Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Boy

Yesterday we celebrated Fraser's first birthday

The boys were so excited about it being his birthday. Alasdair (5) was especially so.

The night before, Alasdair asked me if Fraser would be much bigger on his birthday. I asked him if he was much bigger on his birthdays and he said he wasn't really. Then he thought for a bit and said that he hoped that Fraser would still have the same cute face when he was one.

Yesterday morning as I woke Alasdair I asked him what day it was.

'Um, Diluain?' he answered sleepily. He was only a day out. Diluain is the Gaelic for Monday.

I told him it was actually Dimairt (Tuesday) and asked if he remembered what special day it was.

He sat upright, so excited, and said to Fraser, 'it's your birthday today and you get an age now!'

The birthday boy enjoyed ripping the wrapping off his presents.

Fraser has never had cake before. He still doesn't like lumpy foods. I made a cake that would be suitable for him so he could try some anyway. Just in case it was the day of a breakthrough. It wasn't, but we all enjoyed the cake. There is still some left to try him again tomorrow. Just in case.

Although his brothers that have egg allergies are able to eat egg fine in cakes & biscuits, I didn't want to test out whether this was the case with Fraser on his birthday and so I made the cake wheat free, dairy free, soya free, nut free and egg free.

It was my first time adapting a cake to be egg free and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out!

James (14) was determined that we should do a cake smash for Fraser. I wasn't concerned about the mess as much as the state the eczema on Fraser's hands would be like afterwards. It doesn't matter what he gets on his hands it will make them itch. If any of his food goes on them he will start to scratch and nearly every dinner time ends with him clawing away at his hands. Fortunately by the time he gets upstairs to his bath he has forgotten about the itch.

Since he wasn't getting a cake smash, James did let Fraser stick his fingers in the icing of his cake, as he was the one in charge of looking after Fraser while dad and I were on the other side of the table taking photos! As usual his hands were sore and itchy after his little bit of fun, but as usual his bath soon stopped the scratching.

And to finish with, as I always do with a birthday post, here is the cake and the singing of Happy Birthday.

May this be the first of many happy birthdays for our delightful, sweet natured littlest boy.

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Where are you from?

 

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you will know that we are Gaelic speakers and that the boys attend a Gaelic school, where their education is all in Gaelic. They do learn how to read and write in English, but not until their third year of Primary school.

 

Despite attending a Gaelic school, the fact that they speak Gaelic at home puts them in the minority there. Some parents have chosen to send their children there because they themselves had a parent or grandparent who were Gaelic speakers and they want to bring back the language in their families.

 

Don't forget that a few generations back it was considered uneducated to speak Gaelic. English was the language of schools and to get ahead in life you were expected to speak English. Because of this belief there were many families who didn't pass the language on to their own children. I have a few friends who have Gaelic speaking parents who didn't speak it to them. These friends now wish that they had been given the chance to learn the language when they were young, as it's a difficult language to learn when you are older.

 

My parents both spoke Gaelic to us as our first language, and when I started school I had more Gaelic than English. My husband isn't a native speaker, although he knows a little of the language, and it always seemed natural that we would bring our boys up bilingual. I speak to them in Gaelic, he speaks to them in English. From a very early age they know the difference in sounds between the two languages and will naturally speak the correct one to any adult speaking to them.

 

Anyway, I seem to be digressing from my original point here!

 

As well as the families at the school who have a Gaelic heritage in previous generations of their families, there are also plenty parents who have chosen to send their children there because they believe in the benefits of a bilingual education. Many of these families also speak more than one language at home. One of the boys in Alasdair's class has an Italian father and a Spanish mother. They both speak to him in their own language and he learns in Gaelic at school!

 

This week all the children in the school are learning about the different countries that families within the school come from. Would you believe that there are actually 24 different nationalities represented in the school?!

 

Each class is learning about the countries that some of their classmates' families come from.

 

David's class of 8 year olds are learning about the United States as the mum of one of the girls in his class (the one pictured with him in the old photo of their first day at school I shared a couple of weeks ago, and who plans to marry him one day) is from the US.

 

He has been loving learning about the country. Today he told me that France and Germany could fit into Texas. I didn't know this, is it really true?! They have been learning all about baseball and have been playing it in the park beside the school. He has been singing the baseball song, 'Take me out to the ball game' over and over and over!

 

We have a jigsaw of all the states in the US that my husband bought on a trip there when David was a baby and he has been trying to memorise where all the states are.

 

He knows a few people from the US, other than his friend's mum, and I told him that some of the people reading my blog were from there. He knows of our friends in Washington State and his friend's mum is from Tenessee. Oh, that's another thing he learned - how to spell Mississippi really fast! But he would really like to know where any other readers are from. And not just those of you reading in the US.

 

I told him we wouldn't have a list of 24 different countries like there are at his school but he would really love to see where everyone is from.

