The boys home

Here's an update on the gardening project at boys home... last weds was a public holiday and loren took the boys to the science center, I went gardening with Caro at the boys home. The ground was really hard and instead of getting the normal 3 feet deep, we could only go about 8 inches into the ground, not ideal but ok.

The boys dug the vege beds and did the planting as well. Caro has seen alot of community projects fail so hopefully this one will do well. They have a big shed at the back that would make a good worm shed and also lots of crates, I took some home to experiment with... I had to seal up the holes of the crate with masking tape, let's see if the worms will like the crates.

de bert up up...

ok that was not quite shana tova! but ike is on the cusp of talking, everyday brings 2 or 3 new words and on sunday, de bert up up (the bird up up... in the tree as he points vigorously), I think is his first sentence. He did aper (apple), kek (cake), bert (bird)... also colors in chinese he did quite well, I asked him to point to the green dinosaur in the book and he did and succeeded with blue and red too! maybe a coincidence?

Since we allowed him to stay up for shabbat, now every night he thinks he can go downstairs to play!

Here's some pics from Michael's birthday party. We met another couple, Del is american and jennifer is Chinese American, they also have two boys, Del is jewish and Del drives the same volvo as loren. Michael is their younger son. They've also lived in similar places as us in Asia.

This week is school holiday (again!) for the kids. Tomorrow I shall brave Sun City with the boys, Mabo and Meera. We'll stay a night at The Cabana, where our room opens up into the big playground area for kids their age. We'll be back on Thursday.

Tonsils and Adenoids

ok these don't belong to nate but the dr said they are similar tho nate's is not as yellow (what ever that means). Yes I googled and used electricity that could have generated an hour of light. Wonder how google must be able to somehow use more green means?

Spoke to my dad on his birthday, he gave me a good idea on major scale worm farming... and I forgot this fact but coffee grounds which are free are very good stuff for the worms. Of course his rambling included a topic on the artful brain (a brief tour of conciousness by ramachandran) and the crapitalist, yes no misspelling there (when my dad is comments on the market, its probably time to buy?!). I took notes as usual and have a list of interesting books to read again.

The boys had a good time chatting with porpor on her birthday, though the line wasn't so great. Ike is chattering alot more, soon we will have two chatterboxes.

What a lot in a short space of time...

Since the last posting... so much has occured. Ike had his first official swim lesson and liked it. Ike also refused to have his first horse riding lesson...

He also saw the dr on sunday, had fever for two days and oral thrush, a very white furry looking tongue on the front right quad. The dr said one of his ears were a bit inflammed. If no fever on monday, he is on the mend... off to school.

nate is doing better and better in the chinese classes, no sentences yet but increase in vocab, the teachers also help me get my head in the right language to use on the kids.

Tuesday I take Nate to see the ENT specialist... well apparently his adenoids and tonsils are very swollen (will post pics of what these are in the next entry) and since we have tried nose cleansing, antihistamine and whatever else... she suggested surgery... which I think i will get a second opinion and also wait to see how the egg allergy thing works. That night, when I went to check on him, he slept with his mouth closed and breathing thru his nose.

Apparently the dry air in winter and the dust causes alot of these issues for a lot of kids. The surgery apparently is quite common. We get home and ike has blisters on his feet, hands and his furry tongue is gone but it looks undescribably worse!

I think my SIL suggested the hand, foot and mouth disease but that is so rare here that it seems strange. The dr I went to is a GP and she could not figure it out as she had not seen any cases like this but then after she spoke to 2 peds, apparently there is a small outbreak here. So... its viral... like a flu with ulcers. It will take 7 to 14 days to work its way out and the infectious period is before the blisters appear! ok Ike has given it to his class maybe? oh maybe markus finger that ike bit may be infected!!!

We've got another full full house for shabbat this weekend, and since its so close to Rosh Shannah, loren will be doing an early one. Tomorrow, I have major shopping to do, will attempt to bake the dessert cake (anat's famous choc cake with a small substitution - the choc for lindt mint choc) and maybe also make that mulberry something pie.

Shana tova to all! (where will I find a small fish head this year?) btw, I also found out that every google search one does (can this be true??) the electricity used by the servers is enough to power an elec saving bulb for an hour!

Pic of Ike at the science center today (its a public holiday here... National Heritage day or Braai day), nate in baker person costume. A chilli plant from woon, my cactus that is flowering (unbelievable! in Asia, it will be fake little things that get stabbed into the cactus) and nate's drawings of himself, which I promised last time.

Ike's Evaluation...

