Charlotte’s preschool has been learning about gardening lately. They dedicated one classroom to a handmade craft garden, where the kids have been building and drawing and painting items to create their very own garden. During library time, they read books about growing plants. They’re also exploring ants and other bugs, looking at them under the magnifying glass and building ant farms. At home, Gazaw is helping us make a vegetable garden in one corner of the yard. I hope it is more successful than our garden in Pretoria, out of which grew five peppers and a green bean.
Charlotte loves to help Gazaw water plants.
Our flowers are all in bloom.
Yesterday, Gazaw picked a few and arranged them in a vase for the house.
In other news, Charlotte and I took our daily walk to the store yesterday afternoon. I picked the wrong time of day: it was too hot, and the sun was mercilessly beating down on us the whole half mile. Normally, Charlotte has enough energy that she prefers to run everywhere. But yesterday she walked so slowly on the way home, I asked her what was wrong. “Nothing,” she mumbled. She was walking at a snail’s pace and I had two heavy bags to carry home.
“Charlotte, why are you walking so slowly?”
“Because… because I really want to be carried.”
Charlotte never asks to be carried, so I thought it was cute and I picked her up along with my heavy bags. As soon as she was up on my hip, she blurted out, “Oh boy! I do love a ride!”
People passing us on the street probably wondered why this ferenji was cackling so loudly. What a little imp. Of course, when I say that, she says, “I’m NOT an imp! I’m a girl!” (And she still pronounces it gay-uhl, just like our housekeeper in Pretoria. Another funny pronunciation: breakfast is still brake-fahst.)
And here’s one of Willa, just to be fair:
