Eli slept through the night for the very first time! On Monday night, he slept all the way to 05h00, which I classify as going all the way through. Didn’t make it through last night, but we’re holding thumbs for tonight.

Grace has discovered rainbow loom, and Eli quite enjoys playing with the elastics on his finger

Eli has discovered the joy of the fountains at Willowbridge, and with the warmer weather we’ve had over the last week he has loved splashing and having some fun.

Eli’s fountain “dance”: left foot, right foot, rinse, repeat.

Eli still hasn’t slept through the entire night….ever….but we are seeing some progress on the sleep front. If I’m awake when he wakes up I’ve been opening his door just a bit and saying, “Lie down Eli,” and he quickly lies down and generally goes back to sleep very quickly. One night this week he woke up at about 24h00, went back to sleep and then woke at 04h30. At least it was a good stretch for Donné.

He did learn a new trick tonight though. Donné put him down and he wasn’t quite sleeping yet, so I just stood at the door listening. In he past he would have called out for us, but he was quiet and just lay in bed, moving around a little bit. After a short while I hear a very, very soft whisper, “Dada, dada, dada, dada,” but I really mean very soft. I just opened the door a crack and and said, “Eli, be quiet, it’s sleep time.” He was quiet, and then after a while called again. I said, “Go to sleep,” while standing at the door, and then thought, “Grace calls me like that and I go and give her a cuddle normally,” so I went in, stroked his forehead and said goodnight again, went out and he went to sleep on his own.

He went to sleep on his own like a big boy. It is a good sign, hopefully one which translates to him staying lying down in his cot if he stirs and going back to sleep quietly. We’ll see how tonight goes….

Grace has carried on learning new skills this week – she can now get herself started on her bike! She is very excited because she can now ride around without needing help to get going. She was also having fun “races” with one of the boys from down the street.

Getting going

Zooting around on the scooter

Hannah and Grace trying out their model poses

Grace has mastered the monkey bars at home! For the last couple of weeks it has been feeling like this weird crazy situation where she should be able to actually do it, but hasn’t quite figured that out, so she is asking for more help than she needs because she is afraid of falling. Today something ticked over. Donné told her to move her hands in a certain way, just one bar at a time when holding with her left hand (she seemed to struggle a bit more when holding with her left and moving her right hand). By the time she got to the fourth bar her brain had made the connection and she was good to go.

Here are the results…..

Now all she wants to do is go and do the monkey bars. When I finished work she called me to show me, “Watch me dad, but don’t stand too close, stand over there.” To put that into context, two days ago she wouldn’t even start if I wasn’t right next to her with my hands touching her.

Go Gracie! We’re proud of you for persevering, practising, and getting strong enough to do it on your own.

Enjoying some ice cream on a beautiful warm day in the middle of winter

In my experience, there is nothing that kids love quite as much as ice cream. It doesn’t matter if it is the middle of winter, raining and cold, if you say, “Who wants some ice cream?” you’re sure to get a huge, “Me!” from all the children who are around.

At our friends get together a little while back, Donné had a tub of ice cream and an encroaching mob of children, in her words, “Someone pass me a spoon before I lose a limb!” Watch out, kids are to ice cream, as zombies are to brains.

Just sitting around, being awesome

Eli has really bonded with some of the guys at Vida, and it has worked out that most of them are being rotated out to other stores in the same month that we’re moving to Somerset West. One of the guys, Levi, is leaving tomorrow and Eli absolutely loves him. Donné got two of the guys a small gift and wrote them a note which they really appreciated. They wrapped up a goodbye gift for Eli in some tinfoil – his own Vida cup.