Some Glad, Some Sad (Present)

Well, I think it is time to introduce you to the faces.

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary - 1 year! This is what we looked like last year this time.

A lot of friends have commented: A year already?

We look around in amazement and say the same. And yet - there is another part of us saying - Gosh - it feels like we have been married for years. The children say this is the only way of life they can remember. What a good indication of where they are, and that they are happy.

If I stack it all up - it has been the happiest year of my life. As Werner says - what an interesting year - we could write a book about the year alone! (Well, I am trying!!!)

I spent this weekend taking "pictures" in my mind. I lay these snapshots down, and compared them in my memory to where we were last year.

One such a picture is of Eric (youngest bonus child - 4 and a half - now). He was lying around checking out the ants in the grass, while we were saying wedding vows.

("You go dad - get on with it - I got me some better things to do down here!" - I imagine him thinking.)

Well, we bought him a bike on Saturday. Here is what he looks like now.

This bike has a whole human persona to him. He told Werner, "when my bike grows up, it will be blue like the picture on the box".

A while later we saw him standing still. The trainer wheels had got stuck on the uneven surface of the driveway, leaving the back wheel spinning uselessly in the air. He deftly got off, spanked the bike, got back on (unknown to him, somewhere between getting off, hitting, getting on - he moved the bike off the uneven surface), and proceeded to peddle further. Luckily for the bike, that worked, else we would have had Eric up on charges of "bike abuse"?

By evening, he parked the bike by the front door and had a very serious chat with bike. "You stay here, ok. I am coming back to ride you tomorrow morning"!

He now no longer walks anywhere. Even the shortest distance needs to be ridden.

Well, the others are just as lovely. I will post photos of them all shortly.

To sum it all up, it was a lovely weekend, filled with happy kids and happy memories.

The sad part has been that Werner's ex-wife spent the weekend in ICU with pneumonia. She was very seriously ill. Very stressful to face life and death up close and personal. It rattles your world, and makes you ask questions you don't normally ask.

I am happy to say that she is recovering, and has since been moved to a normal ward. We have kept the children with us, and will probably do so until she is back on her feet.