The days just sort of morph into each other when you have newborn babies in the household. Much like the newest member in the family, your days seem to be consume, expel, wash, and sleep in a cycle. You just try to keep the dishes maintained and a clear path through the chaos so that no one phones and reports you to child services.

This week the domestic helper came back from her year end holiday, so we at least started at ground zero. I was back at work from Monday so I was busy watching training videos and taking courses online. Sometimes while rocking a baby or keeping Amelia company while she had her meals (I work from the dining table while at Lily’s).

We managed to go out for brunch last Saturday. I wore my other new dress. I really love it, it is big but not ridiculously so, it is an interesting pattern, it is cool and it is comfy. More importantly I got it in the sale!

We went to The Pottery on York Street as poor Amelia had a bit of cabin fever from being trapped inside with us exhausted adults all week. The Pottery has a fabulous playground for the little kiddies, complete with a kitchen, swings, sand pit, slide, climbing frames, and trampoline. It is so fun. Their little courtyard has such a lovely display of flowers as well.

Amelia took a shine to the rings hanging down and with a bit of coaching from her Dad Amelia was swinging back and forth in no time.

We ordered food and it was really delicious. I had an iced mocha coffee which was an iced coffee with a drizzle of chocolate and ice cubes. I loved their iced mocha which was just simple, I do not like it with cream or ice cream, the one at The Pottery is just coffee and milk poured over ice and there was a copious amount of crushed ice.

To eat I had a Rosti stack with Bacon.

The Rosti dish was gorgeous! The rostis were crispy but not oily, there were slices of grilled aubergine slices, fried mushrooms, avocado cream, fried cherry tomatoes, all on a bed of baby spinach, then I added the bacon. Lily also had the rosti dish and added salmon and a poached egg to hers. Josh had the Potter’s Breakfast and Amelia had the French Toast with bacon.

Little Reuben Eli slept peacefully in his push chair the entire time, he was an angel. After a short time Trevor rang to say he was at their house so we bundled up our gear, paid and headed home.

Somehow Trevor and Mills decided that it was a day to try the kite that Amelia had received for Christmas.

They had little success despite it being such a windy day. She and Trevor always have such fun as Trevor has an amazing imagination and endless energy.

I always talk to Amelia about the power of Nature and our ability to harness that power when needed. When the wind was being uncooperative she said ‘Come wind!’ and held her arms up to the sky. I thought ‘that’s my girl!!’ So we both started shouting ‘come wind!!’

The wind, she did not come.

Trevor, Amelia, Lily, and Josh headed over to the park across the street to try and have more lift off success with a longer runway but alas, it was a hilarious expedition but not a success in kite flighting. It did however burn off some energy from Miss Priss and let her get some tiredness loaded for her nap.

So back to the power of words, I do believe in the power of words, however I also believe that words do not have power unless we give them that power. It is purely the intention behind the word that holds the power. For example, the word ‘Fat’ really gets people wound up but I can call myself fat, it is just an adjective, it is just a descriptive word. But some people get very annoyed with that word and tell me I should not use it, even for myself? It is just an adjective, not a label? Obviously I would not be happy if someone else called me fat and I respected their opinion, but if it was some random stranger then I would not give a toss. Some believe that by naming something it gives it power (for example, there are a lot of opinions on diagnoses such as autism and the detriment to diagnosing vs. just forcing your child into the mainstream). For me it gave me the power of understanding, finally seeing why I am the weirdo I am. It also allowed me to make concessions for myself to enable me to keep regulated.

I think about the words I speak softly into my grandchildren’s ears when I am holding them: ‘Elisi loves you’, ‘you are loved’, ‘you are kind’, ‘you are beautiful’, ‘you are loving’, ‘you are clever’, and other affirmations. It brought to mind the things my aunt used to speak into me when I she thought I was asleep, horrid things about my mother, my family and my future. I wonder how many of those words took root and were planted and led to self-destructive behaviour? All of these toxic things can take root, grow and wrap around and choke out our normal thought processes.

I thought about unspent energy; energy repressed or held in. Can that be the butterfly in the equation? You know, the Butterfly Effect? Like how a tornado can be created by a butterfly flapping his wings from miles away? Can unspent and repressed energy create a huge ball of fury that will wait in the dark, and then hurled energetically against a target even without any current impetus?

But then I also thought about nicknames. We have Amelia who is called: Amelia, Amelia Ray, My Love, Mills, Millie Pip, Millie Poop, Millie, Cookie, Miss Millie, Milly Vanilly, Little Miss Priss, Stinker, Cutie Patootie and all manner of things on a whim.

We have Reuben who we are still trying on nicknames for, but so far he has been called: Reuben, Reuben Eli, Bruvva, Brutha, Lil Bruv, Rube, Rubes, Ruby, Roo, RED, Lil RED, Big RED, Lil Man, Old Man and all sorts.

And we have Bree whom we only call Bree or Miss Cheese. She is such a serious wee child she does not seem like the nickname sort, she is such a funny little thing. She has now learned so many new skills that she is not as easy and portable as she was, she is no longer content just sitting still and watching the world, she wants to participate. We will be babysitting this week and I am very excited to see her.

