belgianwaffle

Middle Child

I know it’s not the flu


Posted in: Middle Child, Princess, Twins

Because the one time I had the flu, I could barely struggle out of bed.  But I have got a nasty cold.

Yesterday, I spent all day in bed, being poked in the eyeball from time to time by a very bored Princess.  Our cleaner kindly agreed to stay all day and keep an eye on herself but I think she (the Princess and probably also the cleaner) has now decided that there is such a thing as too much television.  She went off to school today with a spring in her step.

Our cleaner is a very nice woman from the Eastern part of Poland and she disapproves profoundly of my decision to work.  Yesterday, she said to the Princess – isn’t it nice to have Mama at home instead of her going off to work?  The Princess was gobsmacked; here she was having the most boring day of her life and she was supposed to like it.  I was mildly gratified.

And in other whinging about the help news (is there anything more irritating, than someone who does that?) our childminder does not, like me, believe in always telling children the truth.  I like to think that it builds up their soft skills. The other day, Daniel, expressed a desire to see the childminder’s daughter C.  It was 6 o’clock in the evening, the childminder was just leaving, she said “you want to come with me, you want to see C?”.  Daniel’s little face lit up.  Why would she torture him this way?  As I say, building up their soft skills.

Finally, the Princess has a half day at school today, I rang L’s mother who lives around the corner to ask her, if she could take the Princess this afternoon, in view of my enfeebled state.  She croaked on the other end of the phone – no, I have the flu and so has my husband and my two year old.  Given that she was just starting to feel ill when she was around here on Friday afternoon, perhaps it is the flu after all.
Back to bed, while I still can.

More mornings


Posted in: Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

Last night the Princess arrived into our bed, most unusually, at 3.00 in the morning and stayed there alternately chatting and poking until 6.00.

This morning we had the usual chivying, hurrying and harrying to get out the door with an extra nugget of exhaustion for three of the main players. The Princess was, perversely, extremely good. I am not sure whether this is as a result of engaging in charades last night when she got to pretend to be each of us in the morning in turn. It was funny. She enjoyed our appreciative laughter but maybe she finally realised that we would like it, if she would just get dressed in the morning.

Anyhow, Mr. Waffle was tired, sick and short-tempered. Michael came out of the kitchen and said crossly “Daddy, a bit mean”. Daniel sat up in his chair. His lower lip wobbled. “What’s wrong darling?” “Daddy fâché, Daniel sad.” “What that noise?” “That’s the sound of Mummy’s heart breaking”. Alternatively, it could have been Mr. Waffle saying “Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’ll toughen them up”.  At least he’s not feeding them Calgonit; you will be pleased to hear that there appear to be no ill effects to date.

Mícheál


Posted in: Middle Child, Princess

I have a good friend called Michael and sometimes I call him Mícheál and I have got into the habit of calling my son Michael Mícheál affectionately from time to time also.

In recent days, Daniel has started coming up to me and saying anxiously “Daniel Mícheál!”. I have tried to comfort him by telling him he is Dónal which is the Irish for Daniel or Danny Boy which is friendly but he’s having none of it; “Daniel Mícheál!” he insists.  His sister has, however, decided that the boy suffix is a good one and she now calls her other brother Mícheál Boy which shows that she really is from Cork.

While I’m talking about slang may I thank those who enlightened me on Australian slang – bonza sheilas.

Daniel and Michael – State of Play


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins, Youngest Child

Daniel is increasingly speaking in sentences. He finds the formulation “can I?” very useful. Can I look? Can I see it? Can I do it? He’s beginning to get to grips with grammar. Before when he needed help he would say “help you, help you” urgently. Now he says “help you me”. Since Christmas both he and Michael have learned to say “yes” and he has a particularly forceful and sibilant yes.