So Ike has high marks for being a happy kid and like to participate in class and is sociable. All is well...

The teacher is not worried about his lack of vocabulary but will monitor the situation for the next 6 months, he is joining in songs and even day to day he starts to say more new words and cute baby gibberish stuff. She thinks I am OTT when I say maybe I should jot down every new word I hear and take a log of the words he already says...

I asked about his biting behavior as he bitten Markus twice now. The first time, the teachers were not too sure what to make of it but this week it has emerged that Markus likes to tease him and irritate him. For example, Ike loves his little pulley bag on wheels and Markus would touch it... Ike would say NO NO NO and make aggressive don't touch my bag hand waves... Markus would touch it again and laugh... the first bite last week was to the arm, the second bite as Markus finger went for the bag... was on the finger.

Moral of the story... do not underestimate the biting accuracy of kids who have 3 dogs at home that can catch flying nibblets even in the dark... and who like to watch Kungfu Panda. Sorry about the bites Markus... you just can't mess with Ike. he may bite now but just wait, he will grow to the size of Hulk like his Uncle Brahmmie. It's quite a dangerous path you are taking.

More images of spring...

The mulberry trees are in full fruiting mode again, tonnes of fruit, everyday I go pluck a bowl, yesterday the gardener directed me to the "secret tree", the berries are smaller but sweeter. I have replaced 2 trays of Woolies packaging of blueberries with mulberries, surely loren can't miss them for his cereal? I got a big bowl for Caro and Shirley yesterday.

Today i feel alot better decided to see the dr today (as my yelling at kids ratio shot thru the roof and my patience index acted like the dow in major negative territory the last few days) and got antibiotics, I was skeptical that I would need them but now as its at night, my throat feels alot worse and I have already taken day ones pills. I closed my eyes in the pm for what I thought was 5 mins... I ended up napping for an hour, a much needed nap.

Then picked the kids up and we went to Christines house to bake... we made Mulberry Pie of Somesort, its not exactly pie but I didn't copy the exact name. Pure chaos with these kids till I figured out a system of taking turns. Very messy but I think they had a lot of fun, luckily I had my drugs and am feeling a lot more patient today. The Pie of Somesort, turned out very nice.

This is the thing I don't understand... these trees are bulging with fruit, none of the garderners or many workers at the nursery school are keen to pick them, either for own consumption (apparently the "blacks" like veges more than fruit) or to pluck them and sell them... or to make them into pie or jam and sell them. I just don't get it, these berries are really expensive if you can even find them.

Last year I had William spend the morning picking the fruit and all the trays were taken by parents (so there is demand!), if we just put a can there and say donate what ever you like or even 10 rand per tray, the gardener will definitely make more than his days wages, even at 5 rand per tray.... so how come no action?? I think I am going to negotiate with the headmistress for first rights to the berries! Mulberry jam anyone???

Linksfield, Johannesburg

This week i was quite excited, we were going to do Shirley's garden, she is that generous woman who paid for the gardening of the boys home which we visited 6 weeks back. She is Jewish and lives in the very jewish area of Joburg. I get there a bit early, the crew would take another 45 mins because of traffic, so I decided to drive around the area, surely I must come across a jewish bakery? I see a very interesting hill top with beautiful homes (pic 1) and decide to check that out, nice big roads, nice l tree lined road! nice views, nice homes... then the next neighborhood I was in an area where Umoja plays... Victory theatre... which is not a good part of town. On a side note for those visiting Joburg, you must go see this show (Brahm... did your friend, Jake make it here?).

I somehow find my way back (via GPS of course) and this time take a left instead of right on the mountain road... as I head down the mountain, suddenly I am in Cyrildene!!! no way would I have known these 3 neighborhoods were so close to each other. We tend to make a trip to each neighborhood as a destination... I was in Chinatown and in Derrick street, a part of Chinatown I had not been, its a small strip, not bad, had 2 large chinese stores and a thai one too.

Here's Shirley's vege garden, pruning for spring. Its great, we are like grazers, as we thin out the areas, we get to munch on a salad! The excess stuff I brought to Nate's school teachers (gone are the days of bringing an apple), the rabbits got a few and loved it. I brought the most precious, tender shoot ones for loren's salad.

As I leave Shirley's place, the GPS tells me not to take the road I originally come from... I then find King David's school, apparently a good jewish school and as I turn that corner.... I find "Friends Bakery", where we catered from for Hanukkah.

So... my cherry belle radish seeds have sprouted, so have the dill and I just planted sunflowers, the yellow generic ones, I need to find the red and other variety types.

