Welcome to the world

So what a day, well my day has stretched over two of them. I had a business trip down to Durban yesterday to finish up some stuff before the arrival of Caleb in the coming weeks. Debs told me as I was getting up that she didn't think it was a good idea for me to go and I assured her that everything was fine and I would see at home later.

Anyway by the time I got home Debs wasn't feeling so good and told me her stomach was sore and by the time 11 PM rolled around we decided to pack up and go to the hospital to get it checked out.

Needless to say they just decided to keep her in for observation, after many restless hours they decided to check and it was moving ahead... They called for the anesthetic and the rest is well history. And out came our son, second born to this Payne family. A healthy 3.75 kg and 48cm tall baby boy, not a single complication not a hitch just in and out.

One thing I need to say is that Debbie is a real trooper and managed this so well and is one of the heroes in the tale, the other hero is God and the grace he has shown throughout this entire experience. We have had a truly amazing time latley just reflecting on his provision and guidance over the last year... We were looking at our local church directory today with just the two of us and who would have thought that a year later we would be a family of four!

So welcome to the world Caleb John Payne, we love you and are grateful for your unexpected yet precious arrival today.

Our little genius and sleeper

Well I guess that the title of this post says it all, Gabby is the smartest 11 month old I know!

Really this girl of ours really is smart, this week it seems as if she has made huge steps forward... In the things she does to the things she says. She really is picking up things fast, this week while I was brushing my teeth and holding her she looked at me with this strange face so I wondered what she would don't she has a tooth brush of her own... So I gave her one and she stuck it in her mouth! Ok so that was a fluke, but two days later I went into the bathroom and and holding her again gave her the toothbrush and she puts it in her mouth and starts moving it back and forth... Ok so maybe not genius material but a proud daddy moment and I love it!

I have realised that Gabby loves sleep! In the past week her sleeps have really become loooooong, I told Debbie this morning "like mother like daughter" Debbie Sent me this pic while I was at work the other day while she was out at the shops... Nothing will stop her from having a sleep : ) when I spike to Debbie she told me that she was sitting upright and started nodding off so she put her down and off she went to lala land.

One thing we have been discussing lately is how blessed we are and have been by having this little girl in our lives, we are truly thankful to God for opening up doors in such a way that we could be together. Things don't merely happen by accident but most certainly by devine direction, We love you Gabriella and are grateful we could be part of your precious life in this world.

Close now

WOW its been a while since anything new has been put up here... sorry for that if you are a loyal follower.

There has been so much happening lately, 3 weeks to go before Caleb arrives and our little girl hits her 1st birthday in a little over a month. life truly is good and I am so glad that God has seen fit to show so much grace upon us. Our lives at the moment are pretty calm (thanks to the fact that Gabby is an amazing baby) but we think that it will be getting a bit crazy soon... but that's ok. God has put us in this place and will give us the strength we need to get through the days ahead.

An update on how our girl is crowning so fast, she is standing all by herself and moving around the furniture like a trooper! I think she is really close to walking, however for the sake of Debbie we are hoping that she will hang on a bit until Caleb is a bit older. She has also made some huge jumps in her vocab, , Deb has really done a fantastic job spending time talking to her and it is paying off... her latest trick is to "Taa" for something. It really is funny when Debs sits down on the couch with any sort of food stuff no matter where Gabby may be she goes into overdrive and crawls at warp speed over to Debs, pulls herself up and proceeds with the following "taa, taa, taa, taa..."

One of the other things we have started doing is getting Gabby into the shower, with Debbie getting bigger has made bath time a bit of a nightmare. So I decided to shower with her to help out, its really funny the noises she makes! It took about a week for to get used to the fact that the water falling on her is actually fun : ) she has now gotten so comfortable she doesn't even want to be held, she just goes on the shower floor and just plays in the water. This little girl really is a trooper and game for anything, and we love it!

Another thing we have been doing more frequently is going for a run, it's been getting cold so have had to wrap up warmly. On this particular day as we came around the corner I saw two other runners ahead of us and I pretty sure I heard Gabby say "go get em dad!" not really but it was fun to push past them and see there faces... One day she will say that and enjoy there surprise with me : )

Now what do I say about Caleb? He is getting big! At one stage we went to the gynae and he was over two kilos and growing rapidly... at the last visit he had slowed down slightly and was just under a 3 kilos. We have another visit this week so we will have an update that I will post later this week.

My first airplane ride

So this weekend we are off to Cape Town for the two oceans and a visit to my dad, a Gabby first on a plane : )

We really were not sure how this was going to go... I even told the young lady sitting next to me that I wasn't sure and I was sorry up front for what was about to happen!

Anyway, the plan was for Gabriella to sleep but she would have none of that... Sleep is so overrated. She was good though, unlike the other two screaming kids in the flight. I was really glad we were not that side of the plane by them, at one point it sounded like the Father gave one of th a smack but that just made it worse... The crying got louder and the plan just erupted in laughter!

In am hoping that the flight home will be better and the excitement of being on an airplane has worn off and out little girl will sleep.

What a week, in a good way

So this last week started out with a bang! We got a call last week to go and see the magistrate to do the final documentation for Gabriella to finally become a Payne. We were not really sure what to expect but Debs was really impressed by the conversation she had with the magistrate and said she sounded nice... Well she was super nice and we really had nothing to worry about, the longest part of the morning was the up and down in the elevator! Really it took like 15 min to get all the stuff done.

The other great part of the morning was that we got to share in the joy of the Richter Family as they also appeared before the magistrate to finalize the adoption of their daughter Danelle.

We also managed to finally get our family photos done, it has been rather hectic lately and to get Adam and us on the same day has really posed it's challenges. Anyways we finally managed to do it and had a real blast doing it... Both Adam and Sam (his wife) were truly sports in taking the pics and before we knew it we were on like 2000 photos! In the words of Sam... "you need to take hundreds to get that one perfect shot!"

Adam sent me a taster this afternoon of what to expect and I am like a cat in a hot tin roof in anticipation.

Then this Sunday we finally had our dedication for Gabriella, read up on this in the previous post "Our promise to you... Precious Gabriella" It was nice to have almost the entire family there for the occasion. I think the afternoon feast at our house was a welcomed last minute addition to the plans ; )