Category: Vinay

Puberty

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Vins is 11 now and starts middle school in August. How that happened so fast, I don’t know!

Anyway, two weeks ago they had their ‘puberty talk’ in school. Boys and girls are separated, and given ‘the talk’.

When I got home that afternoon I asked him how it went. He said it was very uncomfortable. I asked him if he had any questions he wanted to ask me or LagosDad, he mumbled ‘no’. Basically, he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

The following week I was talk to a friend. Her son is the same grade as Vin and also had ‘the talk’. She told me about her chat with him that day. They asked him what he had learnt. He mentioned a couple of things and said ‘sex’. They asked him ‘what did you learn about sex?’ I can’t remember what she said he answered, but he did say this:

“Do you know what Vinay said? Vinay said: ‘Now I know why my parents spent the weekend at Eko Hotel!'”

Hahahahaha! Oops? I mean, it was our anniversary…?

The Third Baby

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When Booni was a few months old, I told LagosDad that I wanted another baby (I must have been out of my mind). He said ‘no way’ right away. But I kind of tried to persuade him a few times over the next couple of years.

The thing is, even though I kept telling him I wanted a baby, I wasn’t sure if I did. I just kept saying I did.

Booni is 4.5, and Vins 8.5 – they’ve both grown up so much. We’ve gone on nice holidays together – just the four of us, enjoyed days out and kind of get along a bit better now. We are just getting our lives back really, aren’t we?

We spent the long weekend with friends. Some of them have babies, some 1 and 2 year olds. I look at them, and I think, ‘Ohhh, so cute!’ But I’m also thinking, ‘THANK God I’m past that stage!’

Having said that, the third baby is coming. Our new puppy is arriving next week!

What’s in the UK?

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We are watching X Factor, which I love. Unfortunately we are a few weeks behind the UK, but we (Vins and I) watch it quite religiously.

So right now, we are watching and Vins sees an X Factor app being advertised and wants to download it. The following conversation ensued…

Vins: We should download the app, mama.

Me: It won’t work here because we’re not in the UK. Do you know what the UK is?

Vins: Yes. 

Me: What’s in the UK?

Vins: Amazon!

Weren’t You Just Born?

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Weren’t you only just born?

Didn’t I just hold you in my arms for the first time?

Wasn’t I only just in awe of your first smile?

Wasn’t it only yesterday that you had your first taste of baby porridge?

Wasn’t it only yesterday that I felt your first tooth coming through?

And when did you take your first steps?

Wasn’t it yesterday?

It feels like yesterday…

But no.

Seven years ago today, I held you in my arms for the first time and knew that I would love you with all my heart, forever.

Happy birthday, my darling.

Don’t ever change – for anyone. No matter how crazy you make them!

I love you!

The Perfect Game 

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Vins: Mama, I can’t find Snakes and Ladders. But I’ve got another game we can play. It’s perfect!

Me: Oh yes? What is it? (My heart started to sink as I thought about another game with his Pokémon cards)

Vins: Let’s play… “Order me stuff from Amazon”!

Me: Errr…

Vins: So we go on Amazon and you have to order me whatever I want!

Me: Errr… No.

The Magic of MJ

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Vins has finally discovered the wonder of Michael Jackson! We listen to music a lot at home and in the car – but he’s never really sung along or tried to dance or anything. He’s never been interested.

However, one of his friends bros has made him listen to a few songs and he hasn’t looked back since!

His favorite is the Jackson 5’s Blame it on the Boogie. He found the video and lyrics on YouTube and watches it over and over again. I regularly hear him singing along from the other room when he thinks no one can hear him. It’s actually very cute.

He asked me to print out the lyrics for him. So I did. Then he asked for the lyrics of another song. And then another. And again, he’d find the videos on YouTube and sing long. And… Even trying to dance! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that video.

The other day I asked him something about the moonwalk and told him we should watch the Billie Jean video. We were watching quietly when Vins suddenly said, “How come he keeps disappearing?” I replied, “Vins, Michael is magic!” He looked at me, unconvinced, “Magic? Michael Jackson is magical? How come?” I said, “Listen to his songs! See how he dances? And how so many people love(d) him? The man is a legend!” Vins agreed wholeheartedly. Then he said, “What about Prince? Is he magical?” I looked at him, a bit surprised that he brought Prince up, and said, “Of course he is!!” Vins asked, “Who was more magical? Prince or Michael Jackson?” I said, “You can’t compare them, Vins. They were both magic. Both legends. Both geniuses.” Vins accepted that. Then after a second he said, “What about Justin Bieber?” I looked at him in disgust and said, “What about him?” He said, “Is he magical?” I replied, “Vins, Justin Bieber has a few songs I like, yes. But there is absolutely NOTHING magical about him!” Vins was quiet for a minute (finally) and then said, “You know, you’re right. The only magic thing about Justin Bieber is he can make girls like him!”

