Annual Update

So for all the good intentions in the world I've not been keeping up to date with the blog, life tends to get in the way. Well, truth be told it is work and parenthood, but then that is my life at the moment.

So I was soundly scolded by Petro and Audrey at Mainsail for not updating the blog and not even sending them some pictures, so before I have to face their wrath again here are some pictures.

So for those who I have been to 'slap-gat' to inform, Jessica Kathleen Ann Paverd, was born on 27 January 2009, weighing 3.75Kg.


We had Mike, Jill and Jake staying with us. They were stars! Helping take of care of Chris and generally doing anything to help us out. Like making sure I didn't drink alone, thanks Jill! The picture below is Jessica, Chris and Jake shortly after Jessica came home.


Eventually she decided to open her eyes for a reasonable length of time and take in the new world around her.


And once she got used to having her eyes open, she was quick to sit regally and hold court making sure everyone catered to her every whim.


Chris had his 3rd birthday at the end of April and this picture of Sean (da Godfather) and Chris on the jumping castle.


At Chris' birthday party, Jessica was fascinated by her cousin, well I'm not sure if she was staring in admiration or shocked fascination. I guess we'll never know....



And to end off a picture of me with the growing brood.



I would promise that I'll be posting more often, but lets be realistic, it'll probably be another 6 months, so stayed tuned.

Sprog 2.0

It has been many months since the last post. I thought that we would kick off the new post with a piece of big news, Jenny is pregnant, Sprog 2.0 is currently under development, expected release date is 7 February.

We decided to tell only a very few people that Jenny was pregnant during the first trimester. Everything went well for the first trimester and we went for the 13 week scan where they test the baby's development. One of the tests is for Downs Syndrome. The physical examination gave the baby about a 1 in 2,500 odds of being Downs. However, the next day after they had done some blood tests the odd change to 1 in 35. We were quite shocked, it was a huge increase. We decided that we wouldn't abort and so we waited until 19 weeks (2 weeks ago) and had an amnio.

In an amnio they take some fluid from the birth sack. This fluid was then sent to the lab for culturing and they did a full DNA analysis. The DNA analysis can tell with 100% certainty if the baby has Downs Syndrome. This process takes about 2 weeks. Tuesday night we received the results and the baby does not have Downs Syndrome. We were elated to put it mildly.

We intentionally decided not to tell family and friends about the possibility. If the baby was going to suffer from Downs Syndrome, then we wanted to come to terms with it before discussing it with everyone.

So the last couple of weeks we have had this hanging over us and have not been able to get excited about the pregnancy. It has cast a shadow over our lives and would explain to many people why we have not been as excited as we should have been about the pregnancy.

That is now all in the past and we will now be able to start making plans. I'm also going to start post more regularly, although given the fact that there are no antenatal classes, the nursery has been set up and we have most things we need, there may be a lack of material to work with. So forgive me if there is limited entertainment.

We do have two big sources material though: Chris, our WoMD (weapon of mass distraction/destruction) and the renovations.

Chris is now talking, far too well at times, he's getting almost as cheeky as his mother. He has started play school and is loving it. He has adopted one habit we are trying to break (before it breaks us) and that is his habit of waking up at between 4:30am and 5:00am. My sparkling personality only wakes up at about 7:00am, so between 4:30am and 7:00am, I'm like a bear with a sore paw.

The renovations I'll go into in the next post, in brief they are going to allow us to have a bigger living space, keep my office separate from the house and also allow me to continue to work from home for the next couple of years at least. The plans are awaiting council approval and I'm getting quotes from builders. I'm dreading the next couple of months, I've never heard of anyone saying they enjoyed having builders on the premises. Oh well, I'm sure we'll laugh about it one day...

Some new beginnings

Having looked back, it has been close to 6 months since I last posted anything. Eventually in disgust Jenny posted some picture last night and put me to shame. So I spent many hours last night soul searching and I've come up the following excuses:
1. It was because of the apartheid legacy that I was unable to post.
2. The celestial alignment was out of synchronisation with my aura.
3. The Internet was broken. Eish, it was broke when I got it!

Ok, seriously, for those who don't know I was diagnosed with glandular fever in July, which I may have had for a while. It was not your typical glandular fever where everything swells up, so it was not immediately obvious. The main effect was that I was absolutely exhausted all the time, I had difficulty staying awake when driving and was living on a diet of caffeine. If I could have main-lined it I would have.

Jenny was fantastic and took over a lot of the strain and allowed me time to rest and get better. I was given strict instructions to sleep whenever I felt tired, the mid-afternoon nap became a regular feature of my day!

I was getting over that and business went crazy, but in a good way. I've been incredibly busy and struggling to keep my head above water.

So why the title of 'New Beginnings'? Well, as from January I have employed my first employee, Taonga Mukandakanda, a Zimbabwean, will be starting work. He is going to helping with the day-to-day system administration. So that is one new beginning.

The other a perhaps more significant beginning is the fact that I have started to listen to audio books whenever in my car, most them 'self-help' books; Rich Dad/Poor Dad, The Secret, Power of Positive Thinking, Tony Robbins courses, etc. They haven't so much changed my outlook on life as reminded me of the way I used to look at life, as a result I'm far more positive and much more focused on where I want to be in the future. I'm starting to formulate plans on where I want to go in life, instead of just letting life take me any which way.

November was also the beginning of my count down to retirement, I plan to retire in November 2017. I probably won't, but I plan to be able to if I want to. I want the opportunity to be more involved with my children's lives, probably to the point of driving them to counseling.

Next year is also going to see the beginning of the "Brocker Way Upgrade" project. We are going to build offices above the garage for Paverd Consultancy and extend the house to give Jenny an office and have enough room for a dining room.

The other new beginning is Jenny is going to be going part-time as from next year, her new time-table has her teaching 4 days a week with no lessons on a Friday. So it is long weekend for her every weekend next year. This is going to allow her to study and also have enough time to spend quality time with Christopher.

So the bottom line is hopefully I will now be updating this blog a bit more regularly. Perhaps not always Christopher related, perhaps not always sensible, perhaps not always relevant to anyone who might read it, in fact it might not always relate to me or this universe; but it will be updated.

Chris and Jake

Some photos for his Godmother - BelindaChris after spending time playing in Aunty Kate's fountain
Chris in the pool on one of the few sunny days we have had so far
Chris in the boot of Wayne's car
Chris letting go of a balloon
Chris who usually has the upper hand in his dealings with his cousin Jake - gets his comeupance
Chris and Jake enjoying Jake's first birthday!

Jill, Michael, Liam, Chris, Joseph, Michael and Jake

Some Firsts...

Some pictures of the firsts in Christopher's life so far:


First tooth brushing, the novelty quickly wore off and now is not the favorite part of his bath, splashing and getting me wet is far more fun by far.

His first plane ride, we didn't quite get airborne, but he still enjoyed it.


His first easter egg, at first he wasn't so sure about this 'chocolate-thing' but his mother's genes won out and now he has NO problem with chocolate.

His first birthday cake, courtesy of his Auntie Kate. Kate never does anything by half measures.

Christopher on his first bike, ably assisted by Kate.

Christopher on his first plane, courtesy of Chris. This was a great hit and the universe is now paying me back for all the noisy presents I bought my sisters' children.

Well, nothing deep and profound this time, again time is short and work is piling up so just a couple of quick pictures.

Just some pictures

Work has been hectic and as a result I've not had chance to post, so after many complaints I'm posting a couple of pictures to prove that Chris has not run away from home to join the circus, or been sent to military school, although that does sound tempting at times...