A very special week

DH and DS1 have been away for a week visiting my parents while I have been at home and school with DS2.  Just the two of us.  It has been a divine week of lots of playing and colouring and peace and quiet.  A boy who is often chasing and whining as he tries to play with and keep up with his holder brother was a picture of contentment and happiness this week.  It has made me realise how hard it must be to be a little brother.  DS2 thinks he is the same age as DS1 and so doesn't understand why he can't do everything as easily and fast as DS1.  This week we have done everything at his pace.  We both had more patience for putting on shoes and buckling seat belts on his own.  I have really enjoyed getting to know my younger son on his own terms. We have never had this kind of intense time together.  OK, I'll say it, Life would be so much easier with just one!  But I couldn't tell you which one.  They are both easy going and delightful on their own.  They are fun and chaotic and noisy and playful when they are together, but there is never any break unless they are in front of the boob tube.  I think DH and I will do our best to do more things with just one of them so we can both recapture the intimacy of this past week with our darling boys.

DH and DS1 are due back in an hour.  I am going to play on our Wii with DS2 for a while...

The Art of Letter Writing

My best friend from school days, met on a sunny September morning in 1979, has fallen off the edge of the digital earth.  She hasn't told me the whole story yet as to why as she lives 5000 km away and because she moved house, I didn't have her phone number or address either.  Then when I got back from my Christmas holiday, there was a Christmas card from her with her new address in the return spot on the envelope.  I promptly wrote this address on the Christmas card I had prepared for her earlier and then sat down to write her a little letter.  Now I need to mention that she and I have been writing letters every month or so since we were sixteen and I left for a year away in France and then stayed away for university.  Our letters have become less frequent over the years, but no less consistent.  But in the last three years, when we had Facebook accounts and email addresses, we resorted to just sending each other short messages informing each other of important events and visits.  Very unsatisfying!  So last night, when I finally had the relief and comfort of having her snail mail address once again, I wrote her a letter.  I only meant it to be a page or so, but before I knew it, I had written six pages.  I think I may have also been inspired by looking through all my old stamps to help out my D&T teacher friend for her jewellery club and by tidying up my stationery desk, which had become unusable due to its messiness.

Anyway, the long and short of it, I want to go back to my good old habits, time permitting, of writing proper letters, decorating the envelopes with stamps and stickers and SWAK-ing them.

Home Sweet Home

As far as holidays go, this Christmas/New Year trip to South Africa was pretty great.  I read voraciously for the first time in years, at least 3000 pages of literature from Ken Follett's new The Fall of Giants to Dahl's Matilda which was written after I was of the usual age to read it.  I saw it on the shelf of the young girl's room DH and I were sharing in Cape Town and had been hearing about the Tim Minchin musical adaptation of the book for the London stage.  Every parent should read Matilda if they haven't already.  Most of us would see ourselves reflected in Matilda's hideous parents at least once in a while.

Our trip home was very smooth, but we all suffered the usual kinks and cramps that goes with travelling for 24 hours.  It was soooooo good to sleep in my own bed.  I missed making my cappuccino in the mornings and even doing my own laundry, which is a good thing because there is a hefty pile of it.  I had a wicked foot cramp and Seb was delirious with exhaustion despite the several hours of sleep he got on the plane.  Emirates has the best entertainment system I have ever seen on an airplane, even in cattle class.  The kids watched Megamind upteen times and I caught up on about 12 films on the way there and back.  I did not get very much sleep. My favourite movie was the Social Network about "The" Facebook.  At Dartmouth, we used to call the book distributed to all new Freshmen students "The 'Shmenu", which I think would have been a catchy name for the application too.  At least for the initial program Zuckerberg designed instead of Facemash.

DH and DS1 left the day after we got home for a week in Vancouver.  They have taken the iPad.  DS2 is bereft. We are hoping my Mum and Dad will see the brilliance of the device and buy themselves one.  I have tried to download Angry Birds onto my old G1 Android phone, but I can't find the application once downloaded. 

Well, time to get ready to go back to school tomorrow.  Connecting with friends again after three weeks away.  How I will miss them!

Special People

You know those special people that you can see just once in a blue moon, catch up via a quick progress report and then get into the nitty gritty of what is REALLY going on in each others' lives?  Well, I am greatful to say that I am blessed with several such people.  Some I have known since I was two, others since I was six.  One woman I barely knew in high school  and it was a trip at the end of the semester during which we bonded for life and really only got to know each other during university.  This other incredible woman I have maybe spent a total of 72 hours with in our whole lives.  We only started spending time together properly through our husbands and our lives have taken us to different continents, but she is the most down to earth, amazing mother and career person I know.  She has been a lawyer, is an artist, runs a wine farm, is raising three kids, manages a house, works on briefs and still makes her husband a birthday cake from scratch with her children.  She does it all, but not in that horrible Martha Stewart way.  The seams are just unravelling enough around the edges that you can't dislike her for being perfect, and she doesn't have a boastful bone in her body.  How's that for a balance to strive towards!  I admire her immensely and was very sad and emotional when I saw her yesterday because I didn't know when we'd next be able to meet up as the family's next trip to ZA will probably be to Kruger National Park in three years time.  We hope that we can keep in closer touch by following each other's blogs, so darlin', I tip my hat to you. 

Down with the In-laws

It has taken 13 years of visits to South Africa to finally feel comfortable wining and dining with the inlaws.  I can now just sit and chew the fat, and listen to Grandad's stories, and not mind coming home smelling like the braai place.  Why has this taken so long?  What was wrong with me on all the previous visits?  I was a good guest in all my brother and parent inlaws homes, but I never felt relaxed.  Rested, yes, and so guilty.  But this time, something is different.  I feel like just another Blom.  The kids are just two of seven grandkids, and I am now just one of the mums sandwiched in the middle generation.  I like that.