 

So, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, how about we help him out and let him know where you are from with a little comment?

 

Near or far, he's curious as to how far across the globe people are reading about his multi national Gaelic speaking school!

 

Thank you!

 

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Music, medals and shinty.

On Saturday it was once again time for our annual local Mòd.

 

The Mòd, for those who may have missed the posts from previous years, is a sort of Gaelic Music & Literary competition. The National Mòd takes place in October each year, in a different town each time. It is obviously a much bigger affair than the little local Mòds, and there are competitons for adults as well as children. Our local Mòd only has children's competitons and has, in my opinion anyway, a much nicer and far less pressurised atmosphere than the National Mòd.

 

Calum (10) was the busiest of our boys on the day. He entered 4 competitons and took a placing in each of them.

 

 

 

He came 2nd in Reading an unseen passage from the Bible (Bible Gaelic is harder to read than your average Gaelic book!); 2nd in conversation (his chosen subject - why I want to be a crofter when I grow up); 2nd in solo accordion; and 1st with the folk group he is in with a few friends from his class.

 

James (13) didn't enter any solos but he did keep up his reputation of doing well in the short film competition, winning first for his animation.

 

David (7) didn't fancy taking part in any solos either but had an absolute ball of a day, literally. We were at the competition from about 9am - 4pm. I had a craft stall which kept me tied up when I wasn't watching Calum but David didn't mind. A few of his friends were there all day too. They too were not taking part but had siblings doing various competitons and so the friends played football outside for the whole time. There was about half an hour when David wasn't playing football and that was when he was taking part in the shinty tournament. And about 10 minutes when he came in and wolfed down some lunch. Other than that, football. All day long. An ideal sort of day for our David!

 

Our team were beaten in the shinty tournament but everyone enjoyed a good game.

I think David had already run off to play football again when I took this photo of the other boys! Thankfully Calum had already taken part in all his solos by this point and had another couple of hours to tidy himself up before his folk group competition.

 

I'll finish off tonight with a lovely little clip of Calum's folk group. The children in it are all only 10 years old and I'm sure you will be impressed at how well they play together as a group.

 

 

 

 

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Gaelic Choir & Christmas Lights

Every year the Gaelic school choir are invited by the community council to sing at the switch-on of the Christmas tree lights near the school.

It's always lovely to go along to and really kicks off the Christmas celebrations.

So, last night they all wrapped up warm, and boy did they need to wrap up - it was freeeezzzing - and performed their little medley of Gaelic Christmas songs.

What you can't see in the clip below is how cold it was, although a few children jumping to try and stay warm kind of gives it away, and that it was snowing too.

Despite the temperatures they still sang very sweetly!

At the start of the second song their singing teacher invited the younger brothers and sisters who were watching to join in too, so David stood rather proudly at the front! 

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Weekend fun.

On Saturday afternoon the Gaelic school choir were singing at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh as part of an event called Scotland Sings. The choir was part of a larger choir made up of another three local adult Gaelic choirs.

While we waited for the choir to finish their final rehearsal we had time to have a very quick look at the animal hall of the museum.

 

 

 

 

After our quick look at the animals we had time for a quick cup of tea in the cafe before going back to the main auditorium to listen to the choir. The school choir is made up of pupils from primary 5 to primary 7 so Calum is our only boy in it (4th from the left, front row)

They sang beautifully and weren't distracted by the fact that a lot of the museum life was continuing around them, so there was a fair amount of background noise.

Before heading home we visited another part of the ground floor, with exhibits ranging from the 1600s...

 

....to slightly more recently!

 

And on our way to the train home we passed a very cool shop where my husband bought himself a great new mug!

 

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Christmas Lights Switch On

Firstly, Happy St Andrew's Day!

Now onto those sweet schoolchildren singing last night.

As I'm sure most of you know, our boys attend a Gaelic Medium school, where they are taught in Gaelic. They have no English at all until the end of Primary 3 (age 7).

The only Gaelic school remotely near us is in the city, about 15 miles away, and so we take the train in every morning (which only takes about 15-20 minutes). Alasdair and I then head home again before returning for the other boys at 3pm.

OK, I'm digressing here.

Every year the school choir is asked to sing at the Christmas Light Switch On in the area around the school. It is right in the city centre, with Edinburgh Castle looking down on them from less than a mile away.

It was absolutely freezing last night but the children all did the school proud, as they always do.

The biggest excitement was when the local councillor announced the lights would be switched on by the two youngest choir members, and our Calum was one of the two! He was so chuffed. I do have a film of that, but as I was using my normal camera, I hadn't thought about the fact that if you take a video long-ways, you can't flip it round on your computer like you can with a photo, so I won't make you all watch it sideways!

I have three other video clips for you though - it's OK, they aren't too long :0) - of the three songs they sang.

Firstly was Seallaibh an t-sneachda (shallav an shnechga) - Look at the Snow.

