Kiddie Yoga

This term we have decided to replace the kids' usual Tuesday afternoon art class with a Kiddie Yoga class. Yesterday was Riley's first class and he really seemed to take well to it. The teacher, I think her name is Tracey, was really good with the kids and seemed to really be able to keep their interest and focus. They pretended to be different animals - which translated into different yoga poses. Very clever I thought. In between poses Tracey would tell them that they were all butterflies and that they needed to fly around the garden and smell the lovely flowers. The last pic is Riley being as graceful a butterfly as any 3 year old boy could be. Pretty well all of the kids responded well to the class, I was most impressed with Riley and Ethan who are usually the first to cause trouble, lose focus or wreak havoc and they were the ones that kept their interest from beginning to end and neither one had any trouble with any of the poses which was impressive also. Parents are supposed to stand behind them and do the poses with them as encouragement, well obviously these days I am not as able as I used to be so Shelley stepped in as pseudo-mum for Riley. Not that he minded one little bit and that also gave me the opportunity to take a bunch of pics for everyone. I amazed myself when I downloaded my pics to see that I had snapped off 77 pics in about a 30 minute period. Thank goodness for digital I say!

"The Belly" at 36 Weeks

Ok, so for those of you playing at home we are now up to 36 weeks so we thought it was about time to take some serious photos before time got away from us. I must say I do feel as huge as I look in these pics these days. If anyone stood outside our bedroom door at night time they would think I was having quite a nice time of it (if you know what I mean) but the reality is that all that moaning and groaning and grunting is simply me trying to roll over. It's a sad state of affairs I tell you. Sitting down and standing up are not much easier either, I am definitely looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only will I finally have my little bub to hold but I may even be able to bend in the middle again, not to mention rolling over without putting on a show and laying on my tummy. I am definitely bigger this time that's for sure. Almost 3 weeks ago bub weighed 2.4kgs, we have another scan tomorrow so it will be interesting to see how much it weighs now.

We're Getting a New Maid

So before our holiday I decided to fire our part-time Maid Maisy. I was unhappy with her work and I also could not shake the feeling that she had been going through my personal things. Anyways after a few weeks of 'roughing it' (i.e. doing my own cleaning and washing etc - I am so above that now - LOL) I started interviewing for a new maid. This time we decided to employ someone full-time who would not only clean but cook our evening meals and help out with the kids. Interviewing was really hard and I found it quite emotionally draining too. I eventually decided on a lovely lady from Zimbabwe named Motshabi. She is 29 years old and has a 4 year old son herself back home in Zimbabwe being cared for by her mother so that she can come and work and earn money to give him a better life. She moves in and starts work for us on Monday so all this weekend I have had to spend time setting up her room. You will see from the before and after shots that the room was very bare to start with, having nothing but a bed in there. Shopping for the room sounds more fun than it really was as I am tired these days and had Riley in tow the whole time. It is pretty well set up now, I just need to install a shower curtain and rod and a toilet roll holder (as her bathroom is so basic it does not even have these things) and I should be pretty well done. It will be a big adjustment having someone living with us (albeit out in the back room) but I am hoping that the pros (dinner on the table each night, babysitter on call etc) will outweigh the cons. At least this time we have established that there will be a 1 month trial period so if it's not working out I have an out right there.

Herb Garden

On Monday we all got together at Carolyn's house to plant a herb garden. As you can imagine, with a bunch of 3 year old boys and girls it was all chaos and I don't think it went exactly according to Carolyn's vision but all the kids had a lot of fun. Before the planting got under way Carolyn showed the boys her worm farms. I think they were all pretty fascinated but then Carolyn pulled a big long (lolly) worm out of her pocket and ate it. From what I hear (I was tired and was sitting down when this was happening) Riley was shocked but thought it was funny and Ethan and Kai Kai were a bit grossed out. After that Carolyn gave them all a packet of worms each to eat. They are part of a range here called Fear Factor Candy. Riley got right in there and loved the idea of eating worms but Ethan took a bit longer to warm to the idea, there was a little bit of squealing before he plucked up the courage to eat one. Riley now has a packet of cockroaches and a packet of spiders to eat. He sat in the trolley at the supermarket with them in his hands just quietly giggling to himself at the idea of eating them. As there was no water on Monday (check previous post) the herbs had to be watered-in with water out of the swimming pool. This didn't dampen the kids spirits though in fact I think it added to the adventrue. It will be interesting to see if anything actually grows as all things were planted with the care and gentle hands given by your average 3 year old!

No Water!

From about 2pm on Monday afternoon until 2pm on Tuesday afternoon we had no water in Dainfern. Brad, Riley and I went to bed on Monday night feeling grotty but not really able to do much about it and thinking that we would all have showers in the morning before work and school etc. This was not to be. I could not let Riley go to school dirty so I had to give him a 'bird bath'. We have had to do this a few times in recent months as it is not uncommon to be without water for periods of time. This time Riley took one look at the basin in the morning and said "I think I could fit in there Mummy" and before I could say or do anything he had slipped himself into the warm water in my handbasin. I couldn't help but take a pic - might actually bring this one out on his 21st.....