McDonald's commitment to families and reading, one book at a time!
McD's and us. We have a long history with McD's. It's always been a go-to spot when the energy is low, and we wanted something quick. It's also easy on the budget. The Happy Meal toys have been a big draw-card, for the children and for the mom. That's why we are so excited about the newest launch: There is now a choice between a Happy Meal Toy OR a BOOK! How awesome is that?
The new Cresta Family Room facility is a place I want to keep to myself. But... It would be selfish, and Little Miss won't be needing it that much any more. (I wish there was such a facility when she was a baby and a toddler.)
The Cresta Family Room is the oasis all parents want and need while they are shopping. A safe free haven for 45 minutes available to all to go to when you need to.
- There will be a concierge looking after the facility to only let parents with children through.
You are able to:
- Change the diaper
- Heat up food or a bottle
- Breastfeeding
- Playing
- Resting
- Family toilet (which won't be inaccessible because of workers or selfish adults using it!). This one we will also still make use of!
- Breathing space for the little ones (AND big ones!) This too!
- Cool "prize" to the little ones after a shopping trip!
I was invited to the launch of the Cresta Family Room, but that's not why I am sharing it here. I think it is my duty to notify all parents about something that should be in all shopping malls.
Cresta Family Room launch
Play area at Cresta Family Room
Virginia Bester, General Manager of Cresta Shopping Centre
Nikki Bush, the parenting expert, had a few good pointers (Commandments) when taking children to a shopping mall:
Nikki Bush about smart shopping as a parent
(OR: Parenting on the run)
1. Avoid rush hour if possible.
2. Make shopping an outing after nap time. Children need to have outings. Make shopping an outing!
3. Please work around your children's routine.
4. Be prepared like McGyver. Never take a hungry child shopping. Let child eat before taking him to a restaurant.
5. Keep refreshments on hand.
6. Hunt in pairs - mum, partner, etc - to help with watching, carrying, distraction.
7. Have a plan when shopping. Need to be strategic! Include children in planning. Get them to Memorize when 7 or 8. What shops did we visit? (Use their grey matter)
8. Remember to take a break. Just be with family.
9. Set rules/boundaries/scene before reaching the Shopping Centre - scenario planning as CEO of family. Predictability which gives security. Rewards that can dangle before kids. Go to pet shops, play area, toy store. Do not have to buy. Window shopping is fun! Need to learn to wait. Bubble gum machine also fine.
10. Need to be the boss of the show! Parents feeling stressed, guilty but not building emotional intelligence. Use your tone of voice! Calm. Assertive. Lower your voice! Keep your sanity and keep it secure! Stranger danger - opportunity to teach children. Do not play hide and seek!
According to Nikki Bush it is entirely possible to have quality time with children while you are "a parent on the run".
She inspired me to look at my shopping experiences with Little Miss in a different light! It is not always easier when they are bigger, because they want to have a say! About every-thing!
(Or is just us?)
Check out the Family Room at the Food and Entertainment Court at Cresta. I hope the signage will be up, but it is into the same passage as the general toilets. (You will know when you find it!)
We had a fantastic time at Silverstar on Saturday. They have a great line-up for families during Easter, from 19 March to 3 April.
There are the kid's fun on the Square, with jumping castles, a kiddies' train, a Maze and the interactive water fountains. The Easter Bunny are going to make an appearance each day, with movies on the Square, and an Easter Market.
The best of all! The entertainment on the Square is FREE!
It is wise to also take an extra set of clothing and a towel. No kid can resist the water fountains, as well as the jumping castle with the slide into water!
So much fun!
Little Miss got me to go along into the Wind Castle-thing (see below)! It is very safe, and even the littlest enjoy going up... and DOWN! And up and DOWN again!
Hoots of fun! (Five times for Little Miss!)
The things you do for your child!
(Totally worth the screams! From me!)
There's also The Magic Company with arcade games, Laser Tag and Ten Pin Bowling that keeps them entertained. And movies! (Not for free!)
The Magic Company fun
This is a great way to spend the day with the family!
