Tag Archives: parents

30 Seconds with the Folks and the Rest of a Weekend My Life 04 JUL 2011

Had a thoroughly enjoyable evening of boardgame fun again on Friday night, though not with the usual suspects mind you.

Actually, now that I come think about it, I have been rather lax in keeping you updated with the more mundane aspects of life in the Lotter Clan, like how Chantelle and I spent her last weekend off (two weeks ago) pretty much in Bellville for the whole duration of the weekend, gorging ourselves on some fun experiences with both the family and friends. That particular Saturday afternoon we were being hosted by the Montgomery Stronghold clan for a big Monty’s side of the family get together, with the highlight of course being the heavily pregnant Chane and Jasper making the trip down from Loeriesfontein to spend the day with us around the family table.

The evening then saw us join up with the friends group at Ryan’s stronghold, where it was time for another braai, Trish’s renowned two layer cake, and of course a very heated, taxing and excruciatingly fun session of the classic Scattegories! And after a night back at the Montgomery Stronghold on their guest futon, it was a quick break away from Jessica for Chantelle and myself, as we left her in the care of her capable grandma and grandpa, and went to watch Kung Fu Panda 2 at Tygervalley. Lunch time we were back around the table for the big water blommetjies potjie which had been whipped out in honour of Cheryl’s side of the family in the form of Peter, Gail, Nicholas and Angie who were down for a visit.

And yes, it was Father’s Day, and yes, Jessica did give me my first ever father’s day present, consisting of a big bag of biltong and a special box of chocolates! Lucky me :)

Anyway, enough of the past, on to this weekend just past. While our planned big friends boerewors and boardgames get together had fallen through for the Saturday afternoon, our Friday evening summoning of the two sets of Grandparents had not, and so our house filled up with Monty, Chery, Mom and Pops as we set about putting Jessica down after her first, and very successful I might add, day at Baby Steps daycare, before tucking into the delicious giant chicken pie with pumpkin fritters which Chantelle had lovingly whipped up for us.

Tummies full, it was then on to a big first for our combined group: A game of 30 Seconds with the folks. We split into two teams of three, Chantelle, mom and dad on the one side and Monty, Cheryl and myself on the other. From there on out it was no holds barred, with Cheryl and Monty quickly getting the hang of the game, meaning that soon the house was filled with tears of laughter and exaggerated hand and feet movements, as things heated up and the battles of guess and explain became ever harder.

Chantelle’s group took the first match and after an epic stumble right at the post from their team on the next outing, our team took the second, setting us up for the grand finale – but only after we had finished tucking into the chocolate pudding mom had dragged along for dessert!

Sadly, I have to report that Chantelle and Mom (dad was called away for some work duty, so he was relegated to the kitchen and would occasionally call out an answer or two for them) managed to pull a win out of the final hat, with them narrowly pipping us at the end and taking overall honours for the evening!

Loads of fun that simply soaked up the hours and saw the two sets of grandparents only leave our dark little patch of Gordon’s Bay a half an hour before midnight! Talk about a lengthy Friday night visit! :)

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And so the Quest to Become a Father Begins My Life 19 APR 2010

So here’s the big new coming out of 45 Nagua Bay then: Chantelle and I have at last decided that the time is now and that we would like to become parents – meaning of course that in other words, the baby-making quest has now officially begun! :)

Thinking about it, it is a really scary thing to have signed up for. When and if the baby becomes reality, there are just so many unknowns, fears and uncertainties that I’ll have to deal with on a personal level, questions that I’ve already addressed, sure, but questions that take on a whole lot more weight once the idea of being a father becomes a reality.

Will I be a good father? Will I be capable of loving my child? Will I be able to care for my family? Will I be able to make sure my marriage survives the expansion to family unit? Will I be able to provide on a material, intellectual and spiritual level for my child and wife? Will I do the right things? Can I actually do it? How will I protect my child? How will I teach my child? Can I handle the lifestyle change that comes with having a child? Can I overcome my own issues so that they don’t pass on to my child? Will I…..?

The point is that this is a huge, monumental, colossal decision. And we’ve spoken about it and we’ve made it. It’s so exciting, but so scary at the same time.

