Mishka, Mooshka.....

I think we have the theme for Mitchell's birthday party this year.  He is totally Mickey Mouse verskrik(nuts about it for non-SA folk).  From the minute he opens his eyes till he closes them again all he wants is to watch Mickey Mouse on Disney Junior.  His Oupa is visiting us for a while and he fetches him from school so as soon as they get home MM (funny, same as his initials!) has to get put on.  Well, if he wants any peace he will put it on, this child is determined!  I know we are guilty of letting him get his own way far too much and he is watching faaaar too much TV but this child is really persistent and sometimes if we want to get anything done around the house ie start supper, Branston's homework etc then MM it has to be!!  Lucky we have PVR so we can record a few episodes just in case it is not on at the right time.  But no, this week we have to take a stand!!  We will take our TV back!  Hmmm, easier said than done...

Another cute Mitchellism of the moment:  He is saying man at the end of every sentence. 'I want a bottie, man', 'Move out the way, man'(if we're blocking MM on TV), 'I don't want to bath, man' - you get the idea.  I must really write down all the cute things he says and does, as now I want to tell you all and I can't remember anything (I know, I know, it's age).

Branston is studying (supposed to be) for exams.  They start on Friday, his first in the new school.  It is such a struggle to get him to take any initiative at all in studying (or anything for that matter), I wish I could just find what would motivate him to willingly put in a bit of effort without having to nag!  Oh well, the joys, and to think just as he leaves school, Mitchell will be starting!!  What did we dooooo!!!!

I would like to say a huge big thank you to those who have donated to the Victoria Roof Fund so far, we are going great guns and are almost halfway!  Yayy!!

Victoria's Roof fund

This is my domestic worker, Victoria, and her extended family.  Victoria has 2 children of her own and has taken on her sister's 3 children after her sister died from AIDS.  Victoria too is HIV positive and almost died a few years ago but she recovered and is now strong and healthy.  The baby you see above is Victoria's daughter, Shakira's baby, born recently.  The whole family currently lives in a shack in Khayelitsha.   The problem is that their roof is old and rusty and whenever it rains, everything gets wet.  

I would like to help Victoria get a new roof for their 'house'.  Ultimately a new house with proper walls and electricity etc would be really great but for the moment, with the rainy season on us and a new baby in the house, a new roof will be of great help to the family. 

We decided this year that instead of birthday presents we would like all our friends to donate to the new roof fund for Victoria.  Would you like to help??  It would be so awesome if we could get a new roof up before too much more rain falls.  If you are interested in donating anything at all, then please go to the top left corner of this blog, enter an amount and press the button to donate. 

At the moment it only takes EFT's and you have to register with Payfast (the SA version of Paypal) but that is quick and easy and won't take much time at all.  I am in the process of setting it up to take credit cards as well, will let you know when that is working.  I am not sure if you can make international payments, maybe once the credit card facility is activated?  If anyone overseas would like to make a donation then please feel free to try and let me know if it works.

So far I have received R1250, including cash donations, so we are well on our way!!  Hooray!!  See ticker on the left for regular updates on where we are.

Also, if there is anyone out there in the blogosphere that can help in any other way, labour, building materials etc, then please let me know.  It would be totally awesome if we could get this done at minimal cost.  Then if there is any money left over I will use it to buy them blankets and other household necessities.

Edited to add:  You should now be able to pay by credit card as well.  I would appreciate it if you would let me know if you have made a payment so that I can check and make sure that I see it on my side.  I am a bit concerned that I may not be seeing all payments.

Edited again:  It looks like all payments are going through.  So far we are well on way to our target, you are all SUPERSTARS!!!

Happy Easter

Well, a few easter eggs and young master Mitchell spent the day bouncing off the walls. You would never say the poor boy is sick. It's like he didn't stop talking all day! But it was really cute watching him hunting for eggs. After Branston helped him with the first one, he very quickly got into it. And this child is really persistent. I want more eggs mommy, I want more eggs mommy, I want more eggs mommy. When he wants something he does not give up! Shame he has croup and has been coughing himself silly the last couple of days.