We will be going back! Disclaimer: The family got an invite for a breakfast at Vigour & Verve at Silverstar on Saturday, 30 tokens at The Magic Company, Easter eggs and hot dogs at the food stand on the Square!
The rest (and best fun!) was of course for free on the Square!
Chairman of RMHC South Africa, Reggie Skhosana and Deputy Chairperson of Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, Nana Magomola conduct a ribbon cutting ceremony to inaugurate the site handover of the Ronald McDonald House to be built at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.
On 30 September the first Ronald McDonald House was launched at Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital. The Ronald McDonald House will provide a home-away-from-home for families of children receiving lifesaving treatment at Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital. The building of the House in Parktown will be completed with the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital in December 2016.
As a parent who just went through an ordeal with our eldest daughter who was in an accident, I am even more supportive of such a venture! We had to sit and wait for a whole day at the hospital for our daughter to go for an operation, and afterwards we had to wait to hear about the success of the operation. We also wanted to talk to her before leaving the hospital that Friday night! Because she stays an hour and half away, we could not drive back and forth. Luckily we could organize to stay at a friend of The Student's place. That was a lifesaver! And it helped to visit her the next morning very early and to see that she was okay.
We only had a weekend of hell, but what about families who have to stay and wait for days and weeks?
I can only imagine how much appreciative parents of sick little patients would be if there was a facility nearby where they could recover and relax while waiting for their children to receive their important treatments!
I had a question about the payment expected from families. The answer: "The families will stay at the house for free to take care of their children who have been admitted to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital to treat severe illnesses. The understanding is that it will be by referral from the doctors and surgeons."
This is great news!!
To donate towards the building of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, SMS “GIFT” to 40301
SMS cost R20. (Terms, condition and administrative costs apply.)
I was invited to the launch of the new season of Clover Little Big Cook Off at the Longmeadow Piano Lounge and Restaurant at Montecasino Boulevard.
The Clover LBCO was such a huge success last year that they are planning to build on the winning recipe of last year!
Martin Kobald, Coco Reinarhz and Zuraida Jardine (photo supplied by Clover)
The new season will air from June 2015 and include another 13 main episodes with celebrity chef judges Martin Kobald and Coco Reinarhz and fellow judge and host of the show Zuraida Jardine. The show will be on SABC 3 at 16:30 on a Sunday. Entries for Season 2, as well as daily cash prizes will open on 15 January 2015.
All you have to do to win a daily cash prize of R1000 is to buy two Clover products.
The show features parent and child teams competing a-la Masterchef style. Zuraida Jardine spoke about how valuable the interaction between parents and their children are when participating in a cooking process, and not only on the television show, but at home as well!
It was a lot of fun for some of the children yesterday making cupcakes, and painting their aprons.
Cupcake creations done by the children
Apron painting
Children with their snack creations
Making milkshakes
Milkshake tasting
I was impressed to hear about the Mama Afrika project. Mama Shirley was there with some of her kids and to say thanks for the empowerment the project has given them.
Mama Shirley
Clover has been running the Clover Mama Afrika project for over 10 years. It follows the spirit of Ubuntu – ‘I am who I am because of who we all are’ – and upholds the values of community, growth and mutual support. The ‘Mamas’ make up the heart of the programme and they pass on their learnings to care for the most vulnerable members of society such as orphaned and abused children, those impacted by HIV/Aids and the elderly.
“The Clover Mama Afrika programme teaches the Mamas relevant and useful skills who in turn transfer these skills to fellow community members.” says Sherian King, marketing manager for Dairy at Clover. “As of December 2014 we had 40 Mamas caring for over 15, 500 children collectively and more than 2 500 elderly. It is a remarkable success and one that we are incredibly proud of.”
The Mamas and their families learn about the importance of cooking and making food together in theirdaily activities. Adults and children alike learn about the nutritional values of food while learning to make bread, a staple ingredient in their mealtimes, as well as other great baked goodies. Each Mama learns how to make other nutritional meals to keep her families healthy and happy, with fresh ingredients pulled straight from their food gardens. The self-sustaining Clover Mama Afrikacommunity is taught to grow their own food in their food gardens, as well as other basic life skills including, sewing, quilting, flower arrangement, hairdressing, crocheting, beadwork, art, basic first aid and how to manage finances. All activities bring the community not only intellectual wealth, but also financial as each activity can bring income into the centres.
