For the love of words

I love books. His dad loves books. It’s no wonder that my son loves books too.

But is it nature or nurture?

He gets taken to the library every weekend to choose his books for the week (never mind the boat load that he has at home). He gets books read to him every night – anywhere from half an hour to an hour of stories.

Today my son and I spent a wonderful, companionable hour or so in Exclusive Books. Both of us with bums on the floor, looking at books.

Then, this afternoon, I put him down for a nap at about 2:00 – with free access to all his books. He “read” out loud to himself for about 45 minutes and then paged through books (I could hear the pages turning) until about 4:00. That’s two hours all on his own – just him and his books.

Of course, mommy was also on her bed – reading her own book in stunning peace and quiet.

Nature or Nurture?

I wish I knew. Either way, I am not complaining!

Just because I feel like sharing…

Jeanette tagged me with this 3 lifetimes ago, so I thought it was time I responded…

1. What time did you get up this morning? Alarm went off 6:15; Adam up 6:30… finally dragged myself vertical somewhere closer to 7:00.

2. How do you like your steak? … steak? Who said I like steak? If I have to eat it: medium-well.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Something with Jennifer Anniston about a slightly odd romance… can’t remember the name!

4. What is your favorite TV show? At the moment or ever? Right now, Brothers & Sisters and So You Think You Can Dance!

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Paris, but only because that’s the current mood. Could also be London, Greece, or any delightful, remote, quaint location.

6. What did you have for breakfast? Coffee and a cinnamon scroll on the beachfront. Sue me.

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Whatever is blowing in the wind. Pizza, pasta, sushi, asian…

8. What foods do you dislike? I cannot-cannot-cannot eat meat on the bone. Don’t really like chicken either.

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Anywhere The Delicious Divas are!

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Peugeot.

12. What are your favorite clothes? socks

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? EVERYWHERE. seriously. Can you travel as a full-time occupation??

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Time to downsize!

15. Where would you want to retire? Somewhere with a good view, good books and good conversation.

16. Favorite time of day? My quiet time once Adam is in bed.

17. Where were you born? Benoni. Don’t laugh!…. I heard that….

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Cricket.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? I ain’t taggin’

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? See above!

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? See above!

22. Bird watcher? Nope. Are you kidding? Those people get up earl-ee!

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? I do NOT do mornings… Stay 10 feet away from me at all times!

24. Do you have any pets? Two cats that bug the shite out of me. But I love them anyway.

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? This will come as an amusing surprise to anyone that knows Dave… my son will be attending CBC pre-primary from next year. I know, I can’t wrap my mind around it either…

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A magician, an astronomer, an architect and a DJ.

27. What is your best childhood memory? The games we made up

28. Are you a cat or dog person? CAT. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but cats speak my language.

29. Are you married? Nope.

30. Always wear your seat belt? Not as often as I should, but Adam ALWAYS does!!

31. Been in a car accident? A few fender benders, but only one semi-serious one.

32. Any pet peeves? How long do you have?? Top of the list…. mean people. selfish people. people with poor reasoning and logic skills.

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Mushroom, bacon, garlic, avo, feta, banana… NO CHICKEN, NO SEAFOOD… ever.

34. Favorite Flower? Wildflowers

35. Favorite ice cream? Any, any, any ice cream. But vanilla made with REAL vanilla is to-die-for.  

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Simply Asia

37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? Twice… or was it three times?? Who knows!!

38. From whom did you get your last email? I don’t know – it’s already deleted. Wait, I checked… an auto response from Capricorn Music. Awwwwww….

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Woolies, or Makro for all the cool large appliances. But my credit card is at max, so BOO!! to that idea.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Kinda….

41. Happy with your job? Depends

42. Broccoli? Yes, with cheese sauce, PLEASE!!

43. What was your favorite vacation? Sun City

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? John.

45. What are you listening to right now? My fridge making its odd “I want to be a water feature” noises.

46. What is your favorite color? Oh, DEFINITELY depends on the mood…

47. How many tattoos do you have? None. Sadly.

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? Nobody

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 10:35pm

50. Coffee Drinker? Oh HELL yes.

Lights Will Guide You Home

My child just threw up. All over me, all over the couch and all over himself. Not that any of that bothers me in the slightest. I don’t mind the sick and I don’t mind cleaning it up. What I do mind is having to see my child vulnerable and in pain… and being helpless to make it better.

But this is the job we take on as parents. We have to stand by and watch our children vulnerable, sick or in pain. And we do our best to help them through it, but most of the time there is nothing we can do except hold them when they are in pain and give them a safe place to fall when they are vulnerable.

When I was pregnant “fix you” by Coldplay was getting airplay and it reduced me to tears every time I heard it. It still does. It speaks to me on so many levels. But, being pregnant at the time, I have always interpreted it from the viewpoint of a parent. For me it is about the unconditional love of a parent. About how you never stop caring for your children, no matter how old they are or how far they stray from the path. About how the pain felt by the child is felt as keenly by the parent. Forever.

It is knowing that your children will face these pains and hardships in the future. We have all faced them ourselves at some point along the journey – they are rites of passage. We have all felt that pain and cried those tears. So as parents, the best that we can do is to let our children go – knowing that they have these trials to live through and figure out on their own. Our job is to let them go, but to also leave them with lights to guide them home when life’s lessons are too hard.

Coldplay have referred to it as one of the most important and emotional songs that they have ever written and, whatever the real meaning, I agree.

