Today, a year ago... and my mad photo skillz

First things first.

These lovely ladies are FOUR today.

this photo was taken at the Hyatt Hotel reception area in Charlotte last year!

Happy birthday, Emma and Claire!

Mandy has very cleverly spirited off her family to the beach to celebrate. And really, how much better could a celebration be than the beach?!

(I need to try this with my two)

I still smile when I think about how freaked out Mandy was (if anyone is particularly keen, you can go back to July 2009 and read Mandy's comments on my birth story post) that mine came early, and a few weeks later she was in the same position :)

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I've seriously, SERIOUSLY been CRAVING an overseas trip.

I know you're thinking I'm quite mad but being in the airports last weekend makes me think we're just about ready for real adventure... and then I had very squirmy kids asking about 1 million questions and I was ready to tell D he's right, Thailand is indeed too far to travel with 5-year-olds.

In my mind, I just had this notion (don't you love that word?) that 5 was the age for overseas trips. And we're a year away which means we need to start deciding and planning, right?

But once you're there and you have the experiences and take the photos, you forget all the nonsense. I know this.

Anyway, my brain is working and I'm getting primed to click instead of just deleting the Flight Centre emails as I've been doing for the last year.

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Also, last year I flew out to the US on 18 July, flew into Charlotte on 19th and the She Speaks conference started on the 20th (also known as the day I came to utterly rely on God because Too Many Women who I didn't know).

It all feels rather momentous.

I can't believe it's a year ago (it feels both longer and shorter) since I had my Grand Adventure and met all my lovely online friends in person.



And then I got some lovely mail from MandyE and Deanna (okay, Mandy's mail was for Kendra, not for me, but still!) which was just perfect timing for the "year ago" thing. And Deanna, seriously, your handwriting is font-worthy!!! :))




Here are a few more cute twin pics from last year - you've seen them already but I love looking at them so scroll down if you're bored.

MandyE's girls on the left and Mandy's birthday girls on the right :)

  

I really should finish up the Plett pics so I can start blogging those. On the bright side, I already have two (!) printed and ready to put up in the house. That's not due to me being awesome; it's simply because there was access to a printer at the workshop today and I just had to get two of my iphone pics printed.

The Epson photo workshop with Jeanette was lovely - venue was warm and toasty (sadly, things like this are very important to me, especially in winter!), lots of time to practise and I met a few new people. I'll show you some of my favourites sometime.... but unsurprisingly, they're not of my kids! (I take my hat off to children's photographers).

Best thing? One of my 2013 goals is to take better pics inside. I've been working on the whole finding the good light inside the house thing, I'm also embracing light and shadow more (you can see this with my instagrams) but I still struggle a lot with horrible yellow blurry pics when it's dark outside. 

Well! I asked Jeanette how to fix that, she gave me a few pointers and I had to grit my teeth and force myself to be uncomfortable today but I stayed with it 98% of the time and ............ I'm getting there. 

Tonight I waited for dark, hauled out the camera and took some pics of the kids in the bath and they are AMAZING. Well, not by proper standards but compared to photos before, already 10 times better and tonight's only night 1. No horrible yellow tinge!

this is 4 - crazy "smile"

So I'm super chuffed - thanks again, Jeanette. 

How was your Saturday?

Rethinking those lofty travel plans

You guys know how much I love to travel.

In fact, right now, I'm stalking studiously following a blog where they're in Italy for 3 months. Just because they can.

That's my crazy dream.

Not Italy, but to live in another English-speaking country for two years.

In the meantime, I collect travel brochures and dream of using my passport again.

Now here's the thing - I generally am not very "soft" where the kids are concerned BUT...

Yesterday I had to go to a management session at a conference facility near D's work so we travelled together to go easy on the environment.

Well, that plus saving petrol and...best of all... quality time to talk without all the chirping from the back seat.

So because of the car-pooling, we left at 7 am (my usual time is around 8:40 - ish) and got home at about 5:45.

I gave the babies lots of kisses and said, "did you miss me today?"

V pipes up, "yes, they did".

