“Who made these?” Hawkeye asked me today on the way home. “I think those are dog prints, honey.” I replied. “A dog made them.” “Nooooooo.” he retorted emphatically. “Not a dog!” “No? Then who? Was it a really big cat?” “No…” he said and paused for full conspiratorial effect. “It was a BEAR!” “A bear?…
We were at the zoo again yesterday. You might be thinking, oh my god, really? Yes, really. It’s the best place to kill a couple of hours if you’re in that part of town and you have an annual membership and a toddler with a constant need of diversion. It’s, frankly, better than television. You’ll…
The last couple of weeks, my entry to and from our housing estate has been dominated by the heavily ripened rowan berries hanging above the gate (as well as other parts of the estate). The name “rowan” is actually new to me exactly as of fifteen minutes ago. I have been idly composing this post…
I could talk about the Great Mystery of how parents function on week after month (after year!) of interrupted sleep. Or the Great Mystery of how we get any adult stuff done around the endless child-related responsibilities. I mean, the busiest childless lifestyle will feel feels like a luxurious, leisurely siesta after one introduces kids…
Yesterday morning I posted the following on my Facebook page: “We woke up to a changeling in our bed instead of Hawkeye. After two mornings in a row of crying and screaming and kicking and having to wrestle him into his clothes and shoes and stroller, this morning he meekly slid out of bed with…
“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.” ~ Albert Einstein Almost everyone knows the famous quotation from Albert Einsten about the relativity of time. Parenting has its own peculiar relativity…
Hawkeye insisted on walking home today which meant that passing by the shop without going in was guaranteed to provoke a tantrum. Thankfully, he has learned to accept that “ice cream” comes from the fridge at home, not the shop, and can once again be bribed to exit the shop eating just a banana and…
One last snippet from the weekend zoo trip. We paid our customary trip to the gift shop to see what small animal we could add to Hawkeye’s collection. Normally I don’t bring him with me to avoid the begging and the inevitable tears and tantrums. He’s too young yet to understand why he can’t have…
The day dawned bright and sunny and presented a perfect opportunity to return to Dublin Zoo. Since the last time we were there, the Reptile House has been closed and the animals from there relocated to the newly opened Zoorassic World which, in addition to beautiful, new, and much brighter habitats for the living reptiles,…
Hello, Internet. Meet Stick. Stick, this is Internet. Stick is our new obsession. Hawkeye’s forever picking out a stick whenever we go to places like a park or a garden and then spends the rest of the time waving it around and turning it into all sorts of imaginary props. The trick for us, most…
The Feathered Rose 