Hey little monkey

My little monkey….how is it that you’re getting so big… in 2 months and 3 days time you’ll be turning 2, and I remember the day I first held you in my arms like it was yesterday. It feels like we were blowing out the candle on your very first birthday cake last weekend. All the things that you’ve learnt in these (almost) two short years, how your little personality grows each and every day, your sense of humour has us laughing out loud every day, and how you know what you want so strongly already!

The fact is that I simply can’t imagine life without you in it every day, and every now and then I catch myself in pure amazement that you are actually ours, and that we are in fact parents and somehow managed to progress from the days of wild parties, sleeping in on weekends, spontanious outings and all these sort of things that we took for granted without sometimes even realizing it.

Sometimes it’s overwhelming my  monkey, sometimes I stress that we’re not doing it right, especially like this morning when I’m not sure who had the bigger tantrum, you or me… But then there are so many times I go in to tuck you up at night (ok, let me rather say try and get a blanket to stay on you for more than 2 minutes) and the tears just well up in my eyes just because you seem so perfect, innocent and beautiful in every cell of your body, inside and out and I wonder how on earth I could get frustrated when things aren’t going to plan! The very fact that I shouldn’t exactly win mother of the day award so often, only to be rewarded with  all you wanting from me is for me to pick you up and hold you, your love is so unconditional and for that I just thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My promise to you is that we will try harder as parents every single day, through the tough times and the good times. Thank you for reminding us every day that a smile can fix so many things, and just for loving your mommy and daddy with all your heart. We will make mistakes my monkey, but just know that we love you with all our hearts, to the moon and back, and more than the number of stars in the sky. You are a blessing in our lives, now and forever xxx Love you, Mommy x

My Happy Family

The weekend of our family photo shoot finally arrived and we couldn’t be happier with the results. (If there’s any family reading this post please don’t show the grandparents as they’re getting some of these in their Christmas stockings!)

A massive thanks to our friend Megan Hancock for capturing our gorgeous monkey so perfectly.

 

 

 

Tell me about yourself award

Wow, thanks to the amazing and gorgeous Cupcake Mummy we, hmmm, that’s me and my blog, were awarded this blog award today. Yay, we love awards.

To be honest, I have actually been wanting to do a post on ‘who this mommy blogger is’. I’ve been thinking lately about how I’ve come to feel like I know so many of the bloggers whose stories I read daily or weekly, I’ve read stories of their husbands relieving their dogs with tears running down my face laughing so much, I’ve been made to think it might be time to start potty training my monkey, I’ve been inspired to start running, and loved hearing how other moms raise their kids creatively amongst so many other beautiful blogs I love.

Every day I’m inspired, supported and in awe of so many of these moms. In fact – in some of my most trying times, it was the mommy bloggers that gave me some of the most encouraging support. I feel I sometimes know so many of these mommy’s inside out, but I also want to more about… more of the nitty gritty… so here I go with some of my nitty gritty. I’d love for readers of Colour Giggles who blog to do the same and let us know more of their nitty gritty…

My name: Jude Foulston – well, it’s Judith on my birth certicate, but only my parents really call me that still.

Where I grew up: Kenton-on-Sea, Eastern Cape, South Africa – one of the pretties places in the world. A tiny seaside village. When I say tiny, I mean there were 57 of us in our primary school. There weren’t enough girls for a hockey team, there were 7 of us in my class, and it was the best childhood ever.

Where I’ve lived: Kenton, Grahamstown, London, Sydney, Johannesburg and now Kloof (Durban), South Africa.

Married: Yes, in June 2009 to the craziest, funniest, loveable man who I met through a blind date, well, kind of through a blind date – we hooked up before the blind date though – longish story.

What scares me: Meeting people, yup, I’m sooo shy when you first meet me; not always being here for my daughter; spiders and snakes; crime.

Greatest moment: Becoming a mom and the day we got married.

What I hate: Fake people, people who don’t say thank you,  people who waste my time, and people who think they are above others.

Pet peeve: People who drive with their kids not buckled up; and of course people who harm kids.. I just don’t understand it.

Things I love: Hearing my monkey laugh with her Dad, African Sunrises, bright colours, road trips, sharing a glass of wine with my girlfriends, anything handmade, my home, birthdays, gerbera’s, surprises, the smell of fresh bread, being a mom.

