Oct

Monkey’s Wedding

Hi all,

Despite the weather promising lots of rain this week, all we’ve had is the occasional monkey’s wedding causing Mom or Dad to scurry out into the garden to collect all my toys, only for the rain to stop again a few minutes later. Although we’ve not had any rain, the garden is looking stunning with everything now green and in bloom. And I’m loving the hot weather and being outdoors.

Monday I “helped” Mom with chores around the house, such as cleaning. We unpacked our suitcases from our holiday, and I was already hoping we could all go away soon again. Once Mom felt I’d “helped” sufficiently, I busied myself painting on the study patio. Mom unrolled a huge piece of brown paper for me as my canvass. Having a big personality, I felt that the brown paper wasn’t large enough for my art, so much of the paint ended up on myself, the door frames and the house in general. I was quite proud of my creative streak. Next I played with flour in the bath, and having learnt to operate the faucet, I made dough out of the flour upon adding water. What fun!

During my breakfast on Tuesday morning Dad darted back and forth from the car to the house, removing valuables, as the car needed a service. Sometime after Dad left he arrived back home, having gotten a lift from the Dealership. A little later Opa and Barbara arrived; Mom and I were taking Opa to the licensing department to replace his Driver’s Licence which had mysteriously disappeared. Unfortunately the queues were already too long for Opa to be able to stand that long, so we abandoned the exercise. As it was already lunchtime, Mom popped into the butchers on the way come and got some yummy things for lunch. I snoozed. In the afternoon we played at Delta Park, but unfortunately without Dad and Barbara as they had to head home.

Wednesday I was back to music after a three week break and I loved it! I snoozed during the day and in the afternoon we met Michelle at Europa on First. I climbed on the jungle gym and promptly fell off! After some howls, I got straight back up and started climbing again. In the late afternoon we took Dad to the Dealership to collect the car. It looked shiny, clean and new! Incidentally, the date on Wednesday was 20.10.2010!

Mom was very ill on Thursday and Dad really couldn’t take time off to look after me, so I pottered around the house watching videos and reading. I did use my potty for a no. 1 & a no. 2; I was very proud of myself – as was Mom and Dad. Occasionally during the day Mom surfaced to give me food and then she disappeared again to snooze. When Dad got home in the afternoon it was still light enough for us to go play at the Haahoo Park (aka Delta Park); in that way Mom got a nice long rest for the remainder of the day. While at Delta Park Dad discovered I recognised the number nine. He was thrilled and couldn’t wait to let Mom know! I now recognise a 2 and 9, as well as shapes like stars, hearts, kites, etc.

At Delta Park I also swung on the gymnastic rings, all on my own. Dad also put me on the big-person swing and I swung on it. I even started, with Dad’s coaching, getting to sway my legs back and forth to generate momentum – it felt awesome. Once I was bored with swinging, I decided to climb to the very top of the 4m high slide. Dad climbed behind me all of the way, and as is custom, at the top I get into his lap and we slide down together – not today. Before Dad could mobilise to slide down with me I was already down the slide! At the bottom my dismount was less than elegant, but I nevertheless enjoyed it, and most of all, I didn’t get hurt.

We fetched Granny on Friday morning and then headed off to Yeesh for an extra long play date. I made Granny climb on most of the obstacles with me, and she obliged. Afterwards we went shopping for some toiletries. Back home a snooze and some play ensued and then we took Granny home, as Dad arrived home from work. Being a Friday evening we decided to veg-out, be lazy and order pizzas. Yum!

On Saturday morning we had to take Dad’s camera lens back to Cameratek as it started giving problems after a few shots at the coast. Once the lens was logged in for repairs we popped into Wimpy for lunch. Dad and I snoozed afterward and Mom went to a book-club reunion. I woke up shortly before Mom got home. Later in the afternoon Granny arrived to stay over, as no-one was at their house and she didn’t want to stay alone. We all took a walk to the shops together for some ingredients for dinner.

Sunday was an extremely lazy day. Mom had a nice long snooze, as she’s really struggling with sleep at the moment, given that I wake up regularly during the night, owing to my post-traumatic stress syndrome. Dad and I chilled around the house and played.

Well, that’s it for this week. Some noteworthy remarks are that I’ve now been home for 2 years since my first discharge from hospital. I also turned 28 months old during the week. Dad and I read with interest that Benoît Mandelbrot passed away. Those of you who haven’t heard of him, he’s considered the father of non-linear dynamics (chaos theory) and fractal theory. The reason for our interest in this is that Dad has a passion for non-linear dynamics and even started a masters degree in this field a number of years of back. Very often, at random, Dad will show me a natural fractal and describe how it bifurcates into subsets.

Last but not least, please keep my Opa in your thoughts and prayers on Thursday as he undergoes a triple bypass and valve replacement in his heart.

Hugz,

Jay-Bee