Hello - Bye Bye

So my angel, you waved at me, finally after months and months of conditioning, you stepped up to the plate and did it.

It was so surreal actually seeing you do it. I couldn't believe my eyes. You were in daddy's arms, and as I waved, you waved back, and when I did it again, you did it again, and so it went until you finally became tired of us playing our silly little games.

Very proud of you my angel. You continue to amaze me day by day.

Love you plenty!
Mom

From Declan du Toit's website

From Declans Website:
Monday, February 09, 2009Hello all my special friendsLast night at 11.10 pm I left to go and be with my Daddy in the sky. A beautiful angel called Michael, with massive wings and a brilliant white glow all about him came to fetch me and held my hand as we flew through the sky. He has been with me for some time now but last night he said it’s time to go home.Mommy and Daddy held me in their arms as I left and the rest of the family were standing in the room with me. What a welcome I got when I arrived. Open arms and hugs and tears of joy cos I have no more pain. The monster stayed behind on earth and I can see beautifully from 2 open eyes. I can even run around and there are just so many toys here. Today I plan to go for my first swim in the sea with fishies and star fishies and the angels told me I will even be able to breathe under water.Thank you so much for all your love and support and for walking my road with me. My family and I could never have done it alone and we just don’t have words to explain how much your love, encouragement, faith and strength have meant to us.Mommy promised me a party when I got better so I am holding her to it. Mommy will put the details on my site and it will probably be towards the end of this week and you are all welcome to come.Mommy and Daddy promised me to continue the work I started for other kids fighting monsters so please don’t stop coming to my site. There is still lots to do. Instead of flowers and such things, I am asking you to sign up for our Bone Marrow drive and Mommy will put more details on the site later.This is Declan signing out. I love you all lots and I know it’s hard for the people who stay behind to understand, but be strong, cos I am in a place now where I understand everything, I understand how loved I was on earth and I understand and am experiencing true peace for the first time in my little life.Love Declan 7 months, 3 weeks and 4 days

BUSTED!!!

Well my angel,

I'm sorry to tell you, but your cover has been blown! Rosie told me today that you are in fact crawling. For weeks now dad and I have been watching, waiting, wondering when you are going to give that first "leap" into boy-hood, when today Rose casually informed me that as soon as you think no one is watching, you crawl like a champion. Hmmmm, I think you are getting way to clever for your age young man.

She told me how you crawled to the couch, rested for a bit, then proceded to pull yourself up, and trample like a little ellie. As soon as she said "how, Caden" however you sat down and pretended that nothing happened. Makes me wonder, are we spoiling you too much?

Well, from now on you're on your own my little shrimp, if you want a bottle, you know where the kettle is, and I taught you how many scoops of formula. The nappy bin is close for your perusal and you can have access to all the pots and pans your heart desires!

lol.

Love you my monkey and I'm very very proud of you.

Mom

P.s. Your friend Deqlan's ultrasounds are clear clear clear. Praise to Him who knows all.

Some Pics

Wes wearing his All-hands-on-Dec shirt

Mom & Caden at Keaton's party

Caden & Kai

Kai and Caden at Keaton's 1st Birthday

Megan, Conrad and Keaton

Yum Yum lucky packets!

Caden in his cool hat

Napping with dad

Out as a light!

Hmmm ginger bread man!

Not interested in the ellies

Hmmm rock tastes good!

Wow, those fishies are HUGE

Cool lizards

My favourite, Its Dory!!!

So tired after all the fun at the zoo!

Caden and dad, dressed to match!

Nothing like a nice nap in a shopping trolly

See, I can be friendly if I'm not teething!

Lots of fun balls in my swimming pool

Prayers for Declan du Toit Please!!!

