The case of the missing tooth

E has a had a loss tooth since August. It has been driving me nuts as his two adult teeth have already grown up behind the front baby teeth. He has refused to really wiggle the tooth. Claims that it hurts.......grrr. So I have been threatening pliers, slamming doors and the dentist. It has been hanging by a thread for two weeks and the tooth fairy has been carrying around a supply of R5 coins in her purse and it was getting a bit heavy. On Monday afternoon I begged him to just give it a little yank. No such luck. I went to my office and left him eating a leftover cupcake from a party last week.

He ran into my office to show me a Lego boat he was building and I had a sneeky look at the tooth. IT WAS GONE. The kid had swallowed it while eating a cupcake. After all those months of trouble, I didn't get the first tooth.

He suggested that we look in his poop and I suggested that we write a letter to the tooth fairy instead explaining the missing tooth. A quick search on Google showed that is perfectly safe to swallow a tooth. In fact there are a number of sample letters to the tooth fairy, from the tooth fairy and certificates all to do with swallowed teeth. Don't look at the Wiki How page of how to find a swallowed tooth. I am scared for life by the cartoon pictures of adults sifting through their morning ablutions. Yuck.

E was happy with his letter. The tooth fairy gave him his money and a certificate. He bounced around the room and wants to spend the money on a Hot Wheels car. Silly Tooth Fairy short changed him on that one so I may have to put some money in.

On a sadder note today was his last day at Pre-primary. He couldn't have cared less but his teacher and I had tears in our eyes. I will be forever grateful to this amazing school for all the changes I see in my child. He is a confident and well-rounded boy now who is well and truly ready for Grade 1. All my fears that the previous school had instilled have melted away. He is so happy there and I know that he will love the Prep school just as much.

What's on Durban 11- 13 December

Hi All,

Here is the first in my series of What’s happening in Durban/Ballito this weekend.
I will be posting this every Wednesday so if you have an event that you like to be included please let me know.

Markets

The famous Litchi Orchard Farmers Market will be hosting there Christmas market this Saturday from 9am - 1pm. Great fun with local produce, live music and yummy food. There is a small play area for little ones.

I Heart Durban market will be having one of three Christmas markets on Saturday from 9am at the Moses Mabida stadium. Find all that Durban has to offer at this fun market.

Events

Dinos Alive at the Suncoast Exhibition Centre. Fun for kids and adults alike. Open from the 12 November to the 10 January.

For adult escape try the Adult Pantomime at Greyville Racecourse - Aladdin - starring East Coast Radio's Darren Maule. Running from the 10 - 30 December. Get a babysitter and laugh yourself silly.

The annual kids pantomime will be held at the Elizabeth Sneddon theater and this year you can enjoy the adventures of Puss in Boots.

Enjoy a fun Durban style weekend. Please let me know if you would like me to add activities such as walks or reviews of kid frienldy restaurants.

Mom of the year

This evening I decided to take the kids to ride their bikes along one of the paths in the estate. It was the first clear evening we have had here in a week and I wanted to take advantage of the glorious weather. E rode his big push bike and I pushed Z on her tricycle. The path is just under 1km and goes past some lovely view points. I was really enjoying the walk and Z was being very cute.

At the end of the path there is a steep slope. I told E to turn around before the slope. We are currently having a major listening problem. He got to the top of the hill and at the same moment a walker appeared on the path. I got the bad Mom look and she told me that the slope was too steep for a push bike.

E chose that second to come flying down the slope with his legs behind him. I yelled at him to use his feet to slow down but he didn't pay any attention. I let go of Z and lunged at his bike. I caught the bike but he went flying over the handles. He landed on the tar and instantly burst into tears. I looked like the evil Mom that had just pushed her kid off his bike and let go of her toddler at the same moment.

Personally I felt that a small fall was better then crashing into the bushes at the corner but I could be wrong. The walker tried to help us and she was very sweet about the whole thing. I know she judged me and I can only hope that she is a Mom and vaguely understands. The judging was probably helped by me telling my crying son that he was being really stupid and next time he should try listening to me. Bad MOM.

E has a few small roasties but he was happy to have not crashed into the thorny bush. He has promised to listen in future and I am sure that will last until tomorrow.

Sigh.

Mauritius family trip

In September we went on a giant family trip to Mauritius. A has Mauritian cousins and the point of the trip was to attend the youngest cousins wedding. So on the 19th September we all headed to Joburg International Airport. Crazy drive from Durban for us. I will never take part in that drive with kids again. Should have flown. Didn't help that Z decided to get sick.

