Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Hullo rockboobs my old friends.....

I know, I haven't posted in ages.  Lets just move right along from there shall we....

I am finally managing to wean Daniel!  At nearly two he had his first (i kid you not) bottle!  yay!  Go Dan Go!  I couldn't believe it, he just took it, he didn't cry or fight me or have a tantrum and scream 'I WANT MOOT!!' at full volume for all the poor neighbours to hear.  So now we are down to one moot a day, thank heavens for that.

Let me tell you, breastfeeding, while pregnant is not fun.  When i found out i was pregnant i had all these intentions of just letting Dan carry on until he was ready to wean himself...that was before the pain started....oh my hairy octopus tentacles!!  Imagine, if you will, sticking needles in your nipples....have you got that feeling in your mind....that is what it feels like is happening when you're pregnant and breastfeeding.  Who knows why!  All i know is that i am not enduring that 3 times a day.

So now i am faced with cabbage leaves in the bra and rock boobs.  It's quite the most strange feeling in the world really feeling your boobs fill up!  Hey, maybe someone should offer breastfeeding as a clever and cheaper alternative to plastic surgery!  hahaha. no.

Last night when we were getting the boys ready for bed, i accidentally said 'come Dan lets go and have some moot' and he said four little words that made my heart flutter with glee 'I don't like moot!'

yippee! 

Monday, January 14, 2008

Pregnancy Tests and Car Dealerships...

So Haai!!

I know.  It's been nearly 4 months since my last post

*clair hangs her head in shame*

SO, back to the subjects at hand....

1.  test

 

I am pregnant!  Hurrah!  Un-planned by us, but obviously planned by God (who, as Caleb informed us earlier this evening, made, me, him, daddy, dan-dan and mommy's phone!)  So far I have done 7 pregnancy tests, all positive, so i think it's fairly safe to say that i am indeed pregnant.  I am going for my first scan on 30 Jan, can't wait!!  So that means we now need not one, not two but THREE car seats, which means that we need a bigger car, which brings me to the second part of the subject of this post.... (how smooth was that transition???)

We own a storm blue, Feb 2005 model, 1.6 16v Scenic II Authentic.  It is in very very good condition and has done just over 100 000kms.  We decided we should look into either a Kia Carens, Mazda 5 or Grand Scenic. 

Mazda 5  

 

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This is a very lovely car with lovely sliding doors and 3 rows of seats.  It costs about R209 000 which is acceptable.  We go to the Mazda dealership and get helped by the friendliest most knowledgeable sales man i have met in a long time.  He showed us how the car works, how the seats fold, let the kids jump around the car and even chatted to Caleb like he was important!  He promised to phone me first thing Monday morning (today) and sure as eggs he did!  SO, off i went for the test drive today, the car is really excellent, the only complaint is that the window buttons are chrome and look a bit crappy.  He then set off to do the valuation of my scenic (Sally)  they were gone for ages, and the caucus emerged 45 minutes later and offered me a measly R60 000!!!!  The book value is R112 000!!  Apparently that is what Renault offered them for the vehicle.  He then proceeded to tell me that Renault have the worst re-sale value and that i should get out of owning a Renault as soon as possible.  He also told me that Renault would be closing it's Pinetown branch soon as there is soon to be only one Renault Dealership in KZN......I have no idea if that is true or not.  He then very kindly, offered to give me an R8000.00 discount.  Sorry for you mate, we can't afford to buy your car unless you settle it for us!! 

 

Kia Carens

 

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We arrived at Kia, and had a look at the Carens, it's also a really excellent car and seems like fantastic value at R214 000.  It has leather seats, airbags, abs etc, parking sensors and of course the all important 3 rows of seats, and comes standard with roof racks!  The sales lady was also extremely helpful and showed us how everything worked and did a valuation of our car for us while we were looking at the new one.  She too promised to phone me on Monday morning (today) with the valuation and to arrange a test drive.  She never did phone back.  I eventually called her at 3 this afternoon and she said that she was still waiting for the settlement figure to get back to us.  I am going for a test drive on Wednesday morning, will let you know what it's like!!

Renault Grand Scenic 2.0 Dynamique

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We arrived at the Renault dealership (bear in mind that we all ready own a Renault and always take our car to the dealership for it's services) we milled around for ages until someone came over to 'help' us.  He had absolutely NO idea how the seats folded down or up, or how to set up the extra seats in the back.  When we asked him if it was safe to put a car seat in the extra seats in the third row, we just got a completely blank stare and he disappeared off for about half an hour and came back with a Renault brand car seat (he thought we were asking him about the car seat not the actual seat in the car!)  Another sales rep arrived and promptly tried to 'help' me fit our car seat in the back and just made it more and more tricky.  The original sales rep just disappeared off the planet.  He then sat down with me and tried to do a valuation, but he couldn't because he didn't have the right piece of paper or some other nonsense.  He told us to come back on Saturday morning to have the valuation done.  Which we did.  We arrived and waited around for well over an hour while someone took the car for a drive.  The sales manager then had the absolute cheek to ask us if he should 'try' and arrange more than our settlement figure for the car.  DUH!!  We owe much less than the car is worth.  He then told us that he couldn't complete the valuation because the guy wasn't there.  He promised to call me on Monday (Today) with the valuation figure.  Of course, he didn't and i ended up calling him at about 4.  He informed me that the guy who does the valuations wasn't there.  This was after 5 minutes of him not remembering us even coming in on saturday!!  He then told me how much money he made over the Christmas period and how happy he was to work over Christmas because he made soooo much.  He then promised to call me tomorrow.  I was so put off by the awful service!  I don't even like the grand scenic and i think it's just because the service has put me off!  It is a lot more than the other cars at R241 000.  Lets just hope that they give us a really excellent deal!!

