The Groot Trek

Perhaps you’ve not heard the news recently, but we’ve made the grand decision to move back to the big smoke (Jo’burg...and I have no idea why they call it that!??!) We just find this whole relaxed Cape Town lifestyle a bit of a drag and we’re tired of seeing a mountain every day. Are you kidding?

It was a very hard decision to make but we were sort of forced into it with Jaco commuting to Johannesburg every week now for the past 3 months. We haven’t had much of a family life recently and the kids are growing up right under his nose and he’s not even here to appreciate it. The groot trek begins this weekend when we fly up to of Jhb to start looking for a job for Chris, a house for us, a nanny for Cuan and a school for Milea. I’ve resigned from Frost & Sullivan and finish up after two and a half years. They don’t have an office up there so I’m looking for a new opportunity. There are a few things in the pipeline so please say a prayer that it all comes through.  We both decided that we (read ‘I’ here) refuse to pack up the house again so we’re getting movers in to do it for us. Hooray!

Last Saturday was Milli’s 2^nd birthday and mom went all out to celebrate. We entertained 40 adults and 20 kids just to prove that our house is perfectly built and designed by yours truly to handle such an event. Nogal the weather didn’t play along and it was rather cold, so most of the guests were inside, but it was great fun! We (Chris) decided on a rainbow theme, so we had a rainbow cake, rainbow wands for all the kids, rainbow coloured jellies, rainbow coloured fillings for the croissants and rainbow cupcakes. The tree outside in the road was even decorated in rainbow colours. Mmmmhhh…suits the Cape Town vibe ;) The morning was an absolute blur with all the mayhem and Milli looked like a rabbit in headlights most of the time. She had been so looking forward to her party for the last 2 weeks and kept say “Mia party” (She cannot say Milea yet and so she shortens it to Mia). Even now she talks about her party but I tell her she’ll have to wait another year in order to enjoy the day again.

Cuan now weighs a VERY healthy 9.2kgs and is giving mom a workout every time I have to hold him for more than 10 minutes. The nurse says he's close to being overweight and has a big head! I replied that he requires a big body to hold up that big head, hence the size of the poor child! At almost 6 months old, he is sitting by himself and everything is going in the mouth. Surely some teeth will follow shortly. And hopefully he'll be crawling and walking in no time to slim down his little rugga body. Watch out Os du Randt!!




To to all our Cape Town friends – we are really sad to be leaving you but happy to give you a place to stay if EVER you decide to come to Jo’burg. To all our Jo’burg friends – we’ll be back in skollie town soon to party up a storm and ride the 94.7 now that we have babysitters (aka granny, grandpa, Greg and Heidi)!

Introducing Cuan Jay Cronje

Our second bundle of joy arrived on the 12th of the 12th 2012 at 12 minutes to 12 as planned. So the little guy with the cool Identity Number (121212......) even managed to make his appearance at 12 minutes to 12pm on the day. My elective Caesar was actually scheduled for 11am but the gynae happened to be late and the anaesthetist went to the wrong hospital so we successfully achieved all the twelves in one day....only to be told later by my gran that this was her 12th grandchild. So there must be something in the numbers!


The big man seemed to have permanently made his home inside my womb as the doctors struggled to pull him out. The operation was very physical as I felt them having to tug, pull and push to get him out and eventually the doctors had to use forceps (we have the video if anyone is up for watching it!). And what a big boy he was at 3.5kgs! He reminded me of what Milli looked like when she was just born -my brother commented that he was a “Milli with a willy”. The only distinct difference was his mop of ginger hair! So you can imagine how Jaco is wondering whether this really is his son! We reckon the ginger hair is from my mom’s side of the family and anyway, I think it suits his Irish name! (pronounced like the letter ‘Q’ with an ‘an’ on the end). I was in a lot of pain following the birth with sore ribs, lungs and shoulders and all the reasons not to have another baby freshly came to mind. My 3 days in the hospital were so welcome after such a busy time with the house and prepping for the baby. Milli and Jaco came to visit every day and she ran around the maternity ward like it was a new playground. It was great to have my family down from Jo’burg to spend Christmas with us so there were plenty hands to help and babysit.

