Octavideo Clips of the Day

This candle clip may have you wondering whether Octavia's big brother's middle name is Tarantino. He's just anticipating the upcoming sugar high.

Mama, I am Free!

At roughly 5 a.m. someone was whispering in my ear. "I am free. Mama, Mama (pulling on my hair), I am Free!" My response was "Not until 9.58, Tate. Leave me sleep," but, of course, even a 3-year old knows that after that first birthday, people, except Mama and your personal astrologer, care not what time you dove into the world precisely. Und so, the long struggle for consciosness began for me. When I finally woke hours later, Tatie was lying next to me singing about her "birthday breakfask" coming soon, soon to the bed. Right on cue, Scott and Noah began singin from the hall. Most pleasantly, Octavia had requested specifically that I have my breakfask with her in bed.

Yesterday was the perfect autumn day for a birthday party in the forest. When we woke today, the rain was lashing and the wind had pulled branches off the trees in the night. We relented on the 'rain or shine' party plan and texted guests to suggest the nature walk and then buns at our house. So while Noah and I ran to the farmer's market for the buns [cupcakes] and Armagh apple juice, Scott and Octavia threw the house in order. We then squealed over to Belvoir Forest to meet the party.

Octavia had a new party outfit: dress and tights from Big Mike and Laurie and a raincoat from Dannette. It proved a perfect combo as Octavia dove head first into a mudhole 5 minutes into the Nature Walk! Though I wanted to capture the image of her tears and the mud all over the front of the plastic pastel wrapper, I overcame it and cleaned her up instead. Must be the pregnancy hormones making me maternal.
At any rate, the raincoat saved the new duds underneath so all was well.

Up the motte, and down the motte, the party was searching for acorns

before wading through the stream in Belvoir Forest.

Most of the guests appear in this photo. Noah prepared a nature walk hunt for them--acorn, leaf, snail, pine cone, and stone. I saw no snail but Pierse found on the ground a whole bird's nest filled with sheep's wool courtesy of the gale force winds while and several mushrooms and other fungi were spotted. All in all, a great way to spend a wet birthday. Especially when you are these 3 friends born in September, October and December of the same year!


Upon return to the house, the buns graced the table and playing ensued. Parents talked and ate grown-up snacks and the leftover buns. The party lasted several hours and then our little family had lentil soup (as requested by the birthday girl) and bread before the last of the presents escaped their giftwrap and bedtime came. One of the most exciting moments of the birthday: putting pyjamas on with no pull-up, just pants, because "I'm Free!"

Noah Gets Away From it All

Occasionally Noah takes a break from family life by sleeping over at Maria's house. I don't know all the details but the photos allude to TV, relaxation, and judging by the look on his face, not too many extra chores or fried mushrooms for dinner.

He does a little work though:


How's that for a scowl?

We welcomed Scott home this morning from India! More details on his adventures yet to come, but it is amazing how the kids' faces had a freer, more open and relaxed look. They both settled right into the week and the relaxation nearly overtook Octavia at about 4 pm! In fairness, she has had a dry cough these past 3 nights and the two of us have been up experimenting with drinks of water, trying to sleep sitting up, etc. She has been asleep 3 hours tonight with no hacking, so fingers crossed that will continue. If not, I am getting earplugs and sleeping through it!

Tomorrow, while Noah is at school reveling in the knowledge that he is setting out on his science field trip on Wednesday for which I refused to buy 4 new pairs of jogging bottoms [sweatpants] (Mr. Irvine SAYS 5 or 6 pairs of tracksuit bottoms are REQUIRED), Octavia and Alex will accompany me to the station to retrieve Alex's mother and big sister from their American Odyssey. I'm excited but I think Alex is more excited.

And this one is fun, too....

Outdoor concert by O and A.

I am sitting in a cupboard

While Scott sips chai in the blistering heat of Kolkata and Noah squelches around the football pitch at recess, Octavia, Alex and I have been spending our days enjoying the joys of 3. Alex is barely 3. Octavia is nearly 3. I'm the 3rd wheel. [I acquired permission from Alex's mother to put his mug on our family blog. Good thing since Octavia thinks Alex is part of her family!] These 2 were born into the same birthing pool 6 weeks apart and they take so much joy in one another when they aren't acting like pre-historic humanoids toward each other.

Today we had a journey through the muck and mud of Ormeau park on their bikes. (No photos. Alas, Scott has the camera in India.) Sun shone and the leaves are just beginning to stun me. Alex had to stop every 2 minutes to pick up an acorn, on peril of Octavia driving up his back. "Nuts! And more nuts!" he rejoiced. Octavia showed him that it is possible to lift the feet high and coast through a 9-foot puddle that is several inches deep without drowning. Since he had no bike helmet today I was hoping he didn't fall over and require deep shampooing of the blonde curls.

