Happy Five Month Birthday!

While we were in St. Lucia, Aviva turned five months old! But we didn't have her cow with us, so we had to take these photos a couple of days late when we were back in Swaziland. It's hard to believe she is already five months old!

St. Lucia Part 3: walk and breakfast

One of the nice things about the town of St. Lucia is that it's pretty flat and easy to walk around. (When you live in a super hilly place like Mbabane, you start to appreciate flatness in other places.) So on Monday morning before we drove back, my parents took Aviva for a stroll around the neighborhood:

Meanwhile, Peter and walked to town for a leisurely breakfast. We liked Thyme Square Cafe so much that we went back! Peter had scrambled eggs with fresh ciabatta, and I had a stack of pancakes and bananas with bacon on top. We read the paper while we waited for our food and pretended like we were back in New York for Sunday brunch. It was very fun.
Yum!

St. Lucia Part 2: the Beach

While the estuary at St. Lucia was nice, the real highlight of our trip was our afternoon at Cape Vidal, a beautiful beach about 30 km north of the town. As you can see, Aviva was very excited about being there!

The whole Lake St. Lucia area is part of iSimangaliso Wetland Park, which is South Africa's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park consists of several lakes and wetland areas and five different ecosystems. From the town of St. Lucia, it is about a 45-60 minute drive north to Cape Vidal, a very pretty, wide beach where there are some facilities - public bathrooms, outdoor showers where you can rinse off, and even fish cleaning stations! Next time maybe we'll stay in the cabins there.


On the way to Cape Vidal, we stopped briefly at a beautiful, rocky beach called Mission Rocks:


And then continued another 15 kilometers to Cape Vidal.

It was a beautiful day, and it was much warmer than it looks in these photos. We took the opportunity to introduce Aviva to the ocean.



Towards the end she started to look skeptical and wonder what we were doing to her...


...and then she got a bit fed up with our efforts:

..but Peter was able to convince her that we should stay a bit longer.




On the way back, we saw some game, and admired the ears on this lady:

Fashion Friday #10: Florals

I'm terribly behind in posting photos from last weekend and the last week, but I promise I'll get them all up this weekend. I'm already late with this week's Fashion Friday, though, so here's this post for now.

Last week we tried to show off some of Aviva's floral prints but ended up with random outfits, so this week we're back to the florals again.

First, we've got a 6M Cherokee Baby romper - a little big, but cute nonetheless.

Aviva gets serious when holding her toes:

And then tries to squirm her way out of the photo:

Her second outfit today was a 6M floral cotton tunic by Children's Place, along with some yellow pants that she modeled a few weeks ago.


Here we tried to get Aviva to sit "like a lady" with her legs crossed (with limited success):



Happy Friday!

St. Lucia Part 1: the Estuary

Last weekend we drove down to St. Lucia, a huge inland lake and estuary nature reserve about 5 hours away, on the east coast of South Africa. We crossed the border at Lavumisa, where we saw this sign:
I think they meant "SADC" forms (Southern African Development Community), but "SAD FORMS" is pretty funny.

Unfortunately, Lake St. Lucia itself was completely off limits. Because of the prolonged drought over the last few years, the lake is apparently extremely low. At any rate, the lake is protected and human activity is prohibited there, so we couldn't go out on the lake itself. Instead, we went on a hippo and crocodile boat tour on the estuary, which is the part of the river near the ocean where fresh and salt water mix. Here's my mom and Aviva, with some hippos in the background:


During the ride, the boat operators passed around this gigantic hippo tooth for everyone to see. Aviva apparently thought it was a banana and promptly tried to eat it.
Aviva enjoyed herself...


...even if she spent most of the time playing with her toes.

Afterwards we ate lunch at a terrific little place called Thyme Square Cafe. I try to spare our readers the details of most of our meals, but this place was so lovely and surprising, that I have to post a few shots of our very yummy food - a roast beef sandwich, a lamb burger, and a chicken salad sandwich: delicious!



We enjoyed our stay in a nice little rental house, where apparently there are dangerous children.

Fashion Friday #9: Random Outfits

The weather continues to be rather warm here, so Aviva's still wearing spring/summer clothes.

First, she's modeling a light green dress with flowers and a watering can embroidered on the front. It's a 6-9M piece, and it's almost too small! It's by Guyz and Dolls. Aviva seems to be contemplating something serious:

She's reaching for the camera...
And finally she just loses interest.

Her second outfit today is a matching dress and bloomers by Kissy Kissy, courtesy of Aviva's great grandmother, Nana Frances. Thanks, Frances!

Aviva shows off how relaxed she is...

...although then she thinks about making an escape...

...but here she just loves modeling (and grabbing her toes!)
Happy Friday!

Rice Cereal!

Last Saturday we started Aviva on rice cereal! Until then she had only had liquids, so this was very exciting. As you can see below, she likes it! She was almost diving for the bowl.
Here she paused in her eating to take a look at the camera.
As you can see, a large amount of the rice cereal ended up on her face and bib, but we'll be practicing more in the future until both she and we get the hang of it.

Fashion Friday # 8: Googly eyes and more strawberries

For this week's Fashion Friday, we put on some more summer clothes. Finally the rain has let up and we've had several days of bright sunshine. Aviva's first outfit below was a gift from Mel and Kirsten, from our trip to Brazil for Rachel's wedding last April. Mel and I wandered into a Chicco store that was having a great sale, and we couldn't resist. I've been waiting for 10 months to put her into this dress!


Next, we're showing off another outfit with strawberries on it. This one is a 3-6 M dress by Good Lad.


I included this last shot because I thought the way Aviva is looking off into the distance was sort of artistic - well, as artistic as you can get when you're taking photos of babies.


Happy Friday!

Barberton

For my (Callista's) birthday last Friday, we spent a night in Barberton, an old mining town about 2.5 hours away.

We walked around the town a bit and enjoyed a quick peek into some old houses that have been restored and furnished as they would have been in the early 1900s. Afterward we went on a short hike:


And then we enjoyed beautiful scenery on the way home:

Aviva stayed home with her grandparents, and we had a lovely time.

Fashion Friday #7: Pink and Green!

We've heard lots of news about the endless winter storms back home, but here in Swaziland we've got sunshine and 70-degree-days. (Well, a few rainy and misty days, too, but all pretty warm.) So today we're showing off a classic preppy summertime combination: pink and green!

First, we've got a pink and green, 6 month, Lilly Pulitzer dress. It's pink with green turtles, and it's got some pretty cute pockets for holding, you know, pacifiers, rattles, etc. Aviva is also showing off her new hair clips today. In this photo she's wearing the hot pink. Thanks to the Sevin family for this very cute dress.

As you can see, Aviva can't resist showing off her matching pink bumGenius cloth diaper.

Next we have another outfit from the Snow family. It's pink and green (and yellow) and is the "sunflower ruffle romper" from OshKosh's genuinebaby line. It's also a 6M outfit. As you can see, Aviva looked sort of bored (just like a real model!) by the time we got to this outfit. Towards the end of the photo shoot we were able to inspire her to look up by bribing her with a rattle. Here she's wearing a green hair clip.


Happy Friday!