How easily you can keep the romance alive ~ Date night.

Last weekend Wayne and I had our usual date night ~ by usual I mean, we try to have a date night at least every second weekend. We feel it is important and it is a few hours where we get to unwind, relax, escape the reality of being busy parents and enjoy each others company and also give each other our undivided attention.

The weekend that past the Stormers and The Blue Bulls were playing rugby.We tried to get tickets to watch the game at Newlands Stadium because Wayne is an avid Blue Bulls supporter while I support the Stormers being a Cape Town girl and all but we jumped on that bandwagon a little too late and all tickets were sold out. Boo-Hoo!!

So instead we first chose to go watch the new Avengers movie at the cinema in the V&A waterfront. Wayne is a big Marvel fan so this time around he got to choose the movie. I quite enjoyed it anyway to be honest.

I of course got to choose where to watch the rugby. The Waterfront was crazy busy so I suggested we head to Rick's Cafe in Park Road just off Kloof street in Gardens.

Rick's Cafe Americain is a Casablanca movie-themed restaurant housed in an Old Victorian styled building and has a real "homely" and relaxed vibe to it.

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We sat on the deck, otherwise known as the "Rooftop Bar" and ordered cocktails while we waited for the rugby to start.

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Once the game had started we ordered our food (check out Rick's awesome menu here).Wayne had the Rick's cheese burger and I opted for the BMB burger.

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The food at Rick's never disappoints and the presentation is always top notch. I unfortunately always forget to take pictures when we go on date nights because I'm so absorbed in conversation with my soon to be husband or like on this date night, absorbed in the movie, conversation and then the rugby game while chowing down my amazing burger.

I managed to find some pictures on the Rick's Facebook page and I have shared those with you so you guys could see how amazing the BMB burger looks and also so my blog post doesn't look too bare with no pictures in it lol.

All in all it was another great date night. One to add to the books and keep the romance alive.

Great food, great company and a great game because the Stormers kicked ass!

Challenge yourself!

After being sick (Wayne and I) for over two weeks and off gym for roughly three weeks, Wayne and I started a 12 week challenge to see who could lose the most weight or tone up the most within the 12 week period.

Wayne and I have completely different goals, but we are always up for a challenge. He doesn't really have much weight to lose he just has to get his bottom abs showing again (if only we all had those problems lol) whereas I actually have weight to lose. He wants a weekend away and I want a Fitbit watch if we reach our goals.

The last 9 months have been tough trying to lose all this baby weight. I am 18kg down and I still have a few more to go but I am struggling. With work deadlines, me being so sick and being off with Camden because he has been sick...gym has not been an option and I have been finding it difficult to fit it all in.

I was training at 1pm on my lunch break,we get an hour lunch break but I was taking two and working an hour later in the evening to make up for the extra hour.

It takes me:

• 15minutes to drive to the gym,
• then I need to get dressed,
• do my gym routine which consists of cardio and weight training(1 hour - rushed),
• shower,
• get dressed (hair and make-up) and
• drive back to work which is another 15minutes.

Insane if you ask me. I was feeling far more stressed after my work out than good due to the fact that I was having to rush and make sure I wasn't late.

I now do my fasted morning HIIT cardio on my bicycle at home before work:

• I sprint on the bicycle for 30seconds and
• then cycle at a steady pace for 1min30seconds and
• I repeat this sequence until 30minutes are up.

Next week I will be adding in a 30 day squat circuit challenge which I found on popsugar.com because my backside needs some serious attention!

and I have decided to throw in an arm challenge as well to get rid of the bingo wings.

The beauty about all of this is that I can do it in the comfort of my own home before Camden wakes up in the morning or after he goes to sleep at night, no rush and I still get to burn those calories and put myself into a caloric deficit.

A great day for freedom

This weekend we were blessed with another long weekend due to yesterday being freedom day. Wayne unfortunately had to work  most of the long weekend so I had a lot of spare time with Camden. He hasn't been feeling great lately due to this flu that still seems to be lingering after a total of six weeks. It makes him rather miserable at times, so if he isn't sleeping you need to keep him entertained to keep him happy.

Camden is extremely active these days and always on the go. He loves the outdoors and when he is cooped up for too long in the house he gets cabin fever.

What better day to give Camden some "freedom" to roam around the garden and get his gardening on and to spend quality time with my boy than on a sun shining Freedom Day in the Mother City.

He was absolutely in his element while exploring, eating the plants, digging in the sand and just getting messy.

Once the trousers came off ,things got serious...lol

As my uncle says, perhaps we have a future landscaper in our midst.

9 Months today ~ Camden Kingsley Loxton

 

I struggle to grasp the fact that today Camden has been in our lives for exactly the same amount of time that he was in my stomach ~ unbelievable!

I cannot believe how much he has changed, if I look back at pictures of when he was born, he doesn't even look like the same baby he was a few months ago. Watching each month pass by feels so bittersweet. I dread these posts because with each one he inches closer to his first birthday...WHAAAT?!

