Grace has had this persistent dry cough since about the start of last term, and it has just never quite cleared up. We’ve now been recommended to have some allergy tests done, so she had blood drawn for the first time today. The nurses were great, and she had a local anaesthetic patch that she wore before the time, which meant that everything went very, very well. She is generally calm about this sort of thing, and has seen us have blood taken. After the needle was in she had a look to see what they were doing. Luckily blood samples are quick, not that Grace seemed to be too worried about it at all.

All done, just a few things to say to the nurse

Grace decided she wanted to go to school for the pottery session they were having, and made a unicorn. There were photos, but none of Grace’s unicorn. I’m very interested to see what the end product looks like….10 days of waiting now….tick tock.

Little potter hands (Photo courtesy of Newberry Montessori)

We don’t just need anyone to chop marrows, we need someone super…..super Grace, who was given super powers when she received her super hero cape from aunty Kim (which Kim made for Jack’s birthday party).

Just focus, concentrate and try not to cut your fingers with that knife

Thanks for helping out, Super Chopper Grace

Aunty Mel is in town, so its time for a friends get together! And being together with old friends is awesome.

The feast! Looks like we need more tables…

The cookie patrol

A couple of weeks ago our neighbours little girl, Hannah, arrives at our gate, “Can I come for a play date?” We couldn’t right then, but Grace and Hannah spent some time discussing their schedules and when it could possibly work. On Saturday Hannah comes knocking again, and spent most of the afternoon here playing with Grace. Her little sister Rebecca also joined them later, and Eli and her seem to get along well.

They came for a visit again today, and judging by how nicely they all play together we seem to have made some friends who I think we’ll be seeing often…

Trying to touch the fish

Preparing some dinner and tea together

We had our first (brief) swim in our pool today. After a month of the pool being emptied, taken out of the ground, put back in, relined, filled, tiled, going green, getting cleaned, getting a cover and going blue, we can now actually use it. And so we did, even though it was quite cold, and poor Grace shivered away for the few minutes we were in the pool.

Testing it out….brrr

A quick swim before Grace got really cold…she’ll have to get used to the temperature of an outside pool

I’ve been hearing Grace say the word alien while playing alone, and there is always a word, or set of words that go with it, but I never quite caught what she was saying.

So I asked Grace what she was saying about the alien, “Vrot alien.” Huh? “Why are you saying vrot alien, Grace?” She continues, “If you come last, then you’re a vrot alien.”

Ahh, now it all makes sense! “Grace, do you mean a ‘vrot eier’? Like ‘the last one is a rotten egg’?” Unsurprisingly she replies, “No dad! A vrot alien!”

In the past month both Gogo and Gramps and Granny and Grandpa have some to visit, and I think all of them at some point asked the same question when dropping Grace off at school. First they would say what a beautiful setting it is for a school, and that Grace is really fortunate to be able to go to a school with that environment. Then the question would come, “Do you think she appreciates how beautiful it is?” which was usually follow by, “She doesn’t really know any different, so probably doesn’t realise how lucky she is.”

This is the road that leads up to the school

Writing this, and thinking about it, I think it is important that we help her to understand what she has, how privileged she is (in so many ways), and how to appreciate both nature and the beauty of everyday (the things we so easily miss because they are a part of each day).

I know for myself I’m often in my own world in my head when driving to and from school, thinking about work, zoned into the road ahead and getting from one place to the next. So I need to stop, breathe it in and allow Grace and Eli to too. They’ll only appreciate it if they have a model to learn from.

…this is the view

We learnt some new things about our little close today. Donné met one of our neighbours at the pharmacy (she is a pharmacist) and found out that there are neighbourhood bunnies. We did see one last time we went for a walk, and then saw another one when we went for a walk today. Grace and Eli “sneak” up to the bunnies when they see them, but the bunnies are faster than them.

We also met some more of the neighbours (everyone has been lovely and friendly) and found out about a gate that leads out into the forest, which gives us a short cut to the park. There is also apparently a yearly braai that everyone gets invited to, so we’re looking forward to getting to know the neighbours a bit better.