He loves dental floss and reaches a chubby arm for it the second he gets into the bathroom. He will pull out metres of it, if let. He loves getting his teeth flossed as well. I would like to put this on youtube for my dentist but I cannot. The second I pull out my camera, Daniel runs around to the back and says “can I see?” Remember waiting weeks to get photos and they were all the tops of people’s heads?

He does not seem to need much sleep. This is a matter of considerable regret to everyone; particularly Michael who shares a room with him and needs lots of sleep.  Often of an evening, Daniel will be bellowing for room service (‘more milk woman, make it quick’) and Michael will be rocking in his cot moaning with his hands over his head.

Michael seems to be a born leader and Daniel is happy to follow him into whatever mischief he proposes.

A couple of weeks ago, Michael wore an underpants for the first time. He showed it proudly to Daniel and got a hug for his achievement. This was short-lived as he wet himself about 5 minutes later and we were disheartened and decided to hold toilet training for another day.

Michael is, according to the creche, ready to be toilet trained. At home this manifests itself as follows:

Me: Michael before you get into the bath, do you want to do a wee?

Michael: Yes, Michael the pot.

Michael sits on the pot. Nothing happens and I put him in the bath where he, invariably wees straight away.

Michael (gleefully): No the bath Michael, the pot!

Both of them are obsessed with sticks, Daniel particularly so and he likes to pick up a stout stick when we go out for walks and attack innocent saplings with it.

They are both counting, Daniel with rather more success than Michael – getting to 10 more or less (usually less 5 for some reason) and learning colours. This latter is proving more challenging and they constantly point to items and say a colour at random “red!” “no, sweetheart, that’s black”, “yes, black!”

They both spend a lot of time saying, “c’est qui ca?” which means (to them) who or what is that?  Mr. Waffle found himself held up for several minutes outside the newsagents identifying Johnny Halliday, Carla Bruni and the like while Daniel pointed persistently at pictures saying the magic words.  I was at home with Michael at the time confirming in response to repeated requests that each of the 16 bottles on the windowsill in the kitchen contained milk.

Our paediatrician says that we mustn’t compare; oh dear. 

Sad


Posted in: Middle Child, Princess

The Princess was in foul form after school on Wednesday. Her friend L was mean to her and wouldn’t play with her. All the children were mean to her (inquiry on Y, nice girl I would like her to be friends with, elicits, ‘I don’t like her, she always wants to be my friend’, truly, life is complex) and only the grown-ups were nice and she had to walk around on her own.

“L said that she would kill you,” she said. “Well, that’s a very unpleasant thing to say and I hope you would never say that to another child,” I said piously. She asked, a touch anxiously, “she can’t kill you really, can she?” “Of course, she can’t,” I said. “That’s alright then,” she said, looking distinctly guilty, “because I said she could”. My poor little mite, my heart went out to her in her efforts to get in with L who blows hot and cold. She said, “I want to see my old friends” meaning my children’s friends and I thought, well at least she has them.  Then on Friday, L came to visit and all was sweetness and light though I am touched by the way the Princess keeps giving L things to try to ensure her place in L’s affections. As L was leaving, the Princess gave L her helium balloon which she had played with all week and to which she was most  attached.  I only hope that L is a worthy object of her affection, but I doubt it.  Hold the mother-in-law jokes please.
Meanwhile, Daniel is busy reinforcing the idea that Daddy is for Daniel and Michael is for Mummy. “Who wants to come out of the bath to Mama, Daniel will you come to me?” I asked. “No,” he said firmly “Michael Mama, Daniel Daddy”. “I’m Daniel’s Mama too,” I said forlornly. “No, Michael Mama” he reiterated sternly. I was heartbroken.

My husband is very bracing and robust about these things and says, “oh for heaven’s sake, they’ll all be fine”. It’s a relief one of us has a sense of perspective, I suppose.

