Mar

Back Seat Driver

This week has been filled with activities and parties. It’s been such fun.

I have continued my pursuit of gaining a personality, however it seems like a little too much personality for my parents. How can someone have too much personality?

It started like this and in my favourite words of telling a story, “One day . . .”, I was on my way to school when from the back seat from where I frequently back-seat-drive I asked my mother whether she was driving safely.

Mom being suspicious and knowing a simple answer is never good enough explained that she was a good K53 position away from everything around her. So YES, she was driving safely. Gingerly I heard her ask why I was asking. Well Mom I was just looking at the ‘Drive Safe, Stay Safe’ campaign and was just wondering. My mother giggled for the rest of the morning.

I thought I would make it more difficult for her to get away from school and refused point blank to get out of the car. She hauled me out the car and to my joy there was a jumping castle at school, I went to my class and managed to get as many as possible of my friends and launched myself at the castle. Teachers were freaked and we just had a ball; as usual I was the gang leader. I think Mom in desperation just left. When she arrived back for me, the castle was down and we were all on the usual equipment. I think it was because we were too naughty. I explained to Mom that we were only allowed 2 minutes. She is still trying to decide if it was 2 mins in total or 2 mins/turn.

Needless to say I was pretty useless for the rest of the afternoon and we went to our supermarket to shop. I regaled the staff with my shopping skills, deciding which yoghurt should be purchased etc. Mom thinks it’s hilarious although it takes many an hour. Daddy has been working very hard over the last few weeks, and during the morning I told Daddy that I would drive him to the physio. Fortunately were all dressed and ready for bed by the time Dad was home and we all just chilled in front of the TV.

I had Neurotherapy on Tuesday and I was in top form, and played with everything I could get my hands on. I was unstoppable after this to the point that my mother bought me a Lego train to keep me happy. Whew. I fell asleep on the way to cooking AGAIN. It’s just so hard to know when I am emotionally exhausted and need to be pushed a little or when I am brain-tired and need to sleep. So Mom just gave up and we went home, I slept and Mom packed some more boxes. Tuesday nights we don’t watch TV so we all lay in bed at quiet time before bed with iPad’s in front of us. I must just say the TV is usually on but not watched. However a Coods movie ad came on. I proudly announce to my parents, “I know that! I tried to download the app the other day!” I saw Mom and Dad dart looks at each other from two different sides of the room. “Oh but I just couldn’t get it right, it didn’t work.” I then noticed, my folks visibly sigh a sigh of what could one call it? Relief? I think they think I know the Apple password and when I didn’t they were very relieved. I noticed my iPad suddenly has Net Nanny type apps on it. Hmmmmmm.

Wednesday another cooking class was missed, but this time due to Mom having a migraine, and she just needed to get me home. Fortunately Dad was working from home to ensure some work got completed and was able to keep an eye on me while Mom was sleeping. Also Zionne, our housekeeper went up the road to get us take-aways as we knew we weren’t getting dinner from Mom. Once Dad had finished his work we built Lego and had a great time. There were one or two incidents where Mom was called due to Dad’s disk still being slipped and he couldn’t lift me.

Thursday, which was a Public Holiday, we headed to Sandton City for Mom to take a look at exhibitors and for Dad to change his 8ta SIM card. I got an ice-cream for their trouble. Then it was off for the first time to meet Di and Catriona. They are from Edinburgh in Scotland, where Mom and her family originate but I have never met them. We headed to the River Café for some good African sun. We swam and jumped and climbed and played. We headed off hours later after a wonderful afternoon. On the way back we went to P’nP as the ladies needed stuff. Dad, Catriona and I played our music in the car really really loud and danced like our lives depended on it. We did Katy’s Fireworks my favourite, and then Gangam Style which is Cat’s favourite. When Di and Mom came back it was to the car literally rocking away on its 4 wheels. Embarrassment set in and we quietened down, but then revived the process on the way back to their home. It was great fun. I was out for the count before we left the complex after dropping them off.

Friday was my school’s second birthday and we went crazy on cake and fun for the day. To my joy we got picked up early. I headed to Lauren for OT, but was tired and a bit miserable so only did some of the work. I got KFC as my treat for the week, and decided not to go to Mickey D’s as this is usually my end of week treat after a good OT session. Next week I don’t see Lauren, but to make sure of this I asked if I could see her another day. Mom just smiled.

Friday afternoon, it snowed in Sodor with Take ‘n Play, I made a hut out of cellotape for Toby and took my snow (baby powder) footprints all over the house. Eventually I was tired and chose to watch some TV. Zou the Zebra was being a super-hero. I announced to Mom that we needed a super-Jarrod and she could be my side kick. She was quite cool with that.

Saturday I had a party in the morning for Robert and Tom Tom at the River Café, all my friends were there, we had a slip and slide and it was amazing. Exhausted I left and slept, Dad joined me, while Mom and Gran went out to look for shoes for Gran. They say it was only 2 hours but I kept having to phone them to remind them to come home. I haven’t seen Granny for ages. I felt neglected. I must say I had received a stunning gift from Ryan my friend and his folks and I was carrying it when they got home, but Gran also bought me a Lego police set. I set Dad about building it and he eventually wondered what he had done to deserve the punishment. Mom and Gran giggled, but when it was done we were all about how awesome Dad was.

We had an awesome Earth Hour in the evening and prepping for it was good fun, every single candle Mom arranged for bathroom, kitchen or lighting Dad’s laptop (as he was working again) got blown out and relit several times. Mom thought it was a good speech exercise and complied completely with me. Our hour went so quickly that we didn’t even notice, and we wondered why the world didn’t do it more often than once a year. I helped mom pack a box of clothes and actually even tidied some of my toys.

Sunday we headed back to Sandton City to get our flights and details sorted out for our Paris trip. We ran into our dear friends Nina and Jaco and for me Gene and Kate. Kate and I were allowed to run all around the Protea Court ramps. Kate and I are great friends, but when we all tried to use the iPad together that didn’t work so well. Kate got the iPad and I got the PSP and poor Gene was outbid because she was eldest, but she happily chatted with the Moms. Back at the travel agent we gave all our details and requirements, and the nice gentleman would have it all sorted by Monday. We left at 12 for a team snooze and woke up late for our next date – afternoon tea and play with Ryan at Paul and Claudi’s place. Paul presented me with an Annie and Clarabelle and I was thrilled! We had a great play, stormed around Ryan’s secret garden and played on Ryan’s new jungle gym. We did some grocery shopping on the way home and arrived home as it got dark.

Well that’s it for this week!

Love

Jarrod