I am officially of the opinion that car dealerships are just out to rip customers off.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Cliff Jennings....

So, old Cliff Jennings is a fake. Well all I can say is thank heavens, it means that town hill can relax and un-reserve the next available bed!!

For anyone to sing that badly, and take himself that seriously would just have been well, for want of a better word...wrong! His singing was horrendous and as for his song writing skills...they certainly left a lot to be desired. I mean come on, who would honestly write a song about a 'nubian princess' in any case?

BUT having said that, he was really entertaining, I'll be very interested to see what they have planned to explain themselves. I'm sure we will see on Sunday's show.

I'll also be very interested to find out whether or not it had anything to do with the creators of Idols....if it did, then how do we know that any of the contestants are actually 'real'

And so begins the conspiracy theory......

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The drugs don't work....

I know, it's been a very long time since I actually wrote a post worth reading, I've not been lazy, it's just that I am so completely sleep deprived that if I did post, it would certainly not be worth reading at all.  Promise.

Dan and Caleb had their usual mid-August green snot and I took them off to see Dr Manjra, who asked me how Daniel's sleeping was going....I just burst out laughing, and I must have looked pretty darn desperate at that point because he said to me 'Why don't I give you a script for an anti-histamine that has a very 'unusual' side-effect....it makes your child sleep for the entire night. '  I was unsure at first and then, after much re-assurance from Dr M that it cannot harm him at all I warmed up to the idea of having a full night of sleep.

I very guiltily decided to give it to him about 3 days later, and it took hours of agonising to actually finally decide to give it to him. (I am one of those paranoid mommies who does not give medicine to her kids unless it is  deemed absolutely necessary by Dr B or Dr M) I gave him half the dose recommended by Dr M and put him to bed hoping for the best.  We checked his breathing several hundred times and he woke up for the first time at 4am!  7pm - 4am.  I was on top of the world, singing happy songs, and seeing little clumps of blue-birds above everybody's head.  The most solid sleep I have had since Daniel was born!!

Then, we decided to try it again about 2 weeks later, this time I gave him 3ml instead of 2.5ml just because we were having a farewell for my friend at home and I intended to have a few brutal fruits.  11pm....he woke up, 12 he woke up, 2am he woke up, 3am he woke up.   Why me?

After that we have tried it one more time, this time I also gave him 3ml, and he woke up at 1am, 2:30am and 4am.  He also got up while I was trying to put him to bed and hobbled around the bedroom!!!

Will I ever be able to sleep?

Why does he hate me so?

This post contains nudity.....

The boys had their best bath EVER last night.  They just played and played and played until the water got cold, and then we added some more hot water and they played some more!

Man I love my kids!!!!!

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Monday, August 20, 2007

My Dan-Dan


*gush* thats my boy!

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, BUGGER.

You know when look back at a day that you've endured and feel like sinking into a hole??

I joined Virgin Active gym yesterday (Monday) so that I could start doing a bit of exercise to firm up the jiggly bits, got the clothes and everything and decided that today (Tuesday) should be the beginning of my new era of fitness!  This is how it went....

07:30am get out of bed and put on gym clothes.  Try on 16 different tops.

07:50am look at hair in mirror....ghastly.  Fix hair.

08:15am feed baby breakfast - baby sneezes caramel jungle oats all over my gym top.   Put on new gym top, try on 15 different tops AGAIN.

08:45am feed baby milk.

09:00am start heading out the door, scratching madly in handbag for car keys......

09:06am get sms from husband 'Love, i've got the carkeys.' BUGGER.  Husband works in umhlanga.  Spare key has no batteries. 

09:15am phone Renault and find out how to start car without battery in key.

09:30am head off to gym, looking frazzled, baby not happy about being in the car.

09:45am arrive at gym, sign baby into 'Club-V' (ie baby creche thingy) and go to changeroom to put my bag in the locker.  Forgot padlock. BUGGER.  Give all my bags to the lady at the creche.

10:00am step onto treadmill, realise that i don't know how to work the thing (touch-screen with isidingo or some crap on it) look casual like (so as not to attract any gym personell) eventually get going.  Do a 20 minute run, am starting to really get into it and am now just starting to sweat a bit....

10:20am  'Mrs McPhail, please report to the Club-V area immediately'  BUGGER BUGGER BUGGER.  Press the stop button on the treadmill and rush downstairs.

10:23am baby is hysterical, has been crying for 10 minutes non-stop.  Try to comfort him but he's just not having any of it.  Debate whether or not to just go home and shower...realise, can't shower at home, because husband has remote for complex gate...i can get in, but not out again....have to pick caleb up at 12.....BUGGER.  Decide to ask the lady to hold onto screaming baby for 15 minutes while i shower.

10:30am Head off to shower, wash hair and body in 5 minutes. put on clothes in 5 minutes....

10:35am creche lady appears in change room with screaming baby and stalks off looking cross.  stuff you creche lady.

10:40am dry hair with, now smug baby sitting on the counter cooing and gurgling happily.  stuff you baby, stuff you!

10:45am scream out of the gym, up the  slated stairs that go over the pool, feel my show come off, my favourite shoe....hear *plop*  F*&#!!!!!! BUGGER.  Yep. shoe in pool.

10:47am walk up to gym staff member.   "i just dropped my shoe in the pool.  No, i don't want it back'  Head out of gym wearing ONE SHOE.  Buy new shoes.

*some time passes*

12:00 pick up caleb, his teacher informs me that he has been a total little toad today. Bugger.

Drive to umhlanga, get keys, have lunch with husband.  drive home.

15:00pm arrive home, eat approx 600grams of cooking chocolate.  feel sick.  it wasn't even good chocolate.

I wonder if i should go to gym tomorrow.............