Taz and I have been enjoying the bike seat. It helps me get some exercise, and helps tucker Taz out so that she takes lovely long naps. We usually bike to a park where we have a little picnic lunch and then play on the swings and attempt climbing on the other equipment.
We were biking around the other day, and as I took a corner I said "weeeee", and the next thing I heard this little "weeeee", come out of my tiny passenger. It was so adorable!!!!
Now everytime we take a ride she sits and says, "weeeeee". When I hear her, I just melt.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Monday, 27 April 2009
Mouse in the House
We have alot of construction going on around our house, and also a really large open field behind it. Both of these factors contribute to there being an abundance of furry little critters being disturbed in their natural habitat. Add a very frisky Phoebe into the mix and...I think you can see where I'm going with this.
So last night I noticed the cat staring intently at the corner of Tamsine's room, I wondered about it, but was too tired to really care. Then, this morning I found mouse droppings and pee in the container we keep Taz's nappies in, in her top drawer of her chest of drawers. I was not amused, but had been witness to Phoebe's conquests before, so I started looking everywhere for the mouse carcass. Nowhere! Argh!!!! I have a baby in the house and need to know where to spray copious amounts of Lysol disinfectant. THEN, I noticed the cat completely fascinated with the hall cupboard where we keep the vacuum. I thought - Aha - so opened the cupboard expecting the cat to jump in there and pull out the mouse. Instead she attacked the vacuum. Our cat (let me correct that, ) Mack's cat is a strange one anyway, but I figured there was something to her taking a dislike to the vacuum suddenly.
On closer inspection, I found the mouse had crawled up the vacuum hose and died there. Now isn't that a considerate mouse. I wish they would all do that!
So now instead of having to douse the whole house in Lysol disinfectant and have it dripping from the ceilings, I can just spray in the area's that I figure the mouse went.
So last night I noticed the cat staring intently at the corner of Tamsine's room, I wondered about it, but was too tired to really care. Then, this morning I found mouse droppings and pee in the container we keep Taz's nappies in, in her top drawer of her chest of drawers. I was not amused, but had been witness to Phoebe's conquests before, so I started looking everywhere for the mouse carcass. Nowhere! Argh!!!! I have a baby in the house and need to know where to spray copious amounts of Lysol disinfectant. THEN, I noticed the cat completely fascinated with the hall cupboard where we keep the vacuum. I thought - Aha - so opened the cupboard expecting the cat to jump in there and pull out the mouse. Instead she attacked the vacuum. Our cat (let me correct that, ) Mack's cat is a strange one anyway, but I figured there was something to her taking a dislike to the vacuum suddenly.
On closer inspection, I found the mouse had crawled up the vacuum hose and died there. Now isn't that a considerate mouse. I wish they would all do that!
So now instead of having to douse the whole house in Lysol disinfectant and have it dripping from the ceilings, I can just spray in the area's that I figure the mouse went.
Friday, 24 April 2009
Sweet New Ride
As summer approaches and the days begin to warm, I have been overcome with the need to get out into the sunshine and capitalize on the great weather. I seem to suffer from seasonal dysfunctional disorder here and go into a complete depression during the last few months of winter in Utah (which feels like about 9, maybe 10 months of the year).
Anyway, I have always enjoyed a nice bike ride or two. You know the kind - the ones where the wind is always in your favour and there are no uphills anywhere to be seen. Yip thats my kind of bike ride. But, this year so far I have been unable to follow my whim of biking around my parking lot a couple of times because of the dear munchkin.
I started researching bike seats versus bike trailers (which I have found are hellishly expensive). I found the perfet bike seat for the little missy, one where I can talk to her, where she is safe, where she doesn't throw my center of balance off, where she doesn't have to look at my wobbling butt the whole ride, and where I can see if she's uncomfortable or not.
So to make a long story short - meet Tamsine's new ibert. Even though the weather wasn't the best today, we had to take it for a test run. She LOVED it.
So come on summer, Taz and I have some serious biking to do - I might even try a slight incline or two!
Taz all kitted out and ready to go!
Virgin voyage of the ibert.
Of course we had to stop off in the park so that..ummm, both my kids could play on the swings a bit.
Just look at that happy little face!
Anyway, I have always enjoyed a nice bike ride or two. You know the kind - the ones where the wind is always in your favour and there are no uphills anywhere to be seen. Yip thats my kind of bike ride. But, this year so far I have been unable to follow my whim of biking around my parking lot a couple of times because of the dear munchkin.
I started researching bike seats versus bike trailers (which I have found are hellishly expensive). I found the perfet bike seat for the little missy, one where I can talk to her, where she is safe, where she doesn't throw my center of balance off, where she doesn't have to look at my wobbling butt the whole ride, and where I can see if she's uncomfortable or not.
