In two sleeps, Paul, Aaron, Faith and I will be flying to Cape Town for 6 nights.
I CANNOT wait!
It has been almost 2 years since our last holiday…
I cant wait to see Ash and Megs.
I cant wait to walk on the beach.
I even cant wait to see your moooouuuuuuntain Cape Town.
I really really cant wait!
… but how do you explain that to a 3 year old?
Ok moms of boys, I need your help.
Before I had Aaron I had no idea that pre-pubescent boys could get an erection. I have since learnt that it is entirely normal and a part of his development.
My problem is that Aaron freaks out. He tells us his ‘peepee’ (yes we call a penis a peepee, we also call it a penis it just depends on the situation) is going up (his words) and seems genuinely distressed by it. When we try explain that its ok and that it will go back to normal he gets even more upset and yells that it wont, he seems really scared that he will be stuck that way.
So, any advice on how to explain it to him, how to calm him and assure him he will be fine?
Jenty of Jeanette Verster Photography hosted a workshop this afternoon at Stepping Stones Garden Village.
Most of the moms had ‘real’ cameras but a few of us had ‘point & shoots’.
I have a Canon PowerShot SX100IS, I also have no idea what that means 🙂
The workshop was fantastic, Jenty showed us how to set aperture, shutter speed and ISO as well as giving us tips on composition and basically how to take pictures of monkeys kids.
I need a lot more practice but I had great fun trying to get good shots of Aaron. My biggest issue is focusing on him and not the background. 
Also a huge thank you to Angel for coming to my rescue with a set of batteries 🙂
When we fell pregnant with Aaron we looked into signing as a way of communicating with him before he could talk. Due to a few obstacles, lack of resources on the web and locally, being overwhelmed by the new addition to our family and suffering from PND, signing with Aaron fell by the wayside.
To be honest I didnt even think about signing with Faith until I came across this website!
Wow! What an amazing site. Simple, concise and easy to use, not to mention free, makes this site a win.
So far we have been signing ‘Mommy‘, ‘Daddy‘, ‘brother‘ and ‘milk‘ to Faith. I am going to teach Aaron how to sign ‘brother’. Tonight we will all be learning ‘Uncle‘, ‘Aunt‘ and ‘Granny/Bobba‘ as those three people will be having supper with us.
Oh yes, ‘dog‘ will also be a sign that is used frequently in our house 🙂
I really hope that Faith picks up signing easily as Im pretty certain that it will reduce a lot of frustration between us as she gets older and is able to communicate more effectively.
Edited to add: The sign language being used on the website above is based on ASL (American Sign Language) and that is what we will be teaching Faith and Aaron. Unfortunately I cannot find any effective online resources that are based on South African Sign Language (SASL). According to Wikipedia (see links) SASL is based on Irish, British and American sign language, while both Irish and American sign language seem to be based on French sign language. Perhaps one day we will explore SASL.
Whoever said that maternity leave was all about mama and baby bonding and cuddling and feeding and about mama drinking tea and resting lied!
They told a big fat smelly lie! Liar liar pants on fire!!!!
*pulls great big raspberry*
Ok, small tantrum over.
The last week or so has been hectic, my brother Matthew has been here since Cliffs funeral and was sharing a car with our grandfather. I say was because he was in an accident the Sunday before last. Some drunk guy skipped a robot and turned into my brother, on the drivers side. He was so drunk he couldn’t open his eyes!
Despite some whiplash and some back ache, Matt is ok. The (uninsured) car, not so much…
So Monday was spent taking Matt to the police station to file a report and get a case number which, it turns out, we didnt need to do because the drunk guy was arrested and that case number should be sufficient. We then killed some time having a late breakfast before taking Matt to my family doctor to be checked out.
Towards the end of the week before the accident, our doggy, Bandit, started to get ill, like really really ill, like not moving, losing weight, vomiting ill. So we had taken him to the vet for testing. Turns out he has Auto Immune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA). We started him on cortisone and had to take him back to the vet nearly every day to see if his blood levels were rising. According to FourSquare I have been to the vet 8 times in the last week and a half and that doesnt include the 2 times I was there that I couldnt check in or the 2 or 3 times that Paul took Bandit to the vet. Thank heavens and all the deities for pet insurance! As of our last check up today, his blood levels are at 45% and rising and we only need to go back again in 10 days time.
