Eli is very into building puzzles at the moment, and every piece he gets in place on his own gives him loads and loads of joy. Today he built an aeroplane puzzle, a hospital puzzle, a construction puzzle and a farm puzzle. He spends time looking at the pictures and asking questions as he goes along, exploring all the little details of the picture he is working towards.

We often say to Grace, “We need to tidy up now else there won’t be time to play later.” Often after supper there is huge dragging of feet to tidy up, children that go into some sort of food induced super hyper mode, and moaning adults going on about tidying up and getting into the bath so that there will be time for stories.

Tonight Grace wanted me to swing her in the hammock before supper. Donné told her to go and tidy up so that there would be time to swing in the hammock later. There was moaning and gnashing of teeth, but she did actually do it and we even had a chance to swing in the hammock before supper. After supper, craziness ensued with Eli and Grace having a huge, super fun game of hide and seek, to the point where Eli was out of breath from running around the house. They then went into a session of bed jumping with lots of laughing which got Eli to the point of his hair being wet with sweat.

Grace then had an “ah-ha!” moment and said, “We got to have some much fun after supper because I tidied up before supper!” Whether the connection will stick still remains to be seen, but at least she had the insight to connect the dots. This would be a good time to make that connection…..just before the baby arrives.

Dig, dig, dig,
We like to dig,
We like to dig and dig and dig.
We dig under here,
We dig over there,
We like to dig some everywhere!

Back in 2012 Grace helped me put Eli’s cot together, and today it was Eli’s turn to be a big brother to his soon-to-be little brother. Things are coming together for the little man – it is not long before he joins us.

Finally! After a year of practising we got to enjoy the ballet show today. It was wonderful to watch Grace and we all really enjoyed the show which was brilliantly put together. The costumes were amazing (I especially liked the jelly fish) and everyone worked really hard to create a show that was really enjoyable to watch.

Grace’s dances were great and of all the dances I enjoyed their Chinese panda dance the most.

Our beautiful little panda

Liesl looking after the pandas backstage (thanks for the photo Monique)

The Rio birds backstage during the first dress rehearsal. Grace’s class dances in Rio in two of the performances.

Monopoly is still going strong, and Eli got to enjoy a game with Gogo (or as he calls her, “Togo,” or “Bogo”)

Eli has been enjoying learning to ride his new bike and in half a week has figured the peddles out and can steer himself around.

He has also had some help from his sister…

We went out with Gogo and Gramps for dinner which meant sushi for Grace and Eli. They were both very excited about the sushi. We arrived and sat down at the table and the waiter asked what we would like to drink. There was a slight pause as everyone considered. Eli broke the silence with a simple answer, “Sushi?”

Gogo and Grace compare their progress, while Eli was sitting on the other chair with Granny “pretending” to knit

Eli had his birthday circle today – his special day to celebrate each year of his life with his class.

Around the sun we go

“What you say Elle?”