Thursday 29 May 2008

Reality checks...

They're piling up thick and fast...

...like when Boy #2’s first 4 syllable word is ‘Babycino’ – or, as he pronounced it, ‘Beybeecheeenow’... He’s 2 years old. I didn’t even drink my first coffee until I was around 16, let alone know what a cappuccino is. What’s going on? (Note; a babycino, for those who haven't had the pleasure, is an attempt to keep your beloved offspring quiet whilst you sip your own beverage, and consists of an espresso-sized cup of milk froth with a sprinkle of chocolate on the top. No coffee involved...)

...or when you are in a swimming pool with your older son trying to encourage him to float without armbands, and he manages it, shouting in high excitement “Look at me! Look at me!!”
“I am looking, well done!” you reply in your best motivational tone. He replies witheringly “Not you, mama. The girls!”

When you realise that your sons have each flown more miles in the first 2 and 4 years of their lives than you had flown in the first 35 of yours...

When your younger son climbs into his airplane seat – and straps himself in.


I think it’s nearly time to head for home...

14 comments:

  1. the floating in the pool comment really made me laugh! your previous post about the plastic toy snake was v funny too. PITK had a similar experience in birmingham airport with her boy's toy gun...

    It's amazing how you are being so prolific whilst on your hols! - have loved reading them and have very fond memories of a lot of the places you have mentioned (apart from in Port Douglas where I was given a horrendous haircut)

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  2. oooooooo. reality checks. don't they sting so. teens bring a different variety of same dragging in their furious wakes. reminding one that at 17 it probably is quite normal to be doing what they're doing since at same age one did similar. not that they'd believe it, though, since decrepit parents hail from the dark ages pre cell phones and ipods ...

    safe home though x

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  3. Sigh......

    So that makes you how old?? (evil grin)

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  4. Dear Potty Mummy, after 3 glasses of wine (which is a lot for me, post Betty) I need to ask you a serious question...

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  5. I know what you mean dear friend, my mother recently announced loudly in Cafe Rouge (when my six year old Max ordered a babychino and a pain au chocolat) "in my day it was a cup of tea and a bag of Monster Munch." Do you know that she used to put tea in our bottles? This is progress dear friend, I promise.

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  6. Hi Elsie, yes Pig mentioned the toy gun - sometimes I think the world has gone mad... Glad you've enjoyed the holiday notes (which are as much about helping me remember them as anything else these days!), and tell me - what question? I'm intrigued.

    Hi RM, they certainly do, especially since Boy #1 is now entering the stage at which I can compare his likely memories with ones of my own at the same age. Now THAT's scary. (In fact, I may feel a post coming on...)

    Aims, say it loud and proud. I'm 41... (although, as Dulwich Mum, I have the skin of a 14 year old - though not the body, sadly...)

    Hi DM - could have been worse. I saw a chavtastic family putting coke in their child's baby bottle on the beach last summer. And Husband mentioned that aged 8, in Holland whilst growing up, it was common-place to have a very milky coffee as a treat... So yes - this is progress. I suppose...

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  7. I do know how you feel, PM. Child Two said the other day, 'did they have aeroplanes when you were alive, Mummy?'. Ah, the little dears ....

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  8. Yeah my kids learnt "talleskinnylatte" at a pretty early age. Yours sound very wordly wise! In a good way.

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  9. I think the babyccino is a great idea. Did you think of this yourself or is it a popular beverage amongst moms with little kids? I think I might even like it myself with a hefty sprinkling of chocolate. I always like to eat the foamy part out of my cup after the cappuccino is gone.

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  10. Ha HA, Brilliant!
    You keep your boys away from my girls!!
    I have to say I have no idea what a cappachino is (too earlt to worry if that's spelled correctly), I've never tasted one.
    I simply can't see the point of coffee without gallons of Tia Maria in it.
    AND...I went out for 'coffee' (Hot Choc) recently for the first time in twenty years...twenty years!! OHMYGOD!!
    Do I need to get out more?

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  11. Too funny. All of it. Especially the babycino. I'm saddened by the fact that Csilla knows what a Starbucks is. She's only three for Pete's sake! And today she told me to hurry up and download the photos onto the computer so she could look at them. I almost feel like shooting film just to make her wait. And yes... the flying thing. Csilla's racked more miles on an airplane than I did in the first twenty years of my life for sure! What is this world coming to?

    Loved this post...!

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  12. Hi DD, I'm waiting for that comment. can't wait, obviously...

    GBS, hello - and am not sure that there IS a good way of being worldy wise... But it is how it is, right?

    Hi Nora, no, definitely not my invention, I think it's been doing the rounds in London at least for some time. And since I don't drink coffee myself, can't believe I didn't think of it earlier - and trademark it!

    Frog - you said it. And preferably in central London...

    Thanks Carolyn - and have already voted for you btw - can I do it again?

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  13. Mac loves a "my special coffee" too and drinks it with aplomb. and chocolate sprinkles!

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  14. loving your Down Under Posts too by the way!

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