!

So I asked her what happened.

She says, "after her bath, Kendra said, "Mummy where?" so V had to say I was still at work.

Kendra asks where things are by saying the word first and then where, like, "shoes where" and "ball where".

Oh, my heart melted.

But now I'm thinking... I have plans to travel internationally with D alone this year but what if they freak out???

And they can talk so it's easier to pile on the guilt.

I do recognise that a large part of this is a control freak thing - what if we get back and they're monsters, eating sugar and "wrong" foods, not napping, being naughty, etc?

Should I stop being a wimp and just do it?

Or maybe do a local, parents-only trip first?

P.S. I am quite proud of myself - I have just booked and paid for a photo workshop with my photographer. This is typical me - jumping feet first and then thinking afterwards........I am quite nervous - I am SOOOOOOOOO non-technical, except for insurance (hahaha).

What's on your mind?

Thailand

So I like the idea of clearing your mind on a Friday of all the little snippets. It's so satisfying like eating the last biscuit and throwing out the package (just for you, Mandy) :)

Here goes:

1. I see that a lot of the home and decorating blogs look the same - same shape headers, same colour scheme... mostly (grey, yellow and turquoise is very popular), same type of background. What's with that?
2. I'm thinking about doing a blurb book of my blog. Has anyone done this? How long did it take you to do on blurb? Will I have the patience??? Or maybe I should just do one with our travels?
3. I am in love with coriander. I cut some up in my salad tonight and ..............YUM! What's your favourite fresh herb?
4. The PT took my measurements today - I've lost a total of 6 cm all over my body - 1 around the b**bs (not needed), 2.5 on my thighs, 2 on my waist and I think 0.5 on my calves. I had a headache when I got there but that cheered me right up.
5. D says to me earlier, "I'm so jealous of people whose kids don't have weight issues" I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my salad.
6. I spoke to about 20 brokers today, one on one on the telephone. Gosh, it's been years since I did that and it was actually quite fun. I'm working on a project that is now at the stage I like - lots of action and deadlines.
7. I've booked my leave for the end of April (about 10 days) for our annual anniversary trip and have no idea where to go. I want to drive, stay in a self-catering place and it should not be too far from Jhb. Any ideas? A beach would be nice but it's the start of winter here so maybe elsewhere is better...
   

What's on your mind this evening?

How light do you travel?

this was our luggage going to Ireland for a week

D and I just spent the last hour and a half packing our stuff as we fly back home tomorrow.

How is it that things multiply, change shape and just don't fit?!

On our way down, we checked 4 bags - 1 for D, me and the babies and a miscellaneous one with baby clothes for my sister. That was 56 kg.

I was horrified at how "heavy" we were despite our allowance being 80 kg.

When D and I last travelled to Ireland (23 weeks pregnant with the babies), I had a hand luggage suitcase weighing 8 kg and D had a normal one weighing about 15 kg. See pic.

Confession - that was the lightest I've ever travelled aside from 15,8 kg for 3 weeks in a UK winter the previous year. I'm still most proud of that.

See I'm that person who used to take 3 overnight bags to stay somewhere for 2 days. I'd always stand in the check-in queue at the airport, openly envious of those girls with one little bag (that's how it seemed to me anyway) and their handbag.

And then I was that person. :)

And now we're up by 33 kg. I'd like to blame it all on the babies but I can't - it seems I've given myself permission to cart a lot more rubbish around with me (in the name of "being prepared") and I don't like it.

I like to be a lean, mean travelling machine.

Going back we have 5 bags instead of 4 - the 5th one is some presents for the kids and so on...

All the bags are bulging - thank goodness we have those expandable suitcases and, I have to add, I normally don't even use the expandable portion.

Anyway, so what kind of packer are you?

Are you those girls at the airport with one bag or are you the post-baby me?

Puffer, I'd love it if you'd weigh in - you seem to be a master packer. How do you do it, especially with babies???

Travelling with twins

So yesterday was a crazy rush before leaving home. It's a wonder (well, actually my checklist helped) I remembered crucial things like my phone charger and camera cords.

