I am Tamiya…

Last night A1 informed me he has girlfriends. Yup, not 1 but 2 girlfriends…

*Que subtle Mommy-panic mode, but nonchalantly hiding it*

A1: And you know what my girlfriends do?
Me: No, (dreading the inevitable) what do your girlfriends do?
A1: They kiss me!
Me: (Oh dear Moses) Where do they kiss you?
A1: On the mouth.
Me: Eeww! That is how you get GERMS! Yuck! How do you know they brush their teeth??
A1: They *do* brush their teeth!
Me: Uh-huh? But how do you know?
A1: Because when they smile at me I could see their shiny teeth…

Oh me, oh my! Where do kids learn these things?? And why at this early age?? Thank fuck I have boys!

No xx’s for you today, because there’s germs in them

The time: Its 06:02.

The setting: I’m sitting cross-legged in my pink poncho on the couch. A2 is in his sleeping sack that Elaine (@krimpvarkiez) from Hugglez.co.za (website to be launched soon) made him. He’s lounging on my lap. A1 wants to sit with us, which wouldn’t be a problem, except he wants to sit ON my lap next to his brother. Now there’s a problem – there’s no space :/

Very huffily, A1: I’m going to ask Father Christmas for a *real* small bakugan with a *real* av(b)ility-activate card and I’m going to throw him on the avility-activate card and when he becomes big I’m going to tell him to breath fire on you! (He points at me)

Me, struggling not to laugh at the indignity in his voice: But why?

A1: because I’m cross because you’re not FAIR! Ouma puts A2 AND *me* on her lap!!

Me: Yeah, but ouma is a bit bigger than I am…

A1 pouts, A2 carries on watching tv and I just want to laugh…

Xx

Tonight I just didn’t feel like spending ages in the kitchen (we won’t mention the decided lack of food-choice in the pantry), so I grabbed what few ingredients there were, and ended up with one of the BEST dinners we’ve had in a while. What made it even better was the budget factor and the 15 min cooking time!

How?, I hear you say… Let me divulge the secrets of my kitchen:

Cook half a packet of pasta (whatever you have)
When cooked, drain as normal
Transfer back into pot
Add 1 tin of Tomato and Onion mix and 1 tin of Baked Beans
Also add a sachet of Tomato Paste
Sprinkle on some Veggie Spice and add a dash of (Robertsons) Garlic, Orego and Parmesan sprinkle mix
Stir till mixed
Heat through
Serve

And Ta-da! There’s your fab, 15 minute budget dinner!

Enjoy!

Xx

I wrote about the bags I made here, but I’m going to be all lazy and repost it on this here blog too word for word

A1 started school this year, and he’ll be having his birthday party at school. We opted not to give him two parties (one at school and one at home), because all his friends are at school anyway. I still wanted to make it a special occasion though, and decided to make the party pack bags myself  for each child. This will be in lieu of a toy/gift as seems to be the norm with party packs these days.

I used a basic idea to make a flapless satchel/messenger bag. The kids range between 3 and 5, so I didn’t make the bags too big. The completed bags measure around 11 x 11 inches (approx.). I used denim for the outer fabric and colorful printed/patterned fabric for the inner. This time I also semi-cheated and bought that woven meshy stuff for the straps.

All the bags, finished

There are 30 bags in total (I think there’s 28 kids, but I made extra just in case, and if there are left over, well at least his teacher can have one too then) I used 2 types of denim and made 15 outers of each. For the inners, I used 10 different kinds of pretty fabric, making 3 of each. For each of the 10 different fabrics, I used a decorative top stitch to fuse the inner and outer bags, in co-ordinating (inner fabric) thread. I love how the colorful fabric and thread just pops against the denim.

All lined up, ready to be packed with sweets

Because A1 is the birthday boy, I free-hand embroidered his A-initial onto the bag. He could choose his own colors. I used felt for the initial.

A1's bag and the loot inside

We bought coldrinks, chips, chocolate, toffees, suckers and soccer shirt jelly sweets to actually put in the bag. Depends on your prior party pack experience, I think this is quite adequate. And besides, the children don’t have to finish it all in one go and they get to take their bags home.

I’ve also ordered cupcakes from the ever-awesome The Cupcake Lady, including some awesome cupcake wrappers for tomorrow. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into on of them mouthgasms!

Lastly, I took tomorrow off. My Mummy is here for A1′s birthday, and even though he has to go to school, now I don’t have to rush to drop everything, can be there to help the set-up and managing of kids and bags and cupcakes, and take my boy home early. Perhaps we can even go to Spur for a birthday lunch!

xx

This morning, we dropped A1 off at school, and I said goodbye to him for the last time as a 3 year old. Tomorrow, I will say good bye to him for the first time as a 4 year old!

I don’t know who is more excited about his birthday – him or me? And for the presents! And for the party!

Look how my child has grown and changed and evolved from being a teeny tiny half a breath, to the big boy of almost 4 years old!

I love you so, SO very much, my Sunshine! For always and always to the moon and back!

xxx

…My Littlest Big Man aka #MonsterChild aka A2 said his first word:

Mama

So clearly and so defined that no one could mistake it for anything else! I’m overjoyed and over the moon and in a real happy place.

In our household, Modesty is my middle name. Therefore, I spent the *entire* day prompting my little monster to say Mama, Mama, Mama. It was AWeSome!!

*I need to sit and play around tomorrow to figure out a clever way of uploading and embedding the clip directly here.*

And just to preserve this little moment in history, I’m sharing a little video clip for your enjoyment!

*So for the time being, the clip can be viewed here:
A2′s first word

Much, much love!
Xx

This took place after being rudely awakened by loud shouts from the living room, “Mommmmmmmyyyyyy”

A1: Mommy, please will you make me tea?
Me: Okay my baby.
A1: But it must be cold tea.
Me: Yes, my sunshine. How long have you been my child? Almost four years! I *know* mos by now you drink cold tea
A1: Yes, but when I’m four, then I’ll drink burny (hot) tea…

He turns four in a weeks’ time, we’ll see how this one turns out

Xx