Thirty-Tooth

This week heralded my thirty-second week, and because I still only have two teeth, I figured an apt title for this week’s blog is Thirty-Tooth! But enough shenanigans, and on with this week’s news.

I managed to see my Dad before work everyday this week, which for both of us was really cool. Neither me nor my Dad enjoyed, in the past, only seeing each other after he got home from work. So Monday morning Mom and I saw Dad off to work and we got stuck into our routine. During the morning I had some much needed chiro with Dr Sonja. Dad was home early evening, and we all decided to take advantage of the mild weather and go for a swim. Well, although the weather was mild, I did find the pool a little too chilly for my liking, and if I’d had more teeth I reckon they would have chattered rapidly. Notwithstanding the cool water, I did stay in the pool with my Dad for few minutes, and then I was wrapped up in a nice fluffy towel that Mom had at the ready. Dad swam a little longer and we watched him splashing about and showing off, but not before I decided to have a wee, while in Mom’s lap! We were back indoors before the light started fading, and Dad put me in a nice warm and welcoming bath. Pretty soon my cares were done, my tummy was full, and I was drifting off to dreamland.

On Tuesday morning I again saw my Dad in the morning, but on this day Mom and I left before Dad did, as I had a physio appointment. We left Dad in his study working, when I remembered that he was going for his bike licence test later that morning. Mom and I phoned Dad to wish him luck just before my physio appointment. Throughout the appointment my mind kept drifting back to Dad, as I had been helping Dad study and prepare for his test, I mentally went through some of the steps he should be doing, such as not to touch the white lines, as crossing or touch a line was an immediate fail. Did he remember to check for any obstructions under the bike before mounting it, did he remember to check the tread depth on the tyres and confirm there was no visible damage to them, when pulling off on the hill, did he manage to not roll back (or wheel spin off at high speed, like he did during his lesson). Most importantly, was he continuously checking his blind spots and mirrors? Would he cope with an emergency stop and controlling the balance of the bike at the same time? Well, Mom and I had to wait and see. When Dad did finally SMS us to break the suspense, both Mom and I knew without too much surprise that Dad had passed! We were overjoyed. Later on he described over the phone how he forgot the blind spot and mirror check on the hill, but didn’t roll back; that he locked the wheels of the bike during the emergency stop, but that the rest of the actions went fine, so he was granted a pass. I was so proud of my Dad, finally he was a fully legal bike rider, not just one with a learners licence. This now meant that he is also allowed to take a passenger pillion on the bike – I can’t wait until I get that chance. Later in the afternoon Dad came home beaming with joy, and congratulatory hugs were exchanged all round. To celebrate we headed for to Primi Piatti for pizzas.

Unfortunately for Dad it started raining on Tuesday evening, and continued to rain almost non-stop until the weekend. This meant that my Dad had to go to work by car on Wednesday, and in fact, he hasn’t ridden his bike since getting his licence! I’m convinced though that he’ll still be getting plenty of opportunities to ride fully legal in the future. Mom and I headed off to Baby Message class at Bellies and Babies; by the time class was over it was raining so hard that none of the mommies and babies dared venture to their cars. Eventually there was a slight letup in the downpour, and hordes of mommies with their babies made the dash to their cars. Once I was safely strapped in we were heading to Granny’s place. Mom had an appointment so I was put in Gran’s care for a while. Back home Mom and I chilled around the house, wondering when the rain would subside. Dad arrived home during the afternoon and presented me with an inflatable horse called Rody! I was beside myself with excitement, but before I could get onto Rody, Dad had to inflate him with the foot pump. Pretty soon Rody was ready and I was sitting atop of my red pony. Next Dad decided to give it a try, with hilarious consequences! We all spent the rest of the afternoon joking about and bonding. Dad was having much success at keeping to his wish of bathing me every evening so that was the order of this evening. After bathing I was massaged from head to toe with oil, with Dad using the techniques that Mom had learned at Baby Massage and shown to Dad. I must admit that Dad doesn’t quite get it perfectly right every time, but it feels great nevertheless. For example, he can never remember in which direction the Indian Milking goes, and then the Swedish Massage. The Toe Flicking is also something he hasn’t mastered yet, but I’ll give him some time, and remind Mom to show him (again).