This kid really knows what’s what, doesn’t he?

Lunch With My Bros

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Last week I told Vins that I wanted to take him and some of his friends out for lunch during Easter break. I carry around a lot of guilt when it comes to his social life. I don’t make as much effort as some mums make when it comes to arranging playdates and having his friends over to our place. We just kind of wait until he’s invited somewhere. This is not good, I know. And I need to step up my game a bit.

Anyway, so as I was telling him about the lunch thing and he stopped me mid-sentence. The following conversation ensued:

Vins: Mama, mama – wait. Just wait. On Wednesday X has invited me for a bros lunch.

Me (unsure if I heard correctly): Oh. What’s a bros lunch?

Vins: You know! A bros lunch!

Me (trying not to laugh): Vins, I don’t know what a bros lunch is!

Vins (getting impatient): Mama – you know we’re all best friends, right? Well, this is lunch with all the best friends together!

Me: Ohhhhhhh. Okay, that sounds good!

Seriously – where does he learn this stuff?

Sleepover

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Last Thursday a friend rang me and said that our boys (they’re in the same class) had decided that they wanted to have a sleepover at the weekend, and would Vins want to go…

Wow… A sleepover? To be honest, I was kind of excited about having the TV to myself for a whole evening. But – would he be ok? Would he cry when it was time to sleep because he wanted to come home? Would we get a middle of the night phone call asking us to pick him up? I wasn’t worried about safety or him being in any danger – my first sleepover was with his friend’s mum (many moons ago) when I was the same age! I knew he’d be fine.

I figured I’d speak to Vins and see how he felt about going. For all I knew, he could have been excited when they talked about it at school, but then thought about it some more later and changed his mind. Anyway, he was quite insistent that he wanted to go, that he would be fine and that he was going to have the most awesome time! He was so excited, I can’t even begin to explain…

Come Saturday afternoon, I dropped him off at 5pm and tried to say goodbye. I also tried to get Vins to say goodbye to Booni. But it was futile. He was off, running around the house with his friend in wild abandonment.

LagosDad and I decided to stay in that evening (actually, I decided to stay in and his plans fell through <evil laugh>) just in case that middle-of-the-night phone call came. My friend messaged at about 9.30 pm to say they were having a ball and didn’t show any signs of going to sleep yet!

I woke up the next morning and the first thing I thought was, “Hey! He made it through the night!”

Can you believe it? Can you believe that my Vins made it through a sleepover in someone else’s home? Without either parent or yaya (nanny)?

He really does infuriate me sometimes, but I’m so proud of him!

 

 

Gone Again

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I was looking for a post I wrote about 18 months ago. A post about the children’s nanny and the fact that she was away/had been away for about 6 months…

Anyway, so that time has come again. Annual leave time.

E (the children’s nanny) left yesterday for a month.

It all happened rather suddenly. She wasn’t meant to go until the summer, but something came up and she had to leave this month. While I spent the last two weeks worrying about the children and how they’d cope, worrying about how I’d cope and worrying about who would do the laundry (I suppose I’ll have to be a bit proactive!), I realized that this was actually a good thing. At least I can have a summer holiday too, then!

Anyway, so the post I was looking for had to do with Vins’ bedtime and the fact that I had to pat him and sing him to sleep. Not sure if you remember that one?

So last night, when it was bedtime he asked me to put him to bed. I said, “Of course I’ll put you to bed!” I thought, “ARGH!”

I tucked him in, he closed his eyes immediately. I patted him for a few minutes, but didn’t sing. It looked like he was asleep, so I stopped the patting and studied his face (in the dark), hoping he didn’t suddenly sit up and ask to sleep in my bed. After about a minute, he opened his eyes, looked at me and said, “You can go now.”

So the time has come. The time when he doesn’t need me (or anyone else) to sing Dream A Little Dream to him. And he doesn’t need to be patted to sleep (finally). He even stayed in his own bed (until 4.45am).

He’s really growing up, isn’t he?

Lovebirds 

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So this morning, Vins walked in on LagosDad and I, ummm, being “intimate”. Oops.

Anyway, he looked at us, rolled his eyes and said, “Lovebirds!”

Then he grabbed LagosDad’s phone and left.

Where does he learn this stuff?!