Home schooling, well, not really
Today in the car from our house to my mom, a 15 minute drive, Aaron and I had a little lesson on the ocean and the various creatures that inhabit it.
We started off talking about octopuses (or octopi or octopodes - yes there are three ways to make octopus a plural!) and how they squirt ink and have suckers on their tenticles, then moved on to sharks and their many many teeth. We spoke about whales and the fact that they have no teeth and eat plankton. We spoke about jelly fish, blue bottles, manta rays and electric eels, all of whom can hurt you with a sting or a shock. We then spoke about sea horses and the fact that the dads carry the babies.
Image from: Everything Octopus
This is where I had a small heart palpitation, cause if daddy sea horses carry the babies why do human mommies and not the dads carry the babies. Which led to how do babies eat when they are in your tummy? Ummmmmm, Im not ready for this kind of discussion. I explained about the umbilical cord and that when you are born it is cut and when the piece falls off it leaves a belly button.
We arrived at my mom then and I was saved from more questions about babies!
Just breath…
About a year ago, Aaron was diagnosed with asthma. I knew he had asthma from when he was less than a year old but the peadiatric pulminologist (our day to day pead, who we no longer use) told me that, no, they can only diagnose asthma from 3 years old.
Anyway! Once Aaron was on the right medication (two times a day every day) his asthma was under control. We havent had a single attack in over a year. Until Sunday.
Well Saturday night. Aaron started coughing in the middle of the night, we nebbed him and gave him cough mixture and he eventually fell asleep again. On Sunday morning though he woke up coughing and didnt stop. Paul took him to our GP who consults on Sundays and he gave us Pulmicort and antibiotics. We nebbed him with the new beds and after an hour or so it hadnt helped so I called our (new) pead, also a pulminologist and Aarons asthma dr, and spoke to his partner who was on call. He suggested a double dose of Combivent and 10ml of cortisone. Half an hour after giving him those meds there was still no change.
Poor Aaron, he literally could not take one single breath without coughing.
I put him in the car and took him to the hospital where our pead has rooms and called the on call pead again to tell him we were coming.
The nurses in the pead ward were amazing. Friendly and helpful and kind. The dr arrived and admitted us. He put in a drip (not sure who was more traumatised, Aaron or me!) and gave him an adrenaline nebuliser and put him on oxygen.
Within 10 minutes he had stopped coughing!
Silly monkey!
Turns out he had a croup attack which caused an asthma attack. Poor child couldn’t breathe in or out!
We settled ourselves into our room, a private room as there were only 4 or 5 kids in the whole ward. Aaron was a little hyped up due to the adrenalin and the cortisone they gave him but he was so good. He charmed all the nurses and the dr and was an absolute angel.
3 adrenalin nebulisers, 4 doses of cortisone and 1 night of broken sleep and by yesterday morning we were allowed to come home.
This was the first time either of the kids has been hospitalised and was pretty traumatic. Im so very grateful for the dr and nurses that made the whole event so easy and comfortable to deal with.
Heres hoping we never have to do that again!
I heart tech
I’ve said it before and I will say it again… Technology is AWESOME!
Like most families these days we are spread out all over the world.
My brother lives in Israel, my brother in law and his wife live in Cape Town and my sister in law, her husband and kids live in Australia.
Enter {Skype}, {Viber} and {FaceTime}!
Its one thing to send emails and texts, even chatting on Facebook or Twitter. Thats great for us adults. But what about our kids?
My kids get such a kick out of talking to their aunts and uncles and cousins and actually seeing their faces on the computer or on dads phone.
When they hear the Skype ring tone on my computer they come running.
Yesterday made the importance of these kinds of technology so clear for me.
Self portraits taken with mommy’s phone!
Faith and I were lying on my bed playing and she saw my laptop. She looks at it then at me and says ‘Call uncle Maffew!’
I Skyped him but he didnt answer, Faith was a little upset so I messaged him to see if he was there. He said he wasnt and we could Skype the next day. When I told Faith she stared to cry (my little manipulative princess!) so I called him on Viber, put him on speaker phone and the two of them chatted for about 5 minutes with a promise of a Skype call later today.
