Pointing

Ike has mastered pointing, he knows when he points, we will react by doing exactly what he wants, I hope this does not lead to the same effect as my cousin's kid who decided not to learn to talk till age 4. Ike's molars are sprouting and he is in quite a fussy mood.

Nate is practiscing the use of plural in words. So sentences are like, "the trainses are on the track". Every word seems to be "es" as oppose to "s".

We went to horse riding on friday as a make up class instead of the thursday as it was pouring. Later we find out that they can do grooming instead of riding. here is nate on sweet pea. Nate always tests by saying I don't want to go riding when in reality he really likes it.

Nate also likes climbing up the slide and thinks he is spiderman. The idolation of superheroes has begun... tho he still seems to be more entranced by thomas and his friends and cars than spiderman and superman.

The rains are here

and spring is officially here, it will be cloudy and wet for the next week, temperatures have dropped and I have pulled out my winter gear again! There are big thunder and lightning shows... kai kai is back to announcing that the sky is farting.

I had a late appointment with the vet today and as the kids could not go to horse riding, they all played at our place. When I asked kaikai whether he wanted to go with me, he said he wanted to play, as soon as I left he was upset and went to his room and cried for the 2 hours I was gone!

Anyway I took the volvo (lower for bullet to climb in), the rain caused lots of accidents but luckily the route I took was accident free just lots of water pouring down. Bullet is boisterous after his operation, the vet is waiting for the biopsy on tuesday to answer all our questions. He thought bullet didn't need pain killers. Bullet is kind of whining now tho...

On the way out, it was pouring and I didn't let bullet pee, more whining in the car, at least he held it in for the 30 min ride home and then had a super long pee getting home.

I also went to the american school today to check it out. Kaikai can take a test in May 2008 to see if he can join the Pre-K in August. I told the admissions officer, I don't mind holding him back a year to be the leader in the class as opposed to the least "competant". Anyway i wasn't too impressed with their pre-K, they have 2 sessions, each have 15 kids, I like his present school better, where he has alot more kids to mix with. Looks like for both schools, age 5 (kinderdarden in the case of the american school and grade zero in the case of dainfern) is an important year, his present nursery school also offers grade zero and are very good at it. Maybe I put his name down in both schools?

My thoughts were this tho... of dainfern college vs. the american school... the pro's of dainfern college:-
1.) close to home, just 5 mins away vs. 20 mins (nate will have to take the school bus)
2.) they wear uniforms vs. no school uniforms
3.) mix with local S. Africans, though they are all more priviledged vs. almost all white but from 60 different countries
the con's, maybe the transcripts are harder to "translate" for the next school he attends.

The pro's of the american school:-
1.) the transfer to another american school would be easy.
2.) if we keep this international lifestyle, maybe the less school systems are less disruptive? maybe that isn't so important when he is younger?

I do know that if we were in taipei, I would put him to the public school system to pick up chinese. At this point, I wish their was a jewish school close by at least he would get some pertinent cultural grounding.

nate's school in spring

We pass the main gate and are greeted by a big pink tree, then some horsies, everything is blooming, the fish pond where nate feeds the fish there are yellow flowers (really tall hyacinths?), there are big trees with purple flowers and a sweet, sweet scent.

More Spring photos

The first two shots are of the same plant (a succulent), they bloom like crazy then 7 days later they are dry and yellow. Its great walking and looking at all the new plants and shrubs, though i need to expand my route.

Well I bet bubbi and porpor can't recognize the trees at our front door, look how they have exploded into white and purple! Quite a number of rose bushes have also exploded. Both michelle and charmaine have a rose bush with big big roses in yellow and orange hues, I must remember to take a shot. Michelles mint is growing wild and it makes the best fresh mint tea. mmm mmm mmm.

I dashed out with ike but its windy and cold so I put on my brown sweater on him, since he can't find his fingers and there is a huge hole in one of the foot area, he sucked his toes the whole walk (loren said he looked so pauperish), ike is anyway growing out of his clothes so fast, he is wearing stuff nate wore at 18-24 months.

Nate and I saw this funny round pot that compliments the shape of the plant. This is the house that had those lovely white and dark purple flowers that bloom in winter at the end of the road, well the new owners tore those trees out and has replaced it with palms. They also added a very ugly fountain. The little balcony area where we go and throw rocks has also been dismantled!