So to make a long story short - meet Tamsine's new ibert. Even though the weather wasn't the best today, we had to take it for a test run. She LOVED it.
So come on summer, Taz and I have some serious biking to do - I might even try a slight incline or two!
Taz all kitted out and ready to go!
Virgin voyage of the ibert.
Of course we had to stop off in the park so that..ummm, both my kids could play on the swings a bit.
Just look at that happy little face!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Good Times, Good Times
I have to write this down before it becomes a distant memory - mainly because its my favourite memory from this last trip to Cape Town.
This is how it happened. Jeremy, Taz, my Mom and I went to breakfast with some of my Mom's friends. We arrived back at my Aunts house and heard the most awful noise (sorry Alana) coming from her sunroom area. Confused and just a little concerned we walked into the house, and found my cousin Alana sitting cross legged on my Aunts couch singing at the top of her lungs along with a karaoke style game called Sing Star. My cousin Brenna and her boyfriend Alexandre were just as into the game. Surprisingly, Alana's favourite song to sing to was Dolly Parton's 9 to 5. I think Lana was chanelling her!
But, to make a long story short, it felt like old times back in Cape Town. The cousins all hanging out together acting stupid and not caring. After only a few minutes we were all haggling over who was going to sing which song, getting excited about beating one anothers score, and teasing each other. Jeremy was a little reticint at first, which was surprising because out of all of us, he has the best voice, but seriously with all of us together, excited, singing off key, it was only a matter of minutes before Jeremy was sucked into the thick of things. And boy was he sucked in! Alana was so addicted that she was late for a dinner appointment - her husband had to call 3 times to remind her she needed to make her way home.
Ahhh, the good old days. I miss you guys!
This is how it happened. Jeremy, Taz, my Mom and I went to breakfast with some of my Mom's friends. We arrived back at my Aunts house and heard the most awful noise (sorry Alana) coming from her sunroom area. Confused and just a little concerned we walked into the house, and found my cousin Alana sitting cross legged on my Aunts couch singing at the top of her lungs along with a karaoke style game called Sing Star. My cousin Brenna and her boyfriend Alexandre were just as into the game. Surprisingly, Alana's favourite song to sing to was Dolly Parton's 9 to 5. I think Lana was chanelling her!
But, to make a long story short, it felt like old times back in Cape Town. The cousins all hanging out together acting stupid and not caring. After only a few minutes we were all haggling over who was going to sing which song, getting excited about beating one anothers score, and teasing each other. Jeremy was a little reticint at first, which was surprising because out of all of us, he has the best voice, but seriously with all of us together, excited, singing off key, it was only a matter of minutes before Jeremy was sucked into the thick of things. And boy was he sucked in! Alana was so addicted that she was late for a dinner appointment - her husband had to call 3 times to remind her she needed to make her way home.
Ahhh, the good old days. I miss you guys!
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Hanging with Dad
While in Mexico last year, we bought two chair hammocks for our balcony area. They really are super comfy, and if the sun would ever shine maybe we could use them more. We did have one sunny day this year so far though.
When Things Go Quiet...
I should have known better, but I was just so glad for a little peace while packing the groceries away. That's when I realised I should know better. When the house is void of little noises, it means that little noises are way too preoccupied doing something they shouldn't be doing. And that's when a mother turns around to find the cats water dish completely void of water, and this lurking under the dining table.
Sunday, 12 April 2009
My Mom's Side of the Family
A very drooly Taz with her Uncle Jeremy and Ouma
All we're missing is Darren
My Mom and her siblings (Phinnie, Antoinette, Marie, Billy)
Ouma and her self confessed favourite grandchild (I say rude!)
Tamsine and her Oumagrootjie (big little grandmother)
Four generations
The Four Girls (Aunty Net, Ouma, Aunty Phinnie, My Mom)
Ouma and all four her children
My Mom, my child and my Ouma
Happy Easter!!!!
I love Easter. Really, I think its the best holiday. It may be because I have such great memories associated with Easter. Easter is a pretty major holiday back home.
Let me take you back into the Easters of my childhood: Easter in South Africa is in the Autumn. The weather is barely starting to cool, the days are just starting to shorten, and the children have a week off school. For the adults, Easter is a 4 day weekend. The shops are stocked with fresh Hot Cross Buns, marshmallow Easter eggs, and the highly coveted White Beacon Eggs.
My family and my friend Jenni's family would pack up the car, bakkie (truck) and caravans and go camping in the mountains along the Bainskloof pass. The saturday before Easter, my mom and Jen's mom would take a walk around the mountains leaving clue's for us to find. The next morning we would all wake up bright and early and start scampering around the mountains searching for and solving the clues left for us the day before. While we were out searching for clues our parents would hide our eggs around our campsite, in trees, under rocks etc. (if they hid them the night before the baboons would get them). We would then all return to the site for the big egg hunt. Sometimes we would find lost eggs from the year before, but mostly we would just have fun. The rest of the day would be spent in chocolatey, sugary bliss, knowing that we didn't have school the next day. It invariably rained one of the days over the Easter weekend, which meant that all the mountain streams were in flood. We had some really exciting times tubing down the flooded streams, and a few really hairy occassions when Darren and my cousin Jason almost killed themselves. But, because no one was actually hurt those are now fond memories.
