Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

Its a rather wordy title but accurate in light of events. Maeve and I had a “Star Wars” (Cartoon series) evening whilst her mom was out attending her companies Christmas party. We both like the series – but for different reasons probably – but I was interested to note Maeve emotional state and reactions to one of the cartoons plot lines. Over a couple of episodes the Sith Lord arranges a bounty hunter to steal a list of “force away” children from which the bounty hunter is to select and steal a few babies with which the Sith Lord will use so subjugate the galaxy. When the bounty hunter stole the babies (<2 years old) they reached back to their parents and cried. Soon after Maeve became very with-drawn, clingy and on the edge of tears. "Whats wrong" I said - obviously concerned at my daughters change in mood. "Those babies want to be back with their mommies" Maeve sad; "They should not be taken away - bad Man" she continued and was very down till the end of the next episode when they were saved and taken back to "their mommies".

What startled me was that you could see from her reactions that:

1. The babies were being taken away from their parents against their will.
2. That the babies were going to be very sad because of this.
3. The man who took them away was a “bad man” for doing this.
4. She said someone should “stop the man” from taking the babies away from their parents.
5. She understood she did not want that to happen to her – hence the clingy behavior.

It is plain to see that Maeve understood the emotional stresses and strains of what was happening in the scenes and extrapolating the emotional consequences of taking a child from their parent and applying it to herself (and visa versa) – all in all an interesting thing to note in ones 2.75 year old daughter.

That said, we really enjoyed a Father-Daughter evening watching 8 episodes of a series we both enjoy; And the same thing is going to happen this evening.

Last night I went into the kitchen to find Maeve buttering up a slice of bread – something which she does from time to time – what surprised me was she then opened a container of peanuts and sprinkled some on the buttered bread followed by another slice of bread. Very pleased with herself Maeve then proceeded to east the sandwich – her first self-made meal that I know of (she often raids the fridge for grapes and cheese but no “making” is involved in that). Not bad for a 2.75 year old.

As to her dad … well I am licking my wounds and ego after slipping and falling heavily on some black ice. It has been bitterly cold and snowy here in ireland – very unusual.

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.