No Sleeping

We are experiencing a challenge common among young children – fighting sleep.  Thandokuhle is quick to say “no sleeping” whenever I say it is time to take a nap or get ready for bed.  The last few nights have been particularly challenging in getting her to fall asleep.  For the first few weeks I laid beside her until she fell asleep and she fell asleep fairly quickly.  However, the last few nights she seemed distracted by having me in the room.  Tonight I tried leaving the room but then she cried.  I have a hard time differentiating between a real cry versus an “I want to manipulate mommy” cry at this point.  So, tonight I was in and out of the room multiple times trying to figure out the best approach.  Finally, I was able to rock her until she fell asleep. I need to remember that this, too, is just a phase…

Today we visited another historic winery, named Spier.  It was established in 1692 and is a beautiful estate.  Many of the wineries offer unique attractions and this one had quite a variety.  First, we visited little craft shops that each displayed the unique work of a black South African artist or a NGO aimed at providing economic development among impoverished people.  One of the ladies made handmade dresses out of African fabrics.  She was an excellent saleswoman because she focused on Miranda and the dress that Miranda liked.  She let Miranda try it own over her clothes and fussed over her about how pretty she was.  Then she picked out several dresses for Thandokuhle to try on (who then got very shy) and decided what fabric looked best on her.  She was very friendly and quite good with children.  Needless to say, I bought the two dresses!  

We planned to eat lunch at the winery but did not realize that the casual restaurant was closed on Mondays.  However, they had a little deli where they made sandwiches that you could eat outside.  So, we had a picnic lunch on the lawn of the estate.  Then the girls enjoyed the playground. We have not seen any parks here but many of the wineries have playgrounds.  It seems that visiting the wineries is a common family activity as there are often many children-oriented activities.

Our final activity at the winery was to visit a rescue center for birds of prey.  We saw hawks, crows, owls, eagles, vultures, among others. Miranda was brave enough to pet an owl but Thandokuhle wasn’t ready for that.

There was a flying show where they demonstrated how these birds catch their prey in the wild. They had the birds come land on our hands (we were wearing gloves) and Dad even had one bird fly down and take the meat out of his palm.  I liked the large secretary birds the best. 

There was a simulated snake hunt and we watched the secretary birds aggressively kick the snake (it was really chicken tied to a hose) in order to kill and eat it.  We are definitely learning a lot about African animals!