Wow, what a week! The first really big news this past week was that it was Mommy’s birthday on Tuesday. Apparently she’s twenty-something, to which Dad has added ‘again’! Some other awesome noteworthy things worth mentioning is that Monday saw the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and the start of the unification of East and West Germany. In addition, Sesame Street celebrated its 40th anniversary this past week too. Although they are not considered Mom and Dad’s favourite, I must sneak a mention of their success into tonight’s blog. Since starting in November 1969, it’s the longest running children’s show on US TV, having earned 122 Emmy Awards, and is now broadcast in 140 countries, often in the vernacular of that country. In South Africa we have our own Sesame Street in the form of Takalani Sesame, which admittedly I’ve never seen!

Enough about celebrations though, and back to my week. A 5:30am thunderstorm heralded in the day on Monday. As a result satellite TV was interrupted so Dad popped the In The Night Garden DVD in for me to watch. What a brilliant start to the day, to the week! As a result of the early morning storms, Dad erred on the side of caution and drove to work by car, as Mom and I are not too keen to see Dad out and about on his bike in the rain. After Dad had left, Mom and I headed off to OT where I was taught a whole bunch of new exercises, and as a result I had a really hard workout. Mom has been somewhat under the weather, and Doctor Anthony wanted her to have some blood tests done, so after OT we popped in at the Morningside Medi Clinic to visit the vampires (aka Lancet Laboratories). While there we met and chatted to the lady from the MRI machine who did my very first MRI scan, almost 17 months ago, and reported on my AVM. It seems like a lifetime ago, but it was also nice to chat to her and show off my great progress.

Back home in the afternoon the Highveld storms persisted, this time accompanied by hail. It hailed so hard that our power was knocked out and the aftermath of the storm saw the driveway and garden covered in leaves and debris from the violent storm. We called City Power, and by the time Dad was home the power was being restored. The power outage as a great excuse to get pizzas, so Dad and I walked up to the local pizza place for some yummy pizzas, focaccia and even some chips for me which I nibbled on during the walk home.

With tummies full of pizza it was time for my bath, which as usual, Dad saw to. After a great bath and playtime in the water he did my usual after-bath-cares, but with a difference – this evening he decided to teach me the blues so he played some Diana Krall on my iPod in the nursery. I really enjoyed the slow deep rhythm.

Tuesday was Mommy’s birthday, so I convinced Dad to help me surprise Mom in bed with a birthday cake and some tea, and of course, some pressies! After lighting some birthday candles (a non-disclosed amount of candles), we woke Mommy up with the surprise. She was thrilled, and I also gave her my pressies. We all sat in bed munching on chocolate cake and chatted. All too soon Dad had to start getting ready for work, so we all went to shower, and so started a new thing for me. I’ve often ventured into the shower with Mom or Dad, but starting this past week I’ve literally started showering as well. So, covered in chocolate cake, I had a shower.

During the morning Mom and I had a nice long snooze together, and then in the afternoon some of Mom’s friends popped by to wish her a happy birthday. While we all visited on the patio I swung in my hammock swing, and pretty soon I was fast asleep! I stayed there snoozing until dusk. Late in the evening Kim and Co. also arrived to wish Mom a happy birthday, and soon afterward I was asleep. Mom and Dad still stayed up late to watch Mama Mia, which Mom had gotten for her birthday, and I heard them going to bed well after midnight.

I opted to be badly behaved on Wednesday and spent much of the day throwing temper tantrums. This caused me to be really exhausted and I slept through the whole of baby club during the afternoon. Back home I was in for an awesome surprise though, as Opa was waiting there to visit with us for the evening. It was great to see him again, as he’d been to Cape Town for two weeks on a holiday. Needless to say I was spoilt by him with a Cape Town t-shirt and a wooden toy. Opa stayed for dinner, so we sat on the front patio and had a leisurely meal together. Dad tried to entertain us afterward with huge soap bubbles while I coloured in my colouring in book.

