Breakfast at Bush Babes…
Our household was a bit slow out of the blocks this morning. It was overcast and the soft grey light encouraged us all to slumber a little longer… SSB was up with the alarm at 5.30am of course, but I struggled up at 6.30 (a 7am sleep-in is unheard of for adults, a guilt-laden zone of consciousness!) just in time to see him off to do a day’s mustering.
…
Dash blearily made his tousled arrival at the breakfast bench at 7.20am (TLW wasn’t dragged from her dreams til 8am).
…
Considering Dash takes about 30mins to come to properly, another 20 to chow down breakfast, 10 mins to get dressed – and considering he has to catch his schoolbus at 8.07am this meant a serious flurry of activity had to take place (and some backwards time travel if you are any good at math!). We made it just in time and with everything seemingly in place, but if the bus driver had looked closely she would have noted TLW in rumpled Supergirl PJs and staring back through sleepy dust eyes.
…
During our bed-to-bus dash, however, I did take time to snap Dash pre-uniform, as he came to while chowing down his bacon-and-egg sanga (a favourite). He was awake enough to twinkle at me, the little rogue. He owns one of the best twinkles in the business and I feel a little sorry for the teenage girls of 2018. Well, almost, as long as they just admire from a safe distance. Do Mums ever let their sons really go? Maybe I am more protective than most, after all he has been through? Or maybe this unable-to-imagine-him-not-in-my-home is completely normal? 
Hmmmm…
Hmmmm……
Among the heart-turning things he does are our little breakky conversations. Todays went like this:
MUM: Dash, what do you want on your sandwich for your lunchbox today?
DASH: What is that stuff with the little sticks in it?
MUM: Sticks?
DASH: Yeah, you know, that stuff (swirls hand around in mid-air) with the sticks…
MUM: Marmalade?
DASH: That’s it – mumble-aid! (satisfied smile)
MUM: For lunch? Really?
DASH: Yeah – it’s yum! You’re the best Mum (twinkle)
MUM: Alright – but you are one strange kid! (melts after twinkle)
Dash ignores this rude suggestion and helps himself to a glass of water from the fridge filter.
DASH: Oh and Mum?
MUM: Yes darling.
DASH: In the olden days, when you were a little girl…
MUM: Yeessss…
DASH: Did you have water?
MUM: Why yes, we did darling.
DASH: What about the dinosaurs, did they have water too?
MUM: Even the dinosaurs… but maybe not from a fridge.
DASH: Really, that’s Amazing!! (truly amazed expression on face)
MUM: Yes darling.
DASH: In the olden days, when you were a little girl…
MUM: Yeessss…
DASH: Did you have water?
MUM: Why yes, we did darling.
DASH: What about the dinosaurs, did they have water too?
MUM: Even the dinosaurs… but maybe not from a fridge.
DASH: Really, that’s Amazing!! (truly amazed expression on face)
Small pause as we both come to terms with revelations from this conversation.
DASH: And mum… you look really bootiful today…
And with that win-all kicker, he tucks into the sandwich with a gusto I could never have imagined four years ago…
I love it when they twinkle, and I love it when they EAT!
Bush Babe
5 Comments
Pencil Writer
My eyes are tearing! Such a great laugh. Thank you, BB! Memories of my little guy say 15 years ago. Dash, is as you expect, one very handsome, charming bloke. (IS that the correct terminology?) Many a female heart can be melted by those huge, brown eyes. And that’s not mentioning his curly, blond locks. What a combo! Look out female population! Forget 2018! Today he’s become dangerous to heart strings.
And those heart-melting, Mom buttering comments from our sons? They’ve got us, and they know it. Particularly when they look and sound completely honest and humble while in the act of buttering.
My dear son, almost 21 now–who can be most cantankerous and loves to drag me into one debate or another–can still “work it” when he throws in a “Mom, you’re the best cook” or “Mom, thanks for being so good to me” bomb when I’m about to slap him for his negative stuff.
At 4/5 his huge blue eyes, silky blond hair and precious smile–well, I was pretty much a sucker for that combo! I have to not get sucked in these days when he’s totally trying to play me.
Gotta love him for the fact that he’s at least not getting into the troubles of so many youth his age–sex, drugs, smoking, the whole drill! THAT I’m SO thankful for. He’s a good kid–for the most part.
Sorry to rattle on so long. (ooops.)
debby
Oh, BB, you DO let them go, as hard as it is. You let them go, because they want to go. And it breaks your heart and makes you proud all at the very same time. My children are all grown up now. Cara is 18. She’ll leave for college next fall. Thank you for a happy trip into my own memory banks, back when they were small, and you were perfect and it just seemed like life was always going to stuck just where it was. Of course, though, it doesn’t stay. They grow up, and we get old, and nothing stays the same at all. But I promise you this…no matter how old you are, if you listen carefully, you will hear the echos of a little girl saying ‘La la la whipstick’ and a little boy saying “You’re the best mum”.
And now, you rotten woman, you’ve got me crying into my computer AGAIN. Ooooh. Maybe it’s time for a story about Gerard.
*sniffle*
jeanie
Aw, isn’t he a cutie! Great shots and a lovely conversation.
baby~amore'
what a amazing little fellow Dash is.
He has made me day … brighter !
baby~amore'
I meant my day -oops !