Nate's Term 1 assessment

So after 4 days of rain, today we had some sunshine, it was like summer for about 8 hours then as I am waiting to see Nate's teacher at 6pm (there was a queue), it starts to pour again. Its chilly again.

Nate according to his teacher is a happy and well balanced child. The other points are just bla bla bla... well ok for the grandparents here is the detailed list that I can remember...

1.) His best friend is a boy named Brooklyn, today brooklyn told nate he wasn't nate's friend anymore and nate just burst into a million tears... I wonder if this is learnt behaviour when nate told ronnie they weren't friends and ronnie cried alot.

2.) He and the gang of 3 yesterday stole the easter eggs off the theme table and had to replace them with the teacher making a big show with her angry voice to draw the borderlines... today the gang of 3 became the gang of 7 and stole her jelly tots. Apparently when she asked him (she had to keep a straight face) if he took any, he had chipmunk cheeks full of them! Another big scene... these border testers...

3.) He was not the leader of the "sweetie gang". He's more of a follower in this class, tho brooklyn has a stronger personality, Nate has a helpful one and helps brooklyn out with the tasks they need to do.

4.) Fine motor skills still weak so next term will have him do hourly sessions with his old teacher (writing and cutting), Avellyn. I tried doing scissor skills at home but Ike got away with a pair once and nearly cut up his lip, luckily only a small nip. Gross motor good for his age group.

5.) Very good communication skills.

6.) Low concentration skills, likes to ask questions and interrupt during story telling (but I have the opposite experience, maybe he listens more intently cos its Thomas the Train), he trips alot and walks into doors which the teacher thinks he is not concentrating so well.

7.) She says he can't do 12 piece puzzles but at home he does the 24 pieces with no problem.

8.) Can rote count but conceptually does not match numbers with counting yet, I will try and experiment tomorrow with his cookies and lets see, I know he knows up to 4 lets see if porpor can get him to 8 with the liquorice!

9.) High EQ, knows how to get his way with a variety of personalities in his class... and the best one of all...

10.) Nate absolutely refuses to eat sausages, I am still battling with the food menu's in school, esp. processed food or substituting white rice for brown or a no juice policy.

I come home wet from pouring rain and see the two helpers (one is my full timer and the other is my part timer being trained up) huddled together working really diligently on something... they are working on a food making schedule for the boys! I like their attitude, I have a good feeling about them.

Ok on to the explanation of the pic of trees and leaves... well we found a little birdie that probably fell off the tree from the wind and rain. We put it in a little box and the vet says to give it biscuit mixed with water. Tomorrow, I hope "Free Me" will call back so that they can take it and give it a living chance.

The leaves have started to fall... and by the end of autumn, the tree in the pic (of which we have 6) will be shedding alot of leaves. I really wonder if my tumbleweed (actually I have 2 now, the co sent me an extra and I have not heard from them why they sent me another...) will be able to handle the capacity to turn the leaves into compost.

Lefties and Righties

I think Ike will be a leftie, he likes to do everything with his left hand, nate seems to be a rightie, he likes to pretend scribble and uses his right hand alot.

Today loren finally got his osim chair... now to just put it together. I have placed bullet's single seat sofa next to loren's massage chair so that they can hold hands.

It rained so much with no sun shine that today was 11 degs and wet and cold. Ike bravely did not want a sweater the whole day, just a long sleeve shirt. I went out and got nate a whole bunch of turtle necks and a few more softy pants (ie sweat pants with lining). Although crocs are really out of fashion here, I am tempted to get the pink fleece lined ones, its a real pain putting shoes on and taking them off again. The sun should be back on weds...

This purple plant looked so fake I had to double check it, its real... the beer bottle is from one of loren's trips to australia, happy beer... more like happy chinese buddha belly beer.

Rain rain go away

Its been raining and pouring here the last 2 days, down right miserable and cold! can't go out and play, even nate's friend's birthday party was rained under, the temperatures were about 12 degs today... and with the "wind chill factor" we must have been nearer 9. It is expected to be a cold cold winter. Pistol was shivering so pitifully that he has a sweater on now.

