NO!

Daniel calming down after a refusal to get into his pajamas.

Notice the blue shoes that he insisted on wearing to bed.

Duck is about to be thrown in our direction from behind his head.

Daniel copying one of us putting a screw back into one of their toys.


Daniel's vocab has decreased to one word: "No!" This comes with a health warning as it is often accompanied by things thrown in all directions and a good old fit.

A trying time indeed as he is really asserting himself - everything is met with a very clear "no." Dressing him takes twice as long as it takes quite a bit of negotiation and games to get him calm forst. I've done the odd "you'll now get dressed" which is not fun but the choice is be late or get dressed now.

The situation is not helped by the fact that he is sick. He went off to the Doctor today who diagnosed chest, ear and eye infections. We got it all before it got ugly and turned into bronchitis. So now it is an antibiotic, cough mixture and eye muti before bedtime and before creche time every day. Luckily they love muti and are always very willing to take whatever is offered. After Fiona picked up the eye ointment at the chemist, she asked Daniel to lie down on the floor so she could immediately administer it (his eyes were rather red). Without any fuss, he complied - much to the surprise of the chemist. So we can count ourselves lucky.

We've developed the habit by giving them Viroguard every day and making it a nice experience. almost as loved as yoghurt time!

Emma is doing fine - she poured sand into Daniel's hair this evening while they were playing outside in the garden.

We are having trouble getting Huggy nappies number 5's. They are sold out everywhere and the stores are saying that it is a factory problem. So we have been buying Pampers which are a little more expensive but not as good as the Huggies ones. We have now found that Springbok Pharmacy delivers a no-name brand of nappies that cost R1,75 per nappy instead of R2.50 (Pampers). Usually the cheaper nappies are just trouble but these seem to work really well - they fit the twins well and so far no leaks. So now we send them to creche in the cheap nappies (let them worry about the leaking) as they also use quite a few a day and then we use the Pampers at night to make sure don't become victims of a leaking nappy. So far so good.

With the decreasing petrol price and a reduction in Nappy costs - we're in boom times!