belgianwaffle

Twins

21st Century Parenting


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins

We went for a walk on the west pier in Dun Laoghaire this afternoon. I said to the children that we might see seals, which we did. My evil genius prompted me to ask, “Does anyone know what the French for seal is?” They didn’t. It’s le phoque. I thought that Daniel was actually going to choke with laughter when he heard.

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This by way of background to conversation on the way home in the car.

Mr. Waffle: If we’re going to listen to your music, we’re going to have to listen to some of mine also.
Daniel: Oh French seal!
Herself: Bruce Springsteen? Is this part of your mid-life crisis again?

A Hairpin


Posted in: Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

When I was little, if I was a bit too smart, my father’s relatives would call me a hairpin. I’m not sure whether that is unique to Cork or unique to them. It came to my mind when I discovered that the Princess has made a complete list of all of her Halloween loot which she is carefully checking against the remaining items every morning. No unauthorised mini malteaser packs for me.

In other hairpiness, consider this.

Me: Would you like a grape?
Michael: No, you know I don’t like grapes.
Herself: It’s hard for Mum to remember because we spend far more time every day with school and the childminder combined than we do with her.

And this example of metahairpiness.

Her: NabloPoMo is so hard.
Me: Why do you say that?
Her: I have to keep thinking of witty things to say so that you can write about them.

I await the teenage years with interest.

Not Preaching in the Temple


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins

One Sunday, I was running a bit late and as I was washing my teeth in the bathroom, I heard Mr. Waffle and the children depart for mass. I scooted out after them a couple of minutes later and ran into a neighbour who assured me they had only just gone around the corner. Be that as it may, they reached the church before me and as I slid into the pew, I noticed that Herself was already up with the choir at the front and Michael was sitting beside his father. “Where’s Daniel?” I asked. “Isn’t he with you?” “No.” Cue much concern. His father sprinted back to the house to find him placidly reading his book on his bed and utterly ignorant of the fact that he had been home alone, though quite briefly. It’s very easy to lose count is all I will say in our defence.

No


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins

Me: I am sure you will be taller than me some day.
Daniel: You aren’t very tall, is it because you’ve reached the age where you start shrinking?

They Also Serve Who Only Stand and Wait


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Middle Child, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

So we ran mass today. The woman from the parish council who normally does it was off in Siena on holidays. We had the intro (me), the prayers of the faithful (all the children) and the second reading (Herself).

She read beautifully. As she was reading, “There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself..”, I was whispering to her father, “She’s so good at this, she really is superb at reading aloud much better than anyone else.” So very much taking the message of the reading to heart, then.

They all did fine for their prayers of the faithful but after delivering his, Michael went to the back of the altar where he appeared to believe he was invisible and began rotating in circles.

But what, you ask of my couple of lines of introduction, well, I went into the sacristy and told the parish priest that I would be doing the introduction. “Fine, fine,” said he. When mass actually started, I was surprised to see that someone else entirely was saying mass but I assumed that the parish priest had passed on the message. I went up to the altar and stood at the lectern opposite the priest. The elderly priest opened mass with a welcome. Then he pressed on completely ignoring me. I stood there opening my mouth like a landed fish and failing to get a word in edgeways. Eventually I slunk off the altar without saying anything still completely unnoticed by the priest who was well into his stride at this point. Why do these things always happen to me? Predictably, the children thought it was hilarious

A Momentus Day


Posted in: Middle Child, Twins, Youngest Child

My parents are celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary.

Daniel and Michael are 9.

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Also, the internet tells me, George Clooney got married and Google is 16. It’s just non-stop this whole 27 September thing.

It’s also the feast day of the Brussels region. I can stop any time.

Updated to add: very belated birthday posts for Daniel and Michael finally done.