Being a working mom is not easy.  Seriously, it’s not.  You have to juggle time, and find ways of leaving work at odd times to just be there for your kids.

That’s what happened this morning to me.

If you have chatted to me offline recently you would know that there’s a few changes pending at work.  And I’ve been waiting for a meeting with someone that was hopefully going to resolve part of the obstacle.  That meeting was set for this morning.

However, Connor’s Playball demo was scheduled for a hour before my big meeting was supposed to start and it takes at least 40 minutes to get from the school to Sandton, and I was determined to be there too.  You may think that this is trivial, but it’s the only extra mural he does, and this demo is the only time I could see what he’s been doing.

So, I tried to do both

Thankfully the Playball started in time, and I watched 20 minutes of his thing… and then had to leave just before the medal ceremony… and then I zooted to Sandton to get to my meeting… which ended up being postponed to tomorrow!!

Connor, of course, was very sad to see me go  He really loved that I was there, and kept looking for me and smiling and then ran up to me a few times to give me a hug

I’m glad I went, but sad that I had to go before the medal ceremony.  I really don’t feel as guilty as I would have done if I’d not gone at all.

And shame, the one little girl, looked around the room after a few minutes, and said “But my mommy’s not here to watch me”… the teacher tried to save the day by saying that all the other mommies will be watching her instead.  I’m sure that didn’t make her feel better though.

Last night, Connor went into the kitchen and said to Lance “Dad, I found the scissors, I’ll just put them away”

Lance thanked him and carried on doing whatever he was doing.

Then it was bathtime.

And we noticed his new hairdo

Connor vehemently denied cutting his hair, but once he realized we thought it was funny and he wasn’t in trouble, he answered our questions

He not only cut his hair, but he hid the evidence completely!! He picked up every single hair from the floor and put them in the dustbin before taking the scissors back to the kitchen.

Oh well at least his hair grows back quickly. Although I do think I’ll have to see if a barber can make it look slightly better

The only thing I’m really worried about him with scissors is his eyes.  So after a quick giggle, I told him that he needs to be careful with scissors because he could poke his eyes out.  ”That’s not a problem, Mommy”, he responded “I’ll just get a glass eye instead”.

I arrived home after Saturday’s photoshoot to be greeted by the kids all dressed up and ready to go to Madelein’s house for a halloween evening. I was seriously impressed with their attempts which were completely their own ideas because I forgot (bad mom) to buy extra dressup things like I’d promised, and because I wasn’t at home they didn’t have any help sourcing their outfits from their cupboards and toy boxes.

Connor went at the Ultimate Darth Vader.  Ultimate because he was carrying guns as well as swords.  And how clever is this outfit?  He wore a batman cape (from an old batman dressup outfit), skateboarding knee and elbow pads, 2 Star Wars swords and 2 water pistols

Bradley dressed up as a Were-warrior.  He wore an old knights outfit (which is actually too small for him, hence the need for me to go find new dressup stuff), and a werewolf mask with 2 swords!

And if you’re reading this from the US and thinking that my kids are deprived because they don’t have proper costumes… bear in mind that Halloween hasn’t really caught on in South Africa

I LOVE that they used their imaginations for this!

There’s a car guard at the local Spar who knows me quite well now, and when I come out the shop with a trolley, he takes it from me and makes a beeline for my car without me having to direct him. Tonight, we struck up a bit of a conversation after I noticed him smiling at Connor and shaking his head.

As Connor got out the car when we first arrived, he did something he doesn’t normally do.  He waited for me to get my bag out the boot, and then just walked across the parking lot to the door.  He didn’t even look!! He knows he’s not allowed to walk across a road without me holding his hand. And there was a car coming out of a parking… thank God the car was going slowly and stopped.  I gave him a mouthful and he thankfully realised then what he did… and was sheepish for all of 30 seconds.  My oath it was close!!

Anyhoo, when we got back to the car, I had to shout speak to him again because he was standing in the middle of an empty bay instead of right next to the car, and he was trying to play fight with Bradley.  That’s when I noticed the car guard smiling at Connor.

So I said “He’s not listening. Did you see what he did earlier?”

He replied with words similar to this “Yes.  What you are doing cannot be paid for.  Being a mom is the most important thing to him, and he won’t be able to pay you.  But they will remember forever.”

That shut me up. And I wondered what the story was behind what he said.  I wonder where his mom is?

It was hectic this weekend… and I’m determined to learn something from everything that happened, so lets see if I can get a lesson spin on the chaos that ensued.

1. To say you’re going to get a rape survivor kit together is easy, to do it is another thing (I donated one at the Slutwalk that took place this weekend). I found myself thinking about every single item that I bought for the bag… and the bag itself.  Would the person like the bag? Would they even want to keep it after the reason they got it?  Is yellow a good colour for a facecloth, maybe it’s too pale considering what you’re trying to clean from your body?  I settled on a nice moisturising soap, after thinking that I’d want to scrub my body raw and I wanted to get something that would help her skin.  I bought lip-ice even though it wasn’t on the list, that’s what I’d like after crying a lot.  The gift that I added was a scarf, a really soft one that she could wrap around her body for more comfort. It was quite an exercise and made me really think.

2. Threatening to not give Connor pocket money is now not working.  He was in top form this weekend, and even ran riot in the shops with a Woolies basket which he walked around Woolies with, using it like a crutch… he had his one foot inside it and clomped around the entire shop shouting his head off… and when I got it away from him he just lay on the ground in the middle of the aisle and refused to move.  And that was the start of the weekend.

