Happy Fathers' Day!

Is it just me, or are celebratory days becoming less about celebration and more about buying expensive stuff?

Why does love have to be measured by the size/expense/complexity of the present you get for someone?

Just wondering. Once upon a time, Mothers' day used to consist of running out to pick some Chrysanthemums growing in the garden. Now we have to buy the present, the wrapping paper, the card, and the flowers or else we're just not quite cutting it as far as familial love goes.

Believe what???

Quick postscript to the new toddler bed (see post below):

It's one of those pink plastic ones (chosen for budgetary reasons rather than taste) with pictures of princesses on the headboard. We bought it out of a catalogue and it came in flatpack form, so it wasn't until we were constructing the thing that we discovered its little "slogan for life"...

Believe in your dreams...

So many problems with this. So many. For a start, the bed manufacturers' notion seemed to be tied up with "your dreams" = "swanning around in pretty coloured dresses with white petticoats", which was a problem for me to start with. The bigger issue, though, is that at my children's age, their "dreams" seem to = waking up screaming in terror at 2am. I don't know whether I want to encourage belief of that sort!

Signs of Growth

Funny how things change.

When we were new parents, eagerly watching our firstborn for signs of growth, we couldn't wait to see the next stage. "Ooh, look! He's walking!" "Aaaw, doesn't he look like a big boy in his new toddler bed." "Wow! Aren't you clever brushing your hair all by yourself!" It seemed that we were always anticipating, always encouraging, always watching for the next step.

I feel differently now.

Yesterday, we put our baby girl into a toddler bed for the first time. Yes, I was proud of her growing up. I was also relieved that she managed to sleep right through the night in it. But my overriding thought was "No! It's too soon! Where did my baby go?"

Yup. I'm Pathetic. Obviously I'm doomed to be one of those blubbery mothers who tearfully watches their kids at school events, embarrassing them horribly and scarring them for life.

Doing Nothing for Fun

Having a holiday was disastrous for my waistline, but it was great for everything else. Experiencing warm sunlight, getting toes sandy at the beach, actually finishing several books. The best result of the holidays, though, has been the discovery of the joy of unstructured time.

As parents, we're threatened with the devastation of having a child "behind in their development", as if there is some golden standard of excellence to which we can and must push our toddler. We're supposed to maximise their learning, so any play they have is to be educational, not just fun. Toys can't just exist, they have to have some teaching component to them (even if it's just ABC-123). Our children have great expectations thrust upon them: they have to expand their vocabulary, they should learn to count to 20 before preschool, they must learn their alphabet and how to read, and above all, they must, must, must BE CLEVER!

It's a big burden to place on a small child. It's also a heavy guilt-trip to lay on parents. And it really isn't necessary, because sometimes it's better just doing nothing.

We did a lot of nothing this holiday. Nothing, that is, except spending time with each other giving our full attention to the children, and letting them be themselves. No agendas. No pressure-cooker flash cards. No super-engineered educational toys. No "Sorry kids, I just have to..." Just us listening to them, interacting with them, and experiencing life together. And you know what? In two weeks our daughter's vocabulary expanded quite considerably. Our son can now ride without training wheels. Not because we forced these things to happen, but because we slowed down long enough to let our children be themselves.

It doesn't take much. Tonight, I delayed dinner by half an hour so that I could sit down and wrestle with the kids. It was only half an hour, but we were all giggling at the end. It also meant that I didn't have to say "Sorry, honey, Mummy just has to..."

I highly recommend doing Nothing. It's a great way to discover who your kids really are.

Back Again!

We're back. It's been a great time away, and the weather was lovely. We were even able to go swimmming!

I've been told previously that I'm the optimist in our family, so in trying to live up to that reputation I'm looking for positives in our return home...

• The rain is helping our vegies to grow
• The cold helps us to appreciate our central heating all the more
• We're back to work, so I'll be able to get back to SRE and KFJs in the next couple of days
• I can log back in to Facebook again
• We get the dogs back this afternoon
  
• Um...

Can I go back on holidays now? ;)

Holiday time

Two sleeps until our family holiday. I am feeling mixed emotions about the whole thing:

• Excited - we've been feeling very run-down, so a rest is in order.
• Guilty - our jobs involve term-time teaching and other responsibilities. I'm feeling guilty at leaving those responsibilities mid-stream.
• Thankful - our two-week flu seems to be settling down now, so I'm grateful that we won't be travelling with an illness cloud over our heads.
• Stressed - I wrote down a list of things that I needed to pack for the kids. It took up two A4 pages. I know I'm going to forget something.
  
• Anticipation - we're going to catch up with my Grandmother while we're away, which is both a responsibility and a blessing.

We'll be away for two weeks, so this blog will be silent for the duration. See you when we get back!

Fairies I wish truly existed...

I don't know. Maybe the fever's made me delirious. Maybe it's too much Harry Potter with all its associated magic. The thought occurred to me this evening that it would be lovely if there were "fairies" who could do certain tedious tasks for you.
Here are some of the "fairies" I've thought of*:

• The Wash-the-Dogs Fairy
• The Clean-the-Jam-off-the-Carpet Fairy
• The Put-the-Books-Back-in-Order-on-the-Bookshelf Fairy
• The Put-the-kids-to-bed Fairy
• The Answer-the-phone-politely Fairy
• The Put-the-clothes-away-Ironed Fairy
• The Clean-the-Toilet Fairy (closely related to the Empty-the-Potty Fairy)
• The Vacuuming Fairy
• The Being-Polite-to-People-When-You're-Unwell Fairy
  

I'm sure there are others you could think of. Feel free to add them to this list! :)


*Warning: said fairy list should be read with knowledge of author's present grouchy demeanour. She will certainly regret some postings at a future date.

Harry Potter goes all religious?

It's a ripping yarn. I thought about stretching out my reading time, but I just couldn't let go. Whenever a movie or novel sequel comes out, I feel an initial hesitation: surely it couldn't be as good as the previous ones? Well, it is.

I was going to write a little spiel about the scripture quotes in the book, and the plot progression etc, but knowing there are lots of you who haven't yet finished, I won't spoil the fun. Besides which, I found an article which speaks along a similar train of thought.

So, if you have read the Deathly Hallows, feel free to go here. If you haven't, wait until you've finished, because the article contains spoilers...

The Last enemy to be destroyed is death...

Finished Harry Potter yesterday, and have been ruminating about the use of biblical quotes in the book. It was interesting that with all the supposed links to paganism that the media listed, no pagan holidays were mentioned. Only Christmas, and the description was explicity given of people being in church. I wonder if Rowling was deliberately trying to distance her novel from questions of religion (or trying to placate the Christian commentators).

What I did find interesting were the two biblical quotes used in the book, particularly "And the last enemy to be destroyed is death". I won't spoil the ending for those who are still reading, so I'll wait for a couple of days to expand on what I'm thinking with this one. Needless to say there are some literary parallels and comparisons that can be drawn here...

But it's so funny...

This appeals to my absurd sense of humour.