 

“Fix You”

When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

 Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth

 Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you 

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I…

Adam is “ree”

My little baby is now three years old. I will probably always call him “my baby”, but he is not a baby anymore – as he likes to firmly and repeatedly point out to me whenever I call him “my baby”.

…”I NOT A BABY ANY MORE MOMMY”… and I can’t argue with him – he’s not. But he will always be my baby.

Here are some photos of the party. Can you guess what the theme was? Let’s see if I can give you a few clues:

Got an idea? Here’s another clue – the party packs…

Here’s the party table…

And the cake…

Think you know….??? Here he is…..

MICKEY MOUSE!!

We also had a jumping castle which seemed to be a great success! Adam and Rowan had some special game going on that involved a cheetah, a shark and lots of falling down?!

A few of Adam’s friends from school also came to the party and I think Adam was really excited to see them at his party! This little boy and Adam have loved each other since the moment they set eyes on each other. Luckily they will both be moving to the same pre-scool next year so long may the friendship flourish!

I put on my “mommy cap” and made a few goodies for the kids. I was quite impressed with myself!

(p.s. did you know that smarties are now made with non-artificial colourants? That’s why they all look a little dull. It is a bit disconcerting to see ‘natural’ colours after a lifetime of bright smarties)

The Birthday Boy and his Daddy. Not forgetting Cheetah.

blowing out his candles…

 And finally, I couldn’t resist putting up this photo. I know it is a little blurry (I didn’t take it OKAY!), but I absolutely adore the expression on his face when everyone was singing happy birthday to him.

Word of the Day

bar•ra•cu•da (b r -k d )
n. pl. barracuda or bar•ra•cu•das
Any of various fierce, mostly tropical marine fishes of the genus Sphyraena that resemble pike, have a projecting lower jaw with fanglike teeth, and include some edible species.

 

Otherwise known as “ballla-looooda”

Today Adam learnt the word barracuda. He learnt it at 5:00pm.

I have since heard “ballla-looooda” in every pitch, tone and inclination. ad infinitum…

“ballla-looooda mommy”
“ballla-looooda coming to bite you”
“ballla-looooda got beeeg teeth”
“ballla-looooda knock you out”
“watch out mommy…… BALLA-LOOODA!”

Someone save me… take me to a happy place…

 

Preferably where there are NO BALLA-LOOODAS!!!

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Congratulations!

This photo was taken exactly one year ago.

I can’t believe that it has been a whole year since my wonderful friend Wendy tied the knot with Kristian in a beautiful ceremony. Wendy and Kristian, even though you are so far away, we love and miss you! Congratulations on your first wedding anniversary!

What not to do… version 2… and 3

Ahh, yes… may I present yet another version of “what not to do…” in the happy-go-lucky life of Pia:

What not to do – Version 2.1
rush out of the house in the morning without your cellphone…

What not to do – Version 2.2
listen to the mid-morning news with half an hear…

what not to do – Version 2.3
hear on the news headlines that the Nedbank building is on fire. Having left cellphone at home, try frantically to get hold of mother (who works in said Nedbank building) without success. Try desperately to contact everyone and anyone whose number you can scratch from your failing memory. Panic when no-one (and I mean NO-ONE -  including said mother) answers your call. Have distraught visions of people diving from the windows of a burning building and dissolve into a helpless mess of uncontrolled fear and panic…

what not to do – version 2.4
call the ex-partner in said state of “uncontrolled fear and panic” – only to make the poor man’s heart stop completely for the first few moments of uncontrolled sobbing… Moments in which, I’m sure, he had visions of rushing to hospital to save his son from whatever disastrous ill had obviously befallen him…

note: make sure you can squeeze out enough coherent words so that he can calm down enough to tell you to calm down…

*******

what not to do – version 3.1
do not leave your cellphone at home and/or misplace your spare set of car keys…

what not to do – version 3.2
do not leave all your worldly possessions including your handbag, credit card, i-pod, laptop and house keys in your car…

what not to do – version 3.3
allow your (almost) 3-year old child to play with your only set of car keys in a busy shopping centre while you are having a lovely cup of coffee with a friend…

what not to do – version 3.4
find yourself without your car keys, without a cellphone and without money in a busy shopping centre. Become paranoid that believe that someone somewhere is watching you and trying to follow you to your car so that they can steal  it (and its precious contents) while you are not looking…

what not to do – version 3.5
become convinced that the security guards are in cahoots with the “someone-somewhere” and that they are not really security guards but rather an ingenious car theft syndicate…

what not to do – version 3.6
Try and keep an eye on your car (without obviously giving away its location to the someone-somewhere syndicate) while simultaneously trying to control (almost) 3-year old who is now tired and hungry and thirsty and needs to go to the toilet. Continue to maintain covert eye on car while trying to convince every friendly looking store-owner that you really do have an emergency and really do need to use their phone… (while trying to control tired, hungry, thirsty child)…

what not to do – version 3.5
call ex-partner once again and appear like a deranged, idiotic, paraniod female for the second time in a few short hours…

what not to do – version 3.6
call lovely friend and (with subtlety) accuse them of stealing your car keys…

*******

post script 1: A nedbank building in town was indeed on fire - just not the one in which my mother works. Thanks to a few calls made by Dave, all was once again good in my world.

post script 2: The security guards turned out to be really helpful, kind-hearted souls and not part of an ingenious car theft syndicate. The car keys were found near the kids colouring table at the coffee shop.

post script 3: New House Rule 1: (almost) 3-year olds are no longer allowed within 3 feet of any type, make or shape of keys.

oh, and… never leave home without your cellphone… it could be hazardous to your mental health…