Stop the clock - it is all going way too fast.

I can not believe that The Boys are 11 months old today! (I better start planning a little celebration).

I can not believe that a year ago I started with my last week at work before my maternity leave! (I'll save you making the sum - I worked until I was 34 weeks pregnant)

I can not believe this is our last "Monthday celebration"( I will miss the once a month cake - but better for weight)

And I can not believe that my last babies are so big.

Oh yes, and I quit. No, not work. Pumping at work. I've had it with the breastpump - I have a great pump (Medela pump in style), but I've had enough. I feel completely liberated!Now I have to watch out what I eat. I will continue breastfeeding in the mornings and evenings, but daytime now is formula time. And I will not feel guilty about this. Repeat to self: "I will not feel guilty about this" until I believe myself.

Oh, and did I mention that it is definitely spring in SA! Yes, we've been having days with 27 degrees Celsius and blossoms everywhere. One of these days I am going to bore you all with our lovely summer weather and you will all be feeling a wee bit colder than now.

Prayer time

The Little Miss, praying before dinner on Sunday ( after we rushed the one Labrador to the vet for emergency paw surgery): "Dear Jesus, thanks for our food and clothes, thank you for my baby brothers, please heel Bongi's foot. Okay, Bye bye."

On the milk supply front - 160 ml (5,4oz) - steadily improving.

Long, lazy and wet weekend.

I see that A was 3 years, 3 months and 3 days old yesterday! Nice one! Tomorrow is the annual school photo day and I went to the shops to have a look for a nice outfit for The Little Miss. Did not find anything cuter than what she has so she will be wearing something out of the existing collection.


It rained and rained the whole long weekend and was pretty cold - this is highly unusual in our knack of the woods. We have summer thunderstorms and hot humid weather to accompany rain. This is autumn, moving to winter and it rained and rained. I actually loved it as I can not stand our dry winters and absolutely love rain. A was not amused. She actually got a really bad case of cabin fever and as The Boys are still not 100% healthy we stayed in mostly. We therefore made a point of taking her everywhere either H or I went over the weekend. We also invested in a panel heater for The Boys' room (only uses the energy of 4 light bulbs) and a gas heater for the family room.

We are having this electricity crises in South Africa with our national electricity suppler not being able to provide enough electricity. The whole country is on an electricity saving drive as we are being subjected to "load shedding" - area per area gets "turned off" for an hour to 4 hours at a time. This is highly unpleasant with babies and very irritating for our business - plus devastating on our growing economy. But perhaps this is a for the best as we are all forced to look towards reducing out carbon footprint. In general we have a very mild climate in Pretoria with hot summers and mild winters. It does however get down to freezing point at night and as it is only for about 3 months of the year our homes are not geared for winter and cold, more for summer and heat. I hate the cold though.

The weekend therefore passed with very little exciting happening. The kids had a birthday party on Thursday and the mom made each kid their own Noddy hat, complete with bell - you could see this is a stay at home mom - everything perfect . A loves hers! (Big Noddy fan). Was a great party - lots of wine for the mums, imported beers for the dads and lots of interested people wanting to hold the twins. I could actually sit and sip a glass of vino with no child attached to my body in some way or another. The ice cream van came around with soft serve for all (I adore soft serve) and the kids enjoyed planting parsley plants in pots for their mums.

Yesterday was spent visiting H's aunt and uncle on their smallholding. A had lots of fun chasing the geese around the garden and playing with H's cousin Anne-marie. On our way back we popped in at the home of an old friend of ours - they got divorced 9 months ago and he stayed on in the house. She is a great gal and he's a nice fellow - just didn't work out. It was a shock to meet his new girlfriend - 5 years older than him ( I am also 5 years older than H - cradle snatcher me!), but looks at least 15 years older than him. And she has a grandson A's age. I have heaps of older friends that I adore, but I just can not see myself being friends with this woman. No interest in the babies, no offer to hold one while I was busy trying to console both at the same time. Will take a lot to get used to.

On the sleep issue things have been on the up and up with either one of the two starting to sleep through again and the other waking once for a feed. Until Sunday night when we were all awake for most of the night with two inconsolable babies. And expressing milk on Monday at work gave me the answer - only 70 ml (2,4 oz) per breast! Generally I am at about 150 ml - 170 ml (5 to 6 oz) per breast which is not enough and have to supplemented with formula as my milk supply has been low for the last 3 months. But this was literally nothing! So I started on the medication again which is not great as it is an anti-depressant and I do not like to toy with that as I do tend towards being slightly blue at times. But it helps for the milk. Today we are at a staggering (ha ha) 120ml (4 oz) per breast. Am soooo jealous of you girls with enough milk.