Author: Tania

I was going to lament about all the vomit we had to clean up tonight, but after reading Tertia’s entries for today, I am reminded of how lucky we were against a lot of odds.

To cut a long story short, I had to have both my fallopian tubes removed and after going through 3 years of denial and dealing with a lot of stuff, I finally took the plunge and went for IVF in July 2004 and it worked first time, resulting in Daniel.  

We then thought that we most likely would not be that lucky again and decided we wanted to try once more when he was a year old, resulting in identical twin girls, Mignon and Isabel.

So, 2 IVF’s and 3 children!  They are all very special.

Then, we are doing Secret Santa at work this week, so I thought I would bake this allegedly easy chocolate cake and leave piece of it on my person’s desk.  It literally takes 15 minutes to make and 15 minutes to bake.  (excluding icing time)

No kidding.

It worked well, so let me know if anyone wants the recipe!   

Please help, I want to know who wrote a whole post on treating gastro recently??  One of my friends’ baby is really ill.

Thanks!
Tania

Never, ever mess with me when I have PMS.  And I mean never.

Hubby did this weekend, much to his demise.  (and ultimately mine too) 

This is how it went:

• 3 sick children, a long Friday night.
• hubby tries for 3 minutes to feed the girls breakfast and declares himself irritated.  (yes dear, and who do you think does all the feeding normally anyway??)
• I wanted to invite friends over for supper on Sat night, hubby then informs me that he is inviting his single friend over to watch the rugby and have a braai. (WTF??)
• a kiddies party from hell, where Daniel proceeded to take his clothes off and jump on the net over the pool. 
• some harsh whispering back home so as not to upset children
• Daniel woke up miserable from his nap with a fever, so I loaded all 3 children in the car, buggered off, dumped the girls with my mother and took D to Durbanville Medi Clinic to see a doctor.  All this whilst darling dearest piece of shit husband watches rugby in peace and quiet at home.  (he offered halfheartedly to look after the girls, but I shudder to think)
• mission to chemist to spend R500 on tonsillitis medicine and then to shops to buy a wide array of foods D MIGHT eat

I then decided to stay with my mom until I had calmed down, which I hadn’t by 20h00 and the kids needed to get to bed, so off home we went again. 

Aaarghh, why do I have to be a grownup?  I could quite easily have stayed at my mom’s house just to punish him in some childish way and also just to get a break, but anyway.

What I don’t understand is that this man is fantastic with Daniel, but for some reason cannot cope with the girls and everything is an effing mission when it comes to them.

Oh, and then he burnt their food I was cooking when I tried to take a shower yesterday morning.  How difficult can it be to stir?

I mean, come on, get over yourself!!

Roll on period, I like my family intact..

Mignon is crawling at 8 months and 9 days!  After absolute weeks of groaning and moaning its like the penny just dropped and off she went!  I think we need to get her one of those bouncy things as it seems to be her favourite thing to do, although I don’t really believe in them. 
Any comments on this?

Isabel is also now doing the moaning and groaning bit, but not entirely with such fanfare as she is the more reserved twin.  Shame, she also has terrible allergies when the wind blows, just like her mommy, so she has red and puffy eyes.  My poor baby.

I also have the habit of calling them my “koekeloekke” (it’s an Afrikaans thing I think) and yesterday morning Daniel leant over his chair and said to them: “hallo my koekeloekke!”.  How cute.  Moments like that make up for a lot of whining…

Don’t get me wrong, I love my boy to bits, but can someone please explain to me why he whines? 

Its not just any whine either (trust me, I’ve tried to imitate it). It starts in his stomach, working to the back of his throat.  Even though I generally ignore it so as not to make it worse, I also have to stop myself from overreacting to the other stuff as it irritates the living crap out of me.

Is it a boy thing? 
Is it a 2.5 yr old thing?
How do I make it stop?
Can I make it stop?

Whine done 🙂

In 2002 my sister-in-law and her 2 year old girl died in a car accident.  My niece was not in a car seat and possibly would have survived if she was.  I’m sure everyone has a similar story.

Hence, my promise to myself was that my children will not sit in a car without car seats.  I have stuck to this rule and because we are consistent with this Daniel doesn’t know anything else. 

Which brings me to all those IDIOTS that have little ones jumping up and down in cars with open windows.  (No kidding, seen this morning driving out of Kenridge.)  I even saw someone with a little boy on the N1 in the fast lane the other day on the front seat, not strapped in and also with the window down.

What are people thinking?  I feel like a screeching banshee when I see kids flailing around cars, do people not know how dangerous this is??  Maybe I need to go on a vigilante mission and start hooting at people??

Any comments?

I have been pondering the things no-one told me and I certainly couldn’t find in books, such as:

1.  When your baby decides to reject the boob, what to do.  All the books are so gung-ho on breastfeeding that no-one seems to think what you should do with the sore boobs and to get rid of the milk should THE BABY decide he/she doesn’t want boob anymore.
2.  How to make a 2.5 year old stop throwing stuff at his twins sisters’ heads in an effort to get attention
3.  That no book is going to get your baby into a routine and that they are pretty much going to do what they want for at least the first few months
4.  NOT to be smug with first-time parents.  Shame, it’s hard enough as it is 🙂
5.  Vomit.  Need I say more?

Anybody care to add any thoughts??  What were your experiences that no-one warned you about? 

If there is one VERY important lesson I learnt this year it’s that there is NO time to hold on to shit.  It’s a complete waste of energy and time. 
I have learnt that all my internal noise when I worry about work and money makes me a bad listener for my family. 
I have learnt that you really do have to be “in the moment” otherwise you miss so much of your kids.  I have learnt that it’s not that much harder to have 2 babies at the same time than 1. 
I have learnt a little abandon and how to let go and have fun. 
I have learnt that my husband really is a fantastic friend.
I have learnt the importance of a sense of humor.
I have learnt gratitude for all that we receive, of a physical and spiritual nature.
But most of all this year I have learnt to really, really love.  My love for my family grows every single day!

I really try not to judge people that choose not to have children, but they don’t know what they are missing!!

I have some baby-weight to lose. 

OK, I have A LOT of baby weight to lose.  This is what happens when you have 3.5 kg twins (each!)

Tomorrow they are 8 months old and so far I have lost 1.5 kg (apart from the 6 kgs I gained whilst on Maternity leave thanks to many packs of Lemon Creams, but that’s another story)

There probably isn’t a reason why I cannot lose the weight as I have been a little bit more “on top” of things the last couple of months.  But I haven’t and I know that I should probably stop flagellating myself over it, but hey, such is life.

I have put off having the girls Christened for as long as possible because I wanted to lose the baby fat, but have now been politely forced to do it in 3.5 weeks’ time.

So, I have officially decided to stop cracking myself up about it and just suck it up (and in).  Whatever comes first.

I’m amazed at how some Mondays suck.

It might have something to do with the fact that I woke up at 4h30 this morning because Isabel was trying to turn over from her tummy and moaning about it and when I moved her onto her back she promptly rolled over again.  I then got to lie in bed and worry that she might suffocate. 

That and the R13 000 the Municipality wants from us.  And all the other financial shit we are in.

So, then I lied awake for an hour, fell asleep at about 5h30 and was woken at 6h00 by Daniel.

Then we got to run around like lunatics as the nannies were late and pack school lunches etc.

And then I got to sit on the N1 for 90 minutes.  (and then I wonder at the end of the month why my cellular account is so high)

Ah, happy days.