Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

Last Night Maeve had her first nightmare – well the first we recognized as such. Maeve has been a bit “clingy” of late because of a couple of instances where she has wandered off in shops. You all know what happens you bend down to pick something up and by the time you stand up the wee one has gone – talk about panic by the parent but it must be much much worse for the baby concerned. You know you are little, not too sure about the world and then mommy and daddy are not there. Anyway Maeve did a disappearing act in a shop for a few seconds yesterday and it really must have spooked her since afterwards she was sullen, quiet and clingy. Maeve would not allow me out of her sight.

Getting her to bed was a real problem and soon after she went to sleep I heard moans and little cries – I went into her bedroom and saw she was asleep but restless turning over frequently. Maeve soon woke up and stood up for a hug. After a hug I took her into bed, Maeve snuggled up for re-assurance. I think Maeve was remembering the feeling of being abandoned. Poor lass.

It is rare that one has the opportunity to gain direct physical contact with an event that happened in 1912 and one which has entered the cultural consciousness of mankind. I am sure when I say the word “Titanic” you understand exactly what I mean. A ship that some said was “unsinkable” because of the new “Water Tight” compartments in her innovative and luxurious design. Yet Titanic was a ship which sank on her maiden voyage one cold April night in the northern Atlantic after a collision with an iceberg taking some 1500 souls to a watery grave.

For the last couple of months the Titanic exhibition has been in Dublin showing artifacts recovered from the wreck (which is at 15,000 feet below sea-level) and which the family visited yesterday. It was a fascinating visit with reconstructions of a 1st and 3rd class cabins and where you can see some 300 items ranging from the bell rang by the lookout who spotted the iceberg, the chronometer and “speed communication device” from the bridge through to personal items of jewelry, clothes, bags of some of the passengers. In between was s port-hole bent out of shape by the sinking, plates and knives and forks from 1st, 2nd and 3rd class dinning to name a few. The exhibition is well laid out and informative. For example a 3rd class ticket cost £8 where the most expensive 1st class ticket cost £600 – or £500 and £62000 in modern money!

For me the single item that create a direct personal contact to that famous ship was a small piece of her hull which you could touch. A tingle of electricity when down my spine when my hand touched the Titanic and hence the tragic events of that night,

If you get the opportunity its well worth the visit.

Maeve is a Nat King Cole fan and its helping her English because she tries to learn the Lyrics – even to the extent of telling me to “stop – my turn dada”. Her current favourite is the catchy number “Straighten Up And Fly Right” which she bounces up and down in her car seat on the way home from the creche. Her best grasp of the lyrics is the section: “Straighten up and fly right
Cool down, papa, don’t you blow your top.” which she can just about say. At the end of the song she even joins in and claps along with the audience in the “live” recording I have.

This is a good example of learning through listening. A rather good – if worrying example – of learning through watching turned up latter on in the evening when my Daughter, who was sitting in my lap when I noticed she was holding her doody (AKA soother, dummy etc) in a rather odd manner. Instead of holding the plastic handle as she usually does, Maeve was holding the doody between her fore two fingers on the rubber part with the handle and guard on the outside. To my horror Maeve then moved the doody into her mouth (just the rubber teat), sucked then removed the doody to be followed by a tentative blowing out of non-existent smoke. My 2 year daughter was mimicking someone who was smoking!! – and quite accurately too. I am an anti-smoker and have never smoked; I even nagged my parents into not smoking. My wife does not smoke and the only place I can think Maeve can have picked this up is by watching someone at the creche or on TV (although the latter is unlikely). I am shell-shocked.

Also heard today that my niece took her first steps today – way to go.