Easter in Rome.

Even though you've just arrived back from Africa, it is time for you to hit the road again! This time it is your first trip to Rome in Italy to spend Easter with your grandmother and Uncle Matteo. Of course you will also be dragged right across Rome and beyond to meet various members of the family, as well as your mother's huge circle of friends! Nonna Mariapia borrowed a little cot, bath, and a baby chair so the house in Rome is well set up to welcome you!

with uncle Matteo

Right from the start you are spoilt rotten by your uncle Matteo and his girlfriend Benedetta who are very enthusiastic babysitters, and just love to have you in their arms! Easter is celebrated in the village of San Giovanni near Viterbo as this is where Zio Franco, your great-grandmother Delia's brother, lives. Not only do you meet Zio Franco, but also all his friends from the village!

Friends from the village of San Giovanni

Back in Rome you get to meet your mum's best friend since childhood, Silvia, and her family. Everybody finds you to be "molto simpatica", a very nice baby!

With Silvia

Pasquetta, or Little Easter, is an Italian tradition where everybody goes for a picnic on the Monday after Easter Sunday. This is then where you meet all of your mom's other friends, mostly from University. Quite a few of them have babies as well although they are all just a bit older than you. Hopefully you will all be just as good friends as your parents are!

Pasquetta

Little friends: Flavio,Michele,Luca,Viola

With Pasquetta over, you also receive a few home visits, much like a little royal princess! Alessandra's friends Gianluca and Stefano, Francesca and her boyfriend (also!) Stefano and of course Zio Manu are amongst those that popped around to see you. As nonno Gianfranco is in Rome as well, you all make a trip to just outside Rome where uncle Manu's family lives.

with Gianluca and Stefano and Emanuele

And yet all the visits are not over! Last but not least on the list is Sabrina, Raffaele and their young boy Edoardo who lives in Cerveteri. Sabrina is pregnant with twin boys who will be born in June, adding to the list of little friends with whom you can play over the years to come!

with Sabrina's family

It was a really full, but enjoyable few days, but all too soon it is time to return to London where your papa is waiting eagerly for his little family! This was the first time that you have been so far away from him, and understandably he simply can't wait to see you again. And so the time comes to say goodbye to all in Rome and board the plane back to your home in London.

Visit to Namibia.

Full of courage after the successful flights to Milan and back, we get ready for your first intercontinental flight: destination Namibia! It is Friday 25th March when we board the Virgin flight to Johannesburg where we will stay over for two days. On the plane you get a flight cot, also called a bassinet, strapped to the bulkhead separating the different sections of the plane. The system works really well and after a reasonable night's sleep you set foot in Africa for the first time!

With Iiris,Theo and Demi

Our first stopover on this African safari is with Heino's Aunt Iris, Uncle Theo and their daughter Demi. As always they are very welcoming and make it a very relaxing couple of days. Theo introduce us to the wonders of Gripe Water (very good for stomach cramps) and you also experience your first braai(BBQ). The final step in preparing us for the Namibian trip is for your mom to have her hair cut short, as it has become impossible for you to resist giving it a good pull!

Monday morning sees us on Johannesburg airport again, this time the desitination is Windhoek, capital city of Namibia. It is here that Heino's brother Henrico and sister Letitia lives. It is great fun to introduce you to your African family, and especially your cousins Sonja and Jacobus are very pleased to see you for the first time. Jacobus even spent a whole half an hour cooing and playing with you in your basket!

With Jacobus, Sonja, Letitia, Pieter, Henrico

Three days later it is time to take on the next leg of the journey: 710km's in a southerly direction to the small village of Karasburg. It is a town full of history for your dad as it is here that he was born, as was your grandfather, where both of them went to school and it is here that this Oupa Joepie of yours still lives today!

Despite a very hot day you are very good in your car seat and after 10 hours and numerous cool-down stops we enter the dusty town of Karasburg!

As you can imagine entertainment in a small African village is not in large supply, which makes it for a very restful break. We visit the doctor to use his scale, and we notice that you've made very good progress and now pull the needle down to 4.7kg! We also visit the grave of your Ouma Sonja who you so sadly will not be able to meet in person. It is a very emotional experience, however we can imagine how she is smiling down on her cute little granddaughter who has come so far to visit her!



Something we've been looking forward to all year is to visit our family farm, Haruchas. We stay with Louis and Anina Potgieter, the neighbouring farmers who rent our farm from Oupa Joepie, and their hospitality literally knows no bounds! It is great to go around the farm and to look at all the nice scenery, especially as it has been a great rainyear! We also visit the old farmhouse in which your dad lived for the first four years of his life. Unfortunately, as no one has lived there for many years, it is severely derelict, but it still is our ambition one day to fully restore it!

On the way back to Karasburg we stop over at oom Dolf and Tannie Kinna de Wet, lifelong friends of the Von Wiellighs, and largely responsible for your dad's love of tennis. Again the braai fire is lit, old times remembered and a new member of the Namibian family welcomed into the fold!

With Oupa Joepi

The final part of our journey is a three hour drive to the South African town of Keimoes. It is here that Heino went to secondary school, and here that his childhood friend Eric Swenson lives as a grape farmer. We stay in his mom, Tannie Etta's house, and she is extremely good with you, even giving your parents a few hours off for a rest! This used to be a second home for Heino whilst being at school far from his parents, and it is easy to see why he had such a good time here! Naturally more meat meets the braai and more friends are met, as well as you meeting little Evert, Eric and his wife Christine's son of just over a year old.

With Eric and Evert

Back in Karasburg the time just flies by, and before we know it, it is time to start making the long trek back to London. Your Oupa Joepie is very sad to see you leave, and it is easy to see that he got very attached to you in a short space of time! In Windhoek we spend the last two days looking at some flats and houses. The market here is still massively undervalued compared to Europe, and it is our desire to make an investment here for your future one day.
After another short stopover in Joburg, we are back in London, but with the amazing Namibian landscape still in our hearts! It's been a very good time for us all, but especially for you as the scale tells us that you now weigh 5.57kg, up from 4.5kg when we left. Undoubtedly the combination of good Namibian food, lots of sun and fresh air did us all good, ensuring that we will do it all again next year!

Under a quiver tree

Third month.

After celebrating your second month in the air on the way to Milan, the end of your third month sees you in the beautiful land of Namibia!

The biggest change of the last month is that we've started to give you some formula milk, not much, only about 200ml per day to supplement the breastmilk. This is of course because your average weight gain per week has been a bit small, and generally it has to be said that you don't strike us as a big eater!
The first few nights with the formula milk has been quite tough as you slept very little! We suspect that your little tummy and digestive system is struggling with this strange milk that it is not used to!

And then there are those smiles! They start to be more often and it is a constant competition between your mom and dad to see who can generate the most smiles! You seem to be very much a morning person as this is the time of day that you smile the most. They are heart-meltingly-cute and all the crying, dirty nappies and sleepless nights are instantly forgiven when those little gums are bared!

Another sign of your rapid development is that you start to use your hands much more, especially to grab some hanging objects. You also seem more interested in toys now, and especially Jack, the hanging parrot in your moses basket, is a firm favourite!

Apart from the stubborn cradle cap that does not want to go away despite our best efforts, every thing is going well with your growth and it is an indescribable joy to see how you are developing into a beautiful little person!