Day 30: An arts and crafts Monday

Monday 20th April 2020
Weather: Sunny, but windy

30 Days off school so far! I would have loved that when I was in school!

Last night, and again tonight, we tried to spot the Starlink satelites. We weren't successful in seeing them, but did find a hedgehog in the garden.

Isabella was being really good entertaining herself all morning today while I worked and Andre was at the office. Aquabeads is what she does when we can't play with her, and paired with CBeebies or the iPad it keeps her going for a good while.

She  follows a template, placing beads in correct places to create pictures. They're then sprayed with water and left to dry.

After I finished my work we made some plaster cast models which Isabella painted once they were dry.

And now some Tabby cuteness to end the day as usual. He is currently being very cute playing all around us across the sofa, but only after being invited up. He is very at home with us now and will come climb on my lap on the floor, but never gets on the sofas unless I pick him up. Not that we've ever told him off, I quite like having him next to me on the sofa.

Why jump up, when you can just reach up. 

Spoiled for choice with toys! This is Tabby's toy basket.

He somehow manages to climb into the folded up tunnel under the sofa
and then sticks his head through one of the openings.

We've had a two week break from school work, except for a few fun little bits. School is back again tomorrow, although still just from home, and we'll do school work first thing in the morning.

Day 29: A Sunny Sunday

Sunday, 19th April 2020
Weather: Warm and sunny

We had a lovely day today, less sitting around being lazy! Andre went for a motorbike ride and Isabella and I took Tabby for a walk in the garden. He did really well. We let him explore bits on his own (on the long leash) and then called him back for a treat reward for listening. The only time he was unable to listen was  when the neighbourhood cat showed up in our garden. He was very interested in meeting him, but we made sure they kept their distance and stayed close to him. The other cat luckily wandered on again eventually. But Tabby wouldn't take his eyes off him or move.

Isabella then  did some aquabeads in her room and when Andre returned we went for a long walk in the woods.

Back home Isabella and I decorated a stick she picked up and some stones with her pens while Andre cut up some garden waste to go in the green bin. Isabella asked to roast marshmallows so she and I attempted a small fire. We managed to keep it going for a few marshmallows before it died down. Then steak bbq for dinner. On the gas Weber though!

Day 28: A Lazy Saturday

Saturday, 18th April 2020
Weather: Cloudy and Cool, but dry.

This morning Tabby took the matter of going swimming into his own paws and jumped into Isabella's bath after she was done with it!

I was in her bedroom with her getting her dressed after her bath and when we came out of her room the floor was so wet! Tabby had jumped in and out so quickly that only his paws and tummy was wet! We hadn't yet emptied the bath, but it was also not very deep at least. That'll teach us all, Tabby included, a lesson!

I forgot a bit about mentioning yesterday evening that we'll try find something a little more exciting to do today and so had another mostly lazy day again. Tomorrow. Note to self: Must be more productive. I have already suggested a walk in the woods again and maybe some gardening for tomorrow. Perhaps I'll put make-up on too. 

But as for today, in no particular order as I just can't remember:

- Isabella did aquabeads in her room while I sorted out photos on my laptop. I must show you some of her creations soon.

- Andre cleaned the cars or did something out there while Isabella and I tried to watch the rest of The Lion King, but somehow didn't even manage to complete that.

- We took Tabby for a walk in the garden. Isabella loves loves loves walking him. 

- I downloaded the Rosetta Stone app after signing up for a 3 month free trial they are offering at the moment. Here is the link. Pick a language! Isabella is improving her German and really enjoying the app so far. We did some of the lessons this afternoon and again before bedtime. She didn't want to stop!

- Andre rollerbladed and Isabella scooted in the road while Tabby growled at them through the window. Not sure what that was for!

And the only two pictures I took today:

Day 27: Kitty cuddles

Friday, 17th April 2020
Weather: Rainy

This blog post is written by Tabby tonight ;-)

The new super cuddly Tabby!

Nothing really stands out that we did today... playing Barbies. Again. The Barbies did PE with Emily today. Remember Emily from yesterday? The one with the moves? We built a maze with Duplo. Played with Tabby. Isabella tried to pick Tabby up and had him in her lap. She's still working on trusting Tabby completely! Andre and Isabella started playing a new game, Animal Crossing. We practiced some spelling. And Isabella helped Andre make pizza for dinner.

When you've been sleeping all day and still can't keep your eyes open.

I just re-did the movie of Joey Teddy's birthday tonight as the already completed video was having issues which we couldn't solve. I tried to clip Tabby's nails, but for now just getting him used to having me touch his paws or I'll do it while he sleeps. Whichever is successful first!

Maybe we will do something interesting tomorrow. We'll see. For now, here is the link to Isabella's video of Joey Teddy's birthday party. The cupcakes were really good! And she decorated them herself!

Day 26: A Case of Corona virus in the Barbie house!

Thursday, 16th April 2020

Weather: Sunny, but not as warm as I expected. Max of around 19C.

More Barbie playing today. Isabella played on her own in the morning to start with. Andre and I then had a work call at the same time and she kept herself nice and quiet for an hour. Then I had to make up for it by playing Barbies for 2 hours straight. I declared an end to it at lunch time. Also, Holly-Barbie somehow got infected by the Corona virus and was giving Lolly-Barbie such a hard time not wanting to stay isolated in her room. We were getting worried she was going to infect the entire Barbie population in our house. I would have had to isolate them all in the guest room and we wouldn't be able to see them for 14 days!

