Most afternoons when I go to pick Oscar up from school I end up speaking to a little girl in the playground. She is a year ahead of Oscar, but is teeny, tiny, weeny, and has a teeny, tiny, weeny voice to go with it.
She is very cute, very fearless, and seems to have taken rather a shine to us as a family.
Jason, when he was not working for a few weeks after Christmas, would sometimes pick the children up from school. One day he came home and said: ‘Who is that girl?’ I told him.
He said: ‘She told me that she was a horse, and wanted to hold my hand.’
He really is not comfortable with that kind of thing.
I don’t mind a bit.
A few weeks back, she gave me some leaves to feed Derek, after having confided in me that she would have fed them to her kitten, but she couldn’t because their dog had been very naughty and bitten the kitten’s head off.
Oh.
Today she came rushing up to me already chattering nineteen to the dozen, as I stood, waiting for Tallulah to come out, and Oscar zoomed around us like a swallow getting all excited about the summer coming.
She said: ‘Where is Oscar’s daddy?’
Me: ‘He’s at work now. He has a job you see.’
Her: ‘Why haven’t you got a job?’
Me: ‘I’m not very good at jobs. I don’t like them much.’
Her: ‘But you should have a job, because you’re a grown up.’
Me: ‘But I prefer playing, and mucking about. Don’t you?’
Her: ‘Yes. But that isn’t a job.’
Me: ‘True. But it’s a shame because I am very good at it. Sometimes I write stories that people read. Is that a job.’
Her: ‘No.’
Then she ran off, swooping and dipping with Oscar.
She came running back a few minutes later:
‘Oscar’s mama?’
Me: ‘Yes.’
Her: ‘I am going to be a tooth fairy when I grow up. I practiced flying yesterday.’
Me: ‘Great. What do you do with the teeth?’
Her: ‘What do you mean, what do you do with the teeth? I swap ‘em for money.’
Me: ‘Yes. But what do you do with them afterwards.’
She looked at me as if I were Dimbo McDimmy of the Dim clan.
Her: ‘I put ‘em in my pocket. Because. I. Am. The. Tooth. Fairy.’
Me: ‘Well, that is an excellent thing to be when you grow up. Is that a job?’
Her: ‘Yes. Watch me fly.’
And I watched her dart about the playground, flitting about on her fairy wings.
Long may her imagination soar!
Climbing the world’s tallest tree does seem to be a strange subject for radio. We have a tall tree for climbing an hour or so’s drive away. Google The Gloucester Tree Pemberton WA. We drag all of our visitors there – only one of them climbed it though. He said going up was fine, coming down was terrifying. There are some nice forest walks there for those who do not climb
And yes, the second comment does belong to the previous post. Doh! For some reason my laptop decided it didn’t like WordPress this morning and I had huge problems connecting. Seems to have sorted itself out now.
Sharon
Yes, I hope she keeps that up for as long as possible.
Re: the tree. It was a strange post anyway. It ate it once and I had to retype it, by which time I had totally lost all enthusiasm for it. Hey ho!