Letter 6 of 19

Good morning 2019,

I'm having a crazy morning.  Well, for starters I had the strangest dream. I was casted as a member of The Lion King alongside some girls from high school. Jiki jiki (South African lingo for all of a sudden) I'm attending a wedding reception of this girl I met in varsity. In the dream we are are having an Instagram screening of her wedding. Then something weird happened. While viewing her posts we were blocked from seeing a particular one. The message read: user privacy settings prevent you from seeing this particular post. I knew then and there that I was dreaming. Instagram doesn't have such. Could this be my ancestors showing me the future?

This feeling didn't last for long. It was snatched away from me by my mother through my eldest nephew. "Mse ku Linda", which translated to take her to Linda, were the last words I heard while I held on to the calm of my day. My nephew brought the storm...my niece. On a good day, she's the apple of my eye. She's the cutest, funniest and most talkative 2 year-old I know. She also looks exactly like I did when I was her age. Having her around is awesome. Just don't get on her bad side. She will scream, throw tantrums and cry so much. As you can imagine, they've just set off a bomb and dropped it into my room.

My niece and my mother are joint to the hip. Their love story deserves a post of its own. The little one adores her grandmother and doesn't want to be away from her. She's a handful at times though and my mom can't always take her along. Bless the souls she then leaves her with after breaking her heart. Bless my soul this morning!

She cried so much! Threw a tantrum and wouldn't budge until we called my mother. Then only did she calm down after the assurance that my mother is on a quest to bring her chocolate. Did she smile after this? Not a chance!

I can't exactly reveal my trade secrets on this platform. Just know that I went into battle. I've had to go through Instagram timelines and bloggers with children on them too. Being granted the Visa to even fiddle with my phone for this blog to materialise is a miracle.

One of the things I've had to do to distract her is to show her a photo of myself at my first birthday. I asked her who that is. She's adamant it's her. I always crack up at this. Now both of us a relaxed and having a contest where we're making sounds with our tongues. I'm not sure how long this peace treaty between us will last though.

What is this 2019? Is it your weird way of making me count the fact that I didn't join the mommy gang on your timeline a blessing? Is it that? Or are you busy sowing seeds and fast tracking my clock? What is this?

So many people have asked me the "when are you having your own bundle of joy?" question. Strangers, friends, acquaintances and even family members. I bumped into someone I met in varsity after shopping for a baby shower gift. After a pleasant catch up, he took things south. Headed straight to my ring finger for inspection. Then he did the unthinkable. He bravely told me that he can ensure that the next baby shower my friends attend can be mine if I do the right thing. This has to be one of your most violent and equally hilarious moments 2019!

I'd like to sit and chat some more but I can't. I need to change a diaper, switch myself on to entertainment mode and pray to the heavens that this bundle of joy doesn't burst out crying for her grandmother again...