Ice Cream and Karma

How we all doing?

It's the usual craziness round the D'Oubby way.

But lots of good stuff!

I've started to write a new book! A crime thriller! (I felt that the two spare minutes I have left a day were just temptation for the Devil. )

What else... let me see. Oh, yes, we are getting our garden redesigned! Yes! No longer will we be able to rent out our back garden to film crews who want a waste land location. The children will be able to play outside without the worry of wolf attack. Sure the last remaining example of the Dublin lowland Tiger will be made extinct when we destroyed it's natural habitat, but what price my desire to bar-b-que???

They were are underwhlemed as we were

We had a pleasant St Patrick's Day. The boys were in the local parade. Which was pretty lame, truth be told. The parade, not the boys. Though, I must say, they weren't exactly giving it their all as they lumped by in their Cub Scout uniforms and green hats. Couldn't they have been tying some knots as they went? Lighting a mobile campfire? Even a bit of a dib dib dib chant would have been good. But we were just meant to be stunned by the majesty of their existence.

Next year we're going to into the town parade.

Lily was deeply bitter that this was her first St Patricks Day parade experience. It was rubbish.

But the very, very best news of all is that we have acquired an ice cream man! This is super news.

And useful.

Let me tell you a story....

(A bit of background first...) So, a number of years ago I heard of a mammy who came up with the rule of tirds for her kids communion money. One third to be saved. One third to be spent. And one third to charity. I thought this was a great idea. So, when son number one made his communion three years ago, he was informed that this was how things were going to happen. And last year, when son number two went through it all, he got the same lecture.

But, the D'Oubs being the D'oubs, the money got put in a savings account and we never quite got round to sorting it out. But Mr D'oub last week got a fit of organisation upon him and consolidated a few of the kids accounts credit union/bank etc... this seemed like a good time to talk to the chaps about giving some of their loot away. They looked a little pained. I worried that my amazing mothering had been ever so slightly too much for them, that they hadn't 'got it' and were in fact greedy selfish little heathens. But after a pause,  sweet and thoughtful son number one said 'Ok, I'll give (insert large amount of money here) to charity.' Son number two said 'Me two!'

And then it happened.

Jingle, jingle, jingle.

From outside, the sound more beautiful than a baby's laugh, came from our road. AN ICE CREAM VAN!!!!

You must understand. Ice cream vans don't come our way. We are surrounded by retirees where we live. Lovely OAP's each and everyone of them, but there is a reason ice cream vans don't have 'Mind That Pensioner' on the back.

I looked at each child.

I screamed 'ICE CREAM VAN!'

They screamed 'ICE CREAM VAN!'

We all screamed 'ICE CREAM VAN!'

I grabbed my purse, thrust five euros in their little hands and said 'Run! Run! Catch the ice cream man before he leaves and never comes back!'

And yay, they doth run and gather to them some 99s. And they were good.

And what did I get to do?

I got to say to them - look kiddies, you agree to give money to charity, and look, ice cream appears.

Now, if I can only find out what time he plans on coming every day, I could fleece those rich kids.

Mwwaaaaahahahahahhaahahahahhhahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ice Cream and Karma

How we all doing?

It's the usual craziness round the D'Oubby way.

But lots of good stuff!

I've started to write a new book! A crime thriller! (I felt that the two spare minutes I have left a day were just temptation for the Devil. )

What else... let me see. Oh, yes, we are getting our garden redesigned! Yes! No longer will we be able to rent out our back garden to film crews who want a waste land location. The children will be able to play outside without the worry of wolf attack. Sure the last remaining example of the Dublin lowland Tiger will be made extinct when we destroyed it's natural habitat, but what price my desire to bar-b-que???

They were are underwhlemed as we were

We had a pleasant St Patrick's Day. The boys were in the local parade. Which was pretty lame, truth be told. The parade, not the boys. Though, I must say, they weren't exactly giving it their all as they lumped by in their Cub Scout uniforms and green hats. Couldn't they have been tying some knots as they went? Lighting a mobile campfire? Even a bit of a dib dib dib chant would have been good. But we were just meant to be stunned by the majesty of their existence.

Next year we're going to into the town parade.

Lily was deeply bitter that this was her first St Patricks Day parade experience. It was rubbish.

But the very, very best news of all is that we have acquired an ice cream man! This is super news.

And useful.

Let me tell you a story....

(A bit of background first...) So, a number of years ago I heard of a mammy who came up with the rule of tirds for her kids communion money. One third to be saved. One third to be spent. And one third to charity. I thought this was a great idea. So, when son number one made his communion three years ago, he was informed that this was how things were going to happen. And last year, when son number two went through it all, he got the same lecture.

