As dusk approaches, we watch the beautiful lights flicker in the harbour across the road. Neo, my four-year-old points out how peaceful the road is and Lwandle, the newest edition to our elephant herd sighs, almost to agree with his older brother. It has been a long wait for his arrival but now that he’s here, it’s been worth the nine months.

The morning before his arrival, we watched the sunrise over the ocean and after sneaking into the bedroom and up to my sleeping wife both whispered to her tummy in Zulu, “You don’t know what you’re missing!”. He must have listened because hours later, he made his appearance! I am sure my wife was more pleased than any one of us when he arrived; after spending more than ten hours in the maternity ward and watching all the ladies who had arrived after us deliver, I could see the frustration in her face, but in true Ndlovu nature, our boy waited to make an entrance! All three kilograms and forty-eight centimetres of him decided to make an entrance at 2:25 am, much to the relief of our matriarch.

We got to bring them back home about midday and I only got to hold him after the older brother was done showering him with kisses. Holding him for the first time has to be my proudest moment yet. It’s hard to explain the feeling, but everything at that moment seems to make sense and you feel a sense of purpose in life. I couldn’t take my eyes off him for the first night, I saw so much of me in him; the way he slept with his hand on his tummy and the frowns as he adjusted to the light. We named Lwandle Thato. Lwandle means ocean and Thato means love. With a surname that means elephant, one could definitely feel the love run deeper than the oceans and seas and all the emotion as we all slept in the same bedroom watching over the little elephant. And yes, I had to move the big brother’s bed into our bedroom as he wanted to keep guard over his brother!

The next morning, both his great grandmother and grandmother came over to see, let me rephrase... inspect the little one. It’s African culture that the older matriarchs do this. He got the nod of approval from both grannies as they admired how big and healthy he was and also whispered to me how he had my dashing looks... *wink wink*

LT, as everyone affectionately calls him, happens to share the same initials as his grandfather, my father. My folks, we are notorious for bringing our family together and watching everyone in the living room brought together by this tiny human being brought back lots of childhood memories. I can imagine both his late grandparents smiling down from above.

It’s been one week since I have been back at work and I must say, I miss waking to his big rosy cheeks but I have found comfort in the sightings and experiences out in the bush. I can see my boys in the baby wildebeest running in open plains; in the lion cubs frolicking in the long grass and in the leopard cub straddling comfortably in the Marula tree. I can see all of them in the elephant herds fussing over their calves. I can’t wait to get back and take him on his first walk along the beach, a suiting walk for a baby called Lwandle!