sunshine like a dog aught to, and I spend the rest of the morning playing peak-a-boo with Benjamin in a pile of boxes. The paint dries on the brush and the walls will wait another day, and in the meantime I am having the time of my life laughing with my gorgeous little boy. Yes this is my life and I would not change a thing about it!

Our long awaited trip to Cape Town is over and it seems like a dream already!

I feel so incredibly blessed that we were able to take Benjamin all the way to Africa and introduce him to my family. It was so special and meant so much to me to see him with them! Having been to Cape Town before, Mark and I didn’t feel like we had to do too much or see too much, and instead just enjoyed being a family and having no agenda. It was marvellous! We stayed at an incredibly beautiful part of Cape Town called Noordhoek at Monkey Valley. Wild and exposed to crazy weather, beautiful wooden chalets and breakfasts on the porch looking out over the beach. We saw friends and family and rode the cable car up the mountain. It was wonderful! Benjamin did as well as he could with the time change and I am hoping that the pain of those 4 long awful flights (he decided to start crawling 2 days before our trip…need I say more) will dull with time. In the meantime, it is awesome to be home and we have no desire to fly anywhere again for a long loooooooong time!

This morning I went in to fetch Benjamin from his night in the crib, and I was greeted by him standing up in his crib for the first time. I was amused to see his little body all upright and balancing on his tiny little feet and then gradually a little horrified that he is already standing up in there; he is getting so big so fast! If only I could have had a nickel for everytime anyone told me to enjoy every minute of Benjamin growing because it goes so fast. I just cant help wishing that we were back at day 8 instead of month 8, so that I could love every second of watching him grow all over again. He is amazing, and every second that Mark and I get to spend with him is such a blessing. He is the best thing ever!

In a very short 8 months we have gone from this:

To this:

and this:

And now this:

and this:

I can’t resist him!

(On a side note, I did notice that he is already trying to hitch his little legs up and over the side of his crib…one of these might be in his future!)