Skyping with Grace and Rachel

Hi everyone,

I wanted to write a special couple of notes about last night's skype with the girls.

It was (then) Saturday morning for them, and initially it was just me and Grace as Rachel was still sleeping.  She was most excited to show me some new Slotkins she'd been given.  As best I could understand they're little collectable minature shoes and cars and telephones and the like.  Then she showed me her new iPad game called "Dr Panda", where a panda variously runs a restaurant and a daycare (I was just happy to watch her play).

One of the best bits was when I softly sang a few bars of my favourite Cajun song, "Colinda" to her.  She said that when I did that, she could have fallen asleep, and would I sing to her while she had a nap?  She then curled up and pretended to sleep, and I sang "Colinda" to her, and then started working through as many of the old colonial songs as I could remember - "Botany Bay" and "Wild Colonial Boy", a few bars of "Black Velvet Band" and "Ten Thousand Miles Away".  My sleep-deprived brain was running out of ideas after this point (which is why I didn't throw in "Waltzing Matilda", for example) and I moved on to anything remotely lullaby-ish ("Non, je ne regrette rien").  I eventually regressed to my university days and moved on to Semisonic's "Singing in my Sleep" when Grace announced that she'd slept enough and wanted to go and finish her cinnamon roll (seemingly she's not a fan of late-90s rock!).  I love that she likes it when Daddy sings to her!

By this point Rachel was out of bed and she and I talked, and she told me what she'd been doing at school in the way 5 year-olds tell you those things (viz, lots of disjointed details, of which the only one I can remember is that the school headmaster has a moustache!).  By then Grace wanted to watch something on the ipad (which would disconnect me).  Rachel tried to dissuade her and I heard her tell Grace "he just wants to spend time with us".  I melted: I just love how much they "get it".  Although I should add that this didn't stop Grace hanging up on me!

Being a long distance Dad isn't great.  But Lordy, I wouldn't swap being a Dad for all the tea in China.