First comes the big jump…

…and inevitably, the next jump landed him face first on the floor. He was having so much fun having just discovered that he can jump two steps, that even though you know a bump is going to come you just embrace it and let him learn. I guess that would literally make it a hard knock life.

Eli wanted to take a particular lunch box bag with him to school today, but the bag is way too big and doesn’t fit into his bag, so Donné was saying no. He kept asking and asking until Donné says, “Eli, stop whining about the bag. You’re not taking it to school.”

Being an astute 2 and a half year old he says, “Not whining, ask nicely. Please mommy take bag,” (which was how he was asking). Donné had to concede that he did have a point.

Eli’s one handed peeling style – watch your fingers dad!

Grace and Eli painting what will become our rain coat and umbrella rack.

Painting goes something like this: 30 minutes (at least) of finding paint, getting set up, putting aprons on children, making sure everyone is happy with their aprons and paintbrushes. 5 minutes of painting. 30 minutes of calming the 2 year old now that we’ve stopped painting, scrubbing and soaking clothes to try to get paint out of them, and washing paint brushes.

Clearly all the activity was too much for Eli though – he passed out while watching some TV late this afternoon (but if you ask him if he wants to nap, “No nap! No nap!”)

Today I am grateful for friends. I’m grateful that in our move to Somerset West, making friends has actually been quite easy. Having children in school, and being in a relatively small school does make it much easier, but it is not just that. The people that we have met are warm and friendly, and very happy to draw others into their circle of friends. We are very blessed to be able to grow our friendships with all of these wonderful people.

This morning Eli wanted to wear his “Sam cap” which is a peak cap, but it was pretty cold so Donné wanted him to wear a beanie. Being 2 this was not to his satisfaction, but Donné managed to get him to put the beanie on and take that to school.

When everyone arrived back from school I came down for lunch to find Eli lying on the floor….umm….because something was not to his satisfaction. I pick him up and say, “Have you seen what Sam is wearing on his head today?” which instantly calms him and gets him excited to go.

We go outside and he looks at Sam, gets a super happy smile and glint in this eye and says, “Sam beanie!” because Sam (quite conveniently) decided on a beanie instead of his peak cap. Hopefully choosing a beanie in the morning will now be a bit easier.

Eli was very excited when Donné arrived at school with an umbrella for him – his very own. “Thank you mommy! Thank you mommy!” with lots of hugs and great joy at the fact that it has froggie eyes.

Feeding the fish in the rain

Vrot bananas + restless children + rainy weather = time to bake banana muffins.

Grace and Eli both really enjoy doing drama at school, and that plays itself out at home too. Often one of them will say, “Let’s go do drama,” and off they both go to the playroom to dance or act something out. Tonight was blasting a Kelly Clarkson CD while dancing in princess dresses…

Oh, and did I say chasing balloons too?