Monthly Archives: October 2012

Six week checkup

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Eli went for his 6 week checkup today (he is six weeks tomorrow), and was declared healthy and well by the doctor. Some interesting numbers,

Grace's birth weight, 3.2kg, Eli's 3.4kg
Grace's birth length, 47cm, Eli's 51cm

Grace's weight at six weeks, 4.6kg, Eli's 4.8kg
Grace's length at six weeks, 56cm, Eli;'s 57cm

Eli's head circumference is now 39cm, and it was 34cm at birth.

Smiles & songs

Eli has started smiling. Just a few smirks and some real big smiles, and every time he does it it warms your heart. Sweet boy. I'm looking forward to getting to know our boy and his personality.

I've been fascinated with Grace's singing. She sings quite a lot now. She still needs to get the tune, but some songs she is starting to sound more melodious than monotonous. The thing that I have been fascinated with though is how she is making up words to the songs she is singing, words which go with what she is doing. I just wouldn't have expected it, but thinking about it I've always done the same thing, modifying songs to go with the activity that we're doing.

Miss Bossy Pants

The Child Magazine gets distributed through school, so Grace regularly comes home with copy which Donné likes to read. While we were eating supper Eli woke up to feed, so Grace and I were at the table and Donné was on the couch reading the magazine. Grace says, "Mommy, don't read that, it's my magazine. You can get your own magazine from school." Then a short lesson in sharing commenced.

Grace followed this up at bedtime. Donné lay down on the bed next to her and Grace says, "Mommy, take your shoes off my bed," to which Donné answered, "Grace, I don't have any shoes on." Thinking…."Oh."
Putting some sunscreen on each other before our outing yesterday

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Neighbourly friends

One of Grace’s school friends lives literally just down the road, so we made the arduous five minute journey (by bike, foot and pram) to spend a lovely afternoon getting to know the family better. We all had a great time, and Grace just absolutely loved it, playing at full speed for pretty much the whole afternoon.

Maybe it is because they are both girls, or maybe it is just that they see each other regularly at school, but they engaged in such a lovely way together.

It is always beautiful to see Grace playing with such gusto, probably because there was such a long time that she would tend to come to us whenever other children tried to engage with her. Today she really required very little from us. It is also nice to see how she plays with another girl, as most of her friends up until recently have been boys.

Just before we left Grace and Hannah started bouncing and singing “Jinga, jinga, jinga” (and who knows where that came from).

jinga.avi
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There was a special little moment as we were leaving. We had walked across the road and Hannan said, “Goodbye Gracie, see you tomorrow,” and Grace turned around, waved and said, “Goodbye!” with such a sense of, “Bye my friend, it was so nice to see you today and I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

The best things

We often have croissants on a Saturday morning and part of that process is to egg brush them just before they go into the oven. Grace always wants to do this and while doing it today says, "This is my favourite thing in the world!"

Later in the day she was cruising around and suddenly says, "Rock…paper….scissiors! Rock, paper, scissors!" She didn't learn that from us, which only really leaves school

Those dresses

Donné was helping Grace choose clothes and get dressed this morning and suggested a certain dress to wear. Grace responds, "I tried this dress on the other day and its too small – it got me in the crack." Those pesky dresses.

When we arrived at school this morning two of Grace's friends, Emma and Caitlyn, where busy with one of the work tasks. As we walked in, they turned around and gave these big beautiful smiles, with a look on their face of, "Yay! Our friend is here." It was so precious and heart warming.

Maybe a sister?

Grace says to Donné, "Mama, I want a sister. Eli is too little, and he throws up in the bath and everywhere. If I have a sister, she won't throw up in the bath and I can play with her."

Oh my poor baby girl – don't worry, he'll grow up quickly.

Frogasaur

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One day, many outfits

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We’re the kings of the castle…

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….and you're the dirty rascals.

Grace is loving making crowns at the moment. Cutting, colouring in, writing names, gluing and stapling – what more could you want from an activity?

That’s not what I wanted

While we were having supper tonight Grace reached over for her water and knocked her cup of juice over. I had to do some dodging, but no problem.She wanted to have some more Energade (her juice of choice) so I got some for her. I was thinking that she has been looking a bit dangerous with that cup, but it's unlikely that she'll knock it over again. Cleaned up and got her some more juice, back to supper. A few moments later she reaches for her cup, doesn't quite grip it correctly and splash, there goes the juice all over the table. Grace bursts into tears and cries, "I didn't want to do that!" Poor baby girl, all she wanted was a drink of juice and her greasy chicken fingers weren't helping.

When I came inside after work today the scene I was greeted with was a kitchen with the fridge standing wide open, and yoghurt blobs from the fridge all the way to the lounge. Donné was busy feeding Eli, and one of the yogurt containers had broken due to a freak manufacturing fault when Grace was getting one….general chaos ensued. Once I had closed the fridge and gotten the details it was time to get Grace back inside to clean, which she did very well. After wiping up the bulk of it, Grace was mopping the floor and I was helping her to squeeze the mop and get fresh water. I then got busy wiping up a part of it and Grace asked Donné to help her with the mop. Donné said to her, "I don't know how to do this," to which Grace replies, "It's easy mama. First you pull this up, then you push it down, then you pull it up again." Mop instructions from a three year old.

There were tears when arriving at school today. They were supposed to have the individual and class photos, but the photographer has been stranded on the far side of a big hole in the N2 in the Eastern Cape. And Grace was really looking forward to the photos today. Fortunately Janine diffused the situation by taking a photo herself. Grace had, after all, been practicing her smile.

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