Going commando

Celebrating Robert Burns at school.
Amaia (skipping into school): heeheehee
Me: What? 
Amaia: I'm cheating, mum! 
Me: What do you mean? 
Amaia: I've got my pants on! 
Ha ha ha. Didn't have the heart to tell her only boys are meant to go commando!

Heterochromia

Annual new glasses day! 

A photo posted by Phyllis Buchanan (@phylbuc) on Jan 21, 2017 at 7:51am PST

I take countless photos every year of my kids and I'm always astounded at how seldom I manage to capture the difference between Anna's eyes. Unlike many people who can be described as heterochromic, Anna doesn't have two completely different-coloured eyes. Years ago I taught a boy in France who had one blue eye and one dark brown, but Anna's heterochromia stems more from proportions. Her right eye is about 70% green, 30% brown, the left is the opposite. It looks quite special in the correct light, but the fact that she wears glasses often hides it to all but those of us who know about it. I remember taking her to a swimming party once with her class, kids who've known her since she was three or four years old. Many remarked when she went into the pool with no glasses, that it was the first time they'd noticed the anomaly. I think she quite likes being different!

7 year old politics

For the first time since yesterday's Armageddon speech I just managed a laugh thanks to my kids...

Me: Anna you're on dishes tonight, get a move on! 

Anna: (moan, moan, moan, whine, whine, whine) ...but it's not faaaaair! 

Amaia: Oh come on Anna just do it, it's bad enough having Theresa May in charge of the country wrecking all our futures, without you moaning about dishes too! 

(Is this a normal 7 year old comment, or is her world view somewhat clouded by having parents in a mixed EU marriage, perhaps?)

Normalising breastfeeding

I found this old video footage the other day from January 2000. Marcel is 2 years and 5 months old, Charlotte is 7 days. Marcel has therefore only been watching me breastfeed her for about five days and yet he's got the technique of what to do without ever being shown. He even offers her both sides - wee cherub. For him, it is the most normal thing in the world. Sometimes we can learn a lot when we look at the world through the eyes of a toddler!

(For anyone who is trying to understand the conversation, by the way, 'Oodah' was a world Marcel invented for breastmilk when he was being fed himself a year earlier - my old (ex-)mother-in-law often joked it came etymologically from the word 'udder' in her dialect of German, which I seriously doubt!)

Early-life crisis

'What's wrong with me, mum? I'm like a sad old da... Not only did I buy myself a slow cooker at the age of 19... but I am actually excited about it!'

Hahahaha - I love my wee boy!