Today we helped Molly to animate a picture she drew.

No nursery for Molly today.
After an entire summer of good health, she’s just caught a cold.
Interesting how it coincides with her return to nursery last week after a long summer break.
Her nursery friends are so generous with their germs.
Conor was right – germ season has begun!
Molly picked Teddy Edward to be her sick-ted companion!

Great day out by the sea with Mum, Conor, Richard and Molly.

The sun was shining and the fish and chips were well worth the walk along the promenade.

Molly did some kite-flying, paddled in the sea, played shadow-chasing with her nanna and had a good time all-round.

Ireland is currently in the forefront of Molly’s awareness of her mixed cultural heritage, as a surge of Irish patriotism has literally sprung up without warning. Common daily utterances include:

“No mama, that’s just how we say it in Irish!”

and

“I’m not half Irish. I’m whole Irish because I can say Bualadh bos”

and

“I do that because I’m Irish that’s why”

and

“Mama, why aren’t YOU Irish?”

and

“Twirlies is the Irish word for Twistees”

and finally

“Dada, when you were in Ireland as a little boy, I was there too wasn’t I?”

The look on her face at that last question is so eager that Conor always answers:
“Yes, Molly, you were there in my heart”

And with that answer, she smiles a smile of complete satisfaction that she is as proudly, happily, and wholeheartedly Irish!

Just a snapshot of the kind of questions I get asked in an average day….

“Mama, I have two questions for you. First, why do we have to have a body? And why do we have to have bones?”

“Why does summer have to take so long to come?”

“Why do the leaves fall off the trees?”

“Why can’t we see germs?”

“Why do germs want to get inside our body?”

“Why do things get old?”

“Why is wrong not really good?”

“Why don’t you look smart today?”

Molly was the first of her group to be given School Teddy, aka Little Bear to bring home for a couple of days. The idea, said the staff, is to give the children more confidence and something to talk about in group time. “Not that Molly lacks confidence” her teacher added with a grin! Its a very cute idea, which reminds me of the cbeebies show ‘Same Smile’ where nursery kids across the country are visited by 3 panda teddies and two children get to take them on an adventure. Molly really seems to have enjoyed the whole experience and went to school today with even more bounce and bubbly excitement than usual!

I saw the picture of this very happy Mongolian kid on Facebook the other day. It had the slogan “Be so happy that when others look at you they become happy too!”. I felt like I’d seen that face before…. So I dug through my photo archives and found this picture of Molly, taken when she was 8 or 9 months old. The similarities in the two expressions brought me back to thinking there had to be some universal truth, some wisdom that all kids have. So I made this poster, just as a little reminder to myself.

Conor and dad set about fixing the record player today. The idea is that we’ll have it hooked up to an amp and some speakers in the conservatory. Then we can have records playing during breakfast, lunch and dinner!

We wrapped up and snatched a brief stretch of dry weather to take a walk on the downs. The views were just as beautiful as I remembered them being last summer, even if the meadow flowers are gone for the winter and clouds hid the sun from view. Black and white sheep were grazing all around and Molly did lots of little sprints in with the wind at her back. Such a simple pleasure yet it felt like a long awaited luxury after months of rain.

Its so nice to see visitors making a fuss over Clyde. Molly steals the show by day and of course gets all the attention, which is just as it should be. But after her bedtime Clyde gets a bit of affection too. Seems like he’s accepted my dad into his warren.