But the matter of the fact is that the time is right. I turn 30 in three or four weeks time. Chantelle turns 30 at the end of the year. By this stage it is apparent that neither one of us are career-driven people, so we can’t use that as an excuse to put off becoming parents. We don’t live dangerous or unstable lives that would prohibit having a child. If we have our children now, then we can experience the best years of our lives with them, the years when we have already gained a wealth of experience and knowledge, as well as have the material means to easily support a family and best of all, when our children are growing up we will still be around to meet our grandchildren.

The time is right, we both know it.

But I’ll reiterate. It. is. scary.

Such a big decision, but in the end a surprisingly easy one to make. Despite all the fear and wondering that comes with it, both Chantelle and I WANT to be parents. We want children. We want to grow a happy, loving family. And the time is now. Simple as that.

So like I’ve said before, the baby-making quest has now begun. Be it Jessica or Ethan that arrives first on the scene, I can’t wait. It’s scary, but I simply can’t wait.

It’s moving towards a new chapter in my life.

And it’s the best decision I’ve had to make in a long, long time! :)

Ultimate Bobotie Showdown! My Life 26 JAN 2010

Seeing as we hadn’t done it for quite a bit, last Thursday evening Chantelle and I invited our two sets of folks over for supper with us in Gordon’s Bay, with Chantelle eagerly piquing her mom’s interest by declaring it to be a bobotie evening for a change.

Now for those of you who don’t know, bobotie has traditionally been one of those age old disputes between Chantelle and Cheryl, with each claiming that theirs is by far better than the other’s, meaning that this was at last a great setting to try and settle this feud once and for all.

(And what better timing than just before each is to submit their bobotie recipe to the Sarie’s SA’s Best Bobotie Competition anyway?)

Luckily for her, Chantelle just happened to be off on Thursday, thus giving her plenty of time to prepare the pad and cook up her storm in a pyrex dish, meaning that by the time I got home everything was pretty much done and all that was needed now was the arrival of the parentals – who naturally, well… arrived.

Plenty of wine, chatter and catching up led us eventually all the way through to dinner time and once again Chantelle had completely outdone herself, as proved by the lovingly taken table shot second from the bottom in the list of photos below. Seeing as it was such a beautiful evening once again, we ate supper with half of us outside and half inside, but with all the doors flung wide open in order to capture the best of the weather while Gordon’s Bay reigned in its infamous wind for a change.

Once sated and all sitting with a big grin on our faces, Chantelle promptly announced that it was time for the taste-testing challenge to commence and hauling out Cheryl’s sample which had co-incidentally been baked the previous evening for the Montgomery clan supper, she set about digging out her sleeping mask and creating the anonymous samples which she then duly administrated in a blind taste test setup to each and every one of us present, including Cheryl herself.

Now to cut a story short, Chantelle took the honours in a very one-sided 4 votes to 1 showing, with the single vote for Cheryl’s bobotie coming from Cheryl herself, all of which lead to a ridiculously funny victory dance from Chantelle and a sigh from Monty who realized that sleeping on the couch once back home was now very much a rather strong possibility.

Needless to say, I was rather proud of my wifey! :)

(Not that she was quite finished yet mind you. After all the victory celebrations, out came the coffee and cake, the cake being one of the most richest, most decadent chocolate cakes I’ve yet to come across, a cake that quite simply belongs on one of those glass platters sitting there in an exclusive little coffee shop at the top of Kloof street. It was seriously that good!)

Chantelle showing off her skills in the kitchen

The world's most decadent chocolate cake, fit for kings and a most worthy dessert item. Truly you could only manage a single piece of this rich monster...

The evening's bobotie-centric spread - I don't think anyone could disapprove.

A closeup of the bobotie dish that was to once and for all, settle the age old dispute between mother and daughter as to whose bobotie was the best! Naturally the daughter took it! :)

Weekend in Review (19-21 October) My Life 22 OCT 2007

I’m sitting here in the office on a rather grey and overcast Cape Town Monday morning, and cant help but smile if I think back to the enjoyable weekend I’ve just had. It started on Friday (as most weekends generally do), where I enjoyed a productive day at work, cramming in a lot of programming and other generally fun stuff. From there it was off to gym where I had a good super circuit workout and then it was back home to await Chantelle’s arrival.

