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We have a view on the Durbanville Hills vineyards from our kitchen window and last week hubby and I were talking about how green they still are and how beautiful they look.  They were a wonderful bright green.

Tonight I looked out and I was blown away at the change in colour – they are BROWN!  It is amazing that there can be such a difference in just a week.

All of a sudden it is also darker earlier and there is a definite chill in the air.  I underestimated the chill in the air this morning and ended up with sandals at work.  My feet were freezing!  (and the minute my feet are cold I am miserable!)

Amazing stuff how nature works!

This is just too good not to pass on to all. Here is something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It’s nice.

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with R1,681,470.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn’t even touch tuition.

But R1,681,470.00 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into:

• R93414.93 a year,
• R7784.49 a month,
• R1796.34 a week.
• A mere R254.52 a day!
• Just over R10.50 an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is: don’t have children if you want to be ‘rich.’ Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your R1,681,470.00?

• Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
• Glimpses of God every day.
• Giggles under the covers every night.
• More love than your heart can hold.
• Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
• Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
• A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
• A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
• Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For R1,681,470.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:

• finger-paint,
• carve pumpkins,
• play hide-and-seek,
• catch lightning bugs,
• never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:

• keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
• watch Saturday morning cartoons,
• go to Disney movies, and
• wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodlewreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.

For a mere R254.52 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:

• retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
• taking the training wheels off a bike,
• removing a splinter,
• filling a paddling pool,
• coaxing a wad of gum out of hairs, and
• coaching a rugby team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:

• First step,
• First word,
• First bra,
• First date,
• First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match..

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren!!!!!!!

It’s the best investment you’ll ever make!!!!!!!!!

I had a small epiphany over the weekend regarding my Mother.

I am forever getting pissed off because she isn’t that involved, is forever too sick or too busy or too involved in one of my crazy sister’s problems.  I always marvel at how my inlaws, that are almost 20 years older than my parents, are always willing and available to help cart kids or sit with them etc.  Not that that can feed them or bath them (or, God forbid, change a nappy), but sometimes you just need another adult body around and they are great for that.

I have always expected my Mom to be able to “Mother”, to be able to take care of my kids.  And I just realised this weekend that maybe she’s just not that kind of Grandmother and that maybe I just expect too much of her.

So, I changed my expectations of her to ZERO. And I’m actually completely ok with it.  It is far too draining to be angry at her.

She called me yesterday and started apologizing how she wasn’t going to be able to see them this week blah blah blah and I said that we were around, and there was no pressure, we didn’t expect anything, but that she was always welcome to pop in.  And as the words came out of my mouth I was already bracing myself for the inevitable call from my Dad berating me for upsetting her (once again), but I was also listing to my tone with her and I was surprised that I sounded genuine and not pissed off or angry.

What a load off me!

(just had a call from her saying that she has popped by the house, made me smile)

I was going to do a post about the egg hunt we had, but this is what came out:

The 3rd best thing about this past weekend is that there were no nannies, it was just us as a family.  We got to spend time with people that we love and enjoy spending time with, not because we have to. 

The 2nd best thing is that I really, really enjoyed the time with my kids.  Despite the odd whining from Daniel, it was great as we weren’t rushed to go anywhere as the shops were mostly closed and we had deliberately not over-planned outings and events.  By Sunday avie I was wishing I could slow down the clock and let the weekend stretch just that little bit longer.  I want to inhale them, they are so amazing.

But the very best thing about this weekend is that hubby and I connected again like the old days for the first time in ages and we are now closer than we have been in a while.  Not that we were that far apart, but we just hadn’t connected properly for such a long time because it has just been too chaotic.  If it weren’t for very similar backgrounds and a sense of humor we would not have survived.  I am far too cynical to get all bleary eyed and say it is perfect, but it is lovely at the moment.  Like a really comfortable pair of shoes (a really NICE pair of shoes of course..)

 
Ok, I’m obsessed with cupcakes.

The 3 rugrats.  Mignon left, Isabel middle, Daniel right.  It is virtually impossible to get them all to stay in one place long enough to take a pic – I am quite impressed with this!!

Easter weekend was great fun, long post to follow tomorrow.

I took Daniel, a friend and my hypochondriac (this time she is almost dying from a throat infection) Mother to a puppet show yesterday morning.  I declined a very important meeting because I promised myself that I would take him.

The previous night he drove us nuts as he was crying in his sleep and eventually we figured out that he must be constipated.  (Ok, it might have something to do with the fact that he pointed at his bum when I asked where the “eina” was.)  So, every time he woke up I shoveled some Homeopathic constipation stuff down his throat and that seemed to work.  We don’t normally have a problem with this, so I actually had no idea what to do.

Yesterday morning the “problem” persisted, and Mister refused to drink the Movicol I had tried to sneak in in his juice.

So, clearly I was sleep deprived and Daniel was in a bad mood.

We get to the hall and he goes into pathetic mode and starts whimpering and complaining and eventually I had him on my lap.  We then get lectured by this crazy old lady about how we should keep our children quiet and it only takes one misbehaved child to ruin it for all the other children warra warra warra.  It was crazy.  About 5 minutes into the show D says loudly, as only kids can do:  “Mamma, Mamma ek moet piepie!”  I then try to leopard crawl to the toilet at the back of the hall where he proceeds to shriek at me for trying to take him to the toilet .  WTF??  Drama Queen.

After the third repeat of this and a loudly whispered conversation with another mommy friend I had run into we made an escape.  Geez, don’t think I’ll be doing that anytime soon..

I was meant to go to work after lunch, but by 11h30 I was in the car on the way to the office.  I then sat in peace and quiet in my office for the rest of the day.  It was great.

I dared to phone home and was informed that he finally sorted himself out, but didn’t make it to the toilet, so the bathroom floor got the brunt of it.  Shame, but as hubby said:  rather out than in.

Seriously? Seriously!

I think Jamie Oliver is going to have to home-school his kids. 

 I took Daniel, his friend, the girls and the nanny to Kidz Playzone this afternoon.  I had to do an actual headcount when we finally managed to leave.

Below is what I felt like.  It was fun though! 

We have really been battling to get Daniel to make a poo in the actual toilet and he was driving us nuts during lunch on Sunday (whilst my inlaws were there) asking for a nappy.

So, I thought, that’s it, and I suggested he takes one of his books with him to the loo.

Problem solved.   I of course have still not heard the end of it!

Off on a half-day soon, will be taking the kids, a nanny and a friend for Daniel off to Kidz Playzone in Durbanville if anyone cares to join!  (I might only be able to nod, as I’ll be the one running after the children 🙂

Tertia tagged me and then some other blogland friends and between all of us I think we are pretty much covered, so I’m only tagging my friend Leo as I think she needs to blog more often 🙂

(I also want to add that I saw the tag on Saturday and I have spent 2 days angsting over my list as I didn’t want it to be about ME, but fukkit, it is about me)

1.  Someone is always happy to see me.  Isabel was in Daddy’s arms over the weekend and her whole face lit when I held out my hands to take her.  I almost died of happiness.
2.  The smell, the glorious smell of little ones.  (ok, not the vomit and poo, but everything in-between)
3.  I LOVE how the girls are always so happy to see each other in the morning, they are amazing to watch.  They look for each other first thing (after I get my smile and kiss) and start “chatting” immediately.
4.  I’m loving Daniel’s chatting and imitating of everyone around him – I now understand what people mean when they refer to them as little sponges.
5.  I love being called Mommy, I have been redefined as Mother, despite my infertility challenges and this is amazing, it is something that no-one will ever take away from me.