Has anything like this ever happened to you?
When Izobel was just 1 year old, I was very often quite busy. Nurturing Always Wear Red.
One weekend, I was surprised by the sudden sadness I felt when my 1 year old daughter held out a hand to offer me a shiny green apple.
Daddy,
she said.
Apple.
I thanked her and hugging her of course.
But inside I was sad.
There were no more bapples.
No More Bapples
For Izzy Willow, apples were always bapples.
But she’d grown past that.
I hadn’t noticed.
There are no more bapples for Izobel – and no more bapples for me.
Slow Down.
It was a little reminder to me.
To slow down.
Things are always changing at Always Wear Red and it’s my job to make change happen and to manage it.
However, as I was reminded, it is also my job to notice important change at home, too.
Bapple Crumble for tea. Just one more time.
3 Comments
My niece, Jazzmin, whose 21st birthday I shall be attending this weekend, was born six years before I became a father. When she was tiny she mispronounced ‘Grandma’ as ‘Ganya’. All the kids in the family have happily adopted this moniker – as has my mother and pretty much everyone else.
And we have a family precedent for the adoption of mispronunciations.
I was born with a cleft palate. My aunt was called Elizabeth, Elizabeth Taylor actually – but that’s not the point – this was an impossible mouthful for a pre-op cleft palette toddler. For some reason, I thought that ‘Mimma’ was an acceptable replacement. And so she stays to this day, for my kids, my wife, all the other global diaspora that constitute our family, even her own sister, my mum, Mimma it is. Unless I’m taking the piss, then she becomes Madam Mim, the witch from The Sword in the Stone. She says she hates that, but I secretly think she loves it.
So, just because Izzy doesn’t say ‘Bapples’ doesn’t mean you shouldn’t mate! Add it to the family lexicon. Repeat it often enough for it to stick.
OK. I’ll do it Shaughn. Bapples.
…brings a warm smile 🙂