Grace’s swimming is now strong enough that I can go swimming with Eli and her, and not really have to worry about her at all. She swims around, dives down, jumps in and just has lots of fun while Eli and I practice rolling, floating and kicking. Grace is diving in really well, and can dive in from the side and fetch a toy from the bottom of the pool and then swim to the step quite comfortably. Eli also has a little dive into the pool, he stands at the edge ready to jump in and then instead of stepping/jumping in, he puts his head down and does a little head first tumble into the pool. It is exactly the right motion that they need to do and practice in swimming classes, but it was a surprise the first time he did it (which was fortunately in class).

Here is Grace diving in

Grace has been getting better and better at riding her bike and loves to go for a ride down the street, so that she can go around and around the cul-de-sac…

The game she likes to play is either for me to chase her around (although I must say that the way she rides when being chased does sometimes make me nervous), or for her to chase me around in circles. Exercise for both of us 🙂

Eli has been singing along to songs, just in a “la, la, la,” way, but still very sweet. Here’s a video of him singing along with Grace and Donné.

Grace’s end of term outing was to the Cape Town Planetarium, which was actually really awesome. They had a story about “Guinea Minnie” which is about a guinea fowl who finds out all about the stars and planets after a piece of “sky” falls on her head. Grace enjoyed the visit, and so did I. I really liked their star projection machine and the night sky as it would be without the city lights. It is definitely worth a visit, and all the children seemed to enjoy the visit.

Climbing the tree in the gardens outside the planetarium

Eli has always enjoyed toy phones and real ones, but has recently become very attached to an old cellphone. He walks around the house having little conversations on the phone, always ending with a, “Bye!” He walks around with a death grip on the phone. Unfortunately he is so attached to it that if it is taken away for some reason, like bathing, he throws a tantrum. Nice, screaming baby throwing themselves down on the floor in protest….I suspect that the phone might not be around for very much longer.

We have always walked into school with Grace, let her put her bag in her locker, and then said goodbye and been on our way. Today it was raining and Donné didn’t want to take Eli out of the car, so she told Grace she would come with her to the gate and then say goodbye. Grace says, “I can say goodbye to you in the car, and walk in on my own like Taylor,” says goodbye, and goes to the gate, rings the doorbell and in she goes all on her own. Out little girl is becoming a big girl.

Eli was trying to jail-break some vegetables from someone’s box by cutting the tape open with a key

Eli is getting more into exploring and playing with things rather than just knocking them off the table, or tearing the paper. He and Grace sat together and did some arts and crafts. Grace made a pair of fairy wings and Eli just had some fun playing with the bits and pieces.

Yesterday Grace and Donné spent some time making a rainbow mermaid tail. Donné cleverly stapled a ribbon to the tail and Grace ran around for the rest of the day super excited about her mermaid tail, saying, “I wish to be a mermaid!” She also spent some time in the bath flapping around in the bath “water”.

Montessori @ Home had a family fun day on Saturday with giant snakes and ladders, mini golf, skittles, sack racing and jumping castle.

Sack race!

Giant size snakes and ladders – the giant dice was a winner with the children

Checking out the skittles….unfortunately Grace liked to throw the ball while Donné was busy setting them up

Eli is 18 months and weighs 12.2kg, is 83cm tall, and wearing a size 5-6 shoe.

At 18 months Grace weighed 11.1kg, was 82cm tall, and wearing a size 4-5 shoe.

Eli at 18 months

Grace at 18 months