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Thursday 16 August 2012

Three-way Conversations


I've changed the look of the blog, because Blogger kept on putting white fill over everything, and I kept on needing to go into the HTML to fix it. Boring! So, I've changed it so the background is white. Problem solved.

This is just a holding pattern until I can convince Andrew Law to make me a custom image. Hope you like it in the meantime!

I need to start practising my three-way conversations again, because the children are back at school. I'm so please not to have a lonely commute again! Josie had this to say about it this morning:

"We can live anywhere, but not Blandfield"*
"Why?"**
“Because we’d have hardly any time to chat on the way to school. We’d be out of the door, chat chat, across the road, and at school.”

Given that I’d expected a completely different answer about the desirability of the locale; her actual answer touched me rather deeply.

I do enjoy the walk to school with them, but sometimes I feel like I am carrying on two conversations at once, as I “Mmm-hhmm” amd “Really? Wow!” as two people on either side of me whitter on about their various thoughts, feelings and plans. They are very different. I took some mental notes as we walked. Below is the result:

Lori’s Thoughts for Today
I have forgotten all my friends’ names while I have been on holiday, apart from Molly and Sula, Oh, and Jacob***, but he is not my friend; he is a bad boy (by all accounts other than Lori’s, Jacob is actually a lovely little boy. Lori, on the other hand, has told me quite seriously that she thinks Jacob is trying to kill her).
Little Girl**** is actually on Mars today.
When I close my eyes, I see the Weeping Angels from Dr. Who. It is scary.
If I had fallen behind at the traffic lights, like Josie did, you would have had to come back for me because I am too young to cross a road by myself.
Wheeee! I’m running along the wall. No! Don’t hold my hand! I can do it!

Josie’s Thoughts for Today
Have you ever seen a train going by under that bridge? You have? How fast did it go? Was it actually quite slow?
When are the Paralympics starting? Can I come home from school and watch them every day?
Did I miss the bit on the news this morning that they said they were going to show about the far away galaxy? What did it say about it? Can I watch the article on iplayer when I get home?
Can we get the bus, because it’s the second day back at school?
What’s in my packed lunch? Did you give me the Canadian Maple Syrup bar for my snack? What is Canadian Maple Syrup? Oooooh. Sounds tasty.

As you can see, Josie asks a lot of questions, which means poor Lori often feels like she doesn’t get paid attention to, because I have so many questions to answer from the little person package holding my hand on one side, whilst the tinier person package on the other makes comments, not questions, and wonders why she doesn’t get as detailed a response.

I always expected my children to be more similar than they actually are (oh, they look similar, like miniature versions of me, I’m told), but they’re personalities are so very different. I like it, because it’s a constant reminder than they are growing into individuals, who will one day set off in their own little boats of life, each one decorated to their own particular taste, and if you know my children, you’ll know Lori’s will have cats, and Josie’s will have multiple safety precautions.
  
*Blandfield is a housing complex across the road from the school.
**Blandfield is also opposite the waste processing plan for the North of the city. Sometimes it doesn’t smell like a bland field, but more like a stinky field. I was expecting this to feature in the answer.
***Names have been changed to protect the identity of the innocent.
****Lori’s imaginary friend

2 comments:

  1. Hee hee 'Jacob' was a minor cause for concern for going back to school although not the reason for the 'vomit'! ~8-) Nx

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is it with our vomit on demand children? Lori ate all her dinner on Sat night, and then was promptly sick. Just the once, and was then perfectly fine. It's a mystery!

    ReplyDelete