Having accomplished our errand, my daughter and I went to the nearby toyshop to acquire yet another alien.
These are not aliens like me. These extraterrestrials are squidgy, rubbery, unnaturally coloured foetal babies with oversize foreheads and undersize limbs which typically come in eggs and covered in goo, though the eggs of some have a coating of bicarbonate of soda or similiar which dissolves when you put it in lukewarm water, so allowing you to ‘birth’ your alien. They are my daughter’s latest favourite thing. It makes me think she is so much her alien father’s child. She named some after the planets but now she has used up the solar system, the names are becoming rather more random – Clockbutton for a small green and Rendigo for a large silver one. Drawing on the fiction that populates these pages, I keep suggesting Skudun, Badezon, Slessi and Cintilar – but quite reasonably these fanciful-sounding names are consistently pooh-poohed.
We left the shop with the latest additions to the ever-extending alien family, and had immediately to cross a busy road. My daughter held my hand and on the other side not only kept it held but started skipping too. I felt and thought, treasure this moment, because – since she is growing up so fast – it just might be the last time ever that she holds your hand and skips happily down a street like this with you.
Children do this bittersweet thing to parents on a daily basis – touch your heart while simultaneously prompting you to mourn the fleeting nature of such joys. But even in this, there is continuity. Something new always comes along to make your heart sing, to make you wipe away a discreetly shed tear.
(This is the kind of post I swore I’d never write – parent gushing about child – but well, even aliens have children, and its alien content lets me off the hook, doesn’t it?)
February 2, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Thanks for this.
February 4, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Sorry Eric, WordPress thought your thanks was spam. I’ve just now retrieved it – my thanks to you for yours.
February 2, 2012 at 3:59 pm
This post makes me think of a movie I watched last night called Gentleman Broncos. There’s a scene where an egotistical sci-fi author chastises a roomful of hopeful teenage sci-fi & fantasy writers for their choices in character names. One girl’s choice of ‘Teacup’ as a name for one of her troll characters draws particular derision from the author. It was one of the funnier scenes in the movie. Anyway, I think you’re probably let off the hook for this post…
February 2, 2012 at 4:13 pm
That’s a scene I’d like to see. Naming characters – one of the hardest things about writing fiction, sci-fi or otherwise, though I can’t imagine any plausible excuse for calling a troll ‘Teacup’.
Thanks for commenting, and for letting me off the hook on this occasion.
February 3, 2012 at 3:54 am
I don’t think there’s any shame in being wildly adoring of your daughter. I love it when parents post about the sweet things their kids do.
February 3, 2012 at 8:51 pm
Thanks Wrenna. I suppose it’s that this isn’t what I’d previously thought this particular webspace of mine was for. To some extent I guess I’ve changed my mind, so who knows, there may be more along these lines in future.
February 5, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Of course it’s also fascinating that parents maintain lives completely separate from those of their children.