The Juksei river that runs thru dainfern is very swollen and my pool which usually has about 3 inches from the waterline to the top is now overflowing. The wind is blowing all the leaves off these trees in front of our house and its just leaves everywhere.

Nate is quite excited about his dada and him safari trip that he calls it the Ferari trip.

Ike has graduated a froggie now... up from tadpole. No more clamber hell classes for me after this thursday. His sleep though is strange, no matter what time we put him down at 5 or at 7 pm, he will wake up between 4 to 5 am. I leave him to cry till Mabo gets him at 5am, tomorrow i will try to give him some milk and see if he goes back to sleep. Otherwise he is sleepy at about 9 and then takes a 2 hour nap and not sleep again till bedtime by which time he is really over tired. Sometimes he does do a mini nap from 3 to 4 but still that is not ideal, not sure how he will transition for school!

Kelly and Helen's birthday 3

pix fm Helen and Kelly's birthday 2

Pix fm Helen and Kelly's birthday 1

Easter Bullet

Here is bullet with easter bunny ears which he did not like wearing!

nate post a magic bean (M&M) session. ike is now into pushing... prams, grocery carts... nate in loren's sunglasses looking like a chinese gangster in the authentic chinese restaurant.

Has anyone seen these "mike & Ike" candy bars?

Loren is taking nate on a father and son safari trip (1 night only) to a game park in pretoria over the easter weekend.

More plants

There are giant dandelions... the diameter of this "pom pom flower" is like 3 inches. The single seed that flies off has an "umbrella" span the size of a dime.

Now is the season of these big bushes of red and orange berries, next year I must notice the flowers they produce before this burst of berries.

For those who have never seen the "snake tongue" (also known as mother in law's tongue) plant flower... here it is.

Pretoria Zoo

On Sunday we made it out to the Zoo there, its really quite a nice zoo. It was my first time in Pretoria and it isn't a great city, its got a few blocks, they seem dodgy and apparently alot of the historical sights there are not really worth visiting either.

What is worth doing at places like this is to rent a cart, or rather car attached to a cart that the parent has to push, we got a two seater one, dada did all the hard work, nate and ike did not want to come out afterwards.

Later that day, we went to a chinese restaurant in rivonia that is quite authentic... at last porpor will not have to suffer withdrawal symptoms for chinese food. The steam fish was quite nice but they could have cleaned the scales a bit better, the tofu was lovely and so was the yang chow fried rice but we will also ask for less salt, they don't use MSG.

Pole dancing birthday party

ok so I wanted something fun to do as an all girls group... the husbands thought we are a bunch of sad housewives but now they will thank me!!! It was incredibly fun, I highly suggest doing it if you have it in your city! We laughed so much and were disappointed when it was all over, time flew by really fast.

Hosted it at our place, locked the children's gate for we do not want them scarred for life. Michelle made a great cake (platform) stuck a candle in the middle (the pole) and shelly's daughter provided the dancer (a bratz doll). Everyone was game to participate and now all the girls want to go take pole dancing lessons and have their birthday parties with a similar theme.

The next day tho was hell, loren who is supposed to watch the kids had a stomach ache, ike was sick and very fussy, so my birthday dinner that night is postponed to this weekend. It was nice to crawl into bed early and sleep at 830pm.

Here is Nate on "what do we do... " as the school theme, he got to dress as a fireman. Also look at messy day at school (they had oodles of noodles, mud baths etc), everyone got messy but not him, which he is now observed for some fear of sensory defensiveness.

Tumbleweed Composter

I am really pleased with my composter. I think I have had it now for 3 or 4 weeks, everytime we fill it (twice a week) with garden clippings and think it is full, a day or two later the material has compressed again. Apparently the clippings will shrink by 80%. Even Willie the gardener is impressed. We have to turn the tumbleweed to get the bacteria to work its magic and there is a stick in the middle that helps the material get all mixed up. Touching it in the afternoon, you can feel the heat, opening the cover you can feel the heat come out!

