Hi all,

The week started off with some really good news. Monday morning I visited my cardiologist, Dr Janine, for a regular check-up of my heart. After a sonar of my heart, it was determined that my heart is now 100% completely normal, in terms of size. You will recall, after a number of heart failures and increased ‘shunt’ in my heart (the pressure between the left and right compartments of the heart), my heart become very enlarged. The only issue I now have is that I still have a hole in my heart (which incidentally is not uncommon. It is only flowing left to right now, so this is really good news.), but at age of 5 years will be reassessed. If need be then, it will be closed (so watch this space for the next 48 months!). According to Doctor Janine, as per Prof’s Fourie’s advise, I still need to take aspirin, however I can now take Disprin, which tastes much better.

For some reason, I ate like a baby possessed on Monday – at every outing and meeting I was eating. Personally I feel I’m undergoing a bit of a growth spurt. At OT Lauren confirmed that my hips were extremely stable and she was very proud of my progress. After OT Mom and I visited cousin Shannon at Fourways Mall where she is managing the motor show. I spent the entire time during our visit charming Shannon into hopes that I might be given a ride in one of the sports cars on display. Alas, no luck there. She did however offer me the keys, I thought that was wasted on me.

While out on Monday, I convinced Mom that we needed to buy Dad a small gift. He was a speaker at the ITWeb Business Process Management Summit at Montecasino, and this had him pretty stressed out! I chose a set of cufflinks for Dad that he could wear the next day to remind him that we were thinking of him. Mom and I each got him a card as well, and back home I even wrote in the card (well, scribbled to be more precise, but Dad absolutely loved it). I managed to get much of the ink all over myself too!

Later when Dad was home, we presented him with his gift and cards and he was thrilled. We were all chilling on the floor in front TV later in the evening, and I managed to shock Mom through the static on the TV screen. It was such a cool game, but eventually the static was getting too much for me and I decided a cry was in order. I also rode on Rody for a while and I even clicked like a horse. Mom and Dad were thrilled and giggled at my new found skills. They didn’t understand where I had learned this skill, but a call to Granny confirmed that it was my and Granny’s little secret from a few weeks back! After riding on Rody, I clicked and danced to some music on TV.

Tuesday morning Dad was in an awfully big rush to leave the house, and Mom was left to feeding me my breakfast. I remembered then that he had to get to Montecasino for his summit. Mom and I wished him lots of luck. Midmorning Mom and I went off to Shelley’s house for Mom’s club. While there I stole a muffin out of Luke’s hands, and to hide the evidence I shoved the whole thing in my mouth! Afterward we spent the day at home, and Mom had to bath me as Dad would be home a little late. I was still up when Dad arrived home and Mom and I could hardly wait to hear how he’s talk at the summit went. Needless to say, Dad thought it went well, and that lots of people complimented him and asked him lots of additional questions.

I was really excited to get to Be Sharp Beetles on Wednesday as Liesel (our regular teacher) was back. During the class I scooted around the floor with my friends and we played and played on our instruments. Once we’d bid my little friends adieu Mom bought me a little table with a recess in the middle, for either water or sand. She also bought a bag of sterile sandpit sand to fill the bowl in the centre of the table. I played and played with my new table.

The afternoon was spent at Claire’s house for tea. The Mommies found the afternoon really hectic, as all the little ones are now crawling; given a fraction of a chance and all of us headed in different directions. At one point I did slow down, and watched Mom as she unwrapped a cupcake. Thinking it was for me I made my way to her, made a huge fuss and again I stuffed the whole thing in my mouth and scooted off again! However, not before I spat out the icing. Mom was intrigued at how I was able to separate the cupcake from the icing in my mouth, but that will remain my secret talent.

On Thursday morning Mom had an appointment, so I just chilled and played in the corner (so to speak) during her meeting. In the afternoon we met Bev at Zoo Lake and walked around the dam. We sat down for a while near the ducks for me to experience them, but eventually they started hissing at us so the three of us thought it prudent to hightail it out of there. It was time for a drink so Moyo’s was on the cards. The three of us headed to the deck at Moyo’s and while Mom and Bev drank daiquiri’s I delighted in a milkshake. I must admit I was a little badly behaved at Moyo’s, which is uncommon for me, so I kept her on her toes! Mom was exhausted.

Friday was another day for visiting. We caught up with Joleen, Mom’s friend, at The Corner Café in Craighall Park for breakfast. Joleen has been really busy of late so Mom hasn’t seen her forever. This could be told by the way they talked and talked for hours over coffee, breakfast, tea and on it went. I was well behaved during breakfast, and really enjoyed the venue. In the car afterward I made a mental note to tell Dad about this place. Some grocery shopping was next on the cards, and Mom bought me a couple of super cute and awesome swimming costumes. With spring being firmly in the air, I’ll start swimming soon, and last season’s swimsuits don’t fit me anymore. Later in the afternoon, Mom took Briony some dinner; the Mom’s group is in full force supporting Briony and little Josh. Please send him lots of healing angels and guardians as he has bronchitis and respiratory distress.

