33/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 (3 years) (Some pics by Lucky Pony)

Your third birthday party can be summed up in a few words - ponies, pink balloons, chocolate cake, and fairies. What a special day, celebrating with special people. Being three is magical. 

22/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 10 months)

My mom would often take us to Zoo Lake as children so it's nostalgic for me to walk around here with you, pushing your pram or holding your hand as you balance on the low brick wall or chase after you as you run ahead with arms splayed at the side. My little birds. You squeal in terror, more than delight as flocks of geese run towards us in the hope of a scrap of bread. Every part of Zoo Lake conjures up a different memory and I tell you stories about wading into the water to find lost treasures, and catching ducks in my arms through carefully laid bread trails, to racing bikes around the path, and carols by candlelight picnics on the lawn. Even with the large lake on which boats afloat on summer evenings, it's certainly not the prettiest park - it's grimy, not entirely well kept, and we pass many vagrants during our walk. But it is just around the corner from our home and very much a part of where we live in Johannesburg and right now it's at it's best as the trees are on fire with brown and red and the floor is carpeted in crunchy leaves. 

19/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 9 months)

We spent the week with Cheska and Francie at Sun City. It was a real girls' adventure - we hired a van and all drove together, and rented a small chalet. We did all sorts of cheesy resort things, like going on train rides, visiting petting zoos, and we even went on a ride in the Valley of Waves (this was met with mixed emotions from the little ones and everyone had to evacuate before the ride was done. Perhaps three babes and two moms on a tube was a bit ambitious!). We went on long walks through the incredible man-made tropical gardens, we visited the aviary, and we even went for high tea at the Palace. We had lots of fun all staying together, saying hi to the peacocks which came to visit us each morning, sharing meals, and baths, and tears and laughs. Travelling with you, no matter where, is one of my favourite things to do. 

18/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 9 months)

I've always bathed with you. I think I found it easier to manage two babies if I was actually in the bath. Our routine hasn't changed much since then, and the three of us squash into our very small tub. I used to nurse you every night in the bath, but that has almost been entirely replaced with the last course of dinner which your papa gives to you. Hence, I've been ousted from my prime position in the bath and usually end up squeezing in near the tap.  You come up with all sorts of games in the bath, from cake making with sponges and soap, to lining all your bath toys in a row along the edge. Bubble bath, aqueous cream, or any other sort of ingredient you can lay your hands on is an added bonus. Even though there's almost no space for all these limbs which turn pruney in the water, I hope we bath together for a very long time. 

7/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 6 months), renovation plans for our new apartment

Three things abut this picture:

1. You are in your preferred state of undress

2. We are talking excitedly and often about our new apartment. When I ask what colour you want your bathroom you both tell me "pink, blue and white.' And the same colour selection for your bedroom. (It is also the colour combination you suggest I request when I go for a pedicure).

3. Florence asked which bedroom Charles will have (Charles is the previous owners' grown up son whom the girls met when we came to look at the house). She thought he was going to be living there with us. 

6/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 6 months), in your nursery

You sing "Happy Birthday" a lot in this house. Usually to Anna or "birthday girl" or another on of your imaginary friends, or in fact any lucky family member you've selected. You make cakes out of the strangest objects you find lying around (a scrunched up glasses cleaner cloth, a wooden block, an elastic band), you place equally strange objects on as candles, and then you light the candles, cut the cake and make a wish. Mostly you sing the normal "Happy Birthday" but the other day I overheard you singing "Dreams Come True."

Happy birthday to you

May all your dreams come true

May you always walk in sunshine

Happy birthday to you

I feel so privileged to witness these scenes of role play and make believe, a glimpse into your world where your imagine expands every day and possibilities are endless. 

5/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 6 months), on top of Table Mountain

We're in Cape Town for our annual family holiday. I love bringing you two here as you make us completely embrace the this beautiful city. Our days were filled with riding bikes on the Seapoint promenade, hanging out on different beaches, exploring the Company gardens, going up Table Mountain where we followed fairy paths and looked for dassies (dissies), visiting different playgrounds, swimming in the public pools, trying different restaurants, eating dinner on the beach with sand in your toes watching the still-sweltering sun slowly slide down the sky, and dipping in cool waves while gripping tightly onto my hand. You sleep soundly at night, sharing a double bed, little bodies resting up for our busy days, and little minds swirling with new experiences and reference points and conversation snippets, little eyes visiting a dream world of new tastes and smells and sights, all absorbed with wide-eyed wonder. Cheska and Francie Sugar join us for the second week. We hire a van and drive around the city altogether in a cloud of giddiness and exhaustion as we continue our daily adventures. With happy minds and happy hearts, we're already planning our return.

