Category: Uncategorized

(Really, I can’t bear watching this Bafana game anymore.  My nerves are shot.)

 

I am in the process of selling off and passing on our baby paraphanalia.  And trust me, with twins, we have plenty.  I try not to hoard and keep stuff ‘just for incase’, but sometimes you just can’t help it.

 

The big stuff like cots is easy to get rid of, but I always wonder about the smaller stuff that, collectively, takes up so much space.

 

For example, I never know what artwork of my kids to keep.  Daniel isn’t really very prolific, but I can see a real difference in the girls’ work even at this age (2).  But do I really have to keep everything?  What do you keep?  I have visions of big photo frames with all their artwork, but never seem to get around to it.

 

I recently read Paulo Coelho’s biography and was amazed as the amount of written records such as school reports, letters etc that was referred to from his childhood, which means that a lot of stuff was kept for many years.  Where do they keep it all??

 

And then I also wonder, should I be wanting another baby as much as I secretly do, even knowing I would have to go for IVF again.  Would it be tempting fate in some weird way as we have 3 such wonderfully healthy children already?  (purely academic excercise anyway as we certainly can’t afford even IVF right now, much less another baby)

 

And then I think back to my horrendous morning with the 3 of them all demanding attention in some way and the chorus of MammaMammaMammaMammaMammaMammaMammaMamma until I want to scream and I take another long sip of my Merlot and think Nah, I’ll pass, thanks.

Quick Danielism:  I finally convinced (read: bullied) hubby to light our fireplace this evening and as he came through the house with the wood Daniel pipes up:  ‘Pappa, gaan ons braai?’ 

Do you believe in Soul mates?

 

I used to.  I think I still do to a certain extent.  But my concept of what a Soul mate should be has shifted considerably during my life so far. 

 

When I was in my teens my idea of a Soul mate was someone that would take my breath away.

 

In my 20’s I still thought that a Soul mate should take my breath away, but I also thought that I should be very ‘connected’ to this person.  I ended up being a hand-wringing, emotional wreck because I had this intense connection to someone and even though he was a lovely, lovely guy it was just too intense.  And toxic in the end for both of us.

 

For a long time I thought that anything less would be a compromise of sorts and held onto this relationship somewhere in my heart, in a special little room.

 

Now, in my (late) 30’s I have realised that my concept has once again shifted.  Now I’m not as worried about whether I’ll see my Family and special friends in another life as much as how we can help each other get through this one.  With love, our sanity and sense of humour intact.

 

So, tonight I was cleaning out a cupboard and came across some old pictures.  And I opened the door to that special little room in my heart and proceeded to clean that out as well. 

 

I need the space for new memories of my beautiful family and Soul mate, my hubby.   

Up to last night I would quite happily have let most of the WC fever have passed me by.  If it weren’t for my hubby I probably would never have bothered to buy a ticket and go to a match. 

I would have missed out on SO much, I am a convert!

The spirit of everyone walking in the rain in the closed off Green Point Main Road, blowing their Vuvu’s.  The way you feel when you walk into the stadium and see the pitch for the first time.  The Mexican wave.  The sheer electricity in the air when 62 000 people gasp as one when a goal is scored or missed. 

AMAZING.  I can’t wait for the Netherlands/Cameroon game!!

And of course, as we arrive at our row of seats, there are our next door neighbours sitting 3 seats down from us!

Here some pics:

My first view inside

The rain

The stalls on the way out on Main Road

If you don’t have tickets, do yourself a favour, you’ll never regret it!

I need to get to a hairdresser, not this week, 2 weeks ago already.  The roots you know, they are screaming for some colour.  We are going to the game tomorrow and I have to look presentable! 

But alas, there has been no time, so I committed the mortal sin of attempting home dye.  My natural (snort) hair colour is anything from a brown to a red, but on the rather boring side.  Whenever I can afford it I would put the odd streak in, but generally I leave it up to Ingrid, my hairdresser, she’s the bomb.

I had gotten Julie & Julia to watch, so I convinced hubby to take my reading (to Daniel) turn and planned it so that I put the dye on, put the kids to bed, get the girls settled and then dash into the shower.  Only, the ‘development time’ on the box was 10 minutes instead of the usual 20-25 minutes.  How inconvenient.  We all know it takes longer than 10 minutes to get children to go to sleep.  It takes that long to herd them into the bedroom!

When the chanting started from their room (MY Mamma, MY Pappa, My Mamma, MY Pappa!!)  I knew we were in for a rough one.  Then commenced operation keep-the-girls-in-bed which took up another 30 minutes.  By this time I was getting a little nervous about the burny scalp, but what could I do?  I tweeted and waited.  Eventually hubby emerged from Daniel’s room and I sprinted down the passage.