But, the D'Oubs being the D'oubs, the money got put in a savings account and we never quite got round to sorting it out. But Mr D'oub last week got a fit of organisation upon him and consolidated a few of the kids accounts credit union/bank etc... this seemed like a good time to talk to the chaps about giving some of their loot away. They looked a little pained. I worried that my amazing mothering had been ever so slightly too much for them, that they hadn't 'got it' and were in fact greedy selfish little heathens. But after a pause,  sweet and thoughtful son number one said 'Ok, I'll give (insert large amount of money here) to charity.' Son number two said 'Me two!'

And then it happened.

Jingle, jingle, jingle.

From outside, the sound more beautiful than a baby's laugh, came from our road. AN ICE CREAM VAN!!!!

You must understand. Ice cream vans don't come our way. We are surrounded by retirees where we live. Lovely OAP's each and everyone of them, but there is a reason ice cream vans don't have 'Mind That Pensioner' on the back.

I looked at each child.

I screamed 'ICE CREAM VAN!'

They screamed 'ICE CREAM VAN!'

We all screamed 'ICE CREAM VAN!'

I grabbed my purse, thrust five euros in their little hands and said 'Run! Run! Catch the ice cream man before he leaves and never comes back!'

And yay, they doth run and gather to them some 99s. And they were good.

And what did I get to do?

I got to say to them - look kiddies, you agree to give money to charity, and look, ice cream appears.

Now, if I can only find out what time he plans on coming every day, I could fleece those rich kids.

Mwwaaaaahahahahahhaahahahahhhahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feeling a Little Proud

It's a big day in the Oub household.

A child of ours is participating in a sporting final!!!

Ok, it's actually Bowling - a sport only marginally more strenuous than darts. But we are thrilled all the same. No Oub family member has ever before shown an aptitude for anything that involved hand/eye coordination.

So, we are very excited for second eldest son. For it is he who is in this final as part of his Cub Scout troop.

Representing Lucan!

Goooooooooooooo Lucan!

We need to bring some pride back to Loverly Lucan. It's not that we don't love those most famous sons of Lucan - Jedward. But you can love something without being particularly proud of the fact. Like me and french toast and bacon drizzled with maple syrup, mmmhhmmmmmm. I'm not proud of my self there. Or me and the celeb gossip pages on the dailymail online. REALLY not proud of myself there. In fact, deeply, deeply ashamed. And I probably shouldn't go into the contents of my iPod... (for every White Stripes track there are at least two from Step etc) But enough of the self flagellation. It isn't even Sunday.

Just took a phone call from Mr Oub. The bowling is underway! Exciting!

Before they headed off I oscillated between informing son that it was the taking part that counted, and telling him to kick woggled arse. I'm a pretty inconsistent mother as it is, so a little more on the mixed message front isn't going to make much difference. The savings account is already open for the intensive therapy they are all going to need. So I may as well get my moneys worth and really feck them up.

I'll let you know how it all goes later :)

9 out of 10 D'Oubs didn't complete suck at bowling.

And then tomorrow second son is in action again. This time it's piano grade exam time. Poor fecker. But he has nerves of steel so isn't that bothered. Me? I'd be more nervous than a bomb disposal guy with sudden onset Parkinson's.

We're terribly proud of him again here as he seems to have inherited Grandad Oubs musical abilities. Which are considerable. But what makes second son so special is he is this odd freak of nature - I must have been sent home with the wrong baby - he actually works hard too. Once he has finished his homework, he puts his bag away and immediately sits down at the piano to practice. His brother (whom I do love too, I promise) has to be injected with 10ccs of Cattleprodadrine to get him to do his practice (Also very talented, just a little motivationally deficient. Definitely the correct baby sent home with me there.)

Second son is a great child. I was informed at his recent Parent/Teacher meeting that he had placed on the 100 percentile for his English and Maths aptitude scores. Teacher said it was quite rare for a child to score top for both disciplines. He has a great bunch of friends. Lovely kids. Teacher said he is well able to stand up for himself, but he also looks out for others. That he is kind. He writes wonderful stories and is one of the top in his class in Irish.

At home he gets his sister her breakfast in the morning and packs all the lunches while I look after baby oub. He is a great conversationalist and I enjoy his company.

Could I gush more? Probably!

