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.

Eli loves his sister, so let’s give Gracie some kisses

Francois invited us to join him and some friends at Cool Runnings to celebrate his birthday. This worked out very well, because Grace has been wanting to take Donné since we last went, and she definitely wanted to go before we moved.

When we were there we were waiting for someone to arrive and Grace asked who we were waiting for. I said, “We’re waiting for Pieter, he’s a friend from university.” She says, “Do you remember his name?” and I thought she had just missed me saying it. “His name is Pieter, Grace.” She thinks about this for a moment and says, “That’s a strange name for a man – it’s the same as a food.” Oh Gracie you sweet and funny girl, his name is Pieter, not Pita.

We all had a good time, and Grace got to have her ride with Donné. Eli even had a turn to go and quite enjoyed his ride too. I knew he was going to say it, but he said it sooner than I expected, shortly before we stopped….”More!”

Eli loves fetching things for people. Every morning when I get out of bed, I first take him to the potty, and then go back to fetch my clothes which lie next to my side of the bed. After Eli is done, and while I’m busy sorting out the potty he rushes back to the room and starts carrying my clothes, slippers or phone through to me.

This morning he was very sweet with Grace. She asked him to get her a pink crayon, and off he zoots at high speed, down the passage and to her room and then comes zooting back with a tin full of kokis. She says, “No Eli, I want a pink crayon,” so off he goes at top speed and then comes back with a pencil. “No Eli, that’s not a pink crayon,” so off he goes again catching a speed wobble along the way and comes back with a single koki (I didn’t see what colour). “No Eli, a pink crayon.” Off he goes again, but by this time I had taken the crayon tin off the shelf to help him out, so at least he finally made it back with a pink crayon. He had a big smile on his face the whole time, excited to be helping his sis’.

Grace was at home sick today, and Donné wasn’t feeling particularly well either, so the three of them didn’t go out at all today. I had to go and get some milk from the corner store and I took Eli with me (he is always up for an outing). When we got back I unstrapped him and took one of his arms out from his car seat straps. I was about to pick him up when he sits back in the seat, slides his arm back into the strap, then picks up the buckle and pulls it towards himself, and sweetly says, “More.”

“Do you want to go for a drive somewhere else my boy?” He nods and says more.

It was just such a cute little request for some more time out….I guess that is the definition of cabin fever.

My birthday today is the start of a new year for me, but also marks the end of an era. The electricians came to make the changes required for the COC, and that is the last thing that needed to be done for the sale of our house. In exactly three weeks time we’ll be packing our things onto a truck and moving to Somerset West.

It was a fairly normal day, but calm and relaxed. My family made me feel special and Donné made these yummy egg, bacon and sesame seed bun LCHF burgers…..as well as a delicious not-at-all-LCHF carrot cake….and then I made Italian meringue tonight.