There are some quiet times during that day that I cherish. They are times when my mind is out of gear, free wheeling in neutral and ready to go wherever it may go. Sometimes I am just quiet and sometimes I may have some work or family thing bouncing around in my mind. It is a time to be creative and solve problems, or just a time to be quiet and peaceful. Some of the times I find I am like this are early in the morning while making breakfast and getting ready, while taking a bath, brushing my teeth, having an inspection walk in the garden at the end of the day and so on.

I have been really fortunate that Grace has gotten into a good morning routine where she pretty much entertains herself in the morning. I give her a few books, put on some music, maybe put out some toys and she potters around in her room for most of the breakfast preparation and morning routine time. It was one of the things that I struggled with a bit when she was younger and required more immediate attention, so I am very glad to have that time back to myself. I seem to gather strength and focus from the morning quiet time, so I sometimes found it quite draining when there was a constant demand on that time.

I recently got a new phone and have noticed something that I find interesting. It is a phone with nice access to all the social media and internet goodies (like Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter) and even though I would not normally access things like Facebook too often I have found myself checking things and playing with my phone (exploring some of the possibilities) in some of those quiet moments. One might perceive this as more efficient – I can check my personal email while brushing my teeth – but it is not more productive.

It is so easy to steal away the quiet moments, to lose out on those moments of clarity, and to fill it all up with busy-ness. But I am not going to. I am going to hold onto my quiet moments. I am going to make sure that I allow my mind time to be free, time to be untethered, time to be creative.

A smile would have been better, but jaw forward seems to be the way we roll at the moment…

I think one of the ways that I have failed myself is to let my internal critical voice be a bit too harsh, especially in terms of my work and the output I produce. It is something I have been working on this year – to think about what I create and achieve differently, and to appreciate all of the small successes more. I believe that a more positive perspective will impact on how I go about things, as well as my relationship with my clients.

It was so encouraging today to get a phone message from a client who is testing a product that we developed for him. He is testing in Namibia and phoned to let me know that we have absolutely nailed it. He is getting results which are “500% better” than the other people he is with. It is incredible to get that kind of feedback, as well as to know that the work I have produced has delighted someone so much. It was awesome to hear how he was blown away by the performance.

It is a blessing that it has worked out so well. Thank you Lord.

With regard to self-criticism I enjoyed this article, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/04/turning-the-habit-of-self-criticism-upside-down.html

Grace takes a “drink” from the tap

Grace and I had a wonderful afternoon painting, cleaning up, playing “cricket” and then walking to the park with Duncan, and playing on the swings, merry-go-round, jungle gym and slide.  I really am enjoying the autumn weather, not too hot, not too cold, just right to be outside, go walking and playing at the park.

So by now you all know that the Cape Town Drennan’s love going out for coffee and that our local hangout is Vida at Willowbridge – mainly because its convenient and in the sun:)  Another firm favourite (which we don’t do nearly as much as we would like to) is going out for sushi.  There are a lot of great sushi restaurants in Cape Town and it is sad but true, that we haven’t been to any of them, but it is on our list of things to do, so hopefully soon.  Today rather at the last minute we decided to go for sushi so we headed to Willowbridge and ate sushi at our local sushi hangout – Woolworths – where once again everyone knows our daughter by name as well as our order – two sushi selections and one plate of prawn maki (for Grace).

Duncan and I used to share our sushi platter with her but when she started eating between 5 and 7 pieces I started to feel hard done by and decided that it was time to order her, her own plate.  Grace just LOVES sushi and today she ate 5 of her maki and 2 of our Californian rolls.  The waiters are amazed that she likes sushi and I think every time we have been there other people have commented that they can’t believe that she likes it.  I often think the people that are amazed are people who haven’t tried sushi or don’t like it.  For me I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t like it 🙂  I know that her cousin who is a month younger than Grace appears to love sushi just as much as Grace and why not, its delicious and as a bonus healthy.  

After Grace had finished her sushi it was as if she was high on life, running around, laughing, sliding down the slide, swinging, riding her bike and just being super happy.      

