Gerhard needs to attend a work dinner tonight, which means that I have to get through suicide hour all by my lonesome self.  As I am sitting here typing this I am contemplating: Running away and joining the circus; Staying at work indefinitely, company secretaries have crisis hours too you know; Paying Sekai (my faithful domestic worker) to come and take care of at least half of my kids. The thing is, Liam is a big boy, he can fend for himself, Luka is an entirely different kettle of fish.  She is either fine, i.e. when we get home she is not screaming like a banshee and she smiles and coo's, or we get home and she did not sleep at all during the day.  At times like these she is screaming like a banshee... We then proceed to bribe / coax / threaten Liam that it is in his best interests to eat up, and then follow same tactic to get him in the bath with Luka.  Luka is happy whilst in the bath, but you can set a clock to the fact that it takes all of 30 seconds of her being o

My husband jokingly refers to my (numerous) sessions at the spa as my hobby.  He says that if going to the spa was a sport, I would have national colours, I would probably even qualify for the Olympics.  We all have a vice I say, golf for Gerhard, the spa for me, drinking fine wines, smoking cigars, the list goes on.   So this week Friday I am off to the spa with the girls and I cannot wait, I have no preference - I can spa alone or in groups, day, night, its all the same to me.  Upmarket, start-up, once again no preference.  Serious spa where you sip mineral water and eat lemon slices to detox, bliss, more commercial versions where you sip champagne in the spa bath and eat chocolates at the conclusion, any one will do.  I am if you will a spa groupie, anywhere, anytime, anyway... Poor Gerhard though, his hobby is golf, that must be done in conjunction with similarly minded people, mostly men.  They all need to agree on the course, the time, and beer is almost always involved.  M

We have a new TV channel in South Africa (ok, maybe it is not new, but we only recently came across it) - the Disney Channel.  Liam loves the programmes, it is so bright and colourful.  His favourites are Little Mermaid, Little Sunshine (a rather cute programme actually called Little Einsteins), Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Can you tell that he watches WAY too much TV?  The other day we are playing in the tub - he has a dolphin and a shark and he tells me about a kettle fish.  I ask where he learnt about a kettle fish and he tells me on Little Sunshines.  When your child starts getting his education from the Disney Channel, you start questioning the hours spent in front of the telly.  Last night Gerhard gets home and Liam is literally glued to the tv. He does not speak, does not eat and we decide this is it, after some terrible tantrums, we simply turn of the tv and tell Liam that normal people chat when they come home from school.  We start asking each other about our respective

A friend tells me that her baby has severe nappy rash and my first reaction is to start telling her all about remedies and what not to do.  Then, thank heavens I think about this for a while and refrain.  Ask any new mother what the worst thing in the world is and she will immediately tell you unwanted / unsolicited advice from everybody about everything... Let me start with an example.  Luka was a classic colic baby, she would be a little angel from 07:00 until 16h00, then she would start screaming for approximately two hours, three minutes and 54 seconds.  And then turn into her sweet self again.  Now any parent of a colic baby will tell you that you will sell your soul to have the crying (screaming) stop.  Liam used to come home from school, he would plonk himself in front of the tv at exactly 16h00 and tell me (with a dramatic sigh) that "the screaming is about to start'...poor lamb! All in all I recon I probably spent about R5 000 on crap.  The advice included rockin

So my little angel is  3 months old today.  I simply cannot believe how far we have come, from a little monster that intimidated mom and dad with her screaming, to a cutie pie that smiles and coo's and sat in a bumbo for the first time yesterday! Look, I am not saying that she is meek, no, she still has an iron will of her own and basically all of us does everything around Luka and her routine, the memories of the screaming child still firmly entrenched in our still sleep deprived minds.  Its just that she no longer scares us, she is very cute, smiles often, loves her brother, has this shy kind of laugh that melts the heart, bats her eyelashes as daddy (seriously not making this one up).  So to all of you who refused to take her (gumtree add, one small baby for sale, one set of previous owners, comes with all accessories, willing to pay costs), you missed out, she is no longer available, we are keeping her, and as Liam says rather often, "she is only small, but I looooove

No, no marital problems, or relationship problems, just thinking back to the song that played rather frequently the year I turned 21.   This one is a song by a band that if they are still around, should probably look at changing their name, the Backstreet Boys.  You can no longer be boys, I am 34, I listened to this aged 21, you do the math.  My 21st birthday party was amazing, so amazing in fact that I did a modern dance routine to the soothing sounds of the bsb's.  To this day I have a gammy knee, lets just say that wine was involved, yet everytime this song plays on the radio, I get carried away and a tad nostalgic.  I have told the story of Luka's birth here, and mentioned the fact that a horrible song, "Ek sal poetry skryf oor jou mond en jou lyf" was playing as the poor lamb arrived in this world, yet, I will never forget this as long as I live.  The year Liam was born, Neo's "Closer" was playing on the radio, that and "I kissed a girl a

My mood is directly linked to the weather, so you can just imagine how I felt when waking up this morning, it is overcast.  It is freezing.  It looks like it is about to rain and I need to get dressed and go to work.  We might as well move to Cape Town with this weather, at least they have like the mountain bru... And in this weather, I really only want to eat, not the best thing for a new mother to do, I crave sugar, carbs, pastries...not salad.  So sadly today, I have nothing positive to contribute towards society at large, I am off to the canteen to have a fix, will check in on all of you again as soon as summer arrives x 

Well, thank goodness the past weekend is, well past...it was a hectic runaround from one venue to the next.  It started with a little friend's birthday party on Saturday morning, then a dash home to get everyone fed, faces wipes, wedding attired donned and in the car, off to the wedding.   Sunday morning was the big spiderman birthday party, so I got up at the crack of dawn to get the snacks made, the car packed, the cake loaded, the birthday boy dressed.  After the party, we took the inlaws out to lunch, so by the time Carte Blanche started on Sunday evening, I was pooped and in bed already! This week was no better with me back at work full time.  And now its weekend again and Saturday is another full day in the van Wyk van Rooyen household.  Due to the fact that I need a car, I have now resorted to servicing my car on Saturdays, Liam and I are also going on a date, the Pretoria Youth Theater is putting on a production of Little Mermaid.  Gerhard opted to babysit Luka as h