Uncle-hood
We had a surprise visit – which coincided with the heat wave. We thought the temperatures (we’re just two hours away from the record breaking 45.9º!!!) might ruin the experience, but we managed surprisingly well. This was our first encounter with our newest family member, Miro (from the Slavic meaning peace/world.)
I’m not sure why, but children and animals often single me out for attention. Miro was no exception. Mike got an inflatable pool, we ate too much almost every day, and having Sam, Yuliya, and their son around was a really wonderful experience. Miro has been our only child visitor. It’s funny how we just met him, but he’s immediately part of our world. As with a click of the fingers suddenly another human’s well-being becomes of interest. Fascinating. I hope, and so does Sam, that France becomes in Miro’s life what Spain was in his. The eccentric uncles in the big house and all that. Auntie (Uncle) Mame.
My Mazamet 
What a beautiful child, but like puppies, it is a shame they grow up and become adults.
Re “I’m not sure why, but children and animals often single me out for attention.” They respond intuitively to inner beauty.
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What a lovely thing to say 🙂
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Puppies become adults? Oh, not adult humans… Adult dogs (which are just adolescent wolves — incorrigible beasts, I see one there; a Brittany from Brittany.)
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It’s about time you experienced some baby interaction! (Although I did wonder if the house is baby-proof. . .). The child looks to be about the age of swipe-and-grin. 🙂
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It’s only baby-proof int he sense that 3 generations have grown up here, but no, not in the modern sense. We did go around putting away sharp objects and getting crystal and ceramic things out of his reach. His first birthday is later this month – so we’ll be able to tell him one day we met him when he was just a *baby* 🙂
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Thank goodness you moved things! Exploring their world is paramount at that age. Our youngest grandchild (of the 8) just turned 2 and she’s still the baby in the family.
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OMG he was a little monster at exploring. Especially interested in anything with buttons (as in remote controls). He was also interested in opening and closing drawers and doors. By the next visit we’ll have to seriously consider how to control his access to things.
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❤️❤️❤️ So glad to see a child in your beautiful house! What a magical place it’ll be for Miro to escape to in future years (and to echo Carmen, teach you childproofing! You’ll learn love and patience in a new way 😉).
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Yes, Kris, I believe Miro is one lucky youngster!! (Our second daughter is childless. She was home for four days and the six grandchildren all cried when she left – she is that indulgent with them)
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Mike jokingly calls him the Prince as he’s the only child in the family thus far. That means in all likelihood he’ll be inheriting from five or six households where there are no other children.
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Is childproofing very important? We did have to get a car seat and cot which will probably be too small for him by the next visit.
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You have nice things. Would you like to keep them that way?
Some children are more rough n tumble than others…I have 2 spirited boys (and only recently have felt “safe” buying art/objets d’art). Furniture is next for adult-worthy quality. Everything is stained, worn or sticky.
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This time we managed fairly well. I improvised linen covers for the sofas in the red room and that more or less did the job. When he’s walking I guess we’ll have to think again.
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Sounds like something Sheldon Cooper would say.
🙂
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I had to look that up. I’m more familiar with Sidney Sheldon 😀
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It is dead now, isn’t it?
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He’s probably arriving in the Hague right now, and his father worked at the ICC, so beware! 😀
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P.S. Did you see this last month? https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47675301
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“Viewers who lack financial literacy and are desperate for change”
Well, there’s your problem right there.
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Sweet! (except for the excessive heat)
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The heat was a pain. Just the work of closing all the shutters in the morning, then opening them in the evening…
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Can’t beat eccentric uncles in grand houses as an inheritance.
When we lived in France we were the family Borstal…naughty boys were sent down to get them out of bad company and habits. They were all great company and now we have the pleasure of seeing them in Costa Rica with their own families.
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It’s very interesting to see the cycle – and strange to think I’m old enough that a child that used to visit us now has his own child 😲
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I really don’t like children, but oh they do like me. I’m all “take this and do something else with it.”
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Strange, isn’t it? What do you think is behind it?
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Weirdly enough, I think its because those of us who don’t dote over children, treat them they way they want to be treated, like humans who want to grow up and be taken seriously. For instance, when I was a maid of honor at a wedding, I knelt with the kids there and told them what I expected. Babies also like me and I think it’s because I don’t bother them.
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It’s no surprise that the child loves you Pink. What seems more surprising is that you would stoop to plastic inflatable pools. I expect some sort of old wooden bath basin or something to come out…or maybe an outdoor clawfoot tub. Don’t lower your standards for children Pink…make them rise to yours!!
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There was no time to come up with something pretty! Also, it had to be fairly shallow and portable 😛
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Shallow and portable? Stop posting the tagline to your Tinder profile!
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Ha! LOL!!! You get extra credit points for that one 😀
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Up until now, I’d always loved your house, those lovely dogs, your perfect sense of style….but that’s all been swept away as I’m now in love with Miro. He looks adorable, but hopefully has the sense of mischief which I think is essential for any child. I’ve met so called ‘perfectly good’ children, & they are strange, like all the spirit’s been sucked out of them. Miro obviously enjoyed himself exploring what he could in your home, so next time just remove the valuable or delicate things from the reach of his fingers & all should be well. A firm ‘No’ works wonders. (my 18 month old granddaughter can get away with anything, usually, until my husband says ‘No’ in a firm voice. Then she takes notice). I love children (as if you haven’t guessed), & I hope you see Miro every now and then, so you can teach him about beautiful things. Seriously now, I have no idea how you all cope with the extreme heat. I wilt at 23c. Keep cool.
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He’s absolutely fascinating. You could see him looking at everything happening around him and trying to make sense of the world. His hesitancy with the dogs lasted less than an hour. By day 2 he was climbing over Morgan and Rudy was following him around the house.
The children have visited us every year since we moved to France, which is fantastic, especially since after Mike’s mother died they only visited us in Spain once or twice (over a span of 6 years.)
The heat was insane. We thought we’d escaped the intensity of Spanish heat, but no. But you wouldn’t believe the storm we had yesterday. Incredible wind and rain, chairs blown over, temperature back down below 20. And today it’s like Spring again 🙂
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Gosh Pink, would you like some more children? I could make sure you keep up a steady flow!
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Ha! One was enough to keep us all on our toes. I’m already trying to figure out how we’re going to handle sitting at the table for dinner when he can walk? What did you do with yours? Do we get a Donald Trump child cage?
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I’ve been an uncle since I was 9. Now I am an uncle to a nuber of neeces and nephews and their children. Never had the desire or need to become a parent myself. I feel I have contributed enough to bring my genes and values forward in this overcrowded world.
It is funny though, how the fairly random method of “choosing” the particular children, on whose wellfare one is a quite a bit more interrested, than the rest of them actually works even when one realizes there is no exeptional moral obligation towards those particular kids. Or perhaps there is some objective reason, wich is, that this is how it works in this world. Because other people value their kin, so should you. After all you can not be there for all the kids in the world, but you can be there for your own relatives and as it is expected of you, it is not likely any other people are going to do it for you.
My own uncle died just recently, quite soon after becoming a widow himself. He was the great, great uncle of a bunch of kids and will sorely be missed, because he was the kindest man ever. In our family we will not makebelieve he lives in some imaginary place to await for us to meet him once more, but we will remember him in the fondest and most warm memories and as such a part of him, the best part, will live on as long as there is someone who still remembers him. After that it does not matter…
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Making the mark your uncle made is the best we can hope for as humans.
I wonder about what you say: “… random method of ‘choosing’ the particular children, on whose welfare one is a quite a bit more interested.”
Is it really random or are we looking for a reflection, whether real or idealised?
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It may even be biological. Even so, we know of may species, not only the mammals, that have a strong trait to take care of infants. Many are the stories about individual animal babies, that have been grown up by adults of some other species. We do have a natural inclination for nurture and human infants are especially dependant on such, because we grow up so exeptionally slowly as we are so dependant on our big brains and cognitive abilities.
Perhaps you are right and we do look for reflections of our selves in the offspring of our own or near relatives. And when one is looking, one often finds it even when there is nothing much there. There are adoption parents who love their children and biological parents who never learn to love their children. With random, I mean that it is equally random as to what culture, religion, skin colour or part of the globe an individual is born.
Friends we choose, but relatives are a more or less random selection given through biology and the choises of others. Then again, if there is indeed some divine architecht who has planned absolutely everything, even the issue of who is related to whom is part of some bigger plan, wich we are unable to fathom or decipher, even though a lot of people seem to want to declare, that they know, that the end result of the plan is supposed to be good for them, even when they themselves have surrendered the right to determine what is good for them to the hands of the divine architecht. Weird.
It is nice to be an uncle. Less responsibility, but allmost all the benefits. I love it.
By the way, it is +14 C here in Finland.
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If I had to be roasted, I’d prefer being roasted in the south of France. Medium rare, please.
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I thought Americans mostly leaned to well done? 😀
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Well roasted coffee, sure. Only barbarians eat well done beauf.
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Pink—
I have nominated you for the Sunshine blogger award, which is really just a great way to connect my readers to bloggers I enjoy (you!) I know you need the attention. Keep the chain going if your time allows…😉
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I’ll try but I’m seriously busy this month 😬
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Check out Esme’s reply in my post 😉 and seriously no worries…
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Hello! Just yesterday someone asked me if your were my nephew, while I would love to claim you, I had to admit you are not. What a lovely new Miro. Best to you all.
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That’s so sweet! I’m your blog nephew at the very least 😀 Also reader and fan.
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Like you, Pink, I just love little toddlers. Couldn’t eat a whole one, though.
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Where in the world have you been???
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They had me in a secure unit for a few months, the buggers, but I’m back in the wild again now, happy under an old tarpaulin, with a trusty wood stove, my collection of vintage glamour magazines and a big bag of entheogens. Life is good.
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Settle down, Jeremy Corbyn.
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