Bubbles, bubbles & bubbles

Last night before the kids bedtime, we allowed them to hover around bedroom only to discover that they emptied our side tables. Its amazing to find what you've stored in your table after such a long time! Anyway, Kayla managed to find a bottle of bubbles which I probably kept aside for one day but forgot about it since it was stuck in my side table. With all 3 of them in the room, I opened the bottle and started blowing. They had so much fun with it and kept on getting excited about it! It was so cute how they reacted to it..the boys would laugh and try and pop the bubbles, and Kayla in her feminine way would gently try to catch a bubble that would just end up popping in her hand anyway. I don't think I've blowed bubbles so fast to produce to so many bubbles at one time in my life, eventually I got tired of it and the kids ended up rubbing their eyes from all the soap! The video clip shows exactly how they reacted and compare the picture to how they reacted when they were just a few months old! I had quite an interesting weekend with Evan. I'm ashamed to admit that his sensitivity side comes from me - every now and then I could see how he prepares to bite his sister or brother and before anything, in a stern voice, I'd tell him not to bite or hit or whatever you can see he has rolled up his sleeve. Love and behold, his lower lip extends itselfs and he starts crying! It happened a couple of times and I would just sit and wonder what was going on? But to make things all better for himself, one of the nanny's would pick him up and he'd be all better, to be honest, he'd just start laughing! His already getting away with it!We decided that at some point he'd have to deal with the shouting and we have to stick to our discipline methods (if and when that comes!). I always wonder when is the best time for it....

Which way to go?!

The kids are almost 15 months already and we can't believe how much they've grown since they've turned one! Its been about 3 weeks now that Evan and Kayla have started to walk steadily and recently in the past week Noah too. I must admit though that we've had quite an eventful and hectic 3 weeks.

About 4 weeks ago, Evan came down with a chest infection which kept him been at home for a few days from school. It even meant a trip to the pulmonologist. There wasn't anything serious just the fact that whatever infection he had picked up had gone down to his chest. Also given the history of asthma in the family, chances are the kids would get it too. After much administering of medication to Evan, he recovered quite quickly. After a few days Noah got really sick. It basically just happened overnight. It was a horrible experience! He had a very high temperature and wasn't able to keep his food down and he was such a miserable guy, even a trip to our GP didn't do the trick.

The weekend finally came and we thought that he seemed a little better but still not his usual self. The Monday came and the school alerted us that his temperature was close to 39 and suggested we fetch him to take him home. Totally unaware of what would happen, we took the evening as any other evening. Since we fetched all of them early from school, we gave them an early bath with dinner to follow. It was a shocking feeling to hear my nanny shouting for me upstairs while she was dressing Noah, he had had a fever fit. Basically its where his temperatures have risen so high that his body can't handle it and he has a fit. It was one of the most scariest visions to have to see when you see your child laying limp with blue lips, eyes rolled back and not breathing. An experience a Mother would not want to ever experience. He managed to start breathing on his own eventually after a few minutes (seemed like forever but was just a few minutes), and we quickly made a dash to the Linksfield hospital. After waiting for about 45 min (which almost seemed like hours), the emergency GP on call finally came. He did the usual checks, chest xrays and blood tests, and came with the conclusion that he had an apnoea attack! We were quite sceptical with this diagnosis and decided to take him to our paeditrician for a second opinion two days later. We weren't expecting the reaction that we got from our paeds, only for him to tell us that he'd have to have Noah admitted into the hospital and have further chest xrays done. He had suspicions, which ultimately were correct - Noah had pneumonia! Just another heart breaking experience. I didn't know how to feel, there was probably 10 million thoughts going through my mind especially where I had Evan and Kayla to think about too. It was a tough nite! My heart would melt everytime I looked at Noah when tests were been done while he cried his heart out. At the same time, I tried to remain strong but at the end of the evening, just couldn't hold up. It was such an overwhelming experience, and it almost seemed as if Noah knew how we were feeling with him being sick as he would be such a good sport and tried to be brave and would still try to play, smile and laugh when there weren't any tests been done.
Darren was amazing and had the patience and strength during this difficult time. I've been through so much during my life and he has been such a great support. I must admit that he has been under a lot of stress himself and he took on a lot of duties at home and at work. But alas, the worst is over and we're all ok. I think its just a matter of trying to find time to catch up on some good rest which will be awhile again as we have all 3 kids walking! Its been from one milestone to another for them and we're so happy that's its all happening so quickly. We were told that they would be delayed with their milestones as they were born premature, but just this year they seemed to have "caught up" from walking, to using the pincer method of picking up things, to crawling backwards to been able to sort out shape blocks, etc. Its so amazing to watch! Yes it is busy just thinking about, but its triple rewarding! We just have to keep on watching them as they all walk in different directions! I've been told to invest in leashes, but really, they need to explore too and I just had to invest in really good running shoes!