Afternoon in our household

The first three pic are what our lives looks like between 330 and 4pm, ike would have woken up before nate, we would go into his room to wake nate up, ike would play around the bookshelves or the humidifier, bullet jake and pistol will come and hang out, nate would still be muffling around in bed as its nicer to just sleep a bit more.

I got him a lightning mcqueen blanket, a light one for the warmer weather. Today and yesterday its been overcast, the rains are supposed to come to signal spring, when there is no sun, the temperature drops alot and its also been very windy. Nate has been waking up closer to 7 these days, am not sure if its because of his residual cold, or he gets to stay up watching a bit of thomas the train and goes to bed at 8pm. Now I am beginning to wonder if I will have problems waking him up for school as he nears school age.

We had the session 3 parenting course at our house yesterday, it was a lot harder to concentrate with the dogs insisting on joining us on the sofa. Ike waking up and also wanting his presence acknowledged. Then right at the end, bullet does a silent but deadly, he is really getting powerful, luckily he was sitting next to charmaine, who likes dogs and is a forgiving person and me, I am so used to it now I can survive a gas attack.

Bullet was checked into the hospital yesterday pm, nate wanted to send him there so he came for the long ride. He fell asleep and slept all the way there and back, not wanting to get out of the car, luckily the car park and the dr's office isn't too far off. The dr called and said the surgery went well, bullet may be able to come home tomorrow but his liver is only 20% of normal size.

We get back and go to yoga, it was the perfect moment to practice the parenting course lesson 3 but at the time it was hard to remember what I was supposed to do, anyway the course is getting harder so no more writeups on what to do. Nate was being quite disruptive, here is one shot of him doing the tree pose, the only other time he joined it was when they did the sitting with feet together and putting head on feet, he is flexible enough to do that and discovered he can rub his eyes with his toes, urgh. Ike and axel playing dr and dr.

Boys are sick

Nate woke up from his friday nap with burning fever, I bought a new thermometer, the one that you swipe across your forehead instead of poking into the ear, it registered 39.4C, which is about 102F. A bit of Calpol, some TV and later that afternoon, he evenjelped me garden though he had no desire to go to Mugg and Bean.

That night he started burning again and also on saturday morning so ff to the drs we go. I decided to take Ike along too as he has been pulling his ears the last few days and alot more runny nose. Nate has been having a sniffly nose for sbout 7 weeks now, almost drying then starting again, then getting better then this sudden turn. Dr thinks he has allergies but then picked up a throat infection somewhere, both boys have red swollen throats and tonsils, so on to antibiotics again. Ike is not as bad as nate and can still eat. Nate has been a grumpy pot parked in front of the TV, only wants to eat chocolate cake, not even his favourite rice cookies or ice cream. Didn't even want to play with the birthday present from Zaida, a dinoco helicopter.

Today they both seem better alot better. We have also been taking bullet to the vet everyday as the vet called on thursday with his blood results, his blood doesn't clot very well, so he is getting vitamin K shots before his big operation on Weds.

Here are some pics of the flowers springing up, Ike still doesn't seem to like to watch TV like nate did at the same age but sure likes the remote controls! Ike seems to like sweeping as well or brushing the floor. The bird seed, well eaten by the birds, btw the lettuce planted by the kids are growing nicely, soon we will have home grown salad.

Tomorrow is a public holiday, loren is off to DRC in the am.

Brutus

For those who do not know, as a joke after nate was born, we said the next son will be called brutus. Of course when the next child was a boy, loren wanted duke (which was dropped because it sounds like a cantonese bad word) and ike is ike.

Well, nate's new baby doll is named brutus. Loren had a hand in helping that naming process. These dolls are quite sophisticated these days. This one apparenlty is supposed to teach a kid to feed milk, solids, change diapers and empathy as the baby does cry tears when you squeeze its arms.

Now I didn't know this, I thought it would just cry and could not figure the out where the on button is. Took it back to the store and after the guy explained it to me, I am thinking why would I want another thing that needs its diaper changed? oh and it poo's too but you need to get it to drink water to wash out the poo so in effect its always having diarrhea??? who makes these dolls?

Having said that, nate likes taking brutus on walks, carrying him and comforting him when he cries, he also feeds him, puts his dummy (sucky thing) and brutus goes to sleep, nate even sleeps next to brutus and gives brutus his favourite blue blanket.

