Spring is in the Air

Dad took leave on Monday, together with just about the whole of corporate South Africa, as Tuesday was a Public Holiday. It was so nice to have Daddy home for a long weekend. Granny also stayed over, so the house was a hive of activity on Monday. We had noticed that Mickey’s ear had become floppy, so one of the first things Dad did on Monday morning was to take Mickey to the vet. A short while later Dad returned home with Mickey and some meds. Sadly Mickey’s ear is still floppy but we don’t really know what’s wrong with it.

Later in the morning we all took a walk to the Brightwater Commons. It was a beautiful morning, and the walk took us about half an hour. At the Commons I ran around on the lawn and then spotted the Wimpy. After much convincing Mom, Dad and Granny relented and we had some snacks there. We also popped into the Crazy Store and I got a few new toys. Walking back home I fell asleep in the jogger.

During the day Dad gave us updates on the economic markets as globally they were haemorrhaging funds as the US debt was downgraded by Standard and Poor from AAA to AA+, causing a bit of a global sell panic that some totted as another Black Monday. As a result investors moved into precious metals and gold hit a new all-time high of USD1781.30 during the week.

On Tuesday we popped into Brightwater Commons again, this time to play on the inflatable jumping castles that had been set up. I had a whale of a time going up, over and under all sorts of obstacles. I even dared to climb to the top of the highest slide, which was about 10 metres up. Just before reaching the top I unfortunately slipped and fell, but Mom and Dad were close on hand and caught me and untangled me from the ladder. A quick check revealed no injuries so I got back to play. Mom and Dad took me back to the tall slide and I climbed up again, this time with Dad right behind me. It was the “get back on the horse” scenario playing out. I’m glad I did, as I loved going down the big slide.

I also rode on the carousel and afterward I sat on the lawn with Daddy munching on blueberries while Mom and Granny popped into some stores. It was a wonderful morning.

A great snooze followed, and in the afternoon Granny and I played with Playdough. I then decided I wanted the real thing, and with Mom’s help I made Jarrod Style muffins (filled with chocolate chips and hundreds and thousands). It was such fun.

In the early evening, Mom and Dad decided to go on a mini-date to Exclusive Books and the Seattle Coffee Company. Granny stayed to look after me and I played up an absolute storm with her. When Mom and Dad arrived home they presented me with some new books – two Cars themed books, some activity cards and a counting book. I was thrilled.

Wednesday Daddy went back to work, and Granny went home again, but not before we did a little shopping sojourn. Granny spoiled me with a Cars 2 launch pad, complete with a Mater, Lightning McQueen and a Francesco. Afterward we had lunch at Woolies and I took an afternoon snooze.

Mom and I stayed home on Thursday morning and I played around the house. In the afternoon I had speech therapy with Vicky, and Daddy joined us. It was fun having Daddy there, but the lesson did go a little haywire, as I’m really pushing my boundaries at the moment. Mom had to shop for some groceries afterward so Dad and I played at the Wimpy where Mom joined us later.

Poor Daddy was sick most of the night and by Friday morning he had such a bad migraine that he couldn’t go to work. Mom and I bundled him into the car and we took him to Dr Anthony who gave Daddy two jabs of medicine into his bum-cheek. I held Daddy’s hand as he’s really afraid of needles. Back home we popped Dad into bed and pretty soon the meds had taken effect and he was fast asleep.

Mom and I had planned to take Granny and Tamsin on the Gautrain, as they’d never been before. So after we made sure Daddy was settled we collected Granny and Tammy and headed off to the Sandton Gautrain Station. From there we took a trip to the airport. We did end up on the wrong carriage, but it didn’t matter too much. Security helped collect all my toys and soon we were all sorted again. At the airport, in the elevator, Mom asked to go to the third floor – I obliged and hit the three on the control panel. We had lunch at the Spur and then headed back to the station. As our train arrived I spotted two trains on the tracks, so I announced to everyone, “Look, two trains!”. Everyone seems pretty impressed with my number skills.

In the evening Mom and Dad were thrilled that I sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to myself until I fell asleep. Another noteworthy mention for Friday was the fact that the Personal Computer celebrated its 30^th birthday on that day. Mom and Dad reminisced about ‘old’ computers, and how big, slow and ‘green screen’ they were (whatever that means). As I fiddled on Dad’s iPad I could hardly believe my ears at the ‘stories’ Mom and Dad were telling my about computers over the past few decades. Apparently you even had to plug some of them into a TV set! Mom also mentioned that Bill Gates once said that 640kb of memory should be enough for anybody (even though he denies ever saying it). I was pretty astonished by what I was hearing and felt really glad that I’m an i-generation and digital-native.

By Saturday Dad had recovered from his migraine, so it was back to ‘business as usual’. He and I played with my train set most of the morning. After my afternoon snooze we headed to the Garden Fayre for Ryan’s birthday party. I dressed the part in my pirate hat, sword, and eye-patch. It was a great party, but because of my snooze we arrived really late.

Because the weather started showing signs of spring, Mom and Dad decided to re-commission the pool in readiness for summer. With the cooler weather during winter, Mom and Dad don’t run the pool pump to converse energy, and despite this the pool stays very clear other than some dust that settles on the floor. After Dad got the air lock out the system, the automatic pool cleaner made quick work of chomping up the dust in the pool overnight.

A noteworthy mention for Saturday is that it was the 65^th anniversary of the arrival of the world renowned artist Vladimir Tretchikoff in South Africa (on platform 13 of Cape Town Station, on the 13^th, for those that are interested!), which he later called his home. In addition to being a brilliant artist he is also thought to be the first artist to have effectively commercialised he’s art. Tretchikoff’s quoted as saying the only difference between him and Van Gogh was that Van Gogh died poor!

Sunday morning we decided to go play Adventure Golf (miniature golf). I started off really well but the game turned somewhat disastrous for me when I discovered I was only allowed to hit my ball, play in one direction (toward the hole) and have to keep off the ‘green’ while other people were playing through. As a result I didn’t finish the course and we headed home, with me grumpy.

In the afternoon I spent a good deal of time playing with Dad and my trains. We even spent some time outside in my sandpit and I helped Dad brush the stairs and sidewalls of the pool. The pool was looking really great after less than 24 hours effort. I was really keen to start swimming, but when I felt how cold the water was I quickly changed my mind. Also, despite the title saying that spring was in the air after a really summery week Sunday evening started turning cold again.

Until next week,

Love Jarrod

Photo 1 Climbing

Photo 2 Made It!

Photo 3 Ready and set

Photo 4 Slide!

Photo 5 Loving this

Photo 6 Up the next obstacle

Photo 7 And under

Photo 8 And over

Photo 9 Awesome fun

Photo 10 Time for a quick giggle

Photo 11 Jumping

Photo 12 Going up the BIG one

Photo 13 Almost there

Photo 14 Getting ready

Photo 15 Going down

Photo 16 WOW!

Photo 17 Some diving

Photo 18 Baking

Photo 19 Going hi-tech

Photo 20 Getting distracted (and the mixer carries on!)

Photo 21 Granny, Tammy and I getting ready for the Gautrain

Photo 22 Sitting with Tammy

Photo 23 Building a tower

Photo 24 Hello!

Photo 25 Yum! Pirate cup cakes

Photo 26 Party!

Photo 27 On a big-boy swing!

Photo 28 Getting into the swing of things

Photo 29 Putting

Photo 30 Mmmm, now where’d that ball go?

Photo 31 Lining up for a chip

Photo 32 Chilling out after a stressful putt

Photo 33 ‘Til next week