Amelia is sometimes so like Lily that it is almost disconcerting. I see baby Lily in the turn of Mill’s face, the little tufts of her hair, her hairline of baby hairs at the front, it is lovely but also a bit sad. Amelia is older than Lily was when the kids went to live with their Dad, so there is some element of healing in being with my grandbabies. Bree is a carbon copy of Caitlin too. Sometimes we need a do over in our lives.

I think about the sounds that permeate the backdrop of our South African baby’s lives. I sat outside holding Roo and watched a large Burchell’s Coucal fly across and garden, land in the tree and then twill it’s unusual sound. I love listening to it especially as it means rain will show up sometime within the following 24 hours. It is also called a Rain Bird.

I love listening to the background noise of South Africa. We also have a large bird of prey near Lily’s garden which screeches at least once a day, setting the sparrows off into a frenzy of useless frenetic movements. There are groups of mousebirds who shriek at each other and fly back and forth across the garden, long tails flying behind them. I watched some tiny little birds drink water from Amelia’s little pool. I have also seen a few lizards here of different varieties. I also saw a fat something or other about the size of a large cat, creeping along on the other side of the fence. There were rabbits that appeared when Amelia was born but they were all prey for a big cat. There are often wild buck roaming on the golf course. There is wildlife all around us.

The other thing I need to be aware of is of Mills copying my various ‘habits’. For example, this week I was standing waiting for Amelia while she went potty and I was unconsciously stimming. Until I saw Amelia deliberately concentrating on touching the tip of her middle finger to the tip of her thumb I was not aware that I was even moving. I saw then that I was rapidly repeating this movement with my right hand and she was avidly watching me and trying to do it herself. It is interesting when the things we hide are admired by those who admire us! Why do we hide our stims?

The other thing I was thinking about was my weird dream sequence. I have spoken before about my beliefs about us existing in a million different parallel universes? Maybe that is what my dream sequence is? Could I be astral travelling? It is futuristic but not really. More George Jetson than Waterworld. Each night I enter this ‘dream’ and join the same characters in the same place doing similar things (as if it is our job or something?). Maybe this is just 2046 Lisa that I am popping in to visit when asleep? Or if the different time dimensions are not time driven, but rather ‘decision tree’ driven, then the answer may just be that ‘some Drag Queen from Vegas built all of the transport vehicles’. The decision tree thing is like Sliding Doors: where one movement takes you one path in life and the other takes you another path in life. Do both of those versions of us exist?

I think about a lot of random things. That does not mean I am always very effective at explaining them.

Last Sunday we took the babies out to the local bike track in George. It was so lovely! It is a very basic environment but it was fun for kids of all ages (well there was nothing except trees above to interest Reuben). There was a playground and several swings and climbing frames. There was a bike track with small jumps or larger ones and a sandpit for the littles.

They served food at the self-service kiosk at the edge of the park. They did breakfast, toasted sandwiches, chips, salads, various drinks and milkshakes.

I had an iced coffee and a toasted pulled pork sandwich. Lily had a peanut butter milkshake, Josh had a power smoothy and Amelia had an adorable pink milkshake which she loved. Lily and Josh both had breakfast and Amelia had a toasted cheese. It was a nice chilled way to spend a Sunday.

It was nice not to have to get dressed up, we just wore pants and T-shirts as it was very hot. I wore sunnies to hide my lack of makeup and red lipstick to distract from the ordinary palette of the rest of my face.

It was a lazy day. Amelia was back at school on Monday so Josh had her bathed and off to bed early. She was in a great mood the next day and went off happily into the new school room with her friend Leah who arrived at the same time we did. Lily dropped her off and myself and Reuben waited in the car. We shot off home straight away and we picked her up in the afternoon for swimming. Amelia was so proud that she had managed to not mess her new princess panties all day! We watched her swim and Rubes stayed in his pram quite happily.

Lily cooked chicken enchiladas for us adults for dinner and they were delicious. Amelia was fussy and ate a chicken leg but not much else. We were all off to bed earlier than even usual (we are all usually in bed by 8pm at the latest).

On Wednesday Lily had a friend come to visit with her own baby who is 3 months old. I am glad that Lily has other mommy friends, that is so important. In the afternoon, Josh and Lily took Roo to the doctor so I was in charge of Amelia. Trevor came over to assist after he finished work. In fact Trev did everything while I sat on my arse. We all had ribs and milkshakes and Trevor headed home.

On Thursday I landed back in Cape Town. Norm collected me and we ran a few errands then went home. Norm had washed the bedding, the dogs had been groomed that afternoon and I showered before bed. It was just heavenly being back at home but the next morning I missed the smiling faces of my grandbabies.

Friday was Lily’s birthday. My baby girl is now 35 and a mother of 2 beautiful children. I took her shopping when I was there as a gift. I also bought some crudites, dips and canapes for her and her siblings to eat in a celebration. Caitlin arrived there Friday afternoon and Trevor was popping over too.

I am doing nothing this weekend. I am exhausted beyond life. I have already pottered about the garden and moved my fairies around that were out of place. I made a little village with the new fairy houses.

I put out my new solar lights from my kids. I hung one by the swimming pool.

I struggled to find a place where the other one new one will go, the support stick at the bottom is so short you cannot put it in the ground or it falls over as the top is too heavy for the length of the support. I hope it can get enough sun to fire it here.

I wish you all a good weekend and a week ahead.

Until Next Time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox