Easter

On Good Friday we had a visit from Cam, Sarah, Jasmine and Tommy. Tommy is seven months old now but it was our first meeting with him. He is a very cuddly, smiley and chubby boy. I quite enjoyed carrying him around. We introduced the Campbell-Joneses to the joys of Pitch Ha'penny. We walked down to the beach where Jasmine and Marcus braved the surf. Marcus had insisted on taking the big beachball with us, so Cam and I booofed it around awhile. I am hoping to shanghai him and drag him along to be in my indoor soccer team. Back home we had salad sandwiches and hot cross buns and coffee and enjoyed each others company.

It is very rewarding to watch your kids play harmoniously with those of your friends. Cam and I go back many years to playing soccer together at Uni. Marcus and Jasmine made friends at daycare independently, with no help from their dads. They are now at different primary schools, and so depend on help from us to keep their friendship growing.

On Saturday we went into town to visit Nick and Anna, Lily and Katherine. On the way I dropped into a bookshop to pick up my birthday present from Mum and Dad, The Line by Arch and Martin Flanagan. I haven't started it yet but I'll review it when I am finished.

We had more HCBs, home-made (dense and tasty) and shop-bought (the usual). Again, all the kids scamped about quite peacefully. Good old friendships can be comfortable in a lazy sort of way, but they can also be so refreshing, like a short rest on a bench while toiling up a hill.

Every morning the boys have been waking us at the crack of dawn. On Sunday it was no different. I cuddled them in bed while Elf went out to distribute choc eggs around the dewy backyard. I think we had too many this year really - a fat Lindt bunny each, and about 25 other small and medium eggs. No really big ones i guess. After they were all located we put them in a Wiggles bucket to share, and they have been shared out fairly evenly.

We took a long walk along Blackmans Bay, specifically to use up chocolate energy. We had not been there with the kids before, although it is quite close to our house, and a perfectly good beach. There is a blowhole but we have not been there at the right time to see it do its thing. It was a stunning day. Marcus took the photo. General diary note: Marcus is now sometimes calling Michael "Mike".



I mentioned to Marcus the basic story of Easter. Jesus died on Friday and rose again on Sunday. Good Friday is a sad day, and Easter Sunday is a happy day. A bit later he said "I think the Easter Bunny is pretend, but I know that Santa and God are real. Because how else do the presents get in the stockings, and how else did Jesus get born twice?"

I often wish I had strong simple convictions to pass on to Marcus, rather than a catholic upbringing struggling to keep its head above water in a deluge of Science and Reason. I try to impart the shades of grey in my view of the world, but he finds his own logic in all the information he receives at home and elsewhere, and it's always a black and white logic.