Clover is also to release the new The Clover Little Big Cook Off Recipe Book, with recipes from Season 1, tips and hints in how to make cooking easier and making the most out of Clover's products. I got one of these! (Very nice and easy recipes !)
Clover Little Bog Cook Off Recipe Cook Book
(photo supplied by Clover)
"It will be an interactive space for consumers to search for new recipes, build shopping lists for desired meals and share favourite recipes with friends and family."
The Little Missy believes that all birthdays should come with party packs included.
She checks out the party packs when we arrive at a party, and it takes a bit of convincing before she leaves it to the end of the party.
She asks for party packs even when we celebrate a 40-year old birthday, and yesterday her Granddad of 74 also had to explain where the party packs are.
We had such a chilled weekend, and celebrated a belated birthday, which we missed because of the accident on the highway in December.
Missy got to blow out the candles
We also celebrated another year yesterday with my Dad who is 74 now!
He looks great and he can still go forward, but says that it takes a bit of motivation in the mornings.
I hope we celebrate many more with him!
During each celebration we become much more aware of how sad it is to not have family nearby.
We miss the family members who are on different continents, and we now also have a Student who is off doing her own things at Varsity!
It is not the same being able to communicate on Skype and Facebook and emails! (Just saying!)
And it is not getting and feeling better with time passing... NO!
Coming up for some air, before talk-talking on!
And the rest of the weekend we got a barrage of Missy talk. Non-Stop!
She still has the pink house in the clouds, with two dragons and three dogs. Her little sister and two brothers are staying there. Someday she might invite us there. There are two trees nearby the house that they had to cut down, because a grown-up used too much toilet paper in her loo...
An art work from the weekend
(1 of 100, give or take)
The toddler
has four grandmothers. Two great-grandmothers are included in this number; one
is 90 years, and the other one turned 85 just recently.
We went to
visit Ouma K this weekend! The Toddler loves the idea of having four
grandmothers! She tells my father often that she has more than one
grandmother...
It is a sad
state of affairs that we do not see Ouma K often enough... She lives about an hour
away, but we do not get enough opportunity to go and visit! She celebrated her
85th birthday the previous weekend, and we missed it...
Luckily we
could go yesterday.
Happy
birthday, Ouma K! The Toddler is extremely lucky to know you as well!
Merging new families are a totally different ball-game than only merging two lives. It is not only the two lives, but the lives of children that are being merged into the package deal.
WITH the extra baggage of ex-partners and ex-periences!
Luckily I married a very responsible adult who made it easy for us to work through the pitfalls of a second marriage. I agree that it also was much easier for me having the child, and that he had to make much more of an adjustment...
My husband showed me how it should be done! I am very grateful to him and that he showed my daughter how a husband and father should behave in a marriage.
There are a few things that help when before plunging into an undertaking of this nature:
- Make sure you agree on how you are going to handle the children.
- Lots and lots of talk on discipline before the time.
- It is much easier to leave the discipline to the biological parent.
- My husband taught me that the non-biological parent needs to get involved 100% as a parent.
- The original reluctance of the children dissipates when they feel that the other person cares for them, and takes on the role of another parent in the household.
- Both partners need to be adults.
- Always show a united front to the children. (Handle your differences away from the children.)
- Handle all children equally. E.g. when you give money to your own children, also give the same amount to the other children.
- Love them all!
- Try not to bad-mouth the ex-partners in front of the children.
- Try to make sure that the children get a space of their own and feel part (welcome) in the home.
- Involve all the children in the decision-making when it concerns the whole family.
- Attend all the functions and award evenings of ALL the children.
- Love them, even though they are not your own. Love is a verb, and not an emotion! It is a decision!
- Spend special time with each of them on a regular basis.
- Enjoy them!