Cuan is doing well and growing like a monster. At 4 weeks he weighs half of what Milea weighs at 20
months! This must be due to mommy’s breastmilk and the formula which I decided to feed him as he is always so hungry. He seems to have an insatiable hunger! Maybe he was doing a lot of exercise in my womb and I need to cut him some slack. Having said that, he sleeps wonderfully at night after his bottle and has even gone for 7.5hours at a time! So mom and dad are getting enough rest. Milea has taken well to him and wants to be involved in changing his nappy and helping to burp him. Sometimes she needs to be shown the difference between a loving pat and a hard smack, but we’re getting there slowly. She has also decided that she needs to rally for attention amongst the troops with mock crying, whining and fake coughing. (I think she is going to be a little actress). Her favourite word is ‘uppie’ now so that she can be picked up and held like Cuan is by mom. Why should one sibling get all the love and attention and she not???

2013 has already started off with a bang. Jaco has found a new opportunity at another engineering company where he will be more involved in the business development side of the business rather than purely doing engineering work. He is very excited to be starting there in February after 4.5 years at his current company. He has also made his cycling debut once again (since the 2012 Argus which was the last time he rode his bike) and has started training. The house is coming on with our kitchen about 95% finished. We’ve started tackling the garden – people say they love how our garden is so ‘established’ but it’s just darn right overgrown in fact! I have to laugh when I see Jaco cutting down branches and cutting back bushes as it seems like he’s fighting with all the plants. I am so lucky to be married to the DIY guy, garden boy, best dad, cyclist, ingenious engineer and my best friend all rolled into one! (brownie points please!!).

I’m back at work in March and trying to enjoy my maternity leave amongst all the admin I seem to be doing everyday like applying for passports, opening bank accounts, collecting stuff for the house, doctor’s and clinic appointments as well as a week-long trip up to Jo’burg also thrown into the mix! And ‘some’ people think I sit around and drink tea all day.........I wish! The life of a mom is not the most glamorous with remnants of vomit on your shoulder, greasy hair because you barely have time to shower and mismatching clothes as you just throw on whatever is in your cupboard at the time. And I am writing this at 5am as Cuan doesn’t want to sleep… It can only get better I say!

Happy New Year to All of you!

New Beginnings: A House and a Baby (Any day now)

It’s my second day of my long-awaited maternity leave and I’ve shipped Milli and Nanny off to a playdate up the road which leaves me 2 hours to quickly give you an update of what’s been happening in our lives since my last blog. We’ve been all consumed with the renovations of our new house. We shed much blood, sweat and tears over it, that I would go as far to say that we actually built a new house! It was 3 intense months of getting building permission, project managing labourers on site, drawing up plans of ceilings and various aspects of the house, choosing finishes, deciding colours and above all getting Jaco and myself to agree on what we both wanted for our dream house. I must admit that I’m surprised we still love each other as much as we did before we started this process as it has been very taxing on our relationship – and throw in the fact that I was quite far pregnant and you can imaging the boiling pot of emotions! But through it all I’ve realised that I have the most amazing hubby who is so very talented at everything that he does and admire the fact that he loves getting his hands dirty and doing it himself – whether he knows how to or not, google is a wonderful teacher! I’ve been to Builders Warehouse so many times that the staff know me as the pregnant lady and Jaco asks me which isle to find stuff in! All our efforts culminated in a stunning housewarming party last Saturday where we had 45 of our closest friends to come and enjoy our wonderful piece of land we can now call home. Even though I miss living in the centre of Cape Town, we have plenty of space, a beautiful garden and a lovely entertaining area which we can now share with others. We have been so blessed with this house and I’m sure we’ll enjoy many years of happiness living here.

Stages of renovation of our patio area

I am now 37 weeks pregnant and looking like I’m about to pop out a watermelon. Doc has not been impressed that I’ve been on my feet so much but couldn’t have really changed that with all the moving of house and settling into a new one. Hence the baby has dropped very low very early and is literally knocking on the door to be let out. She doesn’t reckon I’ll even make my scheduled Caesarian date of the 12th December. I’m a bit upset that my boy won’t then have the coolest ID number in history 121212.....but who knows, maybe if I cross my legs and squeeze long enough, he’ll make his big appearance as planned. Jaco is stressing a bit nonetheless and has packed my hospital bags at the front door and made contingency plans for Milea in case I suddenly go into labour before then. We’re still ‘discussing’ names and finding it very hard to come up with one that confuses people when it comes to spelling and pronunciation like that of his sibling. But we’re doing our best to agree on another nightmare of a name that he’ll probably hate us for one day!

