Today was the much anticipated Santa visit. Or, I should say, the first Santa visit, since Hawkeye is getting to see Santa again in creche later this month (he comes down the chimney into the Director’s office, apparently). Now, our office does not have a chimney, so I suspect Santa may have had to sneak…
Much of life is about cultivating patience, or dealing with consequences of not having enough patience, or learning coping strategies for when there’s no more patience. Patience, patience, patience. For example, I have no patience when it comes to a good book. The idea of reading a couple of chapters at a time and putting…
I know I’ve said before that I’ve been more tolerant of the whole Christmas spirit thing this year, including even voluntarily listening to Christmas carols when I didn’t have to. I’m actually enjoying the whole thing beyond my usual love of the fresh scent of real pine trees and warm twinkly lights. I’ve come to…
Last week I was sitting with my hands curled around a warm mug when my mother handed me a folded piece of paper from the creche. I unfolded it, taking a long sip of my tea, scanning the words. “On Friday 15th December we will be having our Senior Montessori Christmas Concert… We would love…
I don’t know if I’ve mellowed out a bit this year, or if I’ve just stopped paying attention, but I haven’t really been bothered much by the early appearance of Christmas decorations. There are always a few places that just can’t wait a decent amount of time, but lately I seem to have become more…
The Mister doesn’t take anywhere near as many photos as I do, but when he does they’re usually excellent. He has a knack for capturing the truly funny side of parenting. This was a photograph he took while I was out of the house yesterday. I thought it was an excellent composition. Our friends, however,…
It was a drizzly, grey, sunless sort of day today. A perfectly normal Irish day in the west of Ireland this time of year, to be honest. Not really a nice day for wandering outside for very long. However, to get some fresh air and let the hyperactive toddler stretch his legs out even a…
Last time my mother was visiting Hawkeye was communicating with very basic sentences and a relatively limited vocabulary. Now, he’s a full blown threenager, and while much of his babble is still in that mysterious language unknown to grownups, there is also a significantly more complex communication going on. Observing natural language acquisition from up close…
The end of ever-increasing incrementally exhausting number of days began with me waking up not even knowing if my mother had made her flight to Dublin and ended in a bar with a friend’s birthday party, full of people I dearly loved seeing, but costing so much effort from my non-existent energy reserves that I…
Last week my son moved up from the Junior to Senior Montessori classroom. These spiders for Halloween were among some of the last art projects he did before the move. I am endlessly fascinated by 1) how the teachers manage to get the toddlers to do such neat work and 2) how his hands are…
The Feathered Rose 