I must say I thought perhaps you had all had enough of me for last week. However my parents convinced me that I still needed to do my weekly blog, and that Thursday’s was just a special blog. It’s really been a long time since I’ve had to do a special blog so I forgot that the weekly one still has to happen.

Well coming up on my 9 month birthday, the big news is that my muscles have finally decided to catch up to me, and my strength has improved dramatically. I’ve also added a few more taste sensations to my food repertoire. More about that later, so onto my past week.

On Monday Granny arrived midday to look after me again, I understand that Mommy’s implants needed attention and as a result I got quality time with Granny (those are teeth implants if anyone was wondering, not the other type!). I must say I always enjoy Granny time, she spoils me rotten, and I get my own way regardless… I always threaten to tell Gran when Mommy won’t give me my way. Firstly Granny and I got into the ‘Granny Groove’ and while Mommy went through the next steps in my routine, Granny and I really just laughed at her, she is such a stickler for the routine. Once Mommy had left, Gran went and got my food for me. She promptly went bouncing around the house and hiding all over the place, playing peek-a-boo in order to get me to eat. Needless to say there were many giggles from me and plenty of food and fruit was consumed. I’ve coined the phrase ‘Giggles with Granny’ as this is what we do together. I even overheard Johanna telling Mommy how the giggles didn’t stop while Mommy was out.

Mommy arrived back and soon enough I was giving her lots of hugs and kisses. Well actually if the truth be known, she was kissing me AGAIN. Secretly I love it, but don’t tell her – I have an image to maintain. Following my afternoon snooze, Mom started getting me dressed for something and soon after that Dad arrived home to collect us. I found out soon enough that we were off to Dr Keith Davidge-Pitts, a ear, nose and throat specialist. We headed off to our common place for doctors – Morningside Medic Clinic. Once there we found out that the Doctor was running late so we dropped into the coffee shop for a coffee; apparently Mommy and Daddy spent many a day and night at that coffee shop some time back, while I was in NNICU.

Once we went into to see Dr Davidge-Pitts it was evident that he is a very gentle and nice doctor. He tickled my feet and chatted to me, I of course obliged him with plenty of smiles and laughs. Sadly he confirmed that the fluid behind my ears was still there and that the tympanic membrane was very flat. My parents obviously asked all the relevant questions but knowing full well that grommets were the next step in the ‘fixing’ of the problem. We booked the procedure for Thursday. Then it was off home and to bath, eat and sleep. As I’m sure you know due to the pressure in my ears I have gone from a sleeping through the night baby to a waking every hour baby. Needless to say my Mommy is feeling my pain with me. The rest as, they say, is history.

On Tuesday Mommy and I headed off to the Greenies i.e. Michelle, my Mommy’s friend and my girlfriends Chloe and Amy. This is where Mommy’s group was this week. Us in betweeners the 6 – 10 monthers sat on the lawn and played with a whole bag of Chloe’s toys. We chatted away with each other while our mommies chatted away with each other. I then decided I had enough of Mommy and went to Michelle for a nap. We are losing one of our Mommies and 3 little people, the twins and Coren, so next week is Kelly’s farewell and we stayed a little late to discuss the details. They’re heading back to Glasgow, which is where my Granddaddy comes from.

On Wednesday I headed of to B-Sharp-Beetles with Mommy and just as we were finishing our introductions, Mom looked up and there was Daddy, I took a second look and true to her word there was Daddy. Daddy took over doing our exercises from Mommy, and away we went. It was such fun. I had to show Daddy how to do some of the instruments but he caught on soon enough. We did drums, Maracas, castanets, rhythm sticks and different sounds. It was great fun as usual. As Dad’s visit was a quick one, he had to get back to work, so Mommy and I stayed for a tea and Daddy rushed back to the office.

At the risk of repeating my, I’ll skip over Thursday which was recounted in my last blog.

I really didn’t sleep well on Thursday night, in actual fact I was in a lot of pain and Mommy stayed up with me all night. So at about 8am on Friday I was finished. I was having a marathon nap in the morning, when suddenly I remembered Mom had tea with Bronwyn so I woke up so that we could leave. When we arrived, Bronwyn had bought me a lovely little fluffy donkey; I beat him about for a while during which time Mom and Bronwyn ordered off the menu. Afterward Mom and I headed off to Sandton Square to meet Granny at Annica’s, the Russian tea room. It is my Mommy’s and Daddy’s favourite tea room. Later on we headed home and soon afterward Dad arrived home from work. We spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening spending quality family time together.

Mommy had a really rough night on Friday, as she got very sick and had a fever. So on Saturday morning Dad had to take me to Dianne for my physio on his own. During this time Mom went to Doctor Anthony to find out what’s wrong with her. At physio Dianne was very impressed with my progress and my ability to stand on demand. Back home Dad and I discovered from Mom that she had a major infection, and had a battery of injections. Next Dad hoped onto his bike to collect Mom’s meds at the local pharmacy. Just after noon, once Mom was feeling stronger, we headed off to the Pick ‘n Pay at Brightwater Commons to buy some goodies, as Bev and Claire were coming for dinner that evening.