It's funny he sets his mind on something and nothing can change his mind. It is really difficult when you don't have a clue as to what he wants. The other night he woke up and wanted a bottle. Mommy dutifully fetched it and offered it to him. Then it was 'Mitchell wants ned mommy, Mitchell wants ned mommy, I want ned mommy'. For the life of me I could not figure out what ned was. Or who! The more I ask what is ned, the more he would carry on about wanting ned! Eventually it clicked, he wanted the bottle's lid!! He had been playing with it earlier in the evening and had to have it now. So I fetched it, gave it to him, he put it onto the bottle, took it off and happily drank his milk!! Holy cow!!

And trying to get ready in the morning when he decides just before you leave that he wants the potty. Now you know that when you are potty training you have to let them use the potty when they want it. But when he sits, does his wee immediately but still wants to sit there for another hour it really tests your patience. Or he does it at bedtime. I must say never has my patience been tested so much as with this child. We are in for a fun ride!!

Wow, time does fly!!

Look at me, saying I'm going to post more regularly and then nothing! Zip! Nada!!

Oi, maybe one day I'll get my a into g and blog regularly. I am quite busy at the moment with commitments to Kidz shoebox project (finished now) and Santa for Seniors (finished tomorrow) plus I need to get gifts for all and sundry. Then Tiny Toes organises a Secret Santa and of course I can't resist!! I have a very good idea of what I want to get my secret santa but just need to find some time to get it and then send it. I have to do it this weekend so that she gets it before Christmas! Besides delivering for Santa for Seniors tomorrow, we have 2 weekends to get ourselves organised for our camping trip! We are going up to Magaliesberg to visit my boet and his family and are going to camp along the way, else it is way too far to drive with a toddler. Anyone know any good camping spots between Cape Town and Jhb or nice 4x4 trails?

On the kids front, Branston has finished school for the year and forever at CBC. He is starting a new school next year and I can't wait. I really hope they live up to our expectations! We were very disappointed with CBC and we were not the only ones. The spider bite which Branston got in September still has not healed properly, the doc thinks we should cut it open again but we are not too keen to go that route right before we go away for the holidays! He says it could be infected but it might just be hectic scar tissue so I think I would rather not put him under the knife again based on uncertainty.

Mitchell is being really cute at the moment, he is like a little parrot, repeating everything he hears. We have to be really careful what we say around him or are likely to find it repeated endlessly and very loudly. But the temper! Lordy me! Takes after his father! And very stubborn. If he doesn't want to eat or sleep (which he generally doesn't) then you can stand on your head but he will not do it! Even now that he is not napping during the day it can still be a battle to get him to sleep at night. But just one kiss and hug and a look into those baby blues and all is forgiven! More to follow(hopefully soon!) on him getting his own room - yes, skande, he is still in our room!

Stitches and more...

Well, so much for a post every day!! But I went to the bloggers meet-up and it was great to meet in person some of the bloggers whose blogs I read regularly, and to find some new ones to read. I still need to go through the list of bloggers that were there and check out some of their blogs. See here and here for some pics etc

So, my kids have really been in the wars lately. First Branston gets bitten by a spider and has to go into theatre to have the resulting abscess drained, then Mitchell trips up the stairs and has to have stitches in his bottom lip!!! And we all know what 'fond' memories I have of hospitals...

The pics are of the spider-bite before and after draining. Yuk!! Plus we had to cancel Gathry's kite-surfing lesson which he was supposed to do on Saturday 24 Sep but instead Branston was in the hospital being operated on. We still don't know if they'll allow him to do the kite-surfing lesson since the voucher was only valid till end September! But Branston was a real trooper and I think he kind of enjoyed the experience! It is just up his alley to be allowed to stay in bed and watch tv or play minecraft on the computer with nobody telling him to feed the dogs or get outside and do something active!! He did not even mind the drip. It is taking its time to heal though, he is going to have quite a scar.