But still no pics as I did budgets tonight so no time to blog properly.

Thank goodness I got V and Nester (yes, my cleaning lady's name really is Nester and yes, I do get a kick out of it!) in so the kids were done on time and the house is clean.

Although I've since remembered exactly WHY I'm a control freak with some things like packing - I wrote a list for V "5 short-sleeved vests, 2 pairs of jeans, etc." and the items where I wasn't specific like "pink Edgars sandals" are not the ones I would have chosen, so Kendra has one pair of jeans I'm happy with and the other is too short as those legs have grown.

Oh well.

See I only got to the shorts and t-shirt sets before my time ran out. Although those are super cute, all matched and in Ziplocs :)

Anyway, you want to know about the flights.

We got there in time, not too much, but enough in case there were roadworks on the highway.

The flight was delayed by nearly an hour. Thank God they kept us waiting outside the boarding gate in the terminal and not on the aeroplane because my kids would have gone stir crazy.

As it is, Connor made friends with all of the hundreds of people, crawling up and down the rows... Yes, he was filthy and very happy as kids should be.

Kendra stayed with me, only venturing a metre or two either way, but chatting to all and sundry.

Boys and girls are so different.

On the plane, K slept for 25 mins. C was awake the whole time. They both surpassed our expectations and were "good". Not angels, but good. In other words, no screaming, not too much wriggling.

We didn't even have to get out the toys and books - there was far too much already going on, like the boy next to me with his little electronic game. I am so uncool I don't even know what those things are called.

However, when we got to our destination it was FREEZING. Poor kids were dressed in Jhb weather and fortunately (!) their very resourceful mother threw in a tracksuit for each of them into my handbag.

I was so grateful for abit of spontaneity.

The minute we were in the terminal I dressed them warmly but they still had those cold little feet sticking out (I didn't think of socks).

Our rental car was sorted BUT when we (D) tried to attach the car seats, we (again D) found the seat belts weren't working properly in the back seat.

I then left D, moved the kids to my sister's car and we came to my mother's house to get started on the bedtime routine.

Which is how they only went to bed after 9. Over 3 hours later than normal.

We anticipated a later start because of the late bedtime but no, our kids are like the birds - 5:20 and they were up, chatting away, pumping those little fists and demanding milk.

So all in all, much better than we expected in terms of the babies' behaviour but much, much worse in terms of other travel hassles.

Of course, we were both knackered last night. D jumped straight into bed after a late supper (9pm) but I can't sleep with disorder so I sorted out the room where we're staying and got the babies things ready for the next day, as I usually do. I am not a morning person so milk bottles, water bottles and clothes are all prepared the night before.

It is now 11:00, my holiday deadline for the computer as I brought 4 books and I want to finish most of them, if not all.

How was your weekend?

P.S. The segment aired today - yes, hair was, in fact, terrible but am feeling okay as I seemed to make sense. Thanks to Dee and Caren for lovely, encouraging text messages :)

650 & 18

I have been blogging such a lot that I bypassed 600 posts without even noticing and this is actually my 650th post.

!

I clearly have PLENTY to say.

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Anyway, there are only 18 days left before I go on leave.



I'm trying not to think about that too much in case I get some travelling with twins anxiety.

We've booked our rental car (thanks, Eve), hotel accommodation, camp cots and plane tickets.

Here's the scary thing.

We haven't even left and already we've paid R10 648 just on those 4 items and people, it could have been R17 251 without all my Vitality discounts, Eve's tip about the cheaper car hire, and me asking for a twin discount at the camp cot rental place.

Are you shocked? I am!

I'm trying not to think about it. Lalalalala (that's what bonuses are for, right?!)

I'm going to have to get used to driving and renting self-catering accommodation because there's no way we can keep doing this.

In these 18 days I have to get all my work stuff done, all of us packed, send a list of things to my family to buy, take a day's leave so V can get her papers sorted out (I told D I am not doing both days just because I'm the mother), take some more time off to renew my passport (I am serious about travelling internationally with D before I turn 37), write business blogs for when I'm on leave. I will post "live" on this blog :)

Doesn't it make you tired just reading it?

