Not a wordless wednesday

I realise that today is supposed to be picture day, but I have been neglecting my blog for a while now so I thought I'd make an exception. I have been very busy lately but mostly I just haven't had the creative energy to express my self verbally so blogging has taken a back seat. In the mean time the kids have grown so much in such a short time. Sumayah has had her 2nd birthday and we recently had to put in our application for Bilaal for Grade 1 next year! I just cannot believe how quickly this year is going!

Sumayah continues to be a whirlwind of energy and Bilaal's calm and charming nature just seems to provide the perfect balance. He said to us the other day, "when I asked Allah for a sister, I didn't think she would be like this!"

They are at that age now where they actually play well together so it gives us a chance to have a bit of a lie in on weekends. They will happily entertain each other in their rooms while we catch a few extra winks. Of course they have their moments where you hear crying or screaming as they fight like all siblings do, but we don't get up and intervene unless they come complaining that someone got hurt. I have learned a while ago that as a parent you sometimes you just have to chill and let them figure it out by themselves. And believe me after less than a minute we hear them laughing again. Another thing I am totally chilled about compared to when Bilaal was a toddler is the morning routine. On weekends I have no guilt letting them wait till 10.30 sometimes 11 for their brekkie, because guess what?... They survive! If they are busy having fun and haven't come to tell me they're hungry yet (and I assure you Sumayah Will come and tell me), why should I stress? I have far fonder memories of my sister and I playing in our pjs till late on a sunday morning and my dad having a good chill in bed, reading the sunday paper than remembering having breakfast before a certain time. So here's to happy childhood memories.

Foody Friday

So a few people have been reminding me that I have been neglecting my blog yet again! But I think we all can be forgiven for falling off the earth only slightly over these many holiday breaks. I must say we had a fabulous time over Easter. Yaasier's folks flew up from CT and the we all drove down to Durbs for a few days. It was awesome! The kids had a blast with the doting grandparents and the grandparents got some much needed rest. And Yaasier and I could baljaar in the deliciously warm and wild waves of the Umhlanga coast like we were kids again. Bilaal and I even built a sand castle. And what do you know Sumayah actually enjoyed the beach! In Cape Town she hates the wind and the cold sea water, but in Durbs she was right in the water along with us, still holding on for dear life, but loving it!

So this week it was back to the daily grind. But I must say it's been a quiet start for me, which is good, 'cos Yaasier started his new job this week, so it helped that I wasn't too hectic too. Its also given me time to focus on my website project, but details about that is for another post.

So what has all this got to do with the title of my post? Well 2 Fridays ago already I had this idea to do a foody post every friday. Seeing as how food is such a big part of the 'mum drum' of my life I may as well share some of it here. So evertime I make something I wish to share on my blog I will take a photo of the completed dish and post it with the recipe on Foody Fridays! Any other bloggers out there are free to join in ;-) Hopefully next week will be my first installment so watch this space!

My new toy

My awesome dad bought me this phone I had been ogling for some time. So now I can blog from my phone using android technology. Just trying it out for the first time ;)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

AWOL

16 days! That's how long it's been since my last post! It's so true that you only realize the true value of something when it's gone. While blogger may not be gone, the damn internet certainly was missing in action over the last 2 weeks. There were so many little things I wanted to blog about but alas!

And then I get a pleasant surprise from a fellow blogger Simply Mel who commented on a previous post enquiring how me and the kids were. Wow that just warmed my heart, thanks Mel! Sure I know there are many people I know that read my blog, but it's wierd how much I really value these cyber interactions with people I have never even met. It a strange thing the connection I feel toward some of the bloggers I regularly follow. I worry when their kids are ill and feel immense pride when they do something great. I feel happy when good things happen in their lives and disappointed when things don't go their way.

So thanks all my blogger buddies. Thank you for the new perspective, thank you for the comments and variety of opinions, for making me laugh and yes even the times I felt a little teary eyed.

Spoke too soon?

So as I feared, my celebrations on yesterday's post was a little premature. Last night the sleep battles resumed. The funny thing is when I was putting her to sleep for the night I already knew what kind of night was ahead. This time it wasn't related to the separation anxiety I don't think. When I was putting her to sleep it was just clear that she was very restless. No amount of rocking or swaying could get her to calm down enough to fall into a deep sleep. So naturally at around 10pm she was awake again. I was on the phone with a friend so Yaasier went up and put her back to sleep. But I knew right there and then what kind of night was awaiting me. Even when I picked her up and held her in my arms in the bed, she still couldn't sleep. Her eyes would be closed, but she wasn't asleep. Eventually at about 2.30am I went downstairs to give her some rescue remedy and then got back into bed and slept with her in my arms the rest of the night. Of course the last thing I needed was to be told this morning that I should keep the volume down because I am disturbing the neighbours with my frustrated moanings that Sumayahs should "just shut up and sleep for god's sake " and stomping down the stairs and angry closing of cupboard doors in my frustration. Now mind you I know the house is very quiet so all my annoying sounds are amplified, but was I really loud enough to wake the neighbours? I don't think so... maybe to disturb the people who are warm and snug under the blankets in my own house yes, but I hardly think I was 'shouting' or 'banging' doors. So naturally this morning I was in a rather foul mood.

But I made myself a good brekkie and have turned to ranting to the blogosphere to calm me down. Now for a lovely long hot shower and I will be ready to face the day.

Woe is Me!

