A day on Lion's Head

Well, with Griffin injured he wisely opted to stay at home to be pampered by dad and given free reign to watch TV and play computer games. But Quinn and I went up Lion's Head today.

Unfortunately we weren't blessed with yesterday's idyllic weather, but still the light was mostly great and there is loads of new growth and flowers all over the mountain it was really beautiful. It was even fun getting rained on on the way down.

We joined a friend, 2 of her daughters and one of her Siberian Husky dogs and off we went.

Here are a few photos from today:

Quinn at the mini caves half way up Lion's Head

At the top - with grey skies above. It was quite windy & chilly up there and the mist started to roll in too, making so of the tourists a bit nervous.

Climbing down the ladder on the way down (the dog had to be carried up and down the ladders!)

and the infamous chains...

I always LOVE going up Lion's Head. It's good for the body, mind and soul! :)

Griffin had a bike accident yesterday

We went to visit friends yesterday afternoon and took Quinn's new bike along so he could show it off and ride with his friend. We didn't take Griffin's bike as the family has 2 smaller bikes already one almost exactly like Griffin's...

So we left them to ride on the hill (a cul de sac). They were riding and skate boarding up and down it. 5 minutes later Richard comes in carrying Griffin and saying there'd been an accident....

Apparently Griffin got on the bike, went down the hill sort of unintentionally, couldn't stop, got a speed wobble and fell right on his face

I asked him why he didn't brake!? He said cos there's no brakes! Then I remembered the bike was just like his except it has pedal-back brakes not normal hand brakes.

It looks damn sore and has really swollen up!

He has been so stoic and brave about the whole thing too, which breaks my heart even more.

This was 15 minutes after it happened.


Then after eating


This was after 3-4 hours! Yikes!


This morning he looks like this!

He insists it feels ok and his head and bones aren't sore it's just the skin of his cheek.

We did put an ice bag on it straight away and gave him Arnica tablets.

He is so brave though. He told me not to worry he'll be fine in bed last night, he'll just sleep facing the wall (on his uninjured cheek). Why is it that their bravery is more heart wrenching?

Poor baby

Update at 17:00 Sunday:
Here he is more than 24 hours afterwards. The swelling is starting to subside, so he can see out the eye again, but now the bruising is setting in, and I expect it will get worse.

Update second morning:
The swelling is down more this morning, and the bruising is going black. If there was a break it would be more painful now not less, so I know he is basically ok. Facial injuries do swell and bruise terribly, and if you break skin they bleed profusely too. So often they look way worse than they are. If his eye was blood-shot at all I would have been very worried, but it's completely normal and white and he can see fine, he didn't get a headache or anything.

I gave him the option to stay home today, and he thought about it for a long time and then decided he would stay at home. He will go to school tomorrow. I am a bit worried that one of the kids will bump or elbow him inadvertently though, as I am sure THAT will hurt like hell.

Update second night:
Here he is on the second evening. It's actually looking more horrific, but it is starting to heal now. The swelling is subsiding, and the bruising is really setting in. We took him to the chemist when we went to get more Arnica cream and tablets and they were not too concerned and agreed that it would heal without medical intervention.

Update 3rd night:
He is definitely healing now. The Arnica really seems to help. He is thrilled that his eye can open properly again. He'll be back to school tomorrow.

Argh to Kia!

So after boasting about my stable weight over the years, I went and screwed it all up! * GAH.

This winter has not been kind to me. Not only did Tiny shrink all my clothes, but the gym scale is broken too! I am sure of it. That's the only explanation I can think of. I mean really!

I mean it can't be that every time it was cold and raining this winter (note that been like 5 days out of every week on average), I have baked with the kids and pigged out afterwards, snacked on crap, rekindled some desire to cook in the evenings and made and eaten loads of pasta and sauce, watched too much TV, gone out to eat to much, watched to many movies - with pop corn etc, been studying and doulaing - time consuming and tiring.

So exercise more or less went out the window and comfort eating took its place. I am sure none of that is the culprit. NO!

So where does that leave me? 3-4kgs up and not so very fit, and feeling pretty crap about it all.

I have still been doing my weekly yoga class and the odd run/shuffle/walk when the weather has been good. But now I finally feel fired up to do more and get my ample butt into gear.

So last night while my 3 boys dined (I think that may be too strong a word) at Panavrottis, what was I doing?

Well, I ran to Claremont gym (+-3km) and then did a Kata Box class. My first in I don't know how long, but certainly many months. I think I last went in March! Sies. It was surprisingly fun, and although I expected to I didn't keel over and die during the class. In fact I even had fun - Norman's classes are always fun. SO I may have piled on the layers, but I havn't lost ALL my fitness. YAY!!

I am freshly inspired and am going to try to get back to doing regular katabox classes. They really are great for strength and toning, not to mention nice endorphine rushes. Kia!

* I must note that I have noticed that I seem to put on weight EVERY winter without fail. But normally it is only about 2kgs and I keep exercising so it's not too bad. This time it's worse.

Rocking the Daisies again

So last year we Rocked the Daisies. And despite it raining most of the time and being pretty cold and not very well attended it was really fun!

So we are going back again this year (preggy ladies permitting) and will be...
Again!

I think this year should be GREAT. We have had loads of rain so there may actually be daisies, hopefully the rain with stop by then, and I am sure those that went last year will be back and will bring friends.

Here's what I wrote last year before we went, and this is what I wrote after the event.

I was just browsing their on-line Gallery from last year and found a picture of Griffin in there :)

Cute! More pics from last year, including some of mine can be found HERE and here

The line up rocks again:

So if you are in or around Cape Town do yourself a favour and get there!

Quinn

Here are some recent pics of Quinn.

Wearing a warm hat at home.

Ready for his Rugby match at SACS.

Most of the RBPS Garde 2H Rugby team and their mascot Ace.

Griffin's Concert

Griffin had his school concert last night.

Griffin and his friend Yaseen before the concert started.

Singing in concert

Being a monkey

Being a rustling tree.

The Tooth Mom Came again tonight

Quinn lost his 4th tooth tonight. That makes it 4 bottom teeth he has lost now. The top 2 middle teeth are slightly loose, but showing no hurry to come out STILL. I don't mind too much, I love those cute little baby teeth ;)

I wish the Tooth Mouse illusion could have held for a little longer, but alas Quinn is having none of that. He loves the financial gain of it though so he continues to play along.

This was when he lost his first tooth, and then when he lost his second tooth, and then he lost his third tooth during a busy and eventful week.

So tonight the tooth was shown to me and I was told it was going in the special tooth mouse pillow, I was also given quite a few reasons why the tooth mouse would want to give a nice tidy sum for this tooth...

Then when he went to bed, he yelled, 'Hey Mommy, don't forget my tooth!'

So there's now R20 wedged in the pillow flap. Sigh.

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