Milea is growing up fast and no longer a baby. She is sleeping in a single bed, almost has a full set of teeth, a head of beautiful blonde curls, a cute slim little body with big calves like her dad and a naughty sense of humour. She’s started expressing herself a lot more and understands when we speak in Afrikaans or English. She can now say ‘dada’, ‘yaya’ (for mama), ‘more’, ‘no’, ‘ja’ and ‘hiiiiiiiii’. So she definitely knows what she wants – when it comes to food or play, it’s always ‘more’, and when it comes to mom asking her to do something, it’s always ‘no’! She has started making friends with other kiddies in the neighbourhood after we sent her to a weekly activity workshop down the road where they sing, dance, bake, do creative arts and generally make the kids very tired! It’s been great to also meet other young families and connect with moms as we’re finding that Pinelands is home to many old people in retirement villages. However, I think that is slowly changing, but most annoying when you’re trying to rush through shopping centres or late for work and you’re stuck behind a granny driver!

Milli's model pose!

Not keen on using her own toothbrush, but rather dad's one.

A proud Milli showing me a photo of herself on the Huggies nappy packaging!

I’ve been very busy at work, with 2 big events in August and November so I’ve been working full time and finding it quite exhausting. Jaco has been doing his fair bit of travelling with trips to Germany, the UK, Nigeria, Seychelles and the States. He’s on his 96th flight this year and I’m on my 96th nag of please come home, I need help! Work has been very pressurised with him trying to fit house renovation work as well as normal work into his 24 hour day! He is definitely in need of a rest and we’re looking forward to a Christmas holiday in Cape Town with family. The Schonfeldt family arrives this weekend for a month of Cape Town and the Cronje family are around too so we’ll have plenty of time with them as well as babysitters. Luckily they won’t be staying with us so there will be some peace and quiet. It has been one crazy and exciting year with many lessons learnt and few never again moments (like more kids and renovating!).

We wish you all a very special Christmas period with lots of memorable moments and restful times! The next time I blog, we’ll no longer be a crowd of 3 but a family of 4! We will post photos of our little man when he arrives.

Renovations inside - we totally gutted the place and just left the exterior walls standing.

We wanted an open plan house: lounge on the left, dining room on the right and photo taken from the kitchen

Our new lounge!

Another little Jaco for us

So God has a sense of humour! He so desperately knew that I wanted another little girl (cos they are just the best) and now He's testing me with another little Jaco.  Problem is, Milea is just like her dad so I'll be blessed with 3 Jaco's in the house! On the other hand, it's great to now have a pigeon pair and I can close up shop for good and not have to go through another pregnancy again. The little one is healthy and well with an above average abdomen size which could be due to all the FutureLife I'm currently scoffing. Due date seems to be the 16th December 2012.

Ching, Chong, Cha: Stories from China

Well I’m not sure what I was expecting of China. I don’t think I had really put my mind to it before the trip, although the word ‘different’ came to mind. That’s the thing, we had chosen the cities of Beijing and Shanghai because they were different. We wanted to go somewhere in the world with a different language, culture and people. And we certainly chose correctly. However I didn’t expect there to be so many people (the population is estimated at 1.4 billion people!!) and that it would be so expensive! I mean, everything is made in China right? So surely it would be cheaper there – how wrong we were. In fact, our plan of taking one backpack between the 2 of us with the expectation that we would buy more suitcases to be filled with all our shopping, was very misguided!

So our adventure started off with a midnight flight of 16 hours to Beijing a mere 5 hours after Jaco arrived back from Nigeria! Yours truly had to do all the packing ;) We were certainly the minority on the airplane which we quickly had to get used to as only about 2% of all tourists in China happen to be foreigners. The majority are all Chinese nationals! We had no real itinerary besides finding our first night’s accommodation which we had pre-booked. Luckily the underground system was easy to follow and the street names were in Chinese and English. We managed to find our Motel 268 located in the heart of the city a few blocks from the “Oxford Street” of Beijing as well as Tian'an Men Square and the Forbidden City. It was the perfect location, despite the HARD mattress being less than perfect (especially for a tired pregnant lady after a long day of sightseeing!). We spent the next 3 days walking anything from 10 – 12kms (Jaco refused to take a single taxi) around the city visiting the 3 lakes in the north of the city, the Drum and Bell Towers, the 2008 Olympic Stadium (known as 'the bird's nest'), the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City and Tian'an Men Square. Jaco was brave enough to try some street food and managed to gulp down some fried squid and a sloppy looking eel twirled on a stick. He was much braver than I, who opted for McDonalds and KFC burgers on occasion (PS I would NEVER eat these back home but they were a decent option at the time!).

