Slightly bonkers...

Intellectually, I understand why it is that little children develop an almost pathological need to interrupt or disturb their parents when they are talking on the phone (or talking to a friend or a tradesman or any other activity that does not involve full and total attention to said child and child's needs/wishes/wants).

But it still drives me bloody bonkers!

Probably more so at the moment, when the Big Feller has been away all week and the wee man is both a) more fragile, because he is missing his Daddy and b) more annoying because we have been with each other almost constantly apart from the 6 hours he was at preschool on Monday, and I have been fragile this week, and he has known it, and responded by being even more emotionally needy and....

Do we see a pattern here? *Laughs*

The wee man can be happily involved in a game in another room - he has even been deep in play in the sandpit at the end of the garden - and I finally reach for the phone to make an important call I've been putting off and wham! there he is, calling, shouting, riding past me making siren noises at top volume, anything to render it impossible to focus on my caller and guarantee I turn it on to him. I've spoken about this phone/attention conflict with many parents, and it seem it's not just my pet peeve.

Of course, each occasion is an opportunity to talk about proper behaviour and respecting other people etc etc, and I know he is beginning to get this concept, and he will eventually learn to wait his turn (probably about the time he starts taking the phone to his room and making me wait all night for it...lol!?!)- but.it.still.drives.me.bloody.batshit. Grrr.

Oh dear, petty, petty, petty!...sorry, folks, blogging standard has fallen tonight. Mama is tired, needs a nice long aromatic footbath, and a piece of really fine dark Swiss chocolate...

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On a more positive note:- Last Tuesday, teachers, parents and children from our preschool enjoyed a visit to the village primary school to present them with the cheque for $300 we raised with our movie night fundraiser a fortnight ago. The money is aimed to help the school replace valuable resources lost when the tornado tore apart several of their buildings. Government funding and insurance will of course replace the buildings and some of the more obvious infrastructure, but there are so many books and materials and teaching aids to be replaced.

Anyway, we took our kids on a crocodile walk down the street, and joined the bigger kids at their assembly. We adults all spoke some fine words and passed over the cheque, but the kids just had a ball in each other's company - the year 5 students ended up "buddying" up with our little guys and taking them for a walk down the back through the construction site that used to be their playground.

One of the things I said in my little speech was about how this fundraiser, which was based within the village, supported by and about villagers was a great example of "the power of community" (which was the name and the theme of the documentary movie we screened) in action. It did give me a real buzz to notice how profoundly the school kids had absorbed that message, and a nice sense of the possibilities of the future if such a sense could be modelled by adults and absorbed by children everywhere.

Crazy day

It's a crazy-mad day for me today. I don't want to think to hard about it, just hope that all goes to plan. Hence this first-thing-in-the-morning post; the wee man is eating breakfast and watching The Upside Down Show (the Umbilical Brothers are made for children's television, don't you think?!), and I have this small window of opportunity.

A little later the wee man and I are off to our playgroup, which I co-coordinate, then back at lunch-time.

The rest of the day is about the fund-raising film night our community preschool is hosting at the village hall. The movie is a fabulous documentary called "The Power Of Community", about Cuba, and how the Cuban people coped, adapted and triumphed over the challenge of reaching "peak oil" when their Soviet oil supplies were cut off after the collapse of the USSR. This was achieved through "cooperation, conservation and community" (80% of Cuba's agriculture is now organic), and is a really inspiring tale told by the people themselves.

I'd originally proposed this as the last fund-raiser of the year for the preschool - an economic necessity for community preschools, fees and government funding do not cover all expenses or provide sufficient resources.

However, after last Friday's tornado I kept thinking how lucky we had been at the preschool to be left untouched, when the school had lost two of its three buildings and numerous materials and resources. The committee met and we agreed unanimously to make the primary school the target of the fundraiser, so we've been running around like mad things ever since, changing posters and flyers and getting it into the local media to let people know, and hopefully tap into that amazing community spirit that buoyed us up over the weekend as the village cleaned up after the storm.

So, after I get back from playgroup, I've got to: finish putting a slideshow of photos from the tornado and aftermath together (along with any images or footage anyone emails or drops off this morning), burn it to disc, test it; bake some cakes or slices to sell after the movie; go down to the hall and help air and clean it, and set up and test the borrowed projection equipment; come back and clean up my house fit for the babysitter who is arriving to mind the wee man for the first time ever (fingers crossed...the beginning of life after 7.30pm for mama and daddy again!?!); cook something for them to eat, then go back to the hall 2 hours before the screening to get the final set-up organised; screen the movie at 7pm, hopefully with no hitches, then sell & serve coffee, tea & cakes afterwards before finally trudging home. I'm voting for cleaning the hall in the morning!

I know there is something I should be doing right now, and it's not this....!