Once we were back home I noticed Dad getting very industrious in the kitchen. I couldn’t understand this, as it was hours until Bev and Claire were due to arrive. Dad got hold of two kitchen appliances I’d not seen before, and another gadget that looked like a tree with straight branches. Next Dad lined up a whole bunch of ingredients like flour, eggs, salt, water, yeast, etc. Before I could say Jamie Oliver, he was tossing the ingredients into the machine, which had ‘Breadman Junior’ silk screened on the side. About twenty minutes later Dad took a huge dollop of dough out the machine which apparently would be turned into pasta later in the afternoon. As if that wasn’t enough, Dad next threw a whole bunch of other ingredients in the machine to make bread. I thought he was being really ambitious, but a few hours later the smell of baking bread filled the house. I was impressed. As evening approach, Dad started assembling the second appliance. It was all shiny and silver, and had rollers and handles on it. After assembly, he started feeding the pasta dough through the machine, and after chasing pieces of dough through the rollers, making the dough thinner and thinner, he sent the paper like dough a set of teeth, and out the other end popped fettuccini! Now I was really impressed! As the long tendrils of pasta emerged from the pasta maker Dad expertly caught them and placed them on the tree-like stand. Soon the entire pasta tree was draped with fettuccini. During this exercise, Bev and Claire arrived, and Bev helped Dad wind the final bits of dough through the machine. Nearby Mom cut paper thin slices of carpaccio from the meat that was bought at the Jozi Food Market the prior weekend. The festivities began, and I sadly, started to drift off to sleep. I knew the adults had a good evening, as I could hear Bev and Claire leaving as Mom administered my midnight feed.

Dad took charge of my cares on Sunday morning while Mom slept in. We had an awesome time together, having breakfast, walking in the garden, doing some exercises and watching a bit of TV. Pretty soon Mom was up and we were all getting ready to go out. It was picnic time again! Off we headed to the Rose Gardens at the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens, where we met up with Anne. We sat on the picnic blanket chatting when Mom heard her phone ring. After answering there was lots of excitement in her voice – it was Sharon, my Godmommy, calling from Australia! Mom and her chatted a while and then Dad also had a brief chat to her. I was so thrilled – from what I could pick up from the conversation, Shazza confirmed that she’s coming to South Africa on 1 April, and no, it’s not an April Fool’s joke. I could hardly wait to meet her. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait a little longer to meet Marc, my God-daddy, as he won’t be able to make it over in April. Maybe he’ll surprise us by flying over himself, as I heard that he can pilot a plane!

Gary and little Christopher would join us later, as Christopher, who is 9 days my senior, was having a serious snooze. I spent a whole bunch of time in Anne’s lap, and soon afterward Gary and Christopher arrived. It was such an awesome reunion. Little Christopher is also doing really well – he’s mobile and crawling all over the place. On more than one occasion he was rescued out of the rose beds! As the leisurely afternoon progressed we chatted and ate in the wonderful outdoors. By mid-afternoon it was time to head back home.

At the house we all headed in doors, with Dad making multiple trips, bringing my wheels and the picnic stuff in from the car. It was time for me to snooze, but suddenly Mom let out a roar of laughter from one of the other rooms. I was in Dad’s arms so I directed him to go investigate. From the guest bedroom we spotted Roxy storming up and down the garden, having a whale of a time, carry my Bunny! I was horrified, but at the same time it was fun watching her racing around with it in her mouth. Mom went out to rescue Bunny, and it took her a number of tries to catch Roxy and retrieve my Bunny. Needless to say she thought it was a game, whereas all of us were panicking at losing Bunny. Dad must have dropped Bunny bringing the things into the house, and Roxy, always game for some fun, figured this was a new toy for her. Seeing the disappointment on her face I told Mom to give Roxy one of my toys, just not my precious Bunny! We watched for a while as Mom and Roxy ran around the garden with another toy, and soon I was drifting off to sleep. Apparently Mom and Dad also opted for a snooze while I was sleeping, and all of us slept until 8pm! Somewhat groggy and reluctantly I woke up to have a really late dinner. I noticed the cats were very unimpressed that they also weren’t fed on time. After feeding I decided it was way too late to start a blog, hence my not sending out an update last night!

Well, that’s about it for the past week! I could tell you all about my antics of today, but that would spoil it for next week’s blog! What I must tell you about though is that on Friday I am going back into hospital for a day; it’s nothing serious – just to have my MRI scan done of my head, and an echo of my heart. The reason for being checked into hospital is that I cannot be trusted to lie still, so I’m actually going to be put under anaesthetic. The scans are really important, as their results will determine the next steps in terms of the quantum of my next procedures on my brain, and when these will be done. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Lots of love,

Jarrod

Figure 1 My Bindi’s Wildlife Warrior top from Shazza

Figure 2 Like Father Like Son – apparently many of Dad’s socks have holes in them too, I’m just trying to catch up!

Figure 3 Snoozes with Sunny (aka Sonic)

Figure 4 Faceplant Snooze on Dad’s shoulder

Figure 5 Saturday night – waiting for Bev and Claire

Figure 6 Surrounded by toys

Figure 7 Cutie-pie grin

Figure 8 The mastery of banging blocks together

Figure 9 Greyscale Gaze

Figure 10 Shatzi catnapping

Figure 11 Loving some mango

Figure 12 Picnicking with Gary, Anne and little Christopher

Figure 13 Christopher on a jaunt

Figure 14 Christopher getting a lift

Figure 15 Picnic fun

Figure 16 Pondering

Figure 17 Having a look-see

Figure 18 Soap Bubble Freeze Frame

Figure 19 A few strays

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