3/52 2016

 A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 (29 months), Florence Willow

The way you take your dummy out and kiss the crook of my arm as you are falling to sleep

The way you smile with pride and happiness when I tell you how much Anna loves you

The way you spray me with water every night in the bath when you're rinsing you teeth, with a deadpan expression

The way you nap in the nude, as if no nappies meant to clothes either

The way your run is more like a bounce

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 (29 months), Anna Clementine

The way your left arm moves back and forth when you run, or when you're in charge

The way you will happily try any new food

The way you ask for "long hair" when you're going to sleep if my hair is tied up and then you hold on to it as you drift off

The way you talk to me non-stop when we're in the car "You know what..."

The way you'd much rather be on my hip than with your feet on the ground

2/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 (29 months)

"Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be." Toni Morrison, Beloved

One of my favourite things about having twins so far is hearing the constant conversations between the two toddlers. The everyday conversations, the explaining conversations, the I-have-a-good-idea conversations, the make believe conversations, the conversations about holidays and Eeyore and fairies, the role play conversations, the telephone conversations, the consoling conversations, the conversations about what happened, and the conversations about what is going to happen.

You are very caring and considerate. You listen well to each other. You have wild imaginations and tell each other fantastic tales. You seem to know exactly what the other needs, especially when there are tears (even if one of you caused them). You come up with good ideas and practical advice. 

Constantly. In the car. On the dining room table. In your highchairs during meals. While you're playing. In the bath.

I could listen to you two talk to each other all day.

1/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 (29 months), New Years morning

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy new year baby girls! I can't wait to see you grow, and grow with you, this year.

17/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2015 (21 months), at Sibon for our annual family holiday

Sunshine halos around your head and long shadows from early morning light. Shoes off before breakfast,rusk in hand while tentatively exploring the camp, traipsing after your cousin - three pink strollers bumping over rough terrain. A fascination of footprints (Florence) and the reference to hornbills as ducks (Anna). Family every which way you turn from your great grandmother to your brand new four week old cousin. Afternoon drives wearing safari hats and riding shot gun up front, saying hi to beasts and birds or just playing with dashboards and gear stick of the old landey. Chaotic communal meals, a sunset lighting the whole sky on fire, seeing fish in the clouds. That magical hour of dusk when you're full of life and you run around laughing and jumping and dancing and hugging each other, each passer by throwing you up in the air or embracing you in their arms. Climbing into the bath altogether and all dirty. Then night fall, and quiet, and clean babies fall asleep in my arms under the mozzie net. 

Of all the places we've been, I love being here with you the most. I see a sense of adventure being planted in you as play in mud under the grand old tree out front, or as you ride on the landey with dusty wind flying through your hair, I see a love of nature beginning to form as you examine a strange beetle in the soil, or feel the velvety tips of a succulent leaf, I see a love of the outdoors and fresh air starting to form as we're out doors from sunrise to sunset, and I see the value of having family around you all day. And I am grateful.

Portrait from our trip to the bush last year

up the romance

Candice Bergen and Michael Caine , tango, Spain 1967

Sometimes romance is hard. Do you find that? Or is it just me. My husband and I say 'I love you' a lot which I suppose is romantic but I think it would be great to verbally express one's love in other ways. Here are some super romantic words, I am going to try remember them.

"You are every lovely word I can think of."

"1 universe, 9 planets, 204 countries, 809 islands, 7 seas and I had the privilege of meeting you."

"Talking to you makes my day."

"I hope you feel beautiful today."

"You make my heart smile."

Hello there, I've missed you

Hello lovely readers - if there are any of you still here. Sorry for the silence. I can't believe I have been away from here for almost two months! I have missed it and will now attempt to play catch up with my weekly portrait posts. (You know how the longer you leave something, the harder it is... Yip, that's where I am right now so I need to just jump in).