Then young master Mitchell falls on Wednesday and cuts his lip open. His poor daddy was alone at home with him and had to deal with all the blood and drama till Annette (nursie) and I got there. Then we took him to the hospital where he had to be knocked out for stitches - 3 inside the mouth and 2 outside. Then I still had to wait at the hospital until he woke up again, which he took his sweet time doing. Poor kid gets home and keeps trying to spit out the stitches and was getting very upset that they stayed put! He still has a fat lip but at least is eating and drinking.

When this kind of thing happens it does tend to stress one out quite a bit but I try and step back and look at the bigger picture. I think of people with kids in hospital for so much worse. I think of the moms in my support group and what some of them have been through. Just puts it into perspective a bit. Still hard to be in the hospital with your child and feel so helpless to help them after having been through that with Kendra. My friend Tammy's little boy Connor passed away the week before Branston had to go into hospital so all those memories were fresh in my mind and he had been in the same hospital as Branston. Lucky it was not the one where Kendra died but a hospital is a hospital...

Blogger get-together

Well, I have not been very good at updating this blog so don't know if I really deserve to go to this, but I have been reading some of the blogs written by people going for a while so it will be really cool(giving away my age here!) to meet up with them. Perhaps if I do a post every day I will feel as I am justified in going!! But they did say stalkers could attend........

More holiday updates

So the time we spent in EL was over far too quickly and we had to drive up to Kokstad and then through to the farm. Well, let me tell you, the little towns in the Transkei/Natal/Eastern Cape that we either lived in or drove through in my youth have seriously deteriorated. Our old house in Umtata now looks absolutely dreadful, the once green street is now a churned up mess of dirt. The Transkei is a nightmare to drive through, will think long and hard before doing that again. Just getting through Umtata and Mt Frere added an hour to our journey. And so much for thinking master Mitchell would sleep through the trip! He nicely fell asleep when we were 1/2 an hour from our destination! And then woke up cos the road out to the farm was so bumpy, esp in my low profile tyred car!

But it was nice to see the family again, some have changed a lot, some not so much. But seriously, that place is COLD, bloody freezing! And winter hasn't even started yet. We were I think in the coldest room in the house. Mitchell stayed in bed with us as I didn't have the heart to put him on the floor all by himself. Branston slept in the lounge where it was warmer. Then we left the next day for the party place, after Gathry had to drive into town to put new tyres on the car after noticing that our front tyres were smooth.

Once again it was freezing! And the party was in a big shed next door to the house so it was in and out of the cold all night. I believe half the family was sick last week. Branston's throat was really sore and he was not feeling well at all. So I was running back and forth between him and the party and running around after Mitchell all evening. I wanted to take him in to the hospital but was convinced not to. Should have just followed my instinct as I ended up with a very sick, dehydrated boy. Had maximum 1 hour's sleep that night. Spent half the night cleaning up after a puky, runny-tummed, coughing boy. We took him to the private hospital in the morning and waited there for about 2 hours to get some meds, then left for PE. Anyway, it was nice to see the family and to meet some new family members. The house we stayed in was really nice and Diane and hubby were great hosts.

Sooo, back to PE, through the Eastern Cape. We went inland in the hopes of getting there sooner. Well, the roads were VERY potholed through most of the trip. I'm not sure if we took the best route but we got there very late on Sunday all extremely tired and miserable. Well, Mitchell was VERY miz for the last hour or so of the journey and once we got there he was full of beans. We left the next morning for Cape Town and got as far as Knysna.

Valentin and Mirjana twisted our rubber arms to stay over and with both kids (and us) not feeling so great, we decided to stay and visit with old friends. Even though the weather was miserable we had a great visit and great accomodation.

Next day was the long trek to Cape Town. We decided against stopping in Hermanus to visit other old friends St. John and Eleanore as by now we just wanted to get home and could not handle any more time on the road. Got home to find a clean house, well looked after - thanks Matthew! Soo happy to be home again!!