A new family tradition was implemented on Thursday morning being that we will go out together, as a family, for breakfast on the last Thursday of every month. Looking through MS Outlook the other day I realised that Mom and Dad are quite serious about this, as the first couple of hours of every last Thursday of the month has been booked out with the title Family Breakfast. We chose Doppio Zero in Greenside as the location for our first family breakfast. Not only are the breakfasts here good, the ambience great, and its en route to Dad’s work, but it is also the place Mom and Dad had breakfast the morning I was born 32 weeks previously! Its astonishing how much has happened in these 32 weeks!!! Dad left home before us, so when we arrived at Doppio Zero he was so engrossed working and beating out emails on his laptop that he didn’t even notice our arrival. He immediately put his work away and focused his attention on us. I was given a little high chair which was placed on top of the chair between Mom and Dad. I could hardly contain my excitement and I smiled non-stop as I realised that for the first time in a restaurant I’d be sitting at the table with my parents, and not in my traveller alongside the table! Breakfast was awesome, and we chatted and munched on our meals. The rain had subsided slightly by the time we had to leave, and Dad help put me in Mom’s car. We bid farewells, with Dad going off to the office, and Mom and I heading off to Zahn Otto, my dietician. During our appointment she was really impressed with my progress and weight gain, and Mom handed over tomes of notes containing my feeding schedule of what I ate when over the past few weeks, as well as my less glamorous throw-up schedule. Its all for a good cause however, so I don’t mind sharing the intricacies of my diet. After making copious notes, Zahn said she would analyse all the information and provide us with some feedback and next steps.

Leaving the appointment with the dietician Mom and I raced home as we were expecting friends for lunch. Some of Mom’s prior work colleagues were coming through to say hello. Sometime after midday Roelof arrived and with him were Sophia, Vasinthi and Dino. It was a noteworthy reunion and after being held by everyone and greeting them, we sat down to a nice pleasant lunch that stretched into the early afternoon.

Friday morning was hectic once again – I had appointments with Dianne my physiotherapist as well as seeing Lauren, my occupational therapist. Off we headed for our appointments, amidst even more rain. I think it’s the most rain that I’ve ever seen. My physio appointment went well, and because we had some time to spare before our next appointment, we visited Granny and we all did some shopping together. After dropping Granny off, we went to see Lauren. She too was happy with my progress. By early afternoon we arrived home in time for Opa’s visit. After Opa I settled into a laidback gear. Late in the afternoon Jackie popped in for a brief visit, during which Dad arrived home. We all shared some red wine and Dad took me to be bathed, with Jackie looking on. Later on in the evening Tanya, Anthony and little Morgan arrived for a visit. Admittedly I was faced with some tough choices for the evening, as once again my hectic social scheduled resulted in my being triple booked for the night; in addition to our inviting Tanya, Anthony and Morgan, we had also been invited to Ruan and Maryke’s anniversary celebrations, as well as for dinner down the road at Robin and Di’s place. To my absolute amazement, Tanya had created a personalised artwork for me, which I have proudly hung over my bed.

I was very excited with meeting Morgan who was about 5 months older than me. My excitement piqued when Mom and Dad set up the camp cot in my room, next to my cot. Although it was not for the whole night, I was still looking forward to Morgan sleeping over. During the course of the evening I was introduced to Morgan, and we bonded nicely. Eventually both Morgan and I were really tired so we retired to my bedroom, me in my cot and Morgan in the camp cot. We could hear the adults outside chatting, braai’ing ribs and drinking wine. Barrett also arrived during the course of the evening. There was much laughter late into the night, and eventually I drifted off to sleep. I was very surprised to find Morgan still there when Mom came and fed me sometime after midnight. It seemed the sleep over was going to be almost a full night; this made me feel quite excited again. During the early hours of the morning I noticed Morgan being collected by Anthony, and outside I could here the goodbyes as people were leaving.

Saturday morning Dad didn’t stir until quite late. Mom and I headed off to Small Talk where I was weighed, and I’m happy to confirm that I’m now 7.920kgs! Undoubtedly I’ll be over 8kg mark at my next weigh in. While with Sister Lindy I also got some more jabs (3 in total), which now brings me into sync with the appropriate immunisation schedule for my age. The reason for having to catch up with the jabs is that the policy is not to administer any immunisation while in Neo Natal ICU, and since I spent the first 4 ½ months there, I had to do quite a bit of catch up. During the afternoon the three of us just lazed about the house. By mid afternoon we were started watching Mama Mia The Movie on DVD. I was lying on Mom’s tummy and before soon the singing of the musical made me drift off to sleep, but not before I spied my Dad also fast asleep on the sofa. Later on in the day Dad saw to my feeding and bathing, and by nightfall I was safe and sound in my cot, snoozing.