Dad took charge of my cares on Saturday morning; my weekends are always such a treat as I get to spend two full days with him. We had a pretty full schedule of errands to work through in the morning, so we got going really early. First it was off to the builder’s yard, which was our furthermost point to travel. Mom and Dad are really good about their route planning in that way. At the builder’s yard we walked around and looked at stones, pebbles and rocks. After a brief time, we settled on some peach coloured dump rock (shot rock) for in front of our wall. Similar looking peach chunks were selected for the space between the paving and the perimeter wall, and lastly Mom picked out some pebbles called Dalmatians for the back garden. Next we hopped into WorldWear for breakfast at Seemans. Mom and I each got a new pair of sunglasses. I felt really cool in my new shades. Lifestyle Centre was an unscheduled stop but successful nevertheless. Mom and Dad had been promising me a sandpit for a while, so at the Plastic Warehouse they found a nice looking sandpit shell (a cope and a dope, to keep the cats and dogs out the sand, and dry in the rain). At Heathway Centre’s Toys R Us, Dad procured six bags of sterile sand pit sand, which turned out to be about three times more than I needed; but I won’t complain, as I now have a permanent supply of sandpit sand to play in! Lastly we hopped into Cresta where Dad went in search of a screen for the camera that is being mounted over our garage doors. Alas, this was unsuccessful – so it will still be a while before we can monitor the road!

Back home, Dad setup my new sandpit, and to boot, filled my pool. First I played in my sandpit for a while, and then it was time for a swim; so off I went to change into my new swimming costume and I splashed about in my little pool. Opa and Barbara arrived for a visit, and I showed off splashing around and playing in my sandpit. Later in the afternoon it became a bit cooler so we all headed indoors. It was time for my snooze so I bid everyone adieu and off I went. I heard Dad greeting Opa and Barbara as they left a short time later.

Sunday morning we headed off to the vet as the cats reminded us in disdain that there was no more cat food in the house, and I was tired of sharing my tuna with them. Unfortunately the vet was closed, so we headed off to Victory Park Pick n Pay for our monthly grocery shopping. As we entered the store I immediately got two balloons which kept me entertained for ages. After finishing shopping, Mom, Dad and I went to Steers where we all had ice-cream.

Armed with a loaf of bread we next headed off to Emmarentia Dam to feed the ducks. Upon arriving we first sat on the grass in the sun in front of the water where we all had some lunch. We lasted there about 10 minutes before having to move to the shade! Although we are stoked at summer being close-by, the heat of the midday sun was really pounding down on us, and its not even officially spring yet! Once we had chowed-down, we headed down to the water’s edge where the Egyptian Geese were out in full force. We started breaking off chunks of the loaf of bread and through it to the ducks. They were thrilled! We must have been surrounded by one hundred ducks, all chirping and call for some bread! They came to within a few centimetres of us. All too quickly the entire loaf of bread had been consumed by the eager ducks, so we headed back home. In the afternoon all three of us decided to snooze, so we all lay on our tummies on Mom and Dad’s bed, and before long we were all in lala-land! Unfortunately Dad had to meet with a tenant early Sunday evening, so Mom bunzy ran me. It was really great, and afterward Mom did a whole lot of baby gym on me, getting me ready to write tonight’s blog.

Well, that’s it for this week. Some other tricks that I now do is roar like a lion on command, and vroom like a car. Admittedly, the roaring and vrooming sound remarkably the same, but hey, gimme a break, I’m only 14 months old!

Lots of hugs,

Jay-Bee!

Figure 1 Making sure the pool water is ready for spring

Figure 2 All clear

Figure 3 Testing the hammock too

Figure 4 Exploring at Fourways Mall

Figure 5 Getting ready to write in Dad’s card

Figure 6 Checking out my library

Figure 7 Greeting Dad from work

Figure 8 Riding on Rody

Figure 9 Bust munching on a chicken drumstick

Figure 10 Snoozy bunny

Figure 11 Eating (actually splashing about) custard

Figure 12 Splashing about

Figure 13 Getting busy

Figure 14 Getting busy makes one thirsty

Figure 15 Lunch alfresco

Figure 16 Chilling in my room

Figure 17 Snoozes with Dad

Figure 18 Being cute

Figure 19 Having a drink

Figure 20 Yum

Figure 21 Dad, Roxy and I

Figure 22 Having a ball

Figure 23 Smiles

Figure 24 Playing in my sandpit

Figure 25 Having a dip

Figure 26 Spring is in the air

1 Comment on Spring Is In The Air

  1. Bronwyn says:

    Awesome news!!!!

    Well looks like you are having a blast in your pool and sandpit, and now that Spring is here, I am sure you are going to be spending a lot more time outdoors doing that. What Fun!!!!

    Love
    The Woods

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