Frantic


Posted in: Middle Child, Reading etc., Work

You may have noticed the absence of posts last week, then again, possibly not. Well, I was frantic anyway.  I contributed to this by having two medical appointments during the week.  They were made months ago and I cursed my lack of foresight.  Last week was when I began to panic about having done no Christmas shopping; mind you this feeling rapidly abated when I actually went round the shops to buy things and found them quite empty and the Belgian shop assistants said to me things like “getting your shopping out of the way early? Very sensible”.  Sometimes it is a complete joy to live in Belgium.

Tuesday was possibly my worst day.  We had our office Christmas lunch.  It was prepared in the kitchen downstairs by two of my colleagues and it was superb.  I know because I watched them frying the foie gras while I patiently sous cheffed (sp?) and stuffed miniature pickled bell peppers with cream and goat’s cheese and did up the blinis.  Unfortunately, I had to leave at 3.45 which was exactly when the rest of my colleagues were preparing to sit down to their four course lunch (from which they rose at 11.00 and proceeded to dance in the kitchen, I understand).  I was off to the ophthalmologist who said that Daniel’s lazy eye isn’t much better and, if it isn’t better in March, he’ll have to have surgery.  She also said that she couldn’t examine the Princess properly because she needed to put in drops.  She could not put in drops because the Princess had a temperature and, as you know (how, how would I know, why do doctors at home assume that you are completely ignorant and doctors in Belgium assume you’re in third med?), the drops cause a spike in temperature.  I only found out she had a temperature when the school rang me at work to ask whether they could give her some paracetemol.  Her teacher said “I know she must be sick because she is a child who never complains normally”.  This runs directly counter to my own experience, but however.

Arrived home ravenous (having missed lunch) and ate a large plate of pasta with my family before Mr. Waffle and I packed the children off to bed. It was only then I remembered that I was actually scheduled to go out to dinner with the book club. Undaunted, I went.

I was sitting beside a new bookclub member at dinner.  This was unfortunate as it turned out that an old bookclub member, C, sitting opposite to me had spent 5 of her formative years in the little town where new member had grown up.  This led to much reminiscing which they would try to curtail from time to time but they got carried away, particularly new member who is new to Belgium also and was delighted to find an old companion.  I am a little tired of Newport. I did hear two rather lovely stories though.

C’s mother is Belgian.  A friend of  C’s took her to tea at her (the friend’s) house and announced proudly to C that there would be a foreign lady there.  C went, agog with excitement, only to find her own mother ensconced.  There was also the time that C’s mother was taken to meet the headmaster’s wife because “she was foreign too” and though C’s mother and the headmaster’s wife did become good friends, C is not sure that this was because all foreigners must have something in common, including Belgians and Russians.  I also quite enjoyed the new member asking C (who is always v. elegant) “were you the little girl with the stripy knickers?”.  “They were my petit bateau underpants” said C to me in some embarrassment – presumably imported from exotic Belgium to Newport.

Also, in non-Newport news, the conversation veered round to childbirth.  C says that this happens every time the bookclub (all female) meets.  I hadn’t been aware of it myself but C has an interesting theory that this is a major life event for women and one that is never really talked about much because men rule the world.  This theory was comprehensively rubbished by two men when she produced it in the presence of my husband and the Glam Potter’s but I am quite attracted by it.  Anyway, I digress.

Most of those around the table had given birth in great comfort in Belgium, the land where the epidural was invented and something like 97% of all births are assisted by this rather wonderful anaesthetic.  The new member has recently arrived from Britain where using pain relief is regarded as unholy.  We were complacently agreeing that giving birth in Belgium was an excellent experience and new member said brightly “why, is it all midwife led?” to uproarious laughter.  She then told us her giving birth story which is, I think, one of the best I have heard.  She was pregnant with her second child and travelling to hospital in the back of her husband’s car.  It had a very noisy engine (this is important).  She had her baby in the back of the car, checked that the baby was breathing, that the cord wasn’t round her neck etc. and picked her up and cradled her in her arms.  Then, she cleared her throat and said loudly to her husband, who was still driving “I’ve had the baby”.  To which he replied “WHAT? I didn’t hear a thing”.