A couple of pictures of the mountians along the Bainskloof pass - Memories of Easters Past.
I only wish that I can make Easter as significant and enjoyable for my kids as my parents made it for us!
Let me take you back into the Easters of my childhood: Easter in South Africa is in the Autumn. The weather is barely starting to cool, the days are just starting to shorten, and the children have a week off school. For the adults, Easter is a 4 day weekend. The shops are stocked with fresh Hot Cross Buns, marshmallow Easter eggs, and the highly coveted White Beacon Eggs.
My family and my friend Jenni's family would pack up the car, bakkie (truck) and caravans and go camping in the mountains along the Bainskloof pass. The saturday before Easter, my mom and Jen's mom would take a walk around the mountains leaving clue's for us to find. The next morning we would all wake up bright and early and start scampering around the mountains searching for and solving the clues left for us the day before. While we were out searching for clues our parents would hide our eggs around our campsite, in trees, under rocks etc. (if they hid them the night before the baboons would get them). We would then all return to the site for the big egg hunt. Sometimes we would find lost eggs from the year before, but mostly we would just have fun. The rest of the day would be spent in chocolatey, sugary bliss, knowing that we didn't have school the next day. It invariably rained one of the days over the Easter weekend, which meant that all the mountain streams were in flood. We had some really exciting times tubing down the flooded streams, and a few really hairy occassions when Darren and my cousin Jason almost killed themselves. But, because no one was actually hurt those are now fond memories.
A couple of pictures of the mountians along the Bainskloof pass - Memories of Easters Past.I only wish that I can make Easter as significant and enjoyable for my kids as my parents made it for us!
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Too Bad Its Just Not True
For my birthday, Gillian gave me a fantastic, light weight, earth friendly water bottle, with all these motivational sayings all over it - like:
"Dance, sing, floss and travel."
"Creativity is maximized when you're living in the moment."
"The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. Choose a positive thought."
"Friends are more important than money."
You see. You do feel all motivated and positive when you read them. Then they threw in this one:
"Children are the orgasm of life."
Whoa! You see and suddenly I have to disagree with my water bottle. If the latter were the case, I believe there would be alot more women walking around with perma smiles on their faces, and I'm just not seeing those smiles.
Water bottle - I feel let down.
"Dance, sing, floss and travel."
"Creativity is maximized when you're living in the moment."
"The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. Choose a positive thought."
"Friends are more important than money."
You see. You do feel all motivated and positive when you read them. Then they threw in this one:
"Children are the orgasm of life."
Whoa! You see and suddenly I have to disagree with my water bottle. If the latter were the case, I believe there would be alot more women walking around with perma smiles on their faces, and I'm just not seeing those smiles.
Water bottle - I feel let down.
Friday, 3 April 2009
With a Mother Like Me.....
With a mother like me, did I expect Tamsine to do things normaly? Ummm, no comment.
Tamsine now has 4 teeth. I knew she was teething, but was completely perplexed at how long the teeth were taking to come out, till she bit me yesterday. Silly me, I had been feeling for her central incisors, but when she bit me, it was with a tiny new little lateral incisor. Weird? I thought so, so I googled "teething out of order", and found out that its not usual to teeth out of order, but its also not unusual. This was my favourite post about it that I found.
So my little sweetie has her bottom two central incisors and now her top two lateral incisors. Its a good thing she's too little to know she's going to look funny for a little while.
Tamsine now has 4 teeth. I knew she was teething, but was completely perplexed at how long the teeth were taking to come out, till she bit me yesterday. Silly me, I had been feeling for her central incisors, but when she bit me, it was with a tiny new little lateral incisor. Weird? I thought so, so I googled "teething out of order", and found out that its not usual to teeth out of order, but its also not unusual. This was my favourite post about it that I found.
So my little sweetie has her bottom two central incisors and now her top two lateral incisors. Its a good thing she's too little to know she's going to look funny for a little while.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Whew!!!
So this is why I haven't been posting lately.
When we left for South Africa, we took a midnight flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta, then spent about 8 hrs in the Atlanta airport till we boarded our plane to Dakar, Senegal. 8hrs on the plane, then a 2hr layover in Dakar. Then another 8 hrs on the plane from Dakar to Cape Town. Flying with an infant in arms = minimal sleep on the plane.
We spent 10 days in South Africa, where I averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night due to a jetlagged baby. Two of those days were spent driving from Cape Town to East London (it took us about 16 hrs each way).