Egg...

may be the culprit to Nate's stuffy nose. The blood test shows he is moderately allergic to eggs (drats and he loves eggs!), so we will try to keep him off egg for a month and see if his nose improves. The dr says he may outgrow this, he may not. I think he likes eggs because Mr. Strong eats alot of them! Now I need to find some substitute item for bakerman for him every weds...

The teacher meeting went well... apparently he is average on everything (ie not below average on anything). He is a self confident and healthy child that can play with himself or with others, his two best buddies are Paul and Kaid at this point in time.

He seems to not have much of an appetite since last weds (have I been giving him too much snacks after school and he's waiting for that?), he still refuses to eat sausages and will eat more vege's in place. Did I tell you that at dinner often times he wants to just eat fruits (a fruitarian in the making?), he also munches on salad greens off my vege garden and today loved Christine's dark soya vinegar meat dish.

He apparently has a superior command of the English language vocabulary wise. He is eager to achieve by challenging himself as opposed to being competitive with someone else. His scissors and pencil hold is fine now and he was the only child that noticed the teacher wore glasses (when she was drawing body parts to introduce each part) and his drawings of himself has improved (will get picture tomorrow to post), he has an intense look when doing his cutting exercises.

His self image are of his big belly (ok the grandpa that lived across the street from us in taiwan must have left a big impression on him by saying Duzi dada - big belly or have you eaten) everytime he saw nate. The drawing has a neck, a head, arms, a big belly with a belly button and legs.

So apparently one child piped up to draw a bum but the teacher dodged that by saying that is the back profile and then 3 body parts later... another child asked for a "fannie". So she had to draw in a quick line but the teacher pointed out other self image drawing where girls have added that in! The boys don't seem to intent on drawing their peepee or maybe I need a closer look at these interesting paintings??

She said Nate is usually exceptionally happy and this week he seemed not (he is still happy but the difference is apparent), I could not think of any reason, maybe that his birthday party is over? She then asked me about the party cos apparenlty this week a few kids commented on how fun it was.

The teacher has been teaching them the elephant dance song in music appreciation and I remember Nate telling me about it two days ago, he was surprised when I could hum the tune, little does he know I can play the tune on a horn or tuba and the teacher is trying to convince me to go to a musical rent-a shop to get one. Unfortunately its in the middle of the city of Joburg. That would be quite funny tho or maybe not so for our neighbors.

No signs of a child genius yet. We are on day 3 of no night diapers and no bed wetting!

Ike's meeting is on Friday. Everyone says he is a yummy cutie.

My sore throat...

had turned into a fever today. After horse riding I went to my chinese class and felt really cold. Went home had a big bowl of soup and then slept, woke up and arranged fro Kaidi to take mabo to pick up the kids and then slept some more till 430pm! The kids had chinese with Ayi (auntie) today and they both did well! Ike is starting to say dog and cat in chinese. Nate seems more open to repeating chinese words. The Ayi was very happy today, some progress... she was feeling rather discouraged after 2 weeks of classes. Maybe the key is for me to somehow not be there?

My throat is immensely better now.

So day 2... no wet bed from Nate!!! The dr still does not have the report from the bloods yet. Loren took him to get the blood taken out. I had been procrastinating because it was so traumatic with Ike. Anyway, Nate said, "I did cry a bit" and he got a lollipop. The older boy before him apparently cried alot more. Today he took two clothe hangers and said, "I want to be a hooker".

Ike's vocab has increased to dip, dis (this), der (there), gou-gou (dog in chinese), maaao (cat in chinese), yesh (yes), NO (ok that is very clear). His pointing to chest could mean one of two things... me as in ming ming or I want to wear a spidey shirt.

I also had a conversation with Nate's old teacher Avellyn and she does aupair work and can stay overnight! great... I will be doing more travelling to see africa with loren, he just called and said we will be going to Ethiopia in the next few weeks. Avellyn told me that on free play times, Ike would come over and sit with her and start a conversation... His class teacher says he is very affectionate and will come over and give her a hug.

I have also been spending alot of time with Christine talking about a potential partnership in China on my granddad's business potential, at the very least it is helping me clarify alot of my thoughts (that have been clogged in my head). I hope we will work something out as she is trustable and has the right social and govt contacts. In the meantime its also been refreshing to look through my granddad's things again. Everytime I get a good chinese dinner thrown in as well!

Here's Ike with one of his birthday gifts, a book that opens out and surrounds him. He really likes looking at the animals and seems fascinated most by the piggy, he likes the big black hairy one in school. My horse riding with a couple that is practicing to ride so that they and the kids go on a riding safari and a big yellow beetle that dropped in to say hello.