Then they sang the lovely Leanabh an Aigh.

They finished with everyone's favourite, Glacan Binn - Jingle Bells. Only James and Calum are in the choir, but for this last one any younger brothers and sisters were allowed to go up and join in so you can see David at the front with his best friend Ruaraidh. (David's the one with his jacket open, even though everyone else is wrapped up from top to toe!)

Oh, you will also notice in this one that the school is very close to the Fire Station - And that isn't the school behind them but the main offices of the Bank of Scotland!

I hope that has everyone in the festive spirit and ready for the start of advent tomorrow!

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James' Mod Song

As you know, last week we were at the National Mod. If you didn't know, then see this post here.

The solo singing competition took place on a really stormy day. By the time we got back home at lunchtime the wind was so strong you could hardly stand up.

Needless to say, my granny didn't venture out to hear James sing!

Instead, we took the song to her, and I took this video of James there, since there is no filming or photography allowed in the competitions.

He doesn't sing the full song here, and sings it at a lower pitch than he would normally do if he had been given the starting note, plus he has the added distraction of his 2 year old brother playing with his lorries at the fireside, but other than that you get a good representation of the song!!

The song is called Eilean Beag Donn a Chuain (el-an bek down a choo-an) - Little Brown Island in the Sea, a lament about the Island of Lewis.

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Brògan Ùr aig Daibhidh

Look at that.

Tonight's post starts with a language lesson. 

Just in time for the schools returning.

So, pronounciation first, is 'brogan oor egg Da-ee-vee'.

The meanings of the words:

brògan - shoes (singular shoe would be bròg)

Ùr - new

aig - literally means 'belonging to' 

Daibhidh - David

I thought that by explaining it this way would show you how sentence structure is made up in Gaelic.

You might also have noticed, both here and in previous Gaelic word of the days, that the 'v' sound in Gaelic is made by combining either 'mh' or 'bh'. There is no letter 'v' in the Gaelic alphabet. Or J, K, Q, W, X, Y, Z!

Now, onto those brògan of Daibhidh's.

(If there is a Gaelic version of the children's name, then that is what they are known as by the teachers at the school, and so David's school friends all call him Daibhidh. My boys attend a Gaelic Medium school where they are taught using Gaelic as the first language. I wrote a bit more about it here, for any newer followers who may have missed that.)

ANYWAY, the brògan.

Here they are.

At first glance they are quite a cute pair of Kicker's boots.

Now, what is our boys' biggest love? (Apart from their Mamaidh, that is!)

Yes, that's right, LEGO.

That's a Lego Police Landrover on the back of that foot above..........

.........and a Lego Police Man and Motorbike on the back of the other one!

Not only that, but there are lights that flash in the soles!

He just loves his brògan ùr.

And just to finish off, here are the boys ready for the first day back to school this morning.

James has just started his last year at Primary school, and the P7s have a special red school jumper.

Alasdair still has another 3 years before he joins them at school, but he grabbed his bag this morning too when he saw the other boys with theirs!

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The Local Mòd

It seems like I have been talking about this for weeks, but the local Mòd  took place here on Saturday. 

The Mòd is a Gaelic music/arts festival, well competition really. Our local one has competitions for children only, but the National Mòd has competitions for adults as well. The National Mòd takes place in October, in a different place each year. This year it will be in the Western Isles, where I am from. You can read more about the local Mòd here and the National Mòd here if you want.

Our local Mòd competition categories include; solo singing, poetry recitation, story-telling, unseen Bible reading, conversation, solo fiddle playing, solo clarsach playing, solo chanter and pipe playing, choral singing, group instrument playing. There are also written competitions such as poetry and short story and a short film category which are all submitted in advance. Each category is split into age groups to make things fairer.

James and David both entered the solo singing competition. James also entered the chanter, unseen Bible reading and conversation competitions. He had entered a poem, short story and short film in advance.

Calum entered unseen Bible reading, conversation, poem and short story competitions.

The results:

James came 3rd for Bible reading and conversation. He came 2nd for his short story. He was so excited to find out the result of the short film competition (his entry is here for those who haven't seen it yet) but there was some problem with the judge returning from holiday and so we are still waiting for the results of that one!

Calum came 2nd in Bible reading and conversation. He was 1st in his written poem and short story.

Here are the boys wearing their medals when we got home.

A close up of Calum...

........and a close up of James.

Just to add to all the links I already have in this post, if anyone missed an earlier post about our different tartans (and is remotely interested!) it can be found here.

There were a few craft stalls in the cafe area, one of which I had to sell my Gaelic cards. I was really pleased with how many sold as I don't really go to many craft fairs. Just the Mòd and a couple of Christmas fairs really. This was definitely my most successful sale so far.

A good day had by all!

Gaelic word of the day:

seinn (shu-een) - to sing

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