Finally an update!

<25th December 2010- Christmas Day:
My inlaws had flown in from PE for the Christmas holidays and both Darren and I were looking forward to the break. We only realised the night of Christmas eve, that we didn't have a night nanny, therefore we'd be the ones having to watch over the kids during the course of the night. Oh boy, it was hectic! I don't really know if I thought I was been clever and stupid in thinking that I could do it on my own! I managed, but I was so tired the next day! Initially, I was quite excited about spending our first Christmas with the kids,but I was just too tired to think about it and instead slept in for an hour or so while my in laws took care of the kids. Thankfully we had family over for Christmas lunch, so that kept me busy during the course of the day. Like the kids,I was quite cranky at the end of the day.

We got the kids dressed up in the red outfits which they didn't seem to comfortable in. Thankfully it turned out to be perfect day, all the kids swam and lunch was great!



It was the first time ever that our Christmas tree was filled with presents and naturally, were all mostly for the kids! We thought that they'd get excited about opening presents, but I ended up doing it all. They did get awesome presents!

With Christmas day gone, we started preparing for our road trip down to PE. We decided to go down to PE for about ten days and spend New Years there. It took me a couple of hours trying to pack for the whole family; ensuring there would be enough clothes for the 4 seaons that PE experience.; ensuring there would be enough dinner for the road; ensuring....everything! Nevertheless, we finally left Jo'burg without any hassles. There was 10 of us travelling in my "bus"; So you can imagine what a full house it was, but at least we knew there was enough help on the road! Fortunately, the trip went off smoothly, better than expected.

Port Elizabeth:
It was a full 10 days of rainy weather! I think we only managed to take the kids out the house for 1 day. Of course, it stopped raining the day we left!

We quickly took advantage of the day and decided to take the kids to the beach; their first experience on beach sand and seawater! It was a windy day, nonetheless, we went ahead with the plan. It was a decision of which beach to go to forgetting that it was the second day after New Years and the beaches would be jam packed! I think we drove for just over an hour trying to find a suitable spot where it wasn't so busy. By the time we finally found a spot, the wind had picked up. Quickly, we went to the beach, dipped the kids feet into the water and headed back to the car! The amount of time we spent at the beach wasn't even a quarter of the time we spent driving in the car! We were there for literally 10 minutes and left! Locals at the beach could probably tell that we were "Vaalies", as none of us were dressed for the beach; the kids still wore trackpants and sweaters and to make things worse, I walked down with my huge camera! It was great to get out though for a little while! I thought the kids would get restless, but they were quite good!

08th January 2011, the Triplets 1st birthday:

The days leading to their birthday party was quite an eventful one. They started nursery school 2 days prior to their birthday, so it gave me enough time to prepare and make all the necessary arrangements for their party. My Mom in law flew in for their party and my father in law surprised us by joining her too.

Their birthday party was mostly a family affair and very close friends. It was great having Mel around as she was a great help with everything including the kids! Mel can vouch as to how busy things are with the kids these days!

We were although concerned about the weather as it had been raining the whole week. It was a coolish day and it rained for a little while but the other kids still managed to have fun! My kids on the other hand, got spoilt to the point that I didn't know who they were with and what they were eating! At least they got to experience the same taste of food the adults were having. Our menu consisted of chicken chow mein, fried drumsticks, potato and greek salad! It was awesome!

Their birthday cake on the other hand didn't turn out well the way I would have like it to; I wanted it to be in the shape of a paw print, even though the kids didn't exactly have a theme as such, but I used animals of the wild as part of a them. Ultimately, nothing beats a cream vanilla sponge cake!

I think it was quite an exciting day for all of us and an event that we'd never forget!