Nate these days...

It has been hot and cold and hot and cold here, a heat wave with 34 degs to then cold spell then down to 15 degs max. Hopefully the weather is stabilising. Here is nate on a hot day in school, with his batman outfit running thru sprinklers, that day he had swimming and could then change into his swim suit and goggles to continue running thru the sprinklers.

A shot of Nate in his new room... we abandoned toilet training because he had a cough and I gave him water by his bedside. Now that the cough is gone we have restarted. He did well yesterday (day 1 again) and woke up at midnight to wee and drink and then kept the bed dry.

Nate at Johan's birthday and the big tyre is Josh's birthday.

This saturday, loren took him to get blood extracted for allergy tests. He just has been having this stuffy nose for far too long. Lets see if its from allergies? he's got a funny on and off rash as well. Maybe another trip to the drs? or shall I try the chinese barley drink to cool down his systems first?

Ike the little boy...

ok back to the topic of the boys... the reason for my readership following of this blog... Ikey napping in school next to his new buddy, markus, until of course later in the week he bit markus. A little round bite mark to prove it! I guess since he can't verbalize himself fully he has learnt from jake that biting is a defensive way to keep people away from his things, or rather things he perceives are his...

Ike with his favourite birthday toy to date, a tea set. He has been eyeing the tea set of little girls at the park, I think for next year's birthday presents, I will get them household type stuff, like a washing machine or cooking set or blender type toys.

Ike dipping his finger into the beetroot chocolate cakes that he help make for his bakerman day. I ended up making two cakes and slipping nate's class also some beetroot in the chocolate cake. Bub's you would have loved it!

Here's Ike playing with the steam machine.... one day I am sure I will walk in the boys where the boys are smoking instead of the steam machine making steam. Maybe i should put in smoke alarms and on super loud and scare them while young... or I could do what my dad did and give us cigeretes at age 4,encourage a big big puff, let us cough so badly and discourage smoking?

Ike is happily munching his smarties... about 10 mins before dada gave him his pack... he was officially a scavenger, checking for any left overs in the little pan, under the lid...

Misc shots

A tree with many colorful stickers at design quarters, spotted this after bikram, seems lie a very delightful tree!

A picture of a little pottery studio that I found recently, am not sure where I can carve out more time to do these things! I found this place on the way to my chinese laoshi's house. I found this teacher recently and am plodding along with the translation of the books we found in the interior of China before leaving Taipei. I just heard from a friend that can get me a part time job at a very good gallery here... oh and speaking of galleries, the one that is supposed to convert an african door into a coffee table for us seems to not be moving along.

The next two buildings are of Unity college where bubbi volunteered at. I may have posted these before and not stored the pics away.

and... my ginko tree has sprouted some new leaves! I was convinced it was dead! I am having veyr good harvests of iceberg lettuce, rocket, various salad greens, spring onions and leeks from my garden. Am feeling its a bit small. I have now put in some green peppers, tomator, nastartiums, bak choy and baby cherry radishes. I will try for 1 or 2 pumpkin plants and see if I get anything for halloween. I still have not been able to get hold of square beans from Asia. We've also started doing home sprouts for loren's salads

Charmain's farewell lunch

at christines new house. Out in the open area but she has glassed it in and can be used in winter and summer, a very nice an cosy area. We took a tour of her house and I have read about the advances of wall paper but have not really seen them in "action". Christine will organize for us to take a short course on new wallpaper and curtain type material with her interior person. This is after I told her that throughout the tour of the house, I was admiring the material for possible use in art or framing, since design and technology seems to be stuck in some other time tunnel (only acid boards of various colors with a single groove or double groove and even less sophisticated for chinese art).

Here we are about to eat a big Chinese feast!

Before the lunch we had a photoshoot session at Charmain's house (just across the street from Christines). Will try and upload those photos for a laugh.

some more birthday photos

Just got this from the photographer... I think I better sit down and make all the guests some prints....

The only time ike was smiling, after loren tossed him around a bit.

I forgot to take a pic of the stuff in the lootbags, but managed to get alot of neat things while in Biejing. A pencil that has different colored lead, erasers that were mini animals or mini spidermen all very well made iwth moving parts, stickers and tape with like hello kitty on them, yes and they got one small box of smarties.

The party had only one big bowl of marshmallows which apparently Erik and lucas polished off. I forgot to get a list from Michelle, otherwise we could have a separate Bertman platter.