Goodbye Connie

My old dog died this week, so I am all weepy and reflective. 
She wasn't the best tempered dog in the world. She wasn't the brightest dog in the world. We hadn't actually lived together for a long time. 
But... she was loyal and affectionate (in her own way), and an inspiration in her unswerving devotion and dedication to the retrieval of tennis balls. 
I didn't say goodbye. 
She lived at my mum and dads in her later years, to begin with because my beloved and I were overseas and later because she was not at her best around small children. Whenever we visited mum and dad's Connie was locked in my parents bedroom so she didn't snap when subjected to over-enthusiastic toddler and baby dog-handling. So I haven't really said a proper hello to her in awhile. 
She had been looking old and stiff for a long time. 
I got her when I returned from a trip to Europe when I was eighteen. So she was well into her nineties when she died. 
We were best friends all through my twenties, through uni, through my first evil boyfriend and through slightly less evil boyfriends, through my first jobs. An (evil) ex- boyfriend once asked who I loved more, him or the dog and I just laughed at him. 
She came with me for solitary mid-night swims, she walked with me every evening, she ensured I exercised every day (by barking at me solidly when I got home from work until we headed out) she growled at stray noises in the night when I lived alone. She is in my wedding photos. 
The day she died she spent all day in her basket and then in the evening when my dad went through to watch tv she hobbled over to sit with him, and then she died. 
Goodbye Connie, I miss you. 
I hope you are chasing lots of lovely tennis balls in heaven.

Woo-hoo! Silverbeet-Sneak-Attack!

Last week I went to my very first Tupperware party. I felt like such a Big Important Person. This is what grown ups do! What parents do!
When my Beloved dropped me off my Sprocket, keenly observing the-deserting-mummy from the back seat, saw the other women waiting at the door and decided that mummy was going to a 'birthday-to-you' party. (He had been to a birthday party at the same house recently.)
Home made baked cheese cake and scrumptious more-ish dips - it felt like a party. Mmmm. 
But the most exciting thing was today when the goodies I ordered arrived and I used the cutter-upper-er that works when you pull a string to pulverise veggies and the handle turning beater to make eggs frothy-as and produced a frittata which the Sprocket ate.  
The Sprocket has certain requirements to his food: pasta or rice that is untouched by the stain of any veggie is acceptable, sausages are do-able, anything containing sugar is a hit. Fruit he loves but after he takes a bite out of it he considers it impure and discards it. 
But... he ate the frittata.
My Sprocket ate silverbeet, tomato and parsley, cleverly disguised. Woo-hoo!
Now that is worthy of a party!

'Hi-ya-hi-ya!' Grateful for Imagination

"Hi-ya! Hi-ya!" My Poppet is in her car seat holding one of her little feet up to her ear. She has carefully de-socked and de-shoed it.
"Hi-ya!" she says again. She is very impressed with how clever she is, and so she should be. She is using her imagination to pretend that her foot is her very favourite toy - a telephone. Me, (obviously I'm not biased at all) I  think she shows initiative and innovation as well as imagination.
I am so grateful to be able to see my children's imagination develop.
Right now they are pottering in the garden, each keeping up a running commentary on their findings and imaginings.
The Sproket is being Fire-Sam-Man (as he calls Fire Man Sam) and unravelling the garden hose and waving it around- "Fire! Fire!"
 He pauses in his lifesaving endeavours to check out a waterlogged hole that I think was part of the previous owners hills hoist and poke a few sticks down to gauge the depth. The mummy from the dolls house family is nearly sent on a similar exploratory mission but I manage to rescue her in time.
The Poppet sings as she walks various little trucks around the garden, keeping a wary eye on her big brother. Soon they both end up jammed inside the red car, both of them happy to be pretending to be big people.
"Bye-bye!" calls the Sprocket as they drive off, squabbling about who gets to wear the sunglasses.
"A-ya-ya!" calls the Poppet, waving out the back window.
Their play is interspersed with pushing and grabbing and tears but also with stories and songs and sharing and I am so grateful to see their minds expand and develop.
Without imagination you cannot see a better way, possible outcomes, or empathise with others. And this give and take, painful as it often is for me to watch and adjudicate over is very possibly where they will learn the skills of compromise and negotiation they will need in later life.
Watching the building stones is fun, exciting and very very precious.
So this week for Maxabella Loves wonderful grateful posts (beautifully hosted this week at Mira Narnie I'm grateful for imagination and pretending!

Naughty Ghee - Mama do you Love Me?

"Naughty Bubba?" the Sprocket asks. We've had this conversation a few times now, so I know what comes next. 
"No, darling, Bubba is a good baby," I tell him.  
"Naughty Dada?" he asks. 
"No, my love, daddy is a good daddy." 
"Naughty mummy," he says.  
"No, sweetie, mummy is good too." 
"Naughty Ghee." Ghee is his name for himself. 
"No darling, Ghee is a good Ghee." 
"Naughty Ghee," he repeats. And I am filled with guilt and heartache. 
"No sweetheart, Ghee is good. Sometimes he does things that are naughty" - putting his baby sister in a headlock and wrestling her to the ground springs to mind - "but Ghee is my good and wonderful boy." 
I thought he understood, but just to be sure I searched through some boxes until I found a book I thought might help. 
Mama Do You Love Me? set in the Arctic, written by Barbara M Joosse and beautifully illustrated by Barbara Lavalee.
I found Mama do you Love Me perfect for reassuring an anxious toddler that even though the stuff he does might be naughty, and even though mummy or daddy might get cross (ahem), a parent's love is unconditional and unfaltering. 
There are concepts in the story that the Sprocket doesn't get due to the setting (putting Salmon in mama's parker, Lemmings in her mucklucks and dropping the ptarmigan eggs,) but he understands the message that no matter what naughty thing a toddler does, while there might be consequences it doesn't mean that love diminishes. 
The words, images and concepts are all delightful and make this book a treasure and a keeper.
Since we started reading Mama Do You Love Me?, the Sprocket hasn't quite stopped his talks on naughtiness, but they have become a lot less intense and regular. 

Happy, Happy, Happy!

I was in the kitchen last night and heard my little boy yelling 'Nappy! Nappy! Nappy!' And my heart sank. I mean I was sort of glad about the raised-nappy-awareness thing, but it had been a long and snotty day. 
And my beloved called 'You should come and see this!' 
Now a dirty nappy is something I've seen before, as is one that is falling off and basically, most other permutations of nappyness. 
'Gimme a sec, I'll just finish the dishes.' (Read as - that's your nappy, I am doing An Important Household Chore)
'No, come now!'
So I came through, still holding the dishcloth, and our Sprocket was jumping on the bed and what I had thought was 'Nappy, Nappy, Nappy' was actually 'Happy! Happy! Happy!'
Our little boy was jumping gleefully on the bed, giggling and yelling 'Happy! Happy! Happy!' 
And my beloved and I just stared and grinned. 
Today I'm grateful for two happy children. I'm grateful for a little boy who runs and climbs and is always exploring and adventuring and testing the world, and yells happy happy happy! 
I'm grateful for my little girl who opens her eyes in the morning and smiles at me. Who giggles uproariously when her feet are tickled or you smooch her neck.  Who thinks phones and keys are the most amazing things in the world. 

So thank you Maxabella Loves for her 'Grateful for' Space, encouraging us to reflect on the good and lovely things in our lives, and thank you beautiful host of the week A Day in the Life of Us 


This week I'm grateful for happy children!