Now imagine me!

So we'll go on leave for two weeks and then I love, love, LOVE being at work betwen Christmas and New Year. You only work half days because no-one's there to disturb you and you don't have to actually put in for the leave :)

Also, since everyone is on holiday, the city is so empty, there's parking galore, no traffic, it's like Jhb heaven.

But then... D and I want to take 3 days when V's back in January to do our own thing, almost like extended dates. I can't WAIT.

What are your plans for December?


This is Connor being naughty - he can now open the fridge and freezer and once opened, he tosses out anything that is not to his satisfaction, like all the carefully packaged and frozen meals for him and his sister. D is looking for the key so we can lock the fridge.

Then he decided he didn't like the wallpaper border and pulled it off the wall. So now they have boring, plain, brown walls again.


On the bright side, Kendra is being ultra cute. This is what I meant by one child being the control and one doing whatever he or she wants.

P.S. Yesterday I blogged how Kendra had been dry for 3 days and.........I jinxed it. Last night at 11-ish, she was soaked through again. *sigh*

P.P.S. I want to talk about Christmas gifts later this week...

Travelling with twin toddlers

We are going to my city of birth in December.

I wanted a beach holiday with the babies and I have now booked flights.

Nothing else but flights and photographer.

Reminds me of how I "prepared" for the babies' room.

I clearly have my priorities straight.

The thing is, I am overwhelmed with the logistics of it all.

Let's take a very short part of the trip - the ride to the airport.

In the pre-babies stage, D and I would get his mother to drop us off (for long trips) and for the 3 or 4-day ones, we'd drive our car to the airport and leave it there.

Now, there are babies, us, a pram, at least 3 suitcases, and hand luggage which will include the nappy bag.

We both have small cars and if the pram's in the car, there's no space for much else. Certainly not 3 suitcases.

Normally people would say, "get a bigger car" but they don't know me. I don't believe in buying big for occasional events. I have debt issues.

So looks like we will drive our car to the airport and someone (?) will have to bring our suitcases too.

My sister will have to meet us at the airport with the car seats for the rental car (which we have not rented yet), the camp cots (pack and plays) will be delivered (which we have also not rented yet) and then the fun starts.

What are your favourite tips for travelling with babies/ toddlers? How do you keep wriggly kids on your lap for 2 hours? What's the one thing I have to remember? (everyone usually has a "if you remember nothing else, remember this...)

P.S. Notice how I just skimmed over the fact that we're FLYING with babies. I am slightly terrified. At least we do baby sign language - hopefully they can tell me what they want instead of the screaming!

Clarens

I seriously don't know if all the schlep of packing up half my house, unpacking it and doing 3 loads of laundry is worth taking a holiday.

D says we need to go away for a longer time for me to feel like it's worth it and my boss agrees with him!

Of course it's lovely to get away and see new places, eat new food, buy cute things and take pictures but I was honestly more tired when I got back than if I'd stayed home.

And I'm not one of those people who believes only the smiles in photos - I am very much a realist.

My friend, Kirsten, said to me, "same circus, different tent" - I LOVE IT!

I really should have taken pics of my entrance hall when the car and trailer were unpacked.

Nevertheless, it's over and I've moved on. We're caught up on laundry and my house is in order again.

The babies were exceptional travellers (I was so surprised) except for the last 30 minutes coming back home. They've now also become sympathetic criers which gets old really quick. After the first couple of times, I just laughed at them. D says I'm cruel but it is FUNNY!

So, Clarens.

Beautiful, quaint little town.



We could have stayed two weeks and still not got through all the lovely cafes and restaurants. If anyone is interested in going, I thoroughly recommend eating at The Artist's Cafe - we had 4 of the 6 meals we ate out there. The kids even knew all the waiters - it was crazy!

this is "roosterbrood" -
I had one with cream cheese and biltong (YUMMY!) and the other with savoury mince

A friend told us that she's been to Clarens a couple of times and not had one bad meal at any of the restaurants. I can totally agree.

