Hey, Put Me Down!

The week after I turned three is as noteworthy as the week before. Despite it getting freezing cold in the latter part of the week, we celebrated the Winter Solstice on Tuesday, which means our days will start getting longer, and hopefully warmer, and our nights shorter.

This week also saw the 40th birthday of email, which Dad and I perused with interest. Additionally, Sonic our cat’s namesake, Sonic the Hedgehog celebrated his 20th birthday this week, twice that of our little Sunny Bunny. Google also achieved a major feat this week – it achieved a billion unique visitors in one month, which they accomplished ahead of Facebook and Microsoft, who were also vying for this accolade.

One of my favourite TV characters, SpongeBob SquarePants, was immortalised in biology this week too, as a newly discovered mushroom fungus in Borneo was named after the character, namely Spongiforma squarepantsii.

Now to my week. Monday was pretty uneventful as Mom and I took Granny back to the doctor as her feet continued to feel sore and uncomfortable during her convalescence from her foot procedure.

Tuesday morning was pretty traumatic for me, and Milo and Mickey. Mom and Dad had arranged to have Milo and Mickey neutered. I was mortified to see Dad put them in a cat basket and leave with them. I screamed and howled, demanding that my kitty cats be brought back. A short while later Dad arrived back home and all of us headed off to music together. Be Sharp Beetles was having a Father’s Day music day, and all the Dads were encouraged to come to class. It was so nice to have Daddy, as well as some of the other dads in the class. We sang, we danced, we jumped and ran around. As it had been my birthday, I also got a special mention. One of my favourite songs about a parrot asking Dude, Where’s My Food was also sung.

Mom and I spent some time in the back garden on Wednesday attending to the pool and the water features. We also put some food out for the birds, as the cold weather is making it difficult for the birds to find their own food. I immediately announced “Hey dude, where’s my food?” just like we did at music the day before.

I then had a snooze in the hammock outside. In the afternoon Michelle came for a quick visit. Later in the afternoon, once Dad was home, Mom, Dad and I played on the trampoline which was still in the front garden from my birthday party. After we all jumped a while, Mom and Dad started rolling my soccer balls around the inside of the trampoline – I ran around too, giggling as the balls passed me or I caught up with them. This carried on for half an hour. Eventually I was exhausted.

Bev and Claire arrived for a visit on Thursday morning. Mom and Claire visited in the lounge while Bev and I played in my room. We had a wonderful time, particularly when it came to playing with my cars. Using a roll of black insulation tape Bev and I created a network of roads on the floor of my bedroom. What fun! Sadly all too soon they had to leave, but I have heard that Bev is really keen on another play date with me, soon.

After my snooze, Mom bundled me in the car for an ophthalmology appointment at Garden City Clinic. Sadly, as I’ve just had enough of doctors and the medical fraternity, I howled and demanded to go home. I resisted so strongly that I even managed to wrestle out my car seat and escape from my Mom to the furthest reaches of the car. Mom had a quick chat to Dad over the phone and they concurred that it wasn’t necessary that I go. Although I understand that it’s important that I see doctors, I really don’t like to go.

In the afternoon we had a dance class, at Smudge. Although the class was great, I associate Smudge with art and painting so couldn’t concentrate, and rather headed off to the studio area and painted and drew.

Friday turned out to be hectic and frustrating as we tried to help Granny with some errands. Let me just say, there was a lot of collateral damage and large dollops of ‘bad mood’ that went around.

One cute thing from Friday that is worth mentioning is that I tried to get Sonic the cat to do the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ‘Hot Diggity Dog’ dance with me. Let’s just say it didn’t go to plan.

We popped into a new venue on Saturday morning for some indoor play, as it was freezing cold outside. The venue was called Orango Tango and it was packed to the brim as everyone took refuge to play indoors away from the cold. It is a great play area, and we’ll definitely return for another visit. On top of the usual climbing frames, slides, ball pits, etc., it also has a bumper car arena and a soccer pitch. Dad and spent a while playing soccer with me scoring goals, dishing out high-fives to anyone in sight and shouting ‘Goal’ at the top of my voice.

My highlight then was when Dad took me on a bumper car. After I was strapped in he nestled me in his arms and off we went. What fun! I only banged my head once, and Dad expertly negotiated away from everyone trying to ram us. We even did a few circuits in reverse. What a thrill!

Back home we had a team snooze, and in the afternoon Bev and Claire arrived for a nice long visit. I even did a bunzy run for them to my bath.

Sunday was spent as a very quiet day, without us even venturing outside, due to the cold and the biting wind. It suited me fine, as Dad and I played up a storm. He even set up a permanent car race track for me on an old bed base. It was done pretty quickly, and soon Dad and I were racing Mater and Lightning McQueen around the track. I kept the led most of the time as Mater, which Dad was racing, is really top heavy and he had to corner slowly. I, on the other hand, racing a sleek and low Lightning McQueen, kept the trigger of my controller fully depressed through the duration of our races. It was great fun. Occasionally our cars would crash, especially where the tracks crossed over – I roared with laughter.

Well, that’s it for this week. In closing I’m happy to report that this week I started blowing up balloons on my own. I haven’t quite figured out the pinching the balloon tip between breaths, but it’s a huge achievement nevertheless. Not only have I started telling people that I’m three years old, but I also started counting items up to three. You may have also guessed that my favourite saying this week was ‘Hey, put me down!’ whenever I was carried or picked up!

Til next week!

Hugs,

Jay-Bee

Photo 1 Tuesday morning’s have become a regular playtime with Aaron

Photo 2 Dad and I at Be Sharp Beetles

Photo 3 Listening to teacher Liesel

Photo 4 Teacher Liesel telling us a story

Photo 5 Getting a ‘hello’ tickle

Photo 6 Drumming on our knees

Photo 7 Individualist aka naughty

Photo 8 Mmmmm, what comes next . . .

Photo 9 Rooooaaaaar

Photo 10 Oooo, dolphin

Photo 11 Yah! Balloon time

Photo 12 Balloon mayhem! I love it.

Photo 13 Got one!

Photo 14 Chilling

Photo 15 Going up!

Photo 16 Made it

Photo 17 Chilling outside with Bev

Photo 18 Road markings

Photo 19 Playing soccer with Dad in the passage

Photo 20 Dribbling Dad for the ball