A few of us spent the night before the flight in Joburg. I highly recommend the Garden Court Morningside(I didn't get paid for this endorsement). All the kids received an activity pack from the hotel. It was just a few pencils and an activity book but it kept them busy for a few hours. You can book a double room with two double beds which is perfect for families with young kids. Across the car park of the hotel you will find the Ri Stretto restaurant. It's the most kid friendly restaurant I know and I wish we had one in Ballito. The kids all ran to go and play on the mountain of playground equipment. They re-appeared on a regular basis to enjoy their yummy milkshakes and pasta. The food was excellent and the adults could enjoy a few drinks as we only had a short walk to our rooms. Perfect start to a holiday. Just wish we could get rid of the long drive.

The trip to the airport was filled with the usual stress of last minute things, helped by us choosing to park in the long term parking. It really isn't the easiest solution and next time I will pay a car company. Z had spent the night vomiting which made things even worse. Finally checked in after getting the whole family of four siblings, various partners, kids and my in-laws all together. Had to go to the pharmacy air side and buy meds for Z but we did make the flight.

Problem with the flight is it arrives in Mauritius at 7pm. After getting through customs and picking up our rental car it was after 9 at night. If you are going the self-catering route I would recommend an earlier flight. The trip across the island took another hour. We stopped at the new big mall near Grand Baie to pick up supplies. The self catering placed had supplied dinner,dessert and drinks for the first night. We didn't know this but apparently it is common practice in Mauritius. Get very exact directions if you plan to rent a self-catering place as we spent ages looking for our place. There was no number on the wall and it was down a small side alley with a crumbling wall. Poverty and wealth exist side-by-side on the island. Your self-catering place could be surrounded by utter poverty but look amazing inside. Reminded me of Mexico and Thailand. The kids played in the pool of our house until midnight. On a complete high and all so happy to be together. Poor Z was still sick.

The main point of the trip was the wedding on Friday. No kids allowed but we got lucky and found an English speaking to teacher to watch the kids. Great evening and I got far drunker then I have in years. Wine, beer and cocktails plus an open bar is rather deadly. Hitting your 30's and small children to watch both ensure that the hangover is far worse in the morning.

The rest of the trip was spent swimming, hanging out with the French-Mauritian family and exploring the island. Sadly Z was sick for the whole trip. She rallied and managed to have fun every day but she did vomit a lot and ran a fever for most of the trip. The rest of all managed to catch her cough and I am still battling to shake it. Two course of antibiotics and still sick. A is really bad but I think we are all reinfecting each other.

On a more cheerful note here are a few more tips for your trip.
1. The days on the beach seem to blend into one so try and get out to explore the rest of the island.
2. Get going early in the day. We had a large group and only left the house at 11 most days. We missed seeing a lot because of that.
3. The rand is weak. Everything on the island is expensive. The majority of stuff is imported and you will really blow your food budget. Beer was about R25 for 330ml in stores, milk was around R30 per liter. Chicken was the cheapest meat and beef was completely out of budget. We did feed a family of 8 adults and 6 kids but our budget with drinks was over R2000 per day.
4. Eating out in the North is pricey. One meal cost over R7000 for us. I saw burger specials on pub walls that equaled R120 for a burger.
5. I would suggest going on a cheap all inclusive hotel deal, but get out and explore the island away from the beach.
6. Climb the highest point in Mauritians. It's a 7km round trip from the car park. Be warned that the path is often muddy and is fairly heavy going. The last part involves a very steep climb with a rope but the views are spectacular.
7. Find a nice pub with a happy hour to enjoy sundowners with a view.
8. Go to Ile aux Cerfs - our day trip there was the highlight of my trip. I wish we had spent more time there. Go on the drift to the side of the island and relax. There are numerous boat trips to the island but try and get one that allows as much time as possible there.
9. Swim as much as possible.
10. Relax and try not to get sick on holiday!!

Here are a few pics from the trip.

The view from the house the French cousins rented.

A giant family photo.

The giant lilies at the botanic gardens. Pricey to get in but a relaxing morning out.

Sundowner spot

Giant tortoise in the sand.

Umbrellas above the walkway in Port Louis

The muddy walk to the island's highest point

Two photos of Ile aux Cerfs

So would I go again... Yes. Not for a few years and I would do very different style of trip but we had a great time. The kids loved it and it was nice to have a break away from everything.

Ahem... gone again and back again

I have been so busy with work and getting my business blog up and running that I have totally neglected East Coast Life. Whoops!!! I really thought that I had blogged on a regular basis. In reality I have been working on the posts in my head but not writing them down.
So in the news:

E is about to start Grade 1 - cue Mommy tears and panic attacks. My baby boy is growing up. I want my cute little baby back!!! This is a whole blog topic. I will get to it this week. PROMISE.
We had an amazing family holiday with vast numbers of extended family in Mauritius - again this is an upcoming blog post.
Z is starting playgroup at E's school next year - cue floods of Mommy tears. We won't have anymore children so this is last start of school. Looking at the school fees for both of them adds tears of a different kind.