In the shower, out the shower, put movie on, squeeze into one of their kiddy poofs, eat snacks and 2 hours go by.  And I realise I hadn’t even looked at my hair.  I mean, surely ‘spiced chocolate’ looks exactly like, well, brown hair? 

It probably would have if I followed the suggested 10 minutes ‘development time’.  Now it just looks like plum-spiced chocolate.  Feck.  And I still don’t have time to go to the hairdresser.  So, if you happen to be sitting at the Cape Town stadium tomorrow and a deep purple siren walks past you, it’s me.  Just smile and wave.

And NO, I’m not posting pics.

Daniel and I went to 2 kids parties today. 

The first one was that of a classmate of his and the Mom’s a friend of mine.  It was the usual mix of parents and kids that I am very comfortable with.  Daniel’s school is quite a mix of colour and there are some really lovely folks that we have gotten to know the last few years.

The second party was that of a dear, dear friend’s little girl.  This party was very different from the first as they are Muslim and Daniel and I were the only white people there, gasp!  And the obvious lack of Merlot 🙂 There was such a spirit of family and family of family and children that are very loved and are growing up together in these strong family bonds.  It was a truly special experience and I feel honoured to have been invited!

But, looking back, there were also many similarities between the 2nd party and the type of “white” parties I usually attend:

Nervous Moms.

The birthday boy and girl cried at least once each.

There was sand-art at both parties and the kids all loved it (and the adults!)

Each family has the crazy aunt/uncle.  You can spot them a mile away.

The older folk that are there, but sit separately from the young ones, almost like they feel they might be in the way.

There is usually a domestic worker in the background.

There is always at least 1 very badly behaved child,

at least one tantrum,

and sugar, lots and lots of sugar.

And Cupcakes.

And Partypacks.

Morning started off great, hubby went off to work and I am here with the 3 hooligans, will be taking them to go play as soon as I can mobilise all of us.  Should only take another 3 hours or so, we should be there before lunch sometime..

Happy days, we have a lady working for us (for not much longer) 3 days a week whilst I am looking for a live-in domestic worker.  She has a habit of doing really silly things, but my best was this morning when I quickly ran to take a shower and was greeted by 3 children with dark crusty mouths when I got out.  Upon investigation it emerged that she had given them chocolate for breakfast.  At 7h30.  Now I just need to catch them so I can dress them.

Hope everyone enjoys the soccer and the opening ceremony tonight, I’m on kiddy duty, but will be going to the game on Monday, can’t wait!

but some builder decided to mess up a pipe and our neighbourhood had no water from this early afternoon.  And Barney was on repeat. 

Friends came over so we HAD to drink wine seeing as how there was no water and we managed to cook supper without a problem, decided to limit the dishes and deal with them tomorrow.  And not bath the kids.  Until we had The Poo Incident just before their normal bedtime, so we plonked them in the car and went off to the In-Laws in high spirits.  (I’ll spare you the details..) The kids loved it!

We ran in, bathed them, joked with Granny and Granddad, chucked the kids back in the car and were home by 8h30 pm.  Kids all asleep 10 minutes later.  Bliss.

Oh, and the water came on shortly after we had left.  Typical.

My MIL is so deaf now and refuses to get a hearing aid, so there are many of these conversations:

I heard DH and In-Laws discussing the games and vuvuzela’s and how we have earplugs for the noise.  MIL pipes up: Sjoe, you should really get some earplugs if you are going to the game.  Yes Ma.

I survived the morning with the kidlets, spending most of the day with them tomorrow, wish me well!

Very tired little man in the car, even his crown was askew:

We prepared him for ages before he turned 4 that he is a big boy then and big boys don’t wear nappies at night etcetc, so when it came to his birthday last month we couldn’t chicken out and he was keen not to wear a nappy. 

He then proceeded to wet his bed religiously once or twice a night despite many loo runs and pep talks.  We then had a chat and said it was really ok if he still wanted a night nappy as we could see it was upsetting him.  I just ended up thinking you know what, I’m only competing against myself, he’s clearly not ready

2 weeks of night nappies later he says to hubby tonight he’s never ever ever ever wearing a nappy again.  Mmmm.  I’m wondering if someone had a talk at school or whether he made up his own mind.  I hope he will be ok, my sensitive little soul child boy. 

PS: on this topic, I bought the MOST amazing sheet that you put under them that doesn’t leak onto the big sheet and you can tumble-dry it.  Let me know if anyone wants details, best R240 I ever spent!

My children have Gees.  Really.

I am so cross.  As cross as I haven’t been in years.

There is a issue at Daniel’s school that (in my opinion) has been blown completely out of proportion.  It has lead to some parents taking their children out of the Primary School on the farm where the Pre-Primary school is.  And one of these parents has started an on-line campaign.

Well, I have news for you.  Game on.  We love the school and will not allow you to sabotage it through misinformation and misinterpretation and sheer pettiness.