Just trying to keep my balance…
Until my mid-twenties, I thought hayfever was something limited to children, limited to summer, and limited to people who sat around in fields of hay, rubbing sheaves of dry grass in their eyes. That last one is a slight exaggeration, but really I didn’t think of it as debilitating, and I didn’t think it would ...
"Mum, help me skate!" said my smallest, during our first few minutes out on the ice at Christmas World last week. "Eh, I don't know how to skate," I told him, reaching a hand helplessly towards him, but unable to make my way across the ice. If you've been ice skating and can remember your first time, ...
Apart from an unfortunate incident with a laundry basket which resulted in a broken finger (I knew laundry was dangerous) I haven't needed medical attention very often over the years, and happily for me, I'm rarely at the GP. However the downside of this is that there's no regular general check-up, not to mind anything more ...
Back when I had two-under-two, I found that going anywhere further than the local shop was a challenge. Actually, even going to the local shop was a challenge. So when the smallest was nine weeks old, and the biggest was a whopping 23 months old, we were understandably nervous setting off on our very first ...
When I was in my mid-twenties, I figured I had finally become a grown-up. I had a proper job with a proper swivel-y chair, a new boyfriend (now husband) and very grown-up things like health insurance and more than one handbag. So when my eyes started to itch one spring, I did what any sensible grown-up ...
Eight years ago, I went along to the Saturday Night Show in RTÉ, and came away with a one-for-everybody-in-the-audience night in a hotel. So we duly booked our night, and headed off to Clane with our then seven-month-old. We weren't quite sure how staying in hotels with babies worked, but everyone else seemed to do ...
I have three kids. Sometimes they're all very similar - like when all of them cry at once because I turn off the TV or when they all beg for a second advent calendar sweet. And sometimes they're all quite different. On Sunday, at a Santa Science Lab in Imaginosity, I had the different kids. The first was Enthusiastic ...
Dusk. A mild November evening, with a huge purple sky above, and twinkly lights visible in the distance. They ran, one following the other, through the falling darkness. They'd just seen real reindeer, and now they wanted to take a peek into Santa's bedroom. Rushing, single-minded, single-file. We had arrived at the Airfield Estate Christmas Experience ...
The poor third child. Two weeks ago, we were asked by his teacher to bring wellies in to preschool, so at home that afternoon, I picked them up to pack them in his bag. They looked a little small so I got him to try them on. He couldn't get his feet into them. I checked ...
I'm addicted to taking photos. I have been, ever since I got my first camera, back in the late 80s. It was a dark-blue-coloured Kodak, long and flat, and I loved it. I took it on every trip and on every night out, and captured a few very carefully chosen moments. Only a few, because ...