snippet of conversation with father:

"you must be very busy"

"actually i am, dad. how did you know?"

"you haven’t blogged in ages. i think you should blog. soon"

so here i am.

i was a lazy parent in some respects last week. (will parent ever cease to sound wayyyy more grown up than i see myself?)

on friday sebastian’s class put on a snake presentation. sebastian stood up and recited his line (quite dramatically i might add with a touch of pride) : "snakes stay quiet and still in order to catch their food." and then there was a bit of a party. parents were meant to contribute something snake shaped to the food table. and there was a gloriously decorated cake, a snake shaped sausage roll, and oh yes, the jelly snakes that tess bought the night before.

three days earlier i had been in sebastian’s class sewing snakes. every child had cut out a real life sized snake and they asked some mums to come in and help the children sew the snakes and help stuff them with batting. that was a long day, but a fun one. sebastian made a cobra. we sewed elastic around the mouth so he can tie it around his waist. it is five feet long. i will throw it away this summer.

i was in jasper’s class making gingergbread men with his class yesterday. i premade the cookie dough and brought in three gingerbread cookie cutters. jasper was in fathoms of delight and kept saying, "mummy, you come to my clathroom today?". when we got to school, i needed to take the girls upstairs to their classroom before heading off to little jude’s. i asked him to go with his teacher to his classroom, and reassured him i would be there soon.

well.

his little face turned red, his mouth turned down and his eyes began to shimmer as tears filled them. and of course there were other people watching all making "awwww" sounds.

"but!" (hiccup)"mummy! you promithed" (sob)"you make cookieth with my clath today."

i promised him i would be back, took the girls up, stopped by sebastian’s classroom to give him a smooch, and then made and decorated cookies with 20, three year olds. jasper was surprisingly thrilled to have me there, his little chest puffed out when the kids called me "jj’s mummy" as in , "thank you jj’s mummy!".

but possibly the highlight was watching someone say to jasper, "i like your mummy" and him saying, "yes, my mummy."

so that’s why i buy jelly snakes for parties, so i have the energy to get in there, roll up my sleeves and make cookies with kids. and still have a life. my life.