Saturday 18 December 2010

Things that could be forgotten

There are so many little stories and things that happen which are really lovely, funny, sweet, endearing and in the general pel-mel of the life of a family of six get forgotten.

Driving home from nursery one day, Rowan asks, (I was driving, by the way, he was in the back!) "When are we going to Egypt?". I replied wondering why he wanted to go to Egypt of all places, and his response was "I need to see the pyramids". Although in Ro-speak, that is "puuh-a-mids". I wonder how his mind works, he has a fantastic memory. It was last year in P3 Sean was doing a project on Egypt and they were all talking about it then. What brought it back to the front of his mind again?

Angus is a howl. This morning he helped Ian empty the dishwasher. Thankfully, he no longer feels the need to lick every bit of cutlery before he flings it into the cutlery drawer! If he finds clothing left lying on the hall floor, or a teatowel in the kitchen, quite often that gets flung into the washing machine! He has been caught trying to climb onto the toilet, climb across the kitchen table, etc. He is renowned for dragging a chair over to the counter, climbing up and helping himself to whatever fruit he likes out of the fruit bowl. The number of times you will find 3 or 4 apples or pears, each with a little bite gone out of them. Last week, he was upstairs helping me hang a wash up, and spotted a spider crossing the carpet. After many pokes at it, he managed to pull a couple of the wee spiders legs off. And then lost interest. Or so I thought!  Having resumed the task in hand, I turned around again to find Angus licking the dead spider off the carpet! Delicious, no doubt! Eeeuuugh, as Finn would say.

It is great to see Finn taking an interest in reading books himself now. Sean was such an avid reader, and we had hoped Finn would enjoy reading too. He is currently on the Magic Faraway Tree, and he reads with such great expression and intonation, I could listen to him all day. The arrival of his salopettes, courtesy of TKMax, allowed great fun to be had sliding down the once pile of snow at school, now solid block of ice - a mini Pentland glacier, in which the kids seem to have fashioned their own slide. To say they were filthy within days is an understatement!

Sean is growing up and maturing in front of our very own eyes. His vocabulary seems to have come on, and some of the words he comes out with will make me stop and take note. How many more "believing" Christmases will he have? Some of his pals know already and are sworn to silence. The delight on their faces when they got their PNP video messages from Santa was fantastic.

I am looking forward to lots of family time together over the Christmas with Ian off between Christmas and NY. Its a shame we are that bit too far from Ardilaun and the rest of the family across the water, I miss them terribly this time of year. Funny how after 17 years here, I still get homesick. But its homesick for the people, more than the place. They are where the heart is.

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