There was much excitement around the house on Sunday morning, as we were going to Emmarentia Dam for a picnic. Dad and I stayed home while Mom headed off to Fournos Bakery for chocolate croissants and Danishes. Pretty soon she was back, and after frying some bangers and bacon, we were packed and ready to go. We arrived at Emmarentia just before 11 o’clock, and we very quickly spotted a perfect picnic site, which looked down at the water. After unpacking Dad took to some kite flying, as Aunty Kim, Granny, cousin Shannon, Tamsin and Ryan and Ronnie and Adolph arrived. We all tucked into sandwiches and pastries, as we sipped on sparkling wine and orange juice. After eating the boys threw a rugby ball about, and when they tired of that a soccer ball was kicked about. Pretty soon both Mom and Dad’s kites were assembled and soon these were dipping in and out of the trees riding the gusts. Tamsin made friends with two other kids and they played Twister with Granny as the Umpire. By early afternoon it was getting pretty hot and the shade at the spot we chose was starting to diminish, so we opted to head off home. While packing up Dad noticed that his arms had gone really red, and then Mom mentioned his neck was also pretty red. I gave Dad a good ole talking to, as he covered me from head to toe in SPF50 sun-block, but didn’t bother to put any on himself.

Once home Dad opted to cool off in the pool. As the water is getting a bit too cool for Mom and my liking, we simply watched Dad splashing about, diving and making bombs. I giggled from the bottom of my belly as Dad made the water slop around the pool’s edge so much that it spilled onto the paving and even ran to where we were sitting. It was mid afternoon as Mom and I headed back indoors; Dad stayed outside and did some errands around the garden and pool.

All three of us took a deserving afternoon nap, and once we were all awake it was already evening. After I had my bath, Daddy was giving me my daily massage. While he was Swedish Milking my legs he was teaching me all the Swedish items I should know about. Milking, Milking, Volvo, SAAB, Abba, IKEA … he’s a funny old soul. Doing the Indian massage on my legs he then opted for brands like Tata, Mittal, Reliance, Bharti Airtel and so on with each stroke. Once my international branding exercises were complete it was time for a little nibble and then onto this week’s blog. Now that it is almost completed for this week, its time to head off to bed. But before I do, here are some of my development highlights of the week: almost sitting on my own, doing push-ups, positioning myself for crawling, developing lots and lots of social skills when interacting with other kids my age, taking my pacifier in and out of my mouth with absolute ease, and of course, miles of smiles 24/7.

So goodnight everyone!

Hugs and flutterby kisses,

Jarrod

Figure 1 Afternoon snoozes in my swing chair

Figure 2 Laidback on Mom’s lap

Figure 3 Wassup?

Figure 4 Reaching out to touch someone!

Figure 5 Here’s me on the ‘sauce’ (Gripe Water) again

Figure 6 Practicing my Gansta Arm Fold in my sleep

Figure 7 At Baby Massage Classes with Mom

Figure 8 Some of my friends with their Mommies at Baby Massage Class

Figure 9 Having a snooze during classes

Figure 10 Granny & I

Figure 11 My really cool camo-shoes

Figure 12 Making my acquaintance with Maple

Figure 13 Getting to grips with Rody

Figure 14 This could go badly

Figure 15 That did go badly!

Figure 16 Sonic is unimpressed with our playing on Rody

Figure 17 Meeting my Mom’s team Dino, Roelof, Sophia, Vasinthi and Me!

Figure 18 Anthony, Tanya, Jackie and Mom

Figure 19 Morgan gives Rody a try

Figure 20 Meeting Morgan

Figure 21 Barrett doing tricks with soap-bubbles

Figure 22 Sitting unaided

Figure 23 Getting into the zone for crawling

Figure 24 Catching up on some reading

Figure 25 And more reading!

Figure 26 Picnicing

Figure 27 Chilling with Dad

Figure 28 Hanging out with Tamsin

Figure 29 Dad launching his kite

Figure 30 Take off

Figure 31 Success!

Figure 32 Ryan busking at water’s edge

Figure 33 Dad and I having a rest

Figure 34 Tanya’s gift to me

Figure 35 Bye for now