I thought we had filled it full by last sat, today I go and check, the material has compressed such that I have 40% more space in the tumbler to add more material! Then I need to wait 21 days for it to become compost, tho I can see the working already happening, larger clumps of material turning into dark clumps. Maybe in about 2 or 3 weeks I can harvest the compost and mix with the worm castings and have really rich compost material. Too bad we will be moving into a colder season though.

I transplanted my ginger and boosted their move to less fertile area with worm pee, they seem to be doing really well. My aubergines and beet root look like they are flourishing and I have another crop of about 30 tomatoes ripening, and the never ending basil that is almost weedlike in growth. My goji's don't seem to be surviving too well and we have an ant infestation problem again.

This time I am reluctant to have the guys come in with chemical sprays and have tried a natural remedy (give them indigestion and hope they move to a more hospitable place ie the neighbors house) but am not sure its working. Will give it another week.

Life goes on

So on monday, our helper who should have returned from her weekend break did not return. She had found another job (assistant manager at a kitchen and double pay, she is the highest paid helper on the block), when she left on friday, she told us she was going to an interview and I supported her decision as it seemed good for her on all accounts. On monday, we found out that she had lied, she took all her things and any form of trying to communicate with her post monday has been a rude response from her. Legally she is required to give 4 weeks notice. Failing that she has to pay us in lieu. Had she told the truth and arranged something with us I would have given her that as a thank you parting gift.

Loren has filed with the case with CCMA (commission for conciliation, mediation and arbitration) and it would be interesting to see what happens as the CCMA is very pro worker.

Its sad though to see that someone so important to Ike would have lied and is not an honorable person but then he will likely have no long term memory of her. Luckily for me, last week I hired someone full time for a month till my mom gets here. Today she said she has decided to work full time for us. Ike has taken to her quite well (I think he likes people with similar big cheeks?).

On a separate note, the novel I am reading... apparently 100+ years ago the derogatory term for a jewish person is Ikey. Didn't know that... and we have Ike the Ikey!

Here is an image of Nate in his new Karate shirt, he wore it as soon as he got it and even wanted to wear it to sleep!

He's become a boy of 3 to 4. In "raising boys", they say boys get very interested in superheroes, bet no one will guess which is is favourite superhero... its Frozone (who?), he is the character from the Incredibles who sprays water and water freezes into ice, then zipping around on the ice, he goes to save the world.... well nate zips around the house saying he is Frojone (it takes a bit of effort on his part to pronounce z's). He also wakes up alot at night likely from nightmares (his brain is developing...)

Ike on the other hand, had his shots this week and has been quite the grump. He isn't saying the 2 word sentences that 18 month olds are supposed to and refuses to let anyone take a look at the underside of his tongue. Tomorrow I take him for his developmental check up and nate for his cough.

This week too I have started to train Mabo, its been quite nice to cook, we did a pumpkin-orange soup and a salmon baked with honey and soy sauce. The boys quite liked it.

More pics

1.) Nate in the water slide at Kelly and Helen's birthday
2 and 3.) Nate at movie with me, popcorn and he's discovered the pre movie amusement park
4 and 5.) The playground

So Nate had Messy day on friday but did not want to get messy at all, his chance to wallow in mud, play with squirmy food and his teacher said he insisted his hand be cleaned of the mud that she put on his hands! I think he may be one of the kids "watched" for sensory defensiveness!!


I also managed to make contact with the famous worm breeder in Australia who has beaten me to the rights to distribute the worm farm in Asia. Well he is really quite interesting to chat via email, he was the person who named the various "blues" like the Malaysian Blue Earthworm...

Another worm titbit, the longest earthworm every found and recorded is 22 feet! and found in South Africa. hmmm, I know why the hardeedars are sticking their long beaks constantly to find these protein bearers.

I also may have located a Chinese class for the boys!!!