Please, please, please stop what you are doing and take a moment to say a little prayer for Declan du Toit, the below has been taken off his blog sending a flooding of prayers to our heavenly father:
From Declan du Toits Blog:
Hello Declan friends, Granny Wendy writing to you today. Declan is not up to writing at the moment as we have had some bad news.Declan started to get ill last Wednesday as was shown by his blood tests, and on Saturday night he was rushed to hospital. Early Monday morning he had a lumbar punch and various other tests and the results are bad. Declan has tumours on his head, behind his ear, on his chest, on the other side of his neck and in his bone marrow. In other words, the monster has crept into every corner of his body. He is on oxygen and morphine to ease his pain. The doctors have told us that we will have our darling little man for another month if we are lucky.Gillian and Daryl have decided on home care with palliative treatment and hopefully the whole family will return to the warmth and love of their home tomorrow. We will be taking along the oxygen and will probably have round the clock nursing assistance.BUT - this is not the end. There have been so many miracles along the way in Declans life and we are asking you all to mobilise your prayer army, cell group, Church, friends, e-mail lists and any other person you can think of, because the greatest Healer holds Declan in the palm of his hand and can work another miracle. The earthly doctors have done everything within their power and we accept their prognosis and the family are being realistic and preparing themselves, BUT WE HAVE NOT GIVEN UP. Our Heavenly Father and Healer is the One we rely on. For the caterpiller (in this case the cancer monster) it is the end, but for the butterfly it is a new beginning. Declan is our butterfly and we pray for his healing and stretching of beautiful wings for a life of complete healing and wholeness.I will update you every couple of days on his progress and I am sure that when Declan is feeling up to it, he will send you a message.God Bless you all for standing by the family with your love and support and in anticipation of this world-wide prayer that will go up to our Heavenly Father. With love from Granny Wendy

Happy Birthday Great Granny

Happy Birthday for yesterday Great Granny Grey,
Hope you got spoiled rotten and that God blesses you for many many more years to come!

Also bye bye to grampy who went to Dubai. Hope you enjoy your time there and we're counting the days until you come back.

Lots of Love
Us3

SLEEP, PRECIOUS SLEEP!

Hello my angel,

Well, this morning your dad and I awoke with a spring in our steps!!! Yes, you finally slept through, didn't even murmur once! I don't even know what to do with this new found energy! Thanks my only, we needed it!

So, what have you been up to this weekend? Well, Saturday morning we went for coffee with Anja and little Ane. As Anja and I were trying our best to take a sip of our cooldrinks, we realised that the days of just having a quiet coffee with a friend are gone! Ane'tjie is crawling already so she was up and about, just experimenting with everything, and you kept trying to get into crawling position from sitting, and I had to watch you and make sure you didn't fall over. Eventually you did fall over and bumped your head quite badly. I got such a fright, and almost went into a panic. Anja calmed me and told me all the signs I need to look for if it's serious. But that was just the beginning, over the weekend you hit your head 3 MORE TIMES! I realised then that it was bound to happen, so I might as well get use to it. Luckily it doesn't look like too much damage was done, hie-hie.

Then in the afternoon you went to your first birthday party, you buddy Keaton's. And wow, what an amazing site. There was a jumping castle, baby pool, crawling tunnel and so much more. You were mesmerised with all the colours and people, and you had your first marshmallow (very sticky) and a yummy teething biscuit that Megs put in your little goody basket. It was definitely a very messy business, but you loved it!

Then on Sunday dad and I took you to the zoo. You were very interested in all the fishies, and you saw your favourites, Nemo and Dory! You talked to Dory through the glass and tried to catch her (to play I'm sure, hopefully not to eat), but she was way to fast for you! You didn't care much for the animals, maybe they weren't colourful enough. But we'll take you again when you're a bit older so that you can fully appreciate the size of the elephants!

On another note, I realised that I didn't tell you about all the great presents grampy, granny, granny grey and uncle Poena sent you when granny and grampy came up from Cape Town. You got a very fancy car that "dances" and plays music, another little car with buttons that make sounds, a little black motorbike, a swirly toy thingy with balls in it, and a smart kid toy. Yup, you definitely got spoiled rotten! Thanks a lot guys, it keeps us out of trouble!!!

Anyway my angel, I love you plenty and I promise to post some pics of the zoo and the party soon.

Love you always!
Mom

So many happy happy's!

My angel, before I start writing to you, and give you my 2c on life, let me first say Happy Happy to all the people celebrating their birthdays today.

Happy Happy Poen Skoen (that's uncle Brendon Caden, but you'll know him as uncle Bob, Jimmy or Poen Skoen)

Hope you have a fantastic day and that you get spoiled rotten!

Happy Happy Keaton for your very 1st Birthday! I know this will be a day that your mom will never forget and you will have some amazing photos to treasure. We can't wait to see you tomorrow and how much you've grown!

Happy Happy Tante Elriza! Mag daar nog vele meer wees en mag die Here tannie se drome en gebede almal antwoord!

Now I know what you're thinking baba, how on earth did the stork manage to deliver so many people on one day? Well firstly, they're all in different years, so it was possible, and secondly, your father will cover the whole "stork-issue" with you later!

