It’s often said that you learn more from your children than they learn from you. The difficult part is seeing the teachings when they are presented. I’ve been working on being more cognizant and in the moment to cherish these little lessons.

I’ve had a big one recently and I’m bursting to share…

On Sunday we had our standard roast for dinner. For dessert, I decided to make a couple small cakes to serve with a custard I had just learned to make in my recent Waitrose cookery course. I heard a scuffle coming from upstairs and in my standard Mummy mode, I quickly grabbed some sprinkles and icing and called my little cake decorators downstairs. Thankfully two of them appeared and the scuffle was forgotten. They spent the next 20 minutes adding mounds of sprinkles to the cake with delight!!! It’s magical to see the excitement sprinkles can bring to their eyes.

As the cake decorating wound down, my little girl started searching for candles. My grown up self started asking questions like why did we need candles when it wasn’t someone’s birthday? Wouldn’t I need those later when it was someone’s birthday? Etc, etc? Thankfully, before I had to ask, my sweet little angel said “we are celebrating putting up the Christmas Tree”. Of course we were!

As we lit the candles and sang “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” I found myself bursting with happiness and pride.

It’s these teachings that you cherish forever!

There is nothing quite like the excitement in a child’s eyes as they dart down the slide. It forces me to remember what is important in life and focus on the pure innocence that my children possess. One look at the glitter in their eye and smile on their face and all my adult woes are immediately forgotten.

Here are Jake and Ava at Suson Park in St. Louis.

This evening as the bath is filling with warm sudsy water, I popped downstairs to warm the baba’s bottles. From the kitchen I hear the lovely sound of  laughter from Jake and screams of delight from Ava.

I step from the kitchen to listen. More laughing. More screams. The sound of toddlers laughing is one of the most glorious sounds on earth!

I gather the bottles and ascend the stairs as I listen to belly laughs and screaming coming from our bedroom. I enter to see Jake flying headfirst into the soft faux fur blanket covering the bed. He lands and erupts in laughter as Ava is lifted and catapulted headfirst onto the nest of pillows.

As Darragh has been in Chicago for the past week, he is full of excitement and raring to play with the baba’s.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t see the importance of keeping things low key at bedtime.

We’ve spent 18 months trying to get the baba’s to sleep between the hours of 7 and 7. It’s now 6:45 and they are flying around the bedroom like little circus gymnasts. Unbelievable! I hear a Mummy scold flying out of my mouth and continue with my chores.

I tend to the bath and come back to the same antics I left. Although the three of them are loving their together time, I am dreading the tears that will ensue when they are too wound up for bedtime.

I issue my Mummy scolds again.
Me: “Who is the adult here?”
Darragh: “Clearly, you.”

Ugh! I’m fighting a losing battle.

I stomp downstairs to start dinner and drown out the anticipated cries.

Good Night!

Coming from a multicultural household, the question that keeps surfacing is “what accent will the baba’s have?”. Will they have the fluent and graceful American English accent of my native tongue, the Irish lilt of Darragh’s homeland or or a very proper British accent?

My theory is that they will have some mix of the three.
Time will surely tell.

Although, the use of British colloquialisms is already filtrating into their vocabulary.

Several days ago we were sitting on the couch and Ava said 2 words very clear. I looked at her with bewilderment. She then repeated the same words several times.
A light bulb went off in my head.
Me: “Oh Dear?”
Ava: “Oh Dear”
Me: “Oh Dear?”
Ava: “Oh Dear”
Me (laughing): “Oh Dear”
Ava (laughing): “Oh Dear”

I love our conversations!