On the work front I have left Elance and Odesk. There is a whole world of freelancing writing jobs on the net and I am having fun discovering it.

A is still working away from home. It still sucks but we are getting used to it. Hopefully he will be here full time soon. I have so much to tell you. I really will post every day this week.

So check in tomorrow for my Mauritius holiday post.

Cheers

It takes a village

We often hear the quote that it takes a village to raise a child. I have always thought of it as a bit outdated and a load of rubbish. Yes, we listen (sometimes) to advice from family and friends but in the 21st centaury we are really on our own as a family unit.

Well I have found my village... sort of.

At the start of the year we moved into a security estate. I will never name the estate here but it is our own little piece of paradise. This particular estate has to be the most family friendly one in SA or perhaps it is just right for our family. We have slowly made friends here but the part that I want to talk about today is the village behind the big walls.

Kids ride their bikes along the road, they go to visit friends, fish in the dams or hang out at the play areas. Parents gather around the playground with toddlers and friendships are formed between adults and children. The kids are safe. It's a step back in time to a simpler life.

I have helped kids I don't even know down the slide or across a tricky path and even on a few occasions to find the bathroom. The adults will smile and help the little people. We all do. We look out for each others kids and it works. My kids are happy and as they grow up I will give them more freedoms to go out and explore. My husband likens this to growing up on a farm. A number of kids here still live by the be home by dark rule.

It's magical. We have found our village and it works. Estate living may not be for everyone but we can't imagine anything else at the moment. I just have to watch the smiles on my kids faces to know that we did the right thing. They have a freedom here that is not often found in the world today.

A positive note

I was reading one of my favourite blogs today and I decided that she had a very good point. Try to find the good in every day and write about that. So I am going to try and find the good in every day. Yes I will vent... part of living in SA but I will try to be more positive.

I have some truly exciting events coming up in the next few weeks. I will write about those as they happen but for now I will just tell you that I am jumping up and down like a 5 year old with excitement. Work wise I am slowly finding my feet and I have a few good offers of long term projects. Anybody need a copy writer or an editor? :)

E cried today because he didn't have swimming with Tim today but I am taking that as a good thing. He truly loves swimming now and is very confident in the water. It's great to watch him finding joy in a sport that I had such a passion for as a child.

Z got invited to her first birthday party.

We are all making friends and settling down here and its a wonderful feeling.

Lots of mush for today!!!

Tomorrow there will be a post on things to do this weekend on the North Coast.

P.S. wish me luck... I have a private Pilates class tomorrow. I feel very fancy but it was actually an offer from the Pilates studio. They will probably tell me my ass is too fat for Pilates:)

Hello Darkness

Today we had general maintenance on our local electrical supply. No power was scheduled from 8am to 4pm. Great idea for people that work from home. I was prepared and my laptop was fully charged. The battery died at 15:45 but I figured the power would be back on in a few minutes. Z decided that 4 was the perfect time to wee on me. So bath time for everyone. Luckily we still had some warm water. 5 arrived an we still didn't have power. Since we had load shedding last night from 4 - 6:30 and I didn't feel like giving the kids a cold dinner again, we headed off to KFC. Arrived back after 6 and the world was still dark. Dearest hubby believes in deep cycle batteries so we could watch recorded programs on TV. Kids watched Open Season and ate their very healthy dinner by solar light. Got kidlets off to bed and happily bathed after the pee incident. 7:30 the power finally came back on. Almost 12 hours after it was switched off. To make everything better we have load shedding from 10 -12:30 tonight. Life in Africa really is fun sometimes. At least I had a better day then some parents here. My kid is at a private school so we haven't been affected by the teachers strike. Our local government school had to shut its doors an send the kids home early after threats from striking teachers at the rural schools. Poor little mites must have been really frightened by the gathering strikers at their school gates. Police and local security companies kept them safe but I am sure it was still very scary. Now they have shut the school for the week to keep the pupils safe. What are working parents supposed to do? Some days, you just want to hang your head and cry. However tomorrow is another day and hopefully things get better here in SA.

