Froggy with a chameleon in his belly

Froggy has been doing all kinds of things in the past few days.

Yesterday- “Froggy has a chameleon in his belly and it is hurting him. The chameleon would walk around in this belly during the day and roll up into a cocoon in the night. Froggy had to go to the doctor to get the chameleon out of his belly. It made a little sack in his belly and there was some blood in it.” Sienna had an old medicine box that she was carrying along with Froggy and said it was his medicine.

Froggy grew creepy crawlies on his head. They made a nest and it made Froggy grow hair. His hair was scraggly and he had to go to a “cutter” to get it cut off. The cutter put some smelly stuff on his hair and the creepy crawlies didn’t like it.

Also, Froggy has been hang gliding and fishing whales these past two days. She had an ivy leaf and she said it was Froggy’s hang glider.

There are so many stories I can't even remember them all. It is non stop that she tells Froggy stories. Sofia gets into the stories as well and asks her questions about the story. It is cute to listen to them.

Shongweni Farmers Market

This morning we went to the Shongweni Farmers and Craft Market. There are lots of stall of a variety of interesting things. One of the biggest draws of the market is the food. There are many, many stalls for breakfast. People come from afar to eat breakfast there. It opens at 6:30 and lasts until 10:30 every Saturday. I had never been. We walked around for a while and then decided on breakfast. Sienna wanted little donuts and Sofia wanted a waffle. It was pretty chilly out since it was about 7:30 when we got there. We enjoyed a relaxing breakfast and then walked around. I bought some basil and mint for the garden. We can't get enough basil- the girls eat it like candy. We also bought two little door stops- the kind that go across the whole bottom of the door. I am hoping this will block out some of the critters.

In the afternoon I took them to ballet practice. Next Saturday is dress rehersal and pictures. Then their show is on June 11th and 12th. They seem to be enjoying ballet.

We made brownies today and then I worked with them on their writing- tracing the alphabet and numbers.

We stayed busy.

Today, I picked the girls from school around 11:30. I had made a doctor's appointment for Sofia to check out her allergies. She stays really congested and it seems like it is bothering her hearing. Her teacher, Yanci, said she also thought she was starting to stumble a little which would be affected by her equilibrium and fluid in her ears. Here they don't send children to pediatricians unless they are under 2 years old. They just go to a regular general practiioner (GP). There is one near our house that I had heard good things about so that is where we went- Dr. Darby. He is very nice and took lots of time to talk to me and the girls. Of course, Sienna had to tell a froggy story. She told him that froggy had a belly ache and he had blood in his belly and he had to go to the doctor too.

Anyway, he said she definitely has some allergy symptoms- congestion, swollen glands, dark circles under her eyes and fluid in her ears. He prescribed her Zyrtec. He said we would try it one month and if they symptoms were not better then he would change the medication and possible do some testing to see if there are specific allergens she is reacting to.

I also asked him about the TB shots. They have to have them before they start school next year but the thing is that normally you can't get the BCG (the vaccination) after 1 years old. But he gave me a name of a hospital where I may be able to get the BCG and then his nurse can administer it. The TB shot is the one they put in the left arm and typically leaves a little round scar.

After the doctor, we went to the pet store to get a scratch pole for the kittens so they will hopefully stop crawling up the leather furniture. And I also got a carrier so that I can take them to the vet.

Then, we headed to Seth's birthday party. Seth is a little boy in the girl's class. The party was at his grandparents house on a beautiful large property. They were giving kids rides on 4 wheelers, horses and tractor trailer rides. The girls would have nothing to do with the 4 wheelers but they were so excited to get to ride the horses. They are real naturals on horses. They were riding bareback!!! They rode separately and then together. They had the horse trotting and they loved it! Then they enjoyed going around on the trailer rides. And there was a jump castle. All their friends were there. They had a great time. The only thing was it was so windy and cold- we weren't dressed warm enough. It was up higher in the mountains so it was colder. Seth's mother let the girls wear a couple of his "jerseys".

