Eli has been enjoying playing with Andrew, Donné’s doll from when she was young. Grace washed Tracy (her bath doll) while Eli had some fun washing Andrew.

One of our friends gave us a book, “The Pepperoni Parade and the Power of Prayer” and at the end of the book there is a page about making a walkie-talkie prayer box. You can write down your prayers and put them in the box and then come back to look which ones have been answered.

Grace and I made a prayer box last weekend. Just a little covered posting box that she can post her prayers into and open up to have a look at them. It is now on her windowsill next to her fairy house and the Jake & the Neverland Pirates team treasure chest we made this last weekend.

Grace and I pray just before we say goodnight, and for a long time I’ve been asking her, “What would you like to say thank you for?” and “Is there anything that you would like to pray about?” Normally she would just say, “No, nothing,” and I’d pray.

Now every night she says, “Can we write a prayer?” and she dictates and I write down her prayers. The kind of things that she prays about are,

• Please help me to be a better friend
• Please help mommy’s headache feel better
• Please help Eli to stop pulling the stickers off my wall
• Please help me to take care of my toys nicely

It is interesting that she mostly has the, “Please help…” format to her prayers, because we have mostly prayed prayed, “Thank you for…” prayers.

And so the list goes on. Every night I get to find out what is on Grace’s mind through her prayers, and she is now excited to come up with and write down new prayers everyday.

Yesterday we decided it was time to take Grace’s training wheels off. She was excited and we went and spent some time going up and down the road with me mostly holding her seat as she rode along. I would let go for a few seconds, but she was definitely wanting me to hold on.

Last night at bed time she prays, “Father God, please help me to ride my bike better,” and this morning she asked if we could go for a ride again and I said we could at the end of the day.

So after supper, off we go, and here is her riding on day two without training wheels…

After a few times of riding and letting her go for a short while, she just totally got it and rode like it was the most natural thing. She needs a bit of help to get going, but once she is on her way she seems to be pretty much fine. I was pretty surprised, because I thought she was going to struggle to stay balanced and to peddle at the same time. The time she spent on the balance bike clearly paid off…along with an answered prayer.

Aunty Keren and Nick came over for lunch today. Last night I told Grace they were coming just before bed time and she says, “I’m so excited, I can’t go to sleep!” Then the whole of this morning she kept asking, “When is Aunty Keren coming? I hope it’s soon.” And when she left? “But I still want to play with Keren!”

We were up and out early this morning, on our way to Muizenberg beach to join the Parker’s for Asher’s birthday. Grace and I had some fun swimming in the sea, but the wind drove the party back indoors to the Parker’s home, where Grace got to have some fun on the raft that Caleb and Mike built.

She was loving it, “rowing out to sea,” and just having fun on the boat.

One of our friends bought Grace a necklace. She puts it on and says, “If I wear my necklace I can understand people.” It seems she has found her own Sofia the First amulet, but hers lets her understand people. Donné was speaking to her and she wasn’t wearing the necklace, and Grace says, “I can’t understand you.” Off she goes and gets her necklace, “Okay, I understand you now!”

Let’s check that recipe out (see the little tippie-toes)

Stir away brother, I’ll just sip on my drink

Let me help you stir…. (I think Eli was struggling to get out of Grace’s death grip on his hand)

Food + mom = happy

Eli usually comes with to drop Grace off at school, and this morning, as I was busy putting the key into the door to lock it, Eli waves goodbye. And then loses his balance. But where is he standing? Right at the top of the stairs. He loses his balance, falls, knocks his head on the stoep on the way past, and then rolls down the stairs (there are three stairs) – tumble, tumble, tumble.

I got to watch this happen without any way to get to him on time and save him. I just had to pick him up, cuddle him and have a look at the ding he left in his head. Fortunately a little bit of magic mama’s milk and he was laughing and smiling again. My nerves on the other hand were shot for the morning.

Grace apparently decided tumbling down stairs is fun and took a fall down the stairs at school today, with just a few minor scratches to show that it happened. I don’t understand why Grace and Eli feel the need to keep the fall-score even.

I wonder if by default a second child just has worse (and better) parents. I think with Grace we would have just made sure that situation never happened by keeping her away from the stairs, whereas now I’m carrying Grace’s school bag, trying to get her out the door and lock up at the same time. It is just different. The flip side of that also counts though: Eli gets a lot more freedom to try things, mostly because we’ve been through a process with Grace which makes us more relaxed. Eli can climb up the jungle gym ladder and slide down the slide entirely independently, which is something that took Grace quite a while longer to master (Eli has been given more freedom to experiment, and also has a greater drive for this type of thing). More freedom just comes with its own set of consequences.