I blame it (mostly) on the fact that I have been working on Rock-a-Baby, a fair from moms and babes which took place in Braamfontein at the end of September. Putting this fair together was a full time job, done so with babes on hips and during nap times and night times and basically any free time I could find. I'm pleased to say the fair was a success (people actually came and bought stuff!) and was worth all the effort we put in to it. Here are some pics of the day, taken by Lauren Kim Photography. Follow us on Facebook for more photos and updates.

Our first family holiday

Cape Town and Riebeek Kasteel, March 2014

Make the ordinary come alive

 Anna, 6 months old, laughing at her great grandmother

Bringing up children is the most important job I have been tasked with and will ever take on. The more thought I give around this task, the more reading I do, and speaking to other mothers whom I respect and love, the more the husband and I talk about this, I realise it is a philosophy of simplicity that I want to follow. This extract from William Martin's The Parent's Tao Te Ching really resonates with me in this regard...

"Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is a way of foolishness.
Help them instead find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself."

Twinversations ll

The twins generate a lot of conversation from all sorts of people - from strangers to car guards to family members. Of all the advice shared, conversations had, and praise given, the three worst questions I am asked about the twins are:

Q: Do you have a favourite?
A: This is a bizarre question and you will not believe how many times I have been asked this. Do these same people ask parents of more than one child which of their children they prefer?

Q: Are you going to have more children?
A: Here I am with two under two (two under under 7 months in fact!) and you are asking me about my next one? I have my arms full for now. That is not to say I categorically do not want anymore children. But, right now, I can't imagine when I would have the time to make another baby let alone raise another baby.

Q: When are you going to cut their finger nails?
A: Two babies equals twenty fingernails. TWENTY. Twenty teeny, tiny, sharp claws attached to very wriggly hands attached to very wriggly babies. Cutting these twenty tiny fingernails is even more difficult that it sounds. So I do it once a week and I apologise in advance if you happen to be a victim of these teeny, tiny, sharp claws on the day before grooming day but I also ask in advance that you do not respond by asking me when I am going to cut their finger nails.

Read about twin reactions and other twinversations.

Should we talk about sex, again?

{source}

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Here is what happened the last time we talked about sex.

From this to that

 (via here)

I have resigned from my job.

By day, I am a consultant to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, on matters of strategy, business and general effectiveness. My passion is solving problems and on the whole, I enjoy my job - the challenges, the highs, the lows, the people, and the industry (in South Africa and Africa healthcare is a dynamic, growing industry in which I have become increasingly interested). Our consulting team is small. So it has also been exciting building it up over the last 18 months and learning the business from the inside. 

I have two weeks left of work and the thought fulls me with different emotions. I am driven, committed and ambitious and thrive on working hard, working well and succeeding. But I am about to become a mom to two tinies who are tiny for such a short while I want to be there. One hundred percent be there.

I always thought it was a cliche - the dilemma women face with work and staying at home when they become mothers. But when you are in the situation, it is a very real dilemma. I don't think there is a correct answer or a right way to do things. And it is not an easy decision. You think about the financial implications of not working. About what effect babies will have on your commitment to work. About how you will be fulfilled and stimulated by giving up your job... But I feel I have made the right decision for the four of us right now. And I am excited about the career path that lies ahead in the future.

That said, resigning is an identity shift. The first concrete change in my life towards becoming a mama (and I realise many more life changes are to follow!). Wish me luck!

the four of us

I have always been a bit skeptical of preggy shoots because most of them don't capture this moment in time as I would want to remember it. Props and poses do not really appeal. But as my pregnancy progressed and I watched my bump grow I decided I did want to get some pics taken. Being pregnant is pretty magical and I wanted at least one pic I could have that would transport me back to this time... I came across Lad & Lass wedding photography and really liked the style of the photographs and asked Emma and Dylan if they would take the pics for us.

And so they came around to our apartment 2 weeks ago on a Sunday morning (I was 26 weeks then) and got to work while Jan-Jan and I made breakfast and hung out. I get kind of awkward in photographs but Emma and Dylan were great to have around and made the made the whole shoot really relaxed and easy. I certainly got more than one photo that I loved! Here are a few...

 

PS. The pics Emma and Dylan took of our apartment