He is far from that little squashed up baby still needing to grow into his own baggy skin, that loved to pull his legs up in a ball and lay all snuggled up on my chest.He is now our little explorer who never sits still wanting to eat the dog food out of Marley's bowl, watch the washing go round and round in the machine, unpack my drawers or close the bedroom doors and then cry when he realises he has closed himself in the room and he cannot get out.

Always on the move our little guy, never a moments rest for his soul and keeping us on our toes daily...we are starting to fear the day he starts walking.
He babbles non stop and sings to himself often. He fake coughs and even fake cries but boy you know when he isn't faking the crying part, he throws himself back, arches his back and pushes with his hands. It must be rather frustrating for him because he cannot tell us what it is he wants.

He is learning the meaning of a few words and we must say the word "no" a lot to him as he now tells the dog, "No, No" when he does something that we have told Camden he may not do.

We just love our blessing from above that was given to us to cherish and love.

 

How Big?: We are taking him for his check up next week Wednesday and will have his updated weight and height figures. This boy of ours is just crazy big.

*UPDATE: So we took our little man for his 9 month check up today(22 April 2015) and he is weighing 11.08kg and measures 77cm tall, he is officially the height that a 1 year old should be.

Clothing Size: 12-18 and 18-24. We struggle with his clothing as he has such a tiny waist but long legs. Some of the clothing I bought him recently from Woolworths were a size 1+ and I had to go and change them as they were way to small for him.

Eating: If you are eating it, Camden wants it! We are struggling to get him to eat some evenings unless it is homemade stew, spaghetti or savoury mince then he will be crying for more. He definitely loves lekker food. He loves mini rice cakes, biltong, dried fruit and his teething biscuits but he also loves to share them with the dog. He seems to struggle with tummy cramps when he eats food with too much onion in, I assume this must give him too much gas.

Sleep: Much better than last month. The beginning of this month was still tough with a few sleepless nights due to him cutting teeth but things got much better. Camden came home with a snotty nose one Friday from day care and we all got sick. Poor little boy struggled to sleep after that with his blocked nose. After I rubbed his chest with vicks, put karvol drops in his air purifier in his room and gave him some meds he started sleeping much better in the evenings. Some nights we were blessed with a full 11 hours. It saddens me that I only get to spend an hour at the most with him when I get home from work in the week but his sleep is so important. The better his sleep the happier he is and we are loving this happy baby.

Movement: He stands on his own when he lets go of  whatever he was holding on to but this freaks him out, sometimes the look of fear crosses his face when he realises he isn't holding onto anything and then he will just fall to his bottom with a hard thud and dash off crawling at the speed of light. He has taken his first two steps but he seems to prefer crawling as this gets him places faster and his legs are still wobbly. I had him holding onto his Lion walker and he walked a few steps before he got bored and fell to his bum and started pushing the lion as he crawled. I have to watch him with this Lion walker as he is not able to control his movements so if he walks with it on his own the lion will move forward faster than he is able to move and he will fall flat on his face. We have to watch him so closely these days it is exhausting. He is even lifting one leg up to try get onto the bed and the couch.

Milestones:

• He got another two teeth this month, so six in total now with another one about the push through the surface. Well it looks that way but these teeth of his are so unpredictable, they just about surface and then disappear like they are playing hide-and-go-seek.
• Stands on his own unassisted
• Taken his first two proper wobbly steps towards daddy and on his own.
• Makes a noise and then puts his hand in front of his mouth and takes it away, not sure what to call this, we used to do this action when we were playing cowboys and Indians in the garden as children.
• When you say close your eyes, to wash his hair, he closes them tight and waits for the water to run over his head.
• Says " De" for there and he points to the object he is referring to.
• Says "No, No"
• If you ask him where are Camden or mommy's eyes then he points to his or my eyes, this started because he stands on his changing mat on his compactum ( while we stand behind him obviously) and he will point at the picture of his elephant on his wall and say "de" and then if you ask him where ellie's eyes are then he points at the round black dots that are the eyes and says "de" - this is just the cutest!
• Brushes his teeth in the morning and evening - well his way of brushing his teeth that is
• Loves my hairdryer, switches it on and off and even does the motion that I do when I am drying my hair.

Camden is changing at a rapid rate and it is hard to record everything he does on a daily basis, especially because he is at day care for most of the day but it is amazing to see the changes in him just from last month to now.

Nine months post-partum:  18kg's down and I feel like I have so far to go but I swear I WILL be at my pre-pregnancy weight come Camden's first birthday! I have been sick with flu twice this past month and every time I get back into gym I get sick again. I am still very sick and have been this sick all week with no sign of recovery. At least I am sleeping better! Emotionally, I am still struggling with this post-partum depression. I have my good and bad days and I am hoping this passes really soon.