Weddings, sick babies and it's May already

The month started out with a visit to Llandudno to watch the sun go down - while all three of us sniffed and sniffed and sneezed. This photo was taken with an icy wind blowing, but a glorious sunset (and the photographer had sticky hot chip fingers). It was a good moment out after nursing sick people at home all weekend.


In between running around for the magazine and work in Pinelands, I managed to avoid the flu till the day before we were to leave for Jhb to visit Mum (still in hospital). I came down with a monster version and understood why, for almost the first time ever, Adam refused to get out of bed and go to work without being tied to the bed. Sore throats, stuffed sinuses, wobbly legs... and a happy little person who just wanted to play all day! I was very thankful that she got the "lite" version.

Packing became interesting as I readied all the stuff we needed to take with. As you can see, Jessica had to inspect EVERYthing and unpack quite a bit too :)

Our flight to Jhb was uneventful, with Jessica charming the people around us and not even squawking once. She woke up for the landing, and was thrilled to see Grandad waiting. I love Lanseria airport - no fuss, quick, friendly.

Apologies to the friends that we did not see, but the five days that we were in Jhb were solely for family. We visited Mum every day in hospital, spent time with Adam's mum, saw my brother once and tried to recover from flu!

Dad was a hero and took Jessica in the mornings after I had fed her. Lots of squeals from upstairs and happy noises, until it was time for second breakfast of course. We discovered that she loves Ouma rusks, and so Dad had to share his or else there was a dropped lip. It did mean that his bed was rather crumbed afterwards. A momento!

Here's a photo of Mum and Jessica. The nurses kindly let us sneak Jessica in to play on Mum's bed most days, and it was fun to watch them becoming acquainted. It's been a month and lots has happened. Jessica tried really hard to crawl all over the bed and we found that side rails were a great invention for containing small people!

Mum is doing much better, and as I write, has moved to Riverfield Lodge which provides lots of therapy - OT and physio especially - for their patients. Mum should be there about two weeks, and may continue to go for outpatient sessions in the future. She cannot drive again, and we need to have a maid or carer at home with her for both the company and as a safety measure. She is mildly affected on her left side, her eyesight is not as good as it was, and her writing has been affected. Concentration about 30 minutes, but easily distracted. Dad is trying to get her onto minimal medications as she was quite reliant on them before.

The other reason that we were up in Jhb was to witness Nadia and Emile's wedding at Rosebank Chapel. It was a very special time and we loved being able to be part of their day in a small way. I took lots of pics (will post them in a separate blog after I have finished editing them).

In the meantime, here's a snap I took during the service in the chapel...

We sat with Angie and Garth, which was great fun, especially when planning to decorate the bride's bags and the going away car :)

Anyway, the little person has woken from her afternoon nap, and no doubt wants to crawl around the house some more. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!