We survived!

I am pleased to report that we survived our first (and probably last) big kiddies' birthday bash at home. There were a few small hiccups but it went rather smoothly I must say. Barry and I had prepped and cut out what felt like hundreds of dinosaur heads, legs, arms and tails to stick onto balloons weeks before as part of the kids’ party packs. All we had to do was blow the balloons up and stick the limbs on the night before. Easy-peasy right? An hour, max, we thought and we would then be in bed, nice and early (It was Friday night after all, and if you read my previous blogs, you know what that means). Well, 3 hours later, I was elbow deep in dinosaur heads and project glue and felt like crying. It was too late to can the idea, we were three quarters of the way done so we may as well continue. We finished the last stupid dinosaur balloon at 12:30 – as in 12:30 AM – essentially the morning of the party.  

The day started off busy, and about half an hour before the party started I had to calm myself down before I had a full-on panic attack while tying helium balloons to every pole I could find. While I was running around like a headless chicken trying to decorate (with the help of a very good friend of mine - thank you!), my husband went off to fetch the birthday cake like the good daddy he is. As he drove away from the shop, the whole top of the cake slid off, which caused mild hysteria in me when he arrived home (I swear I saw cake on his face but was too panicky to say anything, I bet he did a sneaky tester). Oh, and we also forgot to buy birthday candles…. So while all the kids crowded round our patched up cake, I ran off to get the new bath candles I had bought the day before. Voila! Problem solved. By the end of the day, we were emotionally and physically exhausted… and I was dehydrated from all my nervous sweating. All in all, it was a total win. I am really proud of our success. This got me thinking about other first-time things we survived that I am pretty proud of too. Here are a couple of them: 1. Labour. Twice. That’s right. I pushed a baby out of a place a fraction of the size of a tiny human. And it doesn’t matter whether you had natural or a c-section either - both are pretty hard core if you ask me. I must be honest, areas of my body will NEVER be the same again. People have seen parts of me that I hope I never have to see and I was poked and prodded more times than I can remember. Here’s the thing though: I couldn’t have cared less who poked where and who was there to witness the extreme stretching parts of me was about to achieve – I just wanted ‘it’ out. Like, NOW. After 12 hours of labour for Casey and even longer for Luke, I have never been prouder of myself for the achievements. I think women who have babies should be given something similar to a military badge that we can pin on our breastfeeding bras like a boss (to cover the wet patches). 2. Our first trip to a restaurant with two kids. This may sound like a tiny feat, but lemme tell you, few are qualified enough to achieve a whole dinner excursion to a restaurant with two small children without a minimum of one split drink and at least one person crying. Also, you can usually hear things like “Luke, take your hand out of my cold drink” or “What do you mean you don’t eat that anymore? You JUST ordered it!” coming from our table followed by more bickering and whining. If I can give you any one piece of advice it would be this: take-away cups. 3. Moving house. We have moved 4 times in the last 5 years. We have now reached Moving Level: Ninja. The last time we moved, we hired a man who said he would bring his truck. Well, on the day, he arrived with a Toyota Bakkie that couldn’t close at the back. I almost hyperventilated. It’s pretty funny now, but at the time there was not enough Nutella in the world to calm me – believe it or not. I also can’t just leave boxes to unpack “as we go”. Who does that anyway?? Just thinking about it makes my eye twitch. By the time we have finally completed the move, without fail, I have lost half my hair and my lips are covered in cold sores. My advice here would be: Keep what is essential, chuck the rest away (just FYI, a grown-up size Cinderella dress is always considered essential, don’t let your husband tell you otherwise); the clear tape seals boxes better than the brown one and never trust a random guy that says he has a truck. 4. Our first family holiday. Between my irrational worry about the tide pulling my child off into the deep seas as soon as he touched the water with his little foot (or the possibility of a shark attack in the kiddies’ rock pools) and spending a huge chunk of my time continually rubbing sun screen on the kids and husband (because, you know, skin cancer), I was a huge ball of stress. I needed a holiday after our holiday to unwind. 5. The first few wears of a new pair of heels. Blisters from a new pair of heels can make grown men cry. I haven’t worn heels in years though, so nowadays I am proud of getting through the first few wears of a new pair of jeans – you know, when they haven’t stretched out yet and dig into your stomach? I really hate that, but I persist and get through it which is pretty brave in my opinion. I guess life is about rolling with the punches, enjoying the firsts and correcting your course as you go along. Casey lost a tooth this weekend and I had the tooth fairy money all set to go under the pillow as soon as she fell asleep. Barry swore he would do it before bed… then we both fell asleep on the couch watching Friends. We eventually dragged ourselves to bed, forgetting all about the crisp R10 notes waiting in the kitchen. It was Barry’s birthday the next morning and I went to wake Casey up so that she could come with me to wake Daddy up singing (Luke found his was to our bed during the night and was comfortably taking up a whole king size duvet on my side). I saw the little bag with the tooth in it poking out from under her pillow as she opened her eyes to look at me. It all happened in slow motion. Realisation that the tooth fairy had probably been dawned in her eyes, she smiled and she began to turn towards said tooth. At that very moment I grabbed her shoulders and shouted “WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER???” She jumped up to check whether he was, in fact, in our bed and I rushed to sneak the money under her pillow, stuffing the bag with tooth and note in between my boobs. Honestly, my husband is so lucky I am so good at creating drama as diversions. The above minor dramas aside, things are going pretty well in our household lately and I am really loving the moment of calm. So today, I will enjoy (and maybe document) whatever first I come across and walk around with the confidence of a naked toddler with a nappy on his head. Enjoy the rest of your week! xx