Then on Friday Aaron got sick, so it was back to the doctor and a diagnosis of tonsillitis, again. This poor kid. If this carries on I may have to insist on removing them tonsils. He seems to get it an awful lot.
In between all of this I finally got to meet Megan, who at the time of publishing this post has just had her beautiful baby girl! Squeeeee!
I also managed to fetch my drivers license, this is a huge thing for me as I have been driving without a valid license for quite some time.
I took Matt and Faith to go visit my grandmother. She is one amazing lady. She is 94 years old and despite being slightly deaf and losing her sight, still lives on her own with just her nurse and her new little doggy for company. She takes walks in her garden, which is magnificent and keeps a hand in on what gets planted, where and when.
I’ve been to a few therapy sessions which I have to say are doing wonders. I heart my therapist!
I have also been in to work a few times, maybe 5 hours in total, as there were a few things they needed me to sort out for them. Hopefully I wont be going back into work until maternity leave is over.
As for the kids, Aaron has settled back into his school routine nicely and has made some new friends. He is so curious about everything and constantly questions everything around him. He needs to work on his patience levels but Im told thats a 3 year old thing and he will learn to have a bit more patience soon.
Faith is too adorable and has started rolling from her tummy to her back and she smiles at everything. I cant believe she is 9 weeks old already, its going way too fast.
*pic by the magnificent Jenty! From our 8 day shoot.
Paul and I celebrated 5 years of marriage on Saturday. 5 years! We left the kids at my mom and spent a few hours with just each other for company. It was great!
This week has been and will continue to be equally busy. Hopefully next week will be a bit calmer 🙂
While I was looking for pictures of Cliff I came across a picture of my brother Matthew at about 2 years old. I immediately went searching for a picture of Aaron at a similar age.
Scary stuff 🙂
…how badly depressed I was after Aaron was born until I had Faith.
Looking back Im not sure how I survived that first year after he was born.
The biggest manifestation of my depression was anxiety. Even the smallest things were enough to set me off. What clothes should I put him in? Would he be too hot/cold? Would I have enough changes of clothes for him if we went out? I walked around with a nappy bag so full and heavy because I never trusted myself to have packed the right stuff. If Paul or my mom or anyone for that matter told me that I was stressing for nothing or that whatever I had would be fine I would immediately assume I was a bad mother for doing it wrong. I would get so stressed and anxious about these small things I would eventually find myself sobbing or screaming in tears on the floor, literally pulling my hair out in chunks.
I put on a happy face when we were with other people, no one would have guessed how miserable and bleak I was at home. The only person besides Paul who ever saw me at my worst was my mom, she often got hysterical phone calls because the baby was crying and nothing I did was working and I was ruining him for life and he would never forgive me and would need therapy etc… In fact she even came over a few times and made me go sleep or have a bath or go outside while she calmed Aaron down for me.
Dont get me wrong, there were good days, days where I could not imagine my life being any better but they were few and far between. Then I started going for therapy and went to see a psychiatrist who prescribed an anti anxiety med called Cipralex and slowly I started becoming more the old me. That was two years ago and over those two years I have often thought to myself that maybe my memory of that first year was wrong, maybe it wasn’t as bad as all that. Sure I was depressed and anxious but look at how well Im doing now, it cant have been THAT bad.
Then I had Faith. Let me tell you, the first 5 weeks of having her in our life was nothing compared to the first 5 weeks with Aaron. Yes, I still get anxious, yes, there are times at 3am when she wont sleep and all I want to do is climb back into bed and I think to myself, what the hell have I done? I cant carry on like this. But those moments, and they truly are just moments, are very few and far between. I look forward to waking up in the middle of the night to feed her, her crying doesn’t make me want to tear my hair out, I still over pack her bag but so what, its just how I roll!
I really didnt realise just how dark those dark days were until I saw how light these last few weeks have been.
I really wish I could go back and redo Aaron’s first year without being depressed. I wish I could have enjoyed that time with him like Im enjoying this time with Faith. It doesnt mean I love him any less. Even through all those dark days I would still fight to the death for my son. I loved him fiercely and with all my heart from the moment he was born. And maybe that was part of the anxiety, wanting to be perfect for my perfect child.
