Hard work but I'm cool.

I have been absent from the blogspot for a few days mainly due to having to work at the day job.

I have just changed jobs and the shifts are longer, the travelling time is longer but a new and exciting challenge it is. As a result I have been a bit busy.

I have also been hard at work preparing our birthing paddock. After several hours of strimming (another sunburnt pate) it is finally finished and the first batch of pregnant girls are now enjoying the new grass in the paddock right by the house. The rest of the girls together with the 'gutbucket' boys are out in the main field. The boys have had their second dose of BTV8 vaccine and everything seems cool here.

I am also cool, apparently. One day after school this week (no I don't go to school, Angus does) Angus and I were engaged in yet another tense game of football.

Well I say game of football, thats not not strictly true. For starters I am nearly always in goal. So it's really just me standing in goal as the 5 and a half year old blasts the ball at me from all angles. Yes, that boy can hoof a ball. He will rack up fifteen goals and then when he's tired he will allow me into the outfield. He then assumes the role of goalkeeper.

Then, there is a mysterious change in the rules of the game.

These are mainly designed so that I don't score any goals. I am not allowed to shoot from anywhere near the goal net. No, I must be a speck on the horizon before I am allowed to shoot.

If he so much as touches the ball that counts as a save. Even if it brushes past him and ripples the back of the net it doesn't count. He has touched the ball therefore he has saved it and it is no goal.

If he doesn't touch the ball and it goes in, (you would think it was a goal wouldn't you?) it isn't a goal either as he wasn't ready. Even if I ask 'Are you ready?' and he replies that he is, any subsequent goal can be disallowed due to suddenly not being ready again.

As a result I lose every time. In fact I get well and truly stuffed and am 'rubbish' at football, apparently. That boy has one strong competitive streak.

Anyway, he was asking me if this shot or that shot was cool.

If the ball bounced off him and went somewhere near where it was supposed to, it became a 'cool' trick shot. If I made a good save it was hailed as 'cool'.

Now 'cool' is not an expression he has used much before. It is relatively new so I explored his understanding of the word and we had a conversation about what and who was 'cool'.

I then asked him who was the coolest person in the world, thinking it would be a sportsman or a school chum or Batman or Spiderman or Captain Fantastic or some other 'cool' person.

But no. Stand by for heartmelting moment folks.

Without hesitation my wonderful son said "You are Dad".

I was lost for words.....................almost started blubbing.

Those readers with children will understand the relationship between parent and child, the immense love involved and the incredible unbreakable bond that develops.

But the depth and strength of these emotions constantly surprises me.

That little boy is everything to Sue and I and we are doing our best to bring him up the right way with respect and compassion for others and a healthy, confident and content view on life.

All three of us are learning as we go along and it is a truly wonderful journey.

I guess I'll be getting slaughtered at football again later.

No problem for me. Well, he is the coolest person I know.