Posts by Isabel Hitchings
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Beautiful.
I only met your Mum a couple of times but her strength, dignity and compassion were obvious and I admired her greatly.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Oh you better believe we've looked into all that and he's spent quite a bit of time in various activities that encourage the crossing the mid-line thing (carefully balanced against not distressing him or putting him off physical pursuits). At the moment he does aikido which he loves enough to persist at without me pushing. He's never going to be a great athlete (but being related to me that's hardly surprising) but he's doing fine.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to BenWilson,
Would you believe that the child was a bum shuffler? As an infant he hated to lie down (because it's harder to see the world that way) and therefore neither crawled nor rolled much. He sat unsupported really early so when he started moving that was the position he began from. I've never been sure whether his lack of crawling affected his future co-ordination or if it all just stems from his preference for brain stuff over body stuff.
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I can't remember a time when I was unable to swim. Even as a scrawny kid I was virtually unable to sink and swimming came as easily as walking. From the age of three I had lessons in the school holidays with the Pattersons of Hampden St Pool who were amazing.
When my oldest son was born I was determined that he would swim as well as I did. We did all the parent and child lessons every Saturday morning for nearly three years and then "proper" lessons for at least two terms a year from when he was five (there was a year or so when he was too big for parent and child lessons and unwilling to get into the water without us). Unfortunately, while he adores the water, the kid is a "sinker" and not athletically gifted so, at nine, he's only just reached the point where he can swim a few metres. I was always boggled that his father didn't learn to swim properly until he was an adult but now I can see exactly how that can happen without any neglect at all.
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My kids' inner-city school doesn't have a pool but for two terms a year they have weekly lessons at the council pool for a pretty nominal $2 a lesson. They get a half-hour lesson in small groups and half and hour of free play. Both my boys are hugely confident in the water though, despite many years of lessons are not very strong swimmers.
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Ferdinand's delight in Albert Otter is matched only by the glee with which his grandparents read it to him (at least twice a day since Christmas day).
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Speaker: Pubic Address, in reply to BenWilson,
At least most women aren't faced with the conundrum of shaving 'down there' simply making a bald patch on their body. I mean shaving my pubes would look rather odd amidst an otherwise generally quite hairy body.
Although there is a spot about half way up the back of my thigh which is hard to reach and easy to miss thus leaving me with a fairly ridiculous stripe if I don't take care.
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"Total twatcock" alliterates nicely.
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I don't think I've seen a movie sans kidlets in the last year. Of those I've seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is my favourite both because it is quite good and because those books saw us through some dark days and this was the first of the movies that we've been able to see on the big screen (the no movie til we've read the book rule was in operation). I knew it was going to be pretty dark and hesitated for a moment about taking the kids but they loved it and Mr Nine was very good about letting me squeeze his hand in the scary and sad bits.
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I suggest things I think my nine-year-old would enjoy (Artemis Fowl and Skullduggery Pleasant most recently) and generally choose the thing I'm reading aloud to him and his five-year-old brother (Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books currently) based on what I can sustain interest in. I sometimes choose to read aloud (rather than just hand over) books like the Narnia books that have great stories but also reflect values and ideas that I want to discuss with my kids as they encounter them. There's very little I would try to stop my kids reading and the stuff I would guide them away from would be based on knowing my kids and not on a particular age-rating.