We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 - (Mamma)
Dancin Jack
I have been asked several times since I posted about Jack walking whether he has given up walking for running yet.
I can happily say that he has not.
Jack, being a "stylin dude" (is that a phrase the kids still use?) has given up walking for *dancing*! Much cooler!
Our Future
I have been pondering Jack's future lately.
Not in the sense of will he be a doctor, or lawyer, or Indian chief.
Not in the sense of "will he vote "Labour" like a good boy.
... but in the more pragmatic sense.
We have just finishing tidying up the fiscal mess my ex arranged for me as a goodbye present, and are beginning to save, in earnest, for our return to Australia. (Well, ok, Rod's return. I don't think returning seven years after one ten-day visit to meet Prince Charming really counts as a 'homecoming'. But I like to pretend.)
Anyway, when Jack is around six or seven, we will be moving permanently to Australia. We haven't pinned out exact destination down yet. Rod has kin in both Victoria and South Australia, so it'll be one of those -- or Sydney. Depends on where I can get work, I guess.
But I keep thinking about how odd that will be for Jack.
Now, we hope to be able to visit every other year, so it won't be Jack's first time in Australia, nor his first time meeting his kin.
But my experience of Australia was that it had a sort of "Through the Looking Glass" feeling. Everything was almost the same, which made the differences seem surreal. Rod had the same experience here -- only more so, because I knew I knew nothing at all about Australia except that I could expect to see Kangaroos there. He thought he knew about the US from television -- and while he knew that TV doesn't represent Truth, I think he expected it to be a closer reflection than it is.
So...how is that going to feel to someone who is six or seven?
I'm not worried ... kids are very adaptable, and I think he's going to love it. And not only will he have visited his "Mormor" several times in Australia, but he will have visited his brothers and his niece and nephew in Sweden, and his Grandma and uncles in Texas -- so he will be a pint-sized "man of the world".
I just enjoy trying to wrap my mind around how that surreal sensation will feel to someone that young. Or ... maybe he won't have enough sense of "how the world works" to be surprised at all.
Yeah. I spend my time on wierd thoughts.
And?
