ERASMUS STREET WILDLIFE CENTRE

so thats what this thing does....My first drink of water straight out the tap















What a gorgeous gift we have been Blessed with!





























Autumn has arrived















Playing in the park!















Peek a boo!















Me and by big boy














Our little legend














Deqlan not wanting Dada to leave for work!















We have decided we are going to start charging visitors to our house, the range of wildlife is spectacular! The new species our meerkats! Yes, we came home from the shops to find a meerkat in our garden,and Mark and I just looked at each other and started laughing! What next? Apparently meerkats like eating snakes.....enough said...something mus have attracted the little fellow to our garden?mmmm....

Hello from a very chilly and very wet Pretoria - it feels like we are living in the UK ! The strangest weather for this time of year , we here its sunny and bright in Cape Town - very strange - it should be opposites this time of the year..

We have had a wonderful 3 days of holiday at home..it didnt start off so great....

Deqlan and I got home on Wednesday afternoon to no power....it had been off for 2 hours already so didnt expect it to be much longer. Oh boy , was i wrong! It only came on at 8pm!!!! I was just about to take Deqlan to Nanna when he fell asleep on the bed, so him and I cuddled until the lights came back on !

We have been playing a lot of games and trying to keep Deqlan entertained as its to cold to be outside!

The sun was out on Thursday morning and I took Deqlan to a park down the road from us - we had the whole park to ourselves! The autumn leaves where to beautiful and i am definitely going to try and go back there to take more photos of Deqlan in the leaves...when it eventually stops raining....

We have discovered that he LOVES Happy Feet! He laughs straight from his belly when he says mumble dancing - how beautiful it is to hear and see him laugh, one of the best feelings in the world!

His love for Zebra's continue - Deqlan chooses the zebra puzzle piece out of all the animals in the puzzle and it seems like he is pretending to walk with the zebra - which is fantastic and encouraging to see him to a bit of imaginary play!

Deqlan continues to enjoy saying car - he says it with so much pride and enthusiasm! Its the first thing he says when he wakes up- CAR!!!! i wish i could record it and put it on the blog for you to hear

He is making a lot of sounds today being aba and va va - perhaps the start of va va va voom! ha ha ha !

I hope the weather is better tomorrow so we can take our warrior outside to play, our maybe take him for a drive just to get him outside the house a bit!

I have had a few requests re snug as a bug items - you are welcome to send anything related to sleep time with such as vests, socks, slippers,teddys - anything will be so appreciated and loved by the kids wearing and enjoying them, thank you!


A very happy birthday to Shannon for yesterday, we hope you had a great birthday and that this is YOUR year! Hope you where spoilt rotten!

Happy Birthday to Michelle for today! Hope you are having a great day with the family - sending you hugs and blessings!

Congratulations to Chinh and Thy Tran and their arrival on ther baby boy,Aiden on 1 May. Congratulations to a wonderful family, cant wait to see the little fellow, I am sure Kira is a proud big sister and Lucas smiling down on you all and so proud of his little brother.

Request for extra special prayers for Gabriella - you can follow her story at her website:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gabriellarocco


Another prayer request for a fellow CHOC child, her story and her parents request as follows:

Dear Friends Thank you for your valuable time. I know there are many hoaxes going around and that people are afraid to help nowadays, but we desperately need your help in supporting a family that has been through hell the past year. They have already lost their car, their house and their dignity, because of great medical expenses paid in order to give their daughter Rene another day, week or year to live.Rene Degenaar has been diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia when she was only 4years old. A child diagnosed with this illness, has to receive a bone marrow transplant in order to survive. If failed to get a suitable donor, a child will only live for approximately 6 to 12 months. The bone marrow shuts down and fails to produce new cells.Rene's 11th birthday was a medical wonder that cannot be explained. She never found a suitable donor and although she is terminally ill, she has managed to fight this illness for 7 and a half years. Rene receives platelets and/or blood every week of her life as her bone marrow fails to produce it's own. From time to time Rene has a reaction to the blood or platelets she receives and needs urgent medical attention. Two months ago her heart stopped and her lungs collapsed. All credit to the ER team at Unitas hospital who responded in two minutes and successfully resuscitated her.The family has a medical aid and we are desperately trying to keep Rene on it. She needs the services of the South African Blood Service to ensure that blood (she has a very scarce blood type- B negative) and needs to be at a hospital where emergency services are available at all times. Unfortunately the medical aid plan she needs to be on and the many costs not covered by the medical aid, has left this family in great financial need.I really think that Rene has earned the right to our support with her GREAT fighting spirit and the grace she has accepted her fate with.We need your help to give Rene another day/week/year!Our motto at CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation is to "keep more than hope alive!". We can support them with food and transport money, but cannot pay for treatment. We need funds in her trust to pay for medical expenses.
Rene's Trust Fund:Rene Degenaar Trust
ABSA- Branch 632005
Account nr: 4052660818
Rene is one of four children. If you wish to support them with day to day expenses like school fees , clothes etc:
SM Karsten
FNB- Branch 251145
Account nr 62036092063
If you need more info, you can call Rene's mom Irma at 082 497 8990, or stepdad Jan at 082 828 9950.CHOC Pretoria fully support their cause and we hope that you will too. Formore information or confirmation of this case, you can phone Yolande at084 588 3164.
Kind Regards Yolande van Rooyen CHOC Pretoria


Thank you for all your prayers and support for our beautiful Deqlan, please continue them always. Please also open your hearts and prayers even further by including all our friends from all around the world!

God Bless, have a lovely weekend
All our love
Mark, Samm & Deqlan

FOR I KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU , DECLARES THE LORD, PLANS TO PROSPER YOU AND NOT TO HARM YOU, PLANS TO GIVE YOU HOPE AND A FUTURE
JEREMIAH 29;11