The fairy tale ending in the Toddler’s life revolve around the princess finding her Dad!
Whenever we read or see a story about a girl / princess meeting and marrying her prince, the Toddler exclaims: “Sy het haar pappa gekry!” (She has found her dad!) No doubt as to who is the most important in her life at this stage!
My dad has been in hospital, and we visited him twice this weekend. He has a very bad upper respiratory infection, but it seems he is on the mend again...
The Toddler has been very interested in this whole hospital story, and she has been babbling non-stop about the “doctors fixing him”...
After her first visit she exclaimed: “Hy soek sy Ouma!” (He wants his grandmother!) (My mom was not with him when we went to visit the first time.)
The Toddler sees the world as fixed when the family unit are together...
Hope you all get your “Dads” this week! (Wink smile!)
I also would want to spend it with the extended family. I would ask my sister and brother to come home from overseas.
We would have a final party! Probably a braai here in South Africa.
There would be good food! (Woollies would be perfect. I would not want to spend the day in the kitchen)
Red wine! The very best! I would sip on one glass… (Too much, and I could miss the end! That would be pathetic!)
I would tell my family I love them! (There should not be too much tears!)
I would call up all my friends, because they would be with their families. I would tell them I enjoy and love having them in my life.
We would all be discussing about what-will-happen-next! Heaven? Hell? Nothing? The discussion topic that would definitely take centre stage! (We were discussing it this morning when the topic came up.)
I also think that we should try to have that final party somewhere in nature. Where there are trees and clouds and we could feel the sun on our faces.
We would watch the sun coming up, going down, and up again for the final day…
That would be my second last day! With the people I care most about!
Break-away in Dullstroom in Mpumalanga. This is Paradise!
I am of the opinion that if a couple can survive a holiday together, they can do life together! Nothing magnifies differences in couples more than being 24/7 in each other's company, and getting to agree on activities to do...
Major conflict points:
- Packing
While busy packing and getting everything into bags, Hubby starts putting it into the car already. The stuff that gets remembered later on, all lands up in 100 little bags that needs to be carried and sorted at the holiday destination. It drives me crazy!
- Driving
It is very difficult to be a back seat driver when I am not allowed to even whisper a warning! He has seen the problem already! Best to catch a bit of shut-eye...
- The holiday
My best holiday involves around books and sleeping. Not always fun activities for the rest of the family!
Getting to agree on activities can be a logistical nightmare...
- The Personalities & quirks
The Toddler runs around like a wound-up mouse, and wants to do This/No, that!/No, No, This!
The Teen wants to read, and she reminds us that she's got homework to do... We can't stay out for too long! But then she complains about not having any "inspiration" when sitting down to doing it. And then not doing it!
I want to sleep! Sleep again! And read!
Hubby conjures up winning recipes for the braai (barbecue). We have had trout, as well as pork fillets with olives already! (I am lucky, I KNOW!)
But, we get to listen to the 100-days cough! COUGH, cough-cough, COUGH-GOUGH! Some of the consequences of that work conference three weeks back. (Enough already!)
-
Luckily we are on holiday in Paradise. Dullstroom is a beautiful little town set in between lots of trees, trout fishing dams and Heaven, of course! I love the quiet solitude of the surrounding area and the fire at the end of the day!
Except for all the nigglies we are really having a great time!
We have survived a number of holidays already... Major accomplishment! It is a good indication of us staying together for years to come! (Big smile!)
It is actually the toddler’s 3rd Christmas, but she was only 4 days old on her first Christmas in 2008.
This year she knows the word “present”, and she knows what to do with a present! Taking off the wrapping and actually looking at what is underneath... The previous year the gift paper was enough to occupy her for hours! We are not getting away with less this year!
Not that we mind! Not at all! There is nothing nothing that beats the excitement of giving a present to your own children...
Christmas time traditions are an important part of creating a family culture.
Some traditions we are upholding:
Giving of presents to each other. Yes, we are guilty of the Christmas gluttony of consumerism, but it is nice to be able to spoil each other! (We are really grateful that we are able to buy something for each other.)
