Today I had the absolute pleasure of attending the local Girls in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) event.
What is Girls in ICT you ask?
International Girls’ in ICT Day is an initiative backed by ITU Member States to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs). International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on the 4th Thursday in April every year.
Hosted by Anglo African Events in partnership with HP, a few of us bloggers and journos were honoured to be included among about 200 young ladies, these lovely learners are all in grade 12/matric and are starting to seriously think about what to study in the near future.
We got to listen to Keynote speaker, Melanie Botha, Marketing and Ops Director at Microsoft SA, she told us of her fascinating history in various companies across the globe, and imparted one of the most important lessons of the day: ‘Never stop studying, keep learning!’
This was followed by a truly inspirational panel of women, Pippa Tshabalala, Palesa Sibeko, Lebogang Madise, Ntokozo Ncongwane, Shana Kay and Tsoanelo Takaendesa. These six women are, gamers, programers, IT security experts, app developers, business owners, teachers, tech consultants and all around awesome geeky gals.
These are the women that I want my daughter to look up to. I want her to see what these women have accomplished and know that she is capable of greatness. Whether she wants to be a ballerina, am astronaut, a doctor or a techie, she will know that she role models to aspire to.
Myself and Queen. Future tech wizard? I hope so!
I think that todays event gave that opportunity to a room full of intelligent, driven and motivated young women and I hope that they know they can make it in the ICT world, they just have to reach out and grab it with both hands.
Edited to add (2019): I am no longer an Apple user and a lot of people I know are not either, have no fear though, since I originally wrote this post (in 2013!), technology has advanced in leaps and bounds and there are now plenty alternatives to FaceTime if you are an Android user. Pop on over to Joy of Android to see how you can still chat face to face with your loved ones!
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’ 🙂
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 🙂
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 🙂
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 🙂
So about a month ago I made the invitation for Faiths bday party (this year she is only having a school party) but I kept forgetting to take the invite to school to be handed out.
Until yesterday. Yesterday I took the invite to school, it was handed out when the kids were fetched.
This morning we get to school and the teacher says to me “You know Faiths party is on Monday?”
“Um, yes…” I say, wondering were this is heading.
“The 3rd?” she says, eyebrow raised.
“Okaaaaayyyyyy…” Now I have a slight sinking feeling in my tummy.
“Because you put the 5th on the invite and that’s Wednesday and we are closed on the 5th…”
*sigh* So now I have made little notes that will be going home with the kids to say that its actually on the 3rd…
Last week, I fetched Faith from school, put her in the car, drove to Aaron’s school, took Faith out the car, went into the school to fetch Aaron and realised that he had Playball and I was only supposed to fetch him in an hours time.
Thank heavens I managed to get us out of there without Aaron seeing us. HE would have wanted to stop Playball and come home!
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???
On Monday I took Aaron to meet my mom for a cup of coffee.
She bought each of the kids a small present. Aaron’s was a foam air gun. One of those contraptions where you put the rocket, dart or ball in the front of the gun then squeeze the handle and the air forces the projectile forward.
Both Paul and I had spoken to Aaron about not shooting the gun towards people, to make sure that everyone was behind him or to shoot towards the floor. We told him that even though the balls, darts and rockets are soft foam that they can still hurt someone.
The next morning I was in the kitchen when I heard Faith scream. I ran to the room and saw Faith clutching her face and Aaron holding the gun looking a bit pale.
I bent in front of Faith to see what was wrong and asked Aaron what had happened.
We have always told Aaron that we would not be cross with him if he had hurt himself or Faith and that we would rather know the truth about what happened in case we have to go to the doctor and we needed to tell him what happened. Aaron knows this. We have never shouted at him if there was an accident.
So when I asked him what happened he told me that Faith poked her finger in her eye.
I asked him a few times as did Paul and he insisted that Faith poked herself in the eye. We didnt push it. I told Aaron to go get dressed for school and he went.
Meanwhile Faith had calmed down and was able to open her eye and there didnt seem to be any damage.
About 15 minutes later Aaron came to me and told me that he lied, and that he had shot one of the foam balls into Faith’s eye. He told me that he was very sorry. Sorry that he hurt her and sorry that he lied.
I sat him down and we discussed that I would always rather he told me the truth no matter what and that if it really was an accident I would never be cross with him. I also reiterated that he must shoot the gun at people and that he should rather shoot at the floor.
I decided not to punish him. I think the guilt he felt was enough. He came to me. He apologised for both the accident and for lying. He went and said sorry to Faith and kissed her better.
Im very proud of him in fact. For an almost 5 year old, he was very brave in coming to tell me what happened and for taking ownership of his actions.
I think we are definitely doing something right in raising both him and his sister.
We have the single seater couch from our lounge suite in Faiths room, it was our feeding chair and it was in Aarons room when he was little. Its a very very comfortable chair to sit in, it was super comfortable when I was breastfeeding. Its not so comfortable when Faith, at 11kgs, wants to sleep in my arms at 3 in the morning.
We had a single bed (the twin of Aarons) in the garage, just sitting there. I suggested we move the bed into her room so that when the 3am snuggles hit us I could just lie down with her. After a bit of back and forth we agreed to move the cot out and go with just a big girl bed.
I picked up some linen at Mr Price as well as a duvet and pillow and now my baby has her own bed.
As an aside, I really struggled to find nice linen (especially with butterflies) so I have asked @Krimpvarkiez to make me a custom duvet and pillow set. She is very reasonably priced and she also makes awesome baby sleep suits, drop her a tweet if you need something made!
From this…
…to this!
And what happened to that gorgeous cot you might ask???
Well, my mommy, who bought the cot and compactum set for us, is a genius!
All you have to do, is take off one side and lo, you have a bench…
We are going to look for a bench cushion at Mr Price now now, if we cant find one I will have one made.
Now I only have one question…
How can I repurpose the other side of the cot? Any suggestions??
