Some suggest Gaga has reached that viewing age already. Not that I would dare to suggest such 'nonsense'.
In fact, Ellie raised the question yesterday. She inquired whether we had a 'bucket list' of things to do. We were impressed with her knowledge of the phrase for at one time, we thought she was asking for a bucket. She went further saying that old people should have a list before they die. She does not fool around, getting to the point, directly. We countered that we do have a bucket list for before we 'kick the bucket'. Interesting what conversations one can have with an eight-year old. Wonderful, sometimes amusing, often interesting but always providing an honest assessment of what is transpiring in their little heads.
Young Benny went off to soccer so we took Ellie to the park for a little warm-up gymnastics, (the weather was so hot that the warm-up was superfluous), popped into the store for an icicle (snacks were verboten by...guess who?), lost 4 games in a row to Ellie playing "Uno", swam for an hour in which she performed and therefore, entertained us. It's fascinating how uninhibited the two kids are. This was followed by one of our favorite requests from the kids, "Please can you bath me?" They pronounce 'bath' the South African way and on occasion might instruct us to 'go put on your cozies', bathing suits, before swimming. Of course, there is no element of manipulation in any of this because, after all, we are the adults.
Furthermore, grandkids are also the kids of the parents (our children) who ideally get back from them what they gave or took from us. At its basest, it's the ultimate revenge. Sounds rather nasty but perhaps... We still love a concept that when implemented, will be the finest idea ever introduced into the world. It's called generation skipping. And what it means is when a couple marry, instead of having kids, they should have grandkids immediately. As you might gather, the concept is wonderful, the mechanics are proving to be somewhat difficult.
A few videos below show the intelligent, growth providing moments and interaction between the parties while taking a break from the world's greatest conspiracy, the one between grandparents and grandchildren on the one side and the parents on the other side or better yet, in the middle.
Click on 3 videos below if you have the patience:
Ellie entertains her fan base...
"Can we redo it, Gaga-papa?"
Action in the pool...
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Benny displays his passion, Ellie her class. The grandparents? Trying to behave themselves
It's been a while since we wrote about the kids and displayed their images on screen. It seems most of our output has been generated from other lands and mostly of mountains. Well, today we tried something new with Ellie and Benny. We headed for the glider port in San Diego, a place that has always been special for Jen and me. It's an area along the coast; a few hundred feet below is the ocean. The cliffs are a couple hundred feet high. It's used as a jump-off point for parasailing and hang-gliding. Although at relatively low altitude, the winds blow off the ocean, strike the cliff walls and create an updraft which allows 'human birds' to take to the air. Sunsets are extraordinary and the atmosphere, particularly outside of the high-season, is wonderful.
En route, Ellie wondered what we could do there. She expressed herself a little more forcefully while Benny sang a song that annoyed her. Therefore, it would have to be a special outing to re-bond the siblings that afternoon. Long story short—it was indeed. The kids loved the climbing, some tricky sandy sections thrilled them and it was all complemented with a picnic and finally, after a return from close to the nudist beach below, an ice-cream which seemed to go down well although traces were apparent on various parts of the body and clothing.
Ellie, using her agility developed in dance and gymnastics, and Ben using his bulk developed by...as well as a deep passion for being on the rather steep slopes, lost themselves in a dynamic afternoon of fun with only tiny spills. They truly showed their courage and enthusiasm for the activity—something that surprised us. Jen and I made comments to the walkers on the busy trail to-and-from the beach and Benny repeated such comments to the next group we allowed to pass or whom crossed our paths. The little guy has few inhibitions and his attitude ranges from fearless to fearful, in moments.
As a qualification, should you notice any snacks, ice-creams or such-likes in the pictures, kindly note these are only imitations of the real thing. They are in fact healthy items of food comprising products made from broccoli, spinach, carrots and other approved foods under the supervision of the supreme board of control, otherwise known as M.O.T.H.E.R.
We usually begin an activity with a 'healthy' snack. This was in fact lunch. Snacks precede lunch.
The team heads into the great unknown.
At that juncture, we were singing 'We are marching to Pretoria' which of course went down well with the locals.
A couple of tricky maneuvers to get us going.
Ellie shows her mettle.
Can he do it? Of course, he can.
Benny was particularly brave at this cliff edge, giving his 'papa' encouragement.
Looks, as everyone knows, can be deceiving. While it may look like ice-cream to a mother, it is of course a vegetable made to look attractive for kids.
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
En route, Ellie wondered what we could do there. She expressed herself a little more forcefully while Benny sang a song that annoyed her. Therefore, it would have to be a special outing to re-bond the siblings that afternoon. Long story short—it was indeed. The kids loved the climbing, some tricky sandy sections thrilled them and it was all complemented with a picnic and finally, after a return from close to the nudist beach below, an ice-cream which seemed to go down well although traces were apparent on various parts of the body and clothing.