Kayla Itsines week 1

So anybody who has followed this blog for a long time will know that I have battled to lose weight after having two kids. I have tried a couple of diets but I really messed up my metabolism by not eating in high school, so diets don't seem to work for very long. A friend posted on FB two weeks ago that she was starting the Kayla Itsines 12 week bikini body challenge. It sounded like a great idea and I liked the 12 week commitment. I got the books and I started this week. The workouts are enough to have me dragging myself down the stairs like an old person every morning. I am so stiff that I can barely move. Today was the end of week one for me and I am slowly seeing results. I feel stronger and happier then I did a week ago. The scale has only budged by 1.2 Kilograms and I have a long way to go but it took a number of years to put this weight on so I am not expecting miracles. I didn't follow the nutrtion plan this week but I did cut down on portion sizes and up my water intake. The plan consists of three days of circuits per week that you can do at home or at the gym. At this point on the challenge there are two days of low intensity exercise like walking and one stretching session. The circuits take 28 minutes and I have found it pretty easy to fit them into my day. I am in pain but I can feel it working and next week I will try to follow the nutrition plan to a greater extent. I will follow this up once a week as most of the reviews I found were from really skinny people that just wanted to tone a bit rather then anyone wanting to lose 20 kilograms. I know I won't be there in 12 weeks but I will be a lot closer.

Term 1

Yikes... the first term is over already. Time really has flown by for us. Tomorrow I am going back to Vryheid for the first time since our move. I know it will be great to see friends and family again but at the same time I don't want to go back. I am so happy here and there are so many fun things happening around Ballito this holiday. Oh well... one of the great truths in life is that you can't go home again. It will no longer be home and I will be the odd one out. Everyone else's lives will have carried on in the same way and we will be different. I will chat and have fun with friends but a few days later I will leave and they will stay. It is all going to be a very different experience. On our lives here, well I have written a thousand blog posts in my head while I am driving but somehow they never end up here. I need to push myself to blog more. So that is my Easter Resolution since New Years didn't really happen for me this year. What I can tell you is that moving here has been a success story for the most part: E is no longer suffering from Asthma on a weekly basis. He hasn't even coughed in months. E is so happy at school that he cried when he had to miss two day of school because of an eye infection. After years of fighting with him to get him to go to school every single day this is such a welcome change. E has developed a love for swimming and asks everyday if he has swim classes. The kid is weeks away from being able to swim and I am so proud of him. He now spends ages under water when we swim and that was always a big fear for him. He still has a few muscle development issues which could be linked to the asthma and a lack of oxygen at times. Swimming, going for long walks in the bush and the huge playground at school seem to be helping. He actually took part in a mini sports day yesterday and he did very well. His teacher believes that he is showing great improvement. He is starting kids yoga next term to help with his core development but it seems that we are on the right track being here. Little Z is loving life here. She goes to the playground at the estate on a daily basis and has proven that she has no fear when it comes to slides. She flings herself down the big slide. Z is a real little adventurer and will find a way to follow her older brother across any obstacle. Z graduated from baby swim class yesterday and is moving to the toddler swim group next term. I am so proud of her. This is something she would not have been able to do back in VHD. She is starting baby dance classes in June and I am sure she will love it. A is still not with us all the time but we live in hope that he will be able to join us down here soon. So its back up to the cold North for us tomorrow. I have packed Z's snowsuit:) The poor bug gets cold if the temp drops below 24 now. Have a wonderful Easter break with your family and friends. I will post again from the place that nobody has heard of on Friday.

Settling Down

Our lives have been chaos for the last few weeks. We managed to rent out our house and the tenants moved in on the 30 December. Christmas to the 30 in our house was insane. I had planned to start packing early but work got in the way. On the morning of the 26th we started packing and sorting. I was physically exhausted at the end of every day and very emotional as our lives got sorted into bag and boxes. I threw out three bakkie loads of stuff and we donated enough items to keep our local hospice store in business for the year. We signed the lease on a 4 bed flat but the living space is much smaller then our house in Vryheid so we had to really downsize. We threw out things that we hated for years but just lived with. Two days of hauling items to my parents house for storage and we had an empty home. The tenants fetched the keys, I picked up a very confused cat and walked away from my home of ten years. We then lived in limbo for three weeks at my parents house. On the 19th January I put E in my car and we drove to Ballito. I sobbed for at least 30 minutes of the drive. The first two weeks here life was on high speed. Buying uniforms, sorting out places to stay as our flat took two weeks longer then planned to be ready(they repainted and redid the flooring) and trying to find my way in a place that had always been a holiday town for me. The day before my birthday we finally got the keys to our flat. We had to move in with a cleaning crew sweeping and polishing all around us. On my birthday I got to wake up to the sound and sight of the ocean. Alright I spent the rest of the day shopping for essential furniture and kitchen items. In the evening we had dinner at the amazing Little Havana. YUM!!! My husband is still working in Vryheid which means that I am a single parent most of the week. That really sucks and I hope he gets a job down here soon. The kids miss him hugely and E gets a bit difficult sometimes because Daddy isn't here. So that's it for now. I will write a post tomorrow on Estate living. Hint...I love it.