Some Favourites

I was just looking at some pictures of Dad from the past couple of years and happened upon a few favourties. The top two are from Christmas 2010. The others are taken from our trip to the UK later that same year. Goodness, Rafi loves his Grandpa.

Tomorrow is Dad's birthday and I have quite a heavy heart. We're planning a nice evening celebration, and of course there will be cake.

Happy Runner

 Nothing makes Raf more happy than a good run! Today he had three runs. This morning with the boys, then a run around a beautiful park at the cemetery up the road, and finally, after our family run, with the boys again. He is just so joyous when he starts to pick up the speed. His head goes back, his eyes are half shut, and he grits his teeth. He runs and he skips and he jumps... and then he asks to a ride on my shoulders when he gets a wee bit tired.

Keith Lad

As we approach Alex's Dad's birthday - he would have been 87 - we are left thinking about the good times we had with him over the years. The Menorca holiday, New Year's Eve 1999 in Spain, and various DIY adventures as Keith would start five projects at the same time, which would lead to chaos but he'd always get them completed before he left again. I knew Keith for 17 years - and always marveled that he was running at least twenty years below his actual age - the energy to DIY, dig holes and drive long distances i.e driving through France or Spain in one day always had me shaking my head in awe. My nick-name for him was Keith Lad - in reference to his Peter Pan qualities in that for most of the time I knew him he didn't seem to age or slow down - always eager to find a pub/bar and one that had a decent pool table so we could play at least 15 games before calling it a night. I never won a nights series in 17 years - he was that good and eager to win. Even when I was 'forced' to play negative tactics i.e snookers to try and keep the score line respectable - it rarely worked as I was frequently on the end of a 10-2 or 12-4 style drubbing which always pleased Keith no end - the concluding smile and handshake belied the cool and deadly workings of a hustler! Happy times.

Names....

Lots of blogs this month as we celebrate my dad but also as I catch up on Rafi and this new little one.

Next Friday we have our anatomy scan. I am so nervous, I really am, but hoping, hoping that things are okay. We will find out the sex, if the baby cooperates, and mostly people are guessing 'girl'. Mind you I was 100% sure it was a girl before and of course we were wrong. I have a horrible track record when it comes to this sort of thing.

In any case we're trying to come up with a list of names if only because we really do need to think about this baby as being potentially real. We've been feeling very cautious, and for the most part we still are. But names... Fia, we clearly need your input!

Boys/girls... please share your ideas. I had all my students come up with some names and I'll have to look through them to see if any of them are appealing. I generally don't love the names that are popular in the US so use your imaginations :)

Spain 2009

Speaking of Spain. We took Raf to Spain to meet mum and dad when he was just around 3 months old. Let me say that it was quite a trip.

Here's Raf and dad meeting for the first time at the airport. I know I've shared it before.



Dad loved spending time with him. Raf at the time was going through a phase of sucking on people's fingers (he didn't have a pacifier). Now, those who know dad might remember the incredibly rough skin on his hands and, especially, his fingers. This is the man they couldn't get a fingerprint from at US customs! But sweet old Dad scrubbed his hands and fingers so that Raf could suck on one of his fingers... at 3 months, though, Raf had discerning taste and wouldn't suck on his Grandpa's pinky even for a second!

Instead they enjoyed nice cuddles. I think they're watching the Grand Prix here.

The Man from Del Monte

Rich and I went on holiday with mum and dad quite a few times over the years. One of our favourtie holidays was a trip to Menorca in, I think, 1999. At any rate, I'm pretty sure I had just completed the first year of my PhD. We actually got there separately and by chance ended up at the same hotel. It was a May holiday and we were all there for Dad's birthday. But perhaps I'll post a pic of us from Dad's birthday on his birthday next week. We still remember lots of stories from the trip, and would often laugh as we remembered the holiday reps speech as we rode from the airport to the hotel on the bus... catchphrases which included, 'Lucky Monk', as she told us about the only Monk living amongst the many Nuns at the local Monastery, or the same woman lamenting that we would find the "best beaches along the coast'. We all pondered about where we'd find the other beaches.

Menorca is a beautiful island and has many virgin beaches that have been completely untouched by human touch. To get to one of these beaches you had to drive through farmland. I remember passing through a field of sweet little pigs, and dad being so tickled by a little piglet that was nudging a sleeping piglet out of the shade so that s/he could get away from the hot sun. Dad agreed that he'd likely have been a vegetarian if he was our age. Indeed he was a compassionate and kind man and hated the idea of suffering. I remember him going fishing with his friends and how he couldn't kill the fish he caught... He didn't go again. 

The thing about dad is that he was such lovely company. We really enjoyed those trips with him and mum. 

Here's dad doing his infamous impression of the Del Monte man. English readers might remember the Del Monte ads that used to run where a man in a Panama hat would taste some fruit to see if it was ripe for picking, and when he gave his approval the tagline would be, "the man from Del Monte - he say 'yes'". 

In other news: today I really felt the baby kick a bit. I *think* I could feel it from the outside, even, as I held my hand over my tummy, but it may have been just magical thinking. I also got my results back from my AFP blood work I had done last week. Happily it showed that the baby has a very low risk of neural tubal defects. That, along with the first trimester screen we had (which showed a 1:10,000 chance of a baby with downs and trisomy 18), was very reassuring and we're now getting excited that we have our anatomy scan coming up. 

Raf still has zero clue what's going on, though he does kiss my tummy - and then invariable blows a raspberry on it in the next breath - but the concept of there being a baby in there is just way beyond his comprehension! 

May Day

May 1st is here and I have to admit that it's a difficult day around these parts. I've been dreading May for many reasons, not least because I am so buried in work I can't imagine actually meeting any deadlines. And despite it being my birthday month, which happens to fall on Mothers Day this year, it is also the month of my dad's birthday, a few days before mine, a day that I loved to spend with him.

Last year, when shopping for birthday cards, I came upon a lovely Grandpa card that I bought for Raf to send to his Grandpa. I came across it a few months ago in the drawer we keep cards and stationary and felt so sad for all that we've lost. Dad really was Raf's biggest fan - outside Rich and I. No one was as interested in Rafi as my dad. He would spend hours, literally hours, listening patiently and with sincere interest to me as I prattled on and on about the things that Raf had been up to. Mum would show Dad pictures of Raf I would send through (he was pretty computer illiterate) and he would always exclaim that he was so lovely, that he'd "never known a boy like it". He called him a "lovely little chap" and he was so comfortable in his company. They would sit together cuddling, watching some Peppa Pig, and my dad was really the only person in the world other than me who Rafi would cuddle like that.

Raf played this endless game of climbing up on a box and climbing over the arm of the chair, demanding that grandpa pull him over. Dad's poor shoulder was already injured, but he did this same move over and over again. 

A quick cuddle and a rest and Raf was up for another round.

Midmorning, eating snacks, watching Peppa.

Next day, it's time for a nap.

Whilst I should actually be spending this time doing work, I'm going to try and blog almost daily until Dad's birthday, sharing some memories of my lovely old Dad.