That evening something really funny happened – Mom went off to shower, and after showering realised she still had her glasses mounted on the top of her head, now completely wet. Dad and I found this hilarious!

On Thursday we collected Granny and we headed off to the Waldorf Market in Bryanston. It was such fun being amongst all the organic and homemade products, as well as being in the outdoors. I was also taken in by all the artistic goodies on sale, and as a treat Mom got me a spinning top with a difference – it has shapes that trace and run around the spinning top! I particularly like the snake as it cruises around the pin of the spinning top.

I watched some more In The Night Garden during the day, and came to the conclusion that every CD is an In The Night Garden DVD which I grab and then proceed to try put in the DVD player. Throughout the day I tried playing everything from jazz CD’s to Microsoft software hoping it was In The Night Garden.

Mom and I also headed off to visit Bronwyn at Lifestyle garden centre in the afternoon. There Mom and Bronwyn talked and laughed and humoured me with animal noises, food and strawberry juice.

Late in the afternoon Dad arrived home from work, sopping wet. While riding home, not only did it start storming and raining, but it also hailed! Fortunately for Dad the hailstones were relatively small – the size of peas – but he still heard what sounded like an Apocalypse inside his helmet. Although I was really worried about Dad riding in a hailstorm, I was also very proud of him having successfully negotiated through the storm without falling off his bike! Apparently the amour in his biking kit prevented him from even feeling the hailstones, expect on his finger tips!

Anyone suffering from triskaidekaphobia on Friday would have done well to stay home, as it was Friday the Thirteen. Out of interest to my readers, this is my third Friday the Thirteenth ever, and in fact, they’ve all occurred this year. Some other interesting facts about this date is that every year has at least one Friday the Thirteenth, but at most only 3, and 2009 has had its three already! I missed last year’s Friday the Thirteenth as it was in the former part of the year.

During the course of the morning Mommy summonsed the AA to change a flat tyre on the Volvo. A little yellow bike arrived and a nice gentleman called Mpho changed the tyre for us – no hassles involved! Afterward we headed off to Mathew’s First Birthday Party, which was held at their house. We all played like crazy in celebration of his party; first we spent some time in the pool which was filled with multicoloured balls and then we all headed off to his homemade sandpit, which his Daddy made for him.

In the late afternoon, once Dad was home, we played with a new water slide on the lawn. The weather is so nice an hot now in the evenings, that its great to just languish around the garden in the evenings.

On Saturday morning Dad left early to see Dr Sonja who manipulated his back. By the time Dad had finished some errands and arrived home, Mom and I were having a deep morning snooze. I woke up just in time to go swimming and in the afternoon we all chilled around the house, reading, snoozing and watching TV.

Sunday was a hive of activity around the house. After we were all up and showered (including me, as I’m really into my morning shower at the moment), we headed off to West Pack to get some plastic bins. En route home we stopped off at News Café for a late breakfast / early lunch. Back home Mom and Dad swung into action, cleaning out the back room and storeroom – apparently a storage bin had been acquired and on Friday a truck was coming to collect our surplus things to go into storage. This was good news for me, as it is rumoured that the back room would be turned into a studio for me – an entire play room for me alone! Well, not entirely, as Mom is going to use it from time to time for her baby business, but outside of those times it’s my play room!

Well, that’s it for this week. Have a great summer’s week everyone – till then!

Love,

Jarrod

Figure 1 Snoozing in my swinging hammock

Figure 2 Bath smiles

Figure 3 Chocolate cake in bed on Mom’s birthday

Figure 4 Helping Mom with her birthday candles

Figure 5 Digging into to chocolate birthday cake

Figure 6 Dinner on the front patio

Figure 7 Chilling with Jake

Figure 8 Giving Jake some love

Figure 9 Approaching my slip and slide

Figure 10 Testing the water

Figure 11 Going in

Figure 12 Shatzi looks on from the roof

Figure 13 Sitting cross legged in a Tupperware

Figure 14 In the garden

Figure 15 A Starling and Mynah Bird cooling off in the fountain

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