belgianwaffle

Twins

The Best Hobby in the World


Posted in: Middle Child, Princess, Twins

I found an old Agatha Christie upstairs and I gave it to herself saying that she might like it. It lay around on her desk for ages but the other night she had nothing else to read and she picked it up. She is completely hooked. I remember how much I loved Agatha Christie when I was about her age. I am delighted for her. And for us because there are loads of them out there and they might last her a bit longer than the My Sister the Vampire books.

Then, when I went in to turn off the boys’ lights, Michael was reading a Spongebob book and Daniel was methodically working his way through stories of T’choupi, the world’s dullest mole. “What are you doing?” I asked. “I’m teaching myself to read in French,” he said.

004

Running a Loose Ship


Posted in: Twins, Youngest Child

Me: Michael, will you come upstairs and wash your teeth?
Michael (wrestling with his brother): NO!
Me: Michael, you know how annoying it is for me when you ignore me.
Him (indignantly): I didn’t ignore you, I answered the question.

Comparisons are Odious


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins, Youngest Child

For their homework, Daniel and Michael were asked to list the names of books they had read on a sheet of paper. They had to fill in the date they had read the book and the author and review it by means of a sad face or smiley face.

Michael said, “It is only for books in Irish you have read at school”. He filled in the details of his Irish textbook, closed up his books and zoomed off about his business.

Daniel assured me that it was for all books you had read that day and was determined to fill in all 10 spaces. He wouldn’t cheat either. He gathered around him a selection of books (all of which he had read before), including even an Irish one, and dutifully re-read through them all before carefully noting down the details on his list. It took him forever.

I noted that all of his reviews were positive as was Michael’s. My children are uniformly positive when asked for their views by authorities outside the family. I tackled Michael later. “Why did you give Féasta a smiley face? You hate Féasta.” “Oh, I like the bit where they have the party,” he said.

Moving in Mysterious Ways


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins

For reasons which were unclear – unless it is the general odour of sanctity which pervades the school in the wake of the first holy communions – Daniel started saying the Hail Mary in Irish one morning. He was doing fine until he got to “pray for us sinners” where he began to mix it up slightly with the second part of the Our Father from “give us this day our daily bread”. The net result was that he said, “Tabhair dúinn ár bpeacai inniu”. In other words, he asked the Virgin to “give us our sins today”; I suppose that would ensure that all sins were at the venial end of the spectrum.

Language


Posted in: Twins, Youngest Child

Michael reads and re-reads a lot of Asterix and Tintin. This has had an impact on how he talks. Sometimes he says “By Jupiter!” and also “By Toutatis!” [which he pronounces “by tortious”], “Blistering barnacles!” and “Thundering Typhoons”. He also says, “Fiddlesticks!” when baulked. The other day he answered the door to the babysitter and I heard him say to her, “Do come in.” When you ask him to do something he says, “As you wish.” He says “That’s quite alright”, if you apologise for something. When you make an observation with which he agrees, he says, “Very true” or “I’ll say!” Hilariously, whenever he is cross with anyone he says, “You bingbong!”; he also has a slightly baroque line in insults – “you bald baboon”, “you half-headed monkey” and other made-up expressions of that nature. He refers to me as “My beloved Mummy.”

The other day, we deployed the paddling pool. As is often the case, the water from the garden hose led to a cooler experience than expected. I got a kettle full of water to put in the pool and Michael leapt up in delight and said, “Hot water, Allah be praised!”

Recently, he had to sit in my office for an hour which he did very quietly. Only looking up from his DS occasionally to say, “That’s a bad word, Mummy” as I muttered curses.