Faith was over the moon that she got to call uncle Maffew a stinky bum. And more over the moon that uncle Maffew called HER a stinky bum back.
The best part is that when my kids see their uncles, aunts and cousins, they know them, they have seen them and spoken to them and they are not ‘strangers’ 
Once again, I heart tech!
Proof that the villain is cooler than the hero!
So you may or may not know that my kids are {Star Wars} fans.
Aaron watches Star Wars {Clone Wars} and has three light sabers and a multitude of figurines.
Faith loves play fighting her brother, each with their own light saber.
Aaron even plays the theme music (usually the {Imperial March}) while they ‘fight’.
Aarons favourite {Angry Birds} game is the {Star Wars version}!
If you ask Aaron who his favourite character is, or even just to tell you about Star Wars, he immediately tells you all about {Darth Maul} and {General Grievous}, funnily enough he seldom mentions {Darth Vader} and he will occasionally mention {Master Yoda}.
He very seldom if ever mentions {Luke} or {Obi-Wan}.
The thing is, he only vaguely understands the dynamics of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are in Star Wars. At least he didn’t in the beginning. Now he knows that Darth Maul is a bad guy but he still loves him. Why? Because he is cool!
He wanted a Darth Maul birthday cake! I figured the other moms might be a bit freaked out, so I searched for cartoon versions of all the characters and made Darth Maul slightly more prominent to satisfy Aaron.
For his present he wanted a Darth Maul light saber, “it is a double light saber mom!” He also would like a blue light saber to add to his collection (He has red, green and white).
Needless to say the villains are definitely cooler than the good guys in my house
How smart is my kid?
Yesterday afternoon I took the kids to visit my mom.
The adults, and Faith, were sitting outside on the patio and Aaron was sitting inside playing on the computer. He especially likes playing games on Cartoon Network.
So, he found a new game and since he cant read properly yet, he wasn’t sure what to click on. He kept coming to ask us what the game was saying, eventually after 3 trips inside I told him I was not getting up again.
About 5 minutes later he came outside and asked my mom if he could use her phone (she has some games on there), she said yes and he disappeared inside. A short while later he came back out and showed my mom a picture he took.
He had taken a picture of the computer screen so that he could bring it to us instead of us going inside.
I think its pure genius! I certainly wouldn’t have thought to do that…
2012 – It was good!
This has fast become my year end meme Thank you Wenchy for starting me off on it.
Running a smidgen late for 2012 but here it is!
You can take a look at {2009}, {2010} and {2011} if you like.
1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
Petted baby {lions}!
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I have stopped making resolutions, that way I cant disappoint myself when I break them
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope, although a lot of Twitter friends had babies.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
My Uncle and my moms best friend and 1st cousin.
5. What countries did you visit?
I didnt leave South Africa.
6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
More me time.
7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory?
December 21st, the day I survived the Apocalypse ;)
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Taking the time and making the effort to be closer to Paul!
9. What was your biggest failure?
I cant really think of any ‘failures’.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Besides having THE WORST winter of colds and flues in the history of, ever? Nope, no major illness or injury.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Flowers for my garden.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My kids. They have been stars this last year. They are maturing, are polite, play together so nicely. Im very very proud of them.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
No one I can think of.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Petrol. 2012 was a killer!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My brother Matt finally got engaged!
16. What song/album will always remind you of 2012?
{Goodluck}. A fantastic local band. I have their album on repeat in my car.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
- Happier or sadder? Happier
- Thinner or fatter? Fatter
- Richer or poorer? About the same.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Cooking. I did a lot of baking but not that much cooking.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Wasted time. I want to be more efficient.
20. How will you be spending Christmas
We spent the day with family having a braai.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Paul and my mom.
22. Did you fall in love in 2012?
No. Im still in love with my husband and my children though.
23. How many one night stands in this last year?
None.
24. What was your favourite TV program?
Grimm, Supernatural, Hawaii Five-0, Arrow
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No.