Ellie, using her agility developed in dance and gymnastics, and Ben using his bulk developed by...as well as a deep passion for being on the rather steep slopes, lost themselves in a dynamic afternoon of fun with only tiny spills. They truly showed their courage and enthusiasm for the activity—something that surprised us. Jen and I made comments to the walkers on the busy trail to-and-from the beach and Benny repeated such comments to the next group we allowed to pass or whom crossed our paths. The little guy has few inhibitions and his attitude ranges from fearless to fearful, in moments.
As a qualification, should you notice any snacks, ice-creams or such-likes in the pictures, kindly note these are only imitations of the real thing. They are in fact healthy items of food comprising products made from broccoli, spinach, carrots and other approved foods under the supervision of the supreme board of control, otherwise known as M.O.T.H.E.R.
We usually begin an activity with a 'healthy' snack. This was in fact lunch. Snacks precede lunch.
The team heads into the great unknown.
At that juncture, we were singing 'We are marching to Pretoria' which of course went down well with the locals.
A couple of tricky maneuvers to get us going.
Ellie shows her mettle.
Can he do it? Of course, he can.
Benny was particularly brave at this cliff edge, giving his 'papa' encouragement.
Looks, as everyone knows, can be deceiving. While it may look like ice-cream to a mother, it is of course a vegetable made to look attractive for kids.
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
What the kids are up to: it's been a while.
All grandkids are fantastic even though some are 'more fantastic' than others. It's been a while since we've written and posted a blog on Natalie and Anthony's two treasures. So when Ellie displayed grace, poise and daring in our apartment the other day, we decided the timing could not be better.
Rolling into a handstand along the wall.
Ellie is quite a little dancer and gymnast. Benny isn't quite a little dancer and gymnast. In fact, he is more like a tank, and not a small one either. Sometimes, instead of shoes or sneakers, he wears tracks. As physical as he may be, he has a vocabulary and mind that often has us shaking our heads in wonder. As an example, he is a big construction engineer in the field of Lego. Yesterday, he shared a secret with me. He said, "Papa, when I get frustrated with my Lego, you can knock it down and help me re-build." Words like 'frustrated' and others are quite common coming from his mouth.
Most of the time Jen and I are subcontractors in the Lego industry—we are allowed to pass pieces to him and build a little which he immediately confiscates and adds to his project. By the way, Benny will only be 5 in a few months. We continue nagging him to knock down at least 3 of his 8 cities so he will have pieces with which to build. He resists fiercely. Once again, I asked him what is he going to do about building since his materials are tied up in the cities. His reply. "I texted Lego for more pieces and they have not arrived yet." His Gaga doesn't even know what 'texted' means.
The formative years of a Lego engineer.
Back to Ellie. She has this rather cruel streak. Often during a visit, she will immediately drop to the 'splits' position. She knows this sends a pain through my inner thighs and tortures my mind. She is behaving a lot like a woman these days—she is 8 years old, after all. She is so supple as mentioned in the opening paragraph. But rather look at the pictures than believe an old man with inflexible legs.
Benny told us he has three grandmothers. "Explain yourself please, Benno". They are Tatti Jenny, Gaga Jenni and of course, Granny Ruth, his maternal Great-grandmother.
Grace, poise and...Ellie reached that position from a rolling somersault.
and we don't know what to make of this interesting display...'poise' might be stretching it, somewhat.
More action...
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
'Watch this, Gaga. I'll show you how I handle Papa."
Rolling into a handstand along the wall.
Ellie is quite a little dancer and gymnast. Benny isn't quite a little dancer and gymnast. In fact, he is more like a tank, and not a small one either. Sometimes, instead of shoes or sneakers, he wears tracks. As physical as he may be, he has a vocabulary and mind that often has us shaking our heads in wonder. As an example, he is a big construction engineer in the field of Lego. Yesterday, he shared a secret with me. He said, "Papa, when I get frustrated with my Lego, you can knock it down and help me re-build." Words like 'frustrated' and others are quite common coming from his mouth.
Most of the time Jen and I are subcontractors in the Lego industry—we are allowed to pass pieces to him and build a little which he immediately confiscates and adds to his project. By the way, Benny will only be 5 in a few months. We continue nagging him to knock down at least 3 of his 8 cities so he will have pieces with which to build. He resists fiercely. Once again, I asked him what is he going to do about building since his materials are tied up in the cities. His reply. "I texted Lego for more pieces and they have not arrived yet." His Gaga doesn't even know what 'texted' means.
The formative years of a Lego engineer.
Back to Ellie. She has this rather cruel streak. Often during a visit, she will immediately drop to the 'splits' position. She knows this sends a pain through my inner thighs and tortures my mind. She is behaving a lot like a woman these days—she is 8 years old, after all. She is so supple as mentioned in the opening paragraph. But rather look at the pictures than believe an old man with inflexible legs.
Benny told us he has three grandmothers. "Explain yourself please, Benno". They are Tatti Jenny, Gaga Jenni and of course, Granny Ruth, his maternal Great-grandmother.
Grace, poise and...Ellie reached that position from a rolling somersault.
and we don't know what to make of this interesting display...'poise' might be stretching it, somewhat.
More action...
Cheers,
Jenni and Jeffrey
'Watch this, Gaga. I'll show you how I handle Papa."
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