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Monday 7 September 2009

Bringing up boys

The Grandfather, having brought up two sons, knows a thing or two about the wishes of boys when it comes to Christmas and birthday presents.

Thanks to him, Mr Coffee did not reach 40 years old without owning a bright red Ferrari.


The Littlest Latte loves running after the Ferrari. And she has been loopy this week, feral and moody and full of excess energy.


Littlest is not a girl who stays neat and clean or who goes shy when people talk to her. Littlest is out there. She is talking wildly to the puppeteers at the puppet show, she is lying on the floor in the middle of a busy shopping street waving her legs in the air, she is having a tantrum, she is pretending to be someone else, she is climbing onto things and jumping off things and doing it all very, very loudly.

I once had a good old moan about her to her godmother, who has two sons. "She's fine. She's just a boy," she said, helpfully.

As school approaches, she seems to be even madder. And having spent all of Sunday with her pretending to be a boy called Elliot (a fully formed character with a deep voice, who has a Ben 10 duvet, a room full of dinosaurs, a hatful of repressed rage and a little sister who is "always putting her grubby little hands on my STUFF") has made me slightly less nostalgic for days and days alone with her.

The other day we bumped into the nice lady who will be her new reception teacher next week. "Are you ready for school, Littlest?" she said.

I was. "She's all yours," I said. "All this insanity is for you."

12 comments:

  1. I do wonder about youngest children. MiniMad has a vivid imagination, today he answered the door to the window cleaner dressed in his king outfit, only to correct out poor window cleaner that he was actually Princess Anne. Anyway I saw this and thought of you

    http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/09/08/mom-s-got-a-latte-do-today-printable-list/

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  2. Oh I'm liking your blog....I will return !

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  3. PS read more...really loving your blog and I WILL NOT GIVE UP RED WINE...

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  4. I think they smell the start of term on the breeze. Mine were feral yesterday - it's a kindness to me I'm sure. Ensuring I feel relief rather than sadness about their return to school tomorrow.

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  5. Somebody just told me she's always ready for her teenagers to leave home when it's time, because by then they've become so ANNOYING that she cannot live with them any longer. Clearly the same thing happens to new-schoolers.

    You have a girl-boy and I have a boy-girl who calls himself Princess Hurtful and loves to wear skirts.

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  6. Why is it that Ferarri's always seem faster when they are red?

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  7. Oh -- she sounds like fun. (I can say this because she doesn't live at my house.)

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  8. She is just using up all her energy and contrariness early - you will get pay back when she is a teenager.

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  9. Seriously, what is with these girls? Of course they should be able to do whatever boys do, but do they really want to "sink to their level"?

    My daughter is rambunctious and strong-willed and so are most of the little girls we know. What's really weird is that we hang with conservative homeschoolers. They're not even getting the MTV attitude from school. (Yes, they start young nowadays.)

    We'll stay young keeping up with them right, right?!

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  10. Oh, wow.

    I have one of those, too.

    Go figure.

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  11. Just discovered you and love your blog - great fun - I'll be back!

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