Where did the time go, Liam turns three today.  Three years ago to the second I was in the maternity ward at Unitas having Liam.  It feels like yesterday. . . I told Liam this morning that he came knocking at our door three years ago with his little suitcase, we opened the door and let him in and it was the best day of our lives.  He of course commented that he vividly recalls the day, and that he was just small like Luka is now.  Geez, talk about imagination.  Last night I started thinking back to my own childhood as Gerhard inflated the tyres on Liam's brand new set of wheels, he carried the bike upstairs and we threw a blanket over the bike.  I remember a birthday from my youth waking up and a bicycle is actually in your room, wow. Well, when Liam woke up this morning, and ran to my room, and peeped under the blanket and gave a giggle like a schoolgirl, well, I knew we got the right gift.  The main difference with Liam's bike and the bike I recall, my parents did not g

My only sister Tanja got married on Saturday and my oh my, it was absolutely stunning.  People who know me will tell you that I do not gush at weddings or go “ah” when I see babies (besides my own two that is).   So imagine my surprise when Tanja comes walking down the aisle all on her own and I actually feel a couple of tears well...hello, where did that come from... Tanja and Jaco got married on a sunny, but freakishly cold winter’s day in the beautiful Muldersdrift area.   The ceremony took place in a forest, it was stunning, even the two pictures that I took with my el cheapo camera are gorgeous, and the light is just perfect.   It was that crisp day that is only ever truly seen in Gauteng in winter.   Gorgeous, as if God is somehow trying to make up for the fact that Gauteng is ugly as hell in winter, He occasionally gives us this stunner of a day, well Saturday the 25 th of June 2011 was just such a day!   There were little fleece blankies available and most guests needed these

Luka will be 10 weeks old tomorrow.  A real milestone, something to be happy about right well all that this means to Gerhard and me is that we have not slept for 10 full weeks.  Now now, some of you are saying surely you slept a little bit, yes, we did, a little bit, that is all.  For 10 straight weeks, or 70 days we have not slept longer than two hours at a time, some nights we were lucky if we got one hour without our little monster screaming... Luka seems to be a bit of a sensitive soul.  Liam could self soothe from about 6 weeks, he slept whenever he was tired, wherever we were.  When he was 6 weeks old, we could go out for dinner at restaurants and he would pretty much sleep from start to end.  At 6 weeks, Liam slept through an entire night.  He had a last feed at around 10 and then woke again at 6 in the morning.  I have read Sleep Sense, Baby Sense, googled, I have given medicine, not given medicine, asked the paediatrician, asked the clinic nurse.  I have tried homeopathic r

Now you may think that I am being sarcastic when making bold statements such as the one above, but I am actually dead serious... I am writing this sitting in the middle of the bush, in the lap of luxury (I do not camp), Gerhard and Liam have gone for a game drive, and I am sitting here watching the sun rising over a dam a mere 50 meters from my window, sipping a cappuccino.   The boys left me and Luka here to catch up on some zzzzz’s, but alas, I am only enjoying my cappuccino now, after I washed all the dishes from last night and cleared up the mess we made in the kitchen. Now I will simply never admit this to my husband, he needs to remain humble and never ever get the idea that I can somehow live without full time domestic help.   So when we go on vacation, he always makes 100% sure that the accommodation is serviced,   I think he does this more to avoid washing dishes himself, but so it would also appear as if he only takes me to places where I do not have to lift a finger, fair en

When I was young (ger) a mullet was a horrible haircut that nobody in their right frame of mind would be seen dead in.  Now it seems fashionable somehow and wherever you look, there are boys with bad hairstyles... If you are a mommy and wife (like me) you will soon realise that television is not something that you can decide on.  In my house the telly only really switches between two channels, Ceebeebies (Liam's choice) and 200 and on, Gerhard's gazillion sports channels.  Mom never gets to decide what we watch in our house, she is a guuurl...can you hear Liam in that last sentence... Well, there are some similarities between the two channels, the first one is that there are quite a number of stuffed characters on both.  Liam's characters are called cute names like the Tweenies, the Telletubbies etc.  Gerhard's little characters do not have names, but they are also stuffed animals, I have seen a little blueish bull, a lion, a shark - rather cute, but not as cuddly a

Kids say the darnedest things don't they?  And usually end up saying these things at totally inappropriate times... Take Liam as an example.  He did Kindermusik until very recently.  The first time we return after Luka's birth, he walks in and tells the facilitator : "Marissa, this is my sister, Luka.  Luka drinks boobs, poops and sleeps." Nice, honestly, what will people think of us when this is the sort of things we say right upfront? Over the weekend we went to the mall to buy Gerhard some suits, men simply cannot venture out in to the big bad world of retail on their own, they need an entourage and then cannot get that everyone gets irritated... Well, Liam and his dad are walking along an isle and spot a fairly big boned lady with a solid beehind...Liam tells Gerhard "Look daddy, her tummy is at the back".  Did she hear them, hell I hope not. The cutest thing was when he told Gerhard last week: "Pappa, you need to drive faster".  Gerh

I think I have said this before, I love my job.  I am excellent at my job.  I cannot live without my job.  I studied hard and long and I have been working the past 11 years to get to where I am.  It is not something I am about to give up. Now, when Gerhard and I started dating 17 years ago (goodness, has it really been that long), we were still very naive and we imagined that one of us would stay home with the kids when we have them.  As we grew older and started careers, we always jokingly said that the one who earned least when we have our first kid would become a stay at home parent. As time progressed and we had real kids, we realised that we both wanted (and needed) to work.  We can easily afford for one of us to stay at home full time, but Gerhard knows that I will drop down dead if I have to be a stay at home mommy.  So we compromise.  Liam went to a day mother when he was 6 months old and I moved him to a school (well its called a stimulation centre) at 8 months.  Because o

Today you are just getting a list of my things I cannot live without.  If you asked me 4 years ago, the list would have gone a little like this: 1.  Passport 2.  Bikini 3.  Sunscreen 4.  Credit card 5.  Perfume (something heavy like Clinique's Aromatics Elixier) 6.  Boots 7.  Flip flops 8.  Little Black Dress 9.  Cigars 10. A drop dead gorgeous handbag Gerhard and I lived a pretty adventurous life before Liam and Luka ("BLL").  We travelled (ok, we still do that, but it is different), stayed in nice hotels, slept late, drank amazing bottles of red wine, loads of coffee, heck, we ordered stuff we like in crates.  We shopped a lot, yes, ok, I still shop a lot, but I now shop at Baby City, no more days at the mall buying whatever my heart desires.  I wore boots, the higher the heels, the better and I could go almost anywhere with a little black dress and a splash of perfume, and I never even contemplated leaving the house unless I had a stunning handbag.  My c

We have been preparing Liam for his first day at the new school for the past three weeks, so much in fact that he told me the day before yesterday that Teacher Hannetjie is going to love him to bits.  Cute, just slightly weird considering that he met Teacher Hannetjie for the first time the day after making this bold statement. This morning he got up all excited and told me that today is the day.  He got slightly less brave as the time for leaving came closer.  When we reached the school and he saw the kids were not playing outside (I must point out that the temperature was -1 degrees Celsius at that stage, he got a bit teary.  Thank heavens for teachers like Teacher Hannetjie, she comforted him and included him immediately, so here is to hoping that Liam will have an ok first day at the new school. Last night I told him that I simply cannot believe that he is turning three, and going to big boy school.  I told him there is a lump in my throat, his reply, "I will take out th