We left and I treated them to KFC for dinner. Busy day!

Not much to talk about today. Nothing earthshattering today. No visits from monkeys, huge spiders or shongololos. The girls picture appeared in one of the local newspapers this week. We were at the Hillcrest Family Fun Day a couple of weeks ago and a photographer asked to take their picture and asked their names. Sure enough, when I opened the edition on Tuesday, there were Sienna and Sofia smiling. I was able to get 3 copies to keep.

I heard on the news last night that during the World Cup (only 14 days away), residents here in SA will be asked to keep only one light and one t.v. (to watch the world cup matches, of course) on during the 4 week period of the World Cup. SA has very common power outages and so as not to disrupt the World Cup matches for the fans, they want us to use only one light!!! That should be interesting. Over 2 1/2 million tickets for the games have been sold.

The pictures on this blog are of a rural house and a little toy car. They will make one reflect on how fortunate we tend to be and sometimes take it for granted. Especially the picture of the little car. This toy is probably the only toy this child has. The family doesn't have a t.v., a computer, a car and even electricity. And they are struggling to provide food for their family. Many times it is not their fault. They were born in poverty and haven't been given a little lift to help them get out. Many of the families I meet are so hard working and so willing to do anything to provide for their family, send their children to school. And some eventually are able to do this with the help of development organizations and government. We don't realize sometimes how fortunate we are. And there is a very fine line to allowing our children to benefit from what we have to spoiling them with an abundance of the latest toys, mp3 players, etc. Since arriving here in SA, I haven't bought the girls any new toys. They do get what family sends them from the US. There are days that we only read books and color- no t.v., no dolls strewn about the house. And they really enjoy it. In fact, all their toys they keep in the spare bedroom and they RARELY even go to them and play with them. They might get one thing out and play with it but then they put it up. I think this is one of the reasons why they have started to use their imagination much more lately. Even in our daily drives to/from school, because we have no radio (or DVD players), the girls and I sing, play games and tell stories. I am not advocating to take children's toys away. I am just appreciating what I have and trying to ensure the girls appreciate it too and understand that others do not have an abundance of clothes and toys.

Prices

Sometimes, I can't get over the prices of some products here. Most of all it is the things that are probably imported. Today, I went to buy some makeup foundation and it was so expensive. I normally buy Clinique but can't afford it here! It is outrageous. I ended up going with some Loreal- and even that was over $20! Vitamin E oil was over $10 USD. From this pharmacy, I went to the grocery story and picked up some strawberry syrup for Sienna's milk. Sofia drinks her's with chocolate syrup (luckily we brought over a couple of bottles of it from our last trip to the US). The strawberry syrup cost $7! It is Hershey's. See what I am saying....anything considered "luxury" costs about 3 times as much! Then to top things off, I went to a stationary store to buy some birthday wrapping paper. I figured I would buy two sheets (they sell it in a sheet about 2feet by 2feet) rather than a roll of it. I was trying to save money. There wasn't a sign that said how much the sheets cost. But I figured, it was probably about 50 cents a sheet or something like that. I get to the register and it was $3 a sheet! So, I had to pay $6 for two measly sheets of wrapping paper. It's PAPER for goodness sake.

Lately, the office has either been without water or without power. Mostly, the water is not working. We aren't sure what is going on. We have big barrels of water stored for the days we don't have water so at least we can flush the toilets.

The World Cup will start in 15 days. A lot of excitement is building!!! Italy is the current world champions. I will be rooting for them to win again! The girls love the Bafana Bafana- the South African soccer team. I bought them the soccer jerseys so they can wear to school on Fridays. They are yellow and green and they get so excited when they see someone wearing one.

