A few of my favourite things about being a mum...

The prompt for this post is shamelessly lifted from @Tara_Cain's post today over at Sticky Fingers.  I know she won't mind - and if she does, well, I'm in Russia...

A few of my (more recent) favourite things about being a mum:

Taking my younger son to Dutch class and hearing him speak Dutch to his new teacher.  I know that speaking the language is sort of the point of his lessons, but despite the fact that he clearly understands most things said to him in it, and my Husband's and the two previous teachers' best efforts, Boy #2 was refusing to actually speak any Dutch himself.  However, a new teacher has recently arrived and it's as if a switch has been flipped; he has now decided that he can speak Dutch.  The first time I heard him doing this, a couple of weeks back, I have to admit that I found I had tears in my eyes...

Listening to my older son speak and read Dutch.  He's so proud that he can - and so am I.

Watching Boy #1 wink repeatedly at me and realising it's not that he has something in his eye, but actually that he is doing an impression of Chief Inspector Dreyfuss in 'The Return of the Pink Panther'.

Listening to the Boys in the bath trying do outdo each other with their best Inspector Clouseau voices.  (And being able to say 'There is a bu-urmb in my rhurm' and knowing they will get the joke).

Asking them to lay the table - and one time in ten, their actually doing it.

Now that Boy #2 has kissed goodbye to his stabilisers (after 2 years of his outright refusal to even consider the possibility of removing them, I simply took them off three weeks ago, he climbed on, and whizzed away asking me why I had left it so long to get round to it) cycling them to school in the morning on what promises to be a beautiful, sunny day.

Watching Boy #1 throw himself confidently into the deep end of the pool and not having to worry about his safety.

On meeting new people, seeing them walk confidently up to the new acquaintance, hand outstretched, as they look them in the eye and introduce themselves.  Sure, the hand they offer may not always be clean, but you can't have everything...