But you see, second son had a tough old start in life. He was plagued for years as a toddler with health issues - nothing serious, but just enough to involve regular pokings and proddings from doctors of all sorts. And hospital stays and all that unpleasantness. He has execma. And hayfever. And multiple allergies. He currently needs eye drops and eye cream twice a day for his Atopic Eye Disease, which hurt. And he will need these for a few years yet. And most difficult of all is for years he had Speech and Language Disorder. You couldn't understand a thing the child said. Can you imagine, a child as smart as he is, unable to be understood by anyone. It was awful. He was miserable. Rarely smiled. It took years and so much hard work to get him to a point now, where at 9 years old, people wouldn't know there was ever a problem.

And through all this he never complained. He put up with everything with a stoicism a person thirty years older wouldn't have had. And still today, morning and evening when he flinches as we put the drops in his eyes, never a word. He looks a little mournful when reminded that we have to do this for a few years, but no tantrums. No giving out. Just sucks it up.

GUSH!

Feeling a Little Proud

It's a big day in the Oub household.

A child of ours is participating in a sporting final!!!

Ok, it's actually Bowling - a sport only marginally more strenuous than darts. But we are thrilled all the same. No Oub family member has ever before shown an aptitude for anything that involved hand/eye coordination.

So, we are very excited for second eldest son. For it is he who is in this final as part of his Cub Scout troop.

Representing Lucan!

Goooooooooooooo Lucan!

We need to bring some pride back to Loverly Lucan. It's not that we don't love those most famous sons of Lucan - Jedward. But you can love something without being particularly proud of the fact. Like me and french toast and bacon drizzled with maple syrup, mmmhhmmmmmm. I'm not proud of my self there. Or me and the celeb gossip pages on the dailymail online. REALLY not proud of myself there. In fact, deeply, deeply ashamed. And I probably shouldn't go into the contents of my iPod... (for every White Stripes track there are at least two from Step etc) But enough of the self flagellation. It isn't even Sunday.

Just took a phone call from Mr Oub. The bowling is underway! Exciting!

Before they headed off I oscillated between informing son that it was the taking part that counted, and telling him to kick woggled arse. I'm a pretty inconsistent mother as it is, so a little more on the mixed message front isn't going to make much difference. The savings account is already open for the intensive therapy they are all going to need. So I may as well get my moneys worth and really feck them up.

I'll let you know how it all goes later :)

9 out of 10 D'Oubs didn't complete suck at bowling.

And then tomorrow second son is in action again. This time it's piano grade exam time. Poor fecker. But he has nerves of steel so isn't that bothered. Me? I'd be more nervous than a bomb disposal guy with sudden onset Parkinson's.

We're terribly proud of him again here as he seems to have inherited Grandad Oubs musical abilities. Which are considerable. But what makes second son so special is he is this odd freak of nature - I must have been sent home with the wrong baby - he actually works hard too. Once he has finished his homework, he puts his bag away and immediately sits down at the piano to practice. His brother (whom I do love too, I promise) has to be injected with 10ccs of Cattleprodadrine to get him to do his practice (Also very talented, just a little motivationally deficient. Definitely the correct baby sent home with me there.)

Second son is a great child. I was informed at his recent Parent/Teacher meeting that he had placed on the 100 percentile for his English and Maths aptitude scores. Teacher said it was quite rare for a child to score top for both disciplines. He has a great bunch of friends. Lovely kids. Teacher said he is well able to stand up for himself, but he also looks out for others. That he is kind. He writes wonderful stories and is one of the top in his class in Irish.

At home he gets his sister her breakfast in the morning and packs all the lunches while I look after baby oub. He is a great conversationalist and I enjoy his company.

Could I gush more? Probably!

But you see, second son had a tough old start in life. He was plagued for years as a toddler with health issues - nothing serious, but just enough to involve regular pokings and proddings from doctors of all sorts. And hospital stays and all that unpleasantness. He has execma. And hayfever. And multiple allergies. He currently needs eye drops and eye cream twice a day for his Atopic Eye Disease, which hurt. And he will need these for a few years yet. And most difficult of all is for years he had Speech and Language Disorder. You couldn't understand a thing the child said. Can you imagine, a child as smart as he is, unable to be understood by anyone. It was awful. He was miserable. Rarely smiled. It took years and so much hard work to get him to a point now, where at 9 years old, people wouldn't know there was ever a problem.

And through all this he never complained. He put up with everything with a stoicism a person thirty years older wouldn't have had. And still today, morning and evening when he flinches as we put the drops in his eyes, never a word. He looks a little mournful when reminded that we have to do this for a few years, but no tantrums. No giving out. Just sucks it up.

GUSH!