So to finish up with Froggy. Today, Sienna said that Froggy was taking care of 30 kittens and he was really busy. Yesterday, I was getting on to her and Sofia because when I pick them up for school they never wait for me to walk with them to the truck (bakkie). And they have to cross a road which I have told them and told them not to cross it without me. Sienna looked at me and said- "well Froggy crossed it before by himself and he was squashed flat as a pancake. We had to take him to the hospital to fix him". So there you go :)

Dedication to our PawPaw- Bop Bop

And here is the video that was taken at PawPaw's memorial at Houston Country on February 21, 2010. The girls loved their PawPaw and he loved taking them to "the dance" to sing on stage with him.

Deja Blue

Here is the video from last Halloween of the girls singing Deja Blue by Billy Ray Cyrus.

Froggy goes bowling

Today, on the way to school, Sienna's story was about Froggy going bowling.

"Froggy taught me how to bowl a long time ago. He learned how to bowl at his mother's bowling place with the balls and all the bowling stuff. His teacher's name was Merlia. She showed Froggy that you have to knock all the little things down with the ball except for one. You have to leave one up to win the game. Froggy's mother has all different colored hair- black, pink and yellow. Froggy's friends were with him at the bowling place- Penny, Tai and Quinn. They were also bowling. And there were also red roses at the bowling celebration. Sienna also came to the celebration and that is how she learned to bowl- because Froggy taught her".

Otherwise, not much to report. The monkeys are really active right now. As I drive to work and back, they are all over the roads. They are getting hungry because the winter is coming. But it is still quite warm (in the 80s) to be winter. But I guess food is less abundant than it has been in the summer months. They were sitting right outside my office window this morning when I got to work. We have a small garden here at the office and they were helping themselves to the vegetables.

Last Friday, I was stopped for the first time in the police road blocks. They are everywhere but I hadn't been stopped yet. They just looked at my drivers license and then walked around the vehicle looking inside the windows.

The pictures in this post are from Saturday when we went to ballet practice. You can see how tall the girls are getting!

Happy Birthday Sal!

Today is Sal's birthday. We talked on Skype and the girls sang Happy Birthday to him. Sienna told him she thought he was either 25 or 65. Sofia said she thought he was 28.

We have had a quiet weekend. Haven't done much. I was tired after a long and busy week at work. Yesterday, the girls had ballet practice on stage. They are getting ready for their show in June. The mothers could not stay and watch. The teacher, Mrs. Pannifer, wants the show to be a surprise. They like Mrs. Pannifer. She is very strict! But they like it. Then we just stayed around the house yesterday and today mostly except for going to the grocery store.

I had a trip to Johannesburg and to Limpopo this week. I had some meetings in Joberg and then a project visit to a Passing on the Gift Ceremony in Limpopo. Limpopo province is up in the very north of the country by the Zimbabwe. I took two of our new board members to see the ceremony. It was a good visit but very long and very tiring. Joberg is so big and it takes hours to get around the city. The traffic is horrible. Around the city, you can see both tremendous wealth and extreme poverty in the squatter villages. We drove to Limpopo from Joberg- it was about a 4 hour drive there and 4 hours back- in one day. There are many, many game reserves along the way and you can see animals roaming around. The POG ceremony was good. There were lots of speeches and singing. I also had to give the speech of motivation.

Our kittys are good but Sienna is struggling to understand to be gentle with it. She keeps pulling its tail and sometimes tosses the kitten. Sofia is a little more gentle with hers. I think they have settled on the names Gabby and Bella.

Here are a few Froggy stories from the past two days.

May 21, 2010
Froggy is having a party for Pongo. Michael Jackson, Billy Ray Cyrus and Alicia Keys knock on the door and come to the party. Froggy is also having a celebration for his grandma. It’s not her birthday, it’s just a celebration. At that party, Nonna, PawPaw, Uncle Terry, Mae Mae, Tony, Aunt Carla, Papa, Mamma and Sofia and Sienna are there.

May 22, 2010

Froggy is having a plant competition. He is growing plants to sell in his store. He also sells cat food at his store with the plants he is growing for the competition. After she said this, she picked some different types of leaves and put them in a bowl on her bed with Froggy.