I bought TONS of home-made jams, marmalades, and other kitchen yummies. Saffy, I also bought a lovely big jar of curry paste to try out a Thai curry :)


I also bought a bag and some gorgeous creative copper (I love their About page) sugar spoons.

The babies got baby ponchos (do you know what those are?) - I will take pics when they wear them - a mobile and some leather shoes for when they're bigger.

So, good things

• Food
• Scenery
• Lovely, warm townhouse (this was one of the highlights after our cold house)
• Well-behaved babies
• Connor's bath times (deserves a separate blog post and pics)
• Kendra exploring
• Babies got to try lots of different food
• TONS of art galleries and curio shops
  

Not-so-good things

• No Nanny Viola
• Time too short
• Didn't get to do the zip line (I really must plan better - I wanted to do this last year in Hazyview too but I was pregnant and D said it is CRAZY to risk it - true)
• Not enough down time for me which is why I brought all those books back with me, unread.
  

Lessons I learned

If I ever do a holiday again while the babies are small, it has GOT to be in warmer weather so I can take less bags with blankets and warm clothes (South African houses are not made for the cold like the ones in Europe so we dress in plenty of layers).

Also, they need to be done with the bottles. Two bags full of bottles, formula, steriliser = CRAZY. Deanna, I wish we were also done with bottles.

I packed the perfect amount of food for us and the babies - am getting better - usually I bring far too much.

Must lower my expectations of myself about what I can do - I think one book will be PLENTY! This from someone who could easily go through a book a day pre-kids.

What kind of lessons have you learned from travelling with babies/ kids?


P.S. This was going to be a lovely long post and then again, internet connectivity problems.

Am TENSE because while all my prep for my teleseminar is done, my newsletter for tomorrow is not even written. So will have to do that in my lunch break tomorrow because I can't deal with more internet problems now (I think it may be due to the weather?).

I was going to jump straight into bed but I thought I needed the stress relief of blogging, so here I am.

Good night!

I'm here

Goodness, look how late it is and it's my first time online today.

I'm actually quite proud of myself ;)

I'm writing this listening to my iTunes (Mandy - Barry Manilow version)
with a lovely cup of tea at my side.

Well, we only left an hour later than scheduled this morning which, for
us, is FANTASTIC!

Thing is... I can't believe the amount of babies' stuff we had to schlep
with us.

• two campcots (pack and plays) and mattresses
  a tog bag FULL of linen
  a suitcase full of the babies' clothes
  another bag with nappies and toiletries
  another bag with microwave sterilizer, a gazillion bottles, formula and
  other kitchen stuff
  a cooler bag with all their food (no, I didn't stoop to Purity)
  still another bag with toys and teddies

that's all beside the babies, us, D's mum and our clothes and food.

I said to D that it is totally not worth being out of your comfort zone - it's been prep for a day or two whereas before, grab a suitcase, throw in some clothes and we were ready.

He said, "you'll see"...

Hmmm, don't know about that.

My friend, Natalie, said to me that it's not a holiday, it's a change of scenery!

Too true.

So we'll see - so far so good.

The babies are in their element as there's UNDERFLOOR heating here and lovely, plush carpets.

When we arrived, Kendra was off, exploring. It was actually really cute to see - this tiny little baby (she still looks like a newborn!) whizzing around the place.

She's already fallen while trying to stand... and screamed... so I figure the place has been christened!

Connor has also been squealing, making his gleeful (?) boy sounds and rolling around the place. He LOVED his bath so much - I let them have proper baths in the big bath - "swimming" like a little fish. TOO CUTE. I laughed so hard.

And now I have to write my weekly newsletter and then I can climb into this lovely comfortable bed with my book.

P.S. Happy Freedom Day. It's Freedom Day in South Africa, my favourite public holiday of all as freedom is my number 1 value. What's yours?

Travel

D & I on the roof of the Stirling Jail in Scotland

view from the jail - doesn't it look like a storybook?