3.  I’m not superwoman after all.  After literally running most of the slutwalk trying to take photos, I actually collapsed in a heap after getting home.  We were supposed to go to Wenchy’s house… and I cancelled and had a nap instead. Lance told me I looked like hell… he’s nice hey?!

4.  The dogs make me feel so very guilty for not taking them for walks often enough. Some days Kimo just looks at me and whines it breaks my heart.  I just don’t have the time to take them to Walkhaven and they’re too strong for me on the road if they haven’t been walked for a while.  Lance took them for a run this evening though, so hopefully I’ll cope with them this week

5. I’m feeling cut off from friends right now.  Every invitation we get, Lance is either working or I am, and we don’t get to see anyone… and the kids are now having such boring weekends.  This is not going to get better in the bear future either, considering the number of weddings I have booked.

6. I need to sleep some more, but I have so much editing to get through

The first thing Bradley asked me when he saw me this evening, was whether I noticed anything about him.  It didn’t take me long to see the new gap in his mouth.. he’s been waiting for that tooth to come out.  And in fact, so have we, because he’s been pushing it completely backwards for the last few days… and that gives me the heebee-jeebees

The problem is, his tooth is missing… he thinks he swallowed it at lunchtime.

But the school secretary did the sweetest thing when he had to go to the office because his mouth was bleeding.  She typed up a note for the tooth mouse, explaining the situation.  If you can’t read the blurry photo (because Bradley was moving a LOT and the iPhone camera isn’t that fast) it says:

“Dear Tooth Mouse,

I am sorry but I swallowed my tooth so you can’t have it for your castle. I promise you can have my next tooth that falls out. Please could you consider still giving me money for my tooth.

Thanks

Bradley”

And therein lies the reason for many questions tonight, from both boys.  She wrote the letter to the tooth mouse, and we’ve always talked about the tooth fairy.

Now I’ve been hoping that his belief in the tooth fairy would keep going for some time… and thankfully this hiccup hasn’t stopped the magic at all. At bathtime the conversation was about the castle that the fairies are building, and eventually Bradley said that he didn’t believe that… he knows that the teeth are used for stars. And then at bedtime, there was another conversation about the tooth mouse, and Bradley told us about his friend who got a note from the tooth mouse once with mouse prints on the paper!! And he wondered whether he’d get proof like that this time.

But then in his next breath, he said wasn’t sure what would happen this time when the fairy arrived and the note was addressed to the mouse instead.  I told him that the fairy would just smile, and still leave the money.

This tooth fairy had better freaking remember to deposit a few Rand under his pillow tonight, or else there’ll be trouble!  I just wish the tooth fairy had some glitter in the house so she could sprinkle some fairy dust onto the note.

I don’t often blog about things that Bradley says anymore, mostly because he’s so big now and he doesn’t say “cute” things anymore. But sometimes the conversations around words and reading them just need to recorded.

He’s reading up a storm now, and my Kindle was his favourite pastime while we were on holiday… and he loved using the dictionary function to help him understand new words that he was reading. He’s also trying to understand acronyms and the reasons why words are what they are.

A few days ago, he had this conversation with Lance, and I was listening in.

Bradley: “Daddy, what does ATM mean?”

Lance: “It stands for automatic teller machine”

Bradley: “That’s what Mommy said, but the machine doesn’t tell me anything”

LOL!! He’s right, cannot argue with that!

Even though today’s weather was sunny, it wasn’t warm enough for the beach so we took the kids to Crocodile Creek, which is about 12km from Ballito (and we were thankful that this time we drove a 4×2 and not a normal car)

We’ve been there before, but the kids don’t remember… in fact Bradley was tiny when we went the last time.  It was awesome going with the kids this time because they’re the right age for this type of outing.  We got there half way through the one tour so caught up with that group to walk around the place, and then joined the next tour group (which was a group of 60 kids on a school tour from Johannesburg) to hear about the anatomy of the crocs… and to hold the crocs.

The handler took out a 4 year old Nile crocodile for everyone to touch… much to the delight of Connor because the croc was the same age as him.

And now the kids are very excited to have photos of themselves holding the crocs to show their teachers and friends at school

Just had this conversation with Connor on the beach (yes I’m blogging on the beach ).

Connor: “I wish I was Bradley”
Me: “why?”
Connor: “cos he’s just so awesome”

Aww I love him so

I did correct him though and tell him that he should just be himself cos he’s just as awesome… And then I gave him loads of reasons why.

We’re on day 3 of our holiday in Ballito.

I still haven’t swum in the sea… and I’m normally in the sea before the kids.  It’s just too cold and far too windy.

I have started getting a tan though… not that I’ve tried but I’m convinced it mostly wind burn and not sun burn.  Not that that’s saying much though because I’m whiter than white and actually reflecting the sun

I’m sure we’ve never had such awful weather on holiday.  Just hoping the weather reports for the next week are wrong, and the wind starts dying down a bit and we can actually enjoy our time on the beach.

Not that it’s stopping us of course… with 2 kids it’s either go to the beach  or go looney in the flat. So they’re swimming and jumping in the waves, and playing bat and ball, and fishing with nets (and I caught a crab and a fish in the rock pools with those little fishing nets yesterday… go me), and clambering over rocks… they’re having fun.

However, the wind is cold. And I didn’t pack for winter… so tomorrow I’m going on the hunt for more warm clothes… at the end of winter… it’s a fruitless exercise but if I don’t do it, we’re all going to get seriously ill.