Jul

One Small Step (Crawl)

Hi all,

Wow, what an interesting week – not only were there lots of exciting things on my schedule, but globally there were some amazing occurrences. Needless to say, everyone in some way or other must have thought, read or heard about the 40 year anniversary of man’s first walk on the Moon on Monday. Staying astronomical, this past week also saw the longest total solar eclipse of the 21^st century, topping out at 6 minutes and 39 seconds across Asia. The next time we can expect a solar eclipse that lasts this long in duration will be in June 2132; so pencil it into your diaries if you missed the one this past week and need to see what all the fuss is about.

Another interesting news article that I brought to my Dad’s attention this week was that many of the Swiss Banks announced that they are rapidly running out of space to store gold bullion. It seems investors, concerned over the current global economic downturn, are turning to gold reserves to hedge their risks. On reading this news, I immediately mobilised Dad to write a letter to Zürcher Kantonalbank offering to store some of their gold for them. Apparently a gold bar is approximately the size of a 2l bottle of milk – that got me to thinking that Dad will need to clear out his beer and alcohol fridge to make space for about 20 gold bars! Believe it or not, Dad, with Mom’s help, actually cleared out the spare fridge; it seems that there were approximately 40 bottles of beers there that had long passed their expiry date. So Mom got to work checking all the bottles’ expiry dates, and in the evening, Dad emptied all the beer into a bucket. I watched the building foam with interest. Next, on advice found on the Net, Dad poured the expired beer over the lawn, as apparently it’s full of nutrients that plants need. Viola, we now have space to store the Swiss’ spare gold bullion; the first shipment is scheduled to arrive next week!

Last, but not least, I suggested that Dad buy a single garage in Clifton, Cape Town, as an investment. Why just a garage, might you ask? Well this past week Pam Golding Properties announced that two single garages in Clifton, Cape Town, sold for a cool R750 000 and R580 000 each. Technically speaking, the first garage I mentioned is therefore the second most expensive property in South Africa, as the cost per square metre is R111 000! The most expensive property ever sold in South Africa to date, was the penthouse suite of Sol Kerzner’s One&Only Hotel, which worked out to R112 000 per square metre! By the way, if you have R105m lying about, you may want to pick-up one of the two remaining penthouse suites at the One&Only – apparently it’s a bargin!

Back to my week then, after that quick summary of global happenings this past week. Monday morning Mom and I headed off to physio for Mom early in the morning. Although I would typically have gone to OT afterward, Lauren was on course so I had a break from that. Afterward Mom and I visited Granny for a while. Dad took charge of my cares in the evening again, and it was great fun for me to be bathed by him.

On Tuesday Mom caught up with a friend that she met at German classes last year, Michelle. I’d not met her before, but I immediately immersed myself into the reunion as well and pretty soon it felt like we were all old friends. Although Mom and Michelle met in German classes, there wasn’t much German spoken during lunch. In the evening Dad took over my cares once again, and while filling the bath he got distracted, so by the time he came to check on the bath it was too hot for me; to regulate the temperature he flooded the bath with cool water. By the time Dad put me in the bath the water level was right up to my armpits, and I loved it! I was hoping Dad would more often forget about the bath water and let it fill up so deep. Since the wound on my tummy wasn’t 100% healed as yet, Dad wasn’t putting bubbles in my bath water, as a result I figured it would be cool to drink the bath water, so much to Mom and Dad’s hysteria, every now and then I would lean forward an gulp down some bath water.

Wednesday was a historic day for me; as you all know, Dad feeds me breakfast and does my morning cares before he leaves for work. It was during this time on Wednesday that I decided to test out my crawling abilities. I already had the hang of getting on all-fours and then rocking backward and forward, but on this day I decided to put one hand in front of the other, and shuffle my knees, one in front of the other, and viola, I crawled 2 steps. I know its not much, but it’s a step in the right direction, so to speak!!! I’ll keep you posted on my crawling progress, as I reckon pretty soon I will be storming up and down the passage on all fours.

Later in the morning there was some more excitement in store for me, as I started the second term of Be Sharp Beetles. I’d been waiting to go back to music class for what felt like weeks, and now finally the day had come. I played to my heart’s content, and together with my other little friends, I managed to create quite a cacophony of sound. After lunch and a snooze, we headed off to Claire’s house for tea. Back home that evening, once Dad had done my cares, he settled down to opening and discarding the 40 bottles of beer I spoke about earlier.

