Winter traditions around here

Louisa said in her latest post that she's hibernating for winter.

I kind-of feel like that.

I love the cold, as you know, but not my cold house. It's a lovely summer house but we don't make houses for winter in South Africa.

So most nights you'll find me in my pjs at 6 pm (Kendra loves this - "ooh Mummy, I love your pyjamas") having tea or hot chocolate with the kids under the blankets.

We see Nanny S out, go straight to the kitchen and sort out the hot drinks so we're all ready at 6 pm.

It's quite lovely.

What is also lovely is my kids are unused to having lots of treats so when I give them TWO tennis biscuits with tea or hot chocolate, Connor goes "we can have TWO?!" It's too adorable.

red velvet cupcakes - do you like them? I could mostly leave them. What is the big fuss?

I've been sorting through the 12 - 24 month pics as you know (I finished tonight - ready for printing now!) and came across a few videos which I played for the kids.

They said, "why is Connor not talking properly?" and "Mummy, why didn't I answer you?"

They're fascinated that they are the kids who couldn't quite speak. So am I actually. Hearing those nearly two-year-olds speaking in their little baby voices is way too cute.

The other day Nanny V visited us with her little guy and, as you do (or as I do), I said to him, "do you want a biscuit, M?" holding out a baby biscuit, and Connor pipes up without skipping a beat, "Mummy, he CAN"T TALK!"

We all laughed so hard.

And then I explained that the reason they can talk so nicely is because V, Daddy and I all talked to them a LOT when they were babies so that they could learn.

They didn't seem convinced.

don't you just want to curl up with a book and a nice, big mug of tea?

So they're into videos.

One of Kendra's favourite things to do is to scroll through my iphone (she tried to scroll on the laptop this evening - these sophisticated kids!) and look for videos.

I wanted to see if they remembered something I told them MONTHS ago when Claudia posted on her blog about asking her kids if their job was to be the boss or if that was hers, which I thought was a fantastic idea. (C,please link in the comments if you're reading - I just spent 20 minutes searching and I couldn't find the post)

Claudia always has the best ideas. When mine were little, I "stole" her "gentle hands" and used it a LOT for Connor. Worked like a charm.

So I said to them tonight, "Babies (I still call them babies), do you remember what your job is as children?" and they churned out a whole laundry list of KRAs :)

For the record, what I previously told them is that their job is to 1) listen and obey immediately and 2) be respectful and have good manners.

They remembered - it was SO cute I did a little video but as these things always go, it was a bit of a disaster the second time with everyone grabbing at the iphone, pushing each other out the way... 10 seconds in.

This pic was really blah at first and then I bent my knees til my eyes were level with the lamp post. Now I love it!

 A lot of you commented on those cute little poncho/ gowns in this post.

Well, when the kids were real babies (a few months old), I saw those at Mr P Home in the baby section for R99 each I bought them.

They couldn't wear them in winter 2010 because they weren't walking yet but they've used them 2011, 2012 and now again this year.

We all love them - I love a snuggly child and they think they're fun :)

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I have about 6 hours of meetings tomorrow which is about double my normal comfort level. However, working with 6 extreme introverts every day means I now LOVE meetings - a chance to connect with human beings :)
What are you looking forward to tomorrow?



PS I still need to write posts on the school meeting, what your kids call your friends and on my performance appraisal. Which order would you prefer?