Nurse Lolly

Leaving a drink outside Holly's bedroom at a safe distance.

Then Emily-Barbie got up from her wheelchair (I had always wondered about her reason for a wheelchair...) and did yoga lessons with the others Barbies.

This girl has got some moves!

Isabella went for a cycle on the field over lunch time. She's doing well, but we need some more practice before going on the road.

Andre continued the Barbie games for a bit once we got back from the brief cycle while I worked. I suggested a movie for the rest of the afternoon. She chose to watch the new Lion King, the one with the real animals. It was really good. We haven't quite finished it so have a little more to watch tomorrow.

Oh, Tabby's harness also arrived this afternoon! I  wasn't planning on even putting it on him today already, but he seemed quite 'friendly' towards it, wanting to play  with it when I dragged it around. I placed it on his back, just draped over him and he walked around with it not bothered. So after doing that a few times, our excitement took over and we decided to try it on him. He surprised us by being absolutely fine wearing it. And of course once we attached his leash and opened the door he  was even happier  to go exploring outside. We only stayed for about 5 or 10 minutes at the most and he only explored the deck. Fingers crossed we won't be regretting this if he starts nagging us to take him out! But I think it will be helpful when we need to take him anywhere with us and hoping he will get to learn that to be his way of going out the door and not try to escape at other times. But he is a cat, so who knows how it will go!

Super proud to be walking the cat! Or is the cat walking her?!  

Mastered walking on a leash, now can we go swimming?

Day 25: A Barbie Day

Commenting from iPad or iPhone: I have had some requests how to fix the issue when reading from apple devices. It's much the same as described in the previous post as you're probably also using Safari on your mobile device.

On your phone or iPad, go to: Settings - Safari - uncheck 'Prevent Cross-site Tracking'

That should hopefully do it. :-) Here is a visual explanation too.

Today we played Barbie. Pretty much all day long. Oh, Isabella and I actually started by cleaning behind the radiators but didn't make it to the downstairs radiators as we ended up then cleaning her doll house, rearranging the doll house, dressing and arranging the Barbies and then playing with them in the doll house, next to the doll house, in the garden, on the  trampoline, while eating ice cream...

I love the diversity in Barbies these days. 

Mermaid Barbie playing guitar to Firefighter Barbie on her day off. She actually came with
full firefighting outfit. And they do each have a name, I don't think there is any one
named Barbie by Isabella.

My favourites are the fuller figured Barbies, the two on the left, named Nigella and Sheniqua.

Isabella played with Duplo while I worked, and after that we had to go back to playing Barbies.

Tabby joined in with the Duplo, but  wasn't much interested in the Barbies.

And that was our day today. A Barbie day. Not my favourite, but glad she's still enjoying her dolls as she has so many of them too!

Ending with a few more Tabby photos.

Tricked Tabby to get onto his bed. This bed is so super soft but Tabby, typical cat, refuses to
use it. Isabella and I now use it to sit on when playing on the floor!

Tried his best to fit into this box, but that tail was just too fluffy!
He played a piece of Duplo into the box and was trying to get it out.

When you want to play, but just don't have the energy to get up from a nap and come out
from under the sofa.

Day 24: Completing Frankie the Lego Boost Cat

Tuesday, 14th April 2020

Weather: Sunny, but cool with a  maximum of 15C. Almost 10 degrees colder than last week.

Firstly, I've been having issues with comments on here. I've not been able to post replies and mum and Simone have said they post comments which then don't get published. It looks like I have found the solution. And it's a Safari or Apple device problem only. So if you're using Safari internet browser, you need to allow cross-site tracking. I'm not sure what that means, but Andre approved it.

- Click on Safari in top left corner.

- Preferences

- Privacy

- then uncheck the box where it says 'Website tracking: Prevent cross-site tracking' and close the Preferences box.

Close the blogger website and reopen and that solved it for me. Here is the website link where I found this solution if you'd like to read more about it.

So what did we do today... We had a lovely day but I have a feeling I didn't take too many pictures. Let me check...

Isabella went for a Pinterest hairstyle today.

Then we did some cleaning in the house and she was very helpful.

Once that was done, we waited for it to warm up a little outside and finished the lego cat we were working on some time back. It needed its fourth leg.

Tabby was very interested too.

Once it had warmed up to a chilly 9C, Isabella and I headed out for our walk in the woods. She again told me to watch the time so we don't go over our hour, but after about 20 minutes she was ready to head home. We again collected some bits from the woods and plan to turn them into pictures tomorrow.

Isabella and Granny Etta named this tree 'Grandpa Tree' when she was still taking walks in her pushchair only!

An interesting tree stump she wanted a picture of.

We did quite a few school tasks from the last two weeks of school which we hadn't completed yet and Isabella actually quite enjoyed it once we got started. It's suggested that they try to learn a new skill and I suggested we work on reading in Afrikaans. She has a couple easy readers in Afrikaans and surprised me by reading them really well for the first time. Unfortunately I was asked not to video as she said anyone who would like to hear her read in Afrikaans would need to come visit us to hear her read! Perhaps another time.

Tabby cat is becoming more relaxed here with us. He enjoyed a good grooming while dozing. Good night everyone! Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow!