Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

As I said before Maeve is over the chicken-pox and back in the creche. Her progress never ceases to amaze me – she now knows phrases such as “Thats my Favourite”, “Daddies iPhone” (which is wrong since I have a fab HTC desire), “In five minutes” (as in “I will do it in 5 minutes”) and her all time favourite “I want to watch Robots”. Another thing I have noticed are her motor skills – for example she can pick up and throw a football, well if the truth be known she can “dribble” a football as well. I caught her last week using a broom handle to get at some toy which was under the sofa and out of her reach and could not get under. On Sunday with me supervising and holding the potato she use one of those “rapid peelers” to peel the skin from the potato – not bad in one only 2.75 years old. For someone who is interested in intelligence – specifically “artificial” or machine intelligence it is fascinating to watch a child learn. She has already learned to turn on/off the tv/tv-sound and will no doubt master the channel changing any day now.

Well time to go back and read a few articles at a site called “DIY Drones”.

Maeve has recovered from her bout of chicken pox. The guys at my client were and are very understanding and I managed to work from home for a few days. Anyway this is not the aim of this posting. Earlier this evening my daughter Maeve, a 2.5 year old showed a startling understanding of English and empathy. My Father, may the Lord have mercy on his soul and a man whom I Love and miss dearly, “passed on” (died) three years ago. Rarely a day passes without me missing him in some way. Unusually in the West I had my father as the best man at my wedding. The reason for this is simple. My father was and is the finest man I have ever known. He was neither rich or powerful; But he was an honorable and upstanding man. A true friend to me and to strangers and the only real gentleman i have met and known – and I have met Prince’s and “powerful” run rich men in my 46 years on this planet.

I digress, in my office by the door is a picture of my father as a 6 month old – its rather unusual in my eye in that you can recognize the man that my father became in the face of the baby in the picture. When I said to my 20 month old daughter – “who is this baby” she said “Maeve”. I said “No – its Dada’s Father and your Grandfather” to which Maeve replied “I miss Grandad and Mummy misses Grandad”. I found this touching despite the fact Maeve has mistaken my wife’s father (who is 86) with my Father who died at 69 – a full month before Maeve was conceived. It shows my Daughter has an understanding of family and has empathy.

It does not take away from the simple fact that my dad is no longer with us – and is missed sorely. Dad would have loved Maeve and to be honest I think Dad had a word with the “Boss Upstairs” which allowed Maeve to be conceived. I miss you dad and I love you Daughter.

Maeve is sick and won’t becoming to the creche today – and that was the surprise of yesterday that turned the Leeson household on its head. Maeve was fine on Sunday – a tad warm, but otherwise her usual bouncy “energizer bunny” self. We we awoke on Monday morning at 6am we immediately saw a torso covered with small red spots some with “pimples”. Did a quick check to see if it was Meningitis (do spots go/stay when pressure applied) and then made the assumption it was Chicken-Pox until visited the doctor – or more accurately my wife visited the doctor with Maeve.

As it turns out Maeve does have Chicken-Pox which means 1-2 weeks isolation from the creche depending on how severe the case is and a bit of juggling of the work schedules. Fortunately both I and my wife have had Chicken-Pox before – apparently I was 4 years old and caught it off my 2 year old brother with the symptoms appearing on christmas day 1968 – and my client Amartus are being very understanding.

Poor Maeve though, Chicken-Pox is tough at any age and thinking about it makes me want to itch.

Its Ten-Ten-Ten or 10/10/10 today, or if you are pedantic its 10th October 2010. Nothing special happened today except in 732AD Charles Martel and the Franks defeated a large Andalusian Muslim army led by Abd er Rahman at the Battle of Tours thus “saving” Europe from Islamic domination. I also realized that I have not blogged an entry in 4 months. There is not a lot to blog about.

The family had a nice holiday in Lisbon which is a very child friendly city and where my Daughter fell in love with the old trams and showed a love of Flying and airplanes – so much so she frequently asks to go to the airport to watch planes take of and land. On the flight back from Lisbon and just as the plane hit the runways and started to violently jolt from side to side as it decelerated my Daughter Maeve started to giggle with joy. When the plane eventually stopped jolting and slowed down she start to shout towards the pilots cabin “Again. I want to do it Again”.

Maeve has come along rapidly these last four months. She is almost completely potty trained and her English has improved a lot for one who is only two and a half. Phrases such as “No Daddy don’t do that – your are bad boy”, “Is Daddy going on the cho-cho (train)” are common. Her memory and understanding are progressing a pace to. For example we went down the village show for some “Bread, Milk, Pop and Potatoes” – and Maeve remembered the list without prompting. When we got to the shop I asked here what we were looking for and she recited the list off pat before pointing out the items on the shelves. Impressive.

As onto grander things Ireland is still in a deep recession. My family have been lucky so far, but many friends are now out of work and things look bleak for the immediate future. I know we all have to suffer, but the politicians and their backers in the banks and building trade seem to still have their noses in the troughs. All this doom and gloom reminds me of the 1970’s and 1980’s recessions which were pretty bad. Why did not the government realize we seem to a “downward spiral” every 10-20 years and plan for it and base most of the tax income off the one source? Pretty dumb.

Anyway time to look at something positive – my mom is throwing her 70th Birthday party next weekend.