drennan a day

a daily dose of the Cape Town Drennan's

Posts in Category: Uncategorized

La-la

On March 13, 2013 - Uncategorized

Grace was singing Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika while we were drinking our coffee this morning, but instead of singing "Sikelel'" she was signing, "Sike-la-la." She was putting her tongue on the top of her mouth and saying a proper "l" – the first time she has said a proper "l"! Very exciting for us.

Exploring a Christmas gift

On March 12, 2013 - Uncategorized

At the moment he loves to spin the cylinders

Watch out for those giraffes

On March 11, 2013 - Uncategorized

Grace has been asking lots of questions about animals and whether they bite people, questions like, “Do lions bite people?” Then you just substitute lions for octopuses, tortoises, dolphins, sharks, tigers and even giraffes. And currently she is also substituting the “bite” for “eat” and we’re having some interesting conversations about what happens to animals that eat people.

As we’re getting out of the car Grace asks, “Do giraffes bite people?” and Donné answers while climbing out and closing her door, “No, Grace, giraffes eat plants.” Grace cries out, “Nooo! The giraffes can’t eat our car!” Somehow plants got lost in translation.

Yesterday Grace was getting some juices off the shelf in the shop and when she came back to the trolley Donné told her she could have one, but she must go and put the other’s back. She goes back to the shelf where another mother has just finished, stretches out her hand with the juice to the mother and says, “I don’t need this one,” with absolute confidence and a total expectation that she would put it back into the right spot on the shelf. She is certainly feeling very comfortable with strangers at the moment (in the good productive kind of way).

My cute boy and his chair

On March 10, 2013 - Uncategorized

Donné watched gumtree like a hawk and managed to spot an available Sit Right, which thanks to our good friend Kim we were able to get before it was snatched up. Doing internet searches at 3 in the morning while feeding has its upsides.

And all Donné could do today was say, “He looks so cute in his chair!”

Num, num, this is fun!

Grace enjoyed noshing some of Eli’s puréed sweet potato. She even went off to get a bid so that she could be like her brother/

Grace likes feeding him too….just got to keep an eye on the quantity on the spoon.

Having some fruity (knock it off the table) fun while we ate supper.

Bath time!

On March 9, 2013 - Uncategorized

There were four in the bath and the little one said, “The plug is poking me in the bum.”

The sleep over (part deux)

On March 8, 2013 - Uncategorized

It seems that every time we have a play date with Hannah, Grace is going to want a sleepover. Today Donné came home (all the way from down the street) sans Grace, who had decided that she was going to stay for the night and that mama could go back home. With both mama’s happy with that, Grace was left behind for this night.

I went to drop off her things and when I came through the door she shooed me away with a, “Go home daddy!” She seemed okay with me when she realised I had just come to drop off a few things. While I was there Hannah’s dad arrived home and – after rushing out with Hannah to meet him at his car – says to him, “Mommy left me here.”

We gave Grace some rules and a cut-off time for going to sleep, but unfortunately she did not make it. I am sure she would have been super happy to wake up with Hannah in the morning, but we didn’t want a repeat of last weekend’s grumpy morning, so we had to abort once the cut-off time was reached. Hannah had already fallen asleep, but Grace was still chatting and singing softly to herself. It seems to be the way to calms and processes the day. She probably just didn’t have enough time to process, given the busy day she had.

Our house was so quite during supper and bath time that Donné said it felt like a part of her was missing.

I’m really proud of Grace. She was quite happy to be there without us and got on with what she needed to do. It is nice to see her feeling so comfortable that she can chase us away.

Perfectly healthy?

On March 7, 2013 - Uncategorized

The doctor says, “I would have said that Eli is perfectly healthy, except that he has thrown up three times today.” Poor Eli was up in the middle of the night vomiting and running a fever. He was vomiting again this morning, but hasn’t at all since he went to the doctor. And being Eli he is still smiling and bouncing, but definitely off colour and moaning in between. No official diagnosis, but the suspect is rotavirus – fortunately he has been vaccinated so if it is the effects should be less.

Donné was swinging Eli while talking to her mom and he passed out

Copy cat

On March 6, 2013 - Uncategorized

Grace has been quickly picking up on the things people say and copying them later. Today in the car Donné asks her how her day was, "Good," and then asked her what it was that made it good, to which she replied, "Stop irritating me – don't ask so many questions." Echoes of Donné at the end of a long day when Grace is peppering her with questions.

Later she was in her room having group time with her soft toys and she starts singing a song, stops and says, "Why am I the only one singing?" which I'm pretty sure comes from a teacher at school. It is also totally reasonable to expect the soft toys to sing along.

Catch! Grace's throwing has improved, but catching still has a long way to go.

Eli was loving his bath sitting up in the ring instead of lying down. We gave him some bath toys which Grace immediately wanted. When we said no she waits a while and then says, "Maybe one will float away, then I can have it." Tricksy little hobbit.