Later we stopped into the library and they coloured and fought over a book. The book they fought about was....well, I can't tell you what it was because a. it had no pictures and b. it was written in Irish. I tried reasoning with them about the fact that it isn't worth being cast out of the library for fighting over a book you can't read or get your minder to read for you. They looked at me blankly for 3 seconds and started bickering again. Thank goodness the nice librarians were working this morning!

Now the two of them are off on a jaunt with Alex's daddy and I am about to buckle down to work. I leave you with an excerpt from Octavia's (pretend) phone conversations this weekend.

Maybe I can text you if you not in hospital, okay, Alex?

Hello, friend, I wanna go there. Uh, no. Is Gosia there? Having pasta? Who else is there? Mark? I'm going to text Mark.

Hello, Mark. Yes, Debbie, ah, yes. Yes. What? What?! Oh, right. I am just sitting in a cupboard. No, no. Uh, uh. Pardon me, pardon me!

Dumpster Diving for Education

We didn't want you all to think that just because we bought the uniform and send Noah out the door each day that we've given up our interest in his education. Just now in P6 (his grade) they are looking at food sources and food technology in connection with their geography. Noah has Finland as his country (you're thinking potatoes, fish and strong drink?). Each person in the class has to bring in several food labels that have a different European country's label. Thank goodness the food doesn't have to come from Finland. We've found that Belfast doesn't seem to import much from Finland.

Anyway, in the preceding sequence of photos you will see Scott and Noah retrieving a Good Earth tea box (yes, it says Boulder, CO) because it has importers listed for
UK, Europe, Japan and someplace else (I don't remember...Finland?)

Do you know Scott will be going to India for about 10 days, leaving this Thursday? How in the world will I retrieve rubbish for school from the bins while he is away?

Here is a last interesting bit of dinner conversation from the household:

O: Mama, you have a poh-poh in your belly.
N: Do you mean a placenta??
O: Santa?!

What I have in my belly is an active being who spent most of Saturday night trying to reverse out of my body through my upper abdominal...muscles? or that spot, anatomically speaking, where one ought to have upper abs.

Tatie Update

In case you wonder what my love handles are looking like at 6 months pregnant while I despair over the state of the office room and my work, Octavia provides the above photo. You'll notice the right curtain is drawn which means that the day is less overcast HURRAY than it has been. We even had a walk by the Lagan yesterday to see some ducks frolicking in what we used to call Indian Summer in my girlhood.

The updates on this blog have been held up a bit because last week had its own adventure. I returned from Scotland on Monday to find that Octavia and Scott were enjoying a night away at Children's Hospital courtesy of Ms. Wheezy herself. I am pretending there were no drugs involved. Focus on the 'nutritious' lunch that O is enjoying. Yep. Jacket spud with cheese. That's it. Not a colour in sight. And as an accompaniment, blackcurrant 'juice' with no added sugar, just aspartame and saccharin. Have you ever eaten a blackcurrant? I have, because I love the kind of fruit that just about splits your gums down the middle with sourness. Kool-Aid powder tastes sweet compared to a blackcurrant. So, to make a juice for kids you need about 10 parts sugar to 1 part berry. I asked the head nurse last time we had a weekend get-away up there whether she had any pure juice and she laughed. "Sure, that'd be far too dear!" said she. Thank goodness Octavia prefers short breaks to long vacations on the ward.

Anyway, Noah is not the only person to have entered formal education this month. O heads up to "Mrs. Mac's" (Mrs. McAleer) 2 mornings a week with her best friend, Alex. This playgroup (pre-school) is laughably different to the Stiener kindergarted Noah attended. First there is the more reasonable cost, but let's not be so crass as to discuss that. Second, Mrs. Mac seems fond of straight lines and right angles. No trimming corners off paper here. Paint is just paint--thick, gloppy, tempera in wildly bright and unnatural colours. You get an incident report if your nearly-3-year old wets her pants. And, last but not least, everyone is special but they are instructed to colour the lips on their self-portrait red like everyone else. Or so Octavia says. [see above]. And, no, O did not draw the outline! I don't mean to give the impression that Mrs. Mac is not wholesome: she makes her own playdough and is very happy to share the recipe, warning that if you follow it without reducing you will get enough dough for 30 children.

We know a few of the other children from before. Alex, O and another guy from Baby Dance are there. I can't recall but think his name is Reese. One of my doula babies is in her second year and gives me a shy acknowledgement when we see one another at the door. It is a 15...20...25 minute walk depending how pregnant one is and how often O decides to climb in and out of the buggy. Let's just say we get our fill of fumes in the time it takes us to get up there along the busy Ormeau/Saintfield route. Still, it beats driving 9 miles each way to the Steiner kindergarten. I do envy Noah is 5-minute walk to school, though.