So, like your comical dad told you, you've been waking up at 3h00 for the past 3 mornings, thinking it's playtime. Now this would probably be manageable under normal circumstances, but mom and dad have been working extremely hard this week, getting into bed about 2 hours later than we usually do. So this, plus your early morning shenanigans, has left you with two, very overtired parents. The only reason I'm saying this to you now is so that when you have your own children one day, and you find yourself thinking: "What did I ever do to deserve this?", I will be able to provide you with the evidence that you did, in fact, do something to deserve this, lol. Just kidding fatty, it really has made both your dad and I a lot stronger. I mean, now we drink coffee in a 5l can, lots of sugar and no milk thank you! Mom's waiting for the chest hair to appear!

On a more serious note my angel, mom's been reading your friend Malakai's blog, and there is one entry that I cannot stop reading, and it plays over and over in my mind. When you're big I'll read it to you. In this entry Malakai's mom highlights one very very important lesson that I want you to learn as soon as possible, and that is that there is no such thing as perfection, or how something "should be". Don't ever believe that you are not good enough, or that things "should be" different. Don't buy in to this idea of perfection that society has sold to us. Just believe in yourself, in a Higher Power that guides us, and in love, for others and yourself. Life is just life my angel, it is what it is. Go and live it to the best of YOUR ability, no one else's.

Anyway my poopie pants, on a lighter note, I really hope you have a wonderful weekend, you've got your first kiddies party to go to, yay!

Love you plenty!

Mom

Back to the Salt mines

Hey my Boy

Well as you have noticed Mom n I are both back into full swing in the wheat fields, so the blog has been slow of late. You have been a little Angel though, gently waking us up at 3am the last few mornings, it really makes getting up at 5am alot easier and one day when you are a teenager i will surely have my fun repaying the kindness with a water pistol through your window. You have become quite the character though and we love it, your favourite is to gently groan in our ears and pat our heads when we nod off in those early morning play times, I really enjoy playing at night, you have a very naughty look in those eyes, just like a little boy should, alas I do fear for your antics when you get totally mobile and I am sure we will be replacing alot of 'accidental mishaps'. No prob as long as it is in good taste, I might even have a idea or 2 for you to try. You have gained a few lumps and are starting to fill out a bit in the mid section, ie your a fatty. Last night you learnt how to growl in you throat and as evil as it sounded it shows you are developing just fine.

Anyway lad, can't wait to see you tonight and chase you in your walker around the lounge, maybe we can even play corner the Jack russell for a bit.
Hope you and Rose are havin a good Friday.

Later Bud.
Love Dad

Escape is the word!

Hello my beautiful,

You've been up to so many things, I thought I'd write and tell you all about them. Let me first tell you about your first new year...you slept hie-hie! But mom and dad had a great time, with most of our friends and ohpaw Zak came to visit as well. He brought you the cutest and fluffiest doggy which now you love to hug and squeeze, thanx ohpaw. The next day mom and dad went for a spa treatment to get ourselves ready for the new year while you had a sleepover at ouma Rina's. She and ouma grootjie just told me how you made them laugh and all the amazing things you are doing! Thanx for being such a good boy!

Well my angel, as you can see from the title, the only thing you are interested in now is escaping. Escaping from your cushion, walking ring, cot, you name it. Your personality changed almost instantly into this little rascal who just wants to explore everything and anything! Dad chases you around in your walking ring and you are actually getting away from him! It's wonderful to see that you want to try new things, yesterday you even had a bite of apple, which you never wanted!

You've just been a little constipated the last couple of days and I hope you leave the next nappy for dad and not wait till I get home. Dad's still on leave and apparently you two have been causing chaos around that house. He plays ball with you on the carpet, and takes you flying, you know, all those guy things that I don't often think of. You are also sleeping in your own room now, but when you wake up and want to eat I end up sleeping in the single bed with you! Dad also got you a stroller because you are getting too big for your pram!

It looks like your eye toofies are coming out before your front teeth, so you'll look like an old granny with no toofs my boy! The one has already made it's appearance. They say these teeth are the worst to cut, so I'm very proud of you. Other than a couple of nags, you've been absolutely wonderful!

Anyway, I must get back to work now. Mom started a new job so that we can have more money so that dad and I can take you all over the world to see the pyramids, wall of china, and all those other interesting places!

Oh, and I'm sure the next couple of days are gonna be a complete party for you because granny and grampy are coming up from Cape Town tonight!

Love you plenty my only.
Mom