Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

Maeve really impressed me today – at 6 she swam 100m in the Gym’s 50m swimming pool, no stops or pauses or holding onto the sides of the pool. Way to go Maeve … and she was as thrilled as I was.

I am one proud daddy today.

There is nothing that makes you feel like a mug as after dropping your 6 year old daughter off you are left with a wave and “see you latter sucker”!! – “Love you too” I thought … and I really do.

Wow its been a year since my last post – though I have been using a twitter a lot more than my blog. Maeve has grown in leaps and bounds this past year; She is a lot taller, she can read and write as well as swim and I am immensely proud of here. Here is a pic taken a little while ago

Good looking lass and a great photo.

My Daughter is now a boisterous and I hope happy 5 year who is almost through her 1st year of school; and although she can be will-full and rude at times she does shower me with unconditional love. The unconditional love of another human being – especially a child is something to be treasured. A point in case is the following series of three post-it’s I found on my keyboard:

Happy Chinese new year!!! – and there is the rub. Our daughter Maeve – the elemental force of day to day life these days – comes home and announces that she is a ‘Rat’ and is very proud of it. Rat – what do you mean ‘Rat’? Maeve attends the excellent ‘educate together school’ in Donabate and as part of their multi-cultural view of education they have been learning about the Lunar New Year which is also known as the ‘Chinese New Year’ despite being common across many cultures and areas of Asia.

As part of this it was explained to Maeve by ‘teacher’ (a nice young lass) that based on her birthday (Jan 16 2008) Maeve was a ‘rat’; No problem there you might think – according to Chinese mythology Rats have many positive characteristics. The problem was though Maeve was told by Teacher she was a ‘Rat’ where as in reality she is a ‘Pig’. Maeve was born in the year of the Pig (2007-2008) rather than the year of the Rat (2008-2009) and because Teacher told her she is a ‘Rat’ rather than a ‘Pig’ Maeve won’t accept what I am saying – even though I have doubled checked it.

Meeting Teacher tomorrow (as I do most mornings recently) is going to ‘interesting’. How do I tell her that she was ‘wrong’ and how will she tell Maeve? As the chinese say ‘we live in Interesting times’.

Before you ask … I am a ‘Dragon’ and good lady wife is a ‘Pig’.