When we decided to start trying for a 2nd baby, I consulted my psychiatrist, my therapist, my GP and my OBGYN about continuing my medication. They were all for it and insisted I continue taking it right through my pregnancy. I cant tell you if I would have slipped back into a depression if I wasn’t taking the meds but what I can tell you is that I wouldn’t even want to try. That single pill once a day keeps me sane. It allows me to enjoy both my children, even when they are both crying and need my attention and my tea is getting cold and supper s burning and the beds are still unmade from the morning.
I hope that reading this makes a difference to someone who needs it. I hope they know they are not alone.
Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light. ~Norman B. Rice
As I said before I wanted to keep most of the Pick n Pay products I received to review for when our baby was born, this happened a little sooner than expected and we have been using the products for just over a week now.
My overall impression is that these are great quality products at a reasonable price.
But lets break it down shall we…
Junior #5 nappies
We started using these for Aaron at night mostly as he still isn’t fully potty trained. The quality of the nappy and the materials used rival any of the big brands on the market. I found the fit of the nappy very good and the retention (liquids and solids) excellent. I did notice a bit of a rash that has formed around the waist band area, we are treating it with rash cream and hopefully it is unrelated to the nappy itself.
Cotton Wool Pleats
I like the idea of the cotton wool pleats. They are easy to tear off but I found that the size of each pleat is too big for our needs and halving one pleat makes it too small. I also didn’t like that at each tear section the cotton wool has a hard edge. In terms of what cotton wool is supposed to do, I have no complaints.
Wipes
I LOVE the wipes. The smell is subtle and pleasant. They were easy to remove one at a time. They have just the right moisture content that I like. We usually use Pigeon brand wipes and the Pick n Pay wipes are the closest I have come to that quality.
Cotton Buds for Baby
I have never used a cotton bud for a babies ears but I found that these buds were just perfect for dipping into surgical spirits and cleaning Faith’s umbilical stump.
Nappy Cream
Personally I did not like the nappy cream. Its a perfectly serviceable cream but I found it no different from a body or hand cream. For me a bum cream needs to be more of a paste, a barrier cream between baby’s bum and the wet in her nappy. I found that this cream absorbed almost immediately and that Faith started to get a small rash on her bum so I stopped using it and went back to our usual Fissan Paste.
Baby Lotion
I adore the baby lotion. Again, it smells lovely and it absorbs beautifully. Faith particularly likes it when I use it after her bath for a massage.
Body Wash
I love the body wash. A little goes a long way with this product and we have used it every single bath Faith has had. In fact I like it so much Im tempted to use it for my own bath tonight. I also used this to wash her hair and so far it has left her hair silky and smelling beautiful.
So far those are the products we have used. As we use the other products we will let you know what we think.
And just because I can and I know you will all go awwwwwww, here is a pic that the very talented Jenty took of our beautiful girl 🙂
So I am home, I have my laptop and internet access…
Here are a few pictures I took with my phone, most have been up on Twitter or Facebook already but I thought I would add them here again.
New ones coming shortly 😉
P.s. theSQL will be named in Shul tomorrow morning. Its tradition to name a baby girl during a Torah reading and the next one is tomorrow 🙂
A little while ago Pick n Pay asked me if I would like to review their new range of baby products.
With an active 3 year old and a new baby on the way I jumped at the chance.
This is what arrived for us last week:
*prices taken from the Pick n Pay Online Store.
I was totally blown away by the package that arrived for us. The best part is that these are not sample sizes but the actual sizes you will find in store.
The eye catching yellow, white and grey packaging is great, and Aaron was all over the bottles and tubs naming the cute animal drawings on each product. I was excited to see that all the creams, lotions and powders have chamomile extract in them, this soothing extract is wonderful to help put niggly babies at ease (and its smells great too).
I must admit we haven’t tried any of the products yet. The reason being that we had just opened a new pack of nappies for Aaron and we are waiting to finish those before opening the Pick n Pay ones. As for the other products, poor Aaron is missing out, Im being selfish and hanging onto those for theSQL. She should be here in the next 3 weeks and I am so grateful I dont need to buy any toiletries for her now.
I did open almost all the bottles and tubs and they smell divine, the chamomile extract is delish and Im sure its going to be very soothing for the baby.
Watch this space for our review of the Junior nappies in the next few days…