For those of you who are regular readers of this here blog, you may have been wondering where I've been. I won't lie and say I haven't had time to blog because there have been many opportunities. Nor can I say I haven't had anything to blog about... nothing can be further from the truth. It's just that I was beginning to be a bit of a complain pot which is totally not the spirit in which I started this blog. There's also been so much going on with the kids that I found myself craving moments of doing-nothingness where every chance I go, however few I would just sit and watch t.v.

But you know what? I realise that I have every right to be a complain pot in this space, because it is after all my space. So what's been going on you ask? Last week Bilaal had a tummy bug again. Fortunately it was only coming out the top end, changing bedding and pjs 3 times during the night is no fun, especially if in between you have an insomniac of a baby screaming her lungs out every hour. Then Wednesday Bilaal was back at school and what do you know... Sumayah starts. Now at first I thought she caught the bug from him, but then it became clear that this was no bug, She wasn't vomitting consistently during the , no fever and she was actually quite constipated. So all she ate for 2 days was banana, jam sandwiches and juice. Finally she seemed to improve, then Friday night Bilaal vomitted, followed by Sumayah the next morning. So Saturday we traipsed off to the doctor. The verdict? Both of them are fine! She gave me scripts for antibiotics for both of them in the event they didn't improve the next day. Bilaal didn't need his, but even though Sumayah only vomitted her milk once the next day, the monday I went to get her the antibiotics. I have become an expert at mopping up grotesquely large amounts of projectile vomit!

Now let's not neglect the whole sleeping saga. I am pleased to report that Sumayah is no longer so much an insomniac as she is a restless sleeper. Now when she wakes every hour I can at least get her to sleep again as soon as I pop the dummy in. I have realised though that it is not actually the dummy that soothes her, but rather me giving her the dummy that does the trick, because even though she sleeps, the minute my head hits the pillow she cries again. So to avoid the cold of winter biting at my toes in the middle of the night I have resorted to bringing her to the bed. This of course is not really a solution, because it's not as if she sleeps through the night when she's in the bed. She still cries every hour or so, but at least she's right next to me so I can simply pat her back to sleep. The good news is the whole vomitting saga seems to be under control now!
But still... woe is me!

Sunshine Award!

I have really been neglecting my blog recently. There are so many things I'd like to share, but internet frustrations coupled with lack of time has made it really difficult. So it was so nice to get not one but TWO Sunshine Awards! And nogal from 2 fellow bloggers I avidly follow, Rock Mom and Karen. Thank you! So of course I will gladly pass this award on to 12 other bloggers:
1) I'm so not a blogger
2) Jou ma se blerrie blog
3) The Kriel family
4) Laughs to birth and all things that follow
5) Simply Mel
6) The Reluctant mom's blog
7) WTJAlexander
8) Bhalababy
9) Baglett

ok so theres supposed to be 12, but I could only come up with 9 that I regularly read besides Rock mom and Karen.

Right now back to marking!

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!

Long Time No Blog!

We've been having trouble with the internet connection for the past few days so I have been suffering a bit of blogger withdrawal! Didn't think blogging would be so... so ... well addictive is too strong a word, but it will have to do for now. There's quite a few things I wanted to share, but I guess I will share gradually over a few posts. Also i have been trying to revive my movie editing hobby. I feel so bad that Bilaal has 4 movies from the 1st year of his life and Sumayah... well Sumayah has none. And everybody says 'it's always like that with the second one, but shame I don't want her to be little aspoestertjie. The dstv was out last weekend (I know horror of horrors over super 14 time nogal!) so we were watching some videos of Bilaal. I.ve been trying to upload some of them to share, but the bloody internet keeps disconnecting on me halfway through. But I shall keep trying and hopefully have them up soon.

Thanks to Rock Mom for my 2 awards!

When you enter the world of blogging, you really put yourself out there. You share publicly your joys, your thoughts, your fears, your hopes and dreams. So comments are realllllly appreciated and remiinds you that someone out there is actually interested in what YOU have to say. So how special didn't I feel when fellow blogger Rock Mom chose ME to pass on not only 1 but 2 awards. Thanks Rock Mom, i feel special. Now the one award has no rules, while the other does, so I am going to combine the 2 into one post. Here is the first one:

The next award is the one with rules which are as follows:

1) thank the person who nominated me for this award
2) copy the award & place it on my blog
3) link to the person who nominated me for this award
4) share 7 interesting things about myself
5) nominate 7 bloggers
6) post links to the 7 blogs i nominate

So even though I've done 1 and 3 already, I think she deserves another big THANKS :)

ROCK MOM

(love your layout by the way)

7 interesting fact about myself...mmm...

1) At the age of 29, I still can't ride a bike properly! I can ride in a straight line, but don't aske me to turn!

2) I learned to drive with a VW Microbus. Being a shorty it was awsome because it made me feel tall :)

3) My husband and I dated for 3 years and on 22 December 2009 we celebrated our 8th anniversary

4) I love making home movies with the whole editing with effects and music and stuff (although I have neglected this hobby somewhat the past 2 years:( ) There's a sample of one of my projects in an earlier post)

5) I hate going to the hairdresser, I find it most boring.

6) I have moved house 7 times in my lifetime

7) I have an article published in the Journal of Occupational Science titled "Occupation, Identity and Choice: A dynamic interaction"

And the nominees are:

1) Jou ma se Blerrie Blog

2) WTJAlexander

3) I'm so not a blogger

4) MomAgain@40 

5) Simply Mel B

6)  The Kriel Family

7) Rock Mom (of course!)

Now I knw some of these nominees have already been nominated by Rock Mom, but I had to go with the ones I follow regularly. Thanks to you all for a great read :) Enjoy your award!

Love Me!