Excuse the radio silence if you will - the past few days have been a frantic blur of family life. What with school fetes, roundabouts and face paints, trampolining, tantrums and toilets, I've hardly had a moment to think.
It hasn't stopped yet. Right now I'm waiting for Meg to fall asleep so that I can sneak up into her bedroom to replace her first baby tooth with a suitable trinket. I thought I'd use this brief window of opportunity to blog about it.
These are moments worth marking you see. Not just for the fact that she's lost her first tooth, cute as it is, but for the realisation that she's growing up.
Tonight before bed we played in the back garden. Meg watered the sunflower that she's grown from seed. It's taller than she is now so I had to lift her up so that she could see its flower blossom.
"Dad, why do flowers grow?" She asked as she poked at the bud.
"Well," I said "flowers help plants make new seeds so that they can have baby plants."
"Cool! Can we plant them next year then?"
"Yup, as long as you take care of this one so that it gets big enough to make its own...watch it Meg!"
And she was off, wriggling out of my arms like a fish - she nearly crippled the plant with her elbow. She was away to work out how to jump faster with her new skipping rope.
These brief moments of naive inquiry are nothing but magic for me, as they sow the seeds of my childrens' future happiness. Their questions, questions and questions are the stuff of life I think. Many of which I can answer right now, some of which I can't.
Yet there will come the time, if we execute our parental duties well enough, that the ultimate questions will arrive;
"Dad, why are we here?" or "Mum who is God?"
Now, we have no intention of raising our kids as little atheists. To do so would be as closed minded as the most fundamental of theists. They will not know of our beliefs until we feel they are ready. No, we shall do our utmost to nurture their enquiring instincts so that they may fly upon the path of their own logic, wherever it may take them.
Which is good I think, because this evening we filled Meg's head full of magic. Tonight the tooth fairy will fly down through our chimney pot, up our stairs and under Meg's door just to kiss her on the forehead. She'll leave a present in Meg's little box and take the tooth to make fairy dust with.
Anyway, I think she's asleep now, so if you'll excuse me, I'm off upstairs...
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