Babyhood

Last Monday was actually an extraordinary day, quite apart from the emotions of starting school. The night before, P. and I had watched a silly sci-fi movie called Starship Troopers, featuring some giant killer insects on another planet. Well at 3 am after I’d got up for Pauline, I went for a drink of water in the kitchen and found a huge spider in the kitchen sink. It was definitely too large to be dealt with all by myself, so I left it for Pépé!

During the day P. was on the roof replacing the old crumbly tiles and a particularly brittle one snapped in his hands and sent a piece into his eye. As I wasn’t there to help, he threw a glass of water in his face and managed to get it out without causing any damage.

After school the kids and I were watering the vegie garden and I got stung on the hand by a bee or a wasp. I startled the neighbours with my screams because it’s the first time it’s happened to me and I would never have believed that it could hurt so much. My hand swelled up to an amazing size and is still sore a week later.

When the kids were in bed I went to take a shower and found a centipede in the bath. As I was brushing my teeth I heard an urgent whisper from P. “Psst! Come downstairs quickly!” I thought “Oh my God, what now?” and was afraid he was hurt in some way. I ran downstairs with my heart pounding, to find P. looking at a large toad in the basement! I told him to deal with it and went to bed! What an unforgettable day!