It pretty well remarked upon in parenting circles that there’s something magical about that new baby smell (when it’s not emanating from the nappy area). There is even a growing body of scientific literature about how this may, in fact, work together with the hormonal changes a new mother’s brain undergoes to help strengthen the…
Hawkeye and I took advantage of a sunny morning to have brunch outside in a nearby popular restaurant. I order food and a cappuccino. The waiter brings coloured pencils and paper with the outline of two trolls on it together with my drink and the sugar bowl. I immediately pick up the sugar bowl to…
The code word of the weekend is minimum effort. Whatever it takes to get through Saturday and Sunday with a rambunctious, rocket-powered toddler and two wrung-out, sick parents. Whether it’s ice cream for breakfast or dinner in front of the TV, if a token effort to dissuade the wee beastie isn’t working, I am taking…
“Oh-ho, Oh-ho A haon, a dó…” Today, my toddler made up a song with Irish counting words, fed a biscuit to a crocodile, and politely shared a ride on another toddler’s balance bike with minimal intervention from grown-ups. I would feel inordinately proud of how little effort I spent on parenting during these moments if…
The world is slowly tilting away from seeing fathers solely as “the head of the family”, “the providers”, or those cold and distant authoritarian disciplinarians to, well… seeing them as fathers, with all the guts and glory that it entails. What does that mean? Well, it means accepting fathers as full partners in this whole…
^^ Two very important lessons there, kids. 1) Don’t make the animals sick. 2) The zoo has priorities and you are not it. Thanks once again to the Google Awesome algorithm for assembling the video clip without any effort on my part. Yes, those are mud-bathing ostriches in the second video. What’s a scorcher in…
Some of you might recall the unavailability of Hawkeye’s Captain America trousers during my mad rush to locate a superhero costume a few weeks ago. Since then the trousers did eventually get laundered and I put them on Hawkeye today as they were light enough for the weather forecast and were the closest to hand…
“Amnials” is how Hawkeye says “animals” at the moment. Frankly, I find it adorable. I always have to bite my tongue not to laugh and I have to sternly remind myself to say it correctly in response, and not indulge my own whimsy at his toddlerisms. This past weekend we went to Dublin Zoo again.…
We haven’t really been organised about starting potty training with Hawkeye yet. Partially, because I don’t feel the need to rush, and partially because we’re simply not, well… organised. I’ve been meaning to get a potty seat and step stool for the bathroom but just haven’t quite managed to get to that line on my…
I can’t remember the last time I wore Hawkeye in the sling. It was sometime late last autumn because he liked being taken to creche on his push-trike that he got for his birthday, and when the steering on the trike broke, we began to use the stroller because the weather was cold and although I have a…
It started with dirty laundry. No wait, it started with a Parents Newsletter and dirty laundry. When I collected Hawkeye on Friday there was the ubiquitous collection of sheets clipped under each child’s name. And the first item in the newsletter was one that I love and loathe in equal measures: a dress-up event. I love…
The Feathered Rose 