We met up with Retha at Ocean Basket in the Waterfront a little later, where we enjoyed a delicious supper (though I wish they could afford plates instead of a crocked up old pan to be honest) and good conversation, followed by a decadent ice-cream filled sugar cone from Dodge outside. However, I now need to watch my pocket if we ever go to the Waterfront again Chantelle has just discovered Haagen Daz has moved in!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early (well, only I really had to get up shame, C suffered from insomnia the evening and apparently didn’t sleep a wink unlike me who snored so loud I kept the pigeons off the balcony), all ready for our big adventure up Lion’s Head. It was our trial walk, a test to see a) whether or not we would make it up okay, and b) if we make it up, can we invite people with us next time around. The weather couldnt have been any better, with us enjoying a morning of glorious sunshine, touched with a gentle cool breeze just when we needed it. We had a great walk up, ambling along and taking it all in at our own gentle pace. We eventually reached the top after an hour and a half of walking, ate our snacks and then descended, taking around an hour to get back down.

lion's head cape town

An added bonus was that both Chantelle’s ankle and my knee held out just fine on this expedition. It got a little sensitive towards the end of the walk, but was strong enough to make it just fine, meaning were definitely going to be doing this more often, especially now that summer is finally upon us!

From there we drove straight through to a house in Fresnay (it’s in Sea Point – I didn’t know that, I thought it might be on the Cape Flats to be honest), where Retha is currently house-sitting for one of her tutoring clients. Crazy, skimpy-pajama-wearing-in-front-of-guests-teenage-dropout-that-comes-with-the-house aside, the place Retha is sitting is absolutely gorgeous. Its one of those places that oozes money on the inside, and really, it isn’t often you get to experience such high class living outside of Top Billing (Of course, you’ll note that I only talk of the inside the outside is rather kak. I’ll pick a nice suburban home like my moms any day!) Once wed finished playing with the wonderfully textured carpets littering the home, we tucked into a delicious avocado and toast breakfast while cooling our feet after the long walk.

Chantelle’s lack of sleep the previous night was taking its toll on her and we went back home where I tucked her in bed, stole her snacks and continued to play some Final Fantasy X-2 for the afternoon. However, it would seem that the karate chop to the back of her neck didn’t work and again, she just couldn’t grab any shuteye.

Saturday evening was of course dominated by the Rugby World Cup Final. Also, we had sneakily organised to make Saturday evening the night where Chantelle and my parents meet each other for the first time. Monty (Cs dad) organised a feast fit for the kings (featuring the most succulent and tender fillet I have ever tasted!) and the meet and greet seemed to go down exceptionally well. Stomachs full, we shifted to the lounge where we settled down to the main course for the evening the Final! I’ll sheepishly admit to being a bit bored by it, particularly the lengthy aerial ping pong sections and secretly wished the English had had their try awarded so that the game might have opened up a little, but man, winning the cup comes first and I’m very proud that our boys have finally done it again! A tightly contested game in which defence mattered the most, and our boys went in and did the job that was required of them. A great victory and a very proud moment for South African rugby. Well done Bokke!

(Damn, South Africa turned into one big party zone following the win the streets remained noisy well into Sunday morning!)

Not that we spent much time celebrating though Chantelle had decided to take a sleeping tablet just in order to get some rest, and the thing worked like a bomb (I was almost afraid I would have had to drag her up the steps to the flat!). But what matters most is she slept through the night (even with all the cars hooters going off all around us, and woke up fresh and ready to go on Sunday morning.

Which, believe it or not, we actually did. We managed to pull ourselves out of bed for church in the morning and were even so energised that we planned on going up Tygerberg Hill in the afternoon which was eventually dropped when we couldnt wake up from our long afternoon nap! :P We did a bit of visiting with the folks in the evening, dropping by Cs parents place to catch Idols (*yuck*) and steal the leftover chocolate cake pudding (*yum*) and then popping around to my parents place for some burgers and to pick up my racing bike which Chantelle plans on now using in Gordon’s Bay.

So yeah, this past weekend certainly had its share of ups and I can safely tick this one off on my calendar as having been another thoroughly enjoyable and busy weekend :)