Eli was, in his words, “Riding the train,” which pretty much entails sitting in some sand on the patio and dragging your butt through it to make patterns.

Sit…

…and drag

Which results in a very dirty bum

Grace was having loads of fun cruising down the hill on her bike today. She spent lots of time doing it with Donné, and then spent pretty much my entire lunch carrying on. As you can see, she was happy to do it over and over again, asking each time, “Dad, did you expect me to go that fast?”

The best for her, or maybe just funniest, was the time she came down a bit too quickly, didn’t quite make the turn and went riding over the pool cover. Lots of laughing about that, and how if we didn’t have the cover she would have had to go for a swim.

Today was a super chill day with the Fredricks. Grace, Eli, Hannah, Tyler, Sue-Ann and Donné relaxed, drank coffee, enjoyed the wonderful play area at the Millhouse, and most of all enjoyed the comfort of good friends. As they say at Grace’s school, a dirty child is a happy child, and judging how they looked when I got home, there were two very happy children.

Eli refused to have a nap today and instead chose to go with Grace and I to get some groceries for the week. This all went well up until the point where things just got too much for him (which is pretty unusual) and he started screaming, “Nap! Nap!” in the shop and had a total meltdown (this was a dad fail, I should have sent him to nap instead of letting him come with).

I managed to calm him and exit the shop with all the required groceries (fortunately the meltdown was close to the end of things), and once we’re in the car he says, “Nature walk.” No, not time for a nap any more, now it’s time for a nature walk. We had planned a walk in the nature reserve, and that was next on the agenda for the day.

He was quite happy on the nature walk, and we all enjoyed a little picnic on our first visit to the Helderberg Nature Reserve.

It has been interesting to see Grace and Eli get back into their groove this holiday. Towards the end of the term they were clashing lots, with lots of screaming, threats of biting, and so forth. The holiday seems to have helped them reconnect and get into a better groove. There is still screaming and biting (Eli bit Grace quite badly yesterday – not cool), but the vibe and fun is there again. I think a big part of that is Grace just getting a rest.

Unfortunately Grace has had an eye infection, which she has shared with her brother, so we’re keeping to ourselves at the moment. Fortunately that seems to be clearing up.

Eli….well, Eli has been having a spurt of fierce independence. He wants to do everything by himself, and if you accidentally do something to help, well, then you are in big trouble. Like lifting him up to help him turn on the light he is asking to turn on….no, no…he wants to get a chair and do it by himself. Unfortunately he doesn’t tell you this until after you’ve tried to help. That plus feeling a bit cranky from the eye infection doesn’t make for a great combo. Fortunately he’ll go from crying and gnashing of teeth to smiling, laughing and riding his bike around the garden with Grace in 5 minutes.

May you have a blessed Easter tomorrow!

With the right weight distribution, it is possible to give more than one person a piggy back ride at the same time.

Selfies with the two cling-ons

I love how Eli is just chilling out between us, and Grace is doing all the work at the back. Grace is actually trying (not so successfully) to smile.

We all had lots of fun just being together. After a high-intensity start to the year, just being able to chill as a family today was awesome. No chores, no working on the house, just being together and taking it slow. Lovely.

Holiday riding fun around the circle, with Joshua, Hannah and Rebecca from next door

Having some fun colouring a giant Easter egg with Gemma, Daniella, and Chelsea