Apr

The Jungle Book

As it was Easter Monday we started off the week with a Public Holiday. Reason why I love these so much is that I get Mommy and Daddy all to myself for the full day. Our plan was to go up the Hyundai helium tethered balloon. Daddy phoned ahead, and it was cleared for take-off. Unfortunately by the time we got to the balloon it had to be grounded as the wind had picked up significantly.

Bev and Claire had joined us, and we’d quickly changed plans to go to the Magic Square where I played up a storm. At times I had to fight Claire off as she was getting so involved I didn’t get a turn! After at least an hours’ play, and lots of giggles and fun, we headed to Fego for some lunch and drinks. By now I was really tired, and for the latter part of lunch I snoozed in Mom’s arms.

Tuesday was another exciting day. We arrived at Mommy’s office where I stopped to do some ‘work’ at her desk. Tammy met us there and then Mommy took her and me to see The Lorax. It was awesome. All the way to Sandton I asked for popcorn and Coke, and my vice was finally fulfilled at the movies. It was a really lovely movie, and very in vogue with today’s green issues.

On Wednesday Mommy had some work to do, so I was at Fastrack Kids for the morning – not for school, but for playgroup. It was so nice to see all my friends and Teacher Sasha. We made pigs out of shapes. In the afternoon Granny arrived, as Mommy and Daddy were going to Joan’s memorial service. Granny and I played up a storm. She even bathed me and when she asked what I wanted for dinner I announced ‘fried eggs’. Granny was amazed, and a call was placed to Mommy. Turned out she’d never made fried eggs for me before; I’m not telling how I know what fried eggs are.

It was dusk by the time Mom and Dad arrived home, so we drove Granny home, with Dad following in the sweeper vehicle – she doesn’t like to drive in the dark. We had barely gone a block and a half and I’d already fallen asleep.

Thursday Mom and I stayed home, which wasn’t a great experience for Mom – her broken foot is still very sore, and I kept her on her toes (and broken foot) all day. One of my highlights of the day was climbing to the top of my climbing blocks and coaxing Roxy up with me. I’ve been trying for ages to get her to join me on top of the blocks as ‘king of the castle’, but she didn’t really relent until today.

It was playschool time again on Friday. I adopted my clown mode immediately upon arrival: I took the left leg off the learning skeleton and started digging in the stones for treasure with the leg bone! The afternoon was a little hectic around the house. Dad arrived home just after lunchtime, and immediately got to swapping my car seat between the cars – turned out the car was going for a quick repair. In the evening we had sushi and watched videos: I got to see Happy Feet 2 and Mom and Dad watched Tower Heist.

Saturday morning the garage phoned to ask when we’d be collecting the car from the day before – Mom and Dad are really funny about stuff like that, they really don’t mind going without a car for a few days. Dad says it’s always such a schlep to collect it! Eventually Dad relented, and arrangements were made to collect the car, but not before I went to see Dr Anthony for my cold.

Our next stop was Moyo’s at Zoo Lake. There we met Uncle Oliver and Aunty Gillian who were in South Africa from America for Gillian’s Mom’s memorial service. Despite the circumstances under which we always seem to meet (funerals), it was a really nice visit. We had a long brunch, some singers serenaded us and I even had my face painted. Sadly we had to bid them farewell, and I dished out big hugs as it will probably be a very long time before I see them again. Just before saying our goodbyes they presented me with a SpongeBob Squarepants Lego set. I was thrilled and completely over the moon. I’d seen them on YouTube but never before in real life.

Back home I couldn’t snooze, as I was too excited with my new Lego set and I made Mommy help me build it while Daddy snoozed. It turned out to be a stunning pirate ship, complete with a SpongeBob and Patrick, a treasure chest and map, as well as a pirate. I spent the rest of the day playing with it.

There was much hustle and bustle around the house on Sunday morning – we were going to meet little Ryan, Paul and Claudie at the People’s Theatre to see The Jungle Book. We all arrived at the same time, and had a nice leisurely breakfast before the show. Ryan and I played on Dad’s iPad while Paul and Dad, and Mom and Claudie were in deep conversation. After breakfast we trooped over to the theatre and settled in to our seats in time for the show.

I loved it! Admittedly some of the characters did scare me a little, like Nagaina and Shere Khan. But I very quickly forgot about them when it was time to sing The Bare Necessities and The Monkey Song (I Wan’na Be Like You). During intermission Paul got us glow sticks and wooden snakes that looked like Nagaina – I was sooooo thrilled. Sadly the second Act didn’t go as well for me as the first Act did and I started getting restless, so Mom took me into the lobby where we chatted and waited for the show to end.

Walking back to our cars we stopped and watched the live monitor of the ballet Giselle that was taken place in the main theatre – we were enthralled. I even did my own interpretation of some ballet in the lobby, trying to do a ballet twirl!

Back at home we chilled around the house. Mid-afternoon a plumber arrived to do some repairs on our geyser that started giving issues the night before. In less than an hour the plumber had replaced a valve. I was intrigued by ‘the guy on the roof’ and listened intently at the sounds that emanated from the ceiling. In the afternoon we did some shopping and Daddy got me my meds – my runny nose and cough was really starting to get to me. We ended off a stunning weekend with milkshakes at the Wimpy and a nice long play on the jungle gym back at home.

Well, that’s it for now. It’s worth mentioning that today the world commemorated 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic. All over the Twittersphere there was chatter about it, and Tweeps even mentioned family members that had perished in that disastrous voyage. Through technology the Morse-code scripts between the stricken vessel and the nearby Californian (which didn’t respond to the Titanic’s distress calls) and the Carpathia (which rescued all the survivors) has been dubbed into a minute-by-minute recount. Daddy listened to some of the podcasts in fascination.

Some really exciting news that I’m bursting to share with you is that this time next week I will be blogging from the coast on a two week holiday. It will be a busy week leading out to our departure – meeting with house sitters, getting stock of dog and cat food, and other errands, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Love,

Jarrod