Where has this month gone?!

My friend, Robynne, emailed me earlier this week to check when we'd be coming to collect the trailer we're borrowing for our holiday.

I said something like, "can we come on the weekend before we leave?"

She said, "you do realise that's THIS weekend?"

!!!

No, I hadn't.

Somehow I thought there was plenty of time to get our holiday organised.

I made a travel list last night for the babies (D and I have our own travel checklists - yes, it's nerdy, but it works) and have given it to Nanny V to start putting things aside.

Looks like the next few days will be busy busy busy.

Let's hope the babies like travel as much as their parents do.

my second meet-up with a blog friend -
Suzanne and I both travelled to SCOTLAND to meet up.
This is Loch Lomond

Stirling, Scotland -
I get such a kick out of this pic - it's 10 pm at night. NIGHT! We're not used to this in SA as it gets dark around 7pm; 8pm in Cape Town

The Forth of Firth - Edinburgh, Scotland
Another thing I get a kick out of - this time for how it sounds
What amazed me is people push their prams across this bridge that looks like a highway (motorway/ freeway)

the famous Wallace Memorial, taken from our B&B's window. Just to show you how uninformed I am... I'll confess that I'd never heard of it before we arrived in Scotland. No, I did not watch Braveheart :)

I must say, I have never, ever been as cold as I was in Scotland. Somehow that cold goes right into your bones. Brrrr.

Travelling with twins and a second birthday party

I wrote a blog post that is scheduled to publish tomorrow about how D and I used to travel before babies.

We LOVE travelling so no surprise that I started thinking a lot about travelling after writing that post.

It also doesn't help when you keep getting Flight Centre's newsletter in your inbox!

One of my goals for this year is to take a holiday (vacation) as a family. At the time I was doing the goal-setting (nearly two months ago), it was still a very scary thought.

But now I've been thinking about it some more it doesn't quite scare me that much.

I've been having some deep revelations (ha!) lately about all things parenting........ and basically I'm at the point where it's all about attitude, doing what you can to prepare and then going with the flow.

That said, there are certain things I know for a fact I'll need to have in place WHEN (not if) we travel later this year.


This is what I'm thinking to ease us into travelling with babies:

Definitely somewhere local so the flight's not longer than two hours - I'm thinking Knysna, Plett, somewhere along the Garden Route...

Our last visit to Knysna - May 2007 for 12-year wedding anniversary
This was the view from our chalet

Breakfast was delivered to us every morning and we'd look out on that view. Notice I told D to take pics of the food not of me as I was in pj's :)

Self-catering flat so we have kitchen and laundry facilities, or a hotel with a fridge in the room

No high expectations - I will consider it successful if we make it there and back in one piece and get a couple of good photos at the beach.


Other ramdomness:

We went to our SECOND birthday party today. Thank goodness no mommy-comparing-milestones talk although I must confess I only spoke to two other young mommies. The strangest thing is D was engaged in some daddy-comparing talk about reflux and teeth :) Apparently a baby who's a year old has no teeth. When we got home and he told me (you know how you do that whole comparing thing afterwards) I was like "so? he's working on something else" My, my, I've come a long, long way!

The babies were much better behaved than at their first party; this time the meltdown only happened after two hours! We literally got to the car and Connor was out like a light. Poor boy was exhausted by all the PEOPLE like his daddy :)

After the cake was cut, my friend, C, said thank you to everyone for coming and then said something so beautiful I cried (behind my sunglasses). "I never imagined that we'd ever have a day like this because I didn't think I'd ever have children" Paraphrased but you get the gist. Beautiful.

Home for "supper" (I still get a kick out of them having supper at 4 - 4:30 like old people :)) and baths and I expect them to sleep beautifully tonight after all that activity - church AND a social :)

Speaking of church, it gets better every time we go. We have not had anymore rude comments, typical, just as we decide what to say to people!

How was your weekend?

Edited to add
P.S. I'd just hit publish (9pm) when Kendra cried and woke Connor - so much for sleeping beautifully!