We found the Chinese breakfast of stodgy rice, tasteless dumplings, wet cabbage, funny speckled eggs and a meat of sorts to be quite unsavoury and opted for Oatso-easy which we’d bought over from SA – thank goodness for that! Generally we enjoyed the rice and noodle dishes but after 2 days of carbo-loading meals, we were dying for a simple sarmie which was no-where to be found.

We joined a tour-group for a day visit to the Great Wall, which included visits to a Jade (stone, and also a hot favourite for #2...) and silk factory where they try and get you to buy all their goods. Our tour took us to a less touristy section of the wall and we had to take a ski-lift up to the top of the wall. Disappointingly, because of all the smog and pollution, we couldn’t see the wall snaking into the distance on the mountaintops (which is what you imagine after seeing all the pictures of the wall). It was a great experience to ‘climb’ the wall – literally you are climbing up steps which lead very steeply upwards and then very steeply downwards again – I think I had the impression that the wall was flat – but definitely not the case!

Next big city was Shanghai – China’s financial capital and home to the country’s tallest building. We took the liberty of taking the 5 hour bullet train to Shanghai to get a feel of the 300km per hour train and see a bit of the countryside. It was like being on the Eurostar or on an airplane: a food compartment and hostesses coming down the aisles selling food (larva-egg noodles) and drink. We treated ourselves to 2 nights at the 5 star Sofitel and it was great – soft mattresses, slippers, gowns and English TV! And of course a gym for Jaco! We had decided to save all our shopping for Shanghai. After realising we weren’t able to afford the stuff from the high street stores, we headed for the back street markets where you would end up bargaining for anything up to an hour on a pair of shoes (which would probably have cost less in South Africa). The city is divided by a large river with the financial district on one side and the colonial-styled buildings and mainland on the other. We took a ferry between the two and visited their tallest building at 470m. The cars far down below looked like tiny ants – it was quite impressive to see. The next couple of days were quite rainy and overcast and between shopping and hunting for our next market, there wasn’t too much to see. In fact, I think we overstayed our holiday by about a day and in the end I was dying to come home and see my Milli Moo!

The journey home was LONG – a 2hour wait at Shanghai airport, a 2 hour flight from Shanghai to Beijing, a 6 hour wait at Beijing airport. Then a 16 hour flight from Beijing to JHB, a 3 hour wait and lastly a 2 hour flight to Cape Town. I have never been happier to land on solid ground and of course to see my little bundle of joy. Unfortunately she was less than impressed with me for leaving her for a week and it took a few hours for her to warm up to being with mom again! Ouma loved her time with Milli and they became the best of friends – just shows how easily and quickly a replacement can step into mom’s shoes!

3's a Crowd, 4's a Family!

So the cat is out of the bag and I might as well make it official! I'm 13 weeks pregnant! It came as a big surprise I must admit and you're probably questioning why I say that since making babies is not accidental most of the time. Jaco has been out of the country lately more so than in the country so we didn't think it possible ourselves. But obviously we are just really good at it and so voila - Milea will have a brother or sister come Christmas time. I just love celebrating special occasions, so this year I will have a little baba for a Christmas pressie as the tiny tot is due on the 23rd December. I hope it arrives on my doorstep with a pretty bow and beautiful packaging. Mmmm trying not to think about another operation again....

Since I did the home pregnancy test (on my own since J was away!) and it turned out positive, my mind suddenly started telling my body I was pregnant. I have been feeling really nauseous ever since. Definitely different to when I was carrying Milea - they say all pregnancy's are different. I've been craving foods that I don't normally eat or drink such as oranges, niknaks and glasses of milk! And boy have I been packing the food in, so I have a sneaky suspicion that a little boy is brewing in there.