Sushi noshing

Grace’s imagination continues to grow. She has been loving reading “Thomas goes to the doctor” and today Andrew (one of her dolls) went to the doctor. The check up seemed to go well, but he needed a lot of injections….a lot…more like acupuncture…or maybe Grace was just enjoying me going “Ow,” each time she gave Andrew an injection.

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Thea, the pied piper of Rondebosch (while visiting at Kim’s house)

Today seemed to have lots of small memorable moments, so here they are, noted to preserve our memory…. 

Grace and I went for a swim early this morning while Donné was exercising and she had so much fun – kicking her legs, throwing her polar bear toy around, sliding off the edge and so on. There is a lane barrier in the middle of the small pool at the gym, and what stood out was taking her underneath the water and under the barrier to fetch her polar bear which she had thrown over. She went underneath the water like this four times quite comfortably. 

This afternoon Donné was baking cupcakes with Grace and she said to Grace, “Put the egg into the bowl,” to which Grace responded by throwing the egg into the bowl. Amazingly the shell cracked perfectly in half, the egg slid out into the bowl and the shell could be easily recovered. 

We have decided that we will walk to a near-ish park twice a week, both for the exercise as well as for Grace to go and swing regularly. It is about a 20 minute walk at a brisk pace. While we were swinging another little girl (Amy, who we guess is 5 years old) came and swung on the swing next to Grace. Amy was quite chatty and while swinging started to say “Woo-ee” as she swung backwards and forwards. Grace responded with her own little, “Wooo” while swinging, which was very cute and funny. 

The length of Grace’s sleeps as a baby was…umm….a challenge for us, but over the last week she has been having really good day sleeps. Today she slept for over three hours. In my memory I can only think of it happening once. Donné reckons there have been more times, but not more than you could count on one hand. We are enjoying the long sleeps. 

Today is also the one week mark for being totally nappy free. No accidents at all during sleeps. 

Over the last little while I have been bathing Grace, first she gets a wash and then I wash myself. There is a little pink cup which we use to rinse her off, and which I use to get wet and rinse myself off (not much space with two of us in there). Today Grace decided she wanted to help me bath, and assisted by filling the cup and pouring water over me, just like we do to her. 

I am not to sure how it is done, but it is possible to pop your lip open while sitting on the floor. Grace managed to get her arms caught up in her jersey (while trying to take it off) and was not able to stop herself from going face first into the floor…evidence below.

Today Grace and I had our first tea party with her tea set and all her dolls and soft toys.  She had so much fun making tea for each doll and putting in the "milk" and "sugar," followed by a vigorous stirring action and giving the doll or teddy their delicious "hot tea."  It is really sweet to see how she is starting to get imaginary play and both Grace and I thoroughly enjoyed our yummy cups of tea.

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When I woke up this morning I felt tired and my back was still a little stiff and sore from my gym session.  All I wanted to do was stay in bed and avoid life for a little longer.  I was enticed out of bed with a cup of coffee at Vida, which didn’t have the desired response, that of feeling awake and ready for the day.  

It is good to be playful and having a daughter has definitely increased my playfulness. I think I had lost some of it over the past few years and it has been good to enjoy playing again.

I am very fortunate that I can stop work, walk out of my office and start playing with Grace at the end of a day. We often spend some time in the garden at the end of the day which is sometimes just peaceful garden time (I inspect the garden while Grace potters around), but at other times it is a great chance to play. Yesterday was very precious. Grace was having a great day and was full of life and fun while we played outside.

She ran around the garden with her arms stretched out behind her, loved being dragged around in the washing basket (which is always fun), danced in the washing basket, sung (also in the washing basket), dived on the ground, rolled around, walked around the wash line, drew with chalk and just had fun. It was a small moment in time which was mine to cherish with her and I really loved it.

In the background Spice is eating chicken Grace has just fed him from her snack container…

This morning Grace asked to look at her stars – the stick on type, so I gave them to her and carried on with what I was doing. Now I know that she is able to take her stars and stickers off and stick them on to herself, but I didn’t quite expect to come back after about 2 minutes to find Grace covered in stars and none left on the paper.