Today I had a meeting with his teacher on his progress at school, all is good except his fine motor skills. She doesn't think there is much to worry about and if he doesn't improve by year end, next year he can do one on one through games. He can't quite hold a pencil properly.

I think I may just give him a pair of chopsticks and the only way he gets his magic beans (M&Ms) are if he can pick them with the chopsticks.

Bullet's ultrasound scan

I took bullet for his scan last friday and because he had eaten something he needed to be scanned again so off we went on weds. Its confirmed that he has a small liver, so instead of the laid back weimaraner, he actually was a weim with a small liver and thus less energy. His liver is not functioning to take out the toxins and surgery is recommended as a biopsy will show what type of liver problem he has and how we can treat it. In preparing for the surgery bloods were taken to see his clotting levels, it looks like his liver is also hampering the production of clotting cells and so everyday I need to take him to get a vitamin K shot, if that does not boost his system, they will have standby plasma for the surgery. Poor guy doesn't even want to get into my car as we only go to the vet! Here is a pic of bullet sedated before the second scan.

We have now been without water for 2 days, looks like it will go on for another day, went to fill our 5 liter bottles with water. Have been taking the boys to swim at the gym and then shower there. Although its quite inconvenient not to have running water, its not terribly aggravating, reminds me of the time in malaysia when we have to collect rain water and cold water wipe downs. I think I like no water better than no electricity. I think I must have low expectations of this country and living the way we do is already beyond my expectations?

we are all waiting for the rain. It was rumbling on tueday but did not rain, the plants though are blooming where there are sprinklers, with the rain I think even the dusty roadside will become green. More pics of fauna. The birds and bees are out, I bought a seed thing to hang out to attract the birds, today I came home to 30 bee's buzzing about the house! We had to smoke them out (use metal pot and scrunch tissue paper, then light, creating a light smoke). The dogs went after the bee's so I had to lock them up. When i told nate, he said, "oh and the butterflies will come also".

The latest strike for those who want to know is... the automobile parts strike, look like VW, GM and a few other makers will have a hard time delivering cars and may lose orders which leasds to layoffs, wonder how this country cacn function like that? also loren told me this other statistic, during apartheid, the whites owned 85% of the economy, with BEE (black economic empowerment), the whites apparently now own 95% of the economy.

Ike has two molars coming out and is doing something new everyday, just last week he was climbing several steps, today he is going down steps. I found him very adept at pointing the TV remote and asked how long the girls keep him in their room, they claim that its only when they need to use the toilet, so I have asked them to take his books there, better that he learns to open a book than to point a remote control!

I found my alternative chinese supermarket, its in rivonia and takes me about 30 mins to get there but they have a larger variety of stuff, including even goji juice (though I had to ask him to stock it). Nate's school semester ends tomorrow with a week break and I thought I would get cracking at his zulu boy costume but one of the mom's called and said she can make for all 4 zulu boys!

Because why

Now I am not sure if the above phrase is a Singlish one and I have been using it and my son the parrot is using as well or its the natural way a child learns to speak. I hope its the latter and not the former!

Am now so sore from yoga yesterday that I am walking funny, at least michelle joined me and I am not sore alone. We did some strange kundalini meditation involving pointing our index fingers to jupiter and holding up our hands for 11 minutes, wearing my paul frank monkey in meditation t-shirt did not help my meditation. What somewhat saved me is looking thru my third eye (read cross eyed with eyes closed).

Well, the yoga teacher, Tracey is also the yoga teacher for the boys, first lesson today, she promises me that they will be so tired and asleep! But I am quite pleased that they will be receiving the gift of yoga young and will hopefully not be creaky like me, speaking of which, bubbi and porpor, be prepared to yoga when here next!

Today we had parenting session 2, its really nice taking a class together as opposed to just reading and knowing that others have worse kids than you! (haha lets see how many people really read this blog and respond to that one). Today's chapter is called, engaging cooperation.

We began by going thru the ways we normally behave, so here I will confess I often use "threats", must be parenting skills learnt from my parents (who else?), at least I didn't fall into other categories such as blaming and accusing, name calling, commands, lectures, martyrdom statements, sarcastic and prophecy (which makes kids feel doomy).