We spaced the toddler with regards her presents. We did not give all of it in one go. We also
have two family gatherings where she gets presents from the family. (The lucky little fish!)
The Christmas tree – we put it up in the beginning of December, and the Christmas lights are flickering each night on the tree. The toddler told us regularly: “Kersboom” (Christmas tree)
Spending time with family. We had family gatherings on the 24th and 25th, with both sets of grandparents! The toddler loved playing with the nephews and niece, and she got a lot of attention from her grandparents!
It was a great time and we had lots of fun!
Today is a bit of a letdown. We look forward for so long to these days, and then it has passed already! It leaves me with a bit of “Is this all/IT?” That’s why next year we are not going to be here! Holidays is better when you are not staying home, but spending it somewhere else!
I hope you had a great festival time, and that all your expectations came true?
We saw my brother two years ago, just before the toddler was born. He has never met the toddler. He is now living in London and we keep in contact through IM mostly. Our family lives on different continents, with my sister and her husband also being far away in London.
It is not and never will be same to have your family staying so far from you. Although we have all the electronic means to be in contact constantly, it does not equate to the real thing. To be in each other’s company still is something that I think we value not enough. Until we have to talk across thousands of kilometres...
My brother was worried that the toddler would be shy of him, or that she would not respond to him. She does not know him at all.
But luckily his fears were unfounded. Mieka liked him immediately and enjoyed his company. We had such a great weekend with my brother.
Mieka says his name Wynand, pronounced as “Mytand”. Translated from Afrikaans it means ‘my tooth”. We have been asking her countless times to say it. Because it is so very funny!
We have seen before that she likes certain people and responds to them with a very easy acceptance. Maybe it is true that the little ones have an inherent ability to detect the true nature of a person? What do you think?
In any case, the toddler enjoyed his company and we had a lovely time. We had lunch again today at Silverstar Casino with the music water fountain show. In December last year Mieka was crying when the musical water fountain played. Today she was also frightened, but at the end of our visit she was enjoying it!
The previous weekend we were stuck without any electricity for four hours on the Saturday night.
It was a perfect time to sit outside, enjoying the sunset, and braaiing (barbequing). We lit the candles when it got dark.
We came to the realization how we do not need anything to be able to enjoy ourselves. Mother Nature gave us the most beautiful sunset, and we had each other for company! Dries and me, with the teen and toddler. With the dog in-between, of course! We played each other songs from our cell-phones after we had our meal.
We did it again, this weekend; on Friday evening. (Although we did not have any problems with the electricity.) Dries made us breakfast as well on Saturday morning. It was glorious weather all round, although we are beginning to feel the pinch of autumn arriving.
We need more times like these... Spending time with each other without any distractions!
Photo: Mieka on Friday evening, walking around in the garden.
Mieka is still in the developmental phase of being the centre of her own universe. Everything revolves around her. She is nearly 16 months old now!
A quote from Practica:
“She believes that the sun came up today because she woke up and that it will set this evening because she needs to go to bed.”
Dries said to me this weekend that our household truly revolves around her. It is not something that we are experiencing negatively, quite to the contrary. We are enjoying her and how our lives have changed because of her. We are planning our days and our activities around her.
She also dictates how we spend our days. The joys of parenthood! (No sarcasm here!) So far it has worked out well for our little fairy – her world is our world, and we revolve around her! Shame – it is not going to stay this way... (Smile)
We got our photos back from dear friends of ours. We are very lucky to have a photographer as a friend!
Dog training: picnic with the toddler The toddler is sick again... (we started Sunday with a vist to the doctor). She left her first marks on the kitchen cupboards! Braai with the extended family, again! It was a great weekend! :D It is really hot here. Strange for this time of the year. Usually it starts getting colder when my birtday comes around. (We won't mention the sleep deprivation because of the sick toddler. ;-) )
Birthday breakfast at Fashion TV in Ceder Square
Braai (barbeque) with my family
Dog training: picnic with the toddler
The toddler is sick again... (we started Sunday with a vist to the doctor). She left her first marks on the kitchen cupboards!
Braai with the extended family, again!
