It is spring here. I almost feel guilty enjoying it so much, when friends and family back in the UK are posting updates online about the days getting shorter, the mornings getting colder. If I could bundle up some of our Tasmanian spring and send it across to you all, I would.
Last weekend we moved our clocks forward an hour. Not that we needed to – the mornings and the evenings here were already filled with light. The kind of light that makes you run from one window to another, watching it change, holding your breath as the sunbeams catch one cloud, exhaling silently as they shimmer on another.
We walk down our street each morning, on our way to nursery, or the library, or the store, and DorkySon chats away to me about all the different birds he can hear – the insistent chirp of the blackbird, the mad cackle of the kookaburra. He wrinkles his nose at the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle in the air, and points out all the colourful flowers that he sees poking through other people’s fences. The earth feels alive here, right now.
But the blossom and the buds aren’t the only thing blooming. DorkySon is too.
On Saturday we went to the swimming pool for the first time, slightly nervous knowing how much he had hated lessons last time we tried. This wasn’t really a lesson, though, just a short assessment to see where he was at, and work out where best to place him in the classes. He was so happy and confident in the pool without us; nattering away to his instructor, doing everything he was asked, and only getting upset when his twenty minutes was up, because he hadn’t had the chance to try a roly-poly in the water…
On Sunday we went to the Spring Community Festival at the Botanic Gardens. For the first time ever, DorkySon asked to have his face painted – he spent his whole time in the twenty minute queue chatting to a little girl, telling her that he was going to be a ladybird. But when the moment came and he was sat in the chair, he chose to be a tiger instead.
On Monday he had his first hour alone at a new nursery.
‘I’m scared,’ he said to me, as we walked in the gate.
An hour later, I came back to pick him up.
‘I didn’t miss you a bit, Mummy,’ he shouted with glee.
‘I made a pet rock, and listened to a story and rode a tricycle, and at snack time we all shared a plate of veggies and passed it round. Can I come back again soon?’
I thought that on Monday afternoon, after such a busy morning, he would want a quiet one. Maybe some sofa time, or a nap. But instead he asked to go out again so we could find a new playground. We walked a few blocks to the ‘train park’ where he quickly made himself at home in a group of local kids. ‘Wait for me,’ I heard him shout. ‘The train can’t go without its engineer.’ Over the next two hours I watched my shy wee boy skip around the park, steering that train to Africa and America and Edinburgh. He would hop off to refill the tanks with wood and coal and water. The older kids smiled, asked his name, gently held his hand and steered him by the shoulder.
I don’t know where this new confidence has come from. Or this energy. It surprises me – in a good way – every day. We walk home from one adventure or another, and he claims exhaustion, sucks his water bottle dry and chows down a plate of fruit or crackers as though he hasn’t eaten for days. Twenty minutes later he’ll be ready to go again, requesting another walk, or a game of ball in the garden. When we are out he says hello to every shopkeeper, bus driver, and passing pedestrian. He waggles his new sunglasses around, and tells them we have just moved here and we like it.
His little imagination is going wild. He tells stories, constantly. We turn it into a game where he has to make up one line and then I do the next. Sometimes they are about witches and gnomes, sometimes they are about builders and taxi drivers. They always involve a lot of jokes and songs and shrieking. When I’m outside hanging laundry, he plucks the clothes pegs from my hands so he can play games with those too. The yellow peg is a lemon, the pink one a berry and the green one an apple – he makes them dance, and reports on the latest conversation from the fruit bowl.
He is trying new foods every day. Sweetcorn, fresh tuna, quinoa… pulled pork and spiced lamb from the amazing TacoTaco van. But he is eating old favourites by the ton, too – yoghurt and toast and cereal, chicken, sausage, mash, ice cream, pasta, avocado… Where does he put it all? I suppose it just gets burned off with all that running around.
Right now, as I write, he is having his second visit to nursery alone. Two hours this time, and all being well he will start properly next week. It is lovely having some time to sit and write in a café, but I miss him too.
