14 Dec 2008

Lap it up


Duncan has decided that he likes to drink milk, lots of milk. However it has to prepared as in the Disney film The Aristocats. He pours the milk into a bowl, adds a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dash of vanilla extract, a smidgen of sugar and a dollop of double cream, then he blasts it in the microwave. On a few occasions he placed the bowl on the floor and lapped it with his tongue, but realising it's an inefficient way for a human to consume their vittles, he went back to the more traditional method. Once, perhaps inspired by the relish with which the cartoon cats dinned on the concoction, he made a large portion up for our dog Pippi. She tried it, but didn't like it and I poured it away explaining that dogs don't like milk, just people and cats. "And cows," said he.

Lady's friend from next door has been to stay with us for a few nights. The girls enjoyed spending lots of time together, with late night chats and lots of time spend enjoying such pre-teen delights as the Jonas Brothers and HSM (if you don't know the acronymn, you'll not care) on YouTube.

Best of all, Lady went with her friend to a school disco on Friday evening. The pair got all dolled up, Lady wearing a bit too much silvery eye shadow, so it fell under her eyes, panda fashion. A quick wipe sorted her out and off they went to face the music. I was told afterwards, that 3 boys had asked my 10 year old child to dance. Oh my. Is this the beginning of a new phase? Will I know how to strike a balance between allowing her freedom to have fun, make new friends and enjoy her journey towards adulthood with protecting and sheltering her and teaching her to make safe choices. Ah well, she's still very young. I'll just take it as it comes.

Thomas was a bit put out that he wasn't able to go dancing too. He rocks the joint when he's dancing in his room, not that he knows I've seen him. He asked "why do the girls get to go to the ball, and I don't?" So endearing! My sister pointed out the Harry Potter connection; school balls instead of discos. To make it up to him, I took him to the soft play area this afternoon and he ran himself ragged while I supped tea and read, so different from when Duncan's there too. Duncan whiled the afternoon away by lounging in the bath (the boy has at least one a day) and checking out cuckoo clocks on ebay. He's got his eye on one that costs over £200. I bid on a couple but didn't go quite high enough so I still have to get one from somewhere before Christmas. And he's very particular about what it must look like and how it must perform. Bum. At least I won a Lego Spiderman so perhaps that'll distract from any potential clock deficit.

12 comments:

Alyric said...

"At least I won a Lego Spiderman so perhaps that'll distract from any potential clock deficit."

Hate to rain on your Christmas tree parade, but maybe not:) So, the best of luck with finding a clock with as few defects as possible.

Sharon McDaid said...

Hi Alyric, hope you're well.
I'm on a quest today to find the least imperfect cuckoo clock I can in the time left. Duncan has lusted after this particular lego man for ages. I wouldn't be too surprised if on the day, he is more excited to carry around and look at at that couple of cm of coloured plastic than to admire his new clock.

Anonymous said...

I love your story about the milk. Made me smile and think of my boy. It's funny what kids fixate on. He sat through The Muppets Christmas at the weekend with his mouth open IN SILENCE. Unheard of! The muppets it is for Christmas.

Sharon McDaid said...

@Tom, you're lucky it's the Muppets he's taken a liking to. It could have been some other horror of a children's show, like the Tweenies - ugh!

Anonymous said...

I was surprised to see the word "vittles" in your post. Is that a common word in Ireland? I thought it came from the southern US....picked it up at Disney? (Bear Jamboree perhaps.)

We have a beautiful cuckoo clock from Germany that I bought at a garage sale in Oregon 15 years ago - for $12. (As you can tell, I am still proud of this purchase.) Do they have garage sales in Ireland?

Regarding Lady...I am confident you will make good decisions for her social development, as you already have. If you are like most parents, you may look back to regret 1 or 2 of those decisions, too.

I offer a pretty good (I think) process for making decisions on tween risk in my page titled "Childproof". You can scroll past the infancy stuff, but its good, too. Linked under "For All Parents". You might have to look for it, as I am doing major housekeeping on by blog over the holidays, moving a few things around.

Cheers! Barbara

Sharon McDaid said...

@Barbara, I don't know where I picked up that word, perhaps from some old English novel, but I'm not sure.

Good find with the clock. There are rarely garage sales, but there are loads of car boot sales which I don't go to, and charity shops which I visit almost weekly. I love finding a great buy, but mostly I use them like a library for books and toys, swapping stuff out after we've used it.

Thanks for the reading tip. I'll be happy to see what you advise. And yes, I can guarantee that I'll make mistakes and have regrets, but hopefully we'll all get through it intact!

Anonymous said...

The convict asks Pip for vittles in Great Expectations.... I always associated it with the kind of things pirates might eat though.

Anonymous said...

I'm learning some good word-history here! Thank you, tom1. My earliest recollection of vittles is from a tv sitcom - The Beverly Hillbillies.
Barbara

Sharon McDaid said...

@Tom, how ever did you remember that detail? It's probably where I got the word from though!

And it does sound like pirate food- for some reason it popped into my head when I wrote this post!

Sharon McDaid said...

@Barbara, I hope Tom sticks around, he's been a source of information for the past few posts!

I'm not sure where the Beverly Hillbillies were said to hail from, but the Appalachian parts of the US were peopled by immigrants from my part of the world, I think.

Know anything about it Tom?!

Anonymous said...

"Vittles" are basically provisions, or food to the normal person. And we can always count on Charles Dickens to use fantastic words like that....
I loved hearing about Lady, but she is such a sensible girl (so unlike her mum!) that I'm sure you will have no trouble with her at all.
Now Thomas is another matter...he will have the girls eating out of his hands! Literally methinks!
As for the cuckoo clock, you know it is a must for christmas day dear cousin....especially after the Epcot Centre debacle! lol
Miss you all loads, can't wait to see you over christmas.
Miche xx

Anonymous said...

This is kind of fun, hope you don't mind another bit...

The Beverly Hillbillies were written to be from Tennessee - perhaps on the edge of Appalachia. Certainly the visual of the shack the Clampets came from was reminiscent of Appalachian poverty.

I cannot at all say I'm certain of the ancestry for Appalachia - a pretty broad area. The Irish of notariety were in the larger cities - New York, Boston; also establishing cities named Dublin outside Columbus, Ohio and in southern California (we know people in both Dublins).

I'm with you, Sharon for not buying from the back of people's cars - car boot sales means that, right?

We like thrift or charity shops also. Live in the stream of reuse, too.

Merry Christmas to all!
Barbara