Studied: Diocesan School for Girls and Rhodes University – both Grahamstown

Craziest things I’ve done: Sky diving, bungy jumping and a weekend in Amsterdam

Musical Instruments: Used to play the Saxophone

Favourite Colour: Yellow

Things I’d still like to do: Go to New York, go snowboarding again, take my kids to Disneyland, be closer to God, have thousands of hits to my blog every day!

Jobs I’ve had: Riding a bicycle ice cream cart around a tea garden near Windsor (UK), Au Pair, Barmaid – all on a gap year in the UK after school. Software developer for JPMorgan, London. Software Tester in Australia. Worked for Starlight Children’s Foundation in Sydney. Marketing Manager for Reach For A Dream and now I’m just the nice person at TomorrowToday.

Fondest memories from growing up: Fishing with my Dad, riding my go-kart and BMX, going barefoot to school, playing lego, watching the A-Team, building forts, spending Saturday afternoons at the Tennis Club, body surfing waves, mudpies.

What I miss most from my pre-mom days: Spontanious drinks after work with my girl friends. In fact, I’d say all things spontanious! Hmmm, and Sunday afternoon naps.

Chocolate or Vanilla – Chocolate, no debate.

Hobbies: Crafting, Reading, crafting

So go on, if you’re reading this then I hereby award you with the ‘Tell me about yourself Award”… can’t wait to hear more about you!

The A-Z of Us

Two lovely blogs that I follow, Cupcake Mummy and C is for Cape Town did posts of the A-Z of them…. love the idea and so here is mine..

A is for Aeroplanes…. What we have to get on whenver we want to see our extended family

B is for Books… I love that you are mad about books…. Long may that last

C is for Curls… you’ve got so many and they’re C for Cute.

D is for  Ducks… who knew that one bathroom could have SO many ducks in it..

(Ducks from Pinterest)

E is for Everything…. You are my Everything

F is for Five Roses Tea – mommy’s favourite.

G is for Gladys or Gogo, perhaps your 3^rd (often 1st) favourite person in the world and a woman your mommy loves and respects and who couldn’t live without. She teaches you, loves you, looks after you and even cleans mom and dad’s house and does the ironing.. perhaps G should be for GOLD.

H is for Hugs… we love hugs

I is for I love you… so so so much

J is for Joburg, where Daddy and Mommy lived and first fell in love

K is for Kloof where we live, KZN… K is also for Kenton-on-Sea where mommy grew up. K is also for Kasouga where we got married… lots of important places starting with a K!

L is for Love – I love you to the moon and back and back again.

(Image from Scrap Studio)

M is for Monkey, that’s what you are… (we also have lots of these coming through our garden every week and you just love watching them)

(Monkeys from Colourinc)

N is for  naps…. I miss those on a Sunday afternoon!

O is for Opportunity…. I hope your Dad and I can give you as many of these as possible

P is for Peas… you’re absolute favourite food ever.. who would have thought!

(Peas from Edible Crafts)

Q is for Quintessential – Q is a difficult word to come up with and this is the first word that came to mind. FYI – It means typical..

R is for rugby…. I’m glad you’re a girl so that you don’t have to play rugby. Rugby also happens to be your Dad’s favourite thing to watch on the TV (well, not recently with the Rugby World Cup!)

S is for slide…. One of your favourite things to do…

T is for T-Rex…. Some of our friends actually think your dad’s name is Rex.. That’s how good he does the T-Rex J

U is for us… that’s our family, you, me, dad and of course chilli

V is for Very…. That’s how much I love you…. But more like very very very very very very very very very

W is for Wine… your mom likes that…

X is for Generation X…. that’s the generation your mom and dad belong to..

Y is for You…. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine… you make me happy when skies are blue…

Z is for Zippity Doo Da, cause you make our days wonderful

On the swing this morning

I was swinging my monkey this morning while out at breakfast and out of no where there was a massive lump in my throat and my eyes  welled up as I watched her just being so happy, squealing like only a little girl could each time the swing came back to me… As I was standing there I just couldn’t believe what an absolute blessing our monkey has been in our lives, how relatively easy she’s made our transition into parenthood and how she has grown into such a precious little girl!

My monkey, you bring smiles and laughter to our lives every day, I don’t know how it’s possible, but every night I put  you to bed I can honestly say I love you more than I did the day before -  I can’t fathom loving you a millimeter more than I do at this very second, but somehow I think my heart must just keep getting bigger and bigger with every hug you give me,  each squeal I hear, tear you shed and smile I see.

We love you monk xxxx