So apparently, engaging cooperation (1) it is useful to describe the problem, instead of "this room is a mess", one should say "the books need to be put away" and some kids will put away the books. (2) Give information - the milk will go bad if it is not in the fridge, (3) offer a choice - they are more cooperative if they think they have a choice, "do you want the medicine in a spoon or syringe", (4) say it with a word, "jacket" to mean pick up the jacket, this is a very suitable method for me, esp. since I don't like long sentences, the (1) describe the problem can be hard for me. Luckily Nate is 3 and monosylabicity is good, he understands. If that doesn't work, "ahem jackets" work. (5) describe what you feel - I am hungry, lets pack up quickly so we can eat. I like (6) write a note, this works for me too, apparently kids that can't read still like reading notes.

On a slightly different note (no pun intended), if the grandparents (and loren) have gotten to this part, I would encourage you guys to write old fashion notes or letters or sketches to nate and ike, I will read it to them before bedtime (nate seems to dream of the book they last read) and put them into a special scrapbook. As it is now he loves putting the artwork and photo's and reports from school into a scrapbook.

Let's see how Tracey the S&M yoga teacher engages cooperation from the boys, because why, I hope they all feel as sore as me.

Poor Bullet

Here's a pic of nate in the car with brutus, he is feeding brutus some milk. Nate now says he is going to be 4! Today is the last day he is going into the bird park for free. We went and saw the birds, a few of the meercats have babies and they are really cute!

Anyway, poor bullet, I took him to the vet on Friday, I have taken him over the last 3 months to the vet for urine and blood tests and antibiotics and with every test the protein results are not good, we went to get his kidney and liver scanned. I have to take him on weds again as he ate something and his liver is hiding behind the stomach. On friday the scans showed a shrunken liver and some fluids floating around, his system is not taking out the toxins well and not also producing the right ratio of blood cells. The dr thinks its linked to his epilepsy fits.

I had to hold bullets paw while they scanned him. The dr doesn't want to say much till the next scan and maybe a biopsy but liver doesn't bode well and he is not likely to live a long long life, probably shortened, for now he has to be on medication and also special liver dog food.

Nate and Ike's birthday

Nate started celebrating his birthday on Friday, he got to school and his teacher made him a birthday hat, he happily wore that around the whole day. I brought a choc cake to school for him and the kids all had choc cake and sang happy birthday to nate, I also got 2 more cakes for the staff as a thank you for making his days there so happy.

I have met a few parents recently who did not like the school, I guess its quite a personal thing, there are some parents that are really into cleanlinest and just do not like the dust there and I guess the different animal smells!

On saturday nate and ike had their birthday party at a place called tumbleweeds, I managed a few photo's before people started streaming in, there was a jumping castle, a built in trampoline, a nice and cool lhapa area for adults, we were about 40 adults and 20 kids. There was a wildlife demo which was also very good, the kids got to be up close and personal with a small croc, a meercat, a bunny, a large python, a toad, everytime nate was afraid i said I would eat up the animal for him, I think he is going to grow up thinking that mom or the chinese just about eat anything.

I also got that lovely choc cake (that weighs it weight in chocolate), since it was an animal theme I put on animal cookies as decoration as the cake makers would not decorate the cake for me. Here is a pic of Ike's cake. The party favours had a bubble bath animal tied outside and healthy snacks from the nut tree inside. This included, choc raisins (when is choc unhealthy? ok so the raisins are sticky, next year they will be choc wolfberry's!), oven baked corn nibblets, dried papaya and animal shaped gingerbread cookies.

They both got a tonne of present, Nate got books from bubbi, a doll from bubbi and porpor, loren helped name him "brutus". Nate loves taking brutus on walks in the new stroller he got from lucas (a fancy 3 wheeler Maclaren!). On the way he would stop and feed brutus some milk from a bottle and also bring along the dummy. He also changed and fed brutus, maybe next week he would potty train brutus. he got "sarge" and "fillmore" and also a cars watch from the gang. Other presents I have stashed away and over the week he can play with them.

Ike got nice things too, a train with blocks, some of his own books and clothes, now with his growing stash, nate is more willing to share his toys as well. Will take some pics of his new toys in the next days, he has not got a chance to play with all of them yet.

Nate didn't take naps for several days but today I think he was just tired and did nap, which was nice. more pics in next post.

Little Gorilla

I will try and get a picture of this for illustration but Ike is quite the little Gorilla, he has developed a way to hook his little right arm around one's left arm, holds on tight and is able to swing a larger area to look around. Its very much like the National Geographic pictures of a baby gorilla or chimp holding on to mommy.