Then, we boarded our flight back to Dakar, except our plane was delayed by two hours. We arrived in Dakar, disembarked, were on the ground for about 1/2 hr, then reboarded the same plane (we were supposed to switch planes, and then fly on to Atlanta, but the Atlanta flight was overbooked, so they put us back on the same plane and had to fly to New York). Our plane was delayed for another 2hrs in Dakar, then finally took off. We then had about a 6 hr layover in NY, then another 6hr flight from NY to Salt Lake. All this once again with an infant in arms = minimal sleep.
We were finally in Salt Lake, but then I drove my mom home (the opposite direction to my house from the airport), and then I finally drove home.
I arrived home to a husband with a temperature of 103 F. And, I had a jetlagged baby. Mack's fever took over three days to break. He slept about 20hrs a day, the poor guy. I got about 3hrs broken sleep a night. Mack finally started feeling better, but was still completely fatigued when Tamsine got sick. Every time I tried to put her down (even to go to the loo) she wailed. She was so congested that she wouldn't sleep unless I was holding her, and she too ended up with a fever of 103 F. After a visit to the doctor and some prescription medication her fever finally broke, but she was still really congested. Sick husband AND sick baby = mother getting NO sleep.
This puts me at about 23 days of little to no sleep. THEN on Friday night I woke up to Tamsine screaming. I walked into her room and was almost knocked over by the overwhelming smell of marajuana in her room. Now I'm just speculating, but it could only have been our upstairs neighbours sparking up a doobie (or two) in their apartment. We called the police, but by the time they arrived the smell had dissapated and they couldn't smell anything. Long story short, by 5am we had driven to Mack's parents house with the munchkin to get her out of our drug infested apartment.
By Saturday morning, I was beyond wrecked, I wasn't even a zombie, I was practically comatose I was so tired. I could barely formulate a three word sentence. I was so tired I couldn't sleep anymore. My body was in overdrive and my mind just wouldn't quiet. Mack's mom gave me some lovely homeopathic drops and a couple of very cute little pink allergy tablets and FINALLY, I was able to sleep.
And that's why I haven't blogged lately. Do you blame me?
When we left for South Africa, we took a midnight flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta, then spent about 8 hrs in the Atlanta airport till we boarded our plane to Dakar, Senegal. 8hrs on the plane, then a 2hr layover in Dakar. Then another 8 hrs on the plane from Dakar to Cape Town. Flying with an infant in arms = minimal sleep on the plane.
We spent 10 days in South Africa, where I averaged about 3 hours of sleep a night due to a jetlagged baby. Two of those days were spent driving from Cape Town to East London (it took us about 16 hrs each way).
Then, we boarded our flight back to Dakar, except our plane was delayed by two hours. We arrived in Dakar, disembarked, were on the ground for about 1/2 hr, then reboarded the same plane (we were supposed to switch planes, and then fly on to Atlanta, but the Atlanta flight was overbooked, so they put us back on the same plane and had to fly to New York). Our plane was delayed for another 2hrs in Dakar, then finally took off. We then had about a 6 hr layover in NY, then another 6hr flight from NY to Salt Lake. All this once again with an infant in arms = minimal sleep.
We were finally in Salt Lake, but then I drove my mom home (the opposite direction to my house from the airport), and then I finally drove home.
I arrived home to a husband with a temperature of 103 F. And, I had a jetlagged baby. Mack's fever took over three days to break. He slept about 20hrs a day, the poor guy. I got about 3hrs broken sleep a night. Mack finally started feeling better, but was still completely fatigued when Tamsine got sick. Every time I tried to put her down (even to go to the loo) she wailed. She was so congested that she wouldn't sleep unless I was holding her, and she too ended up with a fever of 103 F. After a visit to the doctor and some prescription medication her fever finally broke, but she was still really congested. Sick husband AND sick baby = mother getting NO sleep.
This puts me at about 23 days of little to no sleep. THEN on Friday night I woke up to Tamsine screaming. I walked into her room and was almost knocked over by the overwhelming smell of marajuana in her room. Now I'm just speculating, but it could only have been our upstairs neighbours sparking up a doobie (or two) in their apartment. We called the police, but by the time they arrived the smell had dissapated and they couldn't smell anything. Long story short, by 5am we had driven to Mack's parents house with the munchkin to get her out of our drug infested apartment.
By Saturday morning, I was beyond wrecked, I wasn't even a zombie, I was practically comatose I was so tired. I could barely formulate a three word sentence. I was so tired I couldn't sleep anymore. My body was in overdrive and my mind just wouldn't quiet. Mack's mom gave me some lovely homeopathic drops and a couple of very cute little pink allergy tablets and FINALLY, I was able to sleep.
And that's why I haven't blogged lately. Do you blame me?
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