Adults Only!

Ok so I posted my wordless wednesday post 11 minutes into thursday, but I blame this damn internet connection. For the past 2 days the internet connection has been giving us utter misery. Go figure it decides to work at midnight. So here I am try to squeeze in a bit of blogging. I had to submit some articles today so thankfully it worked just in time for me to meet my deadline!

But I am getting lost from the reason I am posting. I was just reflecting today on how careful one needs to be when saying things to or in front of kids. Bilaal is getting to that age now when the things he sees on T.V make a huge impression on him. So age restrictions are especially important now. Whenever we hire movies we always take one family movie and one for us to watch after he has gone to bed. A while back Bilaal started asking about 'the other movie' and we would tell him that he can't watch it because it's an adult movie. So whenever a movie or programme comes on T.V when he is still awake at night that has an age restriction and we either change the channel or chase him off to bed, he would ask us if it's because it's an 'adult movie' Unwittingly we would simply say yes, but then one day Yaasier and I realised... hang on we need to rather be referring to then as 'movies not meant for children', especially after Bilaal was relaying to us how he told the class in news time that his mommy and daddy watched 'adult movies' over the weekend! I wonder what his teacher must have thought!

Wordless Wednesday 17

Well that went rather well!

Last night we had some friends over for supper and Yaasier was relaying a story to them about our recent road trip to Durban. I somehow forgot all about this little gem from Bilaal. Anyways, we were on the road to Durban and Yaasier was driving a little bit over the speed limit (tsk, tsk)  and we were pulled over. The traffic officer came over and informed Yaasier of his speed and then reprimaded him when she saw the littlies in the car. But kindly, because our speed wasn't that bad, she let us off with a stern warning. As she was walking away and Yaasier was rolling up the window Bilaal said in a rather adult tone, "Well that went rather well!"
While I was supressing a little giggle in the back seat, an amused Yaasier asked him, "Where do come on that?" To which Bilaal replied, "I heard it on t.v. once and I always wanted to say that"!

wordless wednesday 16

Wait till your father gets home!

I really don't understand it. Yaasier and I have pretty much the same ethos when it comes to discipline. And when we do disagree, we agree not to disagree infront of Bilaal... you know... the whole united front thingy. So what I don't understand is, why, if I am just as strict as Yaasier, all Bilaal seems to care about is that daddy musn't be angry or upset with him. For example, whenever I reprimand him about something when Yaasier is home he will always say, "don't say so loud mommy otherwise daddy will hear." Nevermind that i am clearly angry with him. Or when he deliberately disobeys me  and I ground him from the neighbours or place a ban on one of his favourite activities... he sulks of course... but then always follows with, "but don't tell daddy".

I always vowed not to be one of those wait-till-your-father-gets-home kinda moms, but alas! My destiny as a traditionally stereotypical mom awaits! I just don't get it. When daddy says, no Bilaal don't do xyz, he listens, not showing his frustrations at not being able to do whatever bright idea that is actually incredibly dangerous thing he wanted to do. But when I tell him not to do something, he moans and sulks and sometimes even tries to hurt me (like today when he angrily wheeled one of his toy monster trucks into my legs because I told him not to launch it off the table in Sumayah's direction because it could smash into her face by accident. Not to mention the terrible marks it makes on the table top.) So I launched the dreaded threat-line, "must I tell your daddy about your behaviour?"

Gone is the easy-to-manipulate-into-desired-behaviour little boy who used to shower with me with endless amounts of hugs and kisses and I love yous. Hello to the child who's outgrown toddlerhood in the blink of an eye. I am entering a whole new phase of parenting and it scares the shit out of me!

Internet frustrations yields result!

I have been so frustrated with the internet recently. When we first arrived in JHB we got one of those vodacom internet contracts, but the connection was very unreliable especially in our house where even the cellphone reception is bad. So when we finally got our landline installed, we took one of those packages with the internet. This has been much better, although coming from the UK one gets so frustrated with the capped data! So in a bid not to waste the vodacom contract and to save the capped telkom data for more important things, I have been using the vodacom connection to upload my videos onto youtube so that I can share them here on my blog. To say that this has caused me grief and almost caused me to throw the damn modem against the wall would be an understatement! I would be connected and the video would be uploading (ultra ultra sloooowwwly) and then an hour later when I check on my little project, I find that just when it is 95% complete... the bloody device disconnects itself!

But persistant me would try and try again... I must be a sucker for punishment... until finally it works. Picture me sitting literally at the edge of my seat watching the upload bar moving that last millimetre forward and the word 'success!' appears on the screen. It's like watching a reality thriller show I tell you!

So on that note, here is a little clip of Sumayah playing peekaboo. Please enjoy it!

wordless wednesday 15

Insomnia!

I think Sumayah has insomnia. Last night at about 2.30am she woke up and just couldn't fall back to sleep. We tried rocking, walking, shushing, singing, reciting prayers, sitting, lying, leaving her to cry... but the little bugger just wouldn't drop off. The eyes kept drooping and rolling and she seemed quite settled and content on the arm, but she just couldn't cross the bridge into that blissful state of deep sleep. On top of that Bilaal had a slight tummy bug... again! and since he is not yet proficient at cleaning his own poepgatjie, every hour he would come into the room announcing that he was going to make a number 2 so that I would know to be on bum cleaning alert! I think I only got some shut-eye at about 5am?! Madame eventually fell asleep in our bed with alot of tossing and turning in her sleep, yet she still managed to wake up at 6.30am ready for breakfast. Now given her lack of nightly slumber one would assume that her usual morning nap would happen easily, but Nay! The little insomniac managed to skip her nap all together until she evetually just dropped off at about 12h30, just when I wanted to give her lunch. She was so tired even when I lifted her out of the car she carried on sleeping  in a head-upright position. But don't breathe a sigh of relief yet, because this beauty sleep only lasted about 30 mins! Aha as we speak she has just woken up from her afternoon nap after only about 30 mins again. Better go see if I can get her to drift off for at least another 20 min? perhaps? maybe?