School concert

This is me, singing my solo. I had to sing "I see the moon".

After that, I was a sun in the planets song...

"The sun is the centre of us all. Without gravity we would fall. With a nick-knack paddywhack, take a rocket ship - we are going on a trip..."

Oviaas!

Yesterday Mommy and me had some 'Special Mommy-daughter' time. We went to see the 'Elves and the Shoemaker at the Baxter. Today I was going to have 'Special Daddy-daughter' time. I decided that I wanted to go to see the fishies at the Aquarium, but I wanted to take Nathan with us. I also wanted to take the dogs.

Me: Daddy, can we take the dogs with us?
Dad: No, my love.
Me: Why?
Dad: Because the dogs will eat the fishies.
Me: But there's glass - they can't get to the fish behind the glass!

Then Daddy fell about laughing. I got very cross with him for laughing at me. He does that a lot!

Who needs Van der Graaf?

Today we went to play at Sumo's at SuperPlants in Bothasig. By the time I'd finished playing, this is what my hair was doing!!

Nellie sings Jingle Bells

I've been singing Christmas songs. Mommy thinks this one is really cute...

My birthday!

For my birthday, Mommy and Daddy took us to the Waterfront. We got to play in the stones (Scratch Patch), have a picnic and go on a boat ride. I even got to see seals and dolphins on my birthday. The boat was a bit scary cos there were big waves, and I was worried the waves would come into the boat, but they didn't. Every time we went over them we all shouted "WHOA", which was fun, but Nathan didn't like it as our shouting made him scared.

My best present... Mommy and Daddy bought me a 2nd Leo a long time ago, just in case I lost my Leo. So Ouma and Oupa bought me a baby Leo for my birthday. Now I have a Daddy Leo, a Mommy Leo and a Baby Leo - a whole FAMILY of Leo's!!

My best friend. She came to spend the afternoon with me, before the party, and then came home with me again after the party. It was such fun having her to play with me!

Water photos

This is me, floating, with Batasha [Natasha].

And this is me with the toys I'm learning to fetch from the bottom of the pool. Batasha lifts them up with her foot a bit so I can reach them. She's trying to get me to put my face in the water. I'll blow bubbles on the water, but I really don't like getting my face wet.

And this is the turtle we saw at the Kwarium [Aquarium]. When we went I took all my fishes along so I could show them to the fish. I showed my shark to the shark, my lobster to the lobsters, my Nemo fish to the Nemo fish, and my turtle to the turtle.

A Conversational item

Sometimes Mommy and Daddy can be SO ANNOYING. The other day I was trying to talk to Mommy and she walked away, into the kitchen. I was trying to tell her how to sing Concert Songs [the kids at nursery have been learning the songs they're going to sing for the end of year concert, Ed] and she wasn't listening. "MO-OM," I called as I followed her to the kitchen, "Honestly!"

I still don't understand why Mommy was crying. Why did she cry if she thought I was funny? And why did she think I was funny?

Swimming

Daddy took me to a swimming lesson the other day. I had a lot of fun! There was a small doggy who sat on the steps while I was swimming and watched me. Natasha [the swim instructor, Ed] was nice.

Afterwards, Daddy told Mommy how proud he was of me because I swam all on my own without needing him to be in the water with me.

I hope I go again soon.

[She will be going twice a week from now on. I hope to take photos this coming week. Ed]

At the 'farm house'

[All buildings are 'houses' to Nellie. The 'farm house' refers to the From the Earth Expo at the CTICC, held this weekend.]

This morning we went to see the animals at the farm house. Mommy was very excited to see the Emu chicks. I was scared cos I thought they would peck me.

Then Daddy and I went for a bit of a walk around while Mommy stayed to play with the chicks. When we went back to find Mommy we found this man instead.

He didn't do a very good job because he cut the scissors too close and made the sheep bleed. After watching him, we all walked around a bit again and Mommy took me to go and practice how to milk a cow. It felt very weird. I didn't like getting my hands all wet with the milk.

There were lots of animals. I'd never seen these ones before. They're called Alpacas. They're cousins of the camel and the llama. The farmers in South Africa use them to protect the sheep from jackals. This is what they look like with all their wool on them.

And this is what they look like when it's all cut off.

Then Mommy saw a friend so she stopped to chat while we went to see the pigs. That's why there are no photos of the pigs. They were very cute. When Mommy came and found us we went to see all the other animals. There were lots of different types of goats, sheep and cows. There was also a very big horse feeding her baby. The daddy cows - what are they called again, Mommy? Bulls, my love. Oh yes, bulls! - the bulls were very big and I was scared of them. This one is called the Afrikaner and is one of the - what's that word again, Mommy? Indigenous. Oh yes, indigenous - cows. That means they have always lived here. Not like the other cows. The other cows didn't used to live here. They used to live far away and they had to come here by ship.

