The Beauty of Everyday

I realize I’ve gone quiet the past several weeks. It’s not for lack of anything to say, but rather lack of time to depict the ever increasing chaos which is now my life. Little Dumpie (aka Noah) has now discovered how much more interesting the world is now that he can climb up everywhere and manoever chairs around. It has opend up a whole new world of possibilities: tableware, sweeties, telephones, computers, knives...you know - all that fun stuff.

His latest obsession is with the stove and he now knows how to turn it on and of course now it’s only a matter of time until he burns down the house. But it’s not all gloom and doom round here. This morning we took delivery of a lovely case of wine. Wonder how long it will take us to get through that? (I give it a week.)

Meanwhile Egg has gotten his first girlfriend. He’s only 3 and already he’s scoring more than his father did in highschool. The main girl in question is the lovely ’Lilly-May’ who has cute little braids exploding from her pretty little face and always jumps up excitedly when Egg arrives at nursery exclaiming, "Jake’s here!". At which point the little girls around her whisper ’Jake, Jake...’ and peer over in interest. Egg of course plays it cool (must have inherited his mom’s genes) and barely gives a cursory nod before slumping down in front of some play doh and ’baking pies’ (too much time at home with Mama in formative years peut-etre?) After school Egg shoved two paintings at me. I was impressed and amazed at the first one as it was beautiful and very pretty. It didn’t at all resemble his usual ’mental patient’ scrawlings. Then i noticed that at the top the teacher had written "TO JAKE FROM LILLY-MAY". Figures.

Yesterday I stood outside the nursery door for a few minutes after dropping him off to spy on him. Much to my surprise I watched as he waited till the little girl next to him was distracted with something else, then quick as you like replaced his brown rolling pin with her bright pink one. Did i mention that his favourite colour is pink? How about the fact that the other day i had to drag him kicking and screaming away from the local toy shop where they had a bright pink girls bike with training wheels outside on display and he demanded I buy it for him and let him ride it! Don’t know really how to proceed on this one. I’m all for gender equality but bright pink???

Jay’s recently taken up cycling. Bought himself a spanking new cool-as-you-like customised blue bike from Brighton. After spazzing a fortune on all the requisite gear, he set the alarm for 7am on Saturday, bought himself a return ticket to the coast and many, many hours later returned, soaked, new bike in hand, and rather proud of himself for having ridden Brighton - London....partially in the rain. Now i must confess, I applaud any sort of commitment toward physical fitness, but I do not fancy being left alone as a single parent, and for that reason i’m not terribly happy about Jay now commuting to work through the insane streets of London with only a poxy black cardboard helmet and a neon green bike outfit to protect his person (and his modesty).

Call me a spoilsport, but what’s wrong with gold old London transport? Buses which crawl at a snails pace allow for major daydreaming and people watching. Tubes which get stuck underground are great opportunities to meet strangers and discuss philosophical ideas about death and the demise of the modern mankind. Walking with an ipod jammed into your head whilst elbowing pedestrians out of the way is about the closest you can get to starring in your own music video and does wonders for developing agility - especially when storming down tourist-ridden streets.

Well I must go now. Egg just plugged in my hair straighteners and almost electrocuted Dumpie who is now clutching his right hand and sobbing.

I wonder how on earth i am to ensure that they make it to their 18th birthdays unharmed (well relatively) and unmaimed and not brain damaged or traumatized. I wonder how I am supposed to make it to their 18th birthdays unharmed, unmaimed, not brain damaged or traumatized....