Blushing Bob

When the kids go quiet, I get suspicious, and 9 times out of 10 I'm right to be. Holly has found a red pen and drawn on all her Bob the Builder Toys, and I mean all of them, all fifty or so that we have gathered over birthdays, Christmas, bribe days and I just give in, yes you can have another truck days, after all you haven't killed your brother today, so you must have been reasonably well behaved. Bang goes my idea of selling them on ebay. Unless of course anyone wants a permanently blushing Bob, or machines that look like they belong in a Dracular movie.

Washable pens, they are, but that doesn't work on the eyes, and washable seems to mean you can wash them, not that they'll actually come clean.

Anyway, I stay calm, and explain to Holly why she should not be drawing on her toys, and I wonder how I can get this message across. I decide perhaps we should wash them together, so I get some warm soapy water and two flannels. Holly loses interest within about 30 seconds and I find myself day dreaming as I scrub red pen off Lofty and the gang. In the meantime, Michael has found the used potty I've managed to miss in the corner of the room, and because it's there, and because he can, he does. I manage to come to my senses before hands reach mouth or walls or floor and we rush to the bathroom.

And this is just half an hour of my day.

Do I need more adult company?

My other half thinks so. He bases this observation on the fact that I had a 20 minute conversation with two Jehovahs witnesses who came to the door on Thursday, and I actually seemed to enjoy it. They came at a good time. We'd just got in from a walk, the baby was asleep and Holly was playing happily, so when someone asked me what I felt about the way mankind was treating the world, and what we should be doing about it, I actually thought about it.

I expressed my views, I asked them theirs and we discussed the issue. They presented their evidence, backed up with a number of quotes from the bible, and I played devil's advocate and asked some tricky, slightly risky questions.

Ok, so I could have phoned a friend, but just because my kids are having a good moment, doesn't mean my friend's are. When was the last time you had a twenty minute, uninterrupted two way adult conversation?? Also Holly has an inbuilt mummy's on the phone monitoring system which switches her into horror mode as soon as she realises I'm talking to someone else, and not her. So, I had my twenty minute adult conversation with the Jehovah's witnesses.

And you know what? I'd love to be as calm and self assured and confident in my beliefs as these two ladies were. But it just isn't going to happen. My logical mind can't quite get it's head around one faith/religion/ denomination being right, and all others having just missed the point somewhere along the way.

I believe in God. I say a little prayer for my two babies before I go to sleep (and I have recently added the other half in 'cause he felt left out). I don't often think much beyond that, mainly because it opens up too many unanswerable questions.

My partner and I have discussed how we would explain death to Holly and Mikey, not because we have had to deal with a berievement, but because we want to be prepared. My Thursday discussion actually gave me an answer I quite like. The Jehovah's witnesses believe that when you die, you return to the earth, to dust. But God retains a memory of you. It's one to think about...

Religion has also come up alongside the school debate. Where should we send Holly to school? Should we look at the Catholic school system, although we are not Catholic? Should we consider a Christian school, or should we go with the state schools? It's a tricky one. I liked the caring environment of our local Catholic school and I would like the children to have the basic ethical and moral education that seems to come in a religious school. We don't take them to church, but perhaps they should be given the education that allows them to make their own informed decision about their religious beliefs as they get older.

Yet at the back of my mind I just feel hypocritical. You see, if I had the conviction of those Jehovah's witnesses, life would be easy!

Back to Thursday. Holly came down and started trying to shut the door on us, then the cat started nosing round the shopping bags left in the pushchair. When they offered to help bring my shopping in, I declined politely and we terminated the conversation. It's one thing having an interesting debate with a couple of commited strangers, it's another letting them into your house. And my guess is they'll be back.

Mothers' Day

It is Mothers' Day on Sunday so today at pre-school they are shopping for gifts for Mum. We have all donated our $5 gift, and sent the kids in armed with a dollar coin to go and buy a gift for us from the pre school 'shop'.

I explained to Holly this morning that as it's Mothers' Day on Sunday, everybody would be buying a present for their mums today at pre-school (maybe I should have got Colin to do that bit...) Anyway, her response was that she would like to buy a gift she could share with me - a gift for Holly and Mummy. I suggested that Mothers' Day was a day where you do something for mum, not for Holly and she thought a while and then decided that perhaps we ought to have a Holly's Day as well as a Mothers' day...

As part of the Mothers' Day build up, the teachers talked to the children about all the important things our mums do for us. When I got to pre-school for pickup, I saw they had written some of these things up for us mums to see on the notice board. It was a list of the things mums do for us, with what each child had said next to their name. Oh, I thought, I wonder if Holly actually contributes to these things, so I scanned the list... Hailey ' My mum makes me nice lunches', Thomas 'My mum reads me stories', Joshua ' My mum makes cakes with me', and there she was, Holly. Wow, I thought, my three year old actually speaks up in class. Then I read what she'd said...'My mum switches the television on for me'.

Holly's birthday

It was Holly's birthday last week and we went ot our local RSL club for dinner. (I know, times have changed, but don't knock it til you try it). Being members, they have our details on record and every year they send out a voucher for a free ice cream cake for the kids in their birthday month. So I left make cake making skills for party day and we had an ice cream cake at the club with four shining candles.

When they brough the cake out, I said to Holly, 'make a wish' (as you do).

And she said, 'I don't need to make a wish. I have everything I want. This is the best birthday ever'!!

Colin was gobsmacked, til I told him about an episode of Clifford's Puppy days we watched earlier in the week!

Still, the sentiment was there, even if the words were borrowed.