Amy

The Kiss.

by frogpondsrock on October 20, 2011

My grand son, Isaac gave me a kiss yesterday. This might not seem like a very big deal to most people, but to me it was one of those golden moments, where I was left with the taste of strawberry lollypops on my lips and love in my heart.

This was my very first proper kiss, willingly given and I will store this memory up and savour it.

Isaac is 33 months old and he has Autism. Isaac does not like to be touched.

When I visit, he will eventually come and sit next to me on the couch but if I go to stroke his hair or touch his hand he pulls away from me. So we sit side by side and talk of small things.

My grand daughter, Amy on the other hand launches herself at me and sits on my lap and chatters incessantly about things that matter to a five year old. Her dragon fly mind, flits from subject to subject and I relate very strongly to this child.

I look at Amy’s sensory seeking behaviours and I see myself mirrored there, I like to touch things to see how they feel. I like to occasionally touch people as I am talking to them as it gives me a better sense of who they are. I like to feel the world breathing with me.

Quite by chance I had bumped into my daughter Veronica at a shopping centre, as she was getting ready to leave, Amy gave me a big hug and a kiss, I looked at Isaac and said, “C’mon Isaac give Nanny a kiss goodbye”

Isaac actually walked over to me, raised his little face to mine and gave me a proper kiss right on the lips.

A proper kiss.

On the lips.

It was sweet.

As he raised his face to mine everything slowed down, there was only this little boy who I love with all my heart and I,

In that moment, just for that split second it was only the two of us. I gently kissed my grandson and Isaac kissed me in return.

I will savour the memory of this kiss as I reckon it will have to do me for a while.

Now my lovelies that I have shared my joy, I must finish packing my bags and head to the airport.

I am attending the problogger event in Melbourne tomorrow and if you are there and want to say hello I will be the one floating two inches above the floor with my memory full of strawberry kisses.

{ 23 comments }

Sunday Selections #41

by frogpondsrock on October 16, 2011

in Amy,blogging,David,friendship,photography,sunday selections

Good morning internet, how are you this morning? I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought of was that last night, I publicly announced that I am participating in the Worlds Greatest Shave next year. I have been known to cook up some seriously harebrained schemes late on a Saturday night before this one. The difference being that all those other schemes generally involved alcohol and ran out of puff when I woke up on Sunday and remembered what I had done and then hoped like hell that no-one remembered my rash promises.

This scheme is neither harebrained nor rash. I am committed.

So my lovelies, shall we make a date for Saturday the 17th of March 2012 and I will shave off my hair if we reach my goal of $5000

Now back to today’s business of sharing photos that might otherwise be consigned to spending the rest of their days in a dusty folder in a forgotten hard drive.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

The Photos

{ 30 comments }

Sunday Selections #32

by frogpondsrock on August 14, 2011

in Amy,blogging,friendship,photography,sunday selections

I went looking in the external hard drive for one of my favourite images of Amy as a toddler. Two hours later I emerged without that specific image but with these photos instead.

This is my grandmother on Christmas day 2007. It was really, really windy and Nan is trying to stop her tequila and orange from being blown out of her glass.

This next photo is of my Mum and Amy in my Mum’s kitchen. They are both enjoying being naughty as Amy isn’t allowed on the benchtops.

My daughter bouncing on the trampoline with her daughter.

And a photo of a summer sky to finish up with. I am yearning for summer I have been wearing shoes for far too long and I need to feel the earth between my toes in order to properly listen to the hum of the universe.

If you would like to join in with my Sunday Selections meme I would love to have you on board.

The Blurb.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

{ 21 comments }

Just keep swimming…

by frogpondsrock on August 3, 2011

in Amy,Hope,Veronica

I spent my whole parenting life raising my children to be independent free thinkers. I raised my daughter, Veronica to be a strong feminist, not by quoting her tracts from Greer or De Beauvoir and hiding the razors, but by example. I tried to show my daughter that all you need to succeed in this life is determination and hard work and that no man or woman can tell you what you can or can not do within the bounds of the law.

My daughter has found her own path, she is marching to the beat of her own drum and is now raising her own strong willed daughter, Amy. The more my grand daughter grows into her personality the more I see myself reflected there and I am equally terrified and exhilarated.

As a child I fought the restraints of parental control every step of the way. Every single curb was met with a defiant why? Followed up with a detailed counter argument as to why I should be allowed to do exactly as I pleased. There was much wailing, gnashing of teeth and dramatic flouncing and I now know that I was an extremely difficult child to parent.

Primary school was the single most isolating and lonely place I had ever been forced to endure. High school was just an endless clash of wills, with the Catholics determined to teach me to submit and to accept without question the ridiculous notion of a virgin birth and the subservience of women to God’s law. I didn’t like to break the rules by walking out as overt rule breaking makes me extremely uncomfortable, so I just endlessly argued against everything instead.

I faked illness after illness to avoid going to school so that I could just stay home and read in peace all day. One faked illness went a little bit too far and at age twelve I had a perfectly good appendix removed. Of course I lapped up the attention a stay in hospital brings but unfortunately for me I didn’t have any more disposable organs, so that avenue of school avoidance was closed.

As my grand daughter grows up I hope like hell that I live for at least another twenty years to see her through the challenges she will face. And this is where Mum’s untimely death has left a huge hole in our lives. Mum related wholly to Veronica and was Veronica’s support person where as I relate wholly to Amy and I am of only minimal support to Veronica as I relate far to strongly to my grand daughter. I am forever looking to explain or question why Amy behaves the way she does instead of just giving my daughter my sympathetic ear.

In this life you just have to make the best of what you have and try to understand each others limitations.

I am pleased that the education system isn’t as rigid as it was in the seventies but I still worry that there are far too many children out there that are getting lost in the system. I know as I watch my daughter parent her two quirky children that they wont be swallowed up by the machine but I still fervently hope that I am around to throw a few spanners in the works just in case.