It’s very quiet, without my blossoming boy.
I am reminded again that the best parenting – that which is the hardest, but eventually makes you the proudest – is about standing back and letting go.
Dorkymum | Stories from Tasmania 
Oh gorgeous to read. Its the magic of Tasmania you see!:)
Love it. The exhuberance of little people!! While I love the fact my oys are all ‘old’ now, I do miss those fun days.
*boys*
Have been away from social media for four or five months since I retired, so am terribly out of touch with everybody. Am missing tidying up the garden for winter during, what has been so far, a lovely autumn, as last week I broke my ankle *boo hoo*. So am having a forced rest and am starting to catch up with everything/body.
You’re in Australia. WOW. When did that happen? Have you emigrated? Or is it for a pre-defined period of time?
Loved your post. Conjured up so many lovely images.
So glad that your little boy is blossoming and coming out of his shell. What a wonderful journey of discovery you are both going to have. Enjoy!
Gorgeous post to start my day! Your carefully woven words have warmed my heart. You are so right, it is the letting them go and letting them fly which is the most important bit, and the hardest for us to do – sounds like Dorky Son is going to fly very high 🙂
brought a tear to my eye. xx
Oh Ruth as ever you leave me with goosebumps. I’m so glad he’s settling in x
What a wonderfully written post, and your love and enthusiasm for your new adventures really shines through too. Dorky Son is beyond doubt in an environment that’s allowing him to really thrive – so lovely to read. And I am really rather envious that you have spring on your doorstep. X.
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Ah it’s so good to hear he’s settling in well and embracing new experiences with both arms… he’s his mothers son x
Such a lovely post, heart-warming to read. So pleased that Dorkyson is settling in well and blossoming, you can be proud x
It’s lovely to read about a small person’s growing confidence and engagement with the world. This is a great post to read.
Beautiful!
Awww, that made me cry. I find the standing back and letting go so hard, but you are so right. xxx
Wow so you will lose a whole autumn and winter this year as you are now on your second spring! That is scary.
Roots to grow. Wings to fly. That is my parenting philosophy and it sounds like your small boy has already got is roots in that Tasmanian soil and is starting to soar. That is thanks to you. That is where the confidence comes from. Parents that have the confidence to say “yep, we will do this, we will move to the other side of the world”.
Beautiful, just beautiful. I am so pleased that live down under is going well and that Dorky Son is as you say, blossoming into a confidant young man. Perhaps when he is older, he will take after his mother and write a blog about the Tales of Dorky Son. 🙂
That is such a beautiful post, so calm and serene. It’s lovely when we spot these changes because all too often they just happen and we’re left to stand back and wonder when that was… 🙂
Fantastic news he is settling in well. Hope you are enjoying it out there!x
Wonderful. Though I imagine he’ll be having the easiest time of the three of you. At his age, he has no idea what an utterly colossal and terrifying thing you’ve all just done. x
Brilliant. It is a bitter sweet thing when they do not need you so much.
Great post. It is the hardest thing in parenthood, that letting go. But it is the most beautiful thing seeing them doing well outside in the world.
You made me just a tiny bit jealous about the sunshine 🙂
* Got here through MBPW
He’s embracing the experience just as you are – his enthusiasm is down to new experiences and the fact that his parents have made it a positive time for him. Long my it continue for you all.
The light in Tasmania is something else isn’t it?
I love that train park, I love that I know where you’ve been and that I played there too as a little girl! It’s really amazing, and a tad weird lol.
The Botanical Gardens are one of my favourite places in the world, ooooh I could tell you some tales! Ask my mum about the cat food sandwiches!
I am so glad dorkyson is loving his Tasmanian adventure it really is a magical place for children.
It is so beautiful that he has so much excitement and energy and that he enjoys childcare. Being without them while they are at care/ school is a weird feeling that never really leaves you, at least it hasn’t for me. Glad Tasmania is treating you well. The train park was a favourite of ours.
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