Other momentous news is that Milea celebrated her first year on this earth recently (25th May 2012). As you know I love celebrations and so decided to throw her a big party! Now, having a winter baby is not great in Cape Town because parties at the park or beach or garden just don't work with the uncertainty of rain. So what was meant to be a relaxed affair of planning became a stressed and crazed time of trying to find an indoor venue to cater for 1 year olds and younger, as well as the old fogies who wanted tea and cake. So at the last minute, we decided on the Cape Milner Hotel in Tamboerskloof and served a high tea which was fantastic. Unfortunately Milea was a little out of sorts, with too much attention and photo-posing, so she was miserable and grumpy most of the time. Thank goodness Granny and Grandpa were down for the weekend and Ouma too, so there were all hands on deck to try and keep her happy and smilling. The lyric "Its my party and I'll cry if I want to" definitely rang true this time! She was thoroughly spoilt and we're slowly handing out 1 toy per every couple of days to try and keep the interest up. Thank goodness for new toys - even I was getting sick of her other ones!

Exciting times ahead as we plan to leave for China this Friday. We have no idea what we're in for as we travel to Beijing and Shanghai to experience a bit of the East. With no signs in English, few people even speaking English and every living thing walking off our plates, I'm a little nervous but trying to keep positive for our 'babymoon" (as opposed to a honeymoon). Jaco's mom has kindly agreed to stay at our place and look after Milea so she will hopefully not realise we're missing for 9 days. It will probably be the last holiday that the 2 of us go on alone for the next 20 years so we're going to make the most of it. We're so looking forward to the hot weather of over 30 degrees everyday after this cold snap we're having.

Otherwise, life is good. Jaco is working hard as usual and gyming alot. He's hardly touched his bike since the Argus but intends to get back into it when the summer swings around. I'm trying to find motivation to go to gym in the afternoons after work, but yawning every 5 minutes and feeling ill are not great motivators so any other excuse normally wins the battle. We've started taking Milea swimming at the heated pool at the gym and she loves it. She squeals with delight and watches all the other kids swimming. After just 2 times, she has learnt to hold onto the side of the pool by herself. Bu she sometimes forgets what she is doing and starts sinking under the water and gulping in all the water and  has a mini freak out. Its so lovely watching her growing up and discovering nw things and experiences.

Pitter Patter of Little Feet

I think Milea is an overachiever even at this young age! At 10 and a half months she discovered that she can stand and has even started toddering along and walking! So cute to see her do the little shuffle - short, small footsteps with her shoulders and arms lifted up and ready to save herself if she plops down. She is SO pleased with herself as she squeals each time she starts walking. I suppose it doesn't help that we scream with encouragement every time she does. Hope she doesn't expect that sort of response all the time..... soon I may be less than impressed that she is walking around so much - no more chill time for mom anymore;-)

So my folks were here for Easter and the whole CPT side of the family moved into their Camps Bay house! It was wonderful having them spoil us with home-cooked meals, babysitting and some quality time. They are the doting grandparents of note! Wish they lived down here so granny and grandpa could be more apart of her life (she keeps forgetting them when they leave). We also took advantage of the beautiful weather and did a Table Mountain Hike with Milli. She loved sitting on Jaco's back like a little mountain goat - and Jaco loved the extra exercise in having to carry her! Everyone climbing commented on the fact that she was climbing and we (actually Jaco) were so brave to carry her up there. Mom and babs took the cable car down while dad tried his best to beat us to the bottom. Guess who won??? (answer at the bottom...)

Our other big sporting moment these last couple of weeks was swimming the 2 Oceans Half Marathon. We were both winging it really with Jaco having done 1 run this year and me trying to convince myself that I had plenty of muscle memory from the Half Ironman in January! Although the weather was far from perfect, it was such a fantastic run and so great to do it together. Jaco was a mini Bruce Fordyce and kept running off cos he had so much energy and I was obviously too slow for him. But we stuck it out together and thank goodness for that cos he (literally) pushed me along the last 3 kms to the finish. We slushed across the muddy finish line in 2hrs 20mins and then froze our butts off in the cold weather. No time to revel in the glory as we sprinted back to the car to hotbox it big time in order to warm up.

So life has been a bit sucky the last couple of weeks as Jaco has been travelling so much for work - Seychelles, Germany, UK and Nigeria all in 4 weeks! Mom and Milli have gone into auto-mode and adapted to a single mommy routine which is full on! I am so glad that its nearly over and we can be a real family again - which means dad is back to cooking duty ;-) In the meantime mom is very busy with Milea who loves unpacking the grocery / Tupperware cupboard, climbing into the shower, licking the pages of the touchy-feely books and discovering that the toilet has a lid that lifts up and down. Maybe only having one parent around is starting to effect her after all....??!?

After a day at Moyo's

I love licking my books

(Answer: Cablecar of course! He can't run THAT fast!)


Oops! You caught me in the act!