Growth spurt

Its amazing how quickly kids shoot up, and a mini fashion show is a great way to see which of those clothes are still fitting. We put on some music and my daughter tried on various outfits and did her model walk across the imaginary stage. The incentive was a prize for the best outfit, she was competing against herself but that didn't matter. At the end we had managed to try on nearly all the clothes with not one complaint, normally we won't have made it past outfit 2. The pile of outgrown clothes was by far larger than the clothes that still fit, and she is now wearing 9-10 even though she is only 7. It must be all those vegetables that she so loves that are making her shoot up - yeah right!

Getting kids excited about soccer

With a weekend of soccer having been upon us, it was quite a challenge to convince my daughter that watching the soccer is a lot more fun than watching Hanna Montana on Disney Channel. Her knowledge of soccer is extremely limited, knowing only about Manchester United - which every boy in her class seems to support, much to the irk of my partner who is a die-hard Liverpool fan. She seemed quite interested in the beginning of the Confederations Cup, when I explained about Bafana Bafana and talked about the various players, and she loved the shouting and screaming when someone got a goal, doing her own little victory dance. But after various 90 minute matches her enthusiam was definitely waning. In a last ditch attempt I scoured our area looking desperately to purchase a vuvuzela, but there were none to be found (a missed opportunity for many shops as it did not seem like I was the only one around trying to buy one). In the end she entertained herself by cutting pictures out of The Sunday Times while waiting for something exciting to happen when she could scream and shout and do her celebratory jig.

Image courtesy of makaraba, visit them to buy online.

4 sleeps to go...

Yes school holidays will be soon upon us, for those of you in Jozi check out jozikids.co.za, for some fun holiday ideas.

Adoption option

With the statistics for adoptive parents making up roughly only 1-2% of the overall parents surveyed on the Parent24.com parent survey for 2009. I was wondering why in a country with so many children needing homes, that the rate of adoption is so low. In fact it seems that the rate of adoption in South Africa has decreased, from 2194 in 2003/2004 to a mere 1913 in 2007/2008, view the full stats from the Department of Social Development. This number is minute if you consider that the population of South Africa is over 44 million people. This is indeed worrying with the latest news from the Sunday Times about many childrens organisations facing closure due to the recession, Rowan Philip reported: "Child Welfare South Africa told the Sunday Times it was in “crisis” and that there would be a “catastrophic impact” on half a million children if charities did not receive a bailout from the government." One can't help but wonder what the future holds for many of the most vulnerable of South Africa's children.

Takalani Sesame (South Africa): Pollution Song

It’s true, when kids are quiet it’s time to worry!

After fifteen minutes of silence from the room, the warning bells went off. And for sure, my daughter was up to no good - one of the daschunds was wrapped up like a mummy in a blanket which she was holding in her arms like a dolly, playing mom - the poor dog was not charmed! Check out this site for great tips on how to teach kids to be responsible for their pets.

The dreaded hair salon

The dreaded three-weekly visit to the hair salon went surprisingly smooth yesterday. An hour of dread-twisting, usually filled with constant moaning, requiring much bribing with sweets and chocolates, was made easier by just playing a simple game with pen and paper. A square box with dots, which you then draw one line at a time trying to get a complete box, or home as my daughter would say, in which to write your initial. I was amazed at how such a simple game could keep her occupied for so long, and there wasn't one complaint the whole time. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this ages ago.

Flopped flop-proof cake

My mother is a great baker, she herself will admit that baking comes much more naturally to her than cooking. In all my memory I can only count her baking disasters on one hand. Last night I was able to come home a little earlier than usual and thought it would be a nice treat for my daughter and myself to make something yummy. I was tempted to buy a ready-made cake or one of those cake-in-a-box varieties and just decorate it, but my daughter wouldn't let me off so easily. I phoned my mother for her recipe for vanilla sponge cake, bought all the ingredients, some caramel and a very cute container that had four different types of sprinkles. Alas, only half the tin of caramel was left by the time the cake was ready for decorating - my thighs scream for mercy. Our first disaster came when seperating the eggs, one had far outsayed its recommended time in the fridge, and boy did it reak. After a quick dash to the nearest cafe, we were back on track. We followed the instructions but didn't have a blender, so we mixed as best as we could by hand. We used the convection setting on the microwave to cook the cake. Baking time was 20 minutes, but after that the centre was still runny. I put it back in for another 10 minutes and still no luck, after a further 20 minutes it was time to admit defeat and make the best of a bad situation. We scopped the still moist centre out and cut up the remains of the cake. It was still delicious but domestic godess i am not - I don't think I inherited that baking gene.

But mom I'm bored!

“But mom I’m bored!’ is my daughter’s regular chant - she is an only child, and as such I need to double as parent and play mate - chatting to dollies, sipping imaginary tea and running around finding fabulous hiding places. But as a working mother, with not much free-time available, sometimes the urge to let her zone out in front of the tv, instead of playing together, is a tempting one. However, with a little planning and research there are some great ways to keep little hands busy. This blog is a diary of the activities and fun we get up to. Please add your comments and share your fun ideas.