Oh Kate, I do feel for you hun as I am sure you have had a sleepless night or two recently.  You see, I have been having a couple myself.  You will see, when that first little princess arrives, the nerves when you do not sleep as a result of a newborn is much worse than pre-wedding jitters.  Even though the eyes of the world will be on you today and your dress needs to fill Westminster Abby, I promise you, my sleepless nights are much worse. Thank heavens we slept last night, sort of, I think we now realise that even broken and interrupted sleep is better than no sleep at all.  The night before last, we put Luka to bed at 21h00, we all fell asleep at 03h00...need I say more? And as Luka and I were drifting off to sleep yesterday afternoon, the garden services arrived, woe is me. You see, Luka even at age 2 weeks has very strong food likes and dislikes.  She clearly hates chicken-a-la-king, she hates cottage pie and the list goes on.  Yesterday's diet went like this: Breakfas

I think I am in Team A...According to Gerhard we now operate in two distinct teams, Luka and I filling Team A, him and Liam in Team B.  His team mate is a tad on the demanding side, so Team B plays lots of golf, they go to gym, do shopping, kick balls and that sort of thing. Team A, well we drink milk, build wild wild diapers for mommy to clean, need winding, clothes changes, and lots of love. Over the weekend Gerhard actually asked if we could swap team mates for a day, as his was being a tad on the disruptive side, demanding that they visit the driving range more than once in a 24 hour cycle.  I said sure, but at least his team mate sleeps at night whereas mine wakes every 3 - 5 hours for a feed.  He admitted that he probably still had the better deal. On Monday, Gerhard told me that his team mate now wants to switch sides, and I could tell that this was true.  Poor Liam, he misses his mommy, he actually told me that I must put Luks in her bed and rather play with him.  Poor fo

Gerhard thinks its still a tad on the early side for me to start driving, so he now does the grocery shopping.  He had his first solo flight on Sunday, and it was a bit of a disaster, the thing is, he does not know Woollies inside out, so he literally ticked off items on the list and had to walk back and forth between the isles until he had everything, well almost everything, and some extras. Today is shopping day again as Sekai (bless her soul) decided that she wants to work over Easter as she needs money to build her house back in Zimbabwe, foundations already laid mind you.  This means home cooked goodness as opposed to take aways, clean clothes, clean house and a happy Liam.  So to ease the poor man's pain, the grocery list this morning sent via e-mail looks like this: When you walk into Woollies, first isle, potatoes, banana's and cocktail tomatoes. Next isle, on left side, cucumber, mielies, and some carrots Carry on straight, you will walk into the dairy products,

So I just have to tell you about Sunday, Sunday was absolute and utter chaos in the van Wyk van Rooyen household... After Luka's first night home, we were rather shattered, pajama drill is not for the feint hearted, and surprise surprise, we have grannies and grandads all visiting the pink princess on this day, happiness all around, until around 3am on Sunday morning, Liam stands next to our bed, he has a raging fever and the worst illness in the world, jip, you guessed it, diarrhea! I am absolutely petrified that this bug will spread, and poor Liam now washes his hands on the hour, he may not kiss his new sister (terrible and heartbreaking, I know) and so a long day begins. Gerhard takes Liam to the doc at 13h00, some meds, but Liam seems over the worst. Then at around 16h00, Gerhard runs to Woollies for some groceries, and I wait for a good friend to come and meet Luka, Luka is also feeding whilst we watch Shrek 2 for the umpteenth time in the space of six hours. Now, i

Well, as I am sitting here typing this, Luka is fast asleep in her camp cot in my room.  She is a whole week old and I simply cannot believe it.  My pink princess arrived safely and without even a hint of drama and she is 100% perfect.  We are all madly in love with her and we sit and look at her pretty face for hours and hours. So let me start at the beginning.  On Tuesday 12 April 2011, I went for a scan.  Luka was healthy, but the placenta was starting to show signs of calcification and the amniotic fluid levels were low, so we decided to opt for an elective c-section the following day.  Luka was also still in the breech position and chances of turning were getting slimmer by the day. We left all excited, I went to the office and wrapped up last minute things, then straight home for some sleep.  I picked Liam up from school a bit earlier, was the kids last day as an only child. Made some last minute wardrobe changes to Luka's hospital bags and then spent a sleepless nigh

Ok, so its officially 15 days to my 40 weeks due date, and maybe 2 sleeps or 9 sleeps to a scheduled C-section, yet, I am so calm about this. We did the very last minute things on Friday, our camp cot is set up in our bedroom, the angel care monitor is charged and set up, we are all systems go.  Now, if little Luka will just turn into launch position, I will feel much better! Tomorrow morning at 08:30 we will be going for a scan and some major decisions needs to be taken.  On the one hand, I want to meet Luka and introduce her to Liam and get to know this new little person.  On the other hand, I want Luka to remain safe and snug for the next 15 days and arrive on her own schedule, I do not want her to feel rushed at all.  So to say that I am in two minds... Liam is seriously excited and cannot wait to meet Luks.  He has it all planned, he is just waiting for her and getting a tad impatient.  He keeps telling her that we have a room, toys, clothes and dummies.  He cannot see why she

All kids love music, they are born with a natural rhythm that only gets distorted once they grow up and become self conscious. The radio is always on somewhere in our house, and Liam has been going to Kindermusik ever since he was seven weeks old.  One of Liam's first words were 'louder' although he actually said "groter", literally translated as 'bigger'.  This applied to the car radio and the fact that he cannot hear the music "ek kan nie whoor nie"! Now I must tell you about this kid's taste in music, its rather bizarre... If asked what he wants to listen to, his first choice is almost always "Hey stupid" by Alice Cooper, closely followed by "Stoute Boude" by Anton Goosen.  Note the contrast in his (unsophisticated) music taste.  This morning on the way to school, we listen to a Parlotones CD, all the rock songs are "his songs" and he actually bashes his head in time to the music, plays air guitar, its

On Saturday, the Pretoria Youth Theater put on a production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Irene Village Theater.  We decided that Liam was probably old enough to enjoy this, so off we went not quite sure what to expect.  Well, safe to say that Liam is addicted...he actually burst into tears at interval and told us he is not finished yet and he wants them to come back.  Wow, this is really the ideal setting to introduce kids to the magical world of the stage.  It is a well thought through concept and it works.  You can buy your tickets online through Computicket, it does not cost an arm and a leg and it is set up for kids.  The area immediately in front of the stage is filled with an array of pillows where the little people sit.  Popcorn and snacks are sold.  Liam immediately took his picnic and proceeded to go and sit in the very first row, he wanted to see everything first.  His eyes never left the stage, except for about two seconds when he needed to look down at the popcorn b

I honestly never thought that I would be this ok with the idea of having a c-section...I hate the idea of having an operation but I am strangely at peace with my doctors advice that should Luka not turn, we will do a c-section.  Either on the 13th or the 20th of April.  Gerhard and I had a major blow out about this earlier in the week as he still firmly (and naively according to me) believes that she will turn and will be a normal delivery.  I somehow doubt this.  He thinks I am giving in to c-section mania too easily and I know that come 12 April 2011, Gerhard and I will have a major argument, I will say c-section on the 13th and he will say give her another week...because you know that most second babies (96% in fact) will only turn into the head down position within hours of being born, naturally, vaginally, my vagina on the line here... We also had a major argument as he had to go out with some work people last night and I was left home alone with Liam.  I tried to put in int