These ones had big horns that could hurt you, so I didn't touch them.

We also saw lots of baby animals - baby chicks, cows, sheep and a baby horse. Here are the baby sheep with their mommy. The daddy sheep wasn't there because he decided to stay on the farm.

There were also lots of little shops selling food like cheese and biltong. Mommy and Daddy had a lot of fun trying the food, but I wasn't hungry.

What a great day we had! I really like this farm house!

Writing

I have started to write numbers [letters, Ed]. I can write a Janel, Ethan, Hannah, Leo, Ariana, Oliver, Timothy and Imtiyaaz. [At nursery the kids are learning their letters by learning what each of the children's names start with, so Nellie thinks each letter's name is the name of the child. Ed] Mommy is very proud of me and gets very excited when I start drawing them.

Fun walk

Today we had a fun walk for nursery. We had to bring our wheels, and decorate them and ourselves as 'Flower Power'. There were prizes for the best dressed and I won a prize! We had a lot of fun going around the canal in Pinelands.

Photos of my trips

At the aquarium. (If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a younger version of myself there. I have a photo at the same age in a very similar pose, but dressed up to the nines as a flower girl. Ed.)


Nursery class trip to the Planetarium. We got to see a story about Davey the Dragon. He gets lost in space while he's learning to fly. There's an angry Mars in the story. Why is Mars angry, I wonder?

What a fun day!

Today we had such fun! We went to see 'The Fishes' (this is what Nellie calls the Aquarium, Ed). I love the 'Dory' fish! Today Mommy was teaching me all about how the fishies have to swallow water through their gills to get the air out so they can breathe. I'm not sure I believe her....

We saw the big crabs (Spider crabs, Ed), and the nasty sharks with big teeth. Mommy says they can't bite you if they're behind the glass, but I'm not sure about that either. I had a bad dream about them a little while ago and they tried to eat me. I don't like them very much. They scare me.

I also got to see the little rays. There was one that kept trying to come out of the water. I thought he was trying to eat me, but Mommy said he was just coming to have a look at me and say hello because he thought I looked like a rather funny fish! Silly ray! I'm not a fishie! I'm Janel!

Daddy took me to see the penguins. They're smelly and they live in little holes in the rocks.

I got to touch some seaweed too - UGH! I don't like seaweed.

I spent ages climbing on the jungle gym. I also played in the playroom where I had a tea party with the characters painted on the wall. THEY HAD TV THERE TOO! So, I got to watch Peter Pan.

I love days where Mommy and Daddy spend time with me and play with me, and when I also get to watch TV. I had a lot of fun today. I don't think I want to go to nursery tomorrow cos I'd like to do today all over again!

Blue basket monster strikes again

At the hairdresser

I was a very brave girl today. I didn't like having my hair cut, but I was brave. I didn't even cry once.

Statue park

We went to the statue park (Kirstenbosch, Ed.) again today. We had a picnic in the car first, because it was so cold, and then walked around the statue park. I jumped off rocks ALL BY MYSELF and then we saw these geese and goslings. Mommy even let me take a photo with her phone (not this one). We had a lot of fun!

Ethan's party

See the squirrel on my head???

Adult dancing

When you get married, you dance. (Ed - what she means is that the essence of being married is dancing together. She gets this idea from all the movies she watches. When the bride and groom get married - the happily ever after - they always dance and then the movie ends.) Today Daddy showed me how adults dance. Here's me and Daddy getting married and doing adult dancing.

Bike

Granny and Nathan bought me a bike. It's called an Easi-Rider. It doesn't have pedals. This is my first try on the bike. I really love my new bike - it makes me feel so growed (sic, Ed.) up!

I like to move it!

One of my favourite movies is Madagascar. I really like the scene with all the Lemurs dancing. Here's my version of it.

Morning medusa hair

See - I can do it!

Yesterday Mommy and Daddy took me (and Nathan) to the biggest jungle gym IN THE WORLD. (Ed - not really, but apparently, that's what Grandma, Aunt Cath and Ariana call it.) It was the first time I went on a climbing wall all by myself. Mommy told me which foot and hand to put in which hole, but I did it ALL BY MYSELF. That's cos I'm the big sister and I'm getting big. Not as big as Mommy, but if I eat all my food then I'll grow as big as her, hey?