Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

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.

My daughter Maeve is 2 years 5 months old and is getting bigger, bolder and smarter. I have just heard Maeve recite perfectly the whole ABC song from A through Z perfectly. No too sure she understands what the alphabet is but it is impressive. Not only that Maeves music tastes are evolving; We know this because she deliberately tries to learn the words to tunes so she can sing along. For example she is a big fan of “Lady GaGa” and knows the words of “poker face”. He english comprehension and speech are progressing in leaps and bounds.

I love this You tube video and showed it to my big Iron-Man and Robot fan Maeve aged 2 Years 3 months old.

Her first comment was more… again!!! Her next one one was “its Maeve”.

My Daughter the super smart super hero.

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.

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.