Kendra and her twin sister, and moments with Connor

I've been off from work for a whole week and I won't lie - it's been FABULOUS!

I had the holiday of course, and then a day's training, and then I've been home sick for two days with a cold.

I dragged myself up to fetch the kids from school both days since the drive there is exactly 1 minute, and that includes waiting at the traffic lights and stop streets. They loved it and so do I. I love Kendra running and jumping into my arms and Connor's shy little smile as he reaches for my hand.

I was semi-productive at home when not drugged by meds - formatted my 2nd Kindle book and that's with the Kindle-iser :), sorted through about 500 pics (still not the holiday ones because I'm going in chronological order, but they're next!) and decluttered in the kids' room a bit.

But all good things come to an end - I go back to work tomorrow and then it's weekend again.

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I bought some special dental floss for the kids from Clicks. Expensive as all gimmicky things are but they were delighted so maybe it was worth it for the little giggles.

Kendra pulled up a stool to the bathroom mirror and got a-flossing. She looked so pleased with herself that I grabbed my camera... and then we started playing... as we do.

 
When I showed Kendra her twin sister, she was tickled!


 








We tried with Connor but I had the 50 mm lens on and my arms are only that long!

 

Connor flossed too hard which is why he's showing us where it's sore.

This morning D brought Connor to our bedroom to get dressed while I supervised. Connor is not a morning person so he just climbed in and we carried on sleeping (!). When he woke again, he looked up and said to me, "ooh, Mummy, the light is beautiful!" That's my boy. Seriously, this is one of our most precious conversations - it brought tears to my eyes.

And then something else that made me laugh. We're working through one of those sticker books so I explained to Connor that some of the stickers have to go in specific places but the others can go just anywhere because they provide extra ones too. He says to D, "Daddy, these ones are random. We can put them anywhere" LOVE it!

They're at such a cute age at the moment. And I'm going to enjoy the equilibrium while it lasts.

How are you doing?

Random bits of loveliness

I've had the BEST time with the babies today.




D is busy doing that thing he does every time this year - catching up on all the Oscar movies so he can decide who should get the Academy Award - so I decided, on the spur of the moment, to grab the babies and take them to the shopping centre to get my Ballito photos printed.

I always get mine done at Foto First - they are more expensive than Kodak but the quality is a zillion times better so worth it - AND the man who owns the store always says nice things about my photography :)



The babies were well-behaved for a change (no competing for attention between me and D?) and we spent the 20 minutes waiting for the pictures at CNA where I bought a set of Sharpies in lovely pastels and a book for the kids (they have plenty but who can resist?!)




When we got home, they told me they wanted to write but I said no - writing always involves writing with markers on one or two limbs and I was not in the mood to wash legs and arms... so they played with play dough instead.

Do you know they played totally by themselves for 45 - 50 minutes?!

They do play independently but I usually only get about 25 minutes to do things at any one time.

 

When I saw what a good mood they were in, I decided on the spur of the moment to try a new recipe. Will let you know how it works out as it's just come out of the oven but it does smell delicious!

And then they had no problems doing their before-bed routine and going to sleep.

I almost want D to go watch movies every day :)

K: Mummy, did you go to the hairdresser today?
Me: Yes, baby.
K: Because your hair looks nice. I love you because your hair looks nice.
Me: Kendra, you need to love me whether my hair looks nice or not.
C: Mummy, I love you ALL the time, even if you don't go to the hairdresser.
!

So after I eat tonight, I'm going to finish my list I started today, do some business blogging, make some sidebar buttons for my projects and then put those photos in an album. And hopefully jump into bed at 10:30 with a new book.

How was your Tuesday?

this is how I organise my Project Life cards. I posted more here

And I also forgot (thank you, Lesley, for the reminder) to post the link to how I get so much reading done. Here you go.

I've read my 5 books for Feb. Goodreads tells me I'm 4 books ahead of schedule. Last night I started Delight in your child's design. After that I'm going to read another Irish author.

By the way, who's read Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot? I loved it!!!!!

How has your week been so far? What are you reading at the moment?

PS it is hot as hell in Jhb!

Summer rain

 

What is it with kids and umbrellas?

My children are fascinated by umbrellas.

The day before the photoshoot I was randomly buying everything purple (!) and since we'd been having very rainy days I decided to buy myself a purple umbrella too.

I had this in mind :)

Source: katienesbittphotography.com via Marcia on Pinterest

Those of you who have been to my work know that it would have worked PERFECTLY there :)

(If I ever leave I'm sure I'll miss the building and surrounds more than the work :))

Anyway, we had some grey sky but no rain.

But the kids wouldn't let up and kept wanting to play with my R100 umbrella. No way, pumpkins.

Kendra keeps asking me why I call them pumpkin. "I don't know, Baby. I just do"

So I promised them that I'd go look for umbrellas for them.

Fortunately we had a teambuild on the Tuesday following so I went shopping instead of back to work and found these lovely red ones.

The babies were over the moon when I got back with them and happily we had a few drizzles about 10 minutes later so we tested them out.

I do love Joburg's summer rain - a usually short thundershower, just enough to cool down and to clear the air.

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I was very productive at work today and hope to continue this trend the whole week. The key is, of course, no meetings :)

I've prepared my eat the frog list so I'm hoping for a similar level of productivity tomorrow.

Of course this means very little email answering and much real work doing.

However, I must admit I acted like a bit of a toddler tonight and totally threw my toys out of the cot because I am being very clear about certain things and Nanny S is either 1) blatantly ignoring me or 2) confused and not wanting to ask.

I have a little problem with her - if she's unclear she either doesn't do anything or just does her own thing. But she NEVER sends me an sms. I freaked out two months ago because she didn't check with me on a medicine issue. Fortunately it was just Panado but it could have been an issue.

Just to be clear it wasn't an airtime issue because I put extra in her phone for these intermittent texts to me.

The issue is not the bags or the clothes or the toys (although in a sense it is because I seem to be the only one who bothers to organise and check if all the puzzles are there, etc) but the fact that I've mentioned this before and I want my kids to take care of their stuff with her guidance when I'm not there.

Anyway, I've made a note and we'll have a chat tomorrow.

Of course I spent about 30 minutes decluttering a whole laundry basket of toys, and then organising, and then because I was cross, I cooked another meal (potato lentil curry - mmm) and I sorted out a shelf. Being cross is very good for my house!

But now, friends, I need to get to bed seeing as I'm being responsible *ahem* with the internet...

How was your Monday?

In case you haven't realised, I love the rain. Love, love, LOVE it! The more dramatic (grey skies, thunder, lightning), the better :)

Do you like the rain?

PS I automatically think you're my kind of person if you love rain :)