How time flies! Now my beautiful bright girl has her own blog. I have neglected mine for so long. Perhaps this will rekindle the fire to share random thoughts. :)

New leaf.

Not a lot to see here.
Hoping to change all that.
:)

TWEET (nothing to do with twitter)

With Summer supposedly officially here (interspersed with some rainy, stormy "soup weather" days) the birds are out and singing a lot. I've noticed them more than before this year - especially in our big tree in the front garden. Perhaps the tree is a bit healthier than it has been (after the burning down of the house next door and the subsequent building of the new house it didn't look so great)? In any case, there is a particular bird call which has woken me up for the last 2 mornings which sounds EXACTLY like the washing machine when it beeps (when there's an error and the load needs repacking because it's too heavy on one side): beep beep beep BEEP. Tweet tweet tweet TWEET.

Shows how tuned in my mind is to all the mechanical signals around me.

If I leave my computer volume too high, I also wake up when I hear a telltale 'blip' of an email arriving. Or a whooosh of an email finally leaving. Or a blip-blip of someone coming online...

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it's been 3 months since I injured my foot and let exercise take a back seat in my life. I can feel it. The scale has been under a pile of magazines, but I've been aware of its presence every day, knowing that to stand on it would bring another load of (urgent) priorities my way - so I avoided it. Until today. Mia, Josh and I all a had a go, and it confirmed my (worst) suspicions, so I need to get into gear and DO something. Granted it's been a difficult 3 months with Ben going away for 20 odd days to London to a wedding, being injured(my foot) and being quite incredibly busy on the work front.
So I guess I can't have everything, but I am now aware that I need to take action and not let it get too bad.

I told Josh today what a big boy he is for going for a sleepover for 2 nights without mummy or daddy. He told me he's not such a big boy..."I thought of you" (solemn face).*heart melts*

There's no excuse today about finding the time to write. I've had the whole weekend 'off'. It started on Friday when I dropped my children off at their grandparents for a sleepover - a DOUBLE sleepover - for TWO WHOLE NIGHTS. Big excitement for them. They do love going there and feel so big when they cope without mummy or daddy.

I got a call yesterday from Ben's mum to say, "Your son wants to tell you something". She put him on and I heard his little voice telling me (proudly): "I did a wee in the bucket". She came back on the phone to explain that because their toilet seat doesn't stay up, she decided to put a bucket there for Josh, should he decide to do a 'stand up' wee. HOW AWESOME! We've been battling to get him toilet trained - we sort of expected it to all fall into place last summer, but he's just not bothered. I can ask him in the morning (or put him on the toilet and have him sit there for half a second before he announces: "nothing") or BEG him, but the person with be biggest success record is Mia. Somehow she manages to entice him to the bathroom, helps undo his nappy, gets him to sit there and when there's success she comes roaring through to my bedroom (it's usually before we've even woken up) to announce loudly that "JOSHKA's done a wee on the toilet!". Sometimes she'll whisper so I can come and help or have a look. She's so helpful! And we make a big fuss that he's had success and that Mia was so helpful. We've started a sticker chart on the fridge. After 15 stickers they got a magazine treat(with lots of stickers and things to do) and at 30 stickers, they get a book reward. These are the prizes they chose with me one day when I took them for a walk to the shops during the holidays. It was agonising for them to choose and to have me put them away...but it drove the point home that they need to work towards it.

Mia's quite irritated that Joshka is slightly ahead (by 2 stickers), but I'm sure things will even out shortly.

Here is a drawing Joshka and I made in May when he proved to me that he is aware of going to the toilet. I drew the outline of his body and handed the pen over to him. He drew the eyes and the mouth, then the midline (the spine) and the lines of the arms and legs, and the lines within the shoes are his feet. The interesting thing was what followed: his willy and a nappy underneath it for his poos... I just LOVE this drawing. It's very hard to get him to draw anything because he is such a perfectionist. He's decided on colouring in the entire canvas/paper - he's quite dedicated to it and will diligently sit at the table and fill up a piece of blank paper, edge to edge, leaving no white space. I'm just happy he's making some marks and I've noticed he's more willing to take some chances when his sister's not around. I think he feels like he's in her shadow when it comes to drawing.



Mia's doing so well at school and loves learning. She's moved on from wanting to be an astronaut and is considering being a paleontologist: the thought of looking for fossils is exciting her at the moment. She plans to marry Blake - well, they plan to marry each other. She told Ben that "Blake is so funny it makes my heart run away". She's so lovely it's no surprise she's already betrothed at 5... Here she is dancing and also with one of her paintings from school which I immediately wanted to put in my office underneath the painting by Jocky, my great uncle - Mia's great great uncle. I love how they're related.



The initial reason for giving the children to the in-laws for a sleepover was because I was invited to a birthday dinner. It was great fun to meet some new people and to not worry about what time it was or whether I was driving or not (there was a sober driver). Three glasses of wine saw me quite cheerful and chatty. I'm such a cheap date that half a glass is usually all it takes! Anyway, everyone left until there were 4 of us who decided we'd like to carry on for another drink or 2, so off we went to the cheerful pub down the road: The Pig and Whistle. It's not nearly the same as the one that used to be in Cape Town, but still, it makes me smile to know I'm off to the Pig and Whistle! (Now if only there could be a "La Med"...) I'm now so connected in the world (!) that I could get all four of us in for free because I play volleyball with the bouncer... I'm a local now.

The next day was a slow starter. The house was quiet, untidy and peaceful. After 2 bowls of cornflakes and 2 coffees, I felt better. I worked to get some things done because this week is going to be busy...

It dawned on Ben and myself that we had another opportunity to go out on Saturday night and that we shouldn't waste it! There were no movies on that we particularly want to see, so we decided on dinner...I invited a couple to join us but had no luck there, so Ben tried his friends who joined us for dinner at a Turkish restaurant. We giggled and joked and had so much fun, that I am pleased to say I've made another real friend - we definitely connected.

We met up today and played catch up on our life stories over lunch and a coffee, while our husbands played touch rugby. I hope we have lots of fun with this couple in the future, because I've really enjoyed the laughs so far. They're great.

Here's a little smile that brings me joy every day.

Babies

Coming home from school today, with the children in the back, Mia(5) asks:
"Why do babies come out of their mummy's cookie*?"
Um, I didn't realise she's remembered our chat from 3 and a half years ago, so I just answer, "Because that's the way out."
She thinks for a second and then says, "Well they couldn't come out of our mouths or they'd get scratched by our teeth."
Fine logic my sweet girl.
:)


* That's what we call a vagina - it's a South African thing. Actually something I'm quite grateful for here in New Zealand when my daughter yells out "My cookie's itchy!" etc. As they do.

Pablo

I emailed Pablo shortly after my son was born, to tell Pablo that I was so pleased my little boy shares a birthday with such a charmer... Pablo was a charming man who was full of fun and adventure. I wish wish wish I could have been at his funeral in Madrid to pay my respects to his family and other friends. He had many, all over the world.

These are my pictures of Pablo Solsona and this is how I remember him.