Letters to my Grandchild

You and I are BFF We sing, we dance, we play We paint, we draw, we colour We pick flowers dig in the garden make mud pies. We drive our make-believe cars and ride make-believe Barney cars We have imaginary tea parties and play shops Your are my queen and I am a princess We have movies on the wall and give tickets to the dolls who watch with us We have pop-corn and jelly-tots juice and ice lollies. You are my BFF!          

You and Shay had a school outing at the Botanic Gardens and had fun with all your school mates.  When we saw the photos of you running my heart just sang!  I always hoped that you would be able to stand and walk and play like other children but when you had your  first fracture at 7 months I thought that was the start of a downward cycle.  Three more fractures and my dream was that you would be able to stand along, never mind walk.  Seeing you running on the grass, with that excited, proud grin on your face was just wonderful!!  Hallelujah!!!

You have been training for a swimming gala and when you swim in our pool, you dive off the side into the water!  You swim more under water than you do on top and you can even float on your back.  When you and I swim we play 'Paralympics' and you line up on the steps, then I have to announce the event, "Ladies and gentlemen, we now have the pink hair-pin race.  Emily Nilsen from South Africa is in lane number 5.  On your marks, get set (Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) go!!"  and you take off like an otter in the water.  And, of course, you always win!    You take after your Daddy who was a wonderful swimmer and went to the Paralympics in Atlanta as a swimmer. (He won his heat and was in the final but they changed his classification from S6 to S7 so he didn't really have a chance against all those standing swimmers.)  But you are a real little fish in the water!