Sep

Jay-Bee the Explorer

Hello all!

It’s been another busy week for me and I’m loving it. Before I get into my antics, a quick reminder that voting for my blog closes on Friday, at midnight. Thank you to everyone who has already voted – its much appreciated. If you haven’t had a chance to vote yet, and you’d still like to, then click here.

With the stunning weather in Jo’burg announcing that spring is here in full force and summer is on the horizon, Dad ceremoniously removed the inners from his biking kit on Monday morning before going to work. I helped by tugging on the space suit looking material and ended up in heaps of giggles. Once Dad had left for work, Mom and I readied ourselves to go out. Today I was seeing my dietician, Zahn Otto. Mom and her chatted about the way I eat and what I eat. I nodded my head confirming that Mom was revealing everything correctly. Zahn subsequently confirmed that I am eating very well, with a great variety of different foods, which she was impressed with. She also concluded that I had a sophisticated pallet, considering that I like most fruit and vegetables, even the ‘less popular’ ones my peers generally dislike, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, etc.

During the afternoon, while Mom was tending to the pool, I opted to get into the pool at the deep-end, fully dressed. Mom thought it was very funny how I went to the edge of the pool, sat down and starting to slide into the pool on my tummy. Later in the afternoon Aunty Sharon came to visit and spend some time with us. Sadly Dad arrived home from work later than usual, so he wasn’t able to visit with Shazza, Mom and I before dinner. As Shazza loves Steers, and there’s no Steers in Melbourne where she lives, we all agreed Steers would be fully in order for dinner. I had my first cheese burger ever. Mom, Dad and Shazza howled with laughter as I nibbled pieces off the burger, without using my hands. Basically I would plant my face in the burger and take a chunk out of it! A tiny bit contradictory to my ‘sophisticated palate’ and manner of eating described earlier! But then, everyone is entitled to let their hair down occasionally.

Tuesday was spent largely at home. Late in the afternoon Mom hosted BabyGym for her Mommies, and Dad took care of me. We spent time in the front garden in the fading light blowing soap-bubbles. After the Mommies had left Dad fired up the gas braai and made some steaks for us. It was yummy. After my bath, I crawled into Dad’s lap and he read ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ to me from my Nursery Rhymes book. I sat and listened to the entire story, without getting distracted or wanting to leave. Mom and Dad are so impressed with my powers of concentration.

Dad was feeling ill on Wednesday morning; he had a cold that had been brewing for a few days already. I suspect it was from the ‘First Swim of the Season’ that he’d had the prior Sunday, as he came back into the house shivering afterward. It was just as well that Dad was home on Wednesday, as a pedestrian was run over in front of our house during the morning. We didn’t witness the accident ourselves, but spotted the commotion on our CCTV. Dad and I went out to investigated, and were impressed to discover paramedics already on the scene – within less than six minutes. A few minutes later, while we were still outside, an ambulance arrived. I recognised it as similar to the one I’d done many trips in before, and looked for my two favourite medics, Carel and Ryan, who regularly tended to me on my sojourns to Unitas from Morningside Medi-Clinic. I then remembered that they specialised in scheduled patient transfers of littlies like me, and would not be at an accident scene.

Roxy followed us out the door to see the commotion and went and sat right next to the patient to comfort her. The paramedics had a good chuckle at how Roxy was trying to ‘help’ before Dad disciplined her and got her back inside. A short while later the pedestrian was loaded into the ambulance and minutes later it seemed nothing had even happened.

Soon afterward Mom and I headed to music, and we left Dad at home to rest and nurse his cold and flu. It was Spring Day Celebration at music, and all of us wore our Be Sharp Beetles T-shirts and our Mommies wore summer dresses. It looked very festive and summery. After music Mom and I did a little shopping and then headed back home. Just before my midday snooze a reporter arrived from Randburg Sun about the incident on the road that morning to interview Dad.

Before I forget, the other remarkable thing that happened on Wednesday was that the time and date was in sequence, twice during the day. First, early in the morning, as follows: 05:06:07 08/09/10. Then, just after music, it happened again, this time starting with the date: 08/09/10 11:12:13!

Thursday morning was again hectic in the house. Dad was almost ready to leave for work when Robin called to say their cat, Spicy, had gone missing overnight. Dad started to print posters for him to put up throughout the neighbourhood, and a short while later Robin arrived. A quick chat ensued, and just before Robin was about to leave, Granny arrived. Robin left clutching a handful of posters looking very concerned indeed. Dad then left for work a while later.

Mom, Granny and I then headed off to the licensing department to collect Granny’s licence that had been waiting there for her for a while already. En route, Mom and I kept our eyes peeled looking out for Spicy, to no avail. The visit to the licensing department was very quick, and back home we bid Granny adieu. Mom and I were about to leave to meet Shazza at Cresta for lunch when our local councillor, Don Forbes arrived. Mom invited him in for some tea and they chatted about the previous day’s accident, that he’d got wind of through the reporter that interviewed Dad. He committed to assist in addressing the traffic volumes in the suburb. I felt quite honoured to have our local councillor visit us and have tea in our lounge! As we were leaving, Mom received an IM confirming that Spicy was home safe and sound again – we were so relieved.

At Cresta we lunched with Shazza at the Woolworths Cafe. Shazza presented me with an official In The Night Garden BBC magazine, complete with stickers, which is not available in our country. I was thrilled, and I sat at the table reading my magazine. In addition, I got a Scribble Book, for, well, scribbling in. It too was awesome and I paged through the pre-scribbled pages identifying opportune spots to add my own scribbles. I was thrilled! I was so engrossed in my books that I didn’t even take notice of my first ever freshly squeezed apple juice.

In the evening Opa visited for dinner. Over dinner we chatted about the near call Earth had experienced the previous day, in the form of two asteroids that passed Earth within the Moon’s orbit, i.e. VERY close! The first, bigger asteroid, which was about 20m in diameter, passed Earth about 154,000 miles away. The second, smaller asteroid, passed Earth 49,088 miles away about an hour later. Despite NASA estimating that about 50 million NEO’s (Near Earth Objects) pass Earth each day, these 2 asteroid’s passes were significant, in that they were large and within an hour of each other. As a rule of thumb, objects less than 25m in diameter burn up in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth, so this was a close call.

On Friday morning I spent a significant amount of time building puzzles, which is an art I’m starting to master, much to Mom and Dad’s delight. After some intense puzzling, Mom went to see Dr Sonja as her back and neck are hurting. While there, Dr Sonja also did an examination of my body and confirmed that my joints are all in order and fully aligned. We then headed to Lifestyle Centre to meet with Kyle and Helen to have some coffee. I spent a bit of time playing on the jungle gym.

Later in the afternoon, once Dad was home, we headed off to Delta Park, where we met Bev and Claire for cocktails and snacks. We also bumped into Ryan and Claudia, who were also there for a play. We had snacks and drank cocktails late into the afternoon – in fact we were the last people left in the park! During the afternoon Dad unfortunately started having a problem with his camera, which annoyed him somewhat. It kept say Err 99!

Saturday morning Mom’s Mommies started arriving for BabyGym. Once everyone was there, Dad, Gene (who we were looking after during Nina and Kate’s class) and I headed off to the Canon repair shop to hand-in Dad’s camera for repairs. Upon entering the store Dad announced ‘I’m here to join the Canon Error 99 Club’ – the shop assistants roared with laughter. Despite this, I sensed Dad was very sad at not having his camera for a while. He did concur that his camera worked very hard, taking hundreds of pictures of me a week, and did occasionally suffer some abuse like being dropped and bashed about.

Back home we visited with Nina and little Kate for a while, and after they left, we popped into the Chinese toy store down the road where I got some cool toys, as well as a pair of baby scissors in the shape of a duck that ‘quacks’ when I cut! Dad and I got down to the business of a team snooze back home. Mom had Aunty Sharon’s baby-shower in the afternoon, so she had left by the time we’d woken up. Dad and I decided to spend the afternoon at Oki Doki in Linden. It was great fun, made even more so that there was no-one there. We couldn’t understand it, and were a little relieved when two other kids arrived with their parents. The three of us then had the run of the place.

We spent the morning at Emmarentia Dam on Sunday, taking advantage of the stunning weather. I spent most of the time exploring amongst the trees and discovered a forest of clivias that were in full bloom. I was thrilled. After having an ice cream I collected sticks – my new thing! In the car on the way home I fell asleep in time for my midday snooze. In the afternoon, Dad and I played in the front garden. It then dawned on us it would be a perfect end to the weekend if we had a swim. So off we headed to the pool for a quick swim. It was stunning to be able to swim again, even though the water was not all that warm yet. After my swim, while drying off, I had a tumble and fell on the paving, grazing my face. I howled and howled, and Mommy took expert care of me to the point that a short while later I’d forgotten my misfortune.

Well, that’s it for this week.

Hope you all have a stunning week ahead.

Love,

Jarrod