26. What was the best book(s) you read?
I read so much that I honestly cant tell you what was my best.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
28. What did you want and get?
A new Kindle Touch.
29. What did you want and not get?
Nothing I can think of.
30. What were your favourite films of this year?
Sjoe! I cannot actually remember any of the films we saw last year o_O
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Good grief! I have absolutely no idea. That is either a very very bad or a very very good thing!
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not having any family grief.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Casual.
34. What kept you sane?
Cipralex! And my amazing husband. Always!
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
None, I am so not into politics.
37. Who did you miss?
My brother Cliffy.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Gosh, so many wonderful people have come into my life.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
Kids will make a mess, leave it until they go to sleep, then, clean up. You will drive yourself crazy trying to clean up while they are still making a mess playing.
Photo by Jeanette Verster Photography
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
{ If you’re happy and you know it…} – I have sung this song till my face turned blue and every time, no matter what, I was so much happier after singing it
Movember or My Brother Looks Like a Traffic Cop
So Matt decided to grow a mo this year for Movember.
Those of you that know my brother know that he permanently has a beard. This is the first time he has been clean shaven in almost 7 years (last time was for my wedding). In the last month he has attempted to grow his mo and now looks like:
A. A traffic cop circa 1980
B. A peodophile
C. He drank chocolate milk and forgot to wipe his mouth
D. All of the above
Please dont let the horror of my brothers facial hair be for nothing!
Donate ($10 is only about R80!) on his MoBro page (here) and help in the fight against cancer!
Oh and as a bonus, just cause I know you all went and donated here is a pic of Matt dressed as a fairy!
Go on, go donate to a good cause!
International Suicide Survivors Day
I didnt know that today is International Suicide Survivors Day.
Melanie from The Mother Load, sent me the link to the post she wrote (click here) and the posts that various survivors wrote with her. Please click on over and read the stories, comment if you can, show support for the very brave survivors who have shared their stories.
I have never really thought about the fact that survivors are not only the people that physically survive a suicide attempt but are also the people that are left after a loved one takes their own life.
It has been almost 2 years since my youngest brother, Cliff, took his own life.
I have mostly accepted why he did it (though we will never know for sure why) and I trust he is at peace. I take comfort that he is at peace. And I allow myself the occasional times of anger, anger and sadness that he is not here to see my children, his nephew and niece, grow up. I know that there will be days like that forever but that they are few and far between.
Today I acknowledge that I am a survivor.
Can I have a holiday please?
My mind has already taken its holiday, its hung a ‘Do not Disturb’ sign up, and posted an ‘Out of Office Reply’.
Last week, I rushed out of work, I was late to pick up the kids. I pulled into Faiths school, rushed inside and the teacher says to me: ’What are you doing here’? ‘What do you mean what am I doing here’? I asked. ’Um, you called us this morning to tell us Faith was sick and you were keeping her at home!’ DOH!
On Wednesday I left work, got all the way to my car only to realise that I had left my keys on my desk.
Also on Wednesday, I tool Faith to Kindermusik, brought her home, Aaron came home from swimming, I sat down with my book and my mom called. I had totally forgotten I was supposed to take the kids over to her so they could play with their cousins who were visiting.
I really really need a break. Can it be holidays now???
Peter Peter pumpkin eater!
My mom bought Aaron a Halloween pumpkin and a pumpkin carving set from Woolies yesterday and today Aaron and I set about making our very own Jack-o-Lantern.
Thanks Nana
Pumpkin guts are slimy and gross! Also, its easier to grab them in your hand than to use the scoop
Design taped to the pumpkin and ‘traced’ on
Careful, the saw is sharp, ask an adult to help you!
Eye see you
All carved up
Aaron could not wait for night to fall so we could light the candle
Boo!
Oh, take a look over here to see what we did with the seeds
Blessed Cupcake Book Club's bookshelf: read
15 members
For those who enjoy smultzy romance novels or something a little hotter!
15 membersFor those who enjoy smultzy romance novels or something a little hotter!