He has also found that soft area (if one has no biceps) and likes to squeeze it, if no response then he digs his nails into it. So his little game is... squeeze, OW, (big grin) hee hee hee, squeeze, OW, (bigger grin) hee hee hee....

Bubby has got him a toy tricycle for his birthday, it is of course an adult IQ test and has taken me, three broken screw drivers later to build it. Pics soon!

Art Exhibition

Here are some pics of the last art class and mini exhibition, my head is chopped off here... great camera person, the art teacher, luckily she isn't teaching photography! Kai kai's art projects over 10 lessons. He is a bit art-out now. Especially since he also does projects in school (I have a whole folder full, which at least he likes looking thru!). Next week its kiddie yoga.

I once attended a yoga workshop by Duncan Wong, he is of mixed parentage and started yoga really young but also Kung Fu. His clas is quite interesting in that he could meld Kung Fu poses with yoga, he had a really aggressive peaceful (if those two words are possible in the same sentence) state about him.

Today we also started out parenting course, its based off "how to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk", its by two jewish ladies, tho on DVD (filmed in the late 1980s), they already looked like jewsih bubbies. We have a workbook and have to carry out the skills learnt today. So lesson 1 is... try not to deny your childs feelings.

Eg. I hate grandma, a denying adult response is, "no you don't mean that" or Eg. 2, "This is Yucky", the denying response include, "no it isn't, everyone else likes it".

The three key response (with empathy) is (a) oh... hmmm.... I see.... (looks like terry and me are already communicating like this), (b) identify the feeling, "oh you hate grandma today", (c) give a child a fantasy if you cannot give him reality, so to this is yucky, " you mean you don't like that special worm juice?" (ok so the last one may need a bit of modification).

Anyway the DVD showed a similar adult situation where we may encounter and the usual "denial" responses that an adult would say to a child and they really sounded patronizing or pity or like an amatuer psychoanalysis or un-needed advice. Apparently questioning is not so good because then it makes a child try to justify their position when they don't have the vocabulary to do so yet.

I have used the technique before this class but it was really interesting to hear other views from moms and the DVD, visual version and now reinforced by homework, vs. falling asleep before finishing a chapter of another parenting book. Stay tuned for free parenting lessons! (usual disclaimers apply).

Nokia Event - Defend Your Street

ok, the first two pic have nothing to do with the title above. One is of the chicken nest in nate's school, a hen has laid a whole bunch of eggs and is often seen "bu dan" there. We are awaiting the chicks tho I suspect the eggs may be dud ones. Apparently there should be alot of chicks and ducklings soon. Also Nde Bushe should have alot of baby springboks as well.

Pic 2 is of Nate at Nde Bushe wearing my sweater. He has consistently been spilling stuff on himself by accident. Since his clothes were wet, he ran around only with his spidy undies, then I remembered that I brought my sweater and folded the sleeves for him, looks like a dress-ish.

The other pics are of the Nokia event, it involves soccer, which didn't really interest me but I took nate, ike and nomsa on sunday with michelle, axel, lucas and isabelle. Nate got his face on TV the day earlier with Loren giving an interview, apparently with a big green caterpillar drippy booger nose. Here he got a spiderman hand painting and a tiger hand. Ike got some balloons painted on his leg and appears not to be freaked out by the strange looking woman. The VIP tent was nice, lots of freebies, a nokia hat, tupperware, bandana (am now sorted for cancer day at school on the 21st) and a blue T-Shirt with NOKIA on it. Nomsa said she will use that as her uniform.

Nate on a Quad bike, I took ike on it, while I steered, he cried, must be the noise from the engine.

Today we walked on the golf course, while Shelly was busy pulling up Ethan's pants as he did a quick wee, and pistol was chasing the pea hens (he was like a hunter until he started stalking the magpies which swooped down and fought back, then he slinked back quickly to the safety of my legs), kelly and helen with nate, raking the sand, a man runs down in sunglasses saying we can't do that!! boy was he mad and red all over but since we committed many possible violations, we weren't sure which one we were offending. If shelley wasn't there I would have said, "no speakee english". So after 8 months of being here and taking my stroller around, I am told the stroller wheels hurt the turf. Hmmm, there are no track marks tho! the stroller and ike must still weigh less than a guy dragging his golf clubs or a fat guy! For those who know anything about courses, please tell me if that is the case? Anyway, we will next time take a route where they can't spot us from the road... catch us if you caaaaaaan.