Pride

I didn't realise that my writing on this blog was making any impact on the kids, but it obviously has.

Three months ago, in the last school holidays, I helped my five-year-old daughter Naomi plant up a small pot with miniature jonquil bulbs.

As the weeks passed, she was excited about every little change she noticed in the pot. She counted the little pale green nubs that pushed up from the soil, watched the first slender leaves grow tall and others shoot up, and marvelled when the first flower stems emerged, crowned with clusters of buds tightly wrapped in a tissue paperish sheath.

Next week is the start of the next school holidays, and yesterday she screamed for me from the backyard. It was the first perfect, gorgeously scented, jonquil flower.

"Take a photo for your blog, mum," she said. And she wouldn't move until I went inside to get the camera, took a couple of pictures, and promised to show it off here.