The Joy of Juan-Dre

 A lot has happened in the six months since I've seen my grandson. He became a big brother. I met his little brother when his parents dropped him off from Port Elizabeth on Saturday lunchtime. What a cutie. As cute as he may be, none can compare to my one and only Juan-Dre! I had to reassure him of that!

    Another thing that's apparent is that he is growing and maturing! No more little boy. He's now more like a young lad. He's so clever and his level of critical thinking has definitely shot up. He was very quick to tell me he can work out the change for Monopoly on his own now! And he is much calmer than I've ever known him to be. Very matter-of-fact. And a real BOY!

    We sat on the sofa and hugged each other for a while. Then we built a puzzle - 350 pieces - in less than two hours! And started another one - and completed that one too! There was lots of chatting and catching up too. What a joy to have him here!

    I may have missed the Shabbat Shacharit service with Beit Echad, but by Mincha we were all settled and he heard me pray with my friends.

    We contacted the family and on Sunday we all went to the beach. What a joyful time we had! Juan-Dre dug a chair into the sand and sat in it with a very pleased look on his face. He was overjoyed to see his mom again - as she was him - and I was just as overjoyed to be with all my girls at the same time. My son was working on a car with his friend, but we saw him briefly afterwards.

    I found, to my dismay and chagrin, that I am no longer able to get down onto the beach towel and sit on the sand - never mind get up. So I took a walk to the far end of the beach, accompanied by my eldest daughter Rebbibhim and my grandson. We wet our toes in the shallow little waves as they got almost to the end of their life on the shore and enjoyed the sunshine together. There were some dogs enjoying the ocean and Juan-Dre wanted to pat them all. His mom and I warned him about the scary-looking Doberman, as we weren't sure he looked very friendly.

    Some of us swam in the sea - NOT ME! - and some of us suntanned. But we all enjoyed the time together.

    I should have recorded all the details the same day of their occurrence, but I've been so busy I haven't had time! Some of them are already forgotten, but suffice it to say there are many treasures dotted all over my memories of our time together so far that will pop up to comfort me once he's left.

    Yesterday, he went to play with Connor around the corner. This is an enduring friendship and I am so happy that both of these boys have a friend going back to so early in their childhood. They love each other's company. 

    Today he is back there again - straight after breakfast! Tonight, like every night when he is here, we will pray, read a story, watch a teaching together, chat, play Monopoly or Go Fish or Pictionary - I must remember to get a Scrabble before his next visit - have a late night treat and I will tickle his back while he falls asleep. I'm so glad he loves his bed here. It's got glow-in-the-dark solar systems on it - which have never really glowed all that much - and he said he loves getting into his cosy bed. Makes a granny's heart explode with love and joy.

    He's just returned from Connor and his Aromat sandwich and Vanilla milk were as waiting for him. We will be having dinner a bit later than 4pm today! I'm thankful to HaShem for providing the means to feed my beloved grandson. He is more prepared to try new things and eat vegetables than he ever was before. However, the tiny, thin, bent green bean out my garden yesterday was just too much for him.

    "I've never seen a bean that looks like this, Granny!" he complained. He did eat it eventually, although apparently I "forced" him to eat it. I'm just grateful he got it down the hatch!

    It's so precious to me that we say the blessings before and after eating together. He knows them all, but just doesn't know which one is for which food - yet!

    He is now resting with his phone on his bed after a busy day with his friend. Tummy full for now, Granny can take a breath and feed him later. I told him I have one class tonight and he was very quick to say: "That makes three today!" He was counting. Bless his heart. My two classes this morning, one straight after the other, took a bit of planning to get him to Connor, but fortunately the dad is very kind and offered to fetch him. Problem solved.

    My students inevitably turn into my friends - well, the ladies, anyway - and sometimes my friends turn into my students. That is true of the two ladies I taught this morning. One of them is planning to send me a parcel - no one sends me parcels unless it's something I ordered online, so I'm very chuffed - and I'm excited to see what it is.

    The other one is bringing me additional puzzles for Juan-Dre to build! How kind and thoughtful people can be. We only have one unbuilt puzzle of our own, a 500-piece, which he took out, had a look at it, and packed it back in the box, saying it looked too big. But I'm sure we will give it a go once I can sit and build it with him. We make a mean puzzle-building team. I sort the edge pieces from the inside pieces and he just starts building random scenes all over the place. We're very fast together. So much so that I can't function as a puzzle builder without him!

    Tomorrow after breakfast, we're planning to visit my mom, then do a bit of shopping (Wednesday is my 10% pensioner's discount day) and come home and bake biscuits. He assured me that it was fine if they were plain this time, since choc chips are so expensive. But I may use a bit of cocoa...

    Thursday it will be back to Connor. I hope my children manage to fit in a weekday visit sometime this week and next, otherwise Juan-Dre will hardly see them. We can't plan as far as Friday yet.

    I am so blessed and feel so privileged to be allowed by HaShem to teach Biblical Hebrew. I am also very grateful for my Afrikaans students. I will help Juan-Dre with his Afrikaans school work next year, which I am looking forward to.

    Tonight still holds wonderful time together for us. I'm looking forward to eating dinner at the table with him, which will include interesting chats about all sorts of subjects. I tried a boy's adventure novel out on him this morning, but he hardly listened and we stopped four pages in. But he doesn't mind at all if I read the Bible to him!

    He has just dozed off, so it looks like we will have a bit of a later night tonight than the previous two. I will use his nap time to catch up with admin that I can't do when he is here and awake. As far as possible, when he's here, my time belongs to him. Last holiday I stopped all my non-paying classes, prayer meetings and Torah study sessions, but I missed it so much. My friends agreed with me that it would be good for him to witness my life of faith and hear the prayers and study sessions. So I am only cancelling two evening sessions out of all my meetings for the two weeks that he is here. I trust the investment will pay off.

Erev Tov!