I was once giving a talk on the use of evidence to a load of diplomats who wanted to know who to spend their foreign aid budgets and #BabyPferd came in while I was speaking to announce, loudly, that she was in the nip.
Happily, only the Irish lad knew what on earth she was on about...
Anyway, now that the dust has settled, my highlights of the rugby yesterday:
#BabyPferd crafting a wee headband out of paper so she could look like the players.
#MrsPferd encountering Heaslip's punditry for the first time and immediate going, "He talks like he's on LinkedIn."
#BabyPferd been having a great rugby day anyway but those horses on the pitch delivering the matchball have just driven her over the edge into utter mania #FRAvENG
#BabyPferd: "Our music teacher is teaching us an Irish song for St. Patrick's Day."
Me: "Oh great. Why don't you sing it?
#BabyPferd: "🎶Oh ro the rattlin' bog...🎶"
Readers: it's 25 minutes on and she's got up to the bird in the nest and if she knows about the egg in the bird I'm gonna lose it.
Brother-in-law went back for a third when his (previously) youngest was 14. There's always time, Steve... Although I can't recommend it. Even going back in for #WeePferd when #BabyPferd was 4 was a brutal, eye-opening experience! 😂
Missed the whole first half hour of the Calcutta Cup game, ‘cos I had to go and pick up #BabyPferd from her party. Good to see the Scots doing enough to keep Toonie in the job! #SCOvENG
A castle made out of Lego bits we had kicking around. There's a curtain wall with four towers on each corner, a gate house with an accommodation block above it. In behind is the keep, which is taller and narrower than everything else.
#BabyPferd got a Lego castle for her birthday and, ever since, she's has a nagging disappointment that no one else in the house has one too, for battles and that. So we spent the last four hours building this, based on a half-remembered trip to Rothesay Castle on the Isle of Bute. Time well spent.
We had a fantastic scene a couple of weeks back when #BabyPferd found out that some people eat horse...
He’s already a bogey man in our house after that time in Rome he put the fear of god into #BabyPferd when she lost a tooth, so I’m happy to continue to ride this! 🤣
A glass of beer. To the left is a little book with some homework in it. There’s also an Apfelschorle on the table and some napkins.
Well-needed wee trip down the local microbrew pub for a beer and a brownie. Been one of those weeks for me. #BabyPferd got her first ever homework, to boot, so she needs this as well…
Yeah, I'd prefer not to as well but it's a bit far to walk and public transport connection is poor. I ride a beast of a mountain bike, we can just about fit #BabyPferd into the trailer, and there's a route that's small streets and parks, so we manage. Would not fancy going through the city in this!
A piece of paper. In green ink in childish handwriting it says “Papa is Stinky”. It is HEAVILY underlined.
I knew #BabyPferd learning to write was a bad idea…
#BabyPferd (lying in bed tonight): “Tell me a story about orcs, Papa.”
A scene from The Two Towers of some orcs looking a bit menacing, or at least creepy, up close.
Doing our traditional New Years Eve eve watch of The Two Towers. #BabyPferd wakes up, and is stumbling around confused in an unfamiliar house. We pause the film to tend to her. She comes into the living room and looks at where we paused it and I’m not sure she’s ever sleeping again…
#BabyPferd to me, as Kok sauntered in there: “Shut up, Papa, they can’t hear you.”
Jeez. I’d expected she’s have been a teenager before I got to this leave of sass from her…
#CONvULS
5) #BabyPferd lost a wobbly tooth when we were in Stadio Olimpico at the Italy v Ireland game. On the way out, we met @bigjimsuftum.bsky.social, who revealed himself to be a dentist. She thought he was there to look at her teeth and didn’t open her mouth again for a couple of hours.
A Playmobil angel stands over a Playmobil Santa Claus with her arm raided like she’s holding a weapon. The Santa Claus is lying on his back, prone. He has lost his cloak and hat. It looks like he’s just been murdered by the angel.
Judith Slaying Holofernes by #BabyPferd
A Lego nutcracker.
Gave this to #BabyPferd a year ago, quite unaware that her greatest fear was the Mouse King and it stayed in a box until we hoaked out the Christmas stuff this year. Half an hour after her bedtime but half we sat up to build this.
That’s the Christmas pudding, the stollen, the meat for the mince pies and a tonne of syrup made for mulled wine, too. House smells like a Christmas market. Some wee cupcakes for #BabyPferd to take to her class tomorrow, too. Think I deserve to get my feet up with a big glass of good port.
#BabyPferd been roaming around like this, inside and in the garden, for a good 45 minutes scaring the absolute bejeebus out of anyone and everyone who gets too close. Mostly her Ma, who she’s nearly put in the hospital four or five times by now. Probably should put a stop to it but, you know…
#BabyPferd had a movie afternoon at school. One or the parents there was in a Springbok jersey. Having a nice chat about rugby with him until I accidentally let slip that I thought both red cards the last two weeks were fully justified 😳
She's now built a corpse house out of Duplo.
Me: "Oh, what's that bookcase there at the back for?"
#BabyPferd: "That's where the corpses go."
💀💀💀💀💀
A corpse house.
“What did you do on holidays, #BabyPferd?” asks her teacher in front of the class. “I visited a corpse house,” she says. Nothing of the lakes, islands, coast or caves. The bloody corpse house. And I just know this is gonna stick and be how we’re known forever: “The Corpse House Family.” Bloody hell.
A spreadsheet photoshopped form Stata, which applies a random value to a load of rows which denote, either, Tricky Wave or Snap (two kids games we have). The next row assigns a random value to each observation of tricky wave. The next is a count by order of those values. The next is the mean of the order of Tricky Wave and the last, of Snap. The value for Tricky Wave is greater than Snap, meaning we should have played Tricky Wave. But we didn't.
#BabyPferd couldn't decide which game to play, so I modified a simple randomisation code to decide for us. It chose "Tricky Wave", which made her realise she'd like to play Snap. Which basically made me feeling exactly how a field partner deciding they won't randomise my study, after all, does.
Some grass and a couple or flower petals in a clear plastic zip bag.
#BabyPferd so worried she’s gonna miss Ireland so much, she’s literally packed some of the grass to bring back to Berlin.
In the middle of the Fermanagh countryside and a good kilometer or more from the next neighbours, so none of that carryon for us this year. A terrifying wailing emanated from all directions when we explained this to #BabyPferd… Grim! 😨
Fucking hell. Even #WeePferd isn’t that bad 😂😂😂. #BabyPferd eats basically everything. Olives and all.
Homer and Marge are in their pyjamas. Homer is pleading with marge. The text reads, “Besides, jts a victimless crime. The only victim is the ghoulish bookmakers and it’s brought #Babypferd and me together.”
Was having lunch down a wee gastropub that had horse racing on the TV and #BabyPferd is right in the middle of her horse obsession phase and was fascinated. Anyway, she picked five winners in a row and now I’m imagining explaining to #MrsPferd in a few months the slippery path this could take us on…
First time she saw them, #BabyPferd was FURIOUS that Ravenhill didn’t have anything like that 😂
Additional wee ode to No Alibis bookshop. Fantastic selection of books. Lovely staff who do that extra wee bit, like getting a book we ordered for #Babypferd signed by the author. She’s utterly delighted with that.