Thursday was a pretty mellow day, other than the fact that once Dad arrived at work and phoned us to say he’d arrived safely we had a long giggle about the story he told. This is how it went: After dinner on Wednesday Mom put some of her famous smoked Norwegian salmon pasta in a Tupperware for Dad to take to work the next day for lunch. Thursday morning Dad dutifully took his lunch and strapped it onto the back of his bike with a small cargo net. He waved goodbye and was off. After freezing his butt off en route to work (its still only about 2 to 3°C in the mornings at the moment), he arrived in the underground parking at the office, and once he’d dismounted and taken his helmet and gloves off, he reached for his lunch, but alas, it was no longer there! Clearly the speed and vibration of the bike had caused his lunch to work its way loose and fall off, and so the jokes started circulating around the office! First Dad checked with Robin if he found his lunch on the way. Next, Dad came to the conclusion that some homeless guy scored big time that morning, and would be dining on a luxurious lunch of smoked Norwegian salmon pasta later in the day. The ensuing jokes then were that Dad mustn’t be surprised if some guy frantically waves him down in the traffic the next day wanting his lunch. Robin wanted to know what Dad will be getting for lunch the next day, to determine if it was worth his while to follow him in the event that he lost his lunch again. Emails were flying around the department, with Mom included on the distribution list, discussing Dad’s lunch menu the next day and who would find it!

It seemed Thursday was destined to be a day of laughter, as later on in the day I broke down in a fit of giggles with Mom at Cresta shopping centre. Once we’d run our errands and it was time to leave, Mom inserted her parking card in the payment machine. After paying for the parking the card popped out again – I thought this was hilarious. Just to check that this is what I found so funny, Mom inserted the card again, and a few seconds later it reappeared – I giggled again. Mom repeated this a number of times, and each time I found it as hilarious as the last time. Sadly some other people started arriving that needed to pay for their parking, so the source of my giggles were called to an end.

Friday was pretty hectic around the house, as I could tell Mom was preparing for something big. Upon checking the diary I saw that Mom’s annual Death By Chocolate was planned for the next day; more about that later. All that I can say is that Mom performed like a domestic goddess as she baked, prepared and decorated the most delicious looking goodies. Every now and again I got to savour some of the leftovers – it tasted divine.

In the evening Opa came to visit and he brought with him a bunch of treasures – some of my Dad’s old nursery books, in both English and German. As we all paged through them, and surprisingly Dad actually mentioned that he remembered the books, we found that Dad had written his name in some of the books, but in his baby handwriting! It seemed so cute to think that my Daddy was only as big as me once! As we settled into the evening, Opa, Dad and I walked to the shop (with me snugly wrapped in my jogger) to collect pizzas. Back home after my bath and evening cares, we all munched on pizzas, including me, as I nibbled on a slice of focaccia bread covered in cheese, herbs and garlic. Pretty soon it was my bedtime so I wished everyone goodnight.

Saturday morning Mom and Dad had to run their final errands for that afternoon’s Death By Chocolate. We started off by going to Fournos in Dunkeld West to collect two boxes of chocolate croissants; while we were there we opted to have a quick breakfast. Matt was also there, collecting breakfast for his Mom on her birthday. After breakfast we raced off to World Wear to get some boerewors at Seeman’s Butchery. Back home, Mom again swung into action, and as the afternoon started, people started arriving. It was awesome, the entire house was filled with people, and everywhere I went there was someone keen to hug, kiss and hold me.

Many of you familiar with Mom’s annual Death By Chocolate (DBC) extravaganza will not that this year’s DBC was somewhat different than previous years. For starters, boys were invited (previously it was only Mom and her girlfriends). Furthermore, in addition to there previously only being chocolate dishes such as chocolate croissants, the chocolate fountain, chocolate martinis and lots of chocolate cake and desserts, this year, for the boys, there were also boerewors rolls! Although it typically would have been Dad’s job to braai the boerewors, he (and the boerewors) was rescued by Gary stepping in and braai’ing all the sausage. A good time was had by all, and there was lots of laughter and chatting, and many people stayed until quite late, with Tanya and little Morgan being the last to leave.

To my tremendous surprise, late in the afternoon Granny and Tammy appeared! I was beside myself with excitement. It turned out they had been put on babysitting duty (of me) for the evening, as Mom and Dad were supposed to go out. Unfortunately their plans were changed, and (fortunately) for me, we all got the chance to chill together in the evening.

Sunday morning I awoke to find Dad and Tammy in the study, and before I could start my breakfast Tammy and I were already playing! All too soon Granny and Tammy had to leave, and the rest of the day was spent with Mom, Dad and I chilling around the house. Dad took me out into the garden in the afternoon, and I sat on the lawn between Roxy and Jake, patting them. After eating some grass, Dad and I walked around the garden for a while before he popped me in my swing where I spent some time swinging in the wonderful warm winter sun. Back in the house, Dad and I spent some time in the study watching the birds eat berries from the tree in the front garden. During the short time we watched them we spotted starlings, loeries, bulbuls, thrushes and barbets. I was amazed at the dexterity of the birds as they bounced around the tree looking for the best berries. Some of the birds perched on their tippy toes to reach the berries, while others hung upside down to get to the best spoils.

That’s it for another week. I’m also happy to report that the days are starting to get significantly longer, and warmer, which means spring and summer are on their way. I can hardly wait to be in the garden and swimming again, as I’m sure all of you in the Southern Hemisphere are feeling.

Love, hugs and chocolate kisses,

Jarrod!