The last of his kind

It is done. Matty lost his first tooth. It does feel like the little bit left of my baby is slowly falling away, one tooth at a time.

I had no warning, no time to get ready for it. Killian lost his first tooth months after being 6. Mattéas is only 5 and a few months…

Big hole!!

His cute little teeth, with extra special gaps in between, don’t look very sturdy anyway. So when he came up to me, eating his apple and saying “ma dent is baie sore” (meaning my tooth is very sore; ma dent me fait mal), I wasn’t too surprised to see his tooth dangling front and back and sideways at the slightest touch of his tongue. Moments later, coming back from his shower, proudly wet and naked, holding his tooth in his fingers, he shouted “I lost ma dent!!!” (meaning I lost my tooth).

Proud. Wet. Naked. And toothless.

Bramble Elfglow was Léa’s special fairy – she has now retired. The spirited swashbuckler tells Killian all about his adventures when he fetches his teeth. Matt hoped for Winnie the Pooh to come and deliver a message. But Winnie is far too busy finding Eyeore’s tail to come and collect a tooth. So Bernard the bear, who is a friend of Winnie the Pooh and lives in the same forest as him, came to take the tooth.

As I re-read my letter, I giggle at two things:

☝One, at my lack of inspiration at 10 in the evening. My kids have the habit of losing their teeth on a wednesday at 5 o’clock when we have Bible Study until late. Inevitably, it sends me into frantic panic to find the paper, print the picture and search my brain for something meaningful to write (such as ‘don’t fight with your brother!’).

Bernard the bear writes a letter.

✌Two, at the incredible things that children believe. That a baby bear would come to their bedroom, stick a letter and a photo of himself in their slipper and that noone would hear a thing? But no worries, we put the alarm on in case thieves want to open a window!

However the delight on their face the next morning is priceless for any mum. His best part of the letter is the fact that the paper is dirty because Bernard’s paws are full of honey! (Coincidentally, it is the same aged paper that was used by last year’s pirates that left a letter into one of Killian’s books!!).

So Matty is the last one of his kind. Grown-up teeth are leading the way into big-boy-hood. One tooth at a time.

Teaching opportunities – when to grab them, when not to…

Let's talk about circumcision!

 

 

It is 5 o’clock. Shower time for the kids.

The conversation goes like this.

 

 

Killian: Why does Jesse’s penis stay open like that (demonstration) and mine doesn’t?

Ahaaaaah. Teaching moment. I see circumcision explained. Sign of the old covenant. Sign of the new covenant. Baptism. Promises of the Lord. I see a great moment where we all gather on my bed and the kids listen to my words, nodding in agreement and wonder.

Instead, I get crazy Killian time (a bit like Pumpkin Patch time), laughing his head off and shouting “aaahaaahh, so Jesse is an Israelite!”. Matt is trying to have his penis to stay like that of an Israelite while jumping on my bed and Léa is catching Killian’s jokes, building on them. I catch myself keeping on explaining why we baptise today when I suddenly realize “why am I shouting as I’m talking about the wonderful promises of Jesus!!!!!”. So I kept quiet.

This is what I learnt from this experience.

Tip #1 – Don’t try to have a serious conversation with naked children at 5 o’clock.

Tip #2 – If you’re going to talk about penises, theirs should be covered.

Tip #3 – If you have to shout to cover the background noise, their attention level is not what it should be.

Take it or leave it! Happy teaching!

 

Saturday Morning Fever

Have you ever been to Pick’N Pay on a saturday morning?

Up until today, I thought I was spared having to do my weekly shopping with the other half a million people!

I’m a mum at home – most days – which means that I enjoy the priviledge of doing my shopping during the week, in the calm aisles of the shop, with most of the products in stock and the bread freshly out of the bakery. But today – Saturday – I had to go.

So I prepared myself psychologically to brave the crowd of tired and impatient parents-not-wanting-to-be-there (Myself being one of them) accompanied by their reluctant toddlers and teenagers. I arrived there at 12, lunch time, half starving. Never a good thing as I am more enclined to buy canned fish, smelly cheese and other food that do not enter my house under normal circumstances!

But what I found there – besides the other half of Cape Town population – was a degustation ( a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods). In every aisle, at every corner stood beautifully dressed agents, not only marketing, but also offering a bite of their products. From starter, to main meal, dessert and juice, I had a three course meal. Fair enough, the portions are typically haute-cuisine (read minuscule!).

But I’m a sucker for free stuff. Phillip likes to tease me about it, but it is true. If I am entitled to something free – even if it implies some inconveniences – I have to have it. Braving my self-consciousness, I tried food that I don’t even remember the name. I was even tempted to inconspicuously go back for seconds but my conscience was knocking hard. So I didn’t.

I went home with a half-full tummy and gladness in my heart for scoring so many freebies

Matty’s busy schedule

*** Famille en France, c’est tout spécialement pour votre régal!***

In the past few weeks, we had a schedule filled with “Matt and his singing”.

The first video is Matt’s little concert from school for Mother’s Day. I apologise for the silly laugh in the background. It is mine. Matt looks very funny, like a dismembered puppet. He was unvoluntarily hilarious

Matt est celui avec les longues manches vertes sous le tee-shirt jaune.

This video is Matt’s Sunday School (leur programme de l’église), also for Mother’s Day. Less funny but still cute. His face when the little boy next to him spoke in the mic is priceless. You can almost hear him think  ”Yes that voice was yours, scary huh!”

Citrusdal

The last week end before my mum and Claude left, we went away to Citrusdal.

Here is a slide show of the week end.

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The week end was mostly uneventful and was just a calm and relaxing time. Just what we all needed in the midst of a crazy term. We were fortunate to see no snakes, no spiders, no kind of big insects, not even one of those mutants enormous crickets that you find only in the countries situated below the equator… As I said uneventful! We went for one or two walks, a short visit to town, a trial at the canoe and a few bold jumps in the freezing river. The jacuzzy on the veranda was definitely a feature. It’s like taking a bath with a starry sky, deep darkness and unbelievable quietness.

The town is called Citrusdal and so unavoidably we crossed an orchard of lemon and oranges. This video clip shows a short entertainment of the week end: the cluts, the forbidding mother and the preaching husband

Speaking in tongues

When I was little, I would ask for “Olives 2″ instead of  ”2 olives”.

I would also say “a tacalogue” instead of  ”a catalogue”.

We, as parents, had to learn that when Killian refers to “humans”, he means “adults”. When he refers to “India joke”, he means “Indiana Jones”.

Fortunately, the Lord knows that when Killian asks to be forgiven for “the silly stuff he did”, he means “his sins”.

He also knows that when Killian says thank you for sending “his boetie” to save us (brother in afrikaans), he means “his son”.

I hope the Lord has a sense of humour because it’s quite difficult to keep a straight face during prayer!

Through their eyes…

A few weeks ago my little boy turned 6! According to popular belief, the first six years of someone’s life are all-defining. What he has been taught, what he has learnt, the pattern of behaviours that have been shown to him are now for the large part anchored into him. It’s a scary thought, sometimes depressing, sometimes encouraging, and often challenging… if I were to believe it fully.

I thought that instead of writing a heart-wrenching post about how I love my craziest, loudest, most stubborn, challenging and yet most sensitive boy, I would mention the things that stick in the mind of those who are close to him, mainly his siblings. They are the ones that have to put up with his tantrums, his screams and his out-of-the-ordinary demonstration of hate and love – all in one day.

Killian likes the word ‘captain’. If you are anyone remotely in charge of something, you are the ‘captain’. His teacher is the captain of his class. Derek is the captain of the scouts’ hall (because he closes the gate in the evening). When I bought a new lock for Phillip’s gym locker, Killian immediately understood that it was because Phillip was the captain of the gym. When explained that no, he actually wasn’t, he thought for a split second and realised his mistake: Phillip was only the captain of the lockers…

Killian likes gun. We don’t have toy guns (except for water guns) but it really doesn’t matter. Everything becomes a gun, from an L-shaped sandwich, to an L-shaped lego, without forgetting sticks, pens, forks… you name it!

Killian doesn’t like to be on stage. When asked why – is he shy, is he scared, doesn’t he like the attention??? – no, it’s because he gets splinters in his feet from the wood…

Killian is a finicky eater: he likes tomato sauce but won’t touch tomato. He will refuse chocolate, sweets and cookies but will lick his lips at the thought of broccolis.

Killian loves pirates. He is a pirate, in fact he is Captain Jack Sparrow. He made it easy for me by asking a pirate party for the second year in a row. I’m not convinced he won’t asked for a third one!!

Killian refers to “adults” as “humans”. Maybe he doesn’t see himself as a human just yet, that would explain the monkey-type behaviour!

Killian recently explained to me that when someone annoys him, the best thing he does is that he becomes friend with that person. How I wish he would put his theory into practice when it comes to his brother!!

Killian’s friend Jesse moved to Australia a few months ago. Because of the time gap they never see each other on Skype. The other day, they did. Jesse was so excited that he acted a bit crazily. At dinner time, Killian told his dad that Jesse was a bit cuckoo. (Ironic, isn’t it, Kerry, seeing where it’s coming from?)

Killian makes us scream and laugh out loud daily. But as a general consensus, we think he is pretty cool to have around. He is the defender of the weak (his mum and his sister being his favourite protégées) and the lover of justice – especially when justice has failed him. At the thought of Killian, I can but only let a smile escape.

We might have shaped who Killian is for the first 6 years of his life, but the Lord knew him even before he was born. He is the one that shapes him, moulds him, change him for his purpose. He is the real captain! We are only instruments in His hands.

That thought is reassuring. Happy birthday my very special little Captain pirate. Aaaarghh!!

About thinking and remembering…

Matty can’t write, which is pretty normal, he’s only 4.

However, the other day, he drew a pretty picture and wrote his name at the bottom, neatly enough for me to see that it was his name. So, as the encouraging mum that I should be, I praise him with words and big ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaaaahs’ and ask him where he learnt to write his name (which in itself is a dumb question. It’s not like he took special lessons in secret…)

He looks at me for a few seconds and says:

Well, I thinked and I thinked…and I remembered.

Little week-end…

The kids were told that they would not play the Lego Batman game for the long week-end (just because we’re tired of hearing them ask ‘when can we play the Batman game?’). So today, after being very patient all these days, Matty asked:

“Mama, when is it little week-end?”

He’s so so cute!!

Broccolis and other strange things!

We love our Asian food in our family, but for the SECOND time (no jokes!) the best part of the meal was to hear Killian’s little voice:

Killian: ‘Mum, what’s that green thing?’

Me: ‘It’s called broccoli